First Time Outdoor Grow

[ghead10]

This will be my first time outdoor grow. I've only gotten one grow experience but it was an indoor cab style grow. I started out with 4 plants total in the cab. A Serious seed Bubblegum (turned out male), a Chemdog x Early Skunk (male also), a Strawberry Diesel x Chemdog (only female), and a random seed I picked up from a friend (hermi).

The Strawberry D turned out amazing, still in curing and stinks with a strong sweet smell. The cab was ran with 6 26w CFLs, 100w replacement.

The outdoor grow will be tricky I think so i started alot of seeds to even out my chances. I have 17 germinating total with 6 of them already sprouting. I've started them out in a humidity dome in the cab just to get them strong and healthy before releasing them into the wild. The cab is running 2 20w CFLs (blue) at 18/6 hrs.

I've decide that I will be using pots in the outdoor grow. I don't want the plants to be too tall so I'll use a generously sized pot and fill it with MG Organic soil mix from the Wall-mart.

I'll be posting pics soon once I get my camera working. Feedback on this thread would be great. Let me know what yall think.

O and did I mention that this was a guerilla grow op?

 

[microgram]

Sounds like a good start. I personally wouldn't use the MG soil, but that's personal choice.

What are the strains? Chances are that most of those seeds wont be viable outdoors, depending on where you live. Start to lower the light cycle to what's to be expected when you move the plants outdoors. Premature flowering isn't nice.
Harden them off as well, expose them to the elements slowly over the span of a week or two, each time 'doubling' the time they spend in the elements.

Good luck bro, keep it green, and safe!

 

[DiiZZii3]

Damn good luck bro, i as well am curious as to wut strains ur gettin out... i'll be followin ur grow forsure, u gotta get us some pics!

 

[ghead10]

Well my buddy had done a micro grow in a speaker box. The two plants inside were a Serious seed bubblegum. He throw them into my flower box to finish off for safety reasons. They got pollinated by either a Chemdog x Early Skunk or another Bubblegum, not too sure bc they where all in the box.

 

[ghead10]

As far as the lighting goes, I got them waking up according to the sunrise at the site. They have a longer daylight period bc they're on an 18/6.
But thanks for the tip Microgram. I figure I can slowly expose them to stronger winds from a small fan. What do you think?

 

[microgram]

Good luck man, I hope you can finish what you're starting

 

[RESINvention]

I figure I can slowly expose them to stronger winds from a small fan. What do you think?

Hey bro, good luck with your outdoor.. Outdoors is a little more tricky than indoor, and Guerrilla growing is a little more tricky than outdoor, lol.. Just a lot of things to worry about.. Don't put all your eggs in one basket, plant them in different locations.. And I would make sure your eggs are coming from a reliable source.. gambling on an unstable cross could get yah some weak ass yield, or a grip on some bomb herb.. it's a guessing game, and when you put all that time and energy into it, it may leave you feeling deflated.

and for hardening your plants.. It's a lot more than simulating outdoor environments, indoor.. It shocks your plants when you transfer indoor to outdoor. The sun is WAY WAY WAY stronger than your CFL's, your plants will sit there for a week or two and not grow at all until they adjust to the stronger light, and you'll be like, 'wtf is wrong with mah plants!?'. Also.. the plants and roots need to acclimate to the weather, especially the night time temperature drop.. So when you "harden" your plants, place them outdoor in a shaded area for a day or two, and gradually move them in to direct sunlight over a week or two.


Also, the size of your pot may be too small for an outdoor plant and can cause root cramping which stresses your plant.. stress is a good way to get your plants to hermaphrodite as well. A better solution would be to plant in the earth and tie your plants down and FIM or top them, creating a bushier structure.


When you transfer your pots to your outdoor grow, make sure you don't water them before you take them.. water them when you get there, you're back will thank yah.

Best of luck on your grows!

 

[gaga]

good advice there resin

looks like this could be a solid grow

 

[ghead10]

Thanks for the tip Resin. The thing about my indoor cab if that its no cooler than the outdoor temp. It's not actually inside a house, its in the shop so what ever temp is out side gets circulated into the room and then to the box.
I had a faint idea about the growth after the transplant. I'll be looking out for that slow "two week" recovery period. I'll

I plan on putting them into a 4-5 gallon bucket. I figure the rule of thumb is about 1 ft height for every 1 gallon in the bucket. I've also thought of just digging big holes and filling them with my own soil but I think it'll be way easier n my part to just contain the good soils in buckets. It'll eliminate some of the factors that can hurt the plant soil wise. Also I'm not worried about any outsiders stumbling onto the site. I live in the boondocks lol, so it's just me and my plants.

