Hi dave, if you need a limer and Phosphate, you can use Cavemans Rock Guano, it is a slow release guano phosphate fertilizer but also has a ph of 8 . Cheap and powerful!

hi people
i'm going to have a go at an outdoor grow. i've found a nice place place in the woods surrounded by brambles, trees & thorny bushes. i cleared a little patch in the middle, had a small dig down & found the soil was very sandy with lumps of sandstone in it. will this be any good for growing & how would i go about it? eg nutes, watering ect
1st grow so any advice would be great

Hi Mate,

If it is heavy clay you will need something to break it up like sharp sand, and New Horizon Organic Compost adds humus and structure available from Wyevale garden centres 4 50ltr bags for a tenner, there multipurpose is what ive got my Master Kush in, with perlite. If your Organic and want to make your own feed, buy 6 Comfrey plants of the bocking 14 variety which produces an abundance of leaves, rot it down, to make a top quality organic liquid feed.

Good luck

GRaeto

hi.........i dig holes about 1 foot deep [ usaly in clay soi ] you can then fill in with a cheap multi porpose soil bought localy........................

if this is a problem locate the soil around where you plan to dig the holes, scrapping off top soil [off the floor ] can yeild some nice soil.

you can add some perlite to the soil for air and drainage..........

when plants are in there holes all nice and snug with their soil you can top dress [add on top of soil] with a little blood bone and fish, mix in a bit .this will

last about 5 weeks then top dress again. blood bone and fish can be bought cheaply from wilkinson or garden shops......

Hi all, it doesn’t matter if your soil is clay based as long as it’s not totally clay and nothing else. This is always a question that confuses me when people talk about there patch’s and ask questions like how deep should they dig, or if they should add any fertilizers or soil enhancers to the mix. Well my question in return would be, if you have faith in your spot and want good results then how nice do you want your new plants home to be? Remember this patch will have to support your plants for a number of months in weather conditions that aren’t always favourable, so do you want your plants sat in a small unfertilized hole, or do you want them sat in a deep, well fertilized patch that’s had time, effort and affection spent on it.

My advice for what its worth

1. Buy good enough tools to do the job, obviously things like a spade, folk and is possible a pickaxe keep clear of bright colours and stainless shiny steel and buy cheap tools in green or black colours to reduce visibility. Remember you can always leave your tools hidden near to the patch until you have done digging, or in other words hump all your tools there once, and then don’t drag them all back until you have finished digging even if that takes you a week. Really is no need to drag tools back and forth everyday, and if possible take a pickaxe.

2. Dig your patch or patch’s as DEEP as possible. In my eyes the deeper you dig and the wider your patch is the better which is for a number of reasons. Well soil is made up of varied deposing materials such as leaves, grass, twigs, dead animals, bark or anything else that can fall on the ground and decompose. The richest part of this soil is always the top soil the first few feet that’s made up of the most recently decayed things. However it seems a lot of growers dig all this top soil out and then give up digging when they hit the tough stuff about 1.5 foot down or 18 Inch. So in other words they dig away most of the good topsoil and then plant into a shallow hole that’s only been dug as deep as the tough soil underneath.

Now understand that your plants roots will shoot directly downwards and then send feeder roots off to the sides. So the deeper and wider you dig your patch’s the better because your roots will have space to shoot downwards it seems most of the time they get to shoot maybe 1 or 2 feet down before they hit tough unfertilized ground which is going to delay your roots spreading and will do little to feed your plants. Remember roots can shoot 5 or 6 feet directly downwards in a very short space of time and the easier you have made that for the roots the quicker they will spread, hopefully making stronger and healthier plants quicker

3. Feed you patch. Well as stated this patch will have to support your plants for a number of months in weather conditions that aren’t always ideal, and sometimes it can be difficult to get back to your patch on a constant basis, especially if your having to carry water and plant foods all of the time. My opinion is the MORE work you put in at the very start the LESS work you’re going to have to do later so sure dig your patch as deep and wide as possible and add a mix of slow release plant foods and soil enhancers which will help your plants grow and survive. Well these are your plants, your reward, and the more work you put in at this stage the better the outcome.


I would add a variety of things from the list below.

Lime for PH reasons
Several Bags of Compost
Slow Release Plant Food
Worm Castings
Bone Meal
Fish Meal
Bat Guano
Vermiculite
Perlite

Lime in the correct amounts will leach into the soil and act as a PH stabilizer keeping your PH levels at around 7 which is good for your plants. Cannabis will grow best with a PH level of between 6.8 and 7.0 meaning a base PH of 7 from the lime will help your plants uptake nutrients.

