Outdoor Michigan 2010

[cheech]

ahoy. it's been nice and sunny these last few days. a lot of the snow melted, so i decided to go out and do some work.

dug about 30 holes already. i've got about 5 locations i'm going to plant on some property i know real well. 400 acres private property. here's some photos.

 

[cheech]

the last two photos were kind of random in that last post. one was a snowy trail i had to walk through to get to the last photo. in the summer those little red thorned things grow to about 3 feet tall and cover the whole area, making it impassible(unless you mow through it with a brush hog). you either have to go through that stuff to get to my other grow spot, or hike through some woods. i hike through the woods of course. here's that 2nd spot. last year i had the plants in poly bags, but i won't be doing that again as i found the ground stays pretty saturated throughout the entire season.

 

[cheech]

again, that last photo in post 2 shows what i pass through to get to my next spot which is in a relatively open field. i didn't feel comfortable just having plants out in the open, so i dug the holes next to colorado blue spruce trees and pine trees. oh, last photo is a fairly large swamp. i've been having good results planting around the perimeter of it. wish i owned the land, i could put in those swamp buckets that wick up the water. the only thing i want to bring on this land this year is rooted clones.

 

[cheech]

here's a pic of the swamp from another angle. you can see the pine trees on the other side that i planted next to. also, heres a pretty cool tree i walked pass. deffinately one of the thickest trunks on that property. trunk was about 5' diameter. most of the trees are all new growth small stuff, as the land was used exclusively for farming in the past.


i had a ton of fun the 1.5 hours i spent out there. hope this psychs some of you up for this 2010 season. i look forward to getting back out there, and also taking more photos. i've never documented an outdoor grow, so this will be a lot of fun. come check out my indoor grow also, it's my first time documenting one of those too. peace

 

[Gnarfbuckle]

I live in michigan too and i have a feeling this year is gonna be a bumper crop. Last summer was so short and cold, and its already feeling like spring now. I have a similar location and am going to do pretty much the same thing. Cant wait!

 

[Xceptional]

well what up MI peeps?

i've never done a outdoor grow but i'd love to give one a shot one day. so when do you plant here in MI and what strains do you find work best here and when do you expect to harvest?

good luck!

 

[woodspirit56]

Great set of pics cheech. Looking at your pics makes me want to get out in the woods! Snow here is mostly gone and time to start digging some holes. Thanks for the pics and the encouragement you give to new growers like me!

 

[cheech]

i'm just hoping long rain spells don't start up until mid october. wet weather is what screws my crops up. the strains i'll be working with are the ones that i'm growing indoors right now. i've got a strain called pure afghan that is looking great, and people say afghans are good for cold weather climates. i've got these little diy cloners that can clone 100x at a time. i'll probably take 100 afghans, 100 chocolate chunks, and 100 chronics.

now, these last two strains probably will not finish until mid october. there are good strains out there, that apparently will finish in september, i just don't have them. people say breederbrad sells these strains. if you can get a strain that finishes in september you are golden. plant will finish up when sun is still very strong, and you will likely walk away with little to no mold.

my plan is to clone throughout april, and put them out beginning of june. i've put them out end of april and it worked, as well as may, but the weather is so crummy that they could likely die(which many have). best yield i've ever got on an outdoor is maybe 4 ounces. usually around 3 though. sometimes it looks as if i'll have a plant that looks like it could yield 8 ounces, but the nugs don't harden up by the time i need to cut them down. awesome colors, awesome taste, and insane amount of trichomes compared to my and others indoor though. i need to reiterate on the taste of the smoke. it is spectacular.

 

[ShivaSkunkPunk]

Cheech - 10 toes down in MI as well bro, hey gotta ?, always wanted to do some things outside only fear is the darn deer and other canna eating vermine, what can be done to keep them at bay while not makin the op stand out like a sore thumb, lookin good, Peace Shiva

 

[Skunkmasterflex]

do as i do guys if your growing in MI.....put that shit up in the trees in garbage bags. never heard of a deer climbing a tree...

 

[ShivaSkunkPunk]

Nice SMF, that's funny as hell but very true, gonna have to search out some treehouse type of trees to get a decent platform i assume, SMF sometime down the road snap a pic for me so that I can put pic's with words bro, Peace SSP

 

[boroboro]

Is the ground thawed out enough yet? When do you plan on setting the plants outside? I wouldn't think it would be till at least late May up there.

edit: Ah, I see, you already said planting in early June. Good luck!

For deer fences, in very similar spots, I've used plastic fencing, staked up with local sticks, with the local brush or reeds woven into it for a disguise if you're feeling real paranoid.

