Controllong Outdoor Height

GiovanniJones · Feb 11, 2020

Hi All,

I'm starting to plan my first serious backyard grow. I have these ordered:

CSI Humbolt's Purple Urkle s1 as well as Three Queens.
HSO's Black Dog
Dinafem's Blueberry Cookies and Strawberry Amnesia.

I basically will place four into my backyard, this May, one of each. The fifth, leftover strain, whichever that is, can go in my grow room.

I'm just thinking about how to limit the height of the plants to not attract too much attention. I might be wrong about these, but I can think of a few ways to limit plant height:

Use a pot instead of planting into the ground. Can I get a decent yield with a 25 or 30 gallon pot? Will this keep the plant smaller? Will the roots crowd too much by October?
Topping the plant, maybe manifold to 8 or 16 colas so that plants grow wider instead of taller.
Plant later in the season, like late-June instead of late-May. How big can they get in four months?
Any combination of the above.

I'd love to have four Christmas-tree sized plants in the back, and I'm allowed to do so, I'm just trying to attract less attention so that they don't get nabbed by pot thieves.

What would you do?

Thanks.

PhillyAlex · Feb 11, 2020

Just keep tying them girls down. Top them at the right times.

if you decide to go pots just pre drill alot of anchor points into the rim of your pots try to create that even canopy there will always be a few branches that one to be king of the castle.

ganga gurl420 · Feb 12, 2020

You can use the scrog method outdoors too along with topping.

GiovanniJones · Feb 12, 2020

Ok, sounds good. Top numerous times and keep the branches a bit separated to allow light inside by scrogging or tying branches to holes around the side of the pot. Cool.

GiovanniJones · Feb 12, 2020

Lol...

I was stoned when I put up my first post and swore I wouldn't make any embarrassing spelling mistakes. I just noticed one in the title of all places, lol.

PhillyAlex · Feb 12, 2020

GiovanniJones said:
Lol...

I was stoned when I put up my first post and swore I wouldn't make any embarrassing spelling mistakes. I just noticed one in the title of all places, lol.

It's okay I didnt even notice the title mistake. Good luck man with your grow

Citylimits · Feb 12, 2020

Someone had a thread on here last year and he had plants that produces upwards of 2 lbs im guessing and those plants were about 4 foot high planted in the ground. He just kept pulling them down over and over ended up with about a 8x8 or greater canopy less than 4 foot off the ground.

It wouldnt work for me as dew and humidity in that tight a canopy would be a sure recipe for mold on my area. But if the humidity isnt something you worry about by all means go for it.

PadawanWarrior · Feb 12, 2020

GiovanniJones said:
Ok, sounds good. Top numerous times and keep the branches a bit separated to allow light inside by scrogging or tying branches to holes around the side of the pot. Cool.

I would listen to @ganga gurl420. She grows some serious trees.

Cookie Rider · Feb 12, 2020

Like this. It was tied down to a few bricks and milk jugs with water in em.

Not my girl though. A master shared this with me to teach me the ways.
He was discouraging topping to control height because of the slowdowns and this was how he showed me a way to make it work without topping.

Whatever you do, don't start late.

Just Be · Feb 12, 2020

Use a very larger cloth pot, cut a hole in the side of it and place your plant in the hole that you cut. From there you can stake it down and let it grow sideways. You can place the pot at the outer edge of (or under) bushes so that it won't be seen.

TintEastwood · Feb 12, 2020

Timing. Do not start too early.

I learned lil bit hard way in 2017. Lol

GiovanniJones · Feb 12, 2020

TintEastwood said:
Timing. Do not start too early.

Cookie Rider said:
Whatever you do, don't start late.

So you can see why this is confusing for a rookie grower, lol!!!
Kidding aside, I'm really appreciating the support here! When should I germinate the seeds??

I don't have many pics of the plants I have outside last year, but they went out way too late due to crowding in my grow room.
Anyways, here's a pic of Laughing Lion by Lucky 13 seeds in BC:

I.G.Rowdit · Feb 13, 2020

As TintEastwood implied, planting time is the easiest way to control height.

A couple of years ago I planted (outside in a bed) one seed of Bubblicious on Mar 1, Apr 1, May 1, June 1 and July 1
At harvest time, mid-October plant sizes were:
Mar seedling - eight+ feet. Had to use a step ladder to reach the top of the plant
Apr seedling - six feet
May seedling - five-six feet
June seedling - three-four feet
July seedling - two-three feet

You might want to conduct a similar study to see what the growth rate is for your climate/soil etc.

GiovanniJones · Feb 13, 2020

I.G.Rowdit said:
As TintEastwood implied, planting time is the easiest way to control height.

A couple of years ago I planted (outside in a bed) one seed of Bubblicious on Mar 1, Apr 1, May 1, June 1 and July 1
At harvest time, mid-October plant sizes were:
Mar seedling - eight+ feet. Had to use a step ladder to reach the top of the plant
Apr seedling - six feet
May seedling - five-six feet
June seedling - three-four feet
July seedling - two-three feet

You might want to conduct a similar study to see what the growth rate is for your climate/soil etc.

That's really helpful info! I realize that genetics and grow environment are huge factors, but with your post I can see at least how length of grow affected plant size in your case.

You guys are awesome, thanks.

Funkentelechy · Feb 15, 2020

Plant sideways and tie the tops down horizontally along the ground as they grow.

GiovanniJones · Feb 15, 2020

Funkentelechy said:
Plant sideways and tie the tops down horizontally along the ground as they grow.

You know, I just might do that to keep them low.

JimyTheCook · Mar 3, 2020

I waited till bout 4 or 5 nodes high then superceopped main stem till it was at a 90° angle tied it off to btm of outside of pot to stop it standin back up kept doin that until was ready to plant in the ground.

Never topped it but as it was growin an wantin to stand up i kept pullin main stem back to the grnd no matter how many times i tied it dwn it wld keep standin up.

Once the side branches grew out enough i started spreadin them all out, over nxt cpl months i kept spreadin branches out wide to keep it all sround the same height until got to a point an let it do its own thing few extra adjustments along the way an bit of clearin out most of the smaller new growth underneath aswell.

Not the biggest plant out there but dnt see see why this way of doing it wuldn work on a plant twice the size.

Innob · Mar 3, 2020

Shouldn't need to top at all, just keep tying her down or make use of fishing sinkers for weights.

20-30 gallon pots would produce some pretty good sized plants if your gals can make use of the space.

JimyTheCook · Mar 3, 2020

Need some big sinkers

GiovanniJones · Mar 3, 2020

So I'll probably get my plants started in early April, take them out in late May, and probably plant them straight into the ground with some good living soil thrown into dugout holes. I figure that I can get a lot of growth in 6 to 7 months per plant outside.

I'll keep tying the growth against my fence sideways because it seems like the easiest thing to do.

Controllong Outdoor Height

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