Growing outdoor, best method.

Hello! Im going to start a huge grow outdoor in Sweden, about 100 plants. My seeds will be autoflower, not sure which strain yet.
I will make holes in the ground, the same size as 5 gallon and fill them with some kind of super soil mix, not sure which one yet. I will fill the holes from the bottom with 3/4 super soil and then 1/4 organic soil. Why I want to use super soil is because I only want to water them from seed to harvest. I will not risk run to the place and feed them and that kind of things, becuase growing cannabis is illegal in Sweden and I want to keep it as organic as possible, with no bottle nutriens.

My questions is:

• What can I do to the location there Im going to grow to avoid Insects and Pest?
  
• My method is to put the seeds in small party cups, there will be a organic soil in it and then when I see about 3-4 leafs I will move them outdoor to the 5 gallon holes. Will this burn the plants? Will the super soil still be to hot for them? Remember that I use autoflower. Will the moving from cups to the 5 gallon holes hurt the roots?
  
• Is it smarter to do beds instead of holes?
  
• When the plants start to grow a bit should I spray them with something to avoid insects and pest?
  
• What is the best way to avoid mold. I heard that like everytime I check them up I should shake them a bit to make all the water fall of.

Thank you!

No need for super soil, just use plenty of svartmylla or compost. Unless using fems you're gonna have to visit your spots at least once to cull the males, (often twice) and this is the perfect time to fertilize them with guanos or what have you. It is possible though to make the soil rich enough from the beginning, just make a layer rich in slow release P and K a little deeper so that the plants can suck it up as they get bigger, too much too soon will cause nute burn.

Vakten1995 said:

Hello! Im going to start a huge grow outdoor in Sweden, about 100 plants. My seeds will be autoflower, not sure which strain yet.

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Any reason you are not throwing a few non auto flowering plants? There are some great strains about which should finish in time where you are like R.Dane, Thypoon, Erdpurt, Leb 27, Guerilla Gold, etc.

Vakten1995 said:

I will make holes in the ground, the same size as 5 gallon and fill them with some kind of super soil mix, not sure which one yet.

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5 gallons sounds like overkill to me unless you are going to grow larger than normal autos. For a plant that grows up to 3 feet tall half of that would be plenty IMO.

Vakten1995 said:

[*]What can I do to the location there Im going to grow to avoid Insects and Pest?

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The best way is to keep your plants healthy and supplied with all the nutrients they need, especially silica and calcium both of which help to build strong cell walls that will resist attack better. Apart from that, a spray during late veg (for autos) with neem oil will keep most pests away for a while, and milk/baking soda solution will help prevent PM (autos can be quite prone to it IME).

Vakten1995 said:

[*]My method is to put the seeds in small party cups, there will be a organic soil in it and then when I see about 3-4 leafs I will move them outdoor to the 5 gallon holes. Will this burn the plants? Will the super soil still be to hot for them? Remember that I use autoflower.

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You will have to "harden them off" before you let them stay out 24/7. Just put them out during the daytime in a sheltered spot and bring them in again at night for about a week, then leave in the sheltered spot for a few nights before planting out in the open.

Vakten1995 said:

Will the moving from cups to the 5 gallon holes hurt the roots?

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It shouldn't do if you are careful not to disturb the roots too much. If the rootball disintegrates on you it can shock the plant. Try to do it when the rootball is not too dry or too wet.

Vakten1995 said:

[*]Is it smarter to do beds instead of holes?

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Holes are more efficient IMO.

Vakten1995 said:

[*]When the plants start to grow a bit should I spray them with something to avoid insects and pest?

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Yes - see above.

Vakten1995 said:

[*]What is the best way to avoid mold. I heard that like everytime I check them up I should shake them a bit to make all the water fall of.

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That is a good idea, if they are wet and in flower! The best way, for autos at least would be to time when you start them so that they will be in mid-late flower during the warmest/driest part of your growing season in summer. Also a good idea to pick strains known for their resistance to mold, although you should be ok/have a bit of leeway if you time it well with autos.

Making sure there is good airflow around plants also helps a bit, as well as planting somewhere that will get early morning sun. Leave at least a foot or two between plants (more if they get tall/big), taking into account how large they will be once fully grown.

Greencure (AKA Potassium bicarbonate) is also possibly worth looking into (There is a thread here on ICmag all about it here: https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=80568&highlight=Greencure )... I'll be trying it next season for the first time myself.

