The growing large plants, outdoors, thread...

[bajangreen]

How much does perlite help with the root zone management? is it absolutely necessary? does your soil compact with all that watering? do you have to loosen it up? would you say you have a lot of perlite in your mix, i want to fill a smarty but i don't have access to perlite i was wondering if i could get the same results with out perlite.

 

[bajangreen]

wow rootwise, those are some big ones.

 

[YosemiteSam]

What impesses me is the health of everyones plants this year. Simply stunning work from a lot of people

 

[YosemiteSam]

Would this soil mix be as effective without the perlite?

what soil mix are you referring to?

 

[Powder2Burn]

i think it is first page this thread secound post

 

[YosemiteSam]

You can get by without it if you are careful watering...but it definitely helps. The mix has a lot of Ca which will keep the soil from tightening up too much.

Kinda late in the yr to be going into a mix this hot though.

 

[guest8905]

yep, rootwise im right there with ya

its hortinet box time!

everyone looking great so far, 2012!

 

[bajangreen]

Never too late for us guys on the equator.

 

[OrganicBuds]

1. how much more do you get out of a 300 gal pot then a 200 or 100 gal. is it the size of the root mass that determines plat size?

2. how can you over water in a smart type pot if it runs out the bottom?

3. If you use liquid fertilize. how can you over fertilize if it can run out the bottom? I actually have been trying to over fert. just to see how much i can add (get a slight burn) i cant do it. even thought i have increased my ppm from 1300 to 1600 an tried at 1800 ppm , i feeding about 4 gal (2 morning 2 evening) fert a day, and 5 gal water ph 7.3 every morning.?
4. when do people switch form grow to flower fertilizer?

The new Guy!

thx
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#1 It all depends. If you have a plant like blue dream that has the potential to yield 10 lbs, then the bigger pot will make a big difference. However if you throw an OG in a 300 you wont get a 10 lb plant. However, yes, soil volume does determine the size of plant. I can tell you a 65 gal container will max out around 1.5 lbs. 300 gal skies the limit.

#2 You shouldn't have water just flowing out the bottom. I would recommend slowly watering your plants. Maybe 50% of your water at first, then the last 50% about 15 min later, all at a very slow rate at first. This allows the soil to retain the water you are providing much easier. If you don't let your soil dry out after this, then you should be able to water faster, because the water is already evenly moist.If you are taking all these things into consideration, then you may be watering way too much.

Also, watering a ton with a weak ppm solution is actually considered flushing your soil. You don't want more than 10% of your total volume of water to flow out the bottom, i try for less than 1%. Sometimes this takes slow drip irrigation.

#3 Not sure why you would be using chemical fertilizer with outdoor monsters? Second, you can't go off the label from the fertilizers. Those quantities are for indoor gardens, and not people growing large cannabis plants. I would think 1800ppm is not enough, but I am organic so don't listen to me on this one.

Also, liquid ferts are not the best for outdoor growing. For example: I wanted to give my plants a little extra kick going into flower last weekend so I went out and bought (like an idiot) a gallon of Vital Earth liquid guano. Shit didn't last more than ONE watering.

The alternative is to top dress your plants with organic nutrients. You can make your own mix or buy something like Roots Organics products in their new line of "uprising" products. These are slow release, so cut them off at least three weeks before harvest. (Roots Organics was just an example, there are lots of companies that provide this style fertilizer now)

#4 With large outdoor plants I find this time of year, (onset of flowering) that the plants like a 66% veg, 33% flower ratio. Around three weeks later I like to eliminate the veg 100%.






I have been growing for 15+ years, but I consider the guys on these boards to be the experts. I was just trying to help "the new guy" out, if anybody sees any holes in my theories then please correct me.

