Critical Mass in the bush.

TheLorax

New member
Well it's guerilla growing season again.

Last season I did a thread titled "Black Widow in the bush".

Unfortunately it didn't rain last season, so got little yield off them.

However this season I'm back at it again, and this season it will be mainly Critical Mass I'm growing guerila.

There are also some Mango from KC Brains, they are looking quite sativa.

But it will be mainly Critical Mass I'm growing this year.

At least it's raining this season, although there is still a rainfall defecit due to it not raining last year, so there is no moisture deep down in the soil like there should be.

But I'm better prepared this year, with water reservoirs set up at the spots that don't have a natural water source nearby.

Those reservoirs will run dry soon, so I'm hoping the plants will be established enough to keep growing with any rain that comes this way.

I will take some pictures tomorrow when I go and water them.
 
This is a shot of patch 3, it has 12 Critical Mass from clones.

They look a bit lopsided as I cut a couple of the main branches off before planting them, to get more clones.

Watered them today with the last of the water from the reservoir.

They are on their own now, and will have to survive on on rainfall alone.

I did dig some vermiculite into the soil before planting, to help retain water, so hopefully that will help them make it through. I also mulched them with wood chips, which will lessen evaporation from the soil.

Note in this patch how I have'nt cleared the whole area, but rather planted them among the existing vegetation, so they don't stand out so much.

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This is patch 2.

The big one's are Mango from KC Brains.

In the foreground on the left is a Critical Mass clone.

I was wondering why it was not growing, and today I noticed it had started to flower.

The mother plant it came from was neglected a bit and left in the dark for a bit, and it had started to go into flower, so I put it back under 24 hours light and pruned it back, but I think it had not gone properly back to veg when I took these clones.

Anyway I have decided to pull it up and plant a new clone there, as I have a few new clones under a light.

The one on the right is from a freebie seed, it's an Afghan Kush.

It stretched like crazy so I chopped the top half of it off. I think it was stretching to go into flower.
I will pull that one up as well and replace with one of the Critical Mass clones I have under lights.

Note lots of woodchip mulch is being used to prevent moisture from evaporating from the soil.

Note also how I have cleared the whole area; this grow is in a thicket of tall plants, so you can't plant between the natural vegetation like I did at patch 3, as the tall plants will block out the sunlight. So you have to clear the whole patch.

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Those are some nice sized Mangos. All the plants look very good.
Judging by the underbrush you picked a good spot. Good luck Lorax
 
This is patch 4.

Four days ago I planted 8 Critical Mass clones there.

Today I went and watered them and also planted another Critical Mass clone and also two Mango clones.

Because it's been so dry the last couple of years, the soil is really hydrophobic in this patch.

So what I do, I already dug up the ground for 14 plants a few months ago, so what I do to plant is I dig a hole in the middle of the dug up ground and pour in a bucket of water that has liquid wetting agent mixed in.

When this drains away, I pour some more water mixed with wetting agent into the hole and then push the soil I removed from the hole into the hole and mix it up so it becomes mud. Then I push a bit more soil into the hole and add a bit more water mixed with wetting agent, and mix that too, until I have filled the hole.

This is the only way to get rid of the hydrophobic soil when it's this bad, simply pouring heaps of water mixed with wetting agent onto the soil won't work.

Then when most of the water has drained away, I make a hole in the mud a bit deeper than the forestry tube containing the clone.

Then I put a double handful of hydrated water crystals in the bottom of the hole.

Note - must soak them in water first to hydrate them, putting dry water crystals in the soil does not work, as they won't hydrate while in the soil.

Then I take the clone out of the forestry tube. Note - before planting soak the clone in the forestry tube in a bucket of water, so get it totally saturated.

Then I sit the clone on top of the hydrated water crystals in the bottom of the hole, and push some of the mud around it, till it's half covered, and then I put some more hydrated water crystals around the rootball, about half way up, then fill in with more mud and then put some more water crystals around the top of the rootball.

This means the roots in the clones rootball are in contact with a good source of moisture, as the hydrated water crystals hold a lot more water than the soil.

Then I water them again.

This is dry area growing in a harsh climate, so you need to know these techniques.

Here's a couple of pics I took this morning of the Critical Mass clones that were planted four days ago.

Note my pics tend to be a bit dark, as I go to the spots early in the morning before the sun comes up, as it's cooler then.

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I appreciate your explanations into what it takes to grow outside where you are.
Great post and very good pictures for being taken in the low light.
 
Good luck with your guerilla grow, mate. You've done everything you reasonably can to give them a good start. Let us know how they turn out!
 
In spot 4 I haven't put any amendments in the soil, apart from last year I put a very small amount of perlite, not enough to make much difference.

Spot 4 is a 40 minute walk cross country from the fire trail, and that's when you aren't carrying anything to slow you down.

So it's not easy to carry much to the spot.

Spot 3 had some vermiculite mixed in the soil to aid water retention, and spot 2 had some sugar cane mulch and some perlite dug into the soil.

Spot 1, which I haven't put up any pics of yet, is going to be a seed patch.
Currently has two Critical Mass clones there and Mango clone, which I think is a female plant. I will be planting a male Mango clone there soon.
So will have some Critical Mass x Mango seeds.

But spot 1 is quite close to civilisation, so I can carry amendments there easier, so I have amended the soil there with mushroom compost and perlite.

I mean development of a grow spot is an ongoing thing; each year you improve the soil more.

On some forums people say, you visit your spot only three times; once to plant, once to pull up the males and once to harvest.
I think such people have never actually grown guerilla style in their lives.

