bohuntynzr
New Member
Hey all, an introduction, I'm in the Northern Appalachians, nice to meet ya. This will be my first go-round outdoors and looking for some critique of my gameplan. Did an ok indoor in college so that's my only experience. But I'm a country boy and been gardening since I was a kid. Not shooting for the moon here, just wanting enough to get me through the year. Going to plant 12 seeds at 4 different sites. If I can nurse 2 or 3 of those to maturity I'll be happy.
April - Careful site selection and site prep
I am an extremely avid hunter so I already have several places in mind. Going to scout and fine tune, clear some brush, neutralize the soil, amend sandy soil for nutrients and water retention. Don't want to carry a ton of stuff into the woods, so looking to maximize efficiency for amendments. Working with a primarily sandy soil (mason jar test from a couple samples I grabbed this weekend all looking 60%ish sand with the rest good looking dark organic matter, almost no clay)
May - First frost free forecast in earlyish-mid-May, plant seeds, carefully in some starter soil. Probably in decomposable starter cups. Cover with netting. I know I am trading risk minimization for yield, not starting indoors.
Depending on rain, visit site to water my babies early on. Keep netting up until they are at least a couple feet high and I feel they are semi safe from deer which may be all season. I realize with a 100% outdoor plan at this latitude I'm not going to be looking a giant plants.
June - Planning to train/prune to encourage multiple colas. Aesthetically I just prefer the bushier plants.
Try to nail down a window when they will start to flower and remove males. This is one area I am really unsure about and seeking advice. I thought about fem seeds but ended up choosing another path. Are there any reliable ways to predict? How long do I have to spot the nuts before they start to pollinate my ladies? We get a lot of rain so other than this phase my visits should be every few weeks or so unless we get a random drought. I just want to nail down when this window is.
Really hoping to harvest in mid-September before archery season starts and hunters start hitting the woods again. As a hunter I can offer this advice to my fellow small scale growers.... we are 110% your biggest threat. We spend the most time in the woods and there are very few places we won't go. Places that laypeople and granola hikers think are rugged/thick are a walk in the park to us. I've found probably a dozen grows over the years while hunting and some were in laughable sites.
Seeking advice on ferts/soil amendments and that sexing question mostly.
I guess my intuition/research says to hit them with the N during veg then transition to P-K during flower, are there good low maintenance products recommended? Should I look toward time-release since my visits will be infrequent? Organic is great but I'm ok with some synthetics within reason. Preferably something I can buy locally.
Also should all this go as planned, are there some ways to dry while minimizing stink? This is right now one of my bigger concerns. I have nosy neighbors and in-laws that are over a lot. I have a crawl space above my garage that I can utilize no problem, but just how awful will that stink be and for how long? I can't have it permeating my whole neighborhood. And what if humidity is 60-80% or higher? I would think I can I just kind of break buds up finer to get them to dry faster? Am I totally screwed then if it gets that humid? Should I look into partnering in someone who can help me dry at a better location?
So how's my plan?
April - Careful site selection and site prep
I am an extremely avid hunter so I already have several places in mind. Going to scout and fine tune, clear some brush, neutralize the soil, amend sandy soil for nutrients and water retention. Don't want to carry a ton of stuff into the woods, so looking to maximize efficiency for amendments. Working with a primarily sandy soil (mason jar test from a couple samples I grabbed this weekend all looking 60%ish sand with the rest good looking dark organic matter, almost no clay)
May - First frost free forecast in earlyish-mid-May, plant seeds, carefully in some starter soil. Probably in decomposable starter cups. Cover with netting. I know I am trading risk minimization for yield, not starting indoors.
Depending on rain, visit site to water my babies early on. Keep netting up until they are at least a couple feet high and I feel they are semi safe from deer which may be all season. I realize with a 100% outdoor plan at this latitude I'm not going to be looking a giant plants.
June - Planning to train/prune to encourage multiple colas. Aesthetically I just prefer the bushier plants.
Try to nail down a window when they will start to flower and remove males. This is one area I am really unsure about and seeking advice. I thought about fem seeds but ended up choosing another path. Are there any reliable ways to predict? How long do I have to spot the nuts before they start to pollinate my ladies? We get a lot of rain so other than this phase my visits should be every few weeks or so unless we get a random drought. I just want to nail down when this window is.
Really hoping to harvest in mid-September before archery season starts and hunters start hitting the woods again. As a hunter I can offer this advice to my fellow small scale growers.... we are 110% your biggest threat. We spend the most time in the woods and there are very few places we won't go. Places that laypeople and granola hikers think are rugged/thick are a walk in the park to us. I've found probably a dozen grows over the years while hunting and some were in laughable sites.
Seeking advice on ferts/soil amendments and that sexing question mostly.
I guess my intuition/research says to hit them with the N during veg then transition to P-K during flower, are there good low maintenance products recommended? Should I look toward time-release since my visits will be infrequent? Organic is great but I'm ok with some synthetics within reason. Preferably something I can buy locally.
Also should all this go as planned, are there some ways to dry while minimizing stink? This is right now one of my bigger concerns. I have nosy neighbors and in-laws that are over a lot. I have a crawl space above my garage that I can utilize no problem, but just how awful will that stink be and for how long? I can't have it permeating my whole neighborhood. And what if humidity is 60-80% or higher? I would think I can I just kind of break buds up finer to get them to dry faster? Am I totally screwed then if it gets that humid? Should I look into partnering in someone who can help me dry at a better location?
So how's my plan?