Outdoor Growing Questions

Hey everyone, I am planning on growing a plant or two outdoors this summer and since outdoor growing is region specific, I figured asking all of you would be better. I have zero experience with growing marijuana outdoors and I plan on using super soil as my medium.

First, I live in (South) Boulder and I am not interested in growing a giant tree due to privacy concerns (although I would love to have a 15lb plant). I am thinking I want a plant that is ~5-6 feet tall so it can fit nicer into my vegetable garden. I was planning on training it to grow to the side on a trellis which will allow me to control the height easier, but it can't get too big since I don't have the room. So here come the questions:

-When should I start the plant outdoors?
I don't want to start it too early where the plant becomes too big. Maybe mid-end June starting with a small 6-10" plant?

-How do you all deal with hail, rain, etc.?
It would be a pain to move the plant once it got big, so some sort of cover would work. I imagine some of you have great ideas/experience.

-Does the heat cause issues? If so, how do you combat against it?
Also don't want to fry the roots either.

-Do you preventatively treat your outdoor plants for mold and pests? Are animals a problem?
I have and use OMRI pesticides/insecticides and was wondering if mold and pests were a big problem in CO.

-How big of a pot should I use?
Since I'm not growing a 15lb plant (maybe more like 1-2lb?), I probably don't need a 100 gal smartpot. I do have some 10 gal smartpots from the Expo, but they may be a tad too small.

If you have any other comments or suggestions about growing outdoors in Colorado, I would love to hear them. I know some of you live in or around Boulder and I would love to hear your thoughts on managing an outdoor grow privately and your experiences with neighbors/police (our neighbors are cool, but I don't want to flash a huge plant to the world). Sorry for the lengthy post, I just have a lot to learn

Hey CAS - I've done a couple of outdoor grows in SoBo and I'm prepping for another run this summer. Have you settled on your genetics yet? Flower time is a bigger problem than mold around here. Those early season snows can be a killer. As for when to plant outdoors, I put mine out June 1. By then the frost danger is over. You always have to keep your fingers crossed regarding hail but in 12 years of veggie gardening in this area I've only been completely wiped out once.

Whasup soldier, glad to help. I've dabbled in the outdoors when I first started growing and I'm happy to pass along some knowledge.
First I think the trellis is a good idea, unless your planning on putting em out later like ms said... I've had an ak grow like twelve feet tall wo topping so they can def grow like a wild fantasy if not kept in check. However I was harding off as soon as mothers day.
I also put a few out quite a bit later due to hail, which leads me to my next answer. There are screens avail for top cover. You can get them in varying "densities"that will help with a lil shade but more importantly should, for the most part, increase your chances of not getting hit by hail. In 09 I lost three different plants one after another to gods stray golf balls. And trust me, when your sitting at work and the hail starts to fall, and you know your babies are getting crushed, it sucks. Haha. come home and it is just straight carnage your like noooooo!
I never had a problem w bugs oddly enough, seeing a how I thought that would be my first issue. I would see from time to time a spider here or there and also had a few praying mantis (s) visit, so maybe that controlled spider mites, I dunno. I know that t curtis (a regular in subcool's forum) uses ladybugs w great success.
Heat never seemed to hurt the girls as long as they had water they were good, although I now know that (ec help here please) above 95ish and growth slows way down and transpiration becomes the focus of the day.
I tried several different putting methods, from 50 gal trash bins to 5 gal plastic normal growing pails, the gigantic ak that I spoke of earlier was in a 7 gal ebb and flow square white hydro pot. My guess is the ten gal smarty would be fine.
I did have a negative experience w pm. It attacked a lavender that would have been in all y'alls garden had I never pot her out side. She was beautiful, the stuff of legend. But I had to give her the kibosh. After making the mistake of bringing her inside to my room, and yes it spread, eagle 20 a systemic pm killer saved the plants I had in flower but rest assured had it gotten to my mothers my whole grow woulda come down. I may have been able to stop it from hurting the plants late in flower but who knows how long it really would have kept it at bay.
I miss that lander.
Alright I gotta get put of this before it turns into a thesis, any other q's or if I've gone wrong anywhere, y'all know what to do, and dont forget to post those pics!!! - chef

others have much more experience outdoors locally, MS is near you too, so similar conditions. but i'll toss a couple thoughts in:

-when the temps really soar to 95+, consider using one of those 20" fans with the built in misters (hook a hose to it), they will lower the ambient air around the girls by at least 5-10degrees and add humidity to help combat transpiring too fast during the mid-day highs.

