Indoor Hydro Grower ventures Outside!!

[Esskie]

Hi there,
Due to an unfortunate incident at the end of last year ( ) I'm no longer able to grow indoors anymore so, as I simply just can't stop growing (it must be a genetic thing? lol) I've started a couple of plants for outdoors.

I know it's very late in the growing season to be starting seeds but I had to wait until June before I could start due to my trial, basically I had to wait & see if I was gonna get jailed or not! .

Anyway, there are 4 x HashPlant babies currently basking in the summer sun (or at least when there is sunshine here!). Still in their pots atm but my intentions are to wait until they are large enough then plant em at their final growing location.

Here are a couple of pics of them taken today,

Plants #1 & #2


Plants #3 & #4


As you can see they are still very small so I just hope they can reach a decent(ish) size before they begin to flower.


Having done this same strain indoors under 1200w in a DeepPod F&D system already, I know they finish in approx 8wks..


All 4 of them are only 1-1.5wks old atm & were placed outside during the day & brought in at night to begin with but have now spent the last 4 days outside withou no problems. The RH is varying where I am but it's in the 50%~70% with temps of approx 22degC~33degC so by my reckoning it's just about fine.

They had their first feed (with nutes) this morning which was 24hr water with Ionic Grow mixed at 4ml/per Litre (they took my meters so I have noway of checking the E.C or pH until I get another pair)

Any of you seasoned outdoor growers have any advice or comments you can offer me at all?, anything would be appreciated.

I just wish I could have started them a month or three earlier!

Regards, Esskie.

PS: I have a feeling the EC may be a tad high as one of them is showing a tiny bit of tip-burn

 

[Esskie]

Unfortunately the little one with the leaf tip burn had keeled over when I checked on them last night so sadly has been excluded.
And then there were three...

As the mix in the pots was really sodden & soaked through it was replaced this morning with compost from a growbag & a few good handfulls of washed vermiculite through it. It's probably somewhere in the 70/30 range?.

After just a good misting on both the seedlings and the surface soil I've now left them to settle in, it's a bit overcast & dull today but it's warm so the humidity will be higher than full on sun. I'm hoping this will aid them settle in better too.

Here are a few pics I took just after re-potting them;

#1


#2 (in same pot as #1 atm)


#3 (now in a pot of it's own)


Whilst I had them out this morning I noticed #1 & #2 both have good healthy, white roots with lots of lateral roots. #3, while it's roots look healthy enough, isn't as good looking as the other two.

Here are a couple of pics from the same strain grown indoors during 2004/05

23days in 12s under 1200w


the finished product (indoor/hydro)


Esskie.

 

[pico]

Sorry to hear about your legal troubles. Hopefully you can still get some smoke off these little guys.

Can I ask what happened in court?

 

[Laxpunker]

Your climate is fairly similar to mine, however this year I've had a hell of a lot of rain. You should have a fairly decent harvest if you can get those seedlings to beef up a bit. By the end of the season you can still expect to have some 3' to 4' monsters, however hoping for anything more than that would be highly optimistic. Aside from a little damnage from water and weather they're looking healthy, best of luck to you man and try to stay out of court this time

 

[Esskie]

Hi there,
I hope so Laxpunker and do realise the yield was never going to be anything to get excited about mate, if I can manage a little stash for a couple of weeks , I'll be more than happy. If they reach 3' ~ 4' then I won't be complaining.

I've noticed more than a couple of threads where people have left it late into the season with a few different strains amongst them so we're not alone Laxpunker :smile: .

My choice of strain came down to something thats decent to smoke as I knew there wouldn't be too much of it at the end of the day, something hardy & early(ish) finishing. That narrowed it down to an Indica & whilst looking at the contents of the seedbox they just seemed to surface.
I have other Indicas but either haven't grown them and/or don't know the strain as I know this particular HP due to having grown it indoors constantly for almost a year or more.

Funnily enough theres been a fair bit of rain with me too, almost monsoon status at one point for a couple of days but that was before these were outside thankfully.

As much as I'd like to, it'd be cool to keep them in pots close to hand & upsize when needed but they are destined for mother-earth. I have a nice south-facing, well drained spot with water en-route so hopefully the only thing that'll destroy them will be wildlife (the 4-legged variety, not the black & white cheque coloured ones).

There's a post somewhere detailing the whole shinanigin pico, I can't remember where it is tho, sorry mate . Thankfully I scraped through with probation & c.s although a month or two inside is over & done with much quicker, it's a tad inconvenient to say the least! .

Still insure whether to
a) just dig holes & fill em with a soil/vermiculite mix and place the plant directly into it,
b) do the same except leave then in the pots with the base/bottom cut-off allowing the roots to grow down
c) or dig, break-up the ground at the site and use that? (with some additives dug through it).