Compost will both enrich the soil its added to but will also create a better growing medium for your plants, meaning your roots get a fresher substance to spread in. While digging a patch you will find rocks, maybe clay, twigs, other plants roots, old tin cans and God knows what else, so replace some of that with fresh compost.

Slow Release Food Buy one or two brands of slow release food and mix in well with your patch. These will take a while to break down and become useful to your plants so make sure to dig your patch in advance and let it settle. However these slow release foods have been specially designed to hold the nutrients your plants need and will most like contain Prime Nutrients, Secondary Nutrients and Trace Nutrients giving your plants an all round feed at a slow rate.

Worm Castings much like compost this can bee added to the mix to give further feed and is a good natural source of nutrients.

Bone Meal This is high Nitrogen based slow release food that your plants will mainly use in the Vegetative Growth cycle. Make sure you don’t breathe this stuff as its basically ground up animal bones and parts, however this is a good source of nutrients simply because its slow release and its cheap.

Fish Meal is the same as bone meal but made out of fish components and again is a cheap slow release food that can be added to the mix.

Bat Guano is rather expensive but is only needed is small amounts as it’s often very powerful and available in fresh form or in a rock or pellet form. Guano is very high in Phosphorous which is a primary nutrient your plants will use, especially in the flowering stage. Some growers will line the lower layer of there patch in guano so that by the time the roots reach it there ready to flower, personally I’d prefer an even mix throughout the patch.

Vermiculite is a fibre type material broken down into small peaces which will soak up water and nutrients and keep them near your plants roots.

Perlite again is broken into small peaces and will help drainage and aeration but without holding water or nutrients. This will help your roots spread quicker and enhance the soil a fair bit.

Just about ALL of the above is available from garden centres of large DIY stores and can be bought in varied quantities. I wouldn’t go mad adding these things as you don’t want to over feed your patch, but a nice amount of these things mixed in really well with your patch will obviously feed your plants giving them primary, secondary and trace nutrients, but will also improve drainage and help your roots spread quicker.

The patch will need time to settle and some growers will dig there patch in the autumn and then leave it all winter ready for use the next year, this will give the slow release foods time to break down into your soil making them ready for the plants use. If you cant dig your patch that early then don’t panic just dig it as early as you can before planting and defiantly leave it at least a few months to break down.

Maybe a week after planting I would add some friendly bacteria and fungi type products which can be bought from most good grow shops. These friendly bacteria will colonise your plants root system and make them drink faster, break down and uptake nutrients quicker, and protect against a variety of other bad bacteria making your plants a lot healthier all round. These friendly bacteria and fungi are usually fairly expensive but they are only used in small amounts and will add a huge variety of things that will help and protect your plants.

The only other thing I’d add to this mix would be a flowering solution or bloom boost which would be watered on the entire patch when the plants hit flowering, and maybe several times during the flowering period. Overall I’d aim to give plants the best possible home because the more work you do at the very start the less work your going to have to do later and the better possible results you will get. In fact the more work you to on your patch to begin with the less you will have to visit it later so the bigger and deeper the better, with good varied sources of food and soil enhancers.

As for COST well sure it might cost a little extra and take a bit longer but you cant take your money with you when you die, and it’s a small gamble so what if you spend £60 on extra enhancers or even a £100 it’s a gamble that will either pay off and give good results, or it will get found, either way its not the end of the world, if you lose out on £60 then its really not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, I’d just prefer to give plants the best start possible even if it does mean extra time and money.

Lord shiva, couldn't be arsed to read all the wat through your post, only because i know what works for me round here! but anyway your point 2. dig as deep and wide as you can. first part i agree with. The deeper the "worked" earth the easier for the roots to grow. But as for digging a wide patch, unless your planning on cammoing the fresh earth with foliage of some kind then it will stick out like a sore thumb. I've realised that a lot of farmers and land owners lease barns and strips of land for light planes and mircolights. When the guy that takes off and lands 2/3 times a week over the same land suddenly looks down and sees a "new" dark patch of ground he's straight back to the farmer to say he's noticed something thats not been there before. Farmer looks and finds ya site! I've just been pondering through the winter about sites and no matter how remote, what it's actual use is. With all this in mind i came up with 1 plant 30 odd spots. will do for me All the best fellow GG's

Anyone know what type of soil this is?

I think it is a mixture of peat and clay. I also think it looks like it could be good for growing if I was to dig out all the logs and prepare it a bit. ( I know ideally I should have done this over the winter, but I was not prepared enough for this)