Outdoor, Container Size.

[Guest]

What size container do you use/recommend.

I'm growing outdoors in 5-gallon buckets, minimum. (See High Desert Outdoor Growing thread in this forum.) I'll be putting 8" clones out first week of July. Will 5-gallon suffice?

I realize it's strain-dependent to some degree, but I'm looking for general guidelines.

Also, for buckets larger than 5-gallon, anyone know a good (cheap or free is nice) source? Are the square buckets that restaurants throw out 5- or 7-gallon?

.canine.

 

[sick_and_tired]

hehehe........dork
Resteraunt buckets are generally 5 gallon.
Check out back of home depot, you can always nab 5 gallon buckets out back .....jus do it early.
I grew in five gallon buckets outside, and you should be fine, especially in tha wonderfull world of organics
S&T

 

[Guest]

I'd say, "I'm NO dork" but you know me too well, sick.

So 5-gal will do it, eh? I'll just plan on that, then. They will be inside a hollowed-out, scrub-brush. Thorny (keep critters at bay) AND will provide the bucket (and the clones when they are young) with shade to keep them from drying out too rapidly.

.canine.

 

[pipeline]

sure it will do it. It all depends on how big of a plant you are wanting to have. Generally more soil volume will grow bigger buds than a smaller volume in the same conditions. Its up to you what you want to use, but go with the biggest you can manage. This will help the soil not dry out as fast too.

 

[sick_and_tired]

Unless mobility is of concern bro, jus dig a whole, a biggg hole in tha ground and fill it with all tha goodies. The bigger the hole, the bigger tha plant will get.
S&T

 

[Guest]

i would use 15 gallon grow bags instead.

 

[Stoner133]

I get some pretty good sized plants with 5 gallon grow bags or 12" container.

Only thing is, with a container, you have to provide water. If you get regular rain fall the plant is well adapted to draining down into the root zone. If it goes too long without rain, there is only a limited amount of moisture until the plants wilt. Wilting insures survival but at the expense of growth.

 

[Guest]

cool.

we dig 8' deep 8' wide trenches

 

[Guest]

I don't expect you guys to go sift through my other thread, but suffice to say that containers are the only way to go for my area. Every other condition here is primo for outdoor... the one bump in the road is that the ground isn't cultivable. Decomposed granite, at best... usually with raquetball-sized gravel all through it. Impossible to get a shovel into and an enormous pain in the arse to get through with a pickaxe, even.

I've considered grow bags... would save me a nighttime hike with six 7-gallon pots strapped to my back.

 

[Guest]

stoner153, I'm down at about 35N, but from your pic, our locations look very similar in terms of native vegetation.

 

[Skunkenstein]

I guess a person can look@ it in a couple different ways..You are going out in July, depending on the strain they could start flowering fairly soon. You could easily get by with 5gal. anything.I had a cutting I put out late one year in a 7gal. I ended up dumping it due to security issues and I was suprised by how much soil it had not rooted..It was a freebie from someone else. It really did'nt have the appropriate root-mass for such a large container. I'am a big proponent of huge holes/20gal.plus containers.But you really need to have a plant/rootmass that can utalize the extra soil in the alloted time.Usually this means some healthy pre-veg. and a couple transplants. Oh yeah..18-20 wal-mart elcheapo laundry containers work great,esp.when buried up to the rim and camofluaged..hint,hint.In the summer you're lookin@ 1gal-2gals h2o/day..and praying for rain.

 

[Guest]

Thanks, everyone.

Where I am, it's dry and hot until July 15th, then monsoon season hits and we get afternoon showers just about daily from mid-July until September 1st. I should only need to lug water for a few weeks, when they first go out... and even then, I'm hoping that since the plants won't have rooted the containers, yet, I'll be able to get away with watering less.

The monsoons are the reason I'm planning on not putting clones out until the first week of July... having them out in late May and June would be TOUGH here because it's sunny, hot and bone dry during that time.

So thanks for all the input. I think I'll stick with 5-gallon containers going out July 7th (after all the holiday campers, hikers and ATV folks get outta the forest). They should get a good 4-6 weeks of veg in and then finish about 4' tall.

.canine.

 

[Stoner133]

stoner153, I'm down at about 35N, but from your pic, our locations look very similar in terms of native vegetation.

I am blessed with conifer forests that extend to near infinity.

The plants that survive here have to be cold and drought tolerant, a perfect fit for pine trees.

Unfortunately the drought tolerant part works against my Cannabis growing ambitions. The picture was taken in late July, by the end of August those plants were twice that size and needed water 3 times a week. I was packing in loads of 160kg of water, just enough to hold them.

 

[lemonade]

Stoner133: I was planning on giving growbags a try this year in the great outdoors. Seems smarter to bring a little sac containing 50 growbags as opposed to lugging in 5gal buckets a couple at a time. Im wondering though, have you ever had a problem with critters chewing up the bags? I was thinking of wrapping a bit of chicken wire around the bags if it's a problem.

 

[Guest]

as far as i'm concerned, FUCK CONTAINERS for outdoor.... put them bitches in the ground if you can

 

[sick_and_tired]

as far as i'm concerned, FUCK CONTAINERS for outdoor.... put them bitches in the ground if you can

Thats what I'm sayin. If the ground you are in is unfriendly, Fill it with good dirt, and organic ammendments. Some will say, O well thas alot of dirt to haul into tha woods. Well, youll be doin it anywayz with tha 5 gal buckets.
S&T

 

[Guest]

Guess it's my fault for not just tacking this question onto my High Desert Outdoor thread so peeps would be up to speed on my situation...

You can't dig into the ground here without at the very least a pickaxe and many gallons of sweat. Where the ground isn't solid rock, it's gravel packed tightly into decomposed granite for decades. Probably hard to understand until you've tried it.

The problem isn't that the soil quality is bad... digging a hole is the problem. I tried it for about five minutes before I threw my shovel into the woods.

Besides that, I would wager a bet that a shaded 5-gallon bucket would hold moisture as long as an exposed hole filled in with 10 gallons of soil. We're at 6,000' and the sun is intense up here.

 

[Stoner133]

...I would wager a bet that a shaded 5-gallon bucket would hold moisture as long as an exposed hole filled in with 10 gallons of soil. We're at 6,000' and the sun is intense up here.

Shading the planters while keeping the plants in full Sunshine will help a bit.

By far, the biggest consumption of water is transpiration through the plant. The little bit that is lot to evaporation is trivial, but keeping the planter at cooler temperatures is beneficial.

That's a job for camo brush and plants.

 

[pipeline]

Dont forget to use mulch. Mulching will help keep the soil from drying out as quickly, and will shade the soil, keeping it cooler.

 

[Skunkenstein]

Even though I use containers..my little thing..I would highly recommend keeping them shaded and camoflaged.Couple years ago, a guy was busted,north of here,by a off duty sheriff taking flying lessons. The grow was in a old clear-cut by a stream..the black containers and black pvc watering lines were spotted from the air. The soil in the area is easy to dig..why he did'nt go natural soil with ammendments is beyond me. The first time I ever used containers outside..the watering was a real chore..those cotainers hold alot of heat!!! So I dug a hole,and dropped em in...it made all the difference in the world!! And I AGREE with all the container Haters..The best solution is probably right into the ground.