Marijauna surrenders itself too easy to cops in planes

[RobbieGanjaSeed]

Some years ago, I posted some pics here of a crop I had (just a small one of about 8 plants, a few weeks prior to harvest, about 8 feet tall), taken from a light aircraft at about 400 feet. A mate took the pic with a simple SLR 35mm cmaera, while his other mate flew. No special camera devices, very unsteady, very amateur right?

 

I'd grown in the spot (I used to have a variety of spots simutaenously, with 6-10 plants each spot) for three years in that area, at that time. The spot in question was about 50meters from my house, no neighbours for miles, they got full sun all day all season, under the foot of a huge Bunya Nut tree, but in large troughgs filled with rich compst wheeled from my back yard, watered like roses, very well cared for. The plants were on the nth/eastern side, and ost no light all day until about an hour before dark .. Around the base of this tree was a mess of button bush, (sometimes called "wait-a-while), if you grow outside much you know this stuff, and why it's called what it is.

 

It grows thick as, and if you can suffer the tears to you and your clothes, and hack a centre out of it, leaving a small entrance, not even cattle will brave the crap it's that thorny.

It's dark green, and the variety of grass I grew was also very dark green. (can't recall what the strain was, maybe durban?)

 

 

All in all, I thought this was about the most perefect cover plant I had any of my spots in, becuase it had this button bush close to it, right up around it, and to stand next to it, could see no colour difference what-so-ever. I was convinced, as winter approached and things such as even lantana started to die off, and expose the crops as the last greenery on a standard Aussie hillside, this was an exceptional cover. Becuase from ground height, it just blended with each other so much you had to really know it was there, and where to look to see the plants, as large and as healthy as they were. Simply aperfect colour match is al I'm trying to say.

 

Anyway, the plants didn't look dark green when viewed from 400 feet, they glowed like they were fluoresecent. They looked like they were plugged intot he power grid somehow, and although that's an exageration, not very. They honesty lookd un-naturally glow.They looked for all the world to be a very, very light green, and glowed like mad. Standing among the dark green button bush, they stood out like the proverbial dog's scrotum.

I couldn't believe it, I mean it had to be seen to really grasp the incredible bust they were. I had grown in that area for some years, and ignorance truly is bliss, because if I had any idea how grass looked from above, I would have been freaking all season, well head season anyway.

 

The pics didn't come out well on this site, they were as Isiad, SLR, bad focus etc. But held in hand, you could see without question, at a glance that whatever was at the base of that tree was no "natural" to the area. You couldn't see the specific shape of dope plants, that was the last thing I noticed. It was just a stand out colour that gave it away. The shape could have been anything you please, 8 plants crambed in together, there was no "classic" shape, no leaves evern were individualy visible, just this fluor sign saying "look at me".

 

 

It started a bit of a dicussion, with some saying it was just a fluke etc..but we all reckoned in the end it was only obvious when we thought about the resin in theheads, the sun (and these heads this seasin had resin like a treat. you know some plant, some years have more resin that others, it was a dry season, so no humidity, but well watered, whatever the reason, they were smelled long before you were near them enough to see them, and touching them was that real , almost unpleasant, because it was so hard to work withtem they were so gluey. Again, just emphasising, they were very resin filled at the time of the pic. just trying to give a full sene of what they were....

 

I was remarking to one and all how dark these plants were, took a couple clos e mates, who also grew specifically to show just how dark blue they were. . you know thoise wondeful outside plants in rich organic soil, dark as santa's green, and yet from the air, as Isiad, light as can be, and glowed. not dark at all.

 

It made it obvious to me how cops found crops , I used to wonder how they saw them, but if you ever get the chance to see a pic from the air of a crop in daytime, check it out,. It's well worth the effort, so at least you know what ya up against.

 

ANyway, all this had drifted back in my memory, and had fogotten about it all, until last night I happened on a mention of the reflected wave lengths from grass, as seen I suppose from the sky. It's compared with other plants, so you can see the diference.

 

BTW, those plants i spoke of, they were busted several days later. About a week or two. I was going to pull them in the morning, but thought it was such a lovely hot day, i'd let the resin build up and I'd pull them at the end of the heat that day. In the meanwhile, my wife and I were sitting in our front garden, and we watched as a spotter plane near crashed his dam cop machine into the ground, banked so tight, so low, it;'s wing near dragged in the dirt, we saw ech other's eyes. He was so low and close, I thought he was gong to land in our (what kinda passed as) our driveway, more like 9well was in fact) a catle track.

