How many plants are manageable?

Grenwall

Active Member
I plan to grow outdoors in my backdoor woods (yes it's secure, and not visited) once it's grow season next year. I would like to know how many plants is manageable by ONE person. Say I was willing to go in those woods 3-4 times a week, for a max amount of time of 2 hours each day. I know the majority of the work is getting the place setup with digging holes, bringing in the soil, etc. Never grew outside before so I have no idea what to expect. But the time it is grow season I will have gone through at least one indoor harvest, and have clones ready. I've watched numerous videos and read multiple guides, but none really cover how many you should go for.

Any help is appreciated.
 

Dboi87

Well-Known Member
I would say the biggest factor is water. Do you have to lug water out there manually? Is there a water source nearby?
 

Grenwall

Active Member
I would say the biggest factor is water. Do you have to lug water out there manually? Is there a water source nearby?
Water would be SUPER close. The woods have a creek running through it. I plan to just get two hoses, and a manual water pump, pump water into a container, water, and repeat. I say super close as I don't have to haul it far, furthest distance from the creek is probably half a mile.
 

Dboi87

Well-Known Member
It may be more work than you think... but you live and you learn.

I'd say do as many as you feel is safe. If for whatever reason you decide "fuck all this shit" concentrate on just the plants you feel are best. You won't really know how labor intensive your setup will be until you give it a go.

Sometimes I find even just 6 plants inside a pain in the ass...
 

TWS

Well-Known Member
yea six is plenty to handle come harvest . if things go right that's an easy 2 p a piece.
 

Grenwall

Active Member
It may be more work than you think... but you live and you learn.

I'd say do as many as you feel is safe. If for whatever reason you decide "fuck all this shit" concentrate on just the plants you feel are best. You won't really know how labor intensive your setup will be until you give it a go.

Sometimes I find even just 6 plants inside a pain in the ass...
I understand it would be more work as it is a outdoor plant (longer grow period, and high yields). This is the main reason why I am asking how many is manageable. I'm trying to stay in the middle between quality and quantity. Obviously going for the most plants would result in lower quality, lower yields as I would neglect many of them if I can't get to them within my 2 hr limit. Going for say 2 plants would achieve monster buds as I would be pooring all my time into JUST those two. I would like a project to keep myself busy so I can start going outside more.
 

Dboi87

Well-Known Member
Which is why I suggested start with what feels safe and if it proves too much concentrate on only your best plants. My first grow I started with 48 seedlings. My final number was 6 at harvest.
 

TWS

Well-Known Member
Shoot, I could grow and support fifty in two hours if it was all organic and drip feed. The most work would be supporting them and preventative bug control. Come harvest time though no Fing way. Fing 10 this year was to much.
 

Dboi87

Well-Known Member
Trimming is a whole other beast. I'm guessing by his post he isn't as set-up savvy as you so most of his work would be manual.

Either way you can't really go wrong shooting for the moon and adjusting along the way. Chances are you end up in a nice spot anyways
 

BWG707

Well-Known Member
It really depends on well you want to take care of them. I had a small backyard garden and it quickly became overwhelming. I was busting my ass almost everyday. But I was attending to every problem that came up. You can easily throw some plants outdoors and water them when needed and let them do their thing, but they will more than likely yield much less and not be as potent or maybe not make it to harvest at all. Most people new to growing dont have any idea as to how much work is actually involved if you want to do things right. I was definitely surprised. That's the big difference- do you want to do it right? Or do you want to just let the plants go?
 

Dyna Ryda

Well-Known Member
Having a quality medicinal garden is a lot of work. Legally I can grow 14 and that takes up a lot of time. I've never added up the time but I'm guessing 10-15 hours a week. It gets easier as you get more experience though. The first time I grew I started around 300 seeds, I only harvested about 10, but I was 17 years old and half assed everything.
 

Sunbiz1

Well-Known Member
Having a quality medicinal garden is a lot of work. Legally I can grow 14 and that takes up a lot of time. I've never added up the time but I'm guessing 10-15 hours a week. It gets easier as you get more experience though. The first time I grew I started around 300 seeds, I only harvested about 10, but I was 17 years old and half assed everything.
Now imagine trying to do the same grow off-site/unlicensed...easily doubles the work load.
 

BWG707

Well-Known Member
Which is why I suggested start with what feels safe and if it proves too much concentrate on only your best plants. My first grow I started with 48 seedlings. My final number was 6 at harvest.
The only problem with this is that I have a hard time chopping live plants. I end up trying to keep everything, but yes that would be a good idea.
 

SnapsProvolone

Well-Known Member
I always planted several small patches so all my eggs arent in one basket for disease and pests (including two legged variety)
 
For somebody who lives on a ranch, I can say any number of plants is manageable if you have the right resources. Outdoor growing has its ups and downs , especially financially and bigger yields wise.
 

OzGrower87

New Member
Have grown 120 plants at one time (All autoflower) and I managed to cut down on watering by having a 100L canister automatically water all plants once every 3 days for 60 seconds. The pump required a lot of power and everything was solar-based. Required 2 120w solar panels and a ton of weather proofing and cables. This was all outdoor based. It required me to visit the site once every 4 weeks to refill the canister (which is extremely hard and requires equipment to actually haul it over to a water source) during my visit i would spend 4-6 hours checking plants, trimming and checking for any abnormalities. When it came to end of harvest only about 100 plants made it.

The real question is, how much money do you have to invest into automating everything?
 

Greenthumbskunk

Well-Known Member
Took care of over a 100 plants this season. Started harvest in July and am still trimming right now.

Get some different plants that flower at different times and don't plant them all at once. Stagger them out so your auto's will be coming in about every couple of days.
Out of those 100 you will lose say 20% due to rodents, deer or whatever chewing on them. One year I lost every one of my small ones I put out due to rabbits. It all depends on how good you are and what resources are close by.
Of course I was paranoid as heck when I though my stuff was going to get spotted but it didn't happen.
Sunlight is your key to success when it comes to where you plant in the woods. More sunlight bigger yields.

I don't know what you guys do with your plants if your spending 2 hrs a day every day on just 4 plants.
These things take care of themselves a lot of the time you just need to stake em up and look for pests and problems and to prune. When you get going you can get a lot done quick.
I just trimmed 2.5lbs off one plant. My last one I have is even bigger.
 
Top