-you'll be fine with one of those 10gals, but decide early to either always leave it in place or with the possibility of transport - if possible transport/moving, raise the bag off the ground so the roots don't lock it down. otherwise, let it sit on the ground and the roots will do what they need to do and keep searching lower, creating a larger root mass to draw nutrition from.

- topping, training and pruning. just because she is 5-6' tall, doesn't mean she can't be 12-15' wide, trellised and spread across the fence or like a SCROG for outdoors

- for outdoors, molds/mildews are the biggest concerns generally. bugs are generally in a more balanced state due to natural predatory insects being abundant (whereas we tend to kill everything crawling inside - good or bad bugs). it's always a good idea to introduce naturals though as well - predatory nematodes and predatory mites for the soil; lady bugs, mantis' and predatory mites for the top end.


and that is my 2cents for the day now back to your regularly scheduled programming

Not to sound like Captain Obvious, but... I thought outdoor medical grows were 'verboten' here in CO? Magilla Guerilla, of course is a whole 'nother ball game. I would *love* to be able to do some outdoor, but have neither the ideal location or time. Lucky to keep up with my regular outdoor garden (which has the *best* sweet corn you'll ever taste, BTW) Look for that this summer.

I am yet to see a single law written that does not allow for outdoor grows. Medical Marijuana in all of its forms and uses must not be in public view, but if you keep it under wraps it should be fine. I must however point out the case on "American Weed" last week i believe it was, when the guy from Adams County was busted for having 3 monster plants outside. He had built a frame to support it, made sure his neighbors were ok with it, but still North Metro Drug Task Force paid him a not so kind visit. He cut down his plants willingly and was still hauled off to jail. All of this could have been avoided with careful planning or even a simple piece of plastic. Long story short, make sure that they are not in any way visible to anyone (don't forget your neighbors 2nd story window) from any angle you should be alright! Well that and ALWAYS make sure you see a warrant before you allow any search. We should not be allowed to do this and treated like criminals for it at the same time.

I wish (more than you know) that i could really give advice on outdoor, but i am unable to do any outdoors, will be many years before i get the chance i believe.

Thanks for all the great replies!

Medshed - I was thinking about running Qush this summer. I will be going on a pheno hunt of DQ and Qush very soon and I figure a short squatty indica may be best for the outdoors so it finishes on time. Do you have any recommendations?

Chef C - I really like the screen idea. That could combat against heat and the elements (I am worried about those late summer rains causing PM problems. I had a PM problem last summer in my indoor grow and also some botrytis/black rust problems too (this is why I am going the DQ and Qush pheno hunts, to restart my genetics so I don't have disease). How would you go about mounting up this cover?

EC - I will probably put the plant between an aisle in our rasied beds. These have wood chips with a cloth tarp underneath. Do you think that this would be enough to stop the plant from rooting to the ground, or should I pick up some wood? Also, the suggestion you and Chef C gave about bugs sounds like fun. I think we will use them just for the fun of it, regardless if it helps or not

MacGuyver and Trueno - I am under the impression also that the plants cannot be in the view of the public. This is why I am concerned about the height of my plant (although I will just grow it WIDE like EC suggested). Also, I think this possibly another reason to use some sort of cover for the plant, that way it is apparent that I am trying to keep it out of the view of the public and as "legal" as possible. Also, I will have my card posted in the smart pot itself. Here is an interesting lecture by a law professor and a police officer about how you should never talk to the police:

http://www.davehitt.com/blog2/never-talk-to-the-police/

Keep bringing on the knowledge. Thanks everyone!

Id go w metal tubing, I think they sell frames too.. I'll google it and get back to you after school

ColdArmySoldier said:

EC - I will probably put the plant between an aisle in our rasied beds. These have wood chips with a cloth tarp underneath. Do you think that this would be enough to stop the plant from rooting to the ground, or should I pick up some wood? Also, the suggestion you and Chef C gave about bugs sounds like fun. I think we will use them just for the fun of it, regardless if it helps or not

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I would imagine the roots would grow through the chips and into the ground (no airflow to 'prune' the root tips. the moisture will draw the roots down). maybe set it on a couple 2x4 chunks so there is airflow under the pot.

