Good Morning Bill!
I must have looked right over this message before, it just came on my radar.
Firstly, we have a facility up North of us (still in Humboldt) that is our permitted nursery for our clone cutting and mom holding. This year was the first year we ran with the nursery shut down, due to several reasons but mainly because of budget cuts.
I only 20% of my typical plant count for the first crop, and am currently only running 60% of my normal second crop right now. With the low plant count it made more sense to outsource our cuts this year. I am setting up a 'micro' nursery here on the main farm to hold moms and make cuts for next year...
In good news, we got our micro license and other permits required to be a legal nursery and distro at or main nursery facility... so next year holds many opportunities for that location with the right funds.
Secondly, watering. So the freshly planted root bound plants I put in for the 2nd round needed extra care the first week + with watering. I hand watered the root ball every day with 2 quarts of tea each day. No hose, just a 5 gallon bucket of tea and a mason jar to disperse it evenly. Now they have adapted to more normal watering schedule.. about every two days weather dependent.
The hugel beds inside the hoop houses have been great on water. They can go three days with no water, but we usually hit them on day 2 and keep that top layer moist.
Lastly, the feeding. That happens often... I always try to get compost teas on before and after planting. I also give all the soil Jadam fertilizer tea's before planting and during the veg phase.
I have barrels of Jadam Fertilizers made over the last couple years. Examples of the different types of Jadam fertilizers include Thistle Fert, Stinging Nettle Fert, Veg Cannabis plant Fert, Flower cannabis buds Fert, Clover Fert, Squash/pumpkins/fall harvest Fert, and some others. These are extremely easy to make and save me tens of thousands of dollars in a year of growing. I plan to make some Fern fertilizers, blackberry vine ferts, and a few more in the near future. They all have different nutritional value and a ready to use within 3-6 months from making.
Before planting, I will dry amend the soil. When I dry amend I use Wilbur Fishbone Meal, Down to Earth Neem Seed Meal, Kelp meal, Glacial Rock Dust, Gypsum, Worm Castings (from our worm beds), & Compost (from our piles). Everything you see is no-till.... I never till in amendments or anything. The amendments get spread on the top of the soil and watered in. Then we Broadfork the soil before planting.
A lot of the living soil here is several years old and maintains itself well with little food... but there is some soil that is rough and needs extra food/attention. All the outside plants in bags are planted in a 75/25 native soil/used potting soil ratio. I give them more teas then the rest. In contrast, the hugel beds are third year hugels, I haven't used any food/fertilizers for the hugel beds 2nd crop. First crop got light dry amendment. They have gotten a couple compost teas, but mainly just water.
Next up is spraying. I am trying to spray every 3 days.... its a tough schedule to keep with the amount of plants to spray but we are handling it successfully right now.
It is only about 3 people working all these plants now for the two different farms
Oh! In response to your second post, the cages. Haven't used these in years but I pulled them out of the old gardens for this ultra-low budget grow this year. All the trellis we have used is leftover from last year also. They are really just fencing/hog paneling rolled up. The smart bags are from another farm used last year but not this, so I took them and made so rough soil mix and filled them
Yes, a lot of the plants are young this time of the season. I got them late from different sources, was unsure for a while if I would have the funds to grow a second crop... and when things started falling in place is was getting late in the season. The harvest this crop will be all over October and November depending the strain... I didn't run any lights (continue the ultra-low budget grow trend) even though I planted small... I really don't want to deal with harvest mold in September just because I wanted the plants to be bigger. I will let everything finish in its natural state, no dep tarps or lights for this run. Minimal maintenance for the few of us that way, too.
All the big plants in smart bags outside, and the line of gush mints in the hugel bed, along with the 900ish Banana creme jealousy clones planted at the Big Rock farm, were all gifted by a generous neighbor/ long-time Humboldt original. That saved my ass for the plant count on the 2nd crop, without spending any money on those plants. The big ones he gave me were his leftover moms that he used to cut for his second round.. which explains why I have them root bound and looking like they have all been trimmed down. They will be a great harvest for me though
The Cali OG and the z3 are cuts I made myself with a temp makeshift clone room, the Gelato 41 cuts are from Conception nursery outta Sacromento off seed stock plants. They offer tissue culture clones completely sealed, diesease and pest free guaranteed, and thouroghly tested and tried genetics. Also got some Hawaiian Fanta cuts, and Lemon Ghoulie tissue culture cuts, from another good neighbors down the road. And lastly, the guava kush and California sour diesel came from The Plant Nursery in Southern Humboldt.
Thanks for the love Bill!! Really appreciate it. Hope I answered your questions, and always look forward to more.
