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TonsOfFun
Brighter Days Farm

Registered: 03/15/14
Posts: 29
Last seen: 8 years, 4 months
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Outdoor bed Project
#20167271 - 06/22/14 08:36 AM (10 years, 6 months ago) |
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So I finally decided to try outdoor beds this year, but first had to prep a suitable area. On the back end of the property there sits an old concrete cattle trough nestled under a hugs cottonwood. The area had been used as a dumping ground for years. All types of randomness was unearthed in the process of establishing the beds. This is a work in progress.
Cleanout


 There were some huge logs that had been piled for years around the trough which created a great Microclimate for all kind of decomposers. The area was rife with pillbugs, centipedes, and worms. The soil on our property is predominantly clay, but this area has super rich topsoil.

Ok, got it cleared.


The first bed I simply dug a 6" hole and placed 10 spent lasagna pans worth of sub inside. Layered with a couple inches of topsoil and wet straw on top of that. Learning this week that I'd probably forgo the soil for future holes solely because of just how damn dirty the fruits come out when picked. Would prob use a compost or even just wet straw. Will keep experimenting.

 The adjacent bed was a mix of second flush and third flush pans that I moved outdoors to make more room inside. These I used very thin layer of top soil just to fill the gaps between the trays and a very thin layer in top. With wet straw on top of that. Again, the soil will wind up being a one time thing. Live and learn.



I placed the beds side by side. The entire perimeter of the trough will be prepped and planted as more spent subs come out to play. So this is the Cam bed. The fruits shown came from the early flush pans. the spent pans are just starting to have some spotty pin action.
Picked four the first day, 257 g wet

Picked a few yesterday. Picked these ones about 20 mins ago. Didn't check weight, prob a zip plus.

Aside from the soil being a pain in the ass, I have recently discovered that slugs are fucking douchebags. As soon as I saw my first pin, I saw my first slug. Going to attempt an eggshell perimeter barrier today and see what happens.
More to come.....
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Mdahmer
Aloysius devadander abercrombie



Registered: 04/05/14
Posts: 2,516
Last seen: 7 years, 5 months
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Re: Outdoor bed Project [Re: TonsOfFun]
#20167298 - 06/22/14 08:44 AM (10 years, 6 months ago) |
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Nice fruits man...I just got into outdoor beds myself and I can't recommend it enough.
I have one of spent stuff and I did one with bacterial spawn that did excellent.
I'll be doing a huge outdoor with clean spawn hopefully this summer but next year I'll be hoarding as summer approaches for an outdoor forest of mush.
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TonsOfFun
Brighter Days Farm

Registered: 03/15/14
Posts: 29
Last seen: 8 years, 4 months
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Re: Outdoor bed Project [Re: Mdahmer]
#20167307 - 06/22/14 08:50 AM (10 years, 6 months ago) |
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Ya, a forest of mush sounds good to me too. I plan on inoculating wood chips with oyster sawdust spawn and doing all the beds around the entire house too. Cannot wait, by the time I get done this place will be a fucking wonderland of fungus.
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mah
reading..


Registered: 12/05/13
Posts: 253
Loc:
Last seen: 10 years, 4 months
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Re: Outdoor bed Project [Re: Mdahmer]
#20167356 - 06/22/14 09:08 AM (10 years, 6 months ago) |
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I now know what I will be doing with my spent subs
-------------------- "Eyes that look are common, eyes that see are rare."
How Frank get's shit done. Read through this for simple successful grow.
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TonsOfFun
Brighter Days Farm

Registered: 03/15/14
Posts: 29
Last seen: 8 years, 4 months
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Re: Outdoor bed Project [Re: mah]
#20168235 - 06/22/14 12:45 PM (10 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
mah said: I now know what I will be doing with my spent subs 
To think of all the hundreds of subs I have tossed out over the years is staggering and depressing. I have added the last year's worth to a compost pile, but to be able to bury them and have them fruit again, too good to be true.
Here are some pics I took since my initial pick this morn. Yield is right around a z. Makes 3.5 zips dry in 3 days and plenty more popping up. The first picture was taken at 11. The latter shows the same ones picked 3 hours later. That little squat one wound up being 45 grams wet and about 3 inches tall.

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DangerZone
Stranger


Registered: 05/26/14
Posts: 570
Last seen: 10 years, 6 months
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Re: Outdoor bed Project [Re: TonsOfFun]
#20168415 - 06/22/14 01:34 PM (10 years, 6 months ago) |
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Copper foil/tape works better than anything I've tried at keeping slugs out. Also, put a bowl at ground level and add some cheap beer, they swim in and die.
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TonsOfFun
Brighter Days Farm

Registered: 03/15/14
Posts: 29
Last seen: 8 years, 4 months
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Re: Outdoor bed Project [Re: DangerZone]
#20176085 - 06/23/14 09:22 PM (10 years, 6 months ago) |
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Ok, blew off the slugs for another day, big mistake. Woke up to slugs galore, one even put a hole in a stem the size of a dime. I decided to try the copper barrier route as a slug preventative.
 In the process of moving the logs back to secure the wire, found about thirty slugs all along the border. Decided to remove the apparent slug breeding ground and went the shade cloth route. That way the shade the logs provided is replaced as well as a pet barrier, since it seems everyone in our menagerie has had their grubby paws in my bed at some point in the last few days.
 Also, put together an oyster bed night before last. Dug about a 6 inch hole, layered wet cardboard, then past. straw inoculated with sawdust spawn, then another few inches of past. straw on top of that. Covered with plastic and weighed down with boards and bricks.
 Unfortunately, have some contaminated stuff that is moving outdoors tomorrow. Guess it's better in the ground than in the garbage, but still hate the mean green. Had a bunch of suspect jars that I ran through straw just to see what would happen. So far most still look viable, 100% colonized, no pins yet. They are all mini straw logs.

