a few questions from a first time central mississippi grower

[voxito]

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.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Dude I live in the southeast too and I think that the fence will make it easy for your plants to be spotted from the air. Use a pepper sprayfor the bugs get some cayanne or jalapeno peppers about a dozen to a gallon of water. cut the up add them to the water let it soak for 24 hours strain out the peppers and add 2 teaspoons of diswashing liquid (dawn) to the mix. spray this on your plants. I use this mix in my vegtable garden. I woud not put any commercial bug sprays on my plants!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Dude I live in the southeast too and I think that the fence will make it easy for your plants to be spotted from the air. Use a pepper sprayfor the bugs get some cayanne or jalapeno peppers about a dozen to a gallon of water. cut the up add them to the water let it soak for 24 hours strain out the peppers and add 2 teaspoons of diswashing liquid (dawn) to the mix. spray this on your plants. I use this mix in my vegtable garden. I woud not put any commercial bug sprays on my plants! A 5 foot fence will not keep out deer I use an 8 foot fence.

 

[Ridgerunner]

:hubba: Sorry about the double post .

 

[voxito]

thanks, I'll definitely be giving the pepper water a try next time I go.

All the growth now is right up to the fence so I'm sure it's practically impossible for it to be seen from the air. Also, since it is on the edge of the cutover there is a tree directly above the plot. I cut and pushed back all the trees and bushes when I put the fence up. Also, it's made of really thin wire and I have no posts, it's just wrapped on the outside of some saplings that are about 4 feet tall. I know a 5' fence won't keep a deer that wants in out, but the plot is only a 10' circle around the plants so I my experience the deer should be dettered by my fence when there is so much else for them to eat. Even I snack on the black berries when I'm tending to the plants...

keep the suggestions coming please

 

[zipflip]

last year on my outdoor grow i had problem wit rabbits chewin at my stems of plants so i put up them stake in th ground rabbit deer reppellant things by each plant and after that i never saw a rabbit near the whole area. an i use to see em all over as i'd get closer to the garden before this.

 

[voxito]

what is this deer rabbit repellant stake?

 

[zipflip]

you could get some liquid fence. tho a bit spendy depending on size of ya grow or # or plants you cirlcle wit it..?
hxxp://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2048417

the things i used would still be visible, yet only visible really if you were walkin right by it in first place. but even then on infrared deal flyovers look thru anythin plastic or metal or anythin other than vegetation is gonna have its own heat signature thus showin up a distinct object appearing odd or out of place . so really i'd go wit the liquid fence or even pee in bottles an save up to when you go to ya grow and dump bottles of ya urine round teh grow. i also done this as well..
cant find them deals i used anywhere to show a pic. i got em at hardware store was all. just a container wit vent holes wit some stuff that stunk an supposedly repelled animals i guess was the idea of it and ya staked it in the ground was all.

 

[voxito]

thanks I'll look into those next time I'm there. I need more soil so I can start more plants anyway. Keep em coming

 

[LassChance]

thanks I'll look into those next time I'm there. I need more soil so I can start more plants anyway. Keep em coming

Im in the SE too and although my "real" grow is inside, I am planning on sneaking one and possibly two BC BigBuds in the yard by the privacy fence, trained horizontally. Ive already been neglecting to mow inside the fence, figuring the more and taller the weeds, the better for cammoflage.

Anyway, you might enjoy seeing a great outside grow and possibly learn something-go to youtube and SEARCH "A Grower's Lot".
Evidently it's not uncommon to get half a pound up to a pound from one outside plant...so Im guessing your yield will be HUGE. Let's hope half or more of you plants are fem!

Folks say this and folks say that about whether topping, FIMing and so on improve yield. Beats me.
Taking a stab at when you will harvest...Although flowering time varies from strain to strain, a good guestimate is eight to ten weeks after Summer Solstice, June 21. After then the days start getting shorter and the plants will go into flower mode. Say all of July and all of August to flower and most likely harvest around Sept.1 or thereabouts. At the very outside, the middle of Sept, so it will still be hot in Dixie, with plenty of greenery still around.

Im looking foreward to "watching" your grow progress--I hope we'll see some pics as time goes by.

Ive got a bamboo grove on my property that seems to BEG for a plant or two in it...but there's been this damn green, unmarked helicopter that flies by very slowly the past couple Augusts...and I dont know what he's looking at or FOR, but he seems to really check out the bamboo. So, LOL, I figure while he's SO busy looking at the bamboo, he wont notice one horizontal "weed" among the other weeds in my unmowed back yard.