It isn't bad quality soil as it used to be an old allotment or fruit-garden & produces plenty berries & even a couple of fruit trees so they would probably be okay I'd hope. Even mixing some 'goodness' through it first prior to planting like fish/bone meal and maybe even some compost I've made from grass clippings which I allow to decompose before mixing it through with the contents of a growbag?.

Regards, Esskie.

 

[Esskie]

Thought I'd post a couple of pics just taken this morning.

Still not much to look at yet but they're definitely getting larger






They are beginning to look like small plants now as opposed to seedlings but this probably appears much more noticeable to me being used to much faster growth rates indoors.

Feeding has begun & is done once a week atm with a 4~5ml/1L solution of Ionic Grow & some Rhizotonic just for good measure.

Gonna have to get my ass into gear and get em separated, I think I'll let em seed should there be one of each?. There aren't many of these seeds left in my box so even just a couple of the lower branches dusted would give me more than enough if I manage to be in a position where I can control the pollination!? . Nature might take it's own course and the whole lot will become seeded. tbh it would still be better than no bud or god forbid; kAk!

 

[Esskie]

Hi there,
Still not a lot happening that's worth getting excited about although now I see these transforming from seedlings into 'young plants', the better I feel. I know the yield is never going to be great, probably abysmal .
As they're going though, theres still plenty daylight available to them for vegging & with a bit of luck they might reach 12"-18" by the time they set about flowering?.

I'm afraid I thought I'd lost one just a couple of days ago, I'd went to water them in the morning & was confronted by the slightly taller of the pair lying over against the side of the pot .
On closer inspection I could see that something had been eating the base of the stem at surface-level.
I almost immediately found a really bright green coloured caterpillar on the ground right next to the plants.
Fortunately, the end of the plant had turned upwards towards the light and it still appears to be managing to draw enough nutrients up through the stem.



I've practiced 'kinking' stems indoors instead of nipping out tops, these are well above the substrate though. I'm not sure if I was right in covering up the damaged part of the stem with some compost from the edges of the pot or whether I should have left it exposed to the air?.

 

[Guest]

looking good, especially for the late start. sorry to hear about your legal troubles!

 

[Esskie]

looking good, especially for the late start. sorry to hear about your legal troubles!

Thanx High&Lonesome, it's always the same especially at this size. I mean I find it hard to notice any new growth from them unless I don't look at them for a couple of days. I found this to be true growing indoor hydro too but they grew faster in the hydro, the more intense light would very likely play a major role in this too.

If they can get at least another 4-6wks vegtime before kicking into flower then I think they might just turn out not too bad considering they're very late to begin with.
Esskie.

 

[Guest]

when does the flowering usually start outside in scotland?

 

[Esskie]

Tbh I haven't looked at any sunrise/sunset tables yet at all,

Haven't done anything outside for a while but it was always safe to say Indicas would be ready for harvest by Oct, maybe September dependant on strain/pheno etc. You sometimes get it turning really quite cold throughout October in some cooler years too.

That said tho, they're on about this year possibly developing into an Indian Summer so who knows?, don't think it would affect the sunrise/set times though but it would be nice & bright.

I'll know to, and will be able to get them started early enough next year with ideally more plants, somewhere in the region of a dozen or so scattered around which have had the whole season to veg into 4ft-5ft+ bushes before the days begin to shorten. .

I'm noticing little things compared to indoor growing, the insect repellent for one!. Indoors it's a problem you deal with if you get an infestation of whitefly or something but outdoors it's a necessity you need to use without even thinking about it?.
I dunno?, that caterpillar was at a couple of the leaves too & munched some little holes. If that happened to me during an indoor grow I'd be 'breaking out the hardware'.....well Neem Oil, garlic-water, Hot Pepper Wax etc, but it just seems natural outdoors? aslong as they don't much too much!!! .

Esskie.

 

[slyfoxberg]

good luck esskie. they look good.

 

[glock23]

Wow, an outdoor grow in Scotland! I hope you get some good smoke from 'em. About the holes for planting...I would dig em as deep and wide as possible (deep is more important than wide) and mix 1/2 of the existing soil with 30% peat and 20% perlite. you can mix your compost into this mix. Don't add blood or bone meal this late in the game, it takes a while for it to break down. Personally I use high P bat guano, worm castings and kelp.

I used neem outside last year and it did seem to make a difference...that stuff really stinks though

 

[Guest]

Hey Esskie. looks like you are off to a good start. get them seperated asap man, I am worried their roots will be entangled.

