2024 Massachusetts Outdoor Growers

stealthfader508

Well-Known Member
Hey folks ... sorry for disappearing for a couple years, but it looks like you guys have done a great job of keeping the Mass Outdoor thread alive! I never stopped growing, but dealing with things like running a business, teenage kids, and fighting cancer have all limited my ability to contribute here on RIU. With things finally settled down I'm hoping to contribute a lot more this season, and excited to share some of things I've learned along the way about outdoor growing in Massachusetts... but even more so I'm excited to learn what you all have learned about this incredibly challenging hobby we've chosen.

This year marks 25 years since I popped my first beans back in 1999, and I've learned a ton over the years... but my number one takeaway is that growing outdoors anywhere in New England is a massive challenge. The deck is stacked against us because we just don't have a suitable climate for growing cannabis... and without SOME luck we don't really stand a chance. There are millions of tips, tricks, and techniques that can increase the odds of landing a suitable harvest, but without some help from mother nature we're all toast.

My hope is that this thread can remain a place that we're all able to share our collective experience with what works (and what doesn't)... and hopefully tilt the odds a bit back in our favor this year.

I'd like to kick this year off by sharing what I've learned about a topic that is appropriately timed for this stage of the 2024 growing season.... strain selection. This is the time of year when most of us start digging through our seed vault, or searching seed banks for the varieties we want to grow this season... and in my opinion, this is where many outdoor growers make their first mistake.... they select their strains for the wrong reasons. People that are selecting their strains based on things like potency, yield, flower time, pretty bud shots on IG, could be setting themselves up for failure from the start.

The problem is that 99+% of the seeds available in most seed banks are produced from strains bred indoors under carefully controlled conditions . If the breeders want the climate to be like Jamaica, they can dial that in ... if they want it to feel more like Mazar-i-Sharif, they can also make that happen. So when you take those poly-hybrid strains... most of which have never seen a single day of real sunlight, shortening days, or rainfall in their generational history... and you grow them outside in the inhospitable New England climate, you have no idea what you're going to get. Most of the time you'll get something completely incompatible.

So the first tip is to try and choose a strain you've had success growing outdoors in the past. If a certain strain has already performed well and resisted the dangers of your specific garden and microclimate, there is a very strong likelihood that it will again. If you haven't grown anything that stands out or you're just beginning, look for breeders that breed somewhere in New England under the sun. I haven't shopped for seeds in a couple years but I know there used to be a few breeders from the area marketing their seeds.

An even better approach is to just make your own seeds each season. The idea is to selectively breed your best females with a strong male over several generations to continually produce seeds that are more likely to succeed in your garden. It's super easy to do, and you can selectively pollinate just one branch of your choice females. You don't need to grow a massive male that impregnates your entire crop. Flowering one or two strong males, and pollinating one female branch can produce all the seeds you'll ever need, with only a few minutes of effort dusting it with pollen at the right time.

There's no such thing as a landrace strain for New England. We haven't had fields of weed growing and open pollinating itself for hundreds of years like other parts of the world have. If we did, the choice would be easy and we'd all be growing that. So my opinion is the next best thing is to replicate nature and create your own. Everybody should be doing it if they can.

Well anyway, here's to a great season everyone! Did anyone learn anything new with all the rain last year?

My current status is a greenhouse that looks like a bomb went off... it needs a full top to bottom cleaning

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IMG_0432.JPG.
 

Nizza

Well-Known Member
Hey folks ... sorry for disappearing for a couple years, but it looks like you guys have done a great job of keeping the Mass Outdoor thread alive! I never stopped growing, but dealing with things like running a business, teenage kids, and fighting cancer have all limited my ability to contribute here on RIU. With things finally settled down I'm hoping to contribute a lot more this season, and excited to share some of things I've learned along the way about outdoor growing in Massachusetts... but even more so I'm excited to learn what you all have learned about this incredibly challenging hobby we've chosen.

