Preparing the soil

[AvaDGardner]

Ok Im new hereso Hello everyone and hope you had a great Easter.

Now I know this has probably been done to death but I want to garner as much info from the knowledgeable as possible so I thought I would start a new thread.

Here goes.When preparing the hole how big do I have to make it?I know this sounds like a silly question but I have read on other sites people saying to make it 1 cubic metre and that sounds like a little excessive.

Anyhow I have bought a good potting mix and some dynamic lifter,will get some perlite and water crystals.

How much water crystals do I need?I know you can buy 500g buckets with a slow release fert from the hardware store.Is this enough for one plant?

I want to get the maximum out of this grow.

Also when to prepare the the soil?How long before I am going to plant them out?I want the mix to soak up plenty of water and for the critters to inspect it and have a dig before I plant.

[RobbieGanjaSeed]

I'd like to say a meter of soil is a shit load. But then you know that.

 

I'll come back later and put my 2 cents worthin, but the misses is calling me now juist as I stared to type,. and my life is to obey.

 

The size of the hole is going to be directly ralted to three things i find. One of course how many plants you want to grow. Two is how serious you are about making thebest environment you can, and thirdly, how lazy you are (or how energetic you are in the event you are the complete opposite to myself).

 

If you can manage the gig and mix through winter that's the best as it's not so hot, les people out and abot to hear the sounds of the construction, and if you havent done this before, you have to understand sound travels through the bush for a long way, and some f the sounds made preparing a grow are not the normal sounds in the bush . Seriously.

Like the noise of a sapling being chopped out with an axe, the sound of soil being shovelled (these noises carry further than most people think), and if you have the same soil as I alwayshad to work with, the noise fo the wreckongbar as it pounds into the rock like dirt 9I wouldnt use the word "soil" on such crap).

 

It's easier to work in winter than summer, and if you arent comfy, you'll cut corners. I know I do.

 

Consider using chicken wire for the prepared holes. Not erect to keep out browsing animals, but laid flat on the ground to stop thebastards digging it all up on ya.

Echidnas (and other similar animals) love the smell of compost. it's the smellof food to them. It idicates moist, rottingmaterial, sure hunting ground in their minds for worms and were there's worms, there's centipedes feeding on worms. Both delicacies for echidnas.

 

So lay the chick wire flat out onthe ground if youuse rich compost to back fill the holes.

 

if you are just going to back fill withthe same soil you removed, mixing it with chemical ferts, and water crystals, you wont have as much a problem.

 

Leave the chicken wire inplace for the whole grow, just cut holes out for each plant to grow through. Unless you will be planting your holes like bamboo stands. I never did it that way, but many do, and in that case, you wont be able to use the chcken wire i dont think.

 

Line the hole with plastic. Australain scrub ttrees have rots that travel for miles. Just under the soil top, often even laying right on top of the ground like cabales. When they find soft, moist soil, they drop their roots downintpo the treasure like an alien dipping his finger in a drink and sucking it all up. trees will rape your hole of nutes in no times. All you will do if you dont lione the hole is improve the health of the trees already there.

 

Leave the plastic open at the bottom of course, or theplants will drown when and if it rains.

 

Anyway, i'm being caled with more determinationnow. it seems dinner is spoiling.

 

take care

rob

[AvaDGardner]

I was talking about for each plant.I plan on growing maybe half a dozen for myself so if I lose one or 2 I will still have enough for me.I am serious about making the best enviro I can this time around.I have grown outdoors b4 but over a decade ago and back then you just through them in the dirt and waited and pulled them up.I want to get the max out of them I can.Dont know about energetic but I have the itme on my hands and thats why I wanted to start early but dont know how early is too early.On one hand I want get as much free water as possible for the crystals to soak up but dont want other plant life raping my goodies.

 

The noise isnt going to be a problem in this location and the soil is real easy to dig.The only problem will be tree roots.The chicken wire on the ground sounds like a good idea and the plastic lining.I dont want anything raping my hole so to speak but I still think I will need to put chicken wire around them to stop the roos and rabbits but dont want to get too carried away so that the ye in the sky can see.

 

I know what its like when the wife is calling I get it all the time..Anyhow when you get a chance to answer.How long before I am planting them out do you think I should prepare my holes.I will look at planting mid september if not a little earlier.