I am also on my first outdoor, and loving it so far. wish i discovered it last year, and cant wait till next. I am normally a DWC guy.

I have been to scotland a few times, saw hibernian play the hearts a few years ago.. just got back from seeing celtic get stomped stateside - WTF happened?! it wasnt even a game man.

when I was younger I played travel football.. we went to scotland for a 5 game tournament.. won 3, but got smashed in 2.. 1 of them was the queens park rangers (youth team) and man they must have whooped us 12-1 it was embarassing lol.

root mass is basically proportionate to yield. my outdoor mentor always told me to dig holes and put them directly into the ground. its of course better if you can import your own dirt, but not necessary long as its fertile land.

good luck!

 

[Esskie]

Update

Update

Hi there,
I know this thread hasn't exactly been a bucket load of new posts & pics as my indoor grow threads may have been but due to the nature of the beast, as it were, it just wasn't possible .

Thanx to slyfoxberg, glock23 & the lorax for their posts since my last and what you said is on-board, thanx for the advice.

lorax, you mentioned

root mass is basically proportionate to yield

how right you are buddy!!. Being similar to myself in regard to being used to DWC/hydro then moving outdoors with 'soil'.
The root growth I became used to whilst using 12-litre buckets (pods) and clay pebbles in my F+D system was phenomenal compared to anything I've seen in soil at a comparable age.
I'm sure there's a pic in my gallery of a 45-litre rez full of roots from only 6 Afghans at approx 6~8wks old?.

Imho the ability to get so much more oxygen to the roots is much easier with hydro than soil as I'm sure you'll all agree, this has to play a major part in rate of growth which is a direct influence on the size of the plant when it's mature, okay, that and a lot of other things. One of them being the more lumens the better!.

That's something I've noticed, there hasn't been much sun of late, we had a good few weeks last month but it's only been bright in the mornings turning to a dull, overcast sky by mid-morning for the rest of the day .
I read something about the more UV, which the sun emits as we know, our plants receive having an effect on the productivity of THC, i.e; resin ??.
It was something I'd planned to put to the test when indoors by adding a decent source of UV to the light system, centrally positioned but alas I never got the chance to .

Perhaps one day when I'll get to try it when the time is right & I feel safe.

Back to the plants before I go off on a ramble again lol,
RM's HP imho was never one of the most resinous strains I've any experience of, and I've done a few indoors, but it's maybe just with me not knowing exactly how long they've been in flower or mine haven't done too well with the shitty climate?.

Over the last 2-3wks theres been some really heavy rain without much sun at all, this one in the pic is the one I kept in a pot but made sure it was never in too small a pot. Atm it's in a plastic bucket, one of my old hydro pods so I know it's 12-litres in size lol.

I'm guessing these might be somewhere around 6-7wks into flower?, going from experience of growing them indoors where thay normally take 8wks(+/-)









...this last pic is a pic of the whole plant, well you know what I mean. Tip: Nettles have a habit of camouflaging weed quite nicely from a distance...


It's getting pretty damn cold now, espesh at night and it's noticable in the mornings on my way to work, thankfully we've had no frost as yet (touch wood!). I just hope we have another little warm/mild spell for 3-4wks even?, that would just finish them off nicely I think?.
If there is one thing I refuse to do it's chopping bud before it's ready just as I won't smoke it until it's dried properly with a at least week jarred after that!, pretty sure most folks on this forum feel the same about that though.
Okay, sometimes a decent cure isn't possible if you've no stash but the longer the better!, my longest cure is 4mnths: Humboldt SnowBud and it was amazing!!. Needless to say I had enough to be able to put it away & forget about it, something that is easier to do if you have a staggered/constant harvest strategy goin on with plenty bud I suppose.

Like two different bits of bud before & after curing.

I think for next year I'll be looking for a stout, hardy indica, possibly a nice Afghan or Afghan-dom as they can have a tendency to tolerate the cold well and maybe finish well in 7wks or so.

I actually have a few Golden Skush seed left which finished really well with massive crown-shaped cola/buds which didn't require a lot of trimming either. Infact if anyone has any Golden Skush seeds they'd be up for trading drop me a PM as a few more wouldn't go a miss as I've less than 5 of them.

Here is one of my 2005 Golden Skush at 4wks:


Take care folks & keep it safe.
Best Regards, Esskie

 

[Tirs]

Hi esskie, outdoor plants never seem to be quite as white as their indoor counterparts but they smoke just as potent so don't worry. Gypsy carries some nice early flowering varities for next year if your interested and he still has some golden skush unless you can't make an order or something. They're looking really good for girls that went out so late. Good luck with the weather man.

http://www.seedboutique.com/store/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=25&products_id=362