I’m on the coast, too, and the 3 plants I “rescued” last year were doing ok until that weather hit. I have some plants growing inside right now for this years outdoor season but I’ve been thinking about just finishing them inside and going with some autos for outside this year.Just an early harvest... Disappointing and wont happen again
I did a northern lights auto a few years ago. Weird harvesting in August.I’m on the coast, too, and the 3 plants I “rescued” last year were doing ok until that weather hit. I have some plants growing inside right now for this years outdoor season but I’ve been thinking about just finishing them inside and going with some autos for outside this year.
Throw a few in containers and a few in the ground, now you have both ends covered .... try to use containers you can move around easily with a dolly, you'll appreciate this in the fall.. good luck!Going to take my first crack at growing and would love to ask questions and share my progress and experience (seeds from GPS are on their way).
This will be in Maine, a few miles in from the coast, nice sheltered spot with great southern exposure and decent wind protection.
First question: should I use containers or plant in the ground? Like the idea of being able to bring plants inside the shed if weather gets dicey, but seems like letting them root deeply into the ground would make for a bigger more productive plant. Thinking of using Coast of Maine Stonington Soil Mix , which was created just for cannabis. If I go in the ground I will probably dig a hole and fill it with this mix since native soil is pretty acidic and I don't have time to properly amend the soil this season.
Will start seeds indoors (still snow on the ground!) and probably move them outdoors sometime after Mothers Day.
Thoughts?
13 yrs outdoor vet from New Brunswick here... Dig ur holes super wide but only 1.5ft deep (plants excell @16” deep holes but rly rly wide it stabilizes your root system I go 300+ gals for my holes in the ground with 7$ 3.8 cubic foot peat moss and perlite bags n I mix that wit compost cow manure off my fathers dairy farm way at the back of the pile there’s like 100 years old compost that looks like dark rich soil I mix that in at roughly 20% or like buddy said, use a big ass pot if u want monsters like 45gal + and water around the outside,in’ after a few weeks transplanted outside when ur using big pots it will make the roots search for water and don’t drown ur roots buddy believe it or not outdoor plants can go 2 sumtimes 3 weeks without a watering if it’s raining once er twice a week when ur plants are fairly young biggestmistake is ppl overwater outdoors and the plant doesn’t need to search outwards for anything it just sits with no oxygen and sucks loll..say you have a 100gal pot and the middle/around the plant been soaked down good 5-6 days ago and u wanna water today go for the outsides of the pot making your way toward the base stock of your plants . When that drys soak the whole thing. After ur plant fills out the hole it’s in go about regular watering. Plants love a pre ammended veg hole wit your general organics example= blood/bone meal, rock dust,kelp, fishbone meal etc they love a few cups of worm castings as well per 5-10gals of soil on the top 1/4 layer..it helps feed your microbes..if you pre amend your holes you should be good for the 2months veg time we have then try to top dress wit sumthing high in PK a week b4 flowering that way u can hit them again week 3 of bloom and they will finish a dinosaur.msorry don’t go too high in PK a week b4 flower actually. If u using Gaia green or a dry amendment try a 50/50 mix of all purpose and bloom , mid flower dress them then with sumthing that has twice as much phospherus than nitrogen example- more flowering bat guano then sayyy ‘blood meal’ which is like 14-0-0On that note hopefully some more experienced outdoor growers chime in. My recommendation on the medium revolved more around my general gardening experience than cannabis specific experience. I'm really just an indoor grower looking to dabble in outdoors.
But from what I've seen I'm not sure there's a right answer. Might be best to start with a container grow. Easier to control and as you said, you can bring it in if a gnarly storm is heading our way. I'm planning on a raised bed myself for this season. Best advice I can give is to read a bunch of outdoor grow journals and find one that you want to imitate.
We have cold temps forecasted with lows in the 20's this week. I'm waiting a few more weeks to move pots outside. They will be in a room in the garage with a heater starting Thursday. My basement is getting too crowded with my veggies started too. I start everything indoors since our season is so short.Quazy look forward to your pics. What county you in? Us first-timers should compare notes.
Hey Dunkin thanks for the tips. I was thinking I'd go in the ground but I may do 1 5g bucket just as an experiment (and insurance if the fall is nasty).
Planning to move those seedlings the day after tomorrow--just watered them this morning. Thanks for the fan tip, I've been doing that and also taking them outside as much as possible where the breeze moves them around (I put them in a sheltered spot if it's more than a gentle breeze. They did get awfully stretchy, especially the Orange Blossom Specials. I didn't use a light the first week, just kept them in the sun indoors on window sills, but that was probably a mistake. I have the light now at 6 inches above...but when I switch to the 1g pots I'm going to have to rely on natural light primarily. Will take them outside every day if possible.
What do you think about burying the stems during transplant? I've read in several places that works well...but I'm a little nervous naturally.