Transporting large amounts of soil by foot?

sickleg

Member
Hey guys, this will be my first season growing(extremely excited) and I do have one question looming in my mind. How in the world am I going to get all of this soil back to my spots? It is about a .9 mile walk from my front door out to my area I am scoping out and I have to bring roughly a yard of compost out there.

My current idea is to buy a large backpack(heres a great one I found online for CHEAP! http://www.amazon.com/Olive-Drab-Korean-Surplus-2-Strap/dp/B000E96Y7U) and a pack of black trash bags. I'll put the trash bag in the pack and then fill the bag up with a shovel. According to my calculations, this pack will be able to hole about 6 cubic feet of soil and it will be HEAVY (probably over 200 lbs).

Anyone have a better suggestion?
 

TheFinkler

Member
Multiple trips, that's all I can really say. Last summer, I grew near a section of abandoned train tracks, so my buddy and I built a cart that clips onto the tracks with wheels, loaded it with soil, and pushed her for 2km. Then hauled the soil off the cart, AND it was multiple cart trips....
 

Serapis

Well-Known Member
Is the soil in your spot that bad? The more trips you make out there, the more suspicions you are going to arouse and you raise the odds of having your spot discovered.
 

sickleg

Member
I was under the impression that most outdoor growers replaced most, if not all of the local soil with their own recipe.

And yes, the soil near me is mostly clay.


...a wheelbarrow in the dead of night??
Pushing a fully loaded wheelbarrow on anything less than hard, un-obstructed ground is an extreme feat! I would know, I have worked full-time as a landscaper for the last 4 summers and probably 60% of the time I was loading/wheeling wheelbarrows full of rock and soil and shit. Not easy work at all.
 

grassified

Well-Known Member
My only other idea was to just start a compost pile in the forest. Sucks if you live in a pine forest, but a deciduous tree forest with lots of fauna could make a good compost pile. So yeah make the pile. come back every now and then and turn it of course, and in about a year or so youll have some good compost, just amend that with existing soil, and youll have some sufficient soil for growing basic plants.

However its virtually impossible to make high quality soil in the backwoods, so if its high quality soil ya want, its high quality soil you hike in....
EDIT:

oh ya and dude if your a landscaper just "landscape" some of those "ornamental" plants in their yard and even be nice enough of a fellow to come back to "trim" them
 

ChubbySoap

Well-Known Member
all i can see is a news report of someone found in the woods, with a broken ankle, and their weight in dirt strapped to their back.

paranoid as i am, it all sounds like a bad idea.
 

darkdestruction420

Well-Known Member
a sled maybe early in the spring b4 all the snows gone or depending on the terrain it still might work w/o any snow around. , but either way thats gonna suck alot for you, 1 cubic yrd is 26 cubic feet, so you'll still have to do 4+ trips at 6 cubic feet a trip. You got an atv by chance that would work in the area?
 

abe supercro

Well-Known Member
a sled, weather permitting. i will suggest dragging smaller loads w/ a hand golf cart dealeo.

always under the cover of darkness or at daybreak.

how about dragging (Pulling, not Pushing) a wheelbarrow, or some type of cart? (mr chubbysoap mentioned)
one w/ larger wheels? not one where its gets caught on the back of your feet,
may need to make extensions for the handles.
how dense is the brush?

helluva a workout, still close enuf to hm to hike it in, few trips as poss
isn't just 100 lbs of soil plenty for anyone to carry for a mile, on their back?
how many trips
 

pickle8

Active Member
WOW. YOur actually thinking of hauling a bag w/over 200lbs of soil in it. I'm not sure the pack or you back and legs would make 1 trip let alone multiple ones. My suggestion, take your soil in in pieces and mix it in the woods. A bale of peat moss isnt too heavy. Compost is heavy so maybe split it up into several trips. Thats the only wat I see this working.
 

RDGgreenthumb

Well-Known Member
I hauled my ass from march til may with average size backpacks full of soil, 2 miles uphill. I know it sounds like a tall tale but when youre determined its not to hard if you take a few minutes to break and catch your breath. Albeit i had a trusted partner to help. It's just that i dont believe it's very feasable to carry 200 lbs of dirt on your back. It's just a bit excessive. A better idea would be to start early like nowish or as soon as snow is lower. Sure it will take a few more trips but if youre smart and dont rush yourself it'll all work out great
 

Chunky

Well-Known Member
I hauled about 20 100lbs bags of soil in for my first grow and it was hectic this time My mix is 20% more perlite and I am mixing the coco in it at the site, thats shaved off about 40lbs a bag, I also let it almost get completely dry so it's even lighter, then make sure I give it a good soak when I get to my site which is only about a mile away.
 

grow plenty

Well-Known Member
9 miles is a long way to walk just to water your plants,care for them, ect.i see some labor intense days in your future...............
 

seasmoke

Active Member
buy a 3.8 yd bag of promix, new and keep dry, and take it out in the woods...its tightly packaged, fairly light, its all I grow in. You can mix some bonemeal, promix and dolomite lime to the soil as a base, top with promix and plant in it.

How big are the plants to be when you plant them outside?
 

frmrboi

Well-Known Member
buy a 3.8 yd bag of promix, new and keep dry, and take it out in the woods...its tightly packaged, fairly light, its all I grow in. You can mix some bonemeal, promix and dolomite lime to the soil as a base, top with promix and plant in it.
yeah what he said, a 4 cubic foot bale is reasonable in weight.
Now if it was me I'd try and scrounge up as much native composted leaves around the site (rotten logs are good too) and amend with that.
Clay isn't that bad a soil as long as it's not in a depression were water will accumulate. Loosen up your subsoil with a spading fork so that the roots can penetrate more easily. Gypsum lime (same as drywall gyproc) will increase clays drainage rate, but it takes time to work so get it in the soil ASAP. Clay is rich in Potassium so you will have a natural big bud booster in your soil.
Good Luck
 
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