tricks for safely growing outdoors

[nitepharmer]

Oldtimer made it his business to create a method to grow safely outdoors.
This is what he learned.

Prepare your sites late in the fall
Buy the best seeds at the internet mall
Grow them indoors till eight inches tall
Then plant them outdoors hardly visiting at all
And you'll be rewarded with a great haul

There is a hell of of a lot more to than that, but that would be a book, if anybody has questions or imput, fire away.

[bejay]

Prepare your sites late in the fall
Grow them indoors till eight inches tall

would agree with these 2 and preparing your sites in the fall is optional but is a good time if your mixing alot of soil amendments that needs time to breakdown.
wouldnt recomend anyone spending alot on seeds if you are using seedlings outdoors, as you can have a very high plant loss outdoors and a pack of ten seeds doesnt go far by the time you factor in losses from various causes and probably not a perfect germination rate to begin with, and some will be males its just not worth it unless you are vegging a mother indoors for an endless supply of clones.
if you think you are going to put out plants and hardly ever visit them you probably will come back and find no plants at all, at the very least you need to visit them until they get well established and there is no chance of local weeds smothering them out, while plants can survive very dry conditions if you want good growth and yield you will have to water occasionally in dry times and of course you will have to sex the plants so you will not have a bunch of seeds.

[nitepharmer]

Your point is well taken bejay, I learned the hard way how to have a high success rate on outdoor plants. First I live in an area that is fantastic for farming so my unattended plants thrive here. I have all kinds of little tricks I do in my fall prep that make my little seedlings very happy and likely to survive. That is not the case in other locations with inexperienced outdoor growers who don't know my tricks. Second cloning is easy and really is a preferred method to obtain maximum quality and consistancy in plants. But it does take a much more sophisticated indoor op to grow clones. For growers that are indoors considering an outdoor grow, your method makes all the sense in the world. Female seeds are now three bucks a pop, and my success rate outdoors is 80%. I average a half pound per plant so the seed cost is nothing to me. Down the road I'll go the clone route, not to save money but to raise the quality of my product from very good to excellent. Female seeds can't compete with a preserved elite clone.

[unclebob]

Hey nitepharmer,

Yes you can get excellent results outdoors by visiting very few times if you live in an area with average or above average rains. Like the SE US for example were you can have great results. Also I have a cuz in upstate NY who gets pretty good results. Not only can you do it this was but in my opinion its the best and safest way to do it. It does require special attention to choosing site locations and special considerations in preparing beds. Also I agree that all beds should be prepared in fall not only to allow time for amendments to compost, but also so when you come back several months later to pop em in, you can be in and out in 2-3 minutes. That way, even if you got so unlucky that someone sees you and decides to call the cops you would be long gone by the time the call was dispatched to a catr and they
arived. Obviously the bed should be in a place where the chance of being seen is nealy zero to begin with.

I suggest the following schedule:
1. prepare in fall
2. pop em in immmidiately after last frost in order to get the most growth time possible. apply 20 oz water around each one a plant time.
3. come back 2-3 days later to water a second time. (2/3 minutes)
4. Come back 3-4 weeks later to remove competing weeds. (again, quick in and out, like 2-3 minutes)
5. come back in another 3 weeks to weed again. (quick)
6. Come back at the time to pull males or better yet plant clones and/ or fem seeds) I have not tried the fem seeds yet but I am considering them as a better alternative. If you are using plants from standard seeds, plant one "indicator" in mid summer in a small hole close to home so you can watch this instead of visiting productive beds over and over.
7. Come back when indicaor tells you its time to cull and when it tells you its time to harvest.

Steps for prparing beds that will not require tending:
1. Location:
- should be full or almost full sun
- should be an upland area with good air circulation not a lowland area or flood plain
- better on a slight slop than flat

2. Preparation of beds
- Dig deep (10 inches) and turn several times. Remove all live roots, sticks, rocks or other debris
- add one inch layer of mulch from surrounding area like dead leaves, dead grass or weeds, pine straw etc. Then turn in in to a depth of 8 inches.
- add a layer of either peat ot quality dry plant mix at about 1/2 - 3/4 cubic feet for each bed of 2.5 X 5 feet (holds two fems or 3 unknown sex plants)
then turn it down to 6 inches.
- add lime at a rate of 5 tablespoons for each bed of this size if your soil is naturally a bit acidic (low PH).
- add 1/2 dose of timed release ferts
- add water crystals at a rate of 1.3 times recomended application rate.
- turn again to 6 inches and cover bed with natural mulch, sticks branches etc.
3. Come back in spring, quickly remove mulch, lightly rake in full dose of timed release ferts with small garden claw or similar. Pop in plants with a trowel. cover area with mulch. Get in and out quick , like 2-3 minutes.

