trying to learn lessons

H

hillbillybuddha

Active Member
Just harvested my first outside grow and I'm pretty disappointed. 15 ladies and about 1.5 pounds dry. Granted I had a lot of issues that I just wasn't aware of until it was to late or didn't have any control over.
Half way through veg, I put the ladies in a green house because i live on a very busy corner (front of house on one busy street and back yard along another busy street) and it was becoming obvious that i was growing. That was also about the time we went through a heat wave. Weeks at a time of plus 100 degrees with multiple days in a row of plus 110 degrees. I put in misters and fans but it was still unbearably hot. This lasted most of veg and flower.
At the time i put everything in greenhouse, i realized the 10x10 wasn't going to be big enough so i put some of the smalls girls in a tent with a/c. (The girls in the tent are dense little, frosty buds that smell great. I pulled about a pound from the tent from far less plants. (Girls in tent were in 1 gallon pots while the girls in the greenhouse were in 8 gallon pots. 6 girls in the tent 15 girls in the greenhouse. All girls are the same strain, same soil same nutes, etc)

Bugs, i wish i had read more on bugs before i started. In the greenhouse i was in a constant fight with bugs. The neem didn't seem to help at all, mites everywhere until i got a couple bags of ladybugs. I had no idea about catapillars until the top of my kolas were dead. I should have started with BT before i flower but I sprayed with BT once i started finding catapillars and realized i needed to research it. I started spraying every 5 days and still would hand pick 6 to 8 catapillars every week. I think between the heat and the catapillars i lost a couple pounds.
On the indoor tent, i had spider mites pretty bad but i just kept up with azamax and i don't think they did any real harm to the plants. For some reason all my ladybugs would die in my tent.

So this is part cautionary tail and part me asking for help. What other factors might have caused such a low yeild? What things should i do differently next time?

PS: the good news is that this grow didn't cost me anything other than the soil and misters. I spent less then $100 on everything outdoor and only add the cost of electricity for a couple months and a new bulb for the indoor grow. So a total of 2.5 lbs for about $200 to $250. So that's not bad.
 
veggiegardener

veggiegardener

Well-Known Member
Misters work great during veg to inhibit spider mites that prefer a hot, dry environment. Better to use large exhaust fans during bloom. Moving air through the greenhouse will add fresh CO2 laden air accelerating growth. The mites just can't 'catch up'.

With sufficient air flow, Cannabis can tolerate, and, in my opinion, thrive in very hot conditions. My greenhouses have reached over 135 degrees during several hot summers. No downside.

Late season ladybugs don't do well, but with sufficient numbers will do the job. I ordered 6000 ladybugs after discovering thrips had invaded one greenhouse. Can't find a thrip, now.

It is best to start applying Bt early. Like June 1st. Three years ago, all the butterflies emerged in late May. I found skeletonized leaves everywhere. That stopped cold after the first Bt application.

There's a big learning curve involved in growing top notch bud. Books are your friends. Don't just read books about pot. General gardening books are a huge resource. Go to a nursery and ask about a good vegetable gardening book.
 
H

hillbillybuddha

Active Member
Man, i had some big fans in there but i kept getting wind burn on my leafs.

So if it wasn't the heat, why do you think i got such light, fluffy buds and such a small yeild? I really am curious? I don't want to make the same mistakes next year but i need to know what those mistakes are. I figured that months of Temps above 100 would create fluffy bud. So the air could move more freely through it. I don't think i read that anywhere, i think i just made that up in my head. So who knows.
 
ruby fruit

ruby fruit

Well-Known Member
Bigger pots ? Seems to me u could have a third of the amount of plants and 5x the yield.Example...there are ppl on here who have averaged a 1-1.5 lb a plant only using 15 gallon smart pots
 
H

hillbillybuddha

Active Member
Yeah, that's definitely something i will do next year BUT i don't think that's the reason i got low yeild outside. My outside plants were in 8 gallon pots while my indoor (started outdoor) were in 1 gallon pots and i more weight per plant indoor then i did outdoor. My outdoor girls were all over 6 ft tall but my indoor girls were under 3 ft.

I have a friend that just did his first grow. He had 38 plants and had about 5 lbs per plant. He said he didn't even look for bugs. Just put some clones in the ground and watered them. But he is in the hills so the weather was better.
 
E

Extacie

Well-Known Member
Bigger pots like ruby said for sure! My 5 gallon plants only yielded 2-6 oz each, but my 100-150 gallon plants have been yielding 1-3 pounds per plant.. Only my second grow start to finish and I had no idea what the hell I was doing for real lol. Which for that much soil is not that great of a yield at all, but yeah bigger plants and bigger root systems :bigjoint:

I forgot to add: Also, putting them in the ground/their largest container as early in the season as possible!! The plant I got in the ground the soonest got like 3-5x bigger than the rest.. literally. And having a pretty developed root system before doing that (Like start indoors and fill out a 5-10 gallon container at least) And topping them a bunch throughout their life time.. Less useless height and more useful buds :) Best of luck next year man!
 
