I'm curious at what stage in flowering/budding would everyone consider putting their plants under a tarp? My outdoor plants are two weeks into flowering and I am expecting about a day of rain soon. Every year I struggle with mold and I am not having it this year. I have a tent near my setup and am not positive if they are developed enough to even get mold. Thanks!
I am also curious about this. I'm a little ahead of you, but no big dense flowers yet. Sent from my HTC6545LVW using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Another issue I have is that 1 of my 4 plants has roots that went through the pot into the ground. I'm not sure if I should leave the plant to probabaly get mold or rip it out and put it under the tent.
I tented my 11' bush when the rainy weather came. I took great care to try to keep the tarp off the plant and I put various fans under the plant to try to circulate the air but I still had a fair amount of rot. Folks need to know more about your climate/circumstances in order to give you informed advice but basically I'd tarp them when there's rain and no hot daytime weather to dry them out. Also depends so much on how rot resistant that strain is in terms of bud density and genetic vulnerability. Tarping will create a bad situation with humidity, which could end up being worse than getting rained on if you don't manage that.
You seriously still had rot even when putting them under a tarp? That's crazy! Assuming the tarp if a few feet above the plants and not enclosed, how is that even possible? I wouldn't have the tarp wrap down the sides of the plant or anything; the tarp would simply just be over them, keeping an open area to the sides. I'm hovering at 50-80% humidity this entire week. Expecting <10 hours of consistent rain between Saturday and Sunday. The plants are just over 2 weeks into flowering/budding. I'm not sure if it's even worth putting them under the tarp yet. The buds are forming but not 100 % dense yet. Thanks for the reponse.
Ya, well it was an 11' plant and I was dealing with wind and rain. There's no way I could keep water off of it without covering the sides but again, I mostly kept it from touching the plant. If you can avoid covering the sides, more power to ya. This was an attempt to hold it for another week until I had the time to harvest. It's that high humidity that'll kill you, in my opinion. That said, knowing you're only 2 weeks into flowering (about the same timeline as my outdoor plants) I think you'll be fine. The other danger I encountered was water on the plant makes for very heavy branches that'll break if they aren't supported. If you don't have support figured out already, now is a good time.
I do have a few stakes back in the woods, so that is less of a concern for me right now. And yeah, this week looks to be mostly 50-80% humidity with 70-75 degree days. In the past I had Greenhouse AMS (anti mold strain) and even those started to get mold within the last 2 weeks of budding, so I had to chop those early. Because there is less than a day of straight rain (which can still be a lot of water), I will hold off of putting these under the tarp. I may end up waiting until the last 2 weeks to do so if there looks to be consistent heavy rain. Also, what do you think about the plant that has roots going through the pot into the ground? I may just have to leave that one and never attempt to put it under the tarp.
Here are a couple pics of the horror show. It was super stressful. I think it'd probably be fine to move the plant that has roots growing out of the pot but maybe not if there are a ton of roots going out.
Lmao you literally just laid a tarp over it hahahaha. I actually have a long rope hanging between two trees out in the woods. I thought you had also done something similar. I don't even understand how so many people grow outdoors and get no mold. It makes no sense. I don't believe for one second all these people grow outdoors and it just happens to never rain on their plants. There is no way they get away with no rain....how do all these people's plants survive with no mold?
Well it's supposed to start raining soon. It will be on and off for 12 hours and I'm still not sure if I should cover them. They are almost 3 weeks into budding.
I live in a desert. I get very little rain. I never get mold. It's very windy here too so even powdery mildew isn't usually an issue.
No, I had the tarp draped over a 9' outdoor umbrella which was secured so that it was a couple of feet over the plant then I had a couple of 7' step ladders on sides to drape the tarp over so that it didn't touch the plant on the sides. Then I had some 2x4s arranged in other areas to keep the tarp off the plant. Finally, I had it staked out on the sides to keep it as open as possible along with fans to move air in and out of the tented area. So there wasn't any plant-tarp contact.