RANCID & FOUL - the ’STANKIEST’ flower - Corpse Flower f2 Hunt - 2024 SoilTech Swamp Run

[Soiltech]

Alright OG, attempting another grow log this season. I’ll be filling up the swamp hoops houses with a few delights this summer for light dep and pollinating.

If you’re visiting this ‘Swamp Hunt’ for the first time. Welcome - many missed last years 100 plant hunt for Tiger Mint Kush f3’s done in the same environment.

Amidst covid Mrs Soil Tech and myself found ourselves changing our plans and moved out to some cheap land on a whim.

The reason for this location selection is less about secrecy and more about the space on our land that has full sun and ample room for a few hoop houses.

The houses here are made almost free. I’ve used zip ties and Poplar Saplings. Here is the location and its current condition :

But now for the main show stoppers:

This log will be focused on a small group of plants, 25 Corpse Flower - f2’s - this is one of Mello’s skunk lines. It has created a reputation for itself -grease laden, loud and rancid plants. I am expecting smells and flavours ranging from black burnt rubber, solvent/fuel, shoe Polish, death, decay, and foul rotting flesh. I’ve had the pleasure of growing out some of NF’s gear before and Uncle Festers Skunk does hold a unique range of acrid terps.

Last year I used the second hoop house for tomatoes. This year I’ll be skipping the tomatoes for this location and instead increasing the plant count for some other cultivars - included is a f3 selection of Uncle Festers Skunk from @TopShelfTrees1- with a couple plants which have already caught my eye. The remaining cultivars destined for the swamp this season are a handful of Dooligah hybrids from @lilmanbigplan including some ‘Dooligah x Freakshow’ which I will make a selection towards f2. (These are wild ABC hybrids - veg growth is keeping pace with many of my regular cultivars in veg) and some of my own crosses.

Vigorous Uncle Festers Skunk -

My goal for the 25 Corpse Flower is to find a few loud males to pair with a handful of the loudest ladies. The ranker and danker the better. Frost and grease will be also deciding factors.

Here they are today - they were born into the sun. They spend days outside in full sun and nights indoors blasted with an oscillating fan.

This is actually my 2nd 25 pack from Natures Farm. My first pack I had bad luck with germination - and then worse luck with my 2 year old mixed a bunch of labels. From that earlier lot I have 2 plants which are correctly labeled and survived - they are also much further along in veg. ( I will include a photo in the next post) I also have about 6 or so planrs which may be Corpse Flower - these plants were mislabeled and I’m using my best guess / lucky for me these plants have a unique leaf shape and smell which will be tough to miss. I’m hoping I’ll be able to identify with certainty. Otherwise these ‘question mark’ plants will be grown out and smoked and will not be dusted with any pollen.

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[SunGrown]

Very cool love the diy hoop houses. Set this one on watch for sure.

[mota]

I agree, the diy hoop houses are so great! And that’s quite the grow environment! Chair pulled up.

[Organical]

Very cool setup , are you out there in wading gear?! I’ll definitely be hanging around and seeing how this season goes for you, very intested in that corpse flower!

[ManyManySpliffs]

Love different outdoor setups, I’ll be around for the show. K+

[Soiltech]

Welcome! Super stoked about this round, glad to see yas join up. It’s been a super dry start to the season - we are in wild fire country here and between that and the misquitos - we are in for a bit of an adventure.

Just to clarify - the bit above about why we landed here was written in a confusing way - we bought this land because it was cheap. (Most of the acres we have are swamp) the reason the hoop houses are in the swamp - is because it’s the ideal location when considering the sunlight and physical space in this spot. (It’s also nice and far away from the sheds I usually rear the males in)

@Organical No hip waders here - last couple seasons - I’ve gone through several pairs of rubber boots, lucky for me the water is only ankle deep - each pair never lasted longer than a few months (thick bush and heavy use) - last year I got some good steel toe rubbers. A decent brand as well… they also didn’t last longer than the season without a few patch repairs :

For my birthday this winter - Mrs soil tech said I could choose any boot - money no object. I found a pair which was fairly reviewed - and she got them me. Thanks babe - . Hoping they will stand up better than the last bunch.

