Thanks in advance to all who will read and answer any of my questions.
Before I ask away, I want to start with some plant info. I have 12 right now; 4 sativas, 4 indicas, and 4 mostly indica hybrids. They are all bagseed, but I feel confident in my guesses on the plants types judging by the leaf shapes, I think it's pretty easy for me to tell already what they should turn out to be. If possible and/or even applicable (especially question #1), if there are different answers for the different genetics I would greatly appreciate that.
Now for the questions.
1. My plants are located on the southeast edge of a cutover so they can get good sun all day long all year long. I've hunted this area for 20 years now and even though I'm fairly sure nobody will find them, I know its always a possibility. I put a 5 foot fence up around the plot to keep the deer and rabbits away but I'm worried someone could possibly see the fence once fall comes and the foliage starts to die off. So the question is when do your plants grown at or around this latitude usually finish? Since this is my first grow, its outdoors, and I won't be cloning anything I just used bag seed. I have no guess as to when harvest time will be, so anyone sharing my latitiude I'd love to hear about the date when you harvested yours last year and when you expect to this year.
2. The edge of the cutover is super thick with the growth that typically occupies cutovers. Briars mostly, but plenty of new trees since this cutover is a few years old. The place is crawling with insects of all sorts, anything you can think of. My problem bugs are crickets, grasshoppers, beetles, ants, spiders, and 4 different flies that really enjoy living and munching on my plants. I don't think the spiders do, I just really don't want anything on them. I've put out ant poison and that fixed the ant problem. This was safe for vegetable gardens so I guess if it's ok to eat its ok to smoke. I sprayed some orkin home defense stuff that said 6 weeks but I think its more like 3 with the kind of rains we've been gettin here. All of my bug repellants and poisons have been applied to the fence and not on the plants, so that may have something to do with the effectiveness. Question number 2 is what are the best bud-safe insecticides to use and what are the best ways of applying them?
3. After having my first taste of some killer homegrown a few months back I made the easy decision to grow strictly organic. The qualities I'm hoping for in terms of harvested bud is high, taste, smell, appearance, and yield, in that order. What do you recommend besides molasses, manure, guano, and russian comfey for fertilizers that would help my ganja out to meet my criteria?
4. The last question. I've been pinching the stems on all of my plants. I've topped 2 sativas and one indica, tied down 1 sativa and one indica, and fimmed the hybrids and the 3 I had already topped after reading about it here. My question is when growing outdoors, is topping even beneficial? I know this is all opinion but I'm sure somebody here has reliable data they can give me. Like I said, I'm not really worried about someone seeing them so height isn't an issue and after some deep pondering and reading I'm wondering if my yield would be better to not cut anything off. Is that really just for controlling height or will it actually help out on the yields? I get the impression topping and fimming and lst is really directed more towards indoor where you have a limit imposed by the ceiling and outdoors they may be better left alone. Maybe it would help to top so I could grow bushes that won't fall over, but I really would enjoy some cold hard facts from someone who has tested this with all other variables kept the same in an outdoor grow so I can know for sure their effects on yields.
Thanks again for any answers to these questions. Also, thanks to all the knowledgable folks on this site who have helped me so far with info I've gathered over the past few years of reading about growing. I feel confident I can get these plants to harvest after reading everything I can on this site. And, another thanks to all who make this site so much more professional than the countless others I've read over the years. It's nice not to have to wade through the bull to find what I'm looking for.
Thanks yet again for anybody who read this whole post and anyone who gives me any useful info.
Before I ask away, I want to start with some plant info. I have 12 right now; 4 sativas, 4 indicas, and 4 mostly indica hybrids. They are all bagseed, but I feel confident in my guesses on the plants types judging by the leaf shapes, I think it's pretty easy for me to tell already what they should turn out to be. If possible and/or even applicable (especially question #1), if there are different answers for the different genetics I would greatly appreciate that.
Now for the questions.
1. My plants are located on the southeast edge of a cutover so they can get good sun all day long all year long. I've hunted this area for 20 years now and even though I'm fairly sure nobody will find them, I know its always a possibility. I put a 5 foot fence up around the plot to keep the deer and rabbits away but I'm worried someone could possibly see the fence once fall comes and the foliage starts to die off. So the question is when do your plants grown at or around this latitude usually finish? Since this is my first grow, its outdoors, and I won't be cloning anything I just used bag seed. I have no guess as to when harvest time will be, so anyone sharing my latitiude I'd love to hear about the date when you harvested yours last year and when you expect to this year.
2. The edge of the cutover is super thick with the growth that typically occupies cutovers. Briars mostly, but plenty of new trees since this cutover is a few years old. The place is crawling with insects of all sorts, anything you can think of. My problem bugs are crickets, grasshoppers, beetles, ants, spiders, and 4 different flies that really enjoy living and munching on my plants. I don't think the spiders do, I just really don't want anything on them. I've put out ant poison and that fixed the ant problem. This was safe for vegetable gardens so I guess if it's ok to eat its ok to smoke. I sprayed some orkin home defense stuff that said 6 weeks but I think its more like 3 with the kind of rains we've been gettin here. All of my bug repellants and poisons have been applied to the fence and not on the plants, so that may have something to do with the effectiveness. Question number 2 is what are the best bud-safe insecticides to use and what are the best ways of applying them?
3. After having my first taste of some killer homegrown a few months back I made the easy decision to grow strictly organic. The qualities I'm hoping for in terms of harvested bud is high, taste, smell, appearance, and yield, in that order. What do you recommend besides molasses, manure, guano, and russian comfey for fertilizers that would help my ganja out to meet my criteria?
4. The last question. I've been pinching the stems on all of my plants. I've topped 2 sativas and one indica, tied down 1 sativa and one indica, and fimmed the hybrids and the 3 I had already topped after reading about it here. My question is when growing outdoors, is topping even beneficial? I know this is all opinion but I'm sure somebody here has reliable data they can give me. Like I said, I'm not really worried about someone seeing them so height isn't an issue and after some deep pondering and reading I'm wondering if my yield would be better to not cut anything off. Is that really just for controlling height or will it actually help out on the yields? I get the impression topping and fimming and lst is really directed more towards indoor where you have a limit imposed by the ceiling and outdoors they may be better left alone. Maybe it would help to top so I could grow bushes that won't fall over, but I really would enjoy some cold hard facts from someone who has tested this with all other variables kept the same in an outdoor grow so I can know for sure their effects on yields.
Thanks again for any answers to these questions. Also, thanks to all the knowledgable folks on this site who have helped me so far with info I've gathered over the past few years of reading about growing. I feel confident I can get these plants to harvest after reading everything I can on this site. And, another thanks to all who make this site so much more professional than the countless others I've read over the years. It's nice not to have to wade through the bull to find what I'm looking for.
Thanks yet again for anybody who read this whole post and anyone who gives me any useful info.