A semi-emergency...I need your guidance!

Hello, outdoor brothers. Now enough greetings, and on to my problem.

I currently have 21 healthy young plants that have sprouted about 1 week ago. My set-up is sufficient in terms of lumens/sq ft, ventilation, space, etc. This is my third indoor grow, and my previous two were very successful. Now's where the problem part comes up.

My job requires me to travel at random intervals, typically being gone for between 2 and 3 months at a time. I was planning on not leaving until August, which allows me plenty of time to reach harvest. (s.o.g., by the way.) However unexpected circumstances now force me to leave much sooner than I had planned on. I'll be leaving out of state in a week or two.

Therefore, I'll be trying my hand at outdoor rather than just disposing of my babies.

Here are my questions, any input at all would be GREATLY appreciated.

1.) How soon is too soon to transplant, if at all? Weather is not an issue I don't believe, the coldest it gets here at the moment is about 50 degrees for a few hours at night.

2.) If I'm not able to tell my males from females at the time I leave, about how long will I have to get home and remove the boys before they pollinate? I could remedy this by placing every single one of them out of pollenation range of each other, but for obvious reasons I'd prefer not to unless I absolutely must. Remember, I'm dealing with 21 here.

3.) Location, location, location. I live in a quite isolated 10 acre plot, inhabited by typical midwestern foliage. Lots of oak, maple, pine, etc. Very sandy soil, despite the (unfortunate) fact that there is no natural water source within a few miles. The nearest being lake Michigan, which is about 4 miles away. Is this acceptable terrain, and what preparation is reccomended? I also have access to a couple cornfields, however Im skiddish about this option because I don't know when the farmers go into the fields at all, I also don't know when they harvest their corn.

4.) Assuming I'm only able to be home for let's say...1 week per month until winter, will this allow me enough access to my plants to be able to harvest at an appropriate time? I'm assuming that the natural amount of rain will be able to maintain them, am I wrong? Because I won't be able to water them. If my only option is to have someone that is always in my hometown (friend, family, whatever) tend to them while I'm gone, then frankly I'm fucked. Currently (and as usual) I'm the only one who knows about my operation and I'm not going to change that now.


I hope no one feels as though I've wasted their time with these rookie questions. I assure you I'm a fairly knowledgable, experienced grower and I've done tons of research. I'd just like a few personal opinions on what I should do, because outdoor growing is completely alien to me and I'm totally lost. I'd hate to have begun raising these babies for nothing, especially since I began them from seeds of one of the best bags of bud I've ever gotten here at home.

Thanks a million for any input!

1)Put them in full shade outside for a day or two. Then in partial shade for a day or two. Then they should be good to go.

2)Here around Lat. 40 I can tell sex in early july and the males (would) have formed pollen sacs by the end of that month.

3)If you can feasibly put them on the edge of the woods or somewhere similar it is good if they get either morning or evening light. And at least 6-7hrs direct light a day. In some cases you'll have to visualize how the foliage is going to grow out and fill in. As far as for prepping the soil, I dig 2x2x2.5deep holes. If your soil is halfway decent then I would replace 1/3 to 1/2 of the volume with subcool's super soil mix that you can find in his organic's forum on this site.

4)If your holes are large enough and you use good organic soil then you shouldn't have any problems. Ideally, you should go to your plot to prepare it, plant your plants, sex them, and to harvest. Maybe one other time for supplemental feeding with a good organic tea. Mother nature will take good care of you...if she doesn't send deer to fuck you in the ass.

5) Oh, I guess there's no 5.

I should have mentioned this in my first post, but I'm at Lat. 41. Your advice is great news to me. Based on what you've said, I should be able to make this sudden improvisational outdoor transplant work out. We've got an enormous deer population here, but I'm not too worried about it. I'm sure I can conjure up a non-destructive way to keep them out.

Thank you muchhooo for that advice, bro!

Suburban Tiger said:

I should have mentioned this in my first post, but I'm at Lat. 41. Your advice is great news to me. Based on what you've said, I should be able to make this sudden improvisational outdoor transplant work out. We've got an enormous deer population here, but I'm not too worried about it. I'm sure I can conjure up a non-destructive way to keep them out. Thank you muchhooo for that advice, bro!

Click to expand...

. I am somewhat of what you minght call an outdoor gu-ru I live in a very heavly deer populated area and what I do is ahahah save all my pee and dump it in a 3' radious circle around all of my plants and the deer never touch it also what you minght do is buy some deer food at your local hunting area and put it near but in a completely diffrent area from your crop and they will most likely want that more : ) have fun good luck and happy growing

I was thinking about using fishing line strung around each plant at about 3 different heights. Unfortunately since it's very unlikely that I'll be in my home state for the month of July, I'm going to have to be protecting all 21 of my plants is 21 different spots since I won't be able to eliminate my males before they develop their pollen.

I'm wondering how far is a safe distance. I'll probably plant them all at least 500 or 600 feet apart.

Angus said:

1)Put them in full shade outside for a day or two. Then in partial shade for a day or two. Then they should be good to go.

2)Here around Lat. 40 I can tell sex in early july and the males (would) have formed pollen sacs by the end of that month.

3)If you can feasibly put them on the edge of the woods or somewhere similar it is good if they get either morning or evening light. And at least 6-7hrs direct light a day. In some cases you'll have to visualize how the foliage is going to grow out and fill in. As far as for prepping the soil, I dig 2x2x2.5deep holes. If your soil is halfway decent then I would replace 1/3 to 1/2 of the volume with subcool's super soil mix that you can find in his organic's forum on this site.

4)If your holes are large enough and you use good organic soil then you shouldn't have any problems. Ideally, you should go to your plot to prepare it, plant your plants, sex them, and to harvest. Maybe one other time for supplemental feeding with a good organic tea. Mother nature will take good care of you...if she doesn't send deer to fuck you in the ass.

5) Oh, I guess there's no 5.

Click to expand...

Don't do 1 and 2 of what this guy said. An Easier step to replace this with is get your kids healthy and vegged to about a month at 16 and 8 light cycle. This way females are more likely to be revealed when the plants are showing sex. And as you said the lowest the temp gets to at night is low 50's? I think you'll be quite alright after that first month of care then put them in a well lit area where they get ATLEAST 6 hours of light a day. You don't have to worry about getting the plants adapted outside so just discard the partial shade comment and slowly moving it into the sun. These things are plants. And after that first month. they can pretty much handle anything other than 110 degrees and below freezing levels.

I've got a nice spot where they'll be able to get sunlight for most of the hours that it shines, fortunately. And when I move them outside they'll be 3 weeks old at the most, maybe only 2. However they are healthy and are in optimal indoor conditions, so I'm guessing that although they haven't been able to develop for a month before the transplant they should be ok.

I am kind of frustrated at the fact that I can't plant them all together because of the fact that I won't be around to sex them. Hopefully someone will be able to offer me some advice about that issue.

Space them 10 feet away from eachother staggard.

10 feet? They'll definitely be able to pollinate at that distance, won't they?
'

y not sex them w/ a 12/12 light sched? when do u leave? cause u may not have enough time for that, just a suggestion