crappy outdoor reward!

[taio]

Hi peeps,just sharing worst experience ever seen by my own eyes,long story short:

Got in -feb march about 50 some plants from a friend and kept them in closet under cfl lights until 23 may when i put em out,all of them thrived in my closet and looked decent,grew slowly but steady until i put em out,few months later about 40 finished with roughly 1 pound yield in total.
Oh did i mentioned that ive been visiting them each week once,watering them almost every time trimming them feeding them with the organic line from GH?

I admit the holes i dag for he plants were not big at all but still.....only 1 pound total?

Im so disapointed that i dont know what to believe anymore to be honest,i like mj and i will most likely continue to put out and all that but i cant understand what happened this summer.

Location is Toronto for those who wonder!

Anyone feel free to chime in with critics,ideas or answers to why this crappy outcome!

Thanks for taking your time and reading this,im greatful that ICMAG exists!

 

[taio]

Oh plants were a wide variety of kush said the friend so no Autos by the way!

 

[Don Dump]

its better to put your effort into hole preparation in the spring, rather than carrying water all year. dig holes as big as you can. probably want to add compost/ manure or peat. use water polymers if you want / use lots of leaf litter sticks or rocks as mulch and you prob wont have to water at all

I use nutriplus dagda fertilizer. mix in when planting. scratch more in later

how many hours of direct sun?

 

[Don Dump]

also what light schedule did you have them on indoor? did they try to start flowering when you put them out? most strains will reveg ok, but that will stunt them as well

 

[taio]

Hi Don Dump,thanks for your reply.

I actually used a handful worm casting and a tea spoon or so of crystal polymer for each hole i dag,most of them were planted in direct sun light with no shade at all.
Reason why i am surprised is because last year with little to no attention some spot 21 clones gave us 3 and some pounds of good smoke with super thrive used a couple times whole season and nothing else lol...There comes my frustration.

Light schedule thoughout the whole time since feb-march until 23 may when they went out was 18/6 unchanged and only a few did flowered following weeks after i put them outand stayed in flower but all those were planted close to trees or tall bushes and were shaded the whole season.

No matter what the smoke is clean and good its just so little wont be enough for everybody who put the work haha.

 

[taio]

Ive started not a long time ago to look into compost teas and soil amendment and i realise thats the way to go,i have more online reading experience than growing,this is only my second season of growing but i will definitely give it a try next year with big holes and compost teas than fancy and expensive fertilizers...

 

[The Revolution]

Thats its bro, all u can do is plan better for the next season. Each season is a learning experience. I would start by building a compost bin, or if you have a garden, quadrant off a section of it dedicated to composting. Get your self some good peat based mix, like promix.. Mix up some 70%promix/10%Compost/10%Perlite/10%EWC
Dig some nice trenches or holes, and amend with this mix, or smart pots or whatever you're into. Experiment with mixes. Also genetics play a huge role in the size, and final yeilds. All I can think is possibly they werent acclimatized to the outdoors, after being pampered in the closet for months, and perhaps were shocked when they hit the dirt.. Who knows.. Hard to say. U mentioned u added EWC>>Were u using mostly native soil and amending with castings? Perhaps the native soil was junk?

As I said each season is an experience, and we gotta learn from each season, improve upon what we can, and continue to evolve as growers. Ive been growing outdoors for 15+ years, I just recently was able to harvest my field of dreams without losing a single plant to mold/mildew/rippers/or animals.. Its a learning experience bruda. If you are continually trying and not giving up, u cant fail. Its not possible to fail. So keep at it man. Be safe out there.

 

[taio]

Hi Revolution,i appreciate you took your time to read and give advice,you are perfectly right,clones being in closet or so long could have had something to do with yeild.

I used promix for all pots while in closet but when i transplanted them outside i only used a handful of promix and a little bit of ewc and honestly i regret now that i was so lazy because the native soil was super clay,im no expert to soil but i think it was junk and roots might struggled too much to expand,going from promix in pots to super clay soil...

Im not sure yet what kind of soil composition i will use next year but i will for sure learn all about soil mixes before i plant next year.
And yeah you are right it is a learning experience each season/time you do it,i dont regret anything even if i spent more money on gas tools etc...it was fun and hopefully with knowledge next time it will be better.
Thanks for your reply.

 

[iTarzan]

When did you harvest?

Did you pull the males?

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Genetics, soil, sun. You need to make sure you're getting the best of all three of those. 1 pound for 40 plants is really bad. I get on average 4oz from 4 footers. My biggest plant this year yielded a little under a pound. I use regular miracle grow potting soil with added perlite and peat moss for my outdoors grows. I also spend a good amount of money on seeds. Sometimes I have a mother and use clones. When buying seeds I make sure to do my research on the seeds. Don't just buy seeds because the name sounds good or the description makes it sound the like final product is going to be huge and killer. Use this forum as a research tool when trying to find out whether specific companies and their strains are worth your valuable time.