Cool post green. Growing a little different this year and you a swerved 80 percent of what I was co cerned about. Growing on an artificial creek bed so if you have any tips on soil improvement and of course about 50 bag seeds, I will have a wonderful Christmas. Thanks

Thanks very much for your help guys, Im really thankful and will rep you both! So lets see if I understand it correct:

Im going to germinate my seeds in rapid rooters. I will keep them in dark and humid climate till I see something grow and then I will put them under 100-200 watt lamp for about 1 weeks.
While the plants are under the lamp, I will go to my location where I will grow the plants and make holes in the ground, the hole size will be the same as 2.5 gallon pots. Then I will fil the holes from the bottom and up 2/4 with my mix and on the top 2/4 with only compost. Before I take them out to the holes I will take them out with the rapid rooters to my balcony for like 7h/day and take them in again, after one week I hope they will be ready for the holes.
I also will spray my plants with bakery powder a few times when they grow a bit.

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I will let my mix stay and cook for 1-2 months. My mix:

• Compost soil
• Blood meal
• Bone meal
• Neem meal
• Alfalfa meal
• Dolimite lime
• Perlite

I really dont know why I want to go for autoflower, its my first grow and autoflower is easier to maintence I guess, less thing can go wrong.

What you guys think about my plan and mix? Thank you!

I use everything g their but dolomite. This year I'm using water that leaves calcium deposits so I will use lime but I'm not fond of bone meal. I tried to use fish meal instead but man was I sorry after. If I can't find a substitute this year I'm going back to bone .

Vakten1995 said:

Thanks very much for your help guys, Im really thankful and will rep you both! So lets see if I understand it correct:



I will let my mix stay and cook for 1-2 months. My mix:

• Compost soil
• Blood meal
• Bone meal
• Neem meal
• Alfalfa meal
• Dolimite lime
• Perlite

I really dont know why I want to go for autoflower, its my first grow and autoflower is easier to maintence I guess, less thing can go wrong.

What you guys think about my plan and mix? Thank you!

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I still think your mix is too much for autos, remember they only veg for 30 days and then ease up with nitrogen. It of course depends on how much soil you're going to carry, but a hundred litres of soil that rich can give you trees if you go with early varieties instead of autos.

Thule said:

I still think your mix is too much for autos, remember they only veg for 30 days and then ease up with nitrogen. It of course depends on how much soil you're going to carry, but a hundred litres of soil that rich can give you trees if you go with early varieties instead of autos.

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I understand that they dont need as much nutriens like an non-auto strain but do they really need that litle? So just any high quality organic potting soil will be enough? Remember that I only want to water them all the way.

Thanks for your patience when me man!

Vakten1995 said:

I will let my mix stay and cook for 1-2 months. My mix:

• Compost soil
• Blood meal
• Bone meal
• Neem meal
• Alfalfa meal
• Dolimite lime
• Perlite

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That would be a great start. Go easy on the blood meal. It's strong stuff! Also try to get some crushed shell (oyster, etc), shrimp/crab meal, comfrey, and seaweed (it's hard to overdo seaweed and plants go mad for it). Fine rock-dust is another good one. Not too much of any one thing, but having a varied selection is always a good thing.

IMO a lot of these ingredients would be better off being dug into the soil a few months before hand, the sooner the better.

Letting you soil "cook" indoors is ok, but I would rather mix it together with the surrounding soil and let the naturally occurring organisms at your location process the soil+amendments which will result in a better soil IMO.

Having said that, I've gotten good results by planting straight into holes I've just dug and added amendments to. No need to let things "mature", although giving time for a soil to settle down can only help.

Vakten1995 said:

I really dont know why I want to go for autoflower, its my first grow and autoflower is easier to maintence I guess, less thing can go wrong.

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True that auto flower is a little more forgiving in terms of mold etc if you time it well, but (if you pick the right early strains) the rewards can be much greater, and "photos" are not that much more difficult to grow than autos. Give them the right soil, an adequate sized hole/bed and they will do the rest for you as long as you picked a good spot that gets a fair amount of sun.

Also true that from a security point of view autos tend to be more discrete, but if you plant carefully at the right spots (best to have at least two separate locations) the extra risk is negligible IMO. No more than 3 or 4 large plants at one spot, but well spread out from the others (at least 10 feet apart), and randomly spaced so that they blend into the existing vegetation.