 

[Yes4Prop215]

i went over to a buddys garden and all his plants look like they are 2-3 weeks into flower.....none of my plants are flowering yet guess that supp lighting worked, i turned it off july 21 and still am not seeing preflower hairs on most of them...


also a few of my 200s have salt buildup and residue on the bottoms of the pots...i didnt even amend my soil that much just EWC and fox farms ocean forest......the water is flowing out of the bottom of the smartpot and filtering out salt buildup....is this a bad thing?


wish i had more blue dreams in my garden...i have 4 BDs in 200s that were seriously only a foot tall clones in beercups when i put them out late june 20th...they have exploded and are 5-6 feet tall and bushy as hell.....and have passed alot of the 5 gal starts i put out june 10th-16th......im utterly amazed at its growth rate. took a ton of cuts gonna bring her back indoors too and see if i can hit 2 per light.

 

[OrganicBuds]

This time of year I expect to see buds just barely starting to form. That would mean the plants are already, what, two weeks into flower? Maybe july 21st was just a couple days behind? Or am I wrong about seeing bud starts come August 1st?

Half of my plants this year flowered early. Didn't matter if seed or clone, got about 50% of both. I think it is due to crappy weather here on the peninsula.

You still running any of those bog strains y4p?

 

[Yes4Prop215]

yea all the BOG seeds are not flowering....zero signs of preflowering, yet they are in a section of the property where they dont get light after 5pm..so i figured they would flip already.

got a few BOGs in the open sun section too and they arent flowering either..


the only one that is one its way are the LVPK and LA con clones....2 strains i will gladly remove from my list next year...some of them came out super runty and just dont put on height at all they are growing like a carpet short and spreading out wide....would be perfect for indoor sog but its pissing me off.....blue dreams and dieselberry hybrids for the open suns next year no more runty indica plants..

 

[wolfhoundaddy]

smart pot stand

smart pot stand

More air to roots = more root growth = more plant growth overall

Brilliant set-up having air circulating under the smart pots by using plastic pallets.

Definitely my next choice, too.

I take a square piece of heavy duty hardware cloth, make it about 2" larger than smart pot. Bend each corner over creating a leg. It has to be a heavy duty rated wire, not the 1/4" stuff.

 

[organic P]

i have a master kush in a 400 put out with my sativas at the same time and its a runt. that was a big mistake. those little indicas need to go out early with supplemental y4p215. as for the salt, that is just what happens when organics break down. the sides of my smart pots look pretty gross. with all the goodies i put in there. bless

 

[Yes4Prop215]

i know man big mistake i have 5-6 and its gonna hurt bottom line, some of these 200s wil be lucky if i hit 2 lbs....i heard this LA con cut is like 10 years old so the vigor is just pathetic..they are bushing out nicely but vertical growth is only 2 feet in the last month...done with the runty indicas next year its ALL dieselberry hybrids and blue dreams...and got a bunch of f2 seeds from the homie.

 

[OrganicBuds]

y49215 - I think I have the same La Con cut as you and I am doing just fine with her. She could be better, but I attribute that to weather. I personally am looking forward to the outdoor La Con, loved the indoor la con smoke. Hope yours pull through in the end.

La Con #1

La Con #2

The pics were taken almost 2 weeks ago now. The U-posts are 7ft tall driven about 12-18 inches in for reference.

 

[Dr. Purpur]

I work with LA Conf. Wonderful smoke, but not as large as the Sativa and haze hybrids. I pollenated my best La female with Mango haze some time back and made Mangla. It's hugely popular clone around here. I sent seeds to humboldt, but no clones yet. The plant can grow to massive size. It's mold resistant, large fairly dense buds that are super potent, and taste like mango, OG, and affie.
Wanna know how good it is? I hear my x wife has a giant Mangla in her yard, and she absolutely hates me. The Mangla bud was as popular the OG,headband,nevilles haze, and pure mango. It flew out the door. DP

 

[mack 10]

^^lol it must be Dam good then... mack.

 

[ForestBuds]

2012

2012

Hoping for a 1.5 +

 

[boobs]

my plants might not be the biggest, but they're the home to some cool critters and that makes me very happy...