Growing by the river, swamp or dam

[dirkdiggler]

Gday all,

 

  Since joining up I have found you all extremely helpful and even if not that helpful I enjoy

listening to your stories and opinions. Growing by a river has been briefly discussed in

another one of my recent threads however I would love you to share any experiences

or knowledge you have with this method.

 

  I could ask plenty of questions specific to my area but as there isn't much info on this

method of growing ill leave it open to ANY sort of discussion involving growing near

a water source with the intention of not needing to water your plants. Your input will be

valuable to anyone interested in this method so lets see if we can get a good discussion

going. Cheers

 

DIRK

 

 

[Sir PsychoHashy]

Hey Dirk.  Growing outdoors poses many challenges, but also has some great rewards.  Stealth and security are still paramount though, and riverbanks are a classic poor stealth location.  Even if you own your own property with river frontage, you still get fishermen in canoes, or on foot, and they pay attention to riverbanks looking for likely fish spots, I know cause I do it, and I have found plants on the riverbank before.  If you are thinking public land the risk is higher, and farmers also tend to notice anything different on their land.  Add our fabulous Aussie floods, and it's all a bit iffy, I know I wouldn't do it.

 

Also, I could be wrong so don't take this as gospel, but it's my understanding that pot prefers to send roots out sideways rather than sending down a massive taproot deep looking for water, so unless you get reasonably close to the water table the not having to water might not work out that well.  Hopefully someone will correct me if I am wrong.

 

Being close to a water source is handy for keeping water up to your plants, but be wary of leaving a trail from the water to your plot if you go that route as it is another classic way of your plants getting found, both by cops and crop raiders.

 

Don't be discouraged from going the outdoor route though, I love it and highly recommend it, just be aware that it can be hard work at times, but if you go looking for an effort free option chances are that you will end up losing your crop.  Happy growing

[imagardner]

Hey there DD what a great concept to be able to plant and never having to water...... But i gotta back dave on this not sure where your from but my local river system is very unpredictable in that it floods every season to a different level than the last flood too avoid this the plants would be to far above the water table to benifet. In saying that though does your river flood often and what season does it flood? (if it only floods in summer you could wait until after the floods to plant). The stealth factor can easily be avoided planting single plants lots of weeds along rivers to plant amongst but if you can see washed up debris from flooding than forget it. Nice topic though man looking forward to hearing others experiences.

[El Kabong]

Hey Dirk, what Dr. Dave and Ima said, I personally have found it more successful to grow in a high rainfall area. My grow site is a 2 hour drive from here, I water once when transplanting, and again when tip cutting at about 13 to 14 weeks, this leaves a minimum of trails. It is a very high rainfall area on The Great Divide, and I expect to harvest about a pound per plant minimum, so a 2 hour drive 3 trips per season is worth it for me. I will be starting a grow diary in August.