My first outdoor grow - lessons learnt

[Wobster]

I decided to do a few plants geurilla style this year as my indoor grow got busted by the landlord lol. He was pretty sound about it but insisted I got rid of them

This log is basically to point out my errors in the hope that they dont happen to you guys n gals. I live by a very overgrown and rarely used footpath in the middle of nowhere in Wales, UK. About 300 meters down the track there is a barbed wire fence with heavy undergrowth and predominantley stinging nettles. Perfect I thought! No one would go into those nettles and they will be well disguised. I cleared a square meter of nettles right in the middle of the area. I planted some clones which I had hardened off.

First mistake.... I mixed some Blood Fish n Bone meal into the soil for nutrient purposes. Duh, stoopid. Went to check plants a few days later and they had been dug up and were lying on there sides. I paniced. 'Someones done this' I thought. Why did they leave the plants though. hmmm. I re-planted them and hoped 4 the best. A week later... they were dug up again. I sussed in the end that it was an animal and the animal was digging it up because of the Blood Fish n Bone meal. I replanted them and put some chicken wire on the ground and fixed it down with tent pegs to stop anything bieng able to dig them u. Also every time I went to see them I took a piss around the perimiter of the plants. This did the trick and they were ok.

They looked a little worse for wear each time they had been dug up but they soon got back to normal.

My second mistake lead to me harvesting very early. It was the fact that I'd planted it in the nettles. As autumn came all the nettles started dying. at first it wasnt a problem but when the plants had got about 4 weeks into flower, the nettles had pretty much all died. There they were... starkly obvious for anyone to see lol. I had to harvest them because they were huge and if anyone had walked down the path they would have stuck out like a sore thumb. They were big beautiful bushy green plants in the middle of a patch of brown wilting, dead, nettles. They couldn't have been more obvious.

Another mistake I made was the strain I used. Power Plant was great for indoor growing but not outdoor because the flowering time is 10 weeks. I should've got a faster flowering strain really.

Oh well... next year I will know a little more than this year...

If anyone has made mistakes on an outdoor grow that they learnt from.. please add them to this thread.. it could help us all out :thumbsup:

Wobster Reviewed by Wobster on 10-25-2008. My first outdoor grow - lessons learnt I decided to do a few plants geurilla style this year as my indoor grow got busted by the landlord lol. He was pretty sound about it but insisted I got rid of them :( This log is basically to point out my errors in the hope that they dont happen to you guys n gals. I live by a very overgrown and rarely used footpath in the middle of nowhere in Wales, UK. About 300 meters down the track there is a barbed wire fence with heavy undergrowth and predominantley stinging nettles. Perfect I thought! Rating: 5

[allrollsin21]

Hey thanks for sharing wobster. I did a similar thread on my first few indoor run mistakes a while back. It was a LOOOONG post:thumbsup:

I'm not sure the bandwidth would appreciate me going into my outdoor mistakes.

Although i did harvest a few plants too early because i was afraid the rain was going to cause bud rot. Sadly one of them was a monster mother bush God Bud that had huge colas, but had not really hardened up. Live and learn...

Another mistake was growing some outdoors in 4G containers which were definitely TOO SMALL.

I'll stop there as i dont want to get too embarrassed.

[Wobster]

Thanks 4 the input allrollsin21. Its just as important to share our mistakes as it is to share our success.

Something else I've noted from my little bit of experience growing outdoors:

I read somewhere that putting a few plants in with a maize field is a good way of geurilla growing. The idea is great as they will be shielded and hard to spot. However... if I'd have planted them I'm certain they would not have been ready by the time the farmer comes along to cut his crops. Someone might get a nice surprise in there cornflakes tho hehe. Maybe a different strain with a shorter flowering period would work with this. There is also ethical issues with planting on someone elses property.

Any more experiences welcome :rasta:

[stoned88911]

Ive seen some where, that when the leaves start to grow cut the ends of it off.

This is suposed to help make it not look like a pot plant

Might help next time so u can flower longer.

[Wobster]

Thanks 4 the tip stoned88911. It would definatley make the plant not as noticeable. I also think using LST, topping or bending is advisable when its on the vicinity of somewhere public. They have a habit of turning into a tree before you know it