I have wasted whole summers before with shitty genetics. Had regrettable yields just like you. All the hard work and you feel like it was pointless. My plants get direct sun from 9am until 8pm during the summer. When the sun starts getting lower in the sky I get direct sun from 9am until 5pm. You want your holes to be a minimum of 2'x2'x2'. The bigger the root mass, the bigger the plants and buds. You should reevaluate your operation before next season comes.

 

[taio]

Genetics, soil, sun. You need to make sure you're getting the best of all three of those. 1 pound for 40 plants is really bad. I get on average 4oz from 4 footers. My biggest plant this year yielded a little under a pound. I use regular miracle grow potting soil with added perlite and peat moss for my outdoors grows. I also spend a good amount of money on seeds. Sometimes I have a mother and use clones. When buying seeds I make sure to do my research on the seeds. Don't just buy seeds because the name sounds good or the description makes it sound the like final product is going to be huge and killer. Use this forum as a research tool when trying to find out whether specific companies and their strains are worth your valuable time.

I have wasted whole summers before with shitty genetics. Had regrettable yields just like you. All the hard work and you feel like it was pointless. My plants get direct sun from 9am until 8pm during the summer. When the sun starts getting lower in the sky I get direct sun from 9am until 5pm. You want your holes to be a minimum of 2'x2'x2'. The bigger the root mass, the bigger the plants and buds. You should reevaluate your operation before next season comes.

Thing is ive been gifted clones both my first season last year and this year but i think i will start to look into seeds so i dont have to blame anyone else next season,been looking at some strains that work outdoor like KC Brains,Strain Hunters and Female Seeds!
Im actually afraid to try seeds from very poplar breeders just because the reviews generally are very mixed.

Im sure there are other good breeders out there i just havent had time to read about them, any suggestions for plants that work outdoor?
Thanks for taking time to read and give advice i appreciate.

 

[taio]

When did you harvest?

Did you pull the males?

A couple weeks ago, no males detected.

 

[mojoman]

last year was my best season, and this year is better....so far...I found the soil is the key...I went with sunshine #1 organic...added worm castings, bone & blood meal...some dolomite lime...and bob's yer uncle....hth



mojo

 

[taio]

last year was my best season, and this year is better....so far...I found the soil is the key...I went with sunshine #1 organic...added worm castings, bone & blood meal...some dolomite lime...and bob's yer uncle....hth



mojo

Im glad that you found a soil mix that works,do you mind telling me the amounts of worm casting.bone and blood meal and dolomite lime you used buddy?
Is dolomite lime always necessary to use and if so can you use too much?I thought that bone and blod meal are pretty strong fertilizers and shall not be used in big amounts but i might be wrong.

Thanks for taking your time to read and give some advice.

 

[frankenstein2]

Soil and sunlight are the biggest factors for a guerilla grow tha will yield. The more "good" dirt you give a plant...the more potential it has. Same goes for sunlight. In my opinion anything less than 6 hrs of direct hit sunlight, isn't worth the time. I mean sure you'll end up with something. But I would rather have 2 big plants in direct sunlight with 30 gallons of dirt each, than 30 plants in 1-2 gal of dirt that are in shade for the better part of the day.
A real good thing to do is track the sun in potential locations before you plant. Find a spot that gets direct sunlight from 7-8 a.m. and stays that way until 3-4 p.m.......or even longer. You'll see the difference in plant growth in the first few days........then come harvest you'll really see the difference, when you harvest a lb of a single plant.

Here's a pic from 2013's outdoor. Just a little peek of what lots of sunlight and just a little good dirt can produce. Exodus Kush in an 18 gallon tote. 2 lbs of dry weight.....

 

[sprinkl]

My first guerilla I got maybe 5 grams of 3 plants. Planted way too late and no prepared hole. This year I got at least 25 grams of 6 plants, but great dense and pungent, from s1 seed of which half were runts I should add. Again way too late at least I added some compost and nutes in the tiny hole. No waterings or check ups between planting and harvest.
It was barely worth the effort but I consider it some valuable and free lessons.
Next year, I should get a kilo easily without much more effort, just got to get out of my wintersleep earlier

Instead of following advice on forums I like to learn things the hard way. Losing some time this way but it sticks

 

[taio]

My first guerilla I got maybe 5 grams of 3 plants. Planted way too late and no prepared hole. This year I got at least 25 grams of 6 plants, but great dense and pungent, from s1 seed of which half were runts I should add. Again way too late at least I added some compost and nutes in the tiny hole. No waterings or check ups between planting and harvest.
It was barely worth the effort but I consider it some valuable and free lessons.
Next year, I should get a kilo easily without much more effort, just got to get out of my wintersleep earlier

Instead of following advice on forums I like to learn things the hard way. Losing some time this way but it sticks

I feel you brother,i guess every crop or season is a lesson indeed.I intend to improve my operation for the next season lol.

 

[theJointedOne]

more shade = colder, more moisture= low yields and mold

 

[mack 10]

Nice Exo kush.

 

[taio]

more shade = colder, more moisture= low yields and mold

That is a good piece of information brother,thanks i never thought about that before.For some reason i thought that moisture or humidity is good for plants .

Ill never put a single plant in shaded area ever again thats for sure.