The growing large plants, outdoors, thread...

[Tom Hill]

1000ft rolls of romex 14-2 - $175 ea, 23watt flouro's (1 per plant) bulbs on sale - $1 ea, weather resistant sockets - $2.75 ea... Misc, liquid tape, mini torch, solder etc - chicken feed.... The comfort and security of knowing there'll be no BS with premature flowering this year - priceless. I'm plugging outdoors on April 19 this year folks, weather permitting. Charge. -Tom

PS, many thanks for the heads-up CannaD, I'll edit the mistake. -T

 

[Dr. Purpur]

Good Pic! That is priceless! I Like

 

[nomaad]

Nice, Tom. Going to do the same... but April 19th?? Why does that scare me? What hours will will you be adding to the light cycle? What timing will your plants be coming out of into those pots?

 

[Tom Hill]

Hi Nomaad,

In the earlier years of hiding from Nancy Reagan under the trees, if I wasn't in by May 1, I was behind and playing catch-up. We did not have the same issues when growing from seed in regards to premature flowering as plants were borderline not sexually mature by then - so no problem. Now with the clones, this has to be taken into account, but the only thing that ever had me waiting for late May/first of June was this said flowering nightmare. With this lighting system I see no reason not to go in. The accuweather looks good, the moon is waxing, and we are in cancer on the 19th and 20th of April. I'm dropping in then, with the whole ball of wax, transplant shock will be lessened with the cooler weather -no sitting around wasting two weeks of June crapping pants as is usual waiting for plants to turn around etc. I'll have a fully developed root system by the time I am usually looking to plug. Over and over, my experience has been that to build that root system takes precedence over any advantage a greenhouse/indoor may provide - being trapped in smaller containers. I'll be running the lights until at least 10PM, maybe 12 and until at least mid-June. -T

 

[BotanicalBill]

Ha that picture looks awesome. If I did that I'd want to sleep out there at night thinking the lights were giant fireflies all around me. Thanks a ton for the responses on the questions, Tom, I'm good to go.

I'll have some pictures myself in a while too but we're aiming for late may/early June for planting. Going to backhoe the holes and mix up the soil in the first week of May to let it cook a bit.

planty, I'm with ya on the many ways to skin a cat thing, I was just looking for an alternative to the blood meal I typically would use indoor. I kept reading over and over that people don't like blood meal outdoors because it attracts certain animals, and whether true or not, I haven't read people warning about having the same issues with chicken..

I'm also going to be adding in a couple hundred lbs of very well aged horse manure that is all over this pasture, 100-200 lbs of kelp meal (gotta work the numbers for 20 sites), a bit of lime, and probably 10% of the native soil that is dug up from the backhoe to get some local bacteria a foothold for when these things grow out of the 100 gal holes.

Anyway, thanks again for the responses and hopefully I can do some folks proud on our first big tree outdoor adventure.

BB

 

[Dkgrower]

Big hallo from denmark with love, just amazing, love comming back to this tread keep it going

This year i dug out a rabbit house, amazing compost, top dressed that in the organic garden.

That in combination with nettel/kelp will be used also the beds are dressed with hay

Any body using nettels to brew tees with, they contain high amount off natural grow hormones and boost plant growth very much.

This year i will follow butte direction on how to cut and prune the plant to make that ball shape and all the info posted in this tread

Best wishes to you all

 

[Butte]

April 19th?!? Holy shit, Tom, you must really be worried about me whooping your ass this year!

Just kidding, but it does seem a bit early. I'll be watching....

 

[nomaad]

Butte: for the sake of discussion, what do you see as the potential pitfalls of Tom's A:19 plan? Tom, if you're going weapons hot by the 19th, we need to have the shadowcasters BBQ soon, huh?

Personally, I am worried about the shock, but Tom's thought that they are going to shock in May anyway, so why not get em over it in late April makes sense... Frost should not be an issue by then... maybe I'll put a couple out that early and see how they do in comparison to the ones that go out on the 1st.

Dkgrower: My wife drank tea made from nettles when she was pregnant and throwing up every day.

 

[Tom Hill]

^^^^ Hehe Butte, something like that and I can FEEL you second guessing it all too, teehee - you know I'll be 6ft wide by July (to the sound of a race car revving it up LOUD baby)

Yes indeed Nomaad, heap big shadows we'll be casting this year, breaking new ground, pushing the art form, exciting stuff. Soon come let's make with the coals and the Humboldt grass fed

Outside the box and in lieu of direction - "He called it shadow casting"..... "And I realized that in the time I was away.... my brother had become an artist".

BigLove my bigplant brothers/sisters. -Tom

 

[reservationlabs]

Doing things cheap and easy this year. At my personal place I got 2 7ft x 7ft x 7in Deep cement planters built. They have 5 drains in each (like swimming pool drains). 1 at each corner and 1 in the dead center.

