Bushcrafting, the weed addition: Bugout patch

Larry {the} Gardener

Well-Known Member
Great idea for overwintering chilli plants id say
My Mom wintered all of her tropical plants in a hole in the ground when I was growing up. But it was covered with a sheet of plywood. With the glass it can get really hot.

I started the winter with about 12 of last year's tomato and pepper plants inside under the lights. Now I'm down to two pepper and no tomato. I'll try a few in the hole next winter. This was my first time working with lights, and I have a lot to learn. I'm not crazy about having to tend them everyday. In the hole you could hose them down once a week and they would be good.
 

ruby fruit

Well-Known Member
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My Mom wintered all of her tropical plants in a hole in the ground when I was growing up. But it was covered with a sheet of plywood. With the glass it can get really hot.

I started the winter with about 12 of last year's tomato and pepper plants inside under the lights. Now I'm down to two pepper and no tomato. I'll try a few in the hole next winter. This was my first time working with lights, and I have a lot to learn. I'm not crazy about having to tend them everyday. In the hole you could hose them down once a week and they would be good.
 

Larry {the} Gardener

Well-Known Member
Those look nice. Are you just keeping them going until you can put outside, or do you plan to keep them under the lights. The two that I kept alive I cut back, trying to have less plant to support. Also transplanted to bigger pots.

I have a few new ones coming on that I planted right around the New Year. I have culled them back to 5 each of Jalapeno and Mini Sweet Pepper. I just topped the taller ones a couple of days ago. They will be going outside as soon as all the other seeds start popping. I'm using 8 of the el cheapo plant and aquarium tubes in shop lights, and 12 CFL's in a homemade hood. They work great for starting plants, but I'm not setup for the long haul. Have I mentioned that I'm very allergic to spending money?

I ran a couple dozen tomato and pepper plants through the winter in my little greenhouse. We made more than we could use from those. The ones inside were more of a soil mix test than anything else. I kept them in quart containers to see how long the soil would last. It ran out after a couple of months, so this year I'm adding a small amount of 13-13-13 and a time release plant food to the mix.
 

ruby fruit

Well-Known Member
2016-02-20 10.16.41.jpg We are in our last part of summer now those ones in the tent then have been in the ground since i took them out of the tent in october :)
 

Larry {the} Gardener

Well-Known Member
Its not just weed im.a chilli addict ;)
Keep it green brother
I've got it pretty bad too. My wife just called to say we had the first sprout in the Serrano Chili's. Looking for new sprouts is the first thing she does when she gets in from work.

I've got Jalapeno and Mini Sweet peppers up and ready to go outside, and Serrano, Hungarian Yellow Wax, J E Parker New Mexico Chili, Habanero, Cayenne, Early Jalapeno, Grand Bell Mix, California Wonder Bells as well as Pruden's Purple and Yellow Pear tomatoes seeds in soil. The Yellow Pear tomatoes started sprouting a few days ago. 6 of the 9 seeds planted are up. Soon I will be very busy.
 

ruby fruit

Well-Known Member
I've got it pretty bad too. My wife just called to say we had the first sprout in the Serrano Chili's. Looking for new sprouts is the first thing she does when she gets in from work.

I've got Jalapeno and Mini Sweet peppers up and ready to go outside, and Serrano, Hungarian Yellow Wax, J E Parker New Mexico Chili, Habanero, Cayenne, Early Jalapeno, Grand Bell Mix, California Wonder Bells as well as Pruden's Purple and Yellow Pear tomatoes seeds in soil. The Yellow Pear tomatoes started sprouting a few days ago. 6 of the 9 seeds planted are up. Soon I will be very busy.
Shes a gd wife then mines always watering mine when im away working got chillis such as ,habs,reapers,butch ts,7 pots,peter peppers,yaki blue,fatalis and infinitys to name a few
 

Larry {the} Gardener

Well-Known Member
I have a buddy that I used to take canoe trips down the river and camp with. As we have gotten older, we don't go like we used to. But he has been hearing about my tarp and paracord camp, and was interested in setting something up for himself. The company he works for has 40 acres of timberland he got permission to "hunt, fish, camp or do whatever you want to do" on. I spent some time studying Google Maps trying to see if there was enough sunny spots to try growing on the land. I found four possible spots, but they were all across a creek. We set today as the day we would go back and check things out. I went into town early, and he had forgot about our plan. He was not dressed for the woods. I had already came in, so I went ahead without him. He was going to go home and change, and I would come back to the truck at lunch time. The creek turned out to be a swamp. I got across it, but not without muddy shoes and wet pant's legs. I found two of the "sunny" spots but they were not near as much sun as I would have liked. I cut several trees trying to improve it, but when I started digging, the ground was too wet for weed. If we do decide to try it, we will have to use pots or grow bags. {or a kiddie pool like @TWS} Crossing the swamp with my shovel and small pack of fertilizer was a chore, so I'm not sure we can bring in enough soil to make it worthwhile.

