I'm growing plants in containers on my terrace. I'm so excited to finally have a space with a privacy fence where I can do this! A medical grower friend gave me a generous amount Subcool Conquistador seeds, so I planted 20 of them and hope to get a decent number of females. (Obviously I will destroy the males and any plants that aren't thriving after a month.) As a science experiment, I planted half organic, with compost and worm castings, and the other half in regular Miracle Gro potting soil. I can't wait to see which one yields the better plants! I've read a ton of stuff online (and a fair amount of conflicting information) about growing in general, but I haven't found a whole lot about outdoor container growing specifically. So here are my questions: 1. Will ever need to fertilize the plants in the Miracle Gro soil during the growing process, or is there enough in the soil to last through the whole growing period? I know I can just keep adding worm castings to the organic plants to fertilize them. 2. Is there anything you can spray on your seedlings as they're growing (I've read about Ivory soap flakes on a few sites, and cayenne pepper spray) to keep squirrels away without hurting the plants? Those bastards ate my best plant last night. I am so pissed. For right now I'm just putting the seedlings in a laundry basket with mesh over the top, but obviously they'll outgrow the basket before long. 3. Has anyone grown these particular seeds (Conquistador?) I am in the Northeast US and my friend who gave them to me is in the Northwest, and she has only grown them indoors. I have no idea how they'll do in this climate. For the past week we've gotten a fair amount of torrential rain and now it's sunny, so I'm hoping they'll have a growth spurt. 4. I'm unsure about sexing the plants. I have read SO much varying info about this that my head is spinning. Almost everything I've found online talks about hydro growing, how to make them flower by controlling the light, etc. I planted some of the seeds in early May and another batch last week (all part of the science project.) I've found absolutely nothing about how long it takes to tell the gender of plants grown outdoors in containers. Also, I can't seem to find a site with actual photos -- just drawings. I know this is the dumbest question ever, but can anyone recommend a site that shows good photos of male and female plants, particularly those grown outdoors? 5. Last but not least, I've only been able to find indoor instructions for drying. I would prefer not to buy a $300 bud dryer, and I have a tiny apartment so there's really no space to do this indoors. I'm wondering if I can just cut the plants down and hang them upside down in a shady spot on the terrace. Will they reek? Will they dry this way? Do I need to cover them in wet burlap sacks? Thank you so much for helping me sort out all the info and make my first grow a success!
1. Miracle grow equals either dead plants or small yields with low quality buds. 2. I would continue to use the basket for now. Also the cayenne pepper works only if the squirrels eats it. Its supposed to burn their mouth, so put it on something for them to eat. I mix dry cayenne pepper in with my bird seed. 3. I know nothing about that strain. sry 4. Your plants will show sex mid July to early August when growing outside. 5. You can hang them outside but they must be out of the sun (the darker the better) and out of the rain (the dryer the better), this also goes for the air. High humidity can cause bud rot. I have never heard of wet burlap sacks but I would think you want to stay away from this idea. Try using the search button in this forum. Also look at the stickies (these are the treads located at the top of every forum), these are great ways to get information.
That's what I've always used and I've never experienced either of those problems. Actually quite the contrary. And I've been doing this quite a while and while I'm not the expert I can tell you what I know from experience. In addition however. Don't try to use alot of Miracle grow for flowering. Find something with High Nitrogen. But it DOES work well for veg.
I disagree with you on that one. Unless your talking about starting the babeis off in MG soil. After A little while I know its pretty safe to transplant them in ferted MG soil.
5. Last but not least, I've only been able to find indoor instructions for drying. I would prefer not to buy a $300 bud dryer, and I have a tiny apartment so there's really no space to do this indoors. I'm wondering if I can just cut the plants down and hang them upside down in a shady spot on the terrace. Will they reek? Will they dry this way? Do I need to cover them in wet burlap sacks? You could cutem down and put them in a shed or something. With a fan blowing on them and shit.
If I had a shed, I'd do that. All I have is a small apartment with a terrace. I did start some of my seeds in Miracle Gro potting soil. Does that mean those plants won't be any good? I hope not because I have nine seedlings growing in it right now. Some are significantly bigger than others even though I planted them all the first week in May. Is that something to be concerned about, or should I just leave them alone? Oh, and sabre61fan, thanks for help with the sexing question. I know these questions are very basic, and I really did look them up before posting here. It's just that I've found SO much conflicting info. I'm friends with a few medical growers but they mostly grow indoors. The one who has grown outdoors planted directly into the ground. She's also in a very different climate. As such, the only people I know who have grown can't really answer my specific questions. Someone mentioned a nitrogen-rich fertilizer instead of the Miracle Gro fertilizer. If anyone wants to recommend a specific one, that's great, if not I'll figure it out myself. I really wanted to do one batch of plants using only the commercial products available at the local Home Depot, and one using only compost and worm castings. My organic plants haven't sprouted yet so I'll let you know in a few weeks how those turn out. At some point I'll figure out how to post pics here so this grow can be instructional to others! Thanks for helping a girl with her first garden, keep it coming, I appreciate it!
