Well, I finally achieved my goal for the first half of 2011 and that is becoming a patient, as well as beginning my first grow. I am looking for basically, the absolute best nutrients/soil/anything else I might need to assist me with my outdoor grow. I have read different opinions from different people, so I am simply going to ask here for the hands down BEST option for me. I live in Las Vegas and the summers here get to 115 F for a few months. Are there any tips you guys can give me for this time period? How often will I be needing to provide them the nutrients? Watering? I am pretty new to this, but I am looking to learn everything the correct way so that I can make this grow worth it. Thanks a ton for any help you guys can throw me, it is always appreciated. For an example of how hot/dry it often gets, I have to water my grass (sprinklers) anywhere from 3-4 times per day to keep it from dying over this span.
The desert heat is tough. I would go with an equatorial leaning strain that's used to the heat. Hazes usually perform well at those temps, but i would definitely avoid strians from high in the Kush mountains where the plants have evolved to handle cool weather. The highland Afghani's wont like the heat. If you grow a strain with afghani, the lowland affies, kandahar region or lowland pakistani, north indian strains are used to hot temps. Strains that contain Nepalese, kashmir or Hindu kush are off of the table for you. MR.NICE seeds uses lowland affies in their haze crosses and their strains are very high quality. African strains handle heat well. Afropips sells a Nigerian and Malawi both of which grow in daytime temps exceeding 100 degrees. Jungle sativa's such as punto rojo, Thai, or Cambodian may suffer from the low humidity. YOure going to have to do something to keep from watering more than 1x per day and thats a lot. If you grow in a pot, the constant watering is going to leach any nutes from your container and cause salt to build up - problems. There are self watering smart pots. You might research them. Bigger pots hold moisture better than small,
Well, for my first grow I have 6 bag seed and I will be purchasing 2 clones from a local service. Their clone availability is as followed: Sour Diesel, Lavender, OG Kush, Chemdog, White Russian, Afghani x Skunk #1, and Koosh Kush. I prefer uplifting sativas, out of my options for the clones which two would be my best options for this weather? I don't mind watering in smaller portions, more frequently throughout the day? I have 6 family members who can help me with this, so having everything maintained and kept up is the least of my issues. I simply am lacking the knowledge to even know how often to water them in the desert,an how often to put in nutrients (and what kind). Price is not a large issue by the way!
Sour diesel and Chemdog - both are potent as hell and give a big yield grown properly. I would be hesitant about the kushes.skunks and afghani's in your enviroment. Water? This is an easy one. Get a pot and put some of your dirt in it. Go to lowes or on line and get a "moisture meter" which are 10 bucks, sit your pot outside in the sun and see how quick it says "dry" on your meter. Look at the soil and feel it when you get the "dry" reading and soon, you will have a feel for the dirt and the need for water and under what conditions. Your plant is the best indicator of its needs..... and the big shade leaves on the plant are its "canary in the coal mine. Watch those big leaves carefully. If there is deficiency of anything, the plant will begin to yellow and discard those leaves in an effort to protect the growing tips. If you see the primary leaves begin to yellow, they need nutes or water or something, but they are your keys.
Awesome, I was hoping those two would be OK as I really enjoy both and was actually planning for them (haha). I will be grabbing one of those undoubtedly, should I simply water it every time it goes dry? Or what? Thanks for that tip as well-I did not know about it. I will be looking out for that. Do you know what soil is best for me to purchase? How about nutrients? Price isn't an issue, and I also have a Hydro store, Lowes, Hope Depot, and Wal Mart no more than 5 minutes away from my house if that is beneficial. I am also curious, do you think I should go with pots? I can grab an extremely large size for the roots and everything, but what size is the largest I will need? Thank you SO much for your responses, I am learning a lot!
If you think it'll be beneficial for you to be able to move your plants, then go with pots. You should consider whether you have a good spot to plant in the ground and how much time you can devote to watering/checking on them.
Well, they will rarely be moved if they are, but I feel it would make more sense especially considering I do not know what has been put in the dirt below it, and I have a jacuzzi right next to it (10 feet away), so I do not want to risk there being chlorine in the ground or anything. I will use pots, what size is ideal and will not need to become any larger? I can check up on them over 100 times each day, I have 6 family members who can routinely help me if need be. Checking up on them/time is the least bit of my issues.
You want to get a pot as big as possible really. The more room it has the more it'll grow. Some people will use 50 gallon buckets. IMO it's best to start your seedlings in a small pot or peat moss pot, then transfer to a second pot (1-3 gallon), then a third pot (5-50 gallon). This makes the root structure much better. But if you don't want to do a lot of transfering, one transfer is enough, or none at all. Burying your pot in the soil is also a very smart move. You won't need to water it as much and it will maintain a better temperature than if exposed to air around the pot.
Can I simply switch them from a 1 gallon one into a 30? Or would it be way more beneficial to switch them slowly in increments? As for burying the pot, I have heard that elsewhere as well-thanks for confirming it. I plan to do that for sure, especially because it is extremely hot outside during the summer. Does anyone (including you, haha) reading this know which soils and nutrients I should pick up? The absolute best possible of course, I really want to pick all of this stuff up within the next few days.