The growing large plants, outdoors, thread...

[OrganicBuds]

Veg N out - Not sure what you mean? I can test my amends by themselves? I was about to get this soil tested, and two other soil mixes I have used in the past. If I can test just the amends then I would do so as well, not sure what I would be expecting from those results, maybe you could elaborate? The soil mix I posted up has always given me the best results, just costs the most.

Sea Maiden - Rice is a great addition to my soil mix. It helps with keeping fungal counts up, which in turn keeps calcium and phosphorus more available to the plant. I grow with coco instead of peat moss, so I lack the extra fungal element to my soil mix. The reason for that is I find when recycling my soil with peat, it goes way too fungal, and my ph drops to a level which is unrecoverable. (from my own past experience) Now I just stick to coco.

 

[Zdub7k]

OB- what a soil recipe! Shit, I thought mine was complex....I would like to add however for those that are concerned about this sort of thing, is that Fox Farm was just bought by Monsanto...the worlds largest GMO company....I've never been a FF guy myself, but for those of you that use it, keep it far away from your organics.....

 

[YosemiteSam]

Perhaps a better way to control the "time realease" deal is not to overload the soils cec and or humus/biology. If all of the cations can be held on cec sites and all of the N and SO4 can be held by the humus/microbes then the plant can dictate what it needs through dumping sugars and acids.

Still you might need some faster acting stuff just to get you started. For example if you use soft rock phosphate it is gonna take something like 6 wks to really get going...so you would need some faster acting P source unless you let the soil sit for 6 wks.

Make sure to get an EC or ergs test on that soil. If you overload the capacity of your soil to hold these things the EC will be high...if it gets to the point it burns roots you have a problem. Ideally you would want it around .5 when you start the plants building to maybe 1.5 or so during flower set. Above that by much and you will limit yield and hurt quality just as surely as not having enough.

 

[OrganicBuds]

Thanks for the info you guys, I will be testing all my soils and amends asap, ty.

You hit the nail on the head YosemiteSam, the biggest problem with organics and large outdoor plants is keeping your organics available to the plants without overloading them throughout the long season.

I find two ways to accomplish this:

First, and more traditionally, is to create a solid soil mix and plant your cannabis in 200+gal pots. That way the roots can find nutes all season long.

Second, which I might try myself this season and which I think I was the first to think of......is to double pot your plants. I can't go as large as you guys with your 200+gal pots, so fresh soil is needed half way through the season. I was thinking of putting down a 100-150 gal pot, with a 65 gal pot inside of it. When mid June comes around I was thinking of cutting the walls of the 65 gal, then filling the 100-150gal smart pot with fresh soil, maybe leaning to a flowering soil mix.

Good idea, or stupid as shit?

 

[localhero]

I thought the rice addition was either a typo for rice hulls, or extra worm food hahaha. I like the varying sources of calcium in that mix. The addition of Calcium turned my plants from powdery mildew ridden flocked christmas trees to complete PM immunity. And that was with an urban farmer on the other side of the fence providing a constant source of PM spores from his PM diseased cuke family of plants (and tomatoes) not to the mention corn aphids and thrips.

My question: so he gets his soil tested like he should, what factor does the slow release nutes play in his mix? In other words, will the nute ratio come out hot in a test? but will that be misread in a test, as much of the mix is slow release and not immediately available?

After all the stuff I put in my last outdoor soil, my conclusion was to fight the urge to get complicated. Its fun, but it leaves so much open to unforeseen issues. To do it again I would make a test pot of the mix, test it and grow in it indoors first. Luckily, my plants grew fine in the mix I made, but it was so hydrophobic, and that was something only experience in growing in it would have shown. Something I fought the entire grow. Plus the house that mixed and bagged everything didnt exactly do the best job mixing. So to anyone planning on using a landscape facility or otherwise, make sure you're there when they mix it. Show up early! I went to witness the mixing and bagging process and the guys started early on me, so I missed it. That fuckin bothered me to no end when I was pouring out the bags and seeing chunks of stuff. My situation made it impossible to mix myself, otherwise yeah no one will do a job better than you.

Good luck everyone! This was my favorite time of the year!!!!

 

[doneit]

Even the newest grower can master the art with all the valuable info in this thread!

 

[chef]

@ organicbuds ~ coco is way more problematic, than peat.

Coco flat out sucks as a soil mix ingredient IMHO. The shit ain't allowed on my property lol
Pure coco grows can rock tho with salt-free coco, the proper coco specific nutes to avoid the ph, K issues. Pure coco or no coco is my rule.

mi 2 pesos

 

[25ftGreatWhite]

OB. although not considered a large container in this form, a full 65 gallon pot is fairly heavy. there are a number of things that can go wrong with repotting from 3 or 7 gallon containers, so i would imagine a 65 adds even more variables. i don't think it would be wise to start with a strategy that calls for repotting so late in the grow.

i personally don't like repotting from a smartpot/cloth container - could just be me tho.