Last summer I had four plants in pots on my deck rail, surrounded by MANY other potted, flowering plants. I went to Walmart and bought some plastic flowers, tiny white ones, and wired them onto my MJ plants...so, from the air Im sure they looked like just another flowering plant on a nice old lady's deck...teehee! If they ONLY KNEW! As in Poe's "Purloined Letter", there's something to be said for "hiding in plain sight". I had people on my deck who KNOW what MJ looks like...who simpluy never noticed it amidst all the other "flowers" One thing I like about Big Bud is, it has virtually NO smell...but still packs quite a punch.

Anyway, I got a huge kick out of "A Grower's Lot" on you tube and I hope you'll take a look.

Happy growing

Lass

 

[voxito]

yeah I actually got a tip from a knowledgable grower that growing in bamboo was a good idea. I check out every thicket I come across, because it sure would be easy to hide a lanky sativa in there and nobody except who was looking would notice. I wouldn't take the whole thing, just a bowl's worth nug to try out if it was close to being done, I'd hope to catch the person so we could match too:hubba:

He said the reason for growing in bamboo was because they give off a similar heat sig to infrared from above. He said they monitor the changes in the signature and weed gives off more heat while growing and that's how they find big plots. Bamboo closely matches weed's heat changes thus making it harder for them to find. A good suggestion, but no bamboo thickets I have access to get enough sun for my liking, so I'm stuck in the cutover...

I'm like you, I have mixed feelings about the topping. I went to check on them today and fimming only worked on 4 out of the seven. For those wondering, it does make four where ther would have been only two, but the ones I didn't fim got the benefit of growing the two leaves they had much larger, whereas the 4 where fimming worked have 4 tiny leaves. This check was 2 days after I fimmed. The three that fimming didn't work on(I guess I cut these wrong?) started regrowing their leaves so no big deal.

Thanks for hoping half are female. I myself am a little more hopeful but hey who isn't? I've read it's more likely for a seed from a hermi to go hermi, so that's my real concern. it's gonna kill me to take them out when I could've got some smoke off of them, but I want my females to be sensi, so it's a sacrifice I'll willingly make. I had hundreds of seeds I've collected over the years, some were killer ganja, some just reggie, I hope the dank plants are growing now.

That's a great idea on tying them down and growing them by the fence. As soon as I know I can grow I'll be ordering every seed that looks good, I just didn't want to this season since all I know about growing is what I read here. I'd enjoy some smoke reports if you think those BC Bigbuds are worth growing. Well I know it's all worth growing, but I want the best of the best, ya know?

I'll definitely check out a growers lot, and I'll gladly sit through any informative video yall suggest.

Thanks for some definitive dates on the estimated harvest. It takes some worry out of my head thinking I'll harvest before hunting season starts and people start going into the woods.

Keep the info coming please and good luck to your grows

 

[voxito]

Finally got to my plot after not seeing them for almost 2 weeks. Here they are. 2 aren't dead yet but they look so bad I didn't even take pics. One's stem turned red and the leaves are yellow, why is this? The other was my experiment with lst and it is all droopy, still alive, but not for long I'm sure. I had 2 more in another plot but I couldn't go see them today. Number 4 I fimmed and number 8 I topped, in my experiment to compare yields.

thought I'd post some pics since I took em. All plants a month old with no ferts except molasses. I'm going to start them now that they are all a month old. I got some root stimulator and mixed it a quarter strength to see what that does.

you'll see the new grass, I threw out some grass seed last time I was there to help hide them and give the animals something else to eat. You'll see on many where I've been feeding the bugs with my leaves...

 

