This summer I want to grow a huge plant outdoors. Advice?

Once you get over 10 feet big plants become a lot more work, providing support, having to use a ladder to check the plant, more water. The upside is that they deal with most issues really well, stem borers for instance, don't even faze them! I can pop seeds in April, put them outside directly in the ground June 1st, and they can easily be 10 to 12 feet tall by Sept. 1st, in Oklahoma. Even indica dom plants usually get 6 to 8 feet tall.
 
We're from the same place, have you grown outdoors here ? It is very brutal towards harvest.. I have some input

-Get genetics made for new England weather. Mold/pest resistant
-Do something to prevent caterpillars from getting into and shitting in your buds
-Do everything you can to prevent mold and powdery mildew
-Consider light deprivation so you can finish before it gets too cold
-Have the plants small enough to bring inside in case of a hurricane or be able to provide a shelter around the plants
- I would consider growing a few autoflowers to give yourself an early harvest
 
Nizza said:
We're from the same place, have you grown outdoors here ? It is very brutal towards harvest.. I have some input

-Get genetics made for new England weather. Mold/pest resistant
-Do something to prevent caterpillars from getting into and shitting in your buds
-Do everything you can to prevent mold and powdery mildew
-Consider light deprivation so you can finish before it gets too cold
-Have the plants small enough to bring inside in case of a hurricane or be able to provide a shelter around the plants
- I would consider growing a few autoflowers to give yourself an early harvest
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Bud worms are bad here in OKlahoma as well! Another advantage of large plants is losing a limb or a cola here and there is a relatively minor loss. Bud worms are inevitable outdoors. Some strains are way less tasty to them than others. Zerotol handles PM all the way to day of harvest and I try to run strains that will finish in late Sept, or early Oct.. We get a lot of wind here so strong support is mandatory, regardless of plant height. But the better the genetics are adapted for your region the better you will do! Lots of trial and error, you have to get pretty Zen about it, you will loose plants! Just like in any outdoor gardening.
 
VaSmile said:
I have very limited outdoor experience. But last year almost anything I started indoor went in to bloom the moment I moved it outside. Nothing reveged even what was set out across the solstice. At lat 36° we get a max of 15h20m of daylight you will have a little more being farther north but the day time hrs don't really start to change drastically until you get above about 50° N/S. Best recommendations would to be get a flood light with a timer to interrupt the darkness for 1-2hrs in the middle of the night then remove it when ready to bloom. Make sure to do it with enough time to beat the frost figure 9weeks minimum for indicas and 12 for sativas stay way from true landrace sativas that can run 20+
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Solid advice
 
mandocat said:
Bud worms are bad here in OKlahoma as well! Another advantage of large plants is losing a limb or a cola here and there is a relatively minor loss. Bud worms are inevitable outdoors. Some strains are way less tasty to them than others. Zerotol handles PM all the way to day of harvest and I try to run strains that will finish in late Sept, or early Oct.. We get a lot of wind here so strong support is mandatory, regardless of plant height. But the better the genetics are adapted for your region the better you will do! Lots of trial and error, you have to get pretty Zen about it, you will loose plants! Just like in any outdoor gardening.
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BT applied about 2 wks into flower= no bud worms which are larvae of the white moths you see flying around,they lay eggs on the plants and the little fks hatch and generally go to the best buds on top,I use spray w/ soap w/a habanero pepper juice I make and spray the plants at dusk to keep bugs away or ANYTHING else that is curious during veg. months and add BT to the mix on my last spray,the last 2 harvests have been clean.
 
Ditch the pots, if possible.
That would be my number one piece of advice for growing outdoor monsters. Of course, that isn't always possible but if you can then it's far easier to grow huge plants. The bigger the roots, the bigger the plants.
 
I used ladybugs and praying mantis and had no bug issues last year.
My real issue is lantern flies and squash bugs and thinking of adding a different labor source, quail.
They eat bugs.
I did have a little bird issue, they kept diving into my plant looking for praying mantis, which became more difficult when I put up a trellis.
But the joy of seeing pairs of lantern fly wings but no bodies tells me my praying mantis are hard at work.
 
formularacer said:
I used ladybugs and praying mantis and had no bug issues last year.
My real issue is lantern flies and squash bugs and thinking of adding a different labor source, quail.
They eat bugs.
I did have a little bird issue, they kept diving into my plant looking for praying mantis, which became more difficult when I put up a trellis.
But the joy of seeing pairs of lantern fly wings but no bodies tells me my praying mantis are hard at work.
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I raise quail, they're cool and they don't tear stuff up nearly as much as chickens do when they dig around looking for bugs. I would pull them out before buds start really forming though as they kick up a lot of dust and dander.
 
Funkentelechy said:
I raise quail, they're cool and they don't tear stuff up nearly as much as chickens do when they dig around looking for bugs. I would pull them out before buds start really forming though as they kick up a lot of dust and dander.
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Thanks
Nice Avatar I have two egg sacks waiting for them hatch.
There is no real open dirt on my property come flowering time. With the squash bugs they will not have to scratch they can waddle about and eat them off the leaves.
 
doublejj said:
Our farms are very remote in the mountains in Northern California, and it's the local population of bears and mountain lions that give the trimmigrants a startle every once in a while. One year all the trimmers took to sleeping inside a metal 40ft shipping container because a large black bear made nightly visits to their tents...tug on the foot of just one of the trimmers sleeping bags in the middle of the night and they all go nuts.:grin:
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One of my kids went to Humboldt State (Cal Poly Humboldt now I guess) and earned some nice walking around money trimming.
 
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