It takes many visits to your spot. To clear it, to fence it, to dig up the soil, to cart amendments. To set up water reservoirs or to carry a petrol driven water pump to the site, to carry piping to the site, to run the piping from a nearby water source to the grow, to bury the piping so people walking along the water source can't see it and follow it to your hidden grow.

Three trips my ass.

Of course once your grow is set up, fenced, soil dug up, amendments added, water reservoirs put in place if its not near a natural water source, then you don't have to make that many trips, just to plant and water.

And as for the average rainfall, I'm not sure but the rainfall here is spread evenly over the year, with the heaviest rainfall in march, the first month of autumn, and the second heaviest rainfall in February, the last month of summer.

But this area is officially declared in a drought, and while it was ok rainfall in December, the first month of summer, the weather people say it was not enough to break the drought. The soil moisture is still well down on what it should be.

But at spot 4, the pool of water in the nearby spring is full, so I can hook up the water pump and give these clones heaps of water.
Last year the spring was dry going into summer, and stayed dry all through summer, so I had nothing to water the plants with.
See my thread in the Black Widow forum titled 'Black Widow in the bush", for how the plants I had at patch 4 fared.

But this year we have water at patch 4, so things are looking promising. I will take another 3 clones out there next time I go, and plant them, and that will make 14 plants at that spot. There are some more clones under lights so I think I will plant them there too, which will take the total up to 20 plants at that spot.

15 Critical Mass and 5 Mango.
 
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Yes, I have read MadJag's thread. He grew Skunk back in the 70's I think down in a remote canyon in the US. He had some good pic's of the grow too.
 
Went to patch 4 today and watered them. I had not been there for 9 days, but they were looking good, no pale or yellowing leaves from underwatering.

The two Mango I planted there last time I was there, were looking healthy.

So they had only been watered once, at planting 9 days ago, and all the days since then have been at least 30 celcius, so I attribute their survival to my planting technique which I described in a previous post.

Planted another 3 Mango clones today as well, so that's 5 Mango at that spot, and 9 Critical Mass.

The Mango are all clones off one plant, and I'm nut sure it's actually a female plant, but I think it is.

That spot has a history of plants molding at it, it is down in a bit of a hollow.

So I'm hoping if we run into mold conducive conditions in late flower, and the Critical Mass mold, then the Mango's, being quite sativa, wont mold.

Mold is not only caused by moisture in the air and still air, but it is also caused by the plants getting too much water late in flower.

So I will let them dry out late into flower. That's if it doesn't rain too much.

I have 5 Critical Mass clones left, so I think I will put them at spot 4 too.

Nowhere else to put them, as spot 3 is out of water in the reservoir, and spot 2 is nearly out of water.
I have suspicions that spot 2 may have been discovered, as I think a riipper is lurking around. The cotton I strung from bush to bush around the grow was broken on two occasions. Could have been an animal though.

Spot 4 is such a hard cross country walk to get to, and thats on the secret trail I have made to the grow.
I don't think a ripper would venture out in that rough country unless they found the trail, but even then the trail is impossible to follow all the way unless you know where all the turns are. And there are cutouts built in as well.

Will get some pics next time I go to spot 4, maybe in a few days.
 
I have a trail cam, but I will save it for patch 4, as that has the most plants, and also because I have water at that spot this year the plants will grow bigger.

I did set it up on the approaches to patch 2 a couple of times, for about a week and a half each time, but no ripper. If there is a ripper the ripper may not go exactly that way.

Did get shots of wallabies and a couple of foxes and one of a domestic cat gone wild, so there are other things out there that can break the cotton you string around your grow.

But this morning when I went out, it was still dark when I infiltrated, and my dog did look back behiind her and was pulling on the lead, like there was something or someone lurking near where I infiltrate.

There could have been someone lurking looking to see which way I went, but problem for them is it was dark, and they could not have followed me.
Where I can operate in the bush at night without needing a torch, unless it's a really dark night with zero moon.

But anyway heaps of time till they are ready to harvest, so I don't have to worry about rippers stealing the vegging plants.

I mean kids will steal vegging plants and smoke the leaves, but kids don't venture this far, they stay near civilisation.

For growers it's harder to do countersurveillance on rippers, as we have to get work done when we are out there, where'as rippers can just spend time lying in wait for growers.

Always good, if you have the time, to employ the old special forces patrolling technique of stepping off the trail a bit and sitting down in a hidden position from where you can see the trail, and waiting to see if someone comes along following your trail.

But trail cams are the go, got to get a few more. Not just to set up at the grow, but to also set up on the trail to see who is wandering around.

The SAS has a saying, "he who has the intelligence shapes the alternatives".

So applied to growing, if you have intelligence that your plants have been found, you can dig them up, leaving as much soil around the root ball as possible, and planting them somewhere else. This works, but you must water the newly transplanted plants more often as they suddenly have a much smaller root mass than before.
 
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Visited patch 1 today which is a seed patch.

It has two female Critical Mass clones and one Mango clone, which I think is female but not totally sure yet.

I'm going to plant a male Mango there shortly.

This patch hasn't been watered for 12 days, but the plants looked health.

The soil in this patch is not very good, just powdery fine soil, but I added mushroom compost and normal compost plus perlite to the soil, and I think that's the reason they survived 12 days of hot weather without being watered.

I'ts all in the preparation.

Time spent preparing the soil means less trips you have to make in summer to water.

This is the two Critical Mass clones, they were topped once. On the far right is the Mango.

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