Say you found a spot on a mountain, its fully surrounded by trees a whore to get to and is basically a 100x100 square patch of grass. The only issue (maybe) is that year round that soil is quite moist.
What I want to know is what the best way to utilize this spot would be. Piles of dirt ontop of the grass like a raised bed? Or bury pots down into the dirt so that the drain holes can act a wicking point to let water in?
Transporting soil in isnt impossible but to keep it realistic less is better lol. If buried pots would work that would be ideal.
@Grease_Monkey we used to grow in a swampy area out door in the early 80. It’s a lot of work but if you dig the swampy soil, and build it up to raised bed it works really well. The swamp soil where we were was very rich.
You just need to get out early in spring to build them so they have time to drain and dry a bit. The gound we had we could walk on (no standing water) so were able to build up a mound about 1’ above ground level and it worked great.
The other good thing is you only need a shovel, maybe a hatchet for roots, and labor and you will have a great place.
Right now it’s probably fairly squishy. The biggest issue would be lugging in enough soil to do raised beds. I havnt been there for a while to see what it’s like right now, I may check it out tommorow.
I tried growing in a cutblock near by it last year, the moisture was great but I almost lost them due to lack of nutrients lol. I couldnt get there for 3 weeks and when I did the were yellow and nearly dead
I’ll need to add slow release fertilizer regardless
Just dig the soil from around your mound like a moat. You will only need to haul in a shovel.
Our soil was rich so we only had to take some 5-50-17 out in the summer when we went to pull males, and put a 1/4 cup or so around the base of each plant.
I’d cut the bottom 1/4 of a bucket off. Flip the cut bucket over and put another bucket inside it. Giving you empty platform under it Dig a 3-5 inch hole placing the bucket and platform inside the hole. Then use a physical wick down the middle of the bucket. Being raised will keep it from flooding. As long as it typically stays wet your good. Only other thing I can think of is a bucket dug a inch into the ground. Filled 1/3 of the way up with perlite. If it floods it’ll work exactly the same as a hempy bucket. Only issue is if it floods much more then 3 inches. You could lose your crop.
I grew in swamps for years just using buckets that would be painted to match the dead undergrowth (not green, as that will just stick out in fall). I personally think it’s nicer to not disturb natural sites any more than necessary.
It was a fantastic way to grow, as the mosquitoes and muck would make it highly unlikely that people would wander in, and they would wick up the water they needed. If it gets drier, they can be dug in a little. A healthy plant can use up a 5 gallon pail of soil-less mix pretty quickly, so watch how long they may be vegging, depending on the strain and conditions. Tall plants will result in a bucket that falls over if it’s not supported.
My strong recommendation is to not go for maximum yield, but maximum health of the plants, which will hopefully lead to a stronger finish. Everyone is a hero in veg, but that doesn’t matter if they get really root bound, stressed, and run out of energy to push through when it’s colder. Definitely post updates if you decide to grow there. Always interesting and much to be learned.
If I do it will be with auto flowers so I dont get hit by september rain/snow etc like last year lol. Going scouting next weekend then I’ll make my decision