Qush is not released yet as far as i know

sometimes it's who you know

LT1RX7 Drifter said:

Qush is not released yet as far as i know

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well dont tell anyone or he will not be a tester any more i promise that thats not a cool thing in my book and im sure sub would look down on it as well, it a respect thing i guess you could say, but best of luck to you, she does well in air pots, geo pots

word

personally, i encourage testers to post. get the onfo out there and there is no BS and nothing to hide. we all know Sub's rep for hermies, so in my mind it's much better to have a lot of test data out there, so people know what they are getting into and how to best grow their new genetics to dial em in quicker. just my 2cents tho

ok so I am going to weigh in on this. I made a pic to help explain what im gonna say (I suck at paint so dont laugh) but you can basically do a outdoor scrog if you wanna keep your plants low. If you have ever seen the kinda hoop greenhouses you can do the same with a bit of screen and some pvc pipe. Put a couple posts on either side of the plant and thn bend the pvc over them so they make an upside down u then run the screen over the pvc (you may have to add a side post to keep it in place) use zip ties to attatch the screen to the pvc so the whole thing makes basically a screen rainbow. now you have the basics to do your scrog. train the plant in different directions on the screen as much or little as you want. the end should remain open so ya can water your plant.

now the funny part...my quick drawing with paint that i found on my computer.

I like that Scrog idea Andy. It does look like a good way to keep a low profile. I was prepping my outdoor area last weekend and one of my (new) neighbors stopped by to let me know she is sensitive to pesticides and asked that I let her know if I'm planning to spray. That was a bit of an eye opener for me. The area where I grow is usually fully hidden from the neighbors by trees and shrubs. These new neighbors thinned out the trees in their yard so they might be able to see my grow. I'll know better when the leaves come on the trees and shrubs back there. I'm going to need to put up a screen of some sort just to be safe. I'll also keep the plants low. Since I'm running a Qush test out there, I think I can get away with just topping for 4 heads and bending to keep them low. I don't think the Qush's get that big.

FYI - LT1RX7, I was given the Qush beans for the express purpose of growing them and doing a journal for all to see. I'll be doing the journal over on Subcool's section of RIU, as well as on Green Passion.

Here's the Dairy Queen I grew at a friends house last summer. It was topped, spread out and staked but still got to be almost 5 feet tall.

Medshed said:

I like that Scrog idea Andy. It does look like a good way to keep a low profile. I was prepping my outdoor area last weekend and one of my (new) neighbors stopped by to let me know she is sensitive to pesticides and asked that I let her know if I'm planning to spray. That was a bit of an eye opener for me. The area where I grow is usually fully hidden from the neighbors by trees and shrubs. These new neighbors thinned out the trees in their yard so they might be able to see my grow. I'll know better when the leaves come on the trees and shrubs back there. I'm going to need to put up a screen of some sort just to be safe. I'll also keep the plants low. Since I'm running a Qush test out there, I think I can get away with just topping for 4 heads and bending to keep them low. I don't think the Qush's get that big.

FYI - LT1RX7, I was given the Qush beans for the express purpose of growing them and doing a journal for all to see. I'll be doing the journal over on Subcool's section of RIU, as well as on Green Passion.

Here's the Dairy Queen I grew at a friends house last summer. It was topped, spread out and staked but still got to be almost 5 feet tall.

Click to expand...

WOW! Now that's gardening! Very nice!

I like that scrog idea too. With a scrog grow I may be able to put the plant out earlier and bigger and manage the size with the screen (hopefully).

Nice plant Medshed! I certainly need to get with you and talk about the outdoor grow and about potential strains to run (since you are already running Qush). Do you talk to your neighbors to see if they are cool with the plants, or just keep it on the down low and out of sight?

Thanks guys. My buddy wants me to hook him up with another plant for that spot again this summer. I'm thinking a big fat Pandora's Box will go nicely there.

CAS - I go with the DL/out of sight approach to my neighbors. They are all cool in general but I don't feel the need to announce what I'm doing. My buddy did end up telling one of his neighbors about the plant above but that was just because they were taking care of his garden while he was on vacation and that plant was a little hard to miss next to the tomatoes.

We will definitely do some chatting once my visitors leave town in another week.

on a side note re:talking to neighbors .... rip off artists are your usual culprits, not the cops. i'd keep it on the d/l. i know of one semi neighbor that got ripped last year for 3 girls in his backyard. talk about a depressing sight to see, thought the man was gonna cry