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Raised Beds vs. Smart Pots vs. In-Ground

You can get more pulls in with pots cuz u can veg them somewhere else if that’s possible for you but I keep seeing ppl use raised beds. I’ve only ever done a 20x10 carport dep before but next year gonna do a larger one. Can’t wait it’s all I been thinking about.
 

CrushnYuba

Well-known member
You can get the same pulls with beds and pots.
Everyone i know with beds veg in pots and then transplant them into the bed.

I like pots. Because you can move a plant over to fill space if you want. It's more contained root zone then beds. You can get more dry/water cycles.

It's very difficult to go directly in the ground. The main reason is drainage. If it's raining out at all, your medium will be soaked with rain water. Everything will be moist and gross. Molds and weird shit. You also will have a hard time flushing anything out of your soil if you decide to. The native soil is probably not as good as a potting mix you build.

I like to put ground cover on the ground that you can keep neat and clean. Sweep it or wash it. Put containers on that.
 
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CrushnYuba do you try an go for 3 pulls a year usually? What size pots do you use? Do you veg in 1 gallons until they go into their final pot an get flipped?


I have a cpl 20x10 car ports and a 48’ green greenhouse skin I got from forever flowering a few years back. I’m wanting to use that for the veg house then toss em in the bigger gh I’m building this winter. Since this is my first year doing a bigger dep I’m gonna shoot for two pulls then the following year try for 3 like the humboldt light dep calendar schedule is.

Gonna have my full term plants in the bigger gh until they go outside. Still unsure if I’m doing clones or fem seeds next year. I keep seeing these big ass seed plants on ig an youtube lol got me wanting to give it a try.
 

wvkindbud38

Elite Growers Club
Veteran
Great thread, I'm honestly believe I'd rather have a plastic pot, but some of the Fabric ones are ok, ecogardener.com has some really nice grow bags. I've grew a few plants in the ground with success, but it's not ideal for me....Plastic is my choice, or the fabric pots
 

CrushnYuba

Well-known member
usually shoot for 3 pulls. 4 isn't really doable here. I rather do 2 solid pulls then 4 half assed. 3 is a tight squeeze but doable. You basically have to put them in and flip them within a week. and they have to be 60 day.
May- Halloween is when Sun is usually good enough for flower. That's only 6 months.

1s are too small for me for veg. 1 gallon pots are usually about .6- .7 of a gallon. They are "trade gallons". Not actual gallons. To get a plant to a nice flipable size, i like 2-3 real gallons.
 

armedoldhippy

Well-known member
Veteran
i'm going to try raised beds this coming spring, if for no other reason than not having to bend over. this getting old shit sucks...
 
Was in my neighbors gh today it was 110 and 95 outside. It felt nice inside there tho def not 110 maybe it was the humidity that made it feel nicer?

I can’t help but think his plants grow slower cuz he doesn’t use fans and the plants are in a constant humid environment at night when covered. He only has one side of the gh sidewalls open an the other is closed.

The plants looked great tho nice an perky
 
Thank you so much for the replies everyone. Here's a list I put together.



Raised Bed Pros:
-don't have to bend down so far to access plants
-better drainage than in-ground
-larger soil volume than pots
-can use native soil or your own mix



Raised Bed Cons:
-can't move plants once planted


Container Pros:
-can move plants around to best efficiency

-easier to use your own soil mix
-best drainage
-less mold/mildew



Container Cons:
-less soil volume
-more expensive


In-ground Pros:
-uses earths thermal energy best
-cheapest



In-ground Cons:
-doesn't drain well in wet weather
-more prone to mold mildew
-can't move plants once planted
 

Rodehazrd

Well-known member
This year I tried several ways with some clones.
65 Gallon shortie fabric
30 Gallon nesting storage TUBS
In ground
All got my muck mix.
In ground. 70 Gallon mound + about 40 gallons of racehorse manure when I had an early washout.
The TUBS seen to perform best with a constant moist soil.
In ground did better than the shortie but she did get extra manure after spring rains.
Here's a shot of my site.its out on a steep ridge with 6 good hours of sun. The BangI haze clones are light yellow. The green one is a headband seed plant.
 

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JustSumTomatoes

Indicas make dreams happen
If I may, I'd like to make an addition... Contractor bags, the thicker ones with drainage holes poked by me in the bottom.