This year marks 25 years since I popped my first beans back in 1999, and I've learned a ton over the years... but my number one takeaway is that growing outdoors anywhere in New England is a massive challenge. The deck is stacked against us because we just don't have a suitable climate for growing cannabis... and without SOME luck we don't really stand a chance. There are millions of tips, tricks, and techniques that can increase the odds of landing a suitable harvest, but without some help from mother nature we're all toast.

My hope is that this thread can remain a place that we're all able to share our collective experience with what works (and what doesn't)... and hopefully tilt the odds a bit back in our favor this year.

I'd like to kick this year off by sharing what I've learned about a topic that is appropriately timed for this stage of the 2024 growing season.... strain selection. This is the time of year when most of us start digging through our seed vault, or searching seed banks for the varieties we want to grow this season... and in my opinion, this is where many outdoor growers make their first mistake.... they select their strains for the wrong reasons. People that are selecting their strains based on things like potency, yield, flower time, pretty bud shots on IG, could be setting themselves up for failure from the start.

The problem is that 99+% of the seeds available in most seed banks are produced from strains bred indoors under carefully controlled conditions . If the breeders want the climate to be like Jamaica, they can dial that in ... if they want it to feel more like Mazar-i-Sharif, they can also make that happen. So when you take those poly-hybrid strains... most of which have never seen a single day of real sunlight, shortening days, or rainfall in their generational history... and you grow them outside in the inhospitable New England climate, you have no idea what you're going to get. Most of the time you'll get something completely incompatible.

So the first tip is to try and choose a strain you've had success growing outdoors in the past. If a certain strain has already performed well and resisted the dangers of your specific garden and microclimate, there is a very strong likelihood that it will again. If you haven't grown anything that stands out or you're just beginning, look for breeders that breed somewhere in New England under the sun. I haven't shopped for seeds in a couple years but I know there used to be a few breeders from the area marketing their seeds.

An even better approach is to just make your own seeds each season. The idea is to selectively breed your best females with a strong male over several generations to continually produce seeds that are more likely to succeed in your garden. It's super easy to do, and you can selectively pollinate just one branch of your choice females. You don't need to grow a massive male that impregnates your entire crop. Flowering one or two strong males, and pollinating one female branch can produce all the seeds you'll ever need, with only a few minutes of effort dusting it with pollen at the right time.

There's no such thing as a landrace strain for New England. We haven't had fields of weed growing and open pollinating itself for hundreds of years like other parts of the world have. If we did, the choice would be easy and we'd all be growing that. So my opinion is the next best thing is to replicate nature and create your own. Everybody should be doing it if they can.

Well anyway, here's to a great season everyone! Did anyone learn anything new with all the rain last year?

My current status is a greenhouse that looks like a bomb went off... it needs a full top to bottom cleaning

View attachment 5365731
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Good to see you around dude! I hope everything is going as good as it can. I haven't done outdoors for a while due to just being upset at the losses each year. This year I'm going to be doing some outdoors so I'll be posting in this thread! My indoor days are over after this next run so I hope I have a nice indoor run and I started a worm bin and plan to amend my own soil this year. It's going to be fun getting back into soil! Grows like yours are very inspiring thanks for always sharing your techniques and I'm looking forward to this season
 

stealthfader508

Well-Known Member
my man, what is up? I'm frequently out your way for work... I often wonder how you been?

I gave up flowering indoors a couple years ago myself. It's such pain in the ass. When you add up the cost of your time and power consumption it's no longer worth it. When you can buy whatever's on sale at the dispo for less than it costs to grow it, what's the point?... other than as an expensive hobby of course.
 

Nizza

Well-Known Member
For me indoor growing is the best because of my living situation. I just enjoy cultivating and dont really smoke all that much so its nice to be able to control the room.