[Hick]

vox'... a few things 'jumped' out at me...
Did you do anything, to improve/ammend the native soil?.. ("threw grass seed out to hide...") ...the absents of native fauna concerns me. If it was a natural 'bare spot', the soil could be ..."not so good".
An over abundance of rain, in combination w/ poor drainage(from lack of amendments, tilling) could be contributing to your problems. (yellowing/dieing)
Have you checked either the soil or your water for proper PH range?.. (could also contribute)
Molasses is NOT a fertilizer.....
"IMO".. purchase some 'quality' nutrients/fertilizers. Good organic ferts aren't expensive when you consider the advantages, especially for a novice with little experience mixing/making their own. Avoid blood or bone meals, they attract vermin.
The liquid fence(or other 'commercial' deterrants, "Deer Away", "Scoot", ect), deoderant soap, human or dog hair, pet feces,(if there's a local zoo, look into getting your hands on BIG cat feces ) moth balls, all work to 'some' extent, but are no garauntee.
While Lass's time line for summer solstice is right on, I fear the flowering timeline is a "tad" off. June 21 is the longest day of the year, but plants do not immeasiatly begin flowering. It takes "several" weeks of the deminishing hours before the flourigen level reaches the crucial point, to induce flowering.
I'm north a few lat's, (theoretically, "I" should see flowering and harvest slightly sooner than you) I see males start to show by late July, fem's "usually" can all be determined by the second or third week of August.
Harvest "some" indicas around the las week of Sept. Sats can run well into October, in some instances.
Topping, training, fimming, has little effect on yeild. It is used primarily to control heighth, conceal or camouflage. By removing the "christmas tree" profile commonly associated with MJ. Yield is determined/affected more by over all plant size/root mass.

 

[voxito]

yes I did till up the ground where the plants are, but probably not as much as I should have. About a foot around and a foot deep for each plant. I started them in cups and let them grow in there for a week, then when I transplanted I dug the holes and filled them with potting soil. I know it doesn't look like it though. I covered them back up with the dirt I dug up so it wouldn't be as noticable if somebody saw them, and I thought the natural thicker dirt would hold moisture in the potting soil better if there was about an inch of regular dirt covering it up.

That spot was far from bare. I had a first I took a machete to make it where I could walk through the plot. Then pruning shears to get all the plants(mainly briars and small trees) down to the ground level. Then I used a hatchet to get any roots I couldn't rip up with my hands. Then I raked everything I chopped. Then I had a pick to break up the top layer of the plot, and then I used a shovel to dig my holes. Everytime I go down there I weed everything except the grass which is why it is so bare. I also liked it bare because when I started my plants they were only 2" tall and anything besides plain dirt on the ground and I could've misplaced them or stepped on them, which I have done to a couple.

I have a fence around the plot, I guess I didn't get it in the pics.

Thanks for the harvest time info. I got plenty of time to build a perfect drying box.

I've been reading a lot about nutes, any in particular you suggest? There's no fox farm around here, I've checked.

thanks for all the help man

 

[docfishwrinkle]

local nuseries & improvement stores sometimes carry a line of blended organics made by terracycle. i found these work well. i just brewed a tea had bat guano, chicken ****, vermicompost, seabird guano, bone & blood meals. all pelletized in a gallon jug. lil bit goes a long way. npk 5-3-4

 

[voxito]

great man I'll go get some of that, sounds good. Anything else? I'll go get whatever yall think will help me

I was thinking about trying some root feeding, if I'm calling it right. I just take a tube and stick it deep in the ground for watering the nutrients direct to the roots? Would that help aeriate the roots? Is it even a good idea?

Do I have to make a tea or will the pellets dissolve themselves in water? Will making a tea stink up the house?

a lot of questions but yall know I'm new to this I definitely need some help.

thanks for any responses fellas

 

[docfishwrinkle]

if u have a well prepared soil then u dont need 2 "root feed". no u dont need 2 make a tea id just top dress w/ pellets. teas are quicker, but heavier. oh yeah dont forget chicks grow 2! ;-}

 

[voxito]

yeah I know girls grow too. I'm actually trying to emulate thehempgoddess' dwc and scog so I can grow indoors too. Looks like she designed it perfectly and I think it will be the best way for me to start indoors. I use fellas as a genderless term, and "fellas" used here means "fellow growers"


the terracycle has all those ingredients you listed or do I need to get them seperate and add them?

By top dress do you mean throw the pellets on the ground or let them dissolve in a jug and pour that around the stems?

 

[docfishwrinkle]

just joking w/ the chicks dig. yeah terracycle has all those ingredients in the "granular all porpose plant food". they have a full line. terracycle.net

just mix into top soil or brew a tea. tea i brew is in my basement & you cant smell it until ur on top of it.

 

[voxito]

thanks man. How shallow do you think my plants' roots are? I was thinking I could re-till the top few inches to mix in this fertilizer if I wouldn't damage the root system. Is that possible? I repacked all of the dirt in my plot because I was real worried about it drying out but I think it would benefit from a little drying.