First time outdoor grower

[dba1954]

I have a raised bed veggie garden with compost loaded soil, very loose loam soil. I have a built in lawn sprinkler system. Plant get watered from the top. We live in western NY where the humidity is usually low. Will plants in this environment have mold issues? Anyone with experience with a similar environment ? I would like to grow a Norther Light auto.

Thanks

 

[Phytoplankton]

Watering from the top will work in veg, but in flower you're asking for mold/bud rot to develop. Not sure what "low humidity" is, but evaporation from the soil and transpiration from the plant will make the micro environment around the plant a bit more humid than the measured outdoor RH, unless you put the RH meter in the middle of the canopy. Northern lights is a good strain.

 

[PaleSun]

Maybe consider using containers. Many people use fabric bags. I use Rubbermaid storage bins. In the ground is fine, but using containers lets you move the plants around if needed. Cheers and good luck

 

[SmokingWings]

We live in western NY where the humidity is usually low. Will plants in this environment have mold issues? Anyone with experience with a similar environment ?

When I have these plants outside the days I dread are the warm, lower humidity afternoons with a light breeze. The mildews which are related to molds spread on those pleasant afternoons and not when it is raining or high humidity. The mildews release the spores so they are blowing on the winds. When they land on a plant, if the humidity goes up or a light rain happens then they start to grow on the leaf. They grow in the humidity but they spread on low humidity days and they could already be on the plant for a month or two before the grower sees the mildews. When growers see a problem on the plants, usually after the temperatures lower in early fall and there is often more rains, they think that the cooler temps and extra water caused the problem even though it started weeks earlier.

My understanding is that molds are similar. One difference is that mold spores can last longer before they start to grow so a slightly bigger problem. Find and start a mildew and mold prevention process in early summer and keep at it to reduce the chances of an infestation on you outdoor plants.

Whether growing in the ground or in pots it is likely that the plants will start to flower in early to mid-August. That leaves a usual window of mid October to early November for most harvests. Some times an earlier harvest might have to be planned on so know when the weather changes for your area.

There are advantages and disadvantages to planting in pots just as there are advantages when planting directly into the ground. Directly into the ground might produce larger plants with larger harvests. Planting in pots allows the grower to move a plant if need be.

People will give suggestions and thoughts on outdoor growing based on their own experience. For some really interesting good and bad points you could go to some of the sub forums like this one and the "Frequently Ask Questions" and then going back into the older threads, back to last summer and quickly looking for discussions that started when other growers ran into a problem with outdoor plants. Speaking of which it will not be long before some of the outdoor growers in the southern hemisphere start to post questions about their outdoor grows.

 

[dba1954]

When I have these plants outside the days I dread are the warm, lower humidity afternoons with a light breeze. The mildews which are related to molds spread on those pleasant afternoons and not when it is raining or high humidity. The mildews release the spores so they are blowing on the winds. When they land on a plant, if the humidity goes up or a light rain happens then they start to grow on the leaf. They grow in the humidity but they spread on low humidity days and they could already be on the plant for a month or two before the grower sees the mildews. When growers see a problem on the plants, usually after the temperatures lower in early fall and there is often more rains, they think that the cooler temps and extra water caused the problem even though it started weeks earlier.

My understanding is that molds are similar. One difference is that mold spores can last longer before they start to grow so a slightly bigger problem. Find and start a mildew and mold prevention process in early summer and keep at it to reduce the chances of an infestation on you outdoor plants.

Whether growing in the ground or in pots it is likely that the plants will start to flower in early to mid-August. That leaves a usual window of mid October to early November for most harvests. Some times an earlier harvest might have to be planned on so know when the weather changes for your area.

There are advantages and disadvantages to planting in pots just as there are advantages when planting directly into the ground. Directly into the ground might produce larger plants with larger harvests. Planting in pots allows the grower to move a plant if need be.

People will give suggestions and thoughts on outdoor growing based on their own experience. For some really interesting good and bad points you could go to some of the sub forums like this one and the "Frequently Ask Questions" and then going back into the older threads, back to last summer and quickly looking for discussions that started when other growers ran into a problem with outdoor plants. Speaking of which it will not be long before some of the outdoor growers in the southern hemisphere start to post questions about their outdoor grows.

in western NY we commonly get frost by oct 1st, sometimes earlier

 

[SmokingWings]

in western NY we commonly get frost by oct 1st, sometimes earlier

Early frosts are not a problem. The plant can handle them. It is the "killing frosts", the ones that where the temperature will drop to 32 or lower for 4 hours or so. Usually that is long enough for the soil surface and surface roots to freeze.

That is a tad early so a somewhat shorter harvest window. There have been threads with suggestions on what to use to cover the plants on those really cold nights.

Otherwise, some frost on the leaves and flowers is not that big of a problem. The plants will grow slower but will bounce back when the temps go up and especially if the sun is shining.

The link below is to a thread I had running several years ago. I deliberately left a few plants outside just to see what weather conditions it would take here in southeast Michigan to actually kill the plants.

https://www.420magazine.com/community/threads/we-are-past-the-frost-warnings-or-the-lady-finally-sang-the-last-song.474763/

 

[Pitmaster]

It's NOT Legal to grow for Recreational use in N.Y. State until July of 2023 I believe. So be careful if you grow outdoors in plain site. Also there are restrictions on how many plants you can grow by size of your household. Google it.

 

[dba1954]

It's NOT Legal to grow for Recreational use in N.Y. State until July of 2023 I believe. So be careful if you grow outdoors in plain site. Also there are restrictions on how many plants you can grow by size of your household. Google it.

thank you, I do have a Medical MJ card, lets me grow 3 mature plants at a time. It actually became legal 10/5/2022 but not a lot of publicity on it oddly enough

 

[Pitmaster]

It's NOT Legal to grow for Recreational use in N.Y. State until July of 2023 I believe. So be careful if you grow outdoors in plain site. Also there are restrictions on how many plants you can grow by size of your household. Google it.

Make sure your plants are not in plain sight of the public also. The State has lots of rules.

 

[SmokingWings]

It actually became legal 10/5/2022 but not a lot of publicity on it oddly enough

That was for medical growers if I read the articles correctly. Recreational growers have to wait till so many days after some specific action takes place but I don't remember what it was.

In the meantime there are something like 5 legal recreational shops in NYC but about 2,000 illegal ones. Kinda reminds me of the City of Detroit and their long dragged out process to license buildings and businesses for recreational sales. Took Detroit 5 years to figure it out and in the meantime there seemed like a unlicensed recreational shop every 4 or 5 blocks along any major street.

 

[dba1954]

That was for medical growers if I read the articles correctly. Recreational growers have to wait till so many days after some specific action takes place but I don't remember what it was.

In the meantime there are something like 5 legal recreational shops in NYC but about 2,000 illegal ones. Kinda reminds me of the City of Detroit and their long dragged out process to license buildings and businesses for recreational sales. Took Detroit 5 years to figure it out and in the meantime there seemed like a unlicensed recreational shop every 4 or 5 blocks along any major street.

You have to go to Patients ....