 This one looks a lot like fucked, but as I'm learning with the outdoor beds, there is always a silver lining. Seems like the majority of this log is still usable. Will layer it off and inoculate an outdoor straw bed in morning and see how it goes.
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Mush 4 Brains
about tree fiddy


Registered: 12/19/07
Posts: 8,298
Loc: Tacos
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Re: Outdoor bed Project [Re: TonsOfFun]
#20176219 - 06/23/14 09:51 PM (10 years, 6 months ago) |
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Cool shit man, I did a similar outdoor bed a couple years ago I posted here. Actually one of my pics from that grow won POM. Same issues regarding the slugs. I hate to say it but once you have a fruit or two eaten by slugs, you're screwed. You'll start seeing a nice juicy pin or two, and it wont be growing any larger. Then you'll investigate and see that it's been hollowed out or the whole back side was eaten.
I learned that you need to have some sort of barrier in the ground before you lay any spawn or compost down. Some kind of material that will act like a protective screen, it should let water drip down into the ground yet not allow slugs or what have you get in. So you dig your hole, put something down that's like a burlap material and then add your spawn/compost.
Or what I've had luck with last year is taking a kiddie pool, drilling drainage holes at the bottom of it as well as some holes along the side for FAE and placing it on top of some cinder blocks or bricks. Then I'd cover the top with clear plastic (i used painters plastic), tape it on, and poke a bunch of little holes through it to allow rain water and air to enter. Had some monsters come out of that grow.
A few days ago I was thinking about an outdoor grow and I had the idea pop in my head of using a wicker basket. One that looks like this. You could just set it down on the ground and the slugs should not be able to get to it, though you may want to get a cover for it so other animals don't have a chance to either.
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TonsOfFun
Brighter Days Farm

Registered: 03/15/14
Posts: 29
Last seen: 8 years, 4 months
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Ya, I like the kiddie pool idea, the basket too. I am contemplating doing elevated beds or at least ones that are walled off, lined with weed cloth and I can cover taut in shade cloth. Just leave 6 inches at the top for headroom for fruiting. Just went out to check on things, found 4 or 5 slugs without even looking hard. Fuckers must be pole vaulting over the copper, or maybe more likely, already have made a nice home in some of the substrate and now I have them corralled in. Slug farm? I wonder, anyone interested in a slug? I hear they make great pets. Have you hugged your slug today?
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TonsOfFun
Brighter Days Farm

Registered: 03/15/14
Posts: 29
Last seen: 8 years, 4 months
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Re: Outdoor bed Project [Re: TonsOfFun]
#20179138 - 06/24/14 01:14 PM (10 years, 6 months ago) |
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Ok, love the idea of an outdoor bed, but hate the extra contenders for the fruits. Thought I'd try a couple diff methods of eliminating them from the equation.
 Had the above pictured log get funky on me and thought I'd use it to inoculate some straw that I had pasteurized but while cooling, it got rained on hard for two days straight. Didn't wanna risk the straw being suspect for inside, so good excuse to try some things outdoors. Home of open air inoculations and no sterile technique once so ever Looked around for random containers I could test out. So I had a 55 gal poly drum that had been split in half lengthwise, added 3/4 inch holes and lined the drum in shade cloth. I left plenty of extra cloth so after colonization I can raise the cloth to the top of the barrel level and secure it to keep pests, i.e. slugs, out for good. Also left plenty of head room in the barrel to allow fruiting.
 ok so had a little straw
 Half Barrel Lined in shade cloth
 Layered It In, Myc on contaminated log looks stellar, aside from the bottom trich portion.

Done layering and tucked in shade cloth.

Set in shade with blocks on top.

Had leftover straw from the barrel and decided to try using weed cloth as opposed to shade cloth on these next couple containers. Might have to come up with a different top when fruiting comes, but I believe the weedcloth to be breathable and water permeable enough to suffice for at least colonization. Plus, that shade cloth is expensive and I have lots more projects planned for it already.

 Same straw log used on right container as from the barrel. The left I used two contaminated quarts of Oak Ridge and layered them in. Typically, you would not put grain outdoors, but I am hopeful the cloth will act as a rodent barrier as well as one for slugs. Again, left head room for fruiting and tucked everything in for colonization. Added bricks for compression.


So, fingers crossed and slugs be damned!!
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cronicr



Registered: 08/07/11
Posts: 62,905
Loc: Van Isle
Last seen: 4 minutes, 15 seconds
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Re: Outdoor bed Project [Re: TonsOfFun]
#20179147 - 06/24/14 01:16 PM (10 years, 6 months ago) |
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-------------------- It doesn't matter what i think of you...all that matters is clean spawn
I'm tired do me a favor
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Mush 4 Brains
about tree fiddy


Registered: 12/19/07
Posts: 8,298
Loc: Tacos
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Re: Outdoor bed Project [Re: cronicr]
#20179253 - 06/24/14 01:38 PM (10 years, 6 months ago) |
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Damn getting busy!
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Mush 4 Brains
about tree fiddy


Registered: 12/19/07
Posts: 8,298
Loc: Tacos
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Re: Outdoor bed Project [Re: TonsOfFun]
#20268750 - 07/13/14 09:40 PM (10 years, 6 months ago) |
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Hows it going, got an update for us?
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