I've been really good actually and keeping busy between life and work, family is getting bigger and I am loving life! I just took a trip out to P-town with my wife it is so quiet out there this time of year. I am hoping the housing market changes so I can get my first house, let me know if you come across anything decent! The market is still bummy as far as I can see anything in my price range needs to be knocked down

Your greenhouse makes me wish I had my own property lol you did a great job with that. I'm gonna do some indoor hydro veggies along with this grow and am building a heated /insulated jacket for my worm bin I'm so excited to get a soil run. I did my first sip system last year and it was so damn easy!!
 

KeyFinger

Member
Hello! Well since you have a greenhouse it's no longer an outdoor :)

But you're right though, most strains are mixed mix of mixes, they breed genetics then mix them between then mix some more. Like a blender, so not surprising for them to demand nearly clinical conditions. But, there's a stable ones. Good seedbanks allow placing reviews on the strains they sell, you can check that. Notably I'd say that some strains like White Widow just feminized will grow nicely outdoors, if you prepare the soil and take care of it of course
 

stealthfader508

Well-Known Member
Good point @KeyFinger ... the cross I'm working with started with a White Widow mother. It was by far my best performer when I first grew it around 2016ish. I forget what year it was but the original male I crossed into it was Silky Johnson [Secret Weapon X (Skywalker OG X Grateful Breath)]. I've been growing it and crossing it each season ever since.
 

CCGNZ

Well-Known Member
Hey folks ... sorry for disappearing for a couple years, but it looks like you guys have done a great job of keeping the Mass Outdoor thread alive! I never stopped growing, but dealing with things like running a business, teenage kids, and fighting cancer have all limited my ability to contribute here on RIU. With things finally settled down I'm hoping to contribute a lot more this season, and excited to share some of things I've learned along the way about outdoor growing in Massachusetts... but even more so I'm excited to learn what you all have learned about this incredibly challenging hobby we've chosen.

This year marks 25 years since I popped my first beans back in 1999, and I've learned a ton over the years... but my number one takeaway is that growing outdoors anywhere in New England is a massive challenge. The deck is stacked against us because we just don't have a suitable climate for growing cannabis... and without SOME luck we don't really stand a chance. There are millions of tips, tricks, and techniques that can increase the odds of landing a suitable harvest, but without some help from mother nature we're all toast.

My hope is that this thread can remain a place that we're all able to share our collective experience with what works (and what doesn't)... and hopefully tilt the odds a bit back in our favor this year.

I'd like to kick this year off by sharing what I've learned about a topic that is appropriately timed for this stage of the 2024 growing season.... strain selection. This is the time of year when most of us start digging through our seed vault, or searching seed banks for the varieties we want to grow this season... and in my opinion, this is where many outdoor growers make their first mistake.... they select their strains for the wrong reasons. People that are selecting their strains based on things like potency, yield, flower time, pretty bud shots on IG, could be setting themselves up for failure from the start.

The problem is that 99+% of the seeds available in most seed banks are produced from strains bred indoors under carefully controlled conditions . If the breeders want the climate to be like Jamaica, they can dial that in ... if they want it to feel more like Mazar-i-Sharif, they can also make that happen. So when you take those poly-hybrid strains... most of which have never seen a single day of real sunlight, shortening days, or rainfall in their generational history... and you grow them outside in the inhospitable New England climate, you have no idea what you're going to get. Most of the time you'll get something completely incompatible.

So the first tip is to try and choose a strain you've had success growing outdoors in the past. If a certain strain has already performed well and resisted the dangers of your specific garden and microclimate, there is a very strong likelihood that it will again. If you haven't grown anything that stands out or you're just beginning, look for breeders that breed somewhere in New England under the sun. I haven't shopped for seeds in a couple years but I know there used to be a few breeders from the area marketing their seeds.

An even better approach is to just make your own seeds each season. The idea is to selectively breed your best females with a strong male over several generations to continually produce seeds that are more likely to succeed in your garden. It's super easy to do, and you can selectively pollinate just one branch of your choice females. You don't need to grow a massive male that impregnates your entire crop. Flowering one or two strong males, and pollinating one female branch can produce all the seeds you'll ever need, with only a few minutes of effort dusting it with pollen at the right time.