As promised - I snapped a pic of one of the corpse flower f2’s from the first pack. This one is the furthest along. I’ve gone against my own rules this season - i will be topping many of the plants - generally in the passed when making seeds I like to see a plants natural structure. If anyone’ is following TNF’s work they know he is no stranger to several toppings- I’ve taken his lead here and will be leaning heavily on KNF inputs / my living soil mixes and a few pointers I’ve picked up from Mello.

You can see the unique broad leaves with a easy to identify overlapping :

(‘One and Done’ residue on this plant - amazing pest control recipe - look it up! Thanks @JohnnyPotseed )

Next post here we should likely see the hoop houses come together and a few plants settling in. At 52 Degrees latitude and over 3000 ft above sea level we are still seeing some frosty mornings. I will likely wait until the first week of June.

[Organical]

Looking good brother! Nice boots , I hope the splurge was worth it for you!
I can’t wait to see the hoop house fully in action

[Soiltech]

Absolutely fuming this morning.

Gypsy our Mastiff is generally a friendly and happy go lucky pooch. She’s walked a thin line with us for a while but I can never hold it against her too long. Between the dozens of chickens she’s killed over the years and almost killing Mrs soil techs little dogs - I’ve had to fight for her to keep her around.

Well this morning I wanted to drop her off somewhere far far away. she surprised me with something she’s never done before. She decided to taste that Corpse Flower. She ate 3 seedlings and I found a handful of them chewed on and spit out on the ground
I have been taking extra care to not loose any seedlings on this tray… as I’ve already had real bad luck with the first 25 pack which has since been reordered and popped* turns out this extra care is the reason for the recent loss. I set them ‘somewhere safe’ for the night. Turns out I can’t trust my dog with seedlings anymore either…

I’ve since replanted the 4 or 5 mangled seedlings I found chewed and spit out. Crossing my fingers that these will bounce back.

Strangely it seems the Corpse Flower is working against me… seems luck has been stacked against this run in more than one way. With all the seeds I’ve popped I’d have over 50 plants to hunt through -between, rodents, my dog, and my toddler, the numbers are dwindling and I’ll be lucky to hunt through 25. The other plants I care less about are all untouched and running like usual* that’s what I get for ‘special attention’ and care.

In other news - I’ve set up one of the hoop houses and it’s ready for plants first week of June.

[Soiltech]

We have welcomed the crew to the swamp.

Biggest challenge is transporting the soil and the plants - there is a bit of a trek through some bush, I’ve found the wheel barrow to be the most help.

Most of the plants have been up potted and are just settling in. I cheated a bit to stretch my soil supply with some 4 x 4 sunshine mix* that and an amendment with some of the worm bin castings.

Was below freezing for a few hours their first morning. They get covered right up and it looks like they were unphased by it in the trapped warmth of the swamp.

The only plants which will step up in pot size before flower will be the row of Corpse Flower- the dogs official kill count on them was 5. I am remaining optimistic and tell myself she culled them for good reason and saved me some work. Maybe she knows something I don’t. There are 23 confirmed Corpse Flower and a few plants mislabeled which should be easy enough to identify, here is the Corpse row*

Having a bit of fun with some mutant lines this season, a few joined the party in the swamp. These are ABC outcrosses, keeping pace nicely in veg.

As more plants begin to showcase their uniqueness I will be sure to introduce you. I will begin to pull tarp first week of July and the selected males will be moved a good distance from this location.

[Organical]

Woo! Swamp pics!
Awesome progress update friend, I love how the hoop houses look with all that swamp surrounding it
Did any of those seedlings that got munched on by the pup make it through?

[Monst3rbean]

Cool little set up you got going on

[Soiltech]

A few plants survived being chewed on. Here is the surviving lot -

I’ was quick to forgive her and move on, she’s an excellent dog and keeps lots of large wild life and gasoline thieves off the property. (for the most part)

She generally won’t leave my side for most any project or trek, she loves the swamp - here she is from the other day while we prepped some fence posts.

