Okay guys, here's the long awaited update...
From the outset, it seems this whole experiment has been an exercise in futility. Literally everything went wrong.
When this thread petered out I had six growers interested in participating: five who made contact via the forums (
www.RollItUp.org and
www.Cannabis.com) and one introduced through an acquaintance. So I set about processing the bulk ingredients I had left over from last growing season; enough raw material for eleven plant grow bags.
Then the litany of woes began...
First: while processing the predigested organic substrate material I burnt out the motor on my milling machine... with only nine grow bags finished.
Second: of the five growers who expressed an interest (via the forums) in receiving samples of my soil, only three could provide the requisite evidence of their growing competence (ie: crop photos or grow-logs). So I was left with only nine plant bags, and only four qualified growers.
Third: of the three forum growers who expressed an interest, only two actually collected their samples. I won't name the grower who never got back to me with a preferred drop-off location... he knows who he is.
So, all in all, a total failure.
It's actually been so haphazard as to generate a sort of comedic appeal. Let me give you a few examples:
I supplied the soil in brown paper grow bags, so the growers could simply plant the entire bag in their regular soil, water their regular soil as usual and simply allow my “PayDirt” soil to slowly absorb the moisture it needs through the paper bag. However, the soil turned out to be so highly absorbent and soaked up so much water as to thoroughly saturate and disintegrate the paper bags... despite the fact that each paper bag was individually wrapped in plastic and then double wrapped in two thick plastic rubble sacks and all three sample deliveries were collected within 24 hours of being dropped off. The stuff is like a sponge.
The batch of sterilized worms I produced to provide aeration for the soil (always a good idea for any growers out there) were pilfered! I went to check on them one morning only to find a seagull in my garage greedily helping himself to the contents of my wormery. Now that it's been contaminated by a flying rodent I have to empty the wormery and start over.
Dropping off one of the samples in a public park in the middle of the night: torch in one hand, GPS in the other, backpack full of plastic wrapped soil bags... I inadvertently stumbled upon two young gay men
in flagrante. Far from expressing any embarrassment, they seemed somewhat disappointed when I walked on instead of accepting their invitation to join in.
So, two bags each to a grower from Cannabis.com and another from RollItUp.org, two more bags to a friend of a friend, three bags still sitting in my garage unclaimed, a burned out milling machine, a sullied wormery and one homosxual proposition later... it's certainly been an experience.
I can't publish the results collected by my acquaintance grower as he could possibly be linked to me, but I'll endeavor to have the other two growers (who are known forum members) report their results in this thread.
I still have three bags left if anyone else is interested?
As usual, I'll happily answer any questions anyone might have.
Sincerely,
-PayDirt