There's no such thing as a landrace strain for New England. We haven't had fields of weed growing and open pollinating itself for hundreds of years like other parts of the world have. If we did, the choice would be easy and we'd all be growing that. So my opinion is the next best thing is to replicate nature and create your own. Everybody should be doing it if they can.

Well anyway, here's to a great season everyone! Did anyone learn anything new with all the rain last year?

My current status is a greenhouse that looks like a bomb went off... it needs a full top to bottom cleaning

View attachment 5365731
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[/QUOTE,] Nice thoughts,glad you beat C,I'm in SE Mass and been at it since the mid-late 80's,(I'm 58),and been bringing it home for 35+yrs. outside,being near the coast is a little better than inland and I find it OK,one more month of summer would be ideal like 2more wks in Aug. and 2 more in Sept. but all in all it's only from Sept 21 to Oct 10 that is worrisome w/ rain and botrytis. Sometimes wish I had another wk or 2 but always produce good bud.I fert earlier so that from late Sept. to ear. Oct. it's only water so I can chop if needed w/o any fert traces in the plant. Only light apps of synthetic phos ferts. and mostly organics at flower stage. A couple apps of a habanero pepper/gentle soap spray for insects and one w/ BT for any bud worms = no probs w/bugs. Strains w/56 day flower time are what I do w/ an occasional low 60/day and that's it.Only prob. is greedy pols. have flooded the market giving weed store licenses like shit through a goose,OVERKILL.I know grow more out of love and habit more than economic value,wish I had a GHouse like you but it'd stand out too much w/neighbors,I bring in 5-8 lbs. anyway of 10-15 strains,GOOD LUCK!!!!
 

stealthfader508

Well-Known Member
What's up CC? It's nice to have another old head in here, you got me at 50 though, but i'm not that far behind. You were prob the senior i was buying the brockton brown from as a freshman lol.

The habanero spray works for you? I may look to try that this season as I have a bunch of dried carolina reapers, ghost peppers, etc that I grew last year. I thought I would use them for cooking, but these are the hottest things on the fkn planet. I've settled into an IPM regimen of alternating weeks of Neem, Spinosad, and Dr Zymes until about late august... then switch to just weekly Dr Zymes when the buds begin to bulk up (sept/oct). The only other thing I may occasionally spray is a weak hydrogen peroxide mix late in flower if I feel the botrytis risk is elevated, but that may only happen once or twice a season.

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CCGNZ

Well-Known Member
What's up CC? It's nice to have another old head in here, you got me at 50 though, but i'm not that far behind. You were prob the senior i was buying the brockton brown from as a freshman lol.

The habanero spray works for you? I may look to try that this season as I have a bunch of dried carolina reapers, ghost peppers, etc that I grew last year. I thought I would use them for cooking, but these are the hottest things on the fkn planet. I've settled into an IPM regimen of alternating weeks of Neem, Spinosad, and Dr Zymes until about late august... then switch to just weekly Dr Zymes when the buds begin to bulk up (sept/oct). The only other thing I may occasionally spray is a weak hydrogen peroxide mix late in flower if I feel the botrytis risk is elevated, but that may only happen once or twice a season.
What's up CC? It's nice to have another old head in here, you got me at 50 though, but i'm not that far behind. You were prob the senior i was buying the brockton brown from as a freshman lol.

The habanero spray works for you? I may look to try that this season as I have a bunch of dried carolina reapers, ghost peppers, etc that I grew last year. I thought I would use them for cooking, but these are the hottest things on the fkn planet. I've settled into an IPM regimen of alternating weeks of Neem, Spinosad, and Dr Zymes until about late august... then switch to just weekly Dr Zymes when the buds begin to bulk up (sept/oct). The only other thing I may occasionally spray is a weak hydrogen peroxide mix late in flower if I feel the botrytis risk is elevated, but that may only happen once or twice a season.