Pros: Cheap, easy to conceal and carry in, easy to get rid of, they tend to flatten out giving more horizontal root growth, can hold a lot of soil, they can stretch, and they straight up work!

Cons: Soft sided unlike pots... Once you establish your plants you can't move them without disturbing the roots, you have to water them like pots, sometimes the bags can be a bit loppy but it's not that big of a deal.


These have been my favorite choice to grow in given the conditions I work in. The ground is straight mud and has zero drainage where I grow. Planted some in the ground and they were dying within a week.
These were two males grown for around 8 weeks outdoors in the bags before being pulled...
 

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JustSumTomatoes

Indicas make dreams happen
A few others... The ones to the right in the first picture are 5 gallon buckets. If you look below the plants you can see the 3 foot chicken wire fence to give you a sense of scale. This method produced some big girls for me last year. Each grow bag held 15 gallons of soil mix.
 

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CrushnYuba

Well-known member
They have grow bags that are a contractor bag material that are made for it. They do it in all sizes. They are less them 1$ for a 20g. Some of them are white on the outside. Uv protected. The benefit with them is that unlike a contractor bag They are shaped perfectly like a real pot and have Drainage holes. They will definitely last longer. I have gotten multiple seasons with them.
 

Mr. Greengenes

Re-incarnated Senior Member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
In the ground if at all possible. Some genetics produce plants way too huge to go in containers of any kind. Besides, the terroir of any given climate can't be properly exploited unless you have roots in the earth, and in my opinion/experience, terroir is key to top quality connoisseur flower. Also, I've noticed that plants in a soil mix that doesn't contain local soil web microbes and fungi are more susceptible to insect attack. If I absolutely have to grow a plant in a container, I'll use about 50% backyard garden soil in the last repot before flowering. I actually have a large outdoor plant now in a relatively small 3g container with 50% yard/garden soil. I'll take pictures and post them here in a few days.
 

Rodehazrd

Well-known member
This fall I plan to cut the bottom out of a 65 gallon shortie fabric pot and put that on top of this years mound. Then fill it with my mix and grow a seed plant in there with a taproot. Clones don't have one. I'm with Greenjeans on the local microbeasties. I use leaf mold in my worm castings to boost indigenous biota and fungi. If you don't have a worm bed you could just sift some forest floor soil through some hardware cloth. I enjoy growing my soil as much as the plants. There's nothing like opening a 30 gallon tote of 4 week old amended soil and having that humus smell fill the snozzel.
 

Mr. Greengenes

Re-incarnated Senior Member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Here's some pictures of a plant I bred from a female Super Lemon Haze crossed with a Cherry Bomb male. The container is 3 gallon. The plant was repotted like this; 9oz cup clone to 16oz cup to 1Q to 1G to 3G, so it had a well managed root ball going into the final container.

Closup of the flower as of 9/10
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Whole plant.
picture.php

Closeup of stem. You can see the results of the PJJ
picture.php

Canopy shot
picture.php


The 50% yard/garden soil has a fair amount of clay so the container has to be watered slowly because it doesn't drain well. If I'd put a smaller plant with a less managed root ball into the same mix, it would have no doubt shown signs of overwatering.

A few weeks ago I was only watering her every other day. Now she needs a good soaking every day and a good sized runoff container.
 

wvkindbud38

Elite Growers Club
Veteran
Yea it seems the old 5gal bucket/plastic is hard to beat. I'm having some good results with smart pots also. You just gotta get the smart pots a little wet and keep the outside moist. But about 10yrs ago everybody believe that a deep narrow pot worked better. But I'm seeing guys grow big plants in small 10$ plastic kiddie pools, they couldn't be a foot deep.
 

SuperMac

Member
depends on your individual situation but raised bed is the way to go if you can

one method is to double dig the soil and add organic material such as compost, that's what makes the a bed raised - not making a container on the ground and filling it with potting soil.

Huglekultur is a horticultural technique which creates no till mounds with large amounts of organic material of varying sizes. Starting with a core of tree trunks, pilled with branches then a layer mulch and finally a layer of compost

no matter whats method one uses, mulch is always a good idea
 

h.h.

Active member
Veteran
Los Osos I used to go straight in the ground.
If I dropped a seed, it would sprout before I had a chance to pick it up.
 
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