[RobbieGanjaSeed]

Mate, I have no idea where you are, but in most parts of Australia, Spetember is the bare earliest you can plant outside. the days are 12/12 , and getting longer every week from then. But if you plant in say August, the seedlings will be straight into flower, and of course veg away again if they do, but the first couple months will have them so confused, you will be btter off waiting until the season is well under way.

 

I like to plant (I havent grown outside for some years either, so I'm working on memory mate) in Spetember, but never earlier.

 

The hippies used to say the ground is ready for planting annuals, vegatation type plants in general; when the season has come along far enough you can sit comfortably on the ground to be planted in bare arsed for 30 minutes, without ya bum going cold.

 

I think this is a very accurate guide. I mean the days have to be 12 hours long, but the ground has to be warm too. Hydro growers will tell you of the world of troubles they have if their plants get cold roots.

 

The CSIRO did experiments (with their pants on I think), with bean plants. I've planted beans early too and found the CSIRO came up withthe same rsults. only they spent some millions getting the same answers I got for the pack of two lots of bean seed.

 

They (and I) planted beans early, so they would get ahead start and we'd be eating beans earlier, and get better yeilds, as the plants would be better established by the time the spring rains had come in.

 

What happened is the cold ground (even though the days were sweating hot) caused the bean plants to stunt. I started some more beans 30 days after the first. And the second planting not only overtook the first planting, but yeilded much, much better.

 

I can't say how much pot and beans are the same in this way, but I am certain they are the same in some ways. certainly the cold ground.

 

If you want to get them started earlier, do it under lights, so they when you plant them out, you can choose the warm weather, wait until a decent bit of rain has fallen, or is gauaranteed to about to fall,. Sex them before you set them out. nothing worse than carrying water all season to a plant that is male. But you have grown, and know these things.

 

I don't go for surrounding the plants with wire fences, never had any plants eaten by roos or wallabies, and yet heaps of people say theyhave had it happen to them, so if you think it could be a risk, then that's your judgment. I would personally prefer to use an electric fence, but if you will be planting the crop in one plant per hole, and a fair bit of ground between them, that's gonna addd up. Last portable electric fence I bought was 15 years ago and it cost 120 or 150 bux or something like tjhat way back then. A fence per plant is going to set u back. If they are all on the same hillside you could run a wire to link themall, but that's a bit elaborate.

 

I dont know what the cover is like, if it's scrub patch, open grassland, open bush, so it's hard to say what te best way to go is.

 

if u use wire netting, toss it in the fire to blacken it, and cause some rust to start quickly. that'll camo flague it at least.

 

The holes, well imo, they don;t need to be a cubic meter mate. Gee, you'd need a backhoe . More like 10 gallons for a 4 month grow, maybe th size of an old fashion rubish bin for a full 9 month season. u can get away with smaller, but they need more ater the smaller they are. Root bound plants need watering constantly as you know. it's generlly believed that dope grows only as large as the roots will expand. Whent he roots hit the edge of whatever they're contained by, the plant stops growing.

I've mostly used 20-25 litre pots in my experience, and had plants grow to full size in them. But so many people say u shouldn't let the roots jam up, I'd listen to them. After all, ya not buying the pots in this case, just digging holes, and that's free. Mifght as well go the full distance hey. Even if they dont need it, all plants benifit from lots of loosened soil around their growing area. Lets rainand oxygen in easy and that increases plant size and health.

 

Anyway, the hole...Dig holes out at least 20 litres, but as I siad, go for 60. Line the holes with buildersplastic, wrapit around the hole like making a cone for a bong out of alfoil sorts thing, and leave the bottom wide open. This way the roots will go down as they follow excess water, and they wont drown from waterr being stuck in theh ole. Amate of mine didn't think right, and planted directly into the ground on the "uphill" side of a contour bank of his farm. it rained for a week, and the contour bank channelled water all that week. the plant (about 3 feet tall) died from water log that week.

 

Withthe plastic, there's two ways you can top it off. if you are going to be in scrub patch with scrub trees, i would make the builder's pklastuc come up higher than the ground level. Fold it out on the ground flat, and out say 20 cm all around the hole "lip". Scrb tree roots really will seek out moisture and their roots will if unable to penetrate the sides of thehole, come in over the top. problem with this is that it will stop rain water running down the hillside and freely running into your holes. It will in fact effectively stop any run off entering the holes ever.

