Bullfrog's Grow Pad

crownpoodle · Tuesday at 7:44 PM

Bullfrog said:
One of them has a real cocoa smell or maybe coffee. The other smells more earthy and diesely. It'll be interesting to see how they are after drying and curing.

These were in 20g fabric pots that have been back in the swamp for a couple years. Over the winter they all had sunk in the muck and were just muck themselves, so I lifted them up and placed them on wood to get them up out of the muck so they could dry out enough to plant them. Well, I left them on the wood too long and some of them dried out too much. If the pots touch the swamp floor, they wick up water, but these were sitting on wood so they couldn't. Problem was the pots weren't quite tall enough, they'd wick up too much water, so I hauled more dirt back there to raise the pots up higher, then I burred all the pots up in horse stall waste, a mix of manure, straw and wood shavings. Should be the end of my problems with too much or not enough water. Once those pots were buried in that mulch they almost immediately started to take up water again. Haven't had to water once since. They're more like raised beds now than pots. Might just get rid of the fabric all together next spring.

My back is about four surgeries and five years past 20g pots outside. I used to run mostly 30s in the yard. A few 20s and 25s. I had 32 a few years back. It was just me too. That's a full time job. Way too much work for a codger like me.

crownpoodle · 2026-10-07T09:06:46-0400

crownpoodle said:
My back is about four surgeries and five years past 20g pots outside. I used to run mostly 30s in the yard. A few 20s and 25s. I had 32 a few years back. It was just me too. That's a full time job. Way too much work for a codger like me.

I should qualify some stuff. My backs a mess. The surgeries. Prior injuries. I worked hard. Played harder. The writing was on the wall to cut out big pots. Got my tent and light beginning of COVID.
I was going to do some Autos in 7's outside this year, but barely managed my tents. My mobility has been awful off and on. Way better again. I grow cuz I love it, and smoke for the house. There's been times I could hardly get to my tent in my shed. Plants suffered some, but I kept growing, and there were days that's what kept me going. Didn't want to get out of bed or get dressed. But the plants called to me. I'm glad they did.

Bullfrog · 2026-10-07T15:34:33-0400

crownpoodle said:
I should qualify some stuff. My backs a mess. The surgeries. Prior injuries. I worked hard. Played harder. The writing was on the wall to cut out big pots. Got my tent and light beginning of COVID.
I was going to do some Autos in 7's outside this year, but barely managed my tents. My mobility has been awful off and on. Way better again. I grow cuz I love it, and smoke for the house. There's been times I could hardly get to my tent in my shed. Plants suffered some, but I kept growing, and there were days that's what kept me going. Didn't want to get out of bed or get dressed. But the plants called to me. I'm glad they did.

Cool you're still doing what you love even though it's not easy. The hard things are the most rewarding.

I do as much as I think I can handle, which is usually too much. The goal is to ditch the pots and to have all raised beds. Just about there considering all the pots have mulch built up around them. I'll see what they look like next spring. With the woodchip path I built back in the swamp this summer wheelbarrowing stuff back there is a breeze now. I have a 30-yard pile of topsoil that I can pull from if I need more soil, plus all the compost I could want. I guess you could say I'm lucky, sure don't feel it, but I've gotten though this long with no major issues. My hands are pretty bad, but the back is good considering all the mileage. They'll have to put me in a coffin or a cell to get me to stop growing. The plant has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.