anduin1
Well-Known Member
So this year I decided to put some plants outside to try my hand at outdoor growing. I picked a nice spot out of the way and somewhere I could get to relatively easily on a regular basis. I had access to a bunch of clones from Girl Scout Cookies and Congo strains that I had no means of growing in my regular spot so I moved these outdoors including 2 giant mothers from each strain. Here's a shot with some of them before they went out around May long weekend which was about the earliest the weather permitted putting anything out in my area.
Here you can see one of the spots I chose, really easily hidden in the dense bush. Keen eyes will pick out a few of the plants.
I was shocked at how quickly they grew. I had tried to keep the grow as organic as possible by using supplements like bone meal, blood meal, kelp meal, worm castings, dolomitic limestone but also used liquid fertilizers later in the season when it seemed like they were hungry. Here's a few shots from about 1 month in (early July '16)
Because this was my first time growing outdoors, I didn't know what to expect in terms of possible issues I would run into in my area. At one point in August, the weather went sour and powder mildew overtook the entire area including the native plants. Luckily it was cleared up by a good rain storm shortly after but I had never seen anything like it before. Other than that, I was running into issues with bugs going after my leaves. I never did identify the exact insect but it could have been some species of thrip.
These shots show some of the worse off plants.
What I ended up doing was similar to what I did with my indoor bug problem with spider mites. I got one of those pump sprayers and made a brew of water, peppermint oil, dish soap and vegetable oil to give them a good coat. I sprayed them down once a week and it seemed to do the trick for keeping them off my plants.
Here's a shot of one of the clones in September, nowhere near flower but about 6 feet in height. This was probably the biggest challenge I ran into during this grow because these strains had quite long finishing times and i guessed wrong that the flower flip would happen in August.
In early September, pre flower was en route but by this time I was almost positive there wasn't going to be enough time
In early October, we had an unexpected cold snap where we got dumped on by snow and the temperatures dropped below freezing for about 4 nights in a row after which temperatures went back up to 60F. It wiped everything out and I didn't take any pictures of the carnage because it was one of the saddest sights I've seen in a while . The plants had some nice pistils and the bud was starting to form nicely. Luckily, I went out a few days before it happened and cut my 2 mothers to pieces, stuffed them in bottles and took them home to reclone what I could. I also let a friend come out and dig out a couple for his greenhouse.
Even with the disappointment of a failed grow, I was still glad to get the experience of being able to grow outdoors. I underestimated the possibility of early cold weather since I thought it would be similar to the past few years where we didn't have sub zero temperatures well into November. In fact, if the October snap didn't happen, the plants would have made it to November and likely finished but nothing really went according to schedule during this grow so maybe it's wishful thinking.
I'd love to try it again next year but it's clear I will need the fastest finishing breeds I can get my hands on. Something that can finish in September at the latest. I also wonder if the much longer northern days during the summer delayed the flip to flower by a good 2-3 weeks. June with 17+ hour daylight and August with about 13-14. It could also be that this area is really not conducive to outdoor growth due to the hours/weather. It was still a blast to try and it ended up being a really good summer overall.
Here you can see one of the spots I chose, really easily hidden in the dense bush. Keen eyes will pick out a few of the plants.
I was shocked at how quickly they grew. I had tried to keep the grow as organic as possible by using supplements like bone meal, blood meal, kelp meal, worm castings, dolomitic limestone but also used liquid fertilizers later in the season when it seemed like they were hungry. Here's a few shots from about 1 month in (early July '16)
Because this was my first time growing outdoors, I didn't know what to expect in terms of possible issues I would run into in my area. At one point in August, the weather went sour and powder mildew overtook the entire area including the native plants. Luckily it was cleared up by a good rain storm shortly after but I had never seen anything like it before. Other than that, I was running into issues with bugs going after my leaves. I never did identify the exact insect but it could have been some species of thrip.
These shots show some of the worse off plants.
What I ended up doing was similar to what I did with my indoor bug problem with spider mites. I got one of those pump sprayers and made a brew of water, peppermint oil, dish soap and vegetable oil to give them a good coat. I sprayed them down once a week and it seemed to do the trick for keeping them off my plants.
Here's a shot of one of the clones in September, nowhere near flower but about 6 feet in height. This was probably the biggest challenge I ran into during this grow because these strains had quite long finishing times and i guessed wrong that the flower flip would happen in August.
In early September, pre flower was en route but by this time I was almost positive there wasn't going to be enough time
In early October, we had an unexpected cold snap where we got dumped on by snow and the temperatures dropped below freezing for about 4 nights in a row after which temperatures went back up to 60F. It wiped everything out and I didn't take any pictures of the carnage because it was one of the saddest sights I've seen in a while . The plants had some nice pistils and the bud was starting to form nicely. Luckily, I went out a few days before it happened and cut my 2 mothers to pieces, stuffed them in bottles and took them home to reclone what I could. I also let a friend come out and dig out a couple for his greenhouse.
Even with the disappointment of a failed grow, I was still glad to get the experience of being able to grow outdoors. I underestimated the possibility of early cold weather since I thought it would be similar to the past few years where we didn't have sub zero temperatures well into November. In fact, if the October snap didn't happen, the plants would have made it to November and likely finished but nothing really went according to schedule during this grow so maybe it's wishful thinking.
I'd love to try it again next year but it's clear I will need the fastest finishing breeds I can get my hands on. Something that can finish in September at the latest. I also wonder if the much longer northern days during the summer delayed the flip to flower by a good 2-3 weeks. June with 17+ hour daylight and August with about 13-14. It could also be that this area is really not conducive to outdoor growth due to the hours/weather. It was still a blast to try and it ended up being a really good summer overall.