 

If there's no scrb trees about, leave the plastic a couple inches short of the hole's height, for the opposite to occur. That rain water might fall in.

 

This is most usually only going to happen if you go the trouble of building swales to help direct rainfall into theholes. If u aren't going to do that, then you wil need to water them every drop of water they will need all season. Even if it rains, what falls into the holes wont be much orlast long. Like a plant in apot in the backyard, only what actually fall s into the pot will be used by the plant. if you didnt line the hole, or were not using a pot, then the soil would get wet fromthe rainfall, and the plant coul dpotentially use the water in the soil for weeks.

 

however, rainfall is so rare now (always has been so long as I have been planting), and i think the benifits of retaining the water you carry in, far outweigh the odds of rainfall being of any help in general ground soaks.

 

BTW, if you dont want to line the soil, u can get black recycled rubbish bins from bunnings (I think 60 litres) for tenbux. If you can carry them into the bush without being supectd of something, you can dig them into the ground, and just cut the bottom of the bin out when you dig it into the ground. Theres pros and cons for either ay.

 

Builder's plastic will see tree roots break through by the end of the season sometimes, but the bin idea will be more unlikly to see anything like that happen.

Carrying enough builder's plastic into the bush in your backpack or even a handbag for that matter is easy enough to do, to line a half dozen holes without anyone knowing you even have th stuff on you.

 

I like to put drainage material in the bottomof the holes/pots, just as if I were growing minature roses around the house too. Instead of carying heavy stgones. U can use old styrafoam boxes from grocier shops, and jus break it into chunks and so long as you cover the base of the hole, it is enough. Dont do too mcuh, or you will reduce the amount of soil in your hole of course.

 

Anyway, that must be enough. U know what soil mix you will use I suppose?

Watewr crytals are ok I suppose. I never was overly impressd with them. Mybe they worked great, maybe they made no dif. unless u have avery controlled experiemnt, it's amatter of aith i think. There was a rumour when they started to become common, that when soil dried out, the csytals actually sucked the moisture out of the ground to favor the gel crystals, rather tna the other way around. I shouldnt have told you that, because it was just conjecture i'm sure, and although I have heard it several times, no-one has ever been able to prove it to me.

 

I like using very organic material rather than the crsytals. Worm cstins, manure, straw etc. (dont put anything in the hole that has not broken down. The process of organic materialbreaking down causes a tempory depeltionof Nitroegeon. Sure when it is finally broken down the N level wil have increased. but until then, N drops. SO be sure everything is finshed roting.

 

Also, rotting material wil attract akk manner of scrounging animals, from wild feral dogs and cats , to s mentioned a\earlier, echidnas, digging for wroms etc in the rich smelling rot.

 

I read a whie back, a member said he killed a sheep, buried it during the winter I believe, and planted on it. Apparently he never needed to water the pant all season, as the rotting corpse provided more than sufficient moisture and thew blood, bone and guts gave the plant all the nutes the thing could want. Someone else on the site agreed, said they had also done or heard of this. I'd give it a go.

 

Ohyeah, dont use slow release ferts. They will continue to release nitrogen as the pant enters flower season. And heads getting Nitrogeon are a disaster. Dont want to suffer 9 months work to have heads go "bolting" on ya.

 

Anyway, hope I've give u some ideas. Sounds to me you have it all sussed in your own mind anyway, just needing to check yourself over againhey?

 

I would dig it all throgh winter. My back is a disaster, so it would saveme having to get too much done all at once.

 

ay u plant in late sept. I'd dig the holes and get everything established around July/August.

 

depends if u can get into the pace a lot of times without causing suspicion? if so, doa little each day kind of thing.

 

You're right, you dont want it there too long, or other pants will eat ya nutes. But lined properly,and covered with mulch or the likes you should be right to leave it there 2 months in my opninion.

 

Using disposable nappies, both in the bottom of the hole (2 or 3 deep) and some just under the surface keeps misture in the hole bottom (simila rot hwat crytsals should do), and the ones just under he surface stops the heat of the summer sunbakingthe ground and evaoporating. Cover with mulch again to be sure. but theyare good insulators.,

 

Be carful, mulch canmake a pattern that will look unuusal rom the sky. Nature has no regular shaoes as you'd know. circles , squares etc just fdont naturally appear and cause a person's attention to be drawn to suvh things.

 

Ibest be off.

 

cheers

rob