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watering 101


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:reallyexcited:

 

Hi,

 

For me I use a flood and drain system with hydroton.

my timers alter depending on the stage of growth, in veg they are on 15 Minutes per 2 hours.

 

In flowering I decrease it to 15 minutes every 3 to 4 hours, depending on how hot the day is.

I dont run water at all at when the lights are off.

 

<_<

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Well, all I can say is that in most places in my experience, where I have been able to plant dope, it's been very marginal land. It's been able to be used to grow, for that very reason. If it were good soil, and decent water fall, it would have been cleared for crops long before. So most of the time, we're stuck with hard dry soil, with no life, no water retaining abilities as it would, if it were full of bacterial life from decent rain fall, and good soil structure.

 

In the area I used to grow outside, my plants needed pretty much every drop of water they were to use, carried in to them.

 

I did make swails, and they did help to some extent, when it did rain from time to time. But rain is a rare treat huh.

 

But I think that the most important faeture is to conserve what you have got. If you have to carry in every drop they need to drink, then make it last.

 

So, prep. the holes. Dig good holes, large enough to accomadate a healthy root size, depending on how long they're going to grow for, prior to head season. Then line the holes with thick builders plastic. Make the hole open at bottom, so that any excess water will be guided straight down, and force the roots to follow, there-by forcing the roots to go deeper, hopefully drought proofing them slightly more each time.

 

Australian scrub trees by and large grow their roots just under, or even ontop of the soil. They do this specifically to be mobile, to search out moist soil, and water.

 

These roots, will find your holes if they arent lined, and will find them in most cases even so. They will grow their roots over the top of the plastic, like some alien bloody thing, and if you dont overlap the plastic in the hole, they will find their way through the gaps, and in to the precious moist soil you watered. It doesn't take many trees to suck your plants dry.

 

If you can manage it, carry in good quality soil that is rich with compost to fill the holes. This will help to retain moisture. But it will also encourage digging animals, like echidnas and so forth to dig the soil up around the roots, looking for grubs. So if you do carry in rich soil, lay some wire on the ground over the holes, and cut a section out just large enough for the plant's stem.

 

Use water crystals, and set you mind to work hard.

 

I lived in a westerly position to brisbane, a couple hundred miles Nth West. The summers were excrutiatingly dry. I found that good sized female plants needed around 20 litres a day in the height of the summer drought to do well. Some people claim that making them experince heat stress will make for more potent dope, but I never could handle watching them wilt severely. Even at 20 litres a day, they'll wilt in midday heat. That's expected. I have seen plants that mates have simply refused to water. Insisting they live or die, with what rain comes to them. They've laid flat out as alizard drinking for days, and as far as I was concerned, would never come back to anything. But so long as they have some degree of life in them when the rain does come, they are amzingly resilient, and often grow from spindly crapy near dead examples to huge lush bushes capable of harbesting apound in less than amonth, from the time of the rain. We often get a very good rain fall in our area in Jan, so it's just in time to perk up stressed plants, and get them ready for heads. The theory is that while they suffer so hard, they grow outraegous roots, searching for awater. When the rain filnally comes, they explode to life, with such a massive root system.

 

Sometimes 2o litres might do a plant a few days, but it won't stay that way all summer. Like I siaid, i couldnt bare to watch my plants go through all that.

 

This is for dry land areas of course. if you can find a good spot close to a creek, or river, although most places like that will have traffic of some sort, then you'll have other options.

 

I came across a very large crop once, while fishing for Bass. They had a pump in the creek I was fishing in, to a crop on the top of the bank. They simply turned up periodically and flooded it. I don't know how it ended up for them, i stayed away until the crop was harvested from then on. i didn't know what kind of people were doing the grow.

And if it were me, I wouldnt have wanted anyone hanging around, leaving footprints to scare the crap out of me.

 

I did have a spot with a spring near it. It made humping the water to them easier, but still they had to have nearly every drop transported to them.

 

if you can get a car to the spot, then transport as many drums of water as you can to the spot in one hit. But remeber, cops and so forth don't look for dope, they look for anything out of place.

