IGotGreen's Grow Journal (Outdoors)

IGotGreen

IGotGreen

Active Member
Hello everyone and thank you for reading my thread. This is my 2nd grow, but my 1rst outdoor grow. I will update this thread daily with pictures, problems I encounter, and solutions I used to solve them. I am located in the east coast of USA, and I am guerrilla growing as many plants as I can. All my seeds are bagseed.


So far I have planted 3 seedlings in ground outside, and around 5 babies in a small cabinet indoors. What I am doing is vegging the seedlings for about 2 weeks, plant them outside, and start more seedlings. I am planning on adding 2-3 more today, and keep adding new plants weekly. The holes are roughly 1' wide by 1' deep, and I am using Fox Farm Ocean Mix for the soil (I might downgrade to a less expensive soil soon though).
zfoxfarmoceanforest.jpg




So far I have encountered 2 problems. Yesterday I had an animal dig up my plants and toss them to the side, I am assuming raccoon or groundhog to be the culprit. I have purchased "critter ridder" from home depot and just sprinkled it around my plants this morning.
z21655_22-3142CAN_4.jpg


The second problem I am still waiting to see if it is a problem. It is going to rain today and tomorrow (May 1rst, and 2nd) I am worried if it down pours that my plants will get damaged, since they are seedlings still in their early stages of growth.
 
TRANSPORTING:

Alright well I fill a tackle box with soil, seedlings, and bottles of water, and use this to carry everything to my site. Along with a fishing pole to make it look more legit. I do not have a fishing license though so I hope I don't run into any DEC officers lol. I then hide my supplies in a bush so I don't have to transport it every trip. Before I enter my grow area I always look around to make sure no one is in view, and listen for any movement to ensure I am alone before going down my trail.
You may be wondering how I fit those big 40 pound bags in a tackle box.. Well I don't, I fill up those big freezer zip lock bags, and I usually use 1 bag per hole. I also only use a trowel to dig with. (a trowel is a small hand shovel that is small enough to fit in your pocket) This is easy to carry, but is a little harder to dig with, especially when the ground is filled with roots! And that pretty much sums it up. Hope this is helpful.

Any advice and suggestions are always welcome
 
If your soil is mostly clay, you're going to want a lot bigger holes than 1 x 1. I think 2 x 2 is absolute minimum for an outdoor run. 4 x 4 is really where it's at, but good luck digging that with a trowel.

Are you using straight fox farms or are you mixing it 50/50 with the existing soil? I've been recommending coco coir to any outdoor growers who can find it. You can get a small 1 x 1 block that weighs about 10 pounds. Take it out to your spot, hydrate it with a local water source and it expands to 3 cu ft. It's great for drainage, and water retention. It's easy to transport for a guerilla grow. Don't skimp on digging the holes or you'll beat yourself up for it at the end of the season.
 
Actually the soil seems very good, when I was digging there were a lot of worms which I think is a sign of good soil. I am not mixing anything, it is straight fox farm right now. The next seedlings I plant, I will take your advice and dig bigger holes for them. I will also look into the coco coir, but I am on a very tight budget so I probably won't be able to get it.

Questions:
Since the soil is good do you still recommend the 4x4 holes?
Should I mix the soil with the the existing soil 50/50?
As for water.. My grow spot is near a creek and a pond, is creek water ok to use for watering them?
 
Sure, the creek water will be fine. Just because there is worms in the soil doesn't necessarily mean it's primo for growing. It does mean it's a good base. I've got a lot of worms in mine, but it is clay, clay, clay. If it breaks apart easily then it's probably good to go, but if it's the kind that sticks to your shovel (trowel) and is hard to get off then it's super clay. No good. I dicked around last outdoor grow and didn't dig big enough holes. The roots grew great in their holes, but once they hit the wall of dirt that I hadn't amended, they stopped growing and got rootbound. Obviously nutrients are a must, but I feel that lots of light and good soil are absolutely essential to an outdoor grow. The coco coir is about 8 bucks for a brick of it. I use a quarter of a brick per 20 gallons of soil. Scrape together the money now, because if you don't you'll wish you did in the end. Clay soil + coco coir + sand + perlite = some damn good soil.
:goodluck::goodluck:
 
The soil is clumpy but seems to break apart fairly easy. I'm guessing it has a little clay in it but its not real bad. I just expanded one of my holes to a 2x2 (I was aiming for 4x4 but 80 degree weather, high humidity, and the trowel convinced me 2x2 was sufficient) I was trying to do some searching on the plant height vs hole size ratio. I am wondering what the average size plant would grow from a 1x1, 2x2, etc. Any additional information on that would be great.

