well im glad to hear you were pleased with your results.
Im sorry you were not able to carry on your genetics. I know what its like cutting down that special pheno that you will probably never see again
.
Hopefully the seed you found is a female and you could save a clone or you could stumble upon another seed in your batch and successfully breed the two.
either way im glad to see you were successful with your grow.
I live in south eastern NC and I am planning a similar sized outdoor grow for the upcoming 2011 summer. I have experience indoors but have never grown outdoor in this region.
is there a particular strain you would recommend for our part of the south? I know besides animals and bugs the weather is usually an outdoor growers biggest obstacle to overcome. I know strain selection is crucial to the success of any garden so im hoping your experience with your strains could guide me in the right direction.
may your winter be shorter than last year and nugs grow fat as pumpkins
-Larry
Hey thanks for the kind sentiments Larry...I hope it's female and I can make clones too!
Thanks for the positivity; I sometimes think RIU is nothing but a collection of "mine's bigger than yours" kind of comments, so it's nice to get some feedback from someone with an active cranium and some original thoughts.
I know the area you're talking about, and you should be fine. If you decide to go with buckets or some large container for your plants, you should be fine no matter what you grow.
The biggest obstacle that I found was working with the native soil, and getting it to drain property.
Even after replacing the native soil with a much better soil mix, I lost over 60% of my young seedlings because the roots were drowning in mucky and never-drying soil.
The clay acts like a natural water barrier, where I planted at least, so even if you replace the soil, any excessive rain that comes will take several weeks to dry out. In the meantime, plants that are subjected to such supersaturation stunt and just spin their wheels; not growing and barely surviving.
I would recommend raised beds to you Larry. You'll get great drainage, the roots will be able to freely move, and your plants will grow larger because of it.
(do an ADVANCED SEARCH in the upper right hand corner if you need info on 'raised beds')
Also, a nice side benefit is that eventually watering at that one spot will slowly loosen up the clay soil below the beds, and allow the roots in the raised bed to eventually penetrate through the native clay hell...at least the first 6 inches or so. After the first 6-12 inches, the clay here at least is solid like a rock, virtually impenetrable, and the roots won't be able to penetrate.
But it's important that the roots are able to spread out laterally, and if the roots have a chance to penetrate the clay soil beneath the beds, they'll stretch and grow enough to give you more additional size and healthier plants.
As far as strains are concerned, you can grow a lot more than I could up north. The biggest thing you have to watch for are pure indica's, in my opinion. Indica's can have tight, dense nugs, and it's these kind of nugs that mold first.
I would choose a sativa/indica hybrid. Take advantage of the weather here, and grow something that will finish anytime in October, the last good month of growing we have here. Many Haze's take well over 10 weeks to finish. My G13/Haze could have probably gone another week if it were healthier, and I harvested October 10th. A pure sativa Haze would still be out in the fields as I write this, attempting to finish flowering.
You could pretty much grow anything here, but if you do go with a Haze, check to make sure it isn't a pure Haze, or it might not finish in time, even here in the Southeast.
Look for strains that are successful in wet/humid environments, as you know how hellishly humid it gets here in the summers. Sativa's can handle it, just be sure you don't get a strain that take 13 weeks to finish, or you might not. Also watch out for Kush strains. They are awesome, but often require drier conditions then we can give them outdoors here.
Good luck brother, and look forward to seeing your grow thread on here!
