This is my first attempt at a cannabis grow. Over the past 2-3 yrs i've really enjoyed planting and caring for other plants around my property, and I enjoy cannabis so I figured i'll try to grow some. I realize that with an outdoor grow, I will not see the same yield and quality that I would see from an indoor grow. I'm totally ok with that. This is a bag seed, and it was in with some pretty shitty weed, but nonetheless I want to see it grow ( i know, it could be a male...). I'm cutting my teeth with this one. So, I germinated in a shot glass of water for 24 hrs and planted the seed on July 8th. This plant sees full sun from 7-7 daily, on a south facing hillside. It's in a 50/50 mix of miracle gro and peat hummus. I water every 2-3 days. I have a 3 gallon pot that i'm planning to repot to. When should I do this? When I repot, i was going to use a mix of perlite, soil, and peat. I had planned on simply cutting the solo cup away and placing the entire cup shaped ball into the new pot & medium. So, that's my main concern right now. When do I repot? Also, I am leaving for a week vacation next week. Will the plant die if it misses a watering?
First I don't know where you are but planting now is going to only allow a tiny plant (most places plants have begun flowering or will soon). I wouldn't repot until the little one is 6'' tall or more. When you repot just let the soil dry out and squeeze the cup to loosen up the root mass then gently just pull it and place it into the 3 gal with a layer of mix already in there then fill it in. not allowing for horizontal feeder root growth by keeping the plant in a solo cup in the new container is silly to me. A week of no water on a plant that small will be tough, but what can you do not go on vacation? Good luck.
You can repot now. Bury the stem up to the first set of leaves. Outdoor should out perform indoor. Indoor growers are trying to mimic the outdoors. You can't beat the sun with lights. It should get bigger outdoors and give you a better yield.
Hey dutchboy79, I've got a few little things to say that hopefully will aid you in your little endeavour, first off good luck with your first run. In terms of outdoor vs indoor yeild, there really isn't a way to compare, it comes down to the grower and the techniques that they use. With you using a bag seed, don't think that your little girl (touch wood) will come out how your bag was, I have never come out with the same end result as the bag I was given in the past, perhaps this is due to a bit of TLC or maybe just curing properly, but you certainly can't judge a book by its cover, there are many different phenos which could become apparent for your grow which your "dealer" product did not. I'm not quite sure what your latitude is so I don't personally know if your crop will be as productive due to the fact the daylight hours are starting to close in and become shorter (where I live anyway). What I would recommend is the day before you go away, replant your seedling in a 5gl+ pot, as it hopefully should have quite a strong root network even after just two weeks. For your watering I would recommend setting up a mini irrigation bottle drip just so you don't have to worry about coming back to wilted plants, here's a link to a guide on how to set up one without any real cost. click me I hope this can be of some help to you.
Hey man, think about what you just said. Your plants are getting light from 7-7. That's 12 hours of light (unless you didn't count dusk and dawn). That's at least 10 hours of darkness. You may want to think about extra lights during the evening to keep it from flowering. that way you can get more growth before its photo period changes. Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Grasscity Forum mobile app
thanks for the reply. I will take your advice and repot the day before I leave for vaca, and i'll up the pot size to 5 gal like you said. i am located in the mid-atlantic in the PA/NJ/DE/MD area, and yes, the days ahve begus to get shorter. I know i'm late getting these started but at the very least i'll use the experience to apply to a better grow next season. what soil mix would you suggest? I planned on going to lowes or home depot and finding something there to use. The plant seems to be happy now in the 50/50 miracle gro/peat mix. Should I use the same mix, and add some perlite? i love the drip irrigation idea. how far down should i bury the lid below the surface? i feel like i could damage existing roots by digging the hole for the bottle. does it need to be set towards the center of the container, or can it be towards the side? im just worried about disturbing the roots when I sink the bottle in. thanks everyone for the help.
yes, i see what you are saying, but this is strictly an outdoor grow and adding bulbs will draw unwanted attention in my scenario. i know, it's not ideal...but i'm gonna give it a go.
Go for it. It can still grow to a couple feet. I'm thinking if there's anything to be concerned about, it would be the weather right around when the buds are getting ready to finish.
In terms of the drip irrigation, all you will need to do is put it at the side of your plant, if you do this alongside replanting it won't cause any root issues, if you put it around halfway under it will be about perfect, I would test it over the coming week (before you go on holiday) to see how fast the water drains off just so you know whether your holes are too big or too small, if possible try use the biggest sized bottle you can just to ensure you don't come into any problems of it running out while your away.
given the age of the plant now (2.5 weeks), and my location...when would you estimate these would be ready for harvest?
I've got to be honest I'm not sure if you will have enough time to give them a good veg after topping, you can always try it and see what happens, I've never grown outdoors this late so I honestly couldn't tell you. But in terms of topping, when the 4th node of leaves forms that's usually when I give mine their first top.
ok thanks...i guess i'll cross that bridge when I come to it. maybe I won't top them since i'm so late in the game but at least i'll know for next season.
Ive thought about doing an outdoor grow. When is the best time to plant? Sent from my LG-VM696 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I tend to start outdoors at the beginning of May, that way it gives you a nice 5-6week window leading up to summer solstice for topping and fimming the ladies and maximum daylight hours for vegging. If time isn't an issue to you the longer you veg the better as it maximizes the growth potential of your girls.
@[member="dutchboy79"] The length of the vegetative period does have a direct correlation with the yield of your plants, the longer they veg, the bigger and bushier (depending on strain, whether you topped/fimmed and LST) your plant will be, which when going into flowering, it will have a lot more bud sites per plant. In terms of potency that generally goes down to the strain and the dominant phenotype that comes through from the genetics of the plant, in a perfect scenario you could veg from Feb all the way to July but if the strain isn't a big hitter then the potency won't change (it may slightly but probably not noticeably at least from my experience), you would just have a bigger yield.