 

[Zdub7k]

OB. although not considered a large container in this form, a full 65 gallon pot is fairly heavy. there are a number of things that can go wrong with repotting from 3 or 7 gallon containers, so i would imagine a 65 adds even more variables. i don't think it would be wise to start with a strategy that calls for repotting so late in the grow.

i personally don't like repotting from a smartpot/cloth container - could just be me tho.

I think he was talking about setting the 65 inside the big pot right off the bat....then when it time to "re-pot" hes just going to cut the sides offf the pot and fill the void between the rootball and the wall of the big pot.

 

[OrganicBuds]

25ftgreatwhite - Yup, you are right. That is why I never grow a plant in a pot bigger than a 7 that still has to be transplanted. However what Zdub was saying is correct. I have some old 65 gal smart pots that are about 3 seasons old now, and they might not make it another season anyway. So I thought I might double pot, a 150 with an old 65 inside of it. When the time comes cut the sides of the 65, then fill in the dirt around the 65 in already placed 100-150gal. No matter what, I am going to try this on one plant this year, just for shits and giggles.

 

[Zdub7k]

I think that would be a great idea.....prolly want to take into consideration the amount of energy the plant is going to use to fill the new rhizo space....it could work for or against you I suppose...say If you wanted less stretch, you might try upping the pot size right about mid august to direct some of the energy usualyy spent on stretching on the new root growth...or visa versa......who am I kidding? outside, itll prolly just seem like nothing ever happened...which is what you want.

 

[SeaMaiden]

I say keep it simple. I can't lift 7gal pots, my limit is 3gals. So, seeds & clones start in colored beer cups (this year I have multi-color! woot!), then into 1gal pots, then to their final destination (raised beds, and this year will be my 3rd try with planting directly in-ground, I've got a strip I've been building up, cover cropping and green manuring that's showing lots of promise now). That's it.

 

[Tiami]

SeaMaiden that's my plan too with transplanting, from 1gal to the hole. how tall they are when you transplant? or you look at root development? I don't see what would they gain from transplanting them to say 5gal and then to holes. I'm starting from seeds, outside under the sun. timing will mostly depend on air temperature. mid march/mid april. no frost here but not warm enough in early spring. last year I transplanted staright from 1liter to holes. before that seedlings went through some really harsh wind conditions. not a single plant was lost. stems thickend maybe even 10x in few days, with little or no growth. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that. now I know what meens to harden plants.

 

[SeaMaiden]

They're usually a couple of feet tall when I transplant. If I used bigger containers, I'd probably see them be a lot bigger at transplant because by that time there is a good bit of root circling. I now need to reconsider my usual approach (growing medium plants outside, but more plants) since the county enacted the zoning ordinances that will severely restrict how I do things. It will force me into requiring additional physical help to get certain things done.

I've tried to kill plants by leaving them outside. Put them out in November, they got covered by snow, frost, rained on for weeks on end. They didn't die until the following JUNE, because that's when they finally dried out. Little whores.

 

[OrganicBuds]

Nobody else has a soil recipe to share? Would love to see if anybody else has soil lab tests done on their soil. When I get my results I will post them up.

 

[WhiteWolfman]

Originally Posted by Aeroguerilla View Post
curious what is finishing up early for you west coasters? I need something that finishes as early as the LVPK anything longer then that and she is molding

E-32 Trainwreck

MOB mother of berrry..


Those are the two that finished up earliest for us but the Trainwreck cut is FAR superiour overall..

MOB is good fruity tutti, Jerry berry whatever the hell you want to call it (GIRLY WEED) but the flowers are airy and small, yet purpley...

Great Thread! Killer INFO!!!!!

 

[SeaMaiden]

Well, this year I just jumped in, chose the seeds and have them on my desk on the wet paper towels to pop. I was gifted a beautiful cut of Purple Cheddar from one of the founding patient members of our group (very generous, what he gave me, can't say enough how kind), and also visited a dear friend of mine, a name some folks may know--Loran. As usual, I'm going to be running some of his gear for sure.

Let's hope I get just the right number of ladies to grow out the following:

Loran's Mandarin Fog (Orange Kush x Haze)
Lemon Taffy (Norcal Gooey x Jack's Cleaner 2)

From others the selections include:
Jillybean
Agent Orange x LSD

Jack's Cleaner x Pimpslap

Larry Berry (Lemon Larry x Blueberry)​

I'm used to popping more varieties, and have run as many as three dozen plants at a time. I know that's not exactly killing it in terms of numbers, but ah don't smoke quite that much weed!

 

[sinaloa]

hi friends,

I put another picture of Mexican crops

is fine Dirtboy808
thanks my friend

greetings,

 

[mr.shiva]

The growing large plants, outdoors, thread...

Great pics Sinaloa

 

[MrSterling]

Sinaloa, your pictures are great, even sideways.