Desiging an outdoor grow in hot, dry, desert climate

[f-e]

I feel like most people's problems under led is related to Ca..

The only difference shared on mass, is the lack of radiant heat. Which drives Ca movement. It's lower uptake is not in the slightest bit surprising. Ca deficiency should overshadow all other changes, which we really should of known before we even used them.
For years we knew flo's were useless, though still kept coming back to them. It's only LEDs amazing efficiency that has kept us banging away at making it work. I think Ca timing is the next big thing. It's already here, but we are not quite making sense of it.



On topic. If there is a tap, and an irrigation timer, an online dosing pump might be nice.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003516995217.html
That injects feed/acid right into your hose as it flows. Adjustable between 2ml per liter and 20ml per liter. You may wish to water down your acid, to match that requirement.

 

[exploziv]

I heard from pro dudes that the variable stuff is hit and miss, the best ones and most reliable are the fixed dose dosatrons, usually 2 ml a liter. A simple venturi vacuum diferential system that draws in exactly 2 ml a liter.

 

[St. Phatty]

I think the #1 thing is to keep an eye on the soil temps. Roots don't like being BAKED.

Don't bake the roots & you'll have more pot to help you get Baked.

For example, cover the soil around the stem with cardboard, white rocks, something to keep the sun from baking the roots.

 

[Three Berries]

Tomatoes do better with a red plastic sheet over the ground for some reason.

 

[exploziv]

no bird attacks?

 

[waveguide]

i have plants out for spring for a week now but i'll chuck em in a closet for a couple days if they're not stretching by april. the moon is almost full so the skies will be bright.

that week in june here last year was crazy wicked. if i can't move my plants inside i'd have some barrier prepared to keep the wind from sucking them dead on days from hell. got the bigger bottle of azamax so i'm ready. one problem i have here is leafhoppers. they are hard to detect because they hide on the opposite side of the stem from you like woodpeckers. they can carry a virus which shuts down growth and are fing miserable with small plants, don't know how larger ones react. so neem and silica in the soil.

 

[Cactus Squatter]

Haha, sounds like you live next door to me. We gotta be neighbors. Can you see a giant flat iron when looking eastish?
I’ve spent years growing outdoors in the conditions you mention. Up to 125° temps, super dry most of the time. Intense sunshine.

If you can’t grow straight in the ground, don’t bother growing in buckets or hard wall pots outdoors in those conditions. You’ll cook your roots and struggle constantly with sick plants.
I’ve tried the kiddie pool reservoir underneath outdoors here and personally don’t like it. When I tried that here in our conditions the roots stayed way to wet and the upper portion of the pots dried out too quickly. They couldn’t suck water up to the surface fast enough to keep up with evaporation rates.

I now run fabric pots setup on a timer, watering every other day. It’ll take some initial monitoring to get your watering rates and times correct, and during full flowering you’ll need to bump it up a little. I also grow a cover crop instead of heavy mulch on top, usually clover, chamomile and yarrow. I also mulch with the previous years leaf litter but it’s fairly broken down by the time it hits the pots.

I also do run a shade cloth here during the peak of summer heat. From July-mid September the plants are shaded to help with the intense heat and super dry air between monsoons. It creates a nicer micro climate that I don’t have to struggle as much to grow in, and it also helps keep some of the dust off when the monsoon blows a wall of desert through the yard.

So far anything from ACE grows outdoors here really well and freaking performs solidly. Good density, good yields and amazing potency. Afghans also do really well here. Cookies, cakes and that line of breeding just get smoked here outdoors. They super struggle over summer and end up producing fluffy, leafy junk at end of year.

good luck on your grow this year. Hope it turns out a banger.

edit: you’ll definitely need supplemental lighting outdoors in March. Early morning and evening, overlapping your daylight a little bit otherwise you’re going to go into flower, especially with the kush plants.
also, if you are my neighbor and plan on using any native soil, are you in a former farm area? If so there’s tons of salt build up and roundup in our soils in the old farmlands. If you’re up above the flats and in untouched native soil you’re good to go and there’s plenty of calcium in the native soil. Gypsum is your friend with the desert soils to help with our clay and hardness.

Your Malawi x Panama will be ready in mid December if it tracks like mine did.

 

[brendon420]

My little secret is cactus. The whole idea of keeping the water in the root system is exemplified when burying cactus steaks for your roots to find. You could use celery, aloe, there’s a lot of wisdom in storing water practices by the plants in your area. Think long decay times and Saturation (storage) ability

good luck

 

[waveguide]

Gypsum is your friend with the desert soils to help with our clay and hardness.

further south but you win on heat. i don't plant in the ground, been using big bags of sulfur for the stuff that is to make the soil fluff.

 

[argylia]

Growing in hot temps can be done, but there are certain principles you have to follow in order to pull it off. The strains you name above will need constant caretaking. You won't be able to plant them and then come back in 2 months to check on them later. Rainy areas are good for cannabis because of the lower pH from the rain. Here are the principles I used and got weed every year I grew. I grew in desert-like temps.

Build the soil in Fall and Winter by harvesting shredded leaves or grass clippings from the area and put in the plot. Organic stuff acks like a sponge and holds water in the ground.

When you open the ground in the Fall you start building a "water table" underground by all the annual rainfall falling to the ground. Maybe 20 or 30 inches?

When you put the plants in the ground you mulch the plant to conserve the water you stored in the ground during Winter.

Never let the Sun hit the ground always add mulch at least knee-high under the plants to keep them cool and hold water in the ground.

Try to have hidden, least two or three 45 gallon trash cans with lids full of rainwater from the spring for the dry times.

Hi, is that tree in the left a Prosopis?

 

[Creeperpark]

Hi, is that tree in the left a Prosopis?

Mesquite tree and the buckets are five-gallon buckets I used during hot dry temps.