 

I once stood on a river bank, again fishing for Bass. I stood in this one spot for over 5 minutes, before I shifted my footing, and as I did, I stood on a sapling. As the plant went down, it woke me up, that it was a plant. I had been standing next to it all that time, and didn;t know it was there. Another time, while I was stoned, I led three city blokes that were as straight as dies through a small crop of 8 plants I had. They wanted to kill some animals, and I was supposed to be leading them to where they might be hiding out. But as a joke, I walked them back and forth through the patch. Not one of them twigged to what they were amongst, and I even stood them in the midst of them and took their photo.

 

The point is; I have freinds in the SES, and when the cops use them to go through a bit of country to help find a crop, they train them to look out for water drums, drink bottles, ciggarette buts etc too. Waterver you use to help with the watering, make sure it doesnt draw attention to the crop.

 

No great revelations sorry, no magnificent way of watering plants where there just isnt any water. I've wracked my brains on this issue for years, and no matter how you go abou tit, if it's dry where you want to grow, get used to the idea of working hard through summer.

 

good luck.

rob

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dig yaself a 3-6ft deep x 2-4ft across, line the hole with heavy duty plastic bags and use the rain saving crystals...

 

i would take a 40L drum per 4-5 plants, have hoses coming out the bottom leading to the base of each plant and fill that weekly...if the holes at the bottom are small enough it will drip for a few days then the water crystals would take care of the rest :P

 

if u are going to use a water pump, be smart and take the fucker with u AND when using it, place it in some bushes to take it outter view and muffle some noise.....nothing more suss than a water pump leading into the middle of the bush <_<

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Great stuff. This thread'll be one to watch.

 

Myself, I've only grown in pots outdoors, and mostly it was a matter of just keeping the soil moist by handwatering with a 9lt watering can almost daily in the heat of summer, and providing a little protection from midday sun. This can make the difference to plants in hot, dry places like Perth.

 

Water crystals, soil wetter granules, and craploads of organic matter can help maintain moisture levels, as can using additives like peat moss or coco-peat.

 

But seriously, if you're going to grow outdoors in the bush, listen to Robbie, he's got the shiznizzle worked out. :bow

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u could use a 12 volt bilge pump hooked up too a small motorbike battery mabey,or use large 200 litre drums with tin too catch rain ...or if your keen buy a little whipper snipper pump and pump out of a drum in an easier too fill spot , or like another guy said find a soft soil spot an dig a hole ..mounding the soil you remove around the edge too make the wall higher, then line it with a couple peices of good plastic, what i do is make a catchment area so you can catch 3 times as much water ...you dont have too dig a hole for this , just lightly scrape the top soil too make 2 parralel 8 inch high mounds 4 feet apart , line this with plastic aswell and your dam will fill real fast ...saves money on drums and 4oo ltr capacity hole is easy as too dig and mound up.goodluck
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Hi i have a good idea for the out door grower to save water i have always grown outdoors and learnt a lot as where i was living in the middle of a national park just west of sydney. To many campers walking onto my property and finding my trees.

My method was simple I first dig a hole 3'l x 3'w x 2'd, line the bottom of the hole with nappies put horseshit on top of that. Then i filled the hole with a lyer of sand

about 2in thick fill rest with a mix of poting mix,peat moss and water crystals last thing i did was put another 2in of sand over the top a little bush matter to hide the

sand i only watered them once a month of 40l , i only had a trail bike then so it was a lot of fun just getting the water out to them.

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Well, all I can say is that in most places in my experience, where I have been able to plant dope, it's been very marginal land. It's been able to be used to grow, for that very reason. If it were good soil, and decent water fall, it would have been cleared for crops long before. So most of the time, we're stuck with hard dry soil, with no life, no water retaining abilities as it would, if it were full of bacterial life from decent rain fall, and good soil structure.

 

In the area I used to grow outside, my plants needed pretty much every drop of water they were to use, carried in to them.

 

I did make swails, and they did help to some extent, when it did rain from time to time. But rain is a rare treat huh.

 

But I think that the most important faeture is to conserve what you have got. If you have to carry in every drop they need to drink, then make it last.