I do not want my plants to be over 6 feet tall because they are near a public walking trail and I do not need the plants to grow much taller then the bushes that block their view, so do you still recommend 4x4 holes?
(Relocation is not possible)

I have also decided a bigger shovel is in order if I am going to pursue my 10-20 plant grow plan, especially if i do 4x4 holes for all of them!!
 
This sounds like it could get exciting!

If the plants need to be 6' or less because of people seeing them, are you worried about the smell of that many plants?

:goodluck::popcorn::smokin:
 
I think you could get by pretty nicely with 2 x 2 or even 3 x 3. You can always tie them down if you don't want them super tall. They will start to bush out more instead of being tall with one big bud on top. Mixing the FFOF and the existing soil is the best way to stretch your money and still have great dirt. If things go well, you could end up with loads of bud on your hands. Guerilla style is a lot of fun because you don't see your plants everyday. When you come back after a week and see some big ass buds, it's a great feeling. Then again, I am glad I'll be close to my plants this year. I like tending to them daily. Once again, good luck, brother.
 
Thank you for the advice, and tying the canopy down is a very good idea! I just started mixing the soil 50/50, great way to conserve.

As for the smell of the plants, that is a good point and 20 plants might be a little overboard. I am going to do at least 8 though, and just hope for the best.

The trails run behind my apartment complex, and I very rarely see anyone walking them. But it is conveniently close, so I do get to see them daily. I might try and reduce my trips though after everything is all setup just to decrease any risk of people seeing me. I am considering spreading the plants out between 2 different grow sites which are close to each other. I will keep everyone updated, and will take some pictures tomorrow! Have a good night everyone!
 
Ya thats exactly why I wanted to plant 20 of them. 3 out of 9 is crazy, I hope I have better luck!
Today I planted another outside so I have a total of 4 in ground. I still have around 7 seedlings vegging inside. I am planning on putting atleast 2 more plants outside this week.
Today I also scattered some egg shells around my babies to keep away slugs. Lets hope it works, and the rain doesn't wash it all away.

Now for the pictures I promised,
z0502001452.jpg

Here is 3 of them, the white you see is the egg shell

z0502001452a.jpg

Here is a close up of my strongest baby, the burnt tips of the bottom leaves were caused when she was inside, either from nute burn or heat stress. She has grown quite a bit since I put her outside. (I am hoping its a her)

Now it is suppose to rain tonight and tomorrow, I hope it doesn't down pour and damage my babies. Any suggestions on how to protect them from heavy rain?
 
Alright well yesterday the rain hit, and it came down heavy. I checked on the babies today and 2 of the 4 were laying out of the soil. One was slightly dug up, while the other was just pulled out of the ground. This could of been caused by the strong rain, or an animal, opinions? I put them back in the dirt, and I am going out later today to add more dirt to one of the holes, and plant 1-2 more seedlings. I will update pictures either tonight or tomorrow.
 
I'd put my money on animals. The rain will beat plants down into the dirt, but they will spring back in a couple hours of sunshine. I have a long hair dog that I shave down in the summertime. I spread his hair all around the grow site and that keeps most critters away. Once they get better established animals won't mess with it. The animals around your place might not be as wary as these country animals are. If you're close to a running trail I'm assuming they see people all the time. They might not be afraid of dog or human scent and you'll have to get something more powerful. You can order up some coyote piss and I guarantee they won't mess with that.
 
Checked my babies today, the ones I just planted yesterday are perking up and looking good. I have a total of 5 outside so far, and 5 more inside vegging. But of course there is another thunderstorm thats going to hit supposedly with hail, strong winds, and heavy down pours, thats my luck for ya. So this will be a test to see how well they really do in stressful weather conditions, and I'll let you know what happens.
 
I have faith that they'll be fine. I'm hardening mine off and then they're going in the ground. My fan leaves are already bigger than my hand and the season hasn't even begun. Can't wait to see them come October. I'm about to take a bunch of clones off of them. Once those root, I'm going to put them on a tray and carry them in and out everyday to force flower them and do an outdoor SOG type grow. I hope I can pull a couple zips early this year. It's going to be a lot of fun.
:thumb::thumb::thumb:
 

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