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Mountain Grow in the European Alps

About a year ago we moved to a gorgeous little mountain village somewhere in the European Alps. Unfortunately we moved here to late in the year so I wasn't able do to some planting last season, but I decided there and then that 2012 would be the year of my first mountain grow.

Luckily I still had a bunch of seeds from great strains left from my previous Dutch Attic Grow-op:

LA Woman
OG18
Purple Wreck
Sharksbreath
Silver Bubble

Early April I started germinating all the seeds. Since I don't have any growing equipment here I had to make my own propagators from 1 white and 1 clear drink cup that I taped on top of each other with a drainage hole in the bottom and some air holes in the top cup. For light I just used the sunlight in the windowsill. That worked better than expected actually and they sprouted like good seeds should. From 25 germinated seeds I eventually kept the 18 strongest looking plants. (4 died and 3 just don't want to grow)

I have scouted the surrounding mountains and marked a bunch of suitable spots. I plan to plant 3 plants per spot, which will come to 6 spots in total.

Since I only want to go back to the spots as few times as possible before harvesting I have to create a soil mix that, given ample rainfall of course, will get the plants thru the growing and blossoming process without adding any additional fertilizers over the coming months.

The plants are all color coded with an elastic hair band that I can easily shove over the cup and onto the stalk when planting. That way I will still know which plant is what strain when harvesting.

For each plant I will dig about a 35 liter hole.

The soil mix that each plants gets consists of:

30 Liters of premium quality fertilized potting mix earth with root complex added
Perlite
Vermiculite
Sea Bird Guano
(Bat) Guano Kalong
Worm Castings
Blaukorn (Bluekorn)
Bone Meal

To repel slugs I will add slug pellets around each plant.

To repel deer I will put a bar of soap in the middle of the 3 plants, scatter some dog and cat hair around and spray the area with a home-made spray of garlic, raw eggs, cayenne pepper and water.

Over the next 2 weeks I will start carrying up all the stuff to the various spots, dig the holes and eventually plant all my ladies. With 1 starting load of carried up water they then pretty much have to fend for themselves.

As I've said, I won't go back many times, so don't expect any weekly updates. But I will for sure take some more pictures of the planting and I probably can't keep myself from a few picture trips over the season, so stay tuned!


All my ladies in the sun!


Color coded ladies
 
G

guest845704

Seems like a good plan :) Happy mountain living and growing. Sit in a first row :D
 

bogatin

Member
Cool project.
I've never grown those strains but they better finish before end of September. It can get very cold in Alps by that time of year. Good luck! At what elevation are your holes if I may ask?
 

FirstTracks

natural medicator
Veteran
Looking forward to seeing this.
Your plants are looking nice and healthy.

Are you going to sex them before taking them out to your sites, or just going to pull males during your first visit?
 
Well, today we went out to a garden center to buy most of the stuff needed for my Guerilla Grow Project. Really am NOT looking forward to carrying all this stuff up mountainsides, but you got to do some work to reek the benefits.

Only stuff that is still missing is the Vermiculite, the Guano Kalong and the Worm Castings. Those I ordered over the Internet and I hope they will arrive any day now.



 

Velovo Safari

New member
hey dutch grower,

I am doing a high altitude (1400m) grow myself for the first time. I use old swiss genetics alpine rocket and erdbeerli.


anyway I wish you good luck and I will for sure follow your report.
 
Think about putting some water crystals into the holes. Medium in the mountains is usually very porous.

And that is exactly the reason why I added the Vermiculite to the soil mix. The purpose of vermiculite in a potting mix is to hold water. Vermiculite has crevices which hold and release nutrients and water.

Vermiculite and Perlite are both volcanic rock and can be used in an organic garden, adding water crystals would kinda spoil the nice organic setup I've got going here :)
 

Hazeo

Well-known member
Veteran
Servus DutchGrower420,


really interesting thread - an Alp Grow...

....watchin up there in the sky to you bro! Sitting here quite a bit lower... :D


Nice that you instantly check out the alpine grow-power :) and with such a interesting strain selection!!!

I will definitely come along to see how it´s goin!

Good luck up there...



High regards
Hazeo
 
Servus DutchGrower420,


really interesting thread - an Alp Grow...

....watchin up there in the sky to you bro! Sitting here quite a bit lower... :D


Nice that you instantly check out the alpine grow-power :) and with such a interesting strain selection!!!

I will definitely come along to see how it´s goin!

Good luck up there...



High regards
Hazeo

Servus! Thnx so much! I will try and make this an interesting topic from which people can maybe pick up a thing or two :)
 

bogatin

Member
And that is exactly the reason why I added the Vermiculite to the soil mix. The purpose of vermiculite in a potting mix is to hold water. Vermiculite has crevices which hold and release nutrients and water.

Vermiculite and Perlite are both volcanic rock and can be used in an organic garden, adding water crystals would kinda spoil the nice organic setup I've got going here :)

Vermiculite is nice but it really can't compare to water crystals. Those are a real moisture reservoir. Product is nontoxic and safe to environment. Anyway ... good luck with the weather.

:tiphat:
 

Husky Jackal

Very Neat Monster
Veteran
Hi DutchGrower420, this grow looks promising. It would be interesting for me to compare tricome development of these strains at this high altitude vs. at lower altitudes, hope you'll look at this detail at the end. Best of luck with your grow ! Peace, HJ.
 

Velovo Safari

New member
@husky jackal:

i got the same erdbeerli cuttings on 580m, 760m and 1400m not that many in numbers but if they all make it till the end i will post some comparison shots.
I am very interested in the same topic after reading lots of UV threads here, but I am not sure if the difference really comes down to the altitude because there are lots of other factors. (direct light time, soil, temperature, humidity, bugs,...)
 

Hazeo

Well-known member
Veteran
Vermiculite is nice but it really can't compare to water crystals. Those are a real moisture reservoir. Product is nontoxic and safe to environment. Anyway ... good luck with the weather.

:tiphat:
Hey! :wave:

...what means safe to nature??? -as far as i know these crystals are made from polymer, thats plastic...
I think it is quite dubious to put that in nature...


High regards
Hazeo
 

bogatin

Member
Hey! :wave:

...what means safe to nature??? -as far as i know these crystals are made from polymer, thats plastic...
I think it is quite dubious to put that in nature...


High regards
Hazeo

They are biodegradable, not-toxic and ph-neutral. That's safe enough for me.

:tiphat:
 
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