Last year, I grew Sour Diesel and Blue Dream in my backyard (my first outdoor grow) using Roots Organics nutrients, and all the way up to late flower, my plants looked fantastic. But once fall started to roll around, oh my god, I had SO MUCH bud rot, I had six plants that by eyeing them should've yielded me a pound or two each, but I only got about a pound at the end of it all. The worst part was all my fattest buds got eaten up first, so I ended up with a pound of .5-1 gram nugs. How terrible... But lets not get our spirits down yet! I'm thinking about growing a sativa called Eldorado (100% sativa, 14 week flowerer) this year, I've been debating with myself what media I want to grow them in, soil or coco. Last year I simply dug some really big holes, and filled em up with Fox Farm's Ocean Forest, but I really don't like having plants in the ground, because I feel like the whole time I'm wasting loads of nutrients, and I can never properly gauge how wet the soil is deep down. I've been thinking of buying some 100 gallon Smart Pots (or Root Pots, basically the same, just a bit cheaper) and growing my plants in coco, since I've had such success with it in the growroom. I've also been thinking about growing some strains other than Eldorado, I've got a really nice GDPxOG kush cross, some XJ13, Green Crack, NYPD (a cross of Eldorado and an indica) and a Canadian indica, G's Pot. I've heard from growers in the area (SF Bay Area, East bay to be more precise) that sativas are less vulnerable to bud rot(due to an airier bud structure), and that's why I originally chose the Sour D and the Blue D, but unfortunately enough, that didn't work out. I'm divided between the Eldorado, because being a 100% sativa, according to the growers, should do well, or I should grow the Green Crack, and try to avoid the bud-rot season with it's early flowering time? or, as I've heard strains from BC (like the G's pot) are more hearty in general, should I grow that? should I grow some other fast-flowering indica instead and try to beat the mold season? What do you guys think, coco or soil? In the ground, or in pots? Organic? Strain? What are some other mold-resistant strains you know of?
Well last year in the bay area was shitty as hell. You could barely call it a summer and it was like overcast everyday so no surprise really that you got bud rot. This year it should hopefully turn around (or so the groundhog says) and I really don't see bud rot as much of an issue. HOWEVER, that 14 week sativa might not finish because by late October early November it can get pretty rainy/windy. Soil Ground, retains water better and keeps soil temps at constant temperature, pots can fluctuate with the weather Organic all the way baby, but that's just me 100% sativa might prevent against bud rot but it also might not finish early enough I'm pretty sure NL is mold resistant, but this year will be my first time growing it.
I forgot to mention, the pots I'll be using (if I use them) would be 200 gallon smart pots, so I don't think the drying will be an issue why soil? I'm just curious, as the main reason I was thinking of coco in the first place was to make my grow easier, so I wouldn't have to deal with mixing up a soil. The only reason I wanted to do non-organic was so I could just drip feed all my plants with the same 3-part I use in the growroom, and simply just change out a big rez. Mind you though, I'm not set on doing it this way, it just seemed simplest, so if you have a simple way of doing organics, please, do tell.
200 gallons?!?! That's like...9 bags of 3cu ft of soil...a little excessive for each plant? Or will they all go in this? My holes barely reach 20 gallons. I chose soil simply because that is what marijuana prefers...IMO. I've seen some great results with Coco, but I just do not enjoy the whole soak in warm water and then rinse thoroughly to get the salts out...Coco is more of a hydro medium because of its ability to hold water, HOWEVER, if you are to go with coco then definitely use the 3-part nutes you are using indoors because I think dry fertz don't do well with coco. How simple are we talking for organics? Organics is usually the more care/love the better the quality...but I guess that's like all thing in life.
well last year I gave each plant 9x 2 cu ft ocean forest bags, I simply dug holes for each plant. I'm trying to grow massive trees here, yes 200 gallons per. I've always wanted to grow hydro outside, it sounds like the best of both worlds, the growth speed and vigor of indoor plants combined with the light of the sun and BAM, I'm hoping I'm on to something here. Last year, I did use organics, Roots Organics, in fact, I had good results, but I kept feeling like if I had the precise control over the nutrient delivery (by being able to adjust things such as PPM easily), I felt like my plants could've been much larger, and with organics, (correct me if I'm wrong) you don't really have any way of measuring the nutrients, other than by gauging what went into the mixture, right? Oh, forgot to mention, I wouldn't use pure coco, I'd be using 50/50 coco and perlite and the simplicity, well how simple can I get my setup without sacrificing yield? if there were to be a mixture where I could simply mix it up at the beginning of the season, and simply water the plants to harvest, I'd totally be down. Part of the reason I've wanted to do coco outside is to simply satisfy my curiosity as to what the growth rates of outdoor plants in coco would be like. I haven't seen anyone else attempting it, thus increasing my interest in it. I also want to do 200 gallons, because the last thing I'd want the limiting factor to be would be my pot size. I mean, bigger pots never (seem to) hurt. oh and lastly, when I went to attempt to flush my outdoor plants last year, I realized how futile of a proposition that was, and if my plants are in pots, then I could flush them quite easily