 

So, prep. the holes. Dig good holes, large enough to accomadate a healthy root size, depending on how long they're going to grow for, prior to head season. Then line the holes with thick builders plastic. Make the hole open at bottom, so that any excess water will be guided straight down, and force the roots to follow, there-by forcing the roots to go deeper, hopefully drought proofing them slightly more each time.

 

Australian scrub trees by and large grow their roots just under, or even ontop of the soil. They do this specifically to be mobile, to search out moist soil, and water.

 

These roots, will find your holes if they arent lined, and will find them in most cases even so. They will grow their roots over the top of the plastic, like some alien bloody thing, and if you dont overlap the plastic in the hole, they will find their way through the gaps, and in to the precious moist soil you watered. It doesn't take many trees to suck your plants dry.

 

If you can manage it, carry in good quality soil that is rich with compost to fill the holes. This will help to retain moisture. But it will also encourage digging animals, like echidnas and so forth to dig the soil up around the roots, looking for grubs. So if you do carry in rich soil, lay some wire on the ground over the holes, and cut a section out just large enough for the plant's stem.

 

Use water crystals, and set you mind to work hard.

 

I lived in a westerly position to brisbane, a couple hundred miles Nth West. The summers were excrutiatingly dry. I found that good sized female plants needed around 20 litres a day in the height of the summer drought to do well. Some people claim that making them experince heat stress will make for more potent dope, but I never could handle watching them wilt severely. Even at 20 litres a day, they'll wilt in midday heat. That's expected. I have seen plants that mates have simply refused to water. Insisting they live or die, with what rain comes to them. They've laid flat out as alizard drinking for days, and as far as I was concerned, would never come back to anything. But so long as they have some degree of life in them when the rain does come, they are amzingly resilient, and often grow from spindly crapy near dead examples to huge lush bushes capable of harbesting apound in less than amonth, from the time of the rain. We often get a very good rain fall in our area in Jan, so it's just in time to perk up stressed plants, and get them ready for heads. The theory is that while they suffer so hard, they grow outraegous roots, searching for awater. When the rain filnally comes, they explode to life, with such a massive root system.

 

Sometimes 2o litres might do a plant a few days, but it won't stay that way all summer. Like I siaid, i couldnt bare to watch my plants go through all that.

 

This is for dry land areas of course. if you can find a good spot close to a creek, or river, although most places like that will have traffic of some sort, then you'll have other options.

 

I came across a very large crop once, while fishing for Bass. They had a pump in the creek I was fishing in, to a crop on the top of the bank. They simply turned up periodically and flooded it. I don't know how it ended up for them, i stayed away until the crop was harvested from then on. i didn't know what kind of people were doing the grow.

And if it were me, I wouldnt have wanted anyone hanging around, leaving footprints to scare the crap out of me.

 

I did have a spot with a spring near it. It made humping the water to them easier, but still they had to have nearly every drop transported to them.

 

if you can get a car to the spot, then transport as many drums of water as you can to the spot in one hit. But remeber, cops and so forth don't look for dope, they look for anything out of place.

 

I once stood on a river bank, again fishing for Bass. I stood in this one spot for over 5 minutes, before I shifted my footing, and as I did, I stood on a sapling. As the plant went down, it woke me up, that it was a plant. I had been standing next to it all that time, and didn;t know it was there. Another time, while I was stoned, I led three city blokes that were as straight as dies through a small crop of 8 plants I had. They wanted to kill some animals, and I was supposed to be leading them to where they might be hiding out. But as a joke, I walked them back and forth through the patch. Not one of them twigged to what they were amongst, and I even stood them in the midst of them and took their photo.

 

The point is; I have freinds in the SES, and when the cops use them to go through a bit of country to help find a crop, they train them to look out for water drums, drink bottles, ciggarette buts etc too. Waterver you use to help with the watering, make sure it doesnt draw attention to the crop.

 

No great revelations sorry, no magnificent way of watering plants where there just isnt any water. I've wracked my brains on this issue for years, and no matter how you go abou tit, if it's dry where you want to grow, get used to the idea of working hard through summer.

 

good luck.

rob

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