They're teeny little seedlings. I sprouted them and then planted them in the MG. Do I need to pull up these seedlings and start again? A couple of them are really thriving.
Man I guess just leave them in there if there doing good. I dont wanna give you fucked up advice but they usually die.
Not true, I've only used MG soil for indoor and outdoors and they do perfectly fine If you know what you are doing, MG soil will be fine
Where the fuck else would you be using it other than indoors and out? The ferts in the MG soil can burn seedlings and kill them. Nothing more to it than putting them in the soil. And if you think im gonna change what I said your wrong. It can kill them when there young like that.--nig
I think what he means is that he's grown both indoors and out, and he's only ever used MG soil. So far none of the ones I planted in MG have died. I planted them at the beginning of May. Most of them already have their first three-leaf fan leaves, two of them are getting their second set of fan leaves, one barely has its first two leaves that it gets after the seedling stage (not sure what's up with that one) and the rest (5 others) are somewhere in between. I sprouted all the seeds before planting and planted them on the same day. Is it normal for one or two plants to take off really fast and be bigger and healthier than the others? I'll probably transplant them all into MG Organic, just because I can buy huge bags of it at the closest hardware store and have them delivered (when you don't have a car and you live up several flights of stairs, this is a beautiful thing.) I got the worm castings in small bags at a farmer's market so I'll keep adding that as they grow. Is there a need to use any other fertilizers throughout the process with the MG organic/worm casting mix? Is leaf feeding better than just putting the castings over the dirt?
Exactly Im sure MG soil CAN kill seedlings just like any other soil brand but like I said, if you know what you are doing, MG soil is fine It is normal for plants to grow at different rates, my Satoris all sprouted and grew at different rates
Yeah, I've only heard bad and neutral things about MG. River Loam soil is the best way to go according to Jorge's bible. Also, males are generally more vigorous in growing than females.
I'm not sure how to post a pic or I would! However, it's going quite well. I have two plants that I started May 1, and they're about 3" tall now. I have two that I started May 15 which are just getting their first sets of three-pointed leaves. Then there are 10 little seedlings started about a week ago. We've gotten TONS of rain since I planted them. Yesterday and today were finally sunny and all 10 pots had their first or second sets of leaves! So far the seedlings in Miracle Gro and the ones in compost and worm castings look exactly the same. The two biggest ones (planted May 1) were started in regular Miracle Gro potting soil and they're doing just fine, thank god! My question at this point is how to camouflage them, since they're on my terrace. I live in a pretty hip neighborhood in a large city, and I know all my neighbors except the ones who just moved into the building next door. They can see my terrace from theirs. It's a young couple and they look pretty hip but obviously I would prefer to keep it from them if possible. I think I'm going to get palm trees, tomatoes, and basil and plant them in 5-gallon buckets and string Xmas lights all over them, and hide the plants behind that. They would be right up against the privacy fence that way, so provided they don't get too big or too stinky it's decent camouflage. The seeds I'm growing are Subcool Conquistador. I got them from a medical grower friend. If anyone knows anything about Subcool or these seeds in particular I would love to hear it! I can't find much info about them. I don't know how big they get outdoors in containers -- my friend has only grown them hydro in a cabinet. Thanks for any help you can give, and if you tell me how to post a pic, I will. Incidentally, I'm in NY, if anyone else here is growing outdoors in the beautiful Empire State, give a shout and let's compare notes!
And another question: right now I'm doing a lot of research about controlling the height of your plants, and like everything else there's a lot of conflicting info online. I would like to keep my plants as short and bushy as humanly possible. What are your preferred ways of doing this with container plants? Thanks so much guys...I can't believe how much they grew OVERNIGHT...this is so exciting! My little Conquistadors!
Two of my plants are just the right size to start LST. I've been reading all morning about LST vs SCROG but I can't find any examples of SCROG outdoors. Is there a reason why LST is better for outdoors? Thanks so much to everyone who has done the great tutorials on both methods, I've learned so much here, thank you!
Terrace gardens rule!! This is my second. It's a little on the shady side, but I'll still probably get about an ounce out of each plant. No Miracle Grow on these little beauties though!! I use Peruvian Seabird guano, Max-Sea Grow 16-16-16, 3D Organics OG Bloom and plenty of compost tea and of course molasses! Sorry for the low quality photos, they're off my laptop's webcam. You want to control height? Just tie 'em over. Start a little at time, young branches bend better than old ones. Just do a little, then a few days later pull them down a little more.
Well, here are a few pics of the grow thus far. Plants have now been transplanted into locally-produced organic potting soil with compost and worm castings. I've been buying it at a nearby farmer's market and the plants LOVE it! I have a couple of questions for you, of course. We've gotten a hell of a lot of rain in the last month. I haven't had to water yet! Although I'm thrilled my babies are getting rainwater, I'm worried that the nutrients are leaching out of the soil. I've been looking at fertilizers endlessly and trying to figure out if I should add one, which one, at what point, etc. Can I just keep adding compost and worm castings to the soil as they grow, and will that be enough?