When I came back at lunch to get him, he saw how muddy I was and decided he would have to wait for another day when he had rubber boots with him. I went back across, but didn't get any holes dug.

I was going to grow about 16 plants with him to help him out. He is always broke and has trouble buying weed. I figured with a little help he could grow what he needs. Not sure if I want to now. Like it is now, it's almost too wet, and the water can get much higher. This was going to be a split grow, half my Sidetracked: strain, and half bag seeds from his next bag of weed. I'll give him a couple of weeks to do some scouting. If he acts like he is serious about it, I don't mind helping him. I just don't want to do all the work, then split it right down the middle.

Here was what I was going to pack in. For each 4 plant patch I was planning to use five gallons of the soil mix I did this weekend, plus 6 cups each of 13-13-13 and 15-0-15, 1 cup of lime, 1 cup of bone meal and 1/4 cup Epson salts.

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One of his coworkers was hanging around, so I couldn't take the soil, but I did manage to get a small pack with two of the ziplock bags and my shovel into the woods when he had gone inside for a minute. I did find the first spot I was looking for. It was two downed trees, but still not a great amount of sun. I cut several trees there.

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I had to cross a whole lot of this to get to what I called dry land. But even the dry land was too wet to grow in the ground. Not sure if this is going to work out or not.

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Larry {the} Gardener

Well-Known Member
My new folding saw in action. I was pretty happy with it. Cut a couple of good sized trees today.

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Four trees and some smaller bushes cut here. If I had tried the ground first, I would have passed on this site. But since I have so much tree trimming invested, I will do a couple of grow bags here. It's at the back of the property, so a long walk with the soil.
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This guy kept me company part of the day.
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Smidge34

Well-Known Member
I have a couple of those hand saws I use to clear shooting lanes for bow hunting, but that's one hella tree man fo sho lol. Too many of those and I'd be afraid I'd wear off the teeth haha.
 

Larry {the} Gardener

Well-Known Member
I have a couple of those hand saws I use to clear shooting lanes for bow hunting, but that's one hella tree man fo sho lol. Too many of those and I'd be afraid I'd wear off the teeth haha.
It was pretty soft wood. The Wild Cherry I cut a few weeks back with my old saw. Now that was a job of work. You know you've done something when you get it on the ground.

This growing weed in the big woods is heart healthy. I haven't had this kind of cardio in years.
 

Larry {the} Gardener

Well-Known Member
Nice spot,It gets better after you haul some bales of promix in
Still not happy with the light. But it's about as good as it's getting in those woods.

It will be buckets {or packs} of Larry Mix. I had 20 gallons in the truck, but couldn't get it in there today. I have a wide roll of the landscape fabric that needs sewing on one side so I can make grow bags. I tried it with a smaller roll last year growing peppers and tomatoes. Worked pretty good. As wet as the ground is, it will work like my rain gutter grow system. Should be alright as long as there isn't a real flood.
 

Larry {the} Gardener

Well-Known Member
It was a slow week at work, and I got into the woods to do some weedcrafting work. The six holes in the WH patch needed perlite and one of them needed 13-13-13, so I loaded up my backpack and took a walk. I went right to the original WH patch, but it took almost 30 minutes to find the one just 100 yards away. {note to self: I have to rename them WHn and WHs instead of east and west} I added from 4 to 12 cups of perlite to the holes, as needed. And I wasn't sure which hole was short the 13-13-13, so I added 4 cups of the mixture {14-6.5-14+lime&Epson salts} that I had made up to one hole, and 2 cups to the other. It was nice not to have to carry the long shovel.




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I have the first four plants up, from CP1 X Slo1. The pictures didn't turn out great, but I will try again in a few days.
 
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