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Hey all,
There has been quite a bit of talk lately about outdoor grow.
Haven't given that too much thought over the last 30 years, but now armed with the knowledge that I couldn't grow in ANY medium and environment before I came here, and now close to harvesting my 2nd consecutive successful hydro grow(thanks to the people on this site, especially Roseman), I am starting to take the outdoor grow idea from the back of my mind and push it further up front.
One of the reasons I haven't given outdoor too much though is that I live in the Northeast (Northern New England) and the growing season is so short. Not the best scenario, but I have to ask if there is anyone on this thread who lives in similar conditions and has had a successful outdoor grow? Let me know if you would like to share your specific experiences. I would be increasingly interested. Genetics, watering schedule, what happened right, what went wrong, or point me in the direction to someone on this site who has had sucess in this part of the world.
Peace
Sam
Hmmm... Not from that area, so I can't give specifics, but ideas I have tons of! lol
What you could do, is setup a room for vegging indoors. Veg the plants and get them nice and tall and strong. Keep them on an 18/6 light schedule. Once big and tall enough, bring them outside. Even in summer we are talking 13-14 hours of light (I know Maine gets up to 16 hours of light during the longest day). Going from 18 hours to 13 would be enough (in most cases) to trigger flowering. If put out late enough into the season, as the days just begin to get shorter, they would just continue right along into flower.
You could germinate and sprout seeds indoors. Get them to a semi decent size, but keep light schedule around 13/11 for veg. After two weeks or so indoors, slowly move them outside. Best bet is to "harden off". Bring them outside for 4 hours then back in. Next day 4 1/2. And so on until they are more ready for the intense HPS bulb in the sky. Another good option is to transplant outdoor during dusk or evening. That way they have some sun, then all night to recover from transplant shock/stress.
Starting indoors would let you get a headsttart on veg time. Get some decent sized plants, then the summer months would be used for flowering. You would have plenty of time for that!
Lastly, you could plant them normal. As time goes on, and you get closer to first frost, you can make big wooden boxes to slip over the plants, or bring them into a dark room. Basically you would manually limit the length of light they get to induce flowering.
They also make soil heat mats, plant barriers and all kinds of other nifty devices for cold area growing. I know I have books with different ideas, just can't think of them off hand.
Maybe a makeshift green house?
I would stick with a pure Indica, early flowering strain. Maybe even an autoflower. The auto ak47 and different auto ak47 crosses tend to have decent yield for an autoflower. I'll be giving them and some diesel ryder beans a try outdoors this season. From seed to harvest in 60-70 days! Smaller plant, but quick growth. Grow a bunch and you'd be set.
The church is a strain well known for its mold and fungus resistense and is supposed to work great in the more damp, wet climates. Church is a great strain and fun to grow. She tends to stay in a big fat bush shape vs. a single main cola.
Best of luck.
From The Doc.