Training, bending, layering the stems back into the ground (see link for my 2009 grow in my sig for more info - it would have to be done very early on if you only have a short growing season) and topping, can all be used to give your plants a less obvious shape, keep them low profile, and generally help them blend into the background.

Don't be afraid to experiment, especially as this is your first time and you will have quite a large number of plants, so it's an ideal time to start to find out what combinations work for you. At the same time, you also want to keep things fairly simple since you are new to this, so don't over do it

Things are bound to go wrong with some plants/plots (no grower is immune), and you are bound to make mistakes, but that is all part of the learning process and why wise growers never put all their eggs in once basket. Growing outdoors is actually very forgiving providing you get the basics right.

Vakten1995 said:

I understand that they dont need as much nutriens like an non-auto strain but do they really need that litle? So just any high quality organic potting soil will be enough? Remember that I only want to water them all the way.

Thanks for your patience when me man!

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It's not really that little, compost is strong stuff. I would skip the blood meal and keep it simple. Just use lots of high quality black soil from the market. There is plenty of nitrogen in it and should last till the end. Preparing plots for a hundred plants can get overwhelming if you have too many variables. Just my experience, but good spots take a lot of time to find, and when you do find them you'll want to get it over with as fast as possible.

If you haul in enough of the best soil from the market and mix in slow release PK in, you'll be fine. Just make sure the ferts are deep enough so the plants will have to stretch out their roots to get it. I've burned my plants in svartmylla by adding chicken shit, I won't do it again cuz they don't need that much N.

How deep in the hole? I won't be using slow realeasing stuff. Will that matter?^^

calirun said:

How deep in the hole? I won't be using slow realeasing stuff. Will that matter?^^

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I'd say 20-30cm from the surface as autoflower roots don't penetrate much further. If u use guano it is indeed a good idea to let it "cook" first.

What kind of nutrients are you planning on using?

Thule said:

I'd say 20-30cm from the surface as autoflower roots don't penetrate much further. If u use guano it is indeed a good idea to let it "cook" first.

What kind of nutrients are you planning on using?

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My bad Thule, I'm not using auto flowering seeds as far as I know . As far as nutrients, I'm using everything op has on his list and also some horse dung to mix in with the sandy river bed.

I had two girls get to 8/9 feet last year. The rootballs didn't get as big as you might think, and the roots didn't get down much further than about 1 - 1.5 feet at most.










Keep in mind they were in beds that I excavated down to between 4-5 feet, so they had the option to go that deep if they wanted to.

I think that if they are getting enough nutrients/water with a small root system there is no need to waste energy growing bigger roots. If you are growing in poor/very dry soil I'd expect a bigger root system to compensate.

Seeing those pictures I think it's safe to use a lot of sand at the bottom of big containers. Where I grow the soil is basically just sand so I can just shovel it in with some lime and I don't have to use nearly as much dirt as I did this year. Live and learn.

I´m also growing in Sweden, at 56N lat, plenty plenty of strains as i´ll be breeding later on.

As I´m growing so many plants, i´ll do a kind of raised bed i think. exxcavate about 40cm and raise about the same using bought soil from the store and coco bricks, mixed with the excavated soil from the place. Most of my spots are forest clearings, from poine trees, so i think the soils is a bit acidic and i will use some dolomite lime in the mix.

But, as im almost only growing non autos, what would be a good mix organic nutes in the soil?

Blood?
Bone?
Fish?

I wont have so much time to let the soil cook on place as i have to wait until the soil is diggable. And as I´m going to breed a little this year i´m also doing only regs, thats why i think doing beds will be better. At each spot, in the midst of birch slye clear some sq meters and do the beds there. After seing your roots, i definately feel that beds is the way to go, as im planting well over 300 plants, maybe 15-20 at each spot depending on strain and the spot ofc.

I have it all quite fixed in my head, and will do a big compost heap for next year to use then, but i don´t have it clear what to use for nutes this year in the mix?

You should use lime even at plots where there is no pine. Where there is pine you should use extra lime, and I would try to lime there ASAP so that the soil micro fauna has time to adjust to the change in PH. You don't have to dig it in (at least to begin with) - just scatter it over the area you plan to have the plot in and when it rains the lime will leech into the soil and start to make it more alkaline, but I would dig some in later as well. I think "garden lime" will be better than "dolomite lime" if you can find it too.

As for other amendments, a variety of different amendments works better than large amounts of just a few IMHO. Blood, fish and bone is a good start. I would add seaweed meal to the list as well, and you should do OK with just those, but you could add a few more if you wanted to.