Good luck
bob

[nitepharmer]

Now you're talking, if I did all that I'd average a full pound per plant, not one half pound per plant. I used to have to return all the damn time for weeding, in just about the timing you prescribe, but then I tried something new. In the fall when I turned over the dirt and added amendments I placed over the area some landscape fabric. I saved enough dirt to cover the landscape fabric with a one inch covering. Over all that I dumped a few bags of fall leaves to 1)make it look like no one was ever there, 2)hold in moisture and 3) block the damn weeds with another layer. A little dirt spinkled on top of the leaf layer kept them from blowing off during high winds. I emphasize this because grasses are so damn fast in growing back. They have roots going down up to five feet and removing them all is damn near impossible. Grasses out compete surrounding vegetation by grabbing all the nitrogen out of the soil faster than competing plants. Marijuana loves nitrogen and will be stunted if it has to compete with surrounding grasses.
I found hauling in good organic fertilizers to my great spots in the middle of nowhere was a back breaking job. I'm a bit lazy and I never hauled in enough. Then I discovered how to find great spots that don't need much help to grow great plants. I don't care where you live creek bottoms have great soil and are close to the water table. I've discovered the best time to look for new sites is mid summer. At that time of year if I come across rich thick head high grasses of multiple species I've found a great growing spot.
There are no rules of thumb of how to grow outdoors like there is indoors, because everywhere is different. Each outdoor grower learns about the envirement he grows in and finds a strain that loves it there.

[unclebob]

Hey again Nitepharmer,

That trick with the landscape fabric sounds excellent. I don't know why I never thought to try that but I think I will have to give it a go. Like you said there is more than one right way to get good results and every grow is a different set of conditions. I think that fabric might be a good addition to any small gro site.

bob

[O'Dweeds]

do you guys put up chicken wire? How do you guys keep mammals and insects away?

[nitepharmer]

The thing about outdoor growing is its different everywhere, so what works for me may be bad advice for you. I'm just a very cautious small timer and that is what I preach for others to be. If you want to learn all the options I suggest you do what I have done, read everything there is under outside growing at the big marijuana grow forum sites. The best site was overgrow, it was in canada and got raided and closed down, now the best forum is over at seed boutique. I'm just a big fish in a small pond over here, lol, those boys are the best breeders in the world, many of them have forgotten more than I know.
Back to your question, I strongly suggest you put nothing man made what so ever around your plants. People will walk right by them not noticing them 19 times out of 20 if you do that. Stong healthy fast growing girls started indoors are able to fend for themselves. I derisively call the inbred indoor plant strains poodles, you want a fucking wolf dog if you are going to release it to the wild. The real breeders of outdoor pot sell you F1 hybrids that grow like bamboo when started right. Plants that struggle outdoors are the ones the deer munch and the bugs swarm over. Hybrid vigor, a well known plant and animal breeding fact, states that children resulting from parents that are on opposte ends of the species gene pool will be healthier and grow larger and faster. Many of the best strains for the outdoors are a mix of an indica and a sativa. When some indoor operation out of the Netherlands sells you a well known strain that goes back twenty years, theres a damn good chance its a poodle. I like that hybrid vigor thing, I wish it was shoved in the face of a few racists, lol.
Lots of outddor rookies get the bight idea of growing in some local forest preserve. Don't. Get in your car and drive one hour out of Dodge and then start looking. There are three reasons for this. 1)everyone goes for walks where its nice and pretty and public 2)forest rangers make it their business to find all the grow ops in the public woods and 3) The fucking deer are grossly over populated there and munch every living growing thing they can reach.
A lot of outdoor grows out californy way have to surround their grow with chicken wire, I don't. I always amend the soil in the fall because critters dig where they smell people. I guess the smell of us means there might be edible garbage there. Stay away from bone meal, blood meal, and the fish emulsion fertilizers unless you want your precious girls dug up. hope it helps

[bejay]

dont usually have much of a problem with insects but you can probably expect to lose a few plants to animals if you do nothing, and chicken wire is probably the best deterent but it does make the plant stand out a little more, but if theres any people that walk by its not a good spot to begin with and probably will get found especially later as the plant gets bigger the small ring of wire is not that noticable once the plant gets bigger as it tends to get covered up as the plant grows.
once the plant is established and out of the seedling stage about 2 foot tall alot of animals will no longer mess with them and you can probably remove the wire at that point if you wish.
usually dont have a problem with deer but if there is an overpopulation of them or more than the land can support they probably can be destructive.
while I have used wire and can say it helps alot I usually dont bother and just accept a few losses and keep replacing them as I go one other thing that seems to help with animal problems is not to place plants out to early I will wait a good 3-4 weeks after last frost.

[unclebob]

I never have any problems with animals at all. Perhaps it's because my spots are not exactly in nature presearves. Without going into specific locations, lets just say that they are all in places where I can park fairly close and not have to walk real far to get into them. There are a few deer around this area, but I never had any major problem with them. Maybe just lucky. Sure I loose a plant or two from time to time for various reasons, but never use any deterent like wire or sprays or anything like that.

bob

[O'Dweeds]

i don't have to worry about people seeing them. that's actually something i don't consider because I truly live in the middle of NOWHERE. just so long as they stay out of sight of any aircrafts. Again very unlikely. So, i'm prepared to take every precaution possible. Hell if it'd help i'd spoon feed them gerber lol

[nitepharmer]

Seems like guerilla growers have one of two problems too many people or not enough water lol