All the seeds were purchased offline from Attitude, so I'm hoping that the cross will be stable. None came from random street bud.

Update: 10 of the 17 are in the box now, still waiting for the last few little tails to pop out the seeds. Sorry still no pics, soon though.

 

[ghead10]

Resin, FIM is one major thing I have considered though. I'll need some more info on that though, I haven't read into it too much just yet.
My buddy was telling me about a "pinching" method. I didn't absorb much of the chat though, I had Incubus on the radio, not much gets into my head when they're playing lol. But is that method something worth trying?

 

[.clunk]

Pinching the tops is usually done to force the plant to grow a little bushier, it slows vertical growth by a week or so, then starts growing two main tops instead of one, also all the lower nodes usually get a bit more growth and it because more bush shaped.
This all seems great and you're probably thinking why not top a million times? well there are some strains that don't like to be topped more than once and if you only have a short growing season topping the plant could actually slow it down enough that it doesn't get much size, regardless of the strain.

This year I don't think I'll be topping at all; where I live we have a very short growing season and over the last few years I've noticed that the plants I topped don't get as big and ultimately don't produce any more than the ones that I just leave "au naturel". This year they'll all be left alone.

An good alternative to topping which I fully support is called "LST" - Low Stress Training. Basically after the plant gets a foot or two tall you bend it over and tie it down so it's horizontal. This exposes the nodes to more sunlight and the plant grows a bunch of equal sized tops, it works out really well.

You can search all these terms and get some really good information..

 

[T.rips]

How hot is your area? Roots easily boil in those five gallon buckets after sitting in direct sun causing your plants to absolutely hate there life.

I was thinking the exact same way as you by containing the plant and precious soil mixture in a bucket and of course my plants suffered the consequences and then i did to by having to dig , go buy more soil, and then transplant to save my girls. Just a little tip from experience.

Good luck ill be watching your grow

 

[ghead10]

LST, sounds like a good idea. That might be a little trickier for me though bc I have only so much room in the cab to raise that amount of youngsters. But I'll def look into that.

T.rips, thanks man. I didnt even think that. It gets pretty warm in the summer time. Maybe buckets might not be such a good idea.
The super thin black plastic buckets, like the ones at the local stores. They'll be placed in a hole in the ground. Think it'll be too warm? If so, how will this earth effect the grow such as bugs, worms, etc. I figure buckets would be good cuz it kinda blocks some of the stuff going in a out of my soil.

 

[T.rips]

Especially the buckets being black you know that specific color just loves the sun and def. will cause the roots to boil.

What you should do in my opinion is dig a descant size hole and put a black trash-bag in the hole then put your soil mixture in. This way you can control the moisture better and so surrounding plants wont suck up the water and nutrients from your precious girls.


T.

 

[coxswain]

Good advices everyone.
I would ditch the buckets. It's guerilla after all. Plenty of ways to regulate plant hight. Hole size being a major one. Use LST or Supercropping for additional control. Good luck with the first one. Check out my first outdoor adventure(my sig).

Cheers

 

[ghead10]

Awesome, I got some clear visqueen I can throw down. I'm thinking I punch some holes in the plastic sheet and throw some lava rocks at the bottom for drainage. I don't want my holes to become a pond.

 

[ghead10]

Coxswain, awesome grow man. I plan on taking a few clones myself and trying to work on stabilizing it for the next season.
How long did you wait to start exposing the plants to sunlight?

 

[coxswain]

Coxswain, awesome grow man. I plan on taking a few clones myself and trying to work on stabilizing it for the next season.
How long did you wait to start exposing the plants to sunlight?

I have to look
They were around 3 weeks old. You do it gradually. It's no biggie. Nothing bad will happen to plant if exposed to sun ;-). They'll love it. As long as you don't forget to put them back in for first week or so. Nights can still be very cold at this time of year. Than you gradually prolong the period until you leave them outside for a nap after two weeks. That's all. I'm sure that plant would survive even without this adjustment to outdoor climate. Cannabis is a rough plant. Try to enjoy as much as possible and read a lot.

 

[Molson]

Awesome, I got some clear visqueen I can throw down. I'm thinking I punch some holes in the plastic sheet and throw some lava rocks at the bottom for drainage. I don't want my holes to become a pond.

Cut out the bottom of the bags, that way the roots will be able to expand and the bag will hold moisture at the same time.