View attachment 5366274
I'm actually 58 and fkd up and hit the emoji instead of a 8,Stealthy, I buy fresh Habaneros,cut em up,boil em til soft,mash em up,and put thru a strainer,then I mix w a gentle lemon verbena/chamonille natural liquid soap and hit the plants 2-3 times at dusk(soap w/fk things up in full sun) in the summer,then prob 2wks or so into flower(ist wk Sept) i'll add BT to the mix to take care of the eggs /larvae of moths that hatch and turn into those pricks that eat the tops of our plants(one app and I never see the fks),On the summer sprays I have added pyrhithren also maybe once(it's a chrysanthrymum(mum) extract that is a insecticide. If you try the hot pepper thing USE GLOVES,after boil bring pot outside to cool,the vapors are nasty in the house and it will gag you,and use the pot ONLY for this purpose.I had some woodchucks fking w/ my shit and NOTHING touches plants or even veggies if you garden using this,apply as needed,if no soap is added apply anytime,IT Works and is 100% natural.That's it 2-3 preventive sprays in summer and the one for bud worms early flower.Compost tea veg (grow),Phos (flower), Fox Farm big bloom,Fish Shit,Mammoth,and a heavy 10-50-10 phos at maybe 1/2 strength,in a soil mix in pots so I can move if rain while heavily budded. Tried h2o2 for rot but generally just pick it off,once or twice then if it's a trend w/that plant I'll harvest it,knowing it's gonna be a losing game,heavy thick bud wet, and humid = ROT there is no cure, that's what I mean from Sept 21 to Oct 10 defines the season,Mother Nature is in control then and I take what she gives,sometimes more sometimes less,but she always comes through. Got to know when to say when outside!!!
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CCGNZ

Well-Known Member
I forgot to mention my city plays the Boxers,I live in Hilltopper land,Big 3 Con.,you have Wiggy coaching Football now.
 

stealthfader508

Well-Known Member
I forgot to mention my city plays the Boxers,I live in Hilltopper land,Big 3 Con.,you have Wiggy coaching Football now.
i think wiggy lost that job, lol ... i'm not in brockton though, im there often with work but i prefer living the country
 

Fallguy111

Well-Known Member
I’ve collected seeds from decent local outdoor. The grower has been growing personal smoke for almost 40 years and just lets them go and use seeds from her favorites for the next year. I’m looking forward to crossing thin leaf effects with these “native” genetics. When growing outdoors it’s impossible to find breeders that grow in a similar climate.
 

mandocat

Well-Known Member
Hey folks ... sorry for disappearing for a couple years, but it looks like you guys have done a great job of keeping the Mass Outdoor thread alive! I never stopped growing, but dealing with things like running a business, teenage kids, and fighting cancer have all limited my ability to contribute here on RIU. With things finally settled down I'm hoping to contribute a lot more this season, and excited to share some of things I've learned along the way about outdoor growing in Massachusetts... but even more so I'm excited to learn what you all have learned about this incredibly challenging hobby we've chosen.

This year marks 25 years since I popped my first beans back in 1999, and I've learned a ton over the years... but my number one takeaway is that growing outdoors anywhere in New England is a massive challenge. The deck is stacked against us because we just don't have a suitable climate for growing cannabis... and without SOME luck we don't really stand a chance. There are millions of tips, tricks, and techniques that can increase the odds of landing a suitable harvest, but without some help from mother nature we're all toast.

My hope is that this thread can remain a place that we're all able to share our collective experience with what works (and what doesn't)... and hopefully tilt the odds a bit back in our favor this year.

I'd like to kick this year off by sharing what I've learned about a topic that is appropriately timed for this stage of the 2024 growing season.... strain selection. This is the time of year when most of us start digging through our seed vault, or searching seed banks for the varieties we want to grow this season... and in my opinion, this is where many outdoor growers make their first mistake.... they select their strains for the wrong reasons. People that are selecting their strains based on things like potency, yield, flower time, pretty bud shots on IG, could be setting themselves up for failure from the start.