[Soiltech]

The Moose Shit Hunt

We’ve got a creek at the back of our property, we keep a canoe out there and like to adventure around every now and again. The last time we were out I found a good stash of moose poop. (Could be Elk too, or a little of both)

I knew this would be a great addition to the reused soil this run as I did dilute it with that sunshine mix. This is poop will be some of the best ready to use fertilizer. I can’t go wrong here, it’s free and completely natural.

I brought a poop scooper and a 5 gallon pail on this last canoe run. Gypsy used to ride in the canoe until she basically tipped it, now she follows along.

I was able to find almost 3 gallons of moose poop in about a half hour or so. I’ve since used all of it, used in prepping the soil for the Corpse Flower upotting, for in about 3 weeks. In addition, all of the soil in the current potted plants have all had moose poop suppositories.
.

[ABushOfKush]

Just got jealous in a way I didn’t know possible. Poop jealousy.

[Soiltech]

I was pretty amped about this poop score in ways some may never come to fully understand.

In all honestly tho, this stuff is gold, and all the plants are going to eat it up. I have a bunch of tomatoes going - I left some without the addition of moose poop to see if I can quantify any difference.

[Organical]

@Soiltech

to see if I can quantify any difference.

Oo! Love me some data
That’s a nice score though my friend! Definitely a good addition for fertilizer, and like you said, free!

[Sailorboy]

Just found your thread and definitely will set up and watch. Anything that smells like what your describing gets my attention and grown in a swamp is even better, shit you had me at moose poop brother, sending good vibes on your grow and good luck!! Hey @luxton I’m sure you’ll enjoy this one also.

[Soiltech]

Thanks so much, glad to have another fan of foul and rancid come along for this one. I will do my best to report back on what I’ve got here. As far as stem rubs in veg currently a few of the Uncle Fester Skunks are standing out with some astringent skunkiness and I’m getting a meaty leather from some of the Corpse Flower already.

I will get some photos updated here within the next week or so as the plants have had a chance to settle into their new pots and new environment here in the swamp.

[Funkwizard333]

Love to see the hunt! I’ve got some of the natures farm corpse flower work, aswell as his carrion flower, and still coffin should offer pretty similar results. I’m hoping to do all of mine outdoors from start to finish as I think to get these incredibly rancid foul disgusting aromas and flavors we’re all after, the plant needs what nature used to provide it aswell as the stress from the outdoors. I’m really stoked to hunt bodhis skunk hashplants, and xochi’s sterling work, I think some pretty skunky and also rancid stuff is too be found. Cheers to the funk

[Soiltech]

Draining the Swamp

Got quite a bit of rain last week - swamp level was rising. Water reached the plant benches. I temporarily double stacked the crates to raise the plant benches and brought the height up. As it continues to rain - I did need a better solution.

This section of swamp is a bowl - I do have another section of swamp that runs into the creek - but between this section of land and that is a higher bank of land. I assessed the spot and thought I wouldn’t mess with it until maybe I have an excavator… but after a lapse from this thought I picked up a spade and began to shovel between 100 ft and 200 ft.

The swamp has since.come down and I’ve lowered the plants back to the shelves original height. I’ll be digging the trench deeper yet in an attempt to drain the swamp further.

In plant news - im digging these ABC hybrid by @lilmanbigplan - my ABC growing experience is limited to only a few plants and they were always small and a struggle to grow out nice. Not the case with these vigorous ‘Dooligah’ outcrosses.

Today the Corpse Flower recieved their final up potting into some prime old soil - this soil is years old and is an evolving mix with dozens of wild sourced ingredients and many types of amendments. Old potting soils, forest soils, sands, worm castings, egg shells, chicken shit, cow manure, Biochar, red volcano rock dust, this batch has got a good dose of moose poop to boot.

Here are some shots of the Corpse Flower trucking along.

2 small tiny struggling ones from the dog incident were fried on a hot day with an additional one barely holding on. There was only 1 happy surviving one currently from this incident and another which is barely hanging on which I will likely cull soon (it’s in no condition to flower) putting my dogs final kill count to 8…

To be culled

Pulling tarps for their first night of 12 hours dark tonight.

Should start sexing in about 10 days or so. Will move all the males to the pollen room - and hopefully move all the girls into one hoop house. Ive got a plan for the small hoop house - for a surprise project I’ll be announcing soon.