 

Anyway, here's that site with the meausred reflected light I mentioned if you're interested.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Cannabis_reflection.jpg

 

(I can't get vista to work with the link tool on these posts, if anyone knows what I might do to get around this, I'd appreciate it)

 

I really wish the pics my mate took had come out better. I would like for every outdoors grower to know how their plants look from the air. I'd grown for years at that stage and was completely unaware. It's well worth looking into, it's something that probably isn't surpising when you think about it, just how few pics of gras from a height we ever get to see in the media, internet etc. there must be million out there, they mustn't want to advertise the fact how they glow so. Just to keep one up on us/ keep us in the "dark" so to speak.

 

 

 

I don't know what kind of plants in our bush are light green and glow in autumn, but if i were growing in the open like I used to, I'd be forgeting what colour they appeared from ground height, and try and plant around cover plants that will have that light green at easter time or so.

 

then again, pick ya spots well, and do all you can and take it as it comes is about the best you can really do. i don't mean to scare anyone, and surely hope I haven't put anyone off. I just found this site and it reminded me of my plants and how I went from feeling so wonderful aticipating my crop in a week or so, to almost feinitng when he showed me the photos. I mean it, I went light headed and all gidy .

 

Good luck everyone.

 

cheers

rob

[Frazz]

It is a scary subject .. particularly given that outdoors are coming off right now, its an outdoories nightmare

[RobbieGanjaSeed]

yeah I am sorry about that all. I sincerely didn't mean to cause paranoia. But I do believe to be warned is to be armed. Nothing can be done about it now, hang in there.

 

Actually, we might get some decent rain soon ey? I always found I had to cary water every day for months, it wasn't until I pulled the plants, stripped the branches, hung them up..then down came the rain . Rain, mist, fog for a couple weeks..right when you wanted it dry.

 

The trials of outdoor growing hey.

 

good luck all. I'd be in it boots and all again if I could manage it. I get jealous when I see nice pics of someone's outside crop. Half ya luck. really.

 

cheers all

rob

[winston_stagthigh]

maby they were easy to see becasue you already knew they were there, you should of sent your mate up in the plane and said try and find them, by the way I have no experiance with growing so disregard the comment if you wish

[Indycar]

I know wait-a-while very well, a nightmarish plant that seems to grow in all the places outside i used to grow, can't say i've heard it called button bush before. But yeah, as you'd know. The leaves of an MJ plant tend to chase the sun to best of their ability, and wait-a-while grows rampant with no uniformity. So, i guess from a bird's eye view the MJ plants would dominate out of the patch. Also, wait-a-while can go that deep shade of green, it can seem black at times and the thin leaves can have a bit of a shine to em. Where as MJ leaves don't seem to be as glossy. TBH, you a brave man growing in amounst it, something i wouldn't consider.

 

In the last couple of outdoor grows i did, i found growing amounst bracken fern a bit of a plus. Unfortunately it has the similar green and gloss as wait-a-while. But what i found if ya tied down and grew the MJ plants in it, it was near impossible to spot from ground level. But after mentioning in the original post, there's a fair chance it stuck out like dogs balls from above. But when i grew in bracken fern, i wouldn't have a patch as such. I'd tend to spread em out within the patch of bracken fern. I found as i got more accustomed to the terrain other peeps patches would become obvious. So i'd try 'n learn from their mistakes.

 

As ya say with lantana, it would die back with the onset of winter. Also, if MJ plants get that dark green as they mature, it can be seen quite easily amounst the lantana.

 

[sirtokesalot]

who would think it would be so easy to spot from up above

[TheTreeBoundRat]

How easy would a SOG grow be to spot. Let's say 70 fems in an area of 2m x 4.5m. ? Could it just look like one big bush?

[bush buggered]

Hey there all you paranoid bush growers. just when you thought you could'nt be any more parra during " that time of the year", along comes Robbie GS and points out that there is a a higher plane of parranoia than we thought. Thanx m8. is interesting though...cheers bb...

[RobbieGanjaSeed]

You know ya right bushbuggered. I always agonise over telling people about this, really. I mean what can u really do? But then I figure people should know what they are facing.

I'm sorry if I fucked anyone's nerves up.

 

rob