The problem is that 99+% of the seeds available in most seed banks are produced from strains bred indoors under carefully controlled conditions . If the breeders want the climate to be like Jamaica, they can dial that in ... if they want it to feel more like Mazar-i-Sharif, they can also make that happen. So when you take those poly-hybrid strains... most of which have never seen a single day of real sunlight, shortening days, or rainfall in their generational history... and you grow them outside in the inhospitable New England climate, you have no idea what you're going to get. Most of the time you'll get something completely incompatible.

So the first tip is to try and choose a strain you've had success growing outdoors in the past. If a certain strain has already performed well and resisted the dangers of your specific garden and microclimate, there is a very strong likelihood that it will again. If you haven't grown anything that stands out or you're just beginning, look for breeders that breed somewhere in New England under the sun. I haven't shopped for seeds in a couple years but I know there used to be a few breeders from the area marketing their seeds.

An even better approach is to just make your own seeds each season. The idea is to selectively breed your best females with a strong male over several generations to continually produce seeds that are more likely to succeed in your garden. It's super easy to do, and you can selectively pollinate just one branch of your choice females. You don't need to grow a massive male that impregnates your entire crop. Flowering one or two strong males, and pollinating one female branch can produce all the seeds you'll ever need, with only a few minutes of effort dusting it with pollen at the right time.

There's no such thing as a landrace strain for New England. We haven't had fields of weed growing and open pollinating itself for hundreds of years like other parts of the world have. If we did, the choice would be easy and we'd all be growing that. So my opinion is the next best thing is to replicate nature and create your own. Everybody should be doing it if they can.

Well anyway, here's to a great season everyone! Did anyone learn anything new with all the rain last year?

My current status is a greenhouse that looks like a bomb went off... it needs a full top to bottom cleaning

View attachment 5365731
View attachment 5365732
View attachment 5365733.
This is Salvisa, Bickett OG x The Work, from Lymerising Farms, he grows this outdoors in Michigan, though I can't say if he actually bred it outdoors. I grow outdoors in Oklahoma and 3 of the last 5 years I have been hammered by leaf septoria. This was the only plant to be virtually unscathed by leaf septoria last summer in my garden. I will be running some again this year. And making crosses as always. You are absolutely right, we need to create our own well adapted strains for outdoor!Salvisa (1).jpg
 

CCGNZ

Well-Known Member
i think wiggy lost that job, lol ... i'm not in brockton though, im there often with work but i prefer living the country
Hear ya,was wondering how you pull of a g.house full of plants in a city like Brockton,I'm on the Mass/Ri line and live in a quiet hood,just finishing trimming last season,last strain CDog,2moms/15 clones,a little over a lb. it looks like,an every yr. staple,gotta have FUEL,5-6 yrs. ago was crowd fav.and worth decent$$$,if I didn't have winter lay-off I'd NEVER be able to trim these crops.Every passing yr. it's harder to do all this,when work,exercise,taking care of things in the house etc. in addition to a grow of decent size,a lot more work than people think,as for seeds,I grow sensimellia and only get seeds if something herms. lightly w/a nanner or 2, which are tough to spot w/a big grow,that's the one thing that sucks is my genetics die ev. yr.,and I've had some phenos that I'd be running yrs. if I was indoors.
 

CCGNZ

Well-Known Member
Making some progress ... just babies right now but began potting up to 1 gals ... the plan is to move these out to the greenhouse about 4/20+ ... but I'll need to gas lantern them for at least 30 days to keep them from false flowering

View attachment 5375146
Yesterday 3/3 60 deg.,looks like another NE false spring,5 wks from now under 50 and rain, happens almost all the time,I have a little Spider Farmer LED to start seedlings and keep indoors for a few wks but lack the infrastructure to start in March,good luck,I plan on germing 1 wk into April and have a few interesting Canada bred strains to give a whirl this yr. in addition to the rest.
 
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