Last edited:
ruby fruit

ruby fruit

Well-Known Member
Extacie said:
Bigger pots like ruby said for sure! My 5 gallon plants only yielded 2-6 oz each, but my 100-150 gallon plants have been yielding 1-3 pounds per plant.. Only my second grow start to finish and I had no idea what the hell I was doing for real lol. Which for that much soil is not that great of a yield at all, but yeah bigger plants and bigger root systems :bigjoint:

I forgot to add: Also, putting them in the ground/their largest container as early in the season as possible!! The plant I got in the ground the soonest got like 3-5x bigger than the rest.. literally. And having a pretty developed root system before doing that (Like start indoors and fill out a 5-10 gallon container at least) And topping them a bunch throughout their life time.. Less useless height and more useful buds :) Best of luck next year man!
Click to expand...
I put mine in the ground yest with only the second set of leaves starting...normally I wait till 4-5 sets in a pot before I transplant but not this year....
 
E

Extacie

Well-Known Member
ruby fruit said:
I put mine in the ground yest with only the second set of leaves starting...normally I wait till 4-5 sets in a pot before I transplant but not this year....
Click to expand...
Yest as in yesterday?!

That is a deal though, how is it turning out? I put one seedling out when it only had 2-3 sets as well (Like a month ago) and I noticed when putting them out that young they seem to acclimate to and handle the wind/weather a little bit better.
 
veggiegardener

veggiegardener

Well-Known Member
hillbillybuddha said:
Man, i had some big fans in there but i kept getting wind burn on my leafs.

So if it wasn't the heat, why do you think i got such light, fluffy buds and such a small yeild? I really am curious? I don't want to make the same mistakes next year but i need to know what those mistakes are. I figured that months of Temps above 100 would create fluffy bud. So the air could move more freely through it. I don't think i read that anywhere, i think i just made that up in my head. So who knows.
Click to expand...
Any time I hear about 'fluffy buds' my first question is, "Are there any sources of light that come on during the night?" It is very common to overlook a neighbor's light or street light if you aren't outside at night, looking carefully.

I had one side of a greenhouse crop get VERY fluffy in 2006. A neighbor was turning his back porch light on at night. It was shining over the 6 foot fence, illuminating the top two feet of my greenhouse. I solved that problem by erecting a black fabric screen each August to block the porch light. It works great!

Brightness isn't as damaging as duration. I keep plants in veg with a 23 watt swirly bulb, during the winter.
 
E

Extacie

Well-Known Member
veggiegardener said:
Any time I hear about 'fluffy buds' my first question is, "Are there any sources of light that come on during the night?" It is very common to overlook a neighbor's light or street light if you aren't outside at night, looking carefully. I had one side of a greenhouse crop get VERY fluffy in 2006. A neighbor was turning his back porch light on at night. It was shining over the 6 foot fence, illuminating the top two feet of my greenhouse. Brightness isn't as damaging as duration. I keep plants in veg with a 23 watt swirly bulb, during the winter.
Click to expand...
Do you think keeping my porch light on these last 1-2 weeks could cause issues/fluffy buds? I like keeping them on to help me see outside if there is an intruder. Maybe not the best idea? My plants are approx. 100-200 feet from the porch lights.
 
ruby fruit

ruby fruit

Well-Known Member
Extacie said:
Yest as in yesterday?!

That is a deal though, how is it turning out? I put one seedling out when it only had 2-3 sets as well (Like a month ago) and I noticed when putting them out that young they seem to acclimate to and handle the wind/weather a little bit better.
Click to expand...
Yep yesterday...southern hemisphere
 
E

Extacie

Well-Known Member
ruby fruit said:
Yep yesterday...southern hemisphere
Click to expand...
lucky ass mofo!!!! lol I wish I could pull that off. Maybe with a quality greenhouse, even then i'd be pushing it :/

veggiegardener said:
Depending on brightness, yes. Are they on all night? If so I'd say DEFINITELY.(Duration)
Click to expand...
Thanks man. Yeah they are on all night. I just went ahead and turned them off. F that noise lol I especially don't want them to hermie.
 
E

Extacie

Well-Known Member
veggiegardener said:
I use motion sensors in my garden. They work beautifully.
Click to expand...
For sure, I have 4 motion sensors set up around the perimeter of the garden, they are in a chicken wire fence with a chicken wire roof that locks (Mainly to be compliant with our laws, but I figured a little added security as well;) ) then 12 trip wires placed around dif. areas of the fence w/ bells attached. So I should be good, but I still worry about them cus there was a road crew peaking over the fence as they drove by a week or two ago.

Next year if I grow outdoors here, I am gonna weld up rebar or something along those lines along the chicken wire fence. Make that shit like a prison lol would be pretty hard to get to them then.
 
H

hillbillybuddha

Active Member
Ha. That's it. There is a street light. I measured the light because i figured if it wasn't any brighter then a full moon then it would be Ok. It measured just about the same as a full moon. But it was on every night.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top