 

[cheech]

there are so many deer on this property and i'll tell you what. i have never had a problem. in fact, every one of the spots i have found was by following deer trails. i just piss and shit around my grow area to spread my scent, and that is all i've had to do. i'll pee in milk jugs and take them with me to spread around. it's important to spread your scent around. ill step in my shit and walk around the perimeter. it might also be a good idea to put some sort of cloth around the perimeter(concealed) up off the ground in a few spots and soak that in urine. that way it will hold and spread the scent better. that would also keep the rain from washing it away. you can also cut up barred soap and spread it around, or cut your dogs hair before washing him/her and bring in his/her hair and spread it around.

my biggest problem though has been slugs killing small plants. rabbits too, but scent seems to deter them. this method will allow others to walk through your grow area and possibly not even realize anything is going on. seems hard to believe, but i have brought my bro to a field of mj plants and he said are we there yet. as soon as you put up a fence of some sort you better hope no one comes across your grow.

regarding putting plants in trees. i would never bother with that, and if i were to do an alternative method of growing it would be swamp buckets. i would love to see photos of these tree plants though.

i'd rather plant more plants in a handful of different spots and rarely check back up on them. the soil on this property is loam/clay, and will retain moisture very well. too well in fact. michigan has great rich soil, so hopefully you won't have to do anything to it except maybe spread some 20-20-20 granular.

i want to add. this is what i have picked up on through my own experience of growing outdoors the last three years. deer have not been a problem, but i know a lot of other growers say they are and put up fences. deer can jump very high though, keep that in mind if you think a fence around the perimeter will be helpful. it would need to be 7'.

 

[Cannastyle]

Very cool...definitely had some good weather here. I can't wait to see some plants in the ground!

 

[boroboro]

slugs: Yes, I certainly hate the slimy little buggers, or more accurately I hate the way they ate my entire crop last summer! I heard that a circular mound of diatomaceous earth would work for keeping slugs and crawling insects at bay, or a ring of copper or metal around the plant.

fences: Yeah, you probably won't keep out a hungry deer. The deer have plenty to eat in my areas though, and probably in yours also, and I like a small fence for protecting seedlings. Once they're 2-3 feet tall they seem a lot sturdier. It does make it harder to disguise, though.

You say you have good soil on site? Excellent. I've been carrying in bags of soil, and it's my least favorite part of the project. The hard work is one thing, but security is the big deal. Hard to explain why you're walking in the middle of the woods with 100 pounds of soil on your shoulders...

 

[cheech]

i try to convince myself that i'm working with good soil at least. the idea of buying bales of promix for $45 a piece leaves me feeling uneasy, even if 1 plant is worth at least $400. the soil looks good, but it's more clay than loam. i'll dig into it and it looks 'rich', and i'll see a lot of earth worms, but as soon as it looses moisture it's hard as a brick. i used some 5 gallon containers of pro mix last year, but they would dry up on me within 2 days. i ended up putting them on the edge of a swamp and they were able to wick up the water and turned out alright aside from mold which completely destroyed them by mid october heh.

 

[cheech]

well i'm regretting not buying an auto flowering strain and breeding it over the winter. it would have been great to get out a bunch of plants that would finish in july, even if they did only yield an ounce or so. however, i did just purchase lowlife seeds white russian from attitude a few days ago. looking back, i think i didn't order them to breed because i figured, 'man growing a little 1' plant just doesn't make any sense'. but now i'm thinking, 'man growing a 7' plant that doesn't finish on time and only yields a few ounces just doesn't make any sense'. GROW ON


woodspirit i had missed your message. i'm glad i got your psyched for the season. get out their and start diggin(and take photos, lots of photos - for us who like to look at photos)!

 

[Tobor the 8th Man]

Hey cheech I don't know why I didn't find this thread before. Real nice start. The advanced scouting mission pictures are awesome. I have a spot that is very similar. The soil is loamy though and not clay. It is also slightly acidic as is many spots where evergreens grow so I hit the spots with some lime.

I will steadily watch and comment on this thread guy. You have the spirit and drive so it should be a good show.

Good Luck in 2010!

 

[cheech]

thanks tobor. sounds like you lucked out with the loamy soil. are you going au du natural all the way, or were you also going to bring in some soil/soiless?

here's some more pics that for the most part, aside from the dog pic, were taken today. i'll narrate this one.

dog found his way to my house, i played with him for an hour before locating his owner. photo of the spooky forest that i must walk through before getting to my garden. here is a photo of a 10 gallon poly bag that i grew in last summer, and another one showing a mj stem. the soil is nice and is home to many earth worms. i'm thinking of flipping the poly bags over and making a slit in them, then planting into the poly bag. this idea was suggest by my significant other after telling her i would rather do a raised bed, but was not sure how i would keep the soil 'raised'. this watered out trail leads to a clearing that i would love to grow 100's of plants, but can not because of this hunters blind (he actually cleared that spot not to long ago).

 

[cheech]

did a little swamp bucket browsing. i'm really liking that idea. i had some potted plants in promix that would dry out in 2 days so i placed them at the edge of a swamp and they were able to wick up the water. problem is the promix was too wet, and after reading another thread, the grower said that he too had that problem is 5 gallon containers, but when he used 3' tall concrete forms, the promix above the over saturated foot was adequately moist instead of wet. i'd like too try this with maybe 10 plants so then at least i'd know how the plants compared to the in ground plants(and you would too).

more photos i took today. one of stream that connects the swamp i took photos of last time i was out there too a lake that i took a partial photo of. these two water ways are part of a much larger system, that i think begins by a spring fed pond. the water tastes freaking awesome. way better than tap run through a brita filter.