OK so I've been thinking about doing a very large outdoor grow this coming spring 2009. I tried growing a blueberry plant this summer. Actually, I had 5 seeds and 1 survived, then it died too after being raped during a thunderstorm. So I'm thinking about getting 20 fems from dr.chronic as usual, then cloning each one once to total 40 plants. Still haven't decided on the strain but I'm open to suggestions. Anyway this time I want to be prepared. I've been looking at places to grow with Google Earth and decided a local ravine would be best. I took a hike there today to plan which spots would be ideal, since there won't be much overgrowth in the spring. The hike was exhausting to say the least, and the fact that I'll have to make 20 trips there with huge bags of compost got me re-thinking my strategy. Instead of guerilla growing the plants randomly placed throughout the ravine, I'm thinking of bundling the plants in groups of 4-5 plants. Not only would they be easier to manage, but from an aerial view they would look like big bushes. Plus they could support eachother in the event of another bad storm. My main concern is the plants getting spotted by a helicopter. The area itself is closed off to regular people, but it's out in the open from an aerial view. What do u guys think of my strategy? And how about this: If I put all 40 of the plants in one bigass bundle, they would look like a huge growth of bushes in that area. And if I top them, they'd look even bushier. I've seen videos of helicopters looking for plants and they only look for tall dark specs, not huge bushes. So any suggestions would be great. =) Keep an eye out for my grow this summer, I'll definitely post pics.
I would highly recommend you check your grow site with this web site... It is much better than google earth... http://maps.live.com/ Use the bird's eye view for incredible images...
40 plants in one spot equals jail time or atleast some serious rippage unless you live in the middle of nowhere. govt has people trained in viewing paths and other signs of growing. keep your plots small about 5 to maximum 10 plants in a plot and stake them up if the wind and storms are a concern. paint the stakes or find a way to make them camoe in with the surrounding vegetation. dont make paths so you will need to stick the ladies in the ground to minimize the amount of times between watering. i find that if they are in the ground, once or twice a month will sustain them and they could probably go longer wihtout water/nutes if you use perlite, vermiculite and other stuff in your mix. you could use dry fertz as well. also, if you are ordering seeds and your going to clone them anyways, id say just order the regular seeds and not the fems. the reason is they do tend to hermie on you and if you going to clone anyway, just germ the seeds and grow them to a reasonable height, then sex them, discard the males, or keep them for pollen for future crops, then plant your clones when they are about a foot tall. make sure you dig large holes and fill with good stuff. trust me, the more work you put in to lugging stuff, trust me i know it sucks, the more product you will get.
You're right, much better then google earth. Bird's eye view is awesome. The pic image is more recent then google earth. maps.live is from, best guess, Aug., 07. ( I can see my garden)
Thanks greenmeany, your advice is much appreciated. I'll be away working at random intervals during the summer so my next question is when should I expect the plants to show sex if I choose the non-fem seeds? From what I understand they show sex when the light nears 12/12.. which is in August. I just need to make sure I'm here to kill the males so they don't bone all the females haha . And if I did in fact get the fems, would the clones also be feminized so to speak?
12/12 is how indoor growers set their timers and had nothing to do with outdoor growing. You are a little confused. Read my links on Sexing and Outdoor Flowering. Good luck with your big grow.
I just read all of your links, very helpful i must say. In terms of seeds I'm probably going to choose Kiwi 2-pounder and something exotic.. wait for them to show sex, then kill all males except one. Thanks to you I know how to sex them now I won't be putting them in large clusters either, as tiring as it may be. Now I just need to figure out where to harvest the plants... I'm currently living with my parents unfortunately, but I might have an apartment by next summer.
Regarding the amount of watering you won't get away by doing so just once or twice a month unless you grow in rich soil with frequent rain (and with frequent I don't mean just 1/2 inch weekly) Large growing plants - like the Kiwi Seeds 2 Pounder as you listed - require minimum 2 Gallons of water due to their sheer size every 2 days from about 3 months into growing outside... So good luck with the watering if your spot is a PITA to get to (which it should be). Or alternatively find a new one close to a natural water source.
Its before 21 july for sure because theres still people playing sport at my old school and theyre wearing the colours so... Also i did a lot of revising outside in the summer for exams i had, and i can see myself haha. D.
It's all good man I'll be traveling back and forth every week.. I don't mind putting time into my grow. The 2-pounder is supposed to be an early bloomer, yet it's a sativa. Do you think I would be safe growing that strain in southern Ontario? I have a project due tomorrow and all I can think about is growing.. this is gonna be the longest school year of my life
buying all female seeds is expensive and then you have to clone. if you buy unsexed seed you can put a few plants aside and get more seed out of them than youll ever use.
Well what I figure I'll do for drying is construct a drying box of some sort and put it in my basement. Then I'll selectively harvest the plants as they're ready so that I don't have too many at once. I got the idea from Hottbody. I'm not worried about the amount of work involved, I love projects like this so trimming is the least of my worries. I'm also now planning on buying regular seeds as opposed to fems, for the sexing fun and plus I would hate to wait on a hermie..
I just got back from prepping my spots for the first time this year and am getting excited, too. School is more important, though, and take care of all of that business first. I would not recommend growing a Sativa that far north. Get seeds for your area, it will help you out big time. For Ontario, I would suggest the fastest flowering outdoor strain you can find, at least for the bulk of your plants. You can always grow a few exotic ones, but I wouldn't have that for the main strain. Myself, I'm looking at Mr. Nice's Early Pearl X Skunk, going to order them today, I'm totally late this year, but just decided to get back in the game after taking a few off. About watering, dig deep ass holes. The plant can throw roots out easily laterally, but they have a harder time the farther down in the soil they go. And that's where they need to be in order survive low amounts of water. Get a good workout that day. Vermiculite helps with that too, eventually it gets squished down and quits working well, but it is fine for a single outdoor crop. And if you think you are going to be drying the crop from a few trees of cannabis in your parents house without them knowing about it you are wrong. You can construct an outdoor drying shed, it's exactly what you are thinking in your head right now, just a small shack with shelves and holes, raised off the ground. Good luck and have fun.