I filled them with Native soil mixed with Fox Farm Ocean Forrest, some Peat that I had laying around, Roots Organics Big Worm Castings, Chicken Poop and Green Sand. Thats it. Didn't buy any Lime this year so I didn't throw it in.

I am still going to do my Kiddie Swimming Pools at my other location this year, but I want something right here with me so I can cut out the Kiddie Swimming Pools starting forever next season.

I will be placing DEEP CHUNK starts out on April 20th. I will not be changing one single element to the cement boxes. They will do what they do.

 

[CannaDestroyer]

Just want to lay out my plan and see what the tree farmers think. as soon as my ferts arrive i will be mixing 100 cuft of soil, consisting of the following: 60 cuft peat blend similar to promix, 10 cuft coco coir, 8 cuft of perlite, 7 cuft of worm castings & compost, 15 cuft of fertilizers per toms recipe. i might double this, depends on how much i can save in the next two weeks. this will fill either 25 4 or 8 cuft pots, or 33 3 or 6 cuft pots. pots will be toms fence and fabric setup. i want a slightly lighter mix as they will recieve constant attention. love being legal . will break up the native soil under the pots to allow easier root penatration. i don't have buttes cool solar toy, but i did drop some trees to give alot more light this year. plants are being vegged in a greenhouse with supplemental lighting until weather permits safe planting (would love to hear more about this extend-o-dome tom is working on). expecting to put them in their final homes mid to late may. i will be growing mostly pre 98 bubba kush, several other clones will be tested to check for better traits. the bubba showed no signs of preflower, even switched form 24/0 to approx 15/9 outdoors, finished before the frost, and quality of medicine was excellent. i had several monster strains last year, but quality fell short. i don't expect to set any yield records, but she gave 1.5 lbs per last year in heavy clay soil and far from ideal light. i'm thinking 2 lbs+ per should be easily attained this year with raised pots and a proper soil mix. more if i double the size of the pots. they should be 2-3 ft tall by transplant, and quite bushy. doing alot of topping and training while they are young. sound like i've missed anything? other than not just trying for 2-4 10+ pound monsters. i do have a rather large mother plant that may become a monster test plant. even the largest of ant hills start with a single grain of dirt.

 

[Dödsknark]

Tea from nettles kicks ass. Check it out.

 

[g0vnaa]

Butte, Tom, all of you guys do you have some pictures of dry bud of those monsters you grow {:
I would love to see how a monster bud like yours look like.
Please share some pics for us to admire

 

[Hindu Killer]

Good to see everyones alive and well.....getting ready to do the thing!

 

[g0vnaa]

1000ft rolls of romex 14-2 - $175 ea, 23watt flouro's (1 per plant) bulbs on sale - $1 ea, weather resistant sockets - $2.75 ea... Misc, liquid tape, mini torch, solder etc - chicken feed.... The comfort and security of knowing there'll be no BS with premature flowering this year - priceless. I'm plugging outdoors on April 19 this year folks, weather permitting. Charge. -Tom

PS, many thanks for the heads-up CannaD, I'll edit the mistake. -T

Hei nice Tom thats my Birthday
Wish you luck with the planting your plants

 

[Reibsi]

Looking good Tom...I hope you and Butte have a great year and i`ll be watching on the sidelines...Good luck and stay safe guys...Much respect!!!

 

[localhero]

Nice Tom!

A tip from my electrician buddy on making those lights, squirt silicone into the connections to keep em water tight. Haha i got the same outdoor sockets as you, april 19th damnnnn. 10 watt flouros daylight spectrum bulbs. (neighbors) hope thats enough watts to keep em unflowered. They say 60 watt equivalent...

 

[Hash Man]

looking good everyone. Any one have ideas on premade string of lights we could just buy? I was even thinking that stringing up some bright christmas lights instead of spending a large amount of time making a string of waterproof lights.. Any thoughts?

thanks, Hash Man

 

[nomaad]

That's what I was going to do HM... they make some burly outdoor xmas lights... I think the glow from my Veg Dome will do the trick on its own but I am still going to string up some bulbs.

on that note...seems the sun has come out... time to get muddy boys.

 

[theJointedOne]

id like to hear more about what you guys think would be powerfull enough in terms of supp lighting. I see toms and buttes and thats awesome!

Do you think christmas bulb strings would supply enough lumens?

Im under the impression that each plant needs just one candle lights worth of light to interupt the cycle and it only needs to come on for half hour a night?

Now i know with bigger plants a single candle light power is probably not strong enough but I would love to get all your guys opinions on this and whether you think x-mas lights would work. i envision a 30 foot string of x-mas lights over each row, haa that would be tight from the sky!

I bet the planes laugh when they see the big gardens!

I built a nice little 8 foot long gh along a embankment on a hill and popped a bunch of solar powered leds in there, i think they are made for walkways and gardens.

thanks, hope you all are dry!