Hmmm.. I'm going to have to disagree. I wrote this post as an informative one and not to get to deeply into the details of growing. However, I don't think it's fair to say that all cornfield grows yield a terrible product. In fact, I think you're totally incorrect.
For example, there are a lot of "master growers" who yield terrible products due to chemical use and numerous other factors. Moreover, many of them are even doing this in a totally controlled environment, indoors. Does that mean everyone is doing it wrong? Of course not.
Surely, there are concerns with pesticides and fertilizers present in cornfields, but that's not always the case and just like in any other situation, there's always a solution. Just because some people in Europe don't know how to properly sex their crop doesn't mean that others in Europe (or around the world) aren't doing it properly. My final product is always high-quality sinsemilla because I pull my males and because I don't plant in areas where others grow. So, I find your argument to be totally invalid as far as quality is concerned.
Furthermore, just because corn is a heavy feeder doesn't mean that cannabis is incompatible for growing in the same space. If you run Sativas (especially a tropical sativa), which you should know are lighter feeders as compared to indicas, it's rare to see a deficiency problem and they'll also easily outgrow the corn without even breaking a sweat - it's in their nature. As far as roots are concerned, that's a complete non-issue.
You may have based your apprenticeship on cannabis as a companion crop, but that's not what my article is about. My article is not geared toward long-term soil maintenance of cornfields, nor is it geared toward the mutual benefits of corn and cannabis. I'm not talking about running 500 plants in a 5 acre cornfield. My article is about growing a handful of cannabis plants, for personal use, secretively, in an extremely large cornfield. I'd say 90% of cannabis that's grown and sold is motivated by profit in one fashion or another, so I can't relate to or agree with what you seem to be hinting at - that growing in the corn is damaging eco-systems and putting dangerous, unhealthy, garbage quality cannabis out there for nothing more than a quick buck.... That's simply untrue.
I say everything above with respect, and I respect your opinion and the time you took to write your comment. You raise some rather interesting points, however, it just doesn't seem to be a very relevant or valid argument for the situation I'm presenting here in this particular article.
I've learned some people here can be what I would call marijuana snobs. No matter what method you are using to grow or how frosty and dense your buds are they can grow it better and their buds are always bigger and stinkier.
I prefer to take the opposite approach and celebrate how great it is that this plant is so adaptive and can be grown so many ways.
Keep up the great posts! My hope is steemit becomes a new hub for the massive marijuana subculture.
I can agree to disagree with what you have said, but I really take issue with this statement:
Root rot and root-bound crops are perhaps the most common problem you'll see when competing with surrounding crops, especially corn as it is so densely seeded together. I've even seen it with tomatoes, which also have a deep root system, and incurred some very observable growth variations from moderate to outright severe as it also a heavy feeder.
I was limited to fast growing sativa dominant hybrids and couldn't cultivate any tropical Sat/Ind due to the environment/elevation I was growing in; however, I will accept that I could be wrong in that my sample size/data was not entirely inclusive and didn't take this into account. I wish I could get m hands on some Ruderalis genetics from E. Europe, but nothing came up despite my best attempts.
I still think you're playing Russian roulette in terms of contamination from pesticides and fertilizers growing inside of a cornfield. Cross winds from adjacent fields travel far, I was sprayed on with sulfur from vineyards a 1/2 mile away on windy day and had a wheezing cough, headaches and nausea for 2 weeks.
Pesticides are atomized liquids and can't travel as far as powder/dust, but its still a huge issue and cause for a ton of disputes/lawsuits between organic vs conventional farms.
I'm not a 'snob' by any means, and I like to see other people's methods, if only to contrast them to my own observations and data and enhance my outview; I just think that cannabis is and always played a vital role in agriculture as a soil re-mediator, and was likely first and foremost introduced for crop rotation to enhance soil fertility, and when it is used to further erode soil its akin to seeing someone use a fine piece of hand-made furniture for kindling.
Lining the holes with 80 gallon extra-thick garbage bags and then filling them with growing medium is a simple and very effective method for eliminating any issues with roots. This also allows for enough medium to be used that it can breathe. It also prevents checmicals from entering the cannabis' soil.
Holes poked with a pen near the bottom 2 inches of the bags (maybe 30 holes) allows for drainage. The plastic barrier also reduces water loss to surrounding soil when watering by hand.