Article - On Late Planting - Ed Rosenthal

[align=center]On Late Planting
Covert Gardening

Article Taken From: Heads (October 2004)
Written By: Ed Rosenthal[/align]
By late July, most outdoor growers have completed planting. In the warmest parts of the U.S. plants may have already been in the ground for as long as three months. Plants in northerly areas have likely been in terra firma for about a month. During this time, plants are vulnerable to hungry animals, rip-offs, and police. They have also required attention, including watering, fertilizing, trimming, and camouflaging as they grow into large beauties.

All of these problems serve as deterrents to many people who would like to grow in their backyard or garden but think the plants will grow into giants that are quite obvious. There is a path out of this garden dilemma.

The solution, growers have discovered, is to start late in the season. The plants grow for only a short time before the long nights and short days force them into flowering, when plants are placed outdoors in late July or early August, they only have a month or so of vegetative growth before they begin the flowering regimen. They ripen at about the same time as larger plants of the same variety that were in the ground earlier. They are outside for less time, are much smaller that most plants and do not fit the plant profile sought out by police or thieves.

Gardens that are planted late are also easier to camouflage. They can be outfitted with paper flowers, bent or kept as single stems. Because they are not monstrous in size, they are workable and controllable without too much effort. One grower read reports that agents are instructed to look for a certain color in identifying marijuana. He actually painted his plants with a thin flour water mixture. They looked a little gray or whitish from the air. He could have also added a bit of food coloring to the mix and given the leaves a tint. He said he couldnâ??t have done that with large plants.

Getting a Late Start

To start a late garden, seedlings or clones are grown so that they are about a foot tall are ready to be placed in their outdoor location around the first week of August. Indicas, early sativas and most domestics hybrids will begin flowering almost immediately upon being placed outdoors, and will reach a height of 2 to 4 feet at maturation. They will not be very bushy. If they are placed out doors in mid-August they will go into a faster flower and will not grow nearly as tall.

Plants that ripen later, such as equatorials and late Skunks, are transplanted even later in the seasonâ??late August through late September, about the same time they are usually triggered to flower by the daily dark periods of nearly 12 hours. Of course, these varieties can only be used in the southern tier, where there is no frost through the beginning of December or later.

Areas with no frost and warm winters, such as parts of Florida and southern California, can support plant growth throughout the year. During winter there is less than 12 hours of sun from September 22 until March 22. Both short and long season plants are forced to flower as soon as they are placed outside during this time of year. In Hawaii, these are called 60-day wonders, but they can be grown in some other places.

Once indica plants reach a flowering threshold, they may stop most branch growth and quit getting taller, placing their energy into reproductive growth in the form of flowers. They remain very small. When they are placed in the ground, indica plants should be at least half the size that is desired at harvest.

Sativa plants, which grow in equatorial regions, respond very slowly to light cues. This is because there is little change in the number of hours of light throughout the year at zero latitude. Speaking from experience, these plants typically donâ??t respond to light cues until the light cycle reaches 14 hours of darkness. This makes them impractical for all but the most southern part of the U.S. where they will ripen during December or January.

Sativas are useful as winter crops in subtropical areas. If they are planted in early August they will continue to grow and may reach a fairly large size before they begin to flower. But when they are planted after September they will begin to flower while continuing to grow. They ripen by late January or early February and will be somewhat shorter than if they were planted earlier.

Indica/sativa hybrids continue to grow vegetatively to varying degrees during the early stages of flowering. Even a relatively small clone planted in early August can grow into a small bush by the time it is ripe. When sativas are planted after September, they will immediately start to flower, but will also continue to grow a little, increasing their size by 50 to 100 percent.

Both indicas and indica/sativa hybrids are good candidates for late summer planting. The indica grows compactly until it makes a transition to flowering growth. The indica/sativa hybrid continues to grow while it flowers. As both types remain relatively small, they are not so easily spotted from the air. Even they are, they may not be recognized because the spotters looking for larger plants.

Moving Indoor Plants Out

Plants relocated in the middle of the summer face peak stresses. Itâ??s hot; the sunâ??s light is intense and includes high levels of ultraviolet (UV) light. This is the part of the sunâ??s rays that cause tanning and sunburn. If the plants have been grown outdoors for transplanting they will not have a hard time adjusting to their new location.

Indoor plants are protected from this intense UV light. When exposed to the summer sun, they burn. This can kill the plants. Plants that have been grown indoors should be exposed to sunlight gradually. They can be hardened over a period of a week to 10 days by gradually introducing them to sunlight. The regimen should start with shaded light followed by weak morning or late afternoon light and work up to intense midday light. A shade cloth can also be used to help them adjust. Cloudy, rainy periods are an especially good time to transplant both indoor and outdoor plants.

Shade cloth is available in various percentages of shading. A 30 to 50 percent shade cloth would help make the transition much less stressful for tender plants. It can be removed once the plants have adjusted. Spray-on anti-transpirants are available at garden shops. They cover the stomata so the plant releases less water and becomes less stressed. These products are made especially for this use and are very effective.

The soil into which the plants are transplanted should be moist so the roots do not dry out when they touch it. Garden shops sell water-holding crystals that are added to the soil mix. These expand up to 200 times their dry size when they are moistened. As the soil dries, they release the water. Gardeners using these crystals may need to water only half as often.

Plants that are bushing out too much can be pruned so that the plants do not have hte usual shape. One way of changing plant shape is to knock down the main stem when it has reached a length of 3 to 4 feet. The new growth immediately changes its pattern as a result of hormones in the plant.

Indoor varieties of marijuana can be planted in light shade outdoors. Their growth will vary depending on the variety and degree of the shade. Northern Lights and Early Pearl fall into this category. Skunk #1, which is a very popular indoor-outdoor variety, ripens mid-seasonâ??around September 25 in the southern U.S. and October 15-30 in the northern states and southern Canada. Crossed with the Durban series of Early Pearl it will ripen earlier. Hybridized with these two, it can tolerate light shade. When it is crossed with Haze or a late indica, its flowering will be delayed by several weeks.

Many varieties donâ??t grow into the traditional marijuana plant shapes. They grow bushy, into low-growing shrub, or have other unique forms. These are easy to set in a garden situation. When they are planted out late these smaller versions are even easier to manipulate as a form of camouflage.

Although large outdoor gardens with big plants have become things of the past for the most part, plants are still being grown outdoorsâ??either individually or in small groups. They are not as impressive to look at in the field, but the buds are the same high quality as the ones from the larger plants.

Bumping this one to answer some of my own questions. Perhaps it should be in the outdoor section though.