Experienced outdoor growers

TreeFiddy350

Well-Known Member
I will be buying a house fairly soon and I see they have somewhat of a garden area at the house.
Would this depth be good enough, or should I go ahead and build some raised beds? If so, how big should I build the raised beds?
I would like to plant 6 plants outdoor from clone.
I would like to plant them towards the beginning of the season and let them grow until the end of the season.
I’m not sure how big they will get/ how much room I will need for these plants.
last year I used fabric pots, but I’m wanting to get a little more root space. What do y’all think?
Also, what is a good net/ tarp for night time?
 

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CanadianJim

Well-Known Member
Only one outdoor grow under my belt, but unless there's a concrete slab or bedrock 5 cm down, that should be good.
However you can fill raised beds with any type of soil you want, and the roots will still have plenty of room to spread out the bottom.
One word of warning, outdoors plants get big. Something like that can fit 3 or 4 plants per side if you're going to veg full season.
As to a net or tarp, bird netting is good to keep moths/butterflies off your plants, but large plants will get too tall without training.
If you're planning to do light dep, a thick lightproof tarp (okay, yeah, that was obvious) if just to keep moisture/dew off the plants a clear plastic would be a good idea as it won't stress you out if you forget to remove it in the morning. Just be careful, you can trap moisture under the tarp making a perfect environment for mold.
 

TreeFiddy350

Well-Known Member
Only one outdoor grow under my belt, but unless there's a concrete slab or bedrock 5 cm down, that should be good.
However you can fill raised beds with any type of soil you want, and the roots will still have plenty of room to spread out the bottom.
One word of warning, outdoors plants get big. Something like that can fit 3 or 4 plants per side if you're going to veg full season.
As to a net or tarp, bird netting is good to keep moths/butterflies off your plants, but large plants will get too tall without training.
If you're planning to do light dep, a thick lightproof tarp (okay, yeah, that was obvious) if just to keep moisture/dew off the plants a clear plastic would be a good idea as it won't stress you out if you forget to remove it in the morning. Just be careful, you can trap moisture under the tarp making a perfect environment for mold.
Thanks for the reply! So I live in Oklahoma and we have clay dirt/ red dirt. Would that be a bad idea planting into the ground? Or do you think it would be ok?
And the reason why I was talking about a terp is because I think I have a school/ police station behind my house and don’t know if there will be building lights on that may mess with the plants during night time.
It would be nice to keep insects and stuff off the plants as well.
do you think a 4x8 raised bed would be enough for 6 full season veg plants?Or do you think I should make something bigger?
 

CanadianJim

Well-Known Member
Ahhh, okay. Yeah, any dark coloured tarp should work unless they're pointing really strong lights right at you. The plants flower in nature with the full moon on em, so anything darker than that and you should be good.
I don't know about the red clay because we don't have it here, but about 5 or 10 cm down we have brown clay, really dense heavy stuff. Clay has lots of nutrients, the problem for the plants is getting at them. I found mycorrhizae really helpful there. The hyphae really power through and lighten up the clay. It also helps the plant resist excess moisture too, which is often an issue with clay, it really retains water.
For six plants I would go bigger, but someone with more experience with raised beds might be better. @Sawzall77 had some nice girls in raised beds, unless it was someone else. My memory isn't always the best, even without weed.
 

thumper60

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the reply! So I live in Oklahoma and we have clay dirt/ red dirt. Would that be a bad idea planting into the ground? Or do you think it would be ok?
And the reason why I was talking about a terp is because I think I have a school/ police station behind my house and don’t know if there will be building lights on that may mess with the plants during night time.
It would be nice to keep insects and stuff off the plants as well.
do you think a 4x8 raised bed would be enough for 6 full season veg plants?Or do you think I should make something bigger?
NO way a 4x8 for 6 outdoor plants,I grow in a 20 x30 green house with 6 plants its packed. i think you have much longer season than me also.
 

TreeFiddy350

Well-Known Member
NO way a 4x8 for 6 outdoor plants,I grow in a 20 x30 green house with 6 plants its packed. i think you have much longer season than me also.
Holy shit! How big do your plants get?! Do you have pictures?
Well shit. So you are thinking 1-2 plants per 4x8 raised bed?
 

TreeFiddy350

Well-Known Member
In the garden beds in your pics, You can fit 3 plants per side for a total of 6, assuming the child in the pics is 2 to 3 feet tall.
After seeing those Picts, I kinda wanna build something for the plants to get maybe not that big, but prettt big hahaha
All I know is that would be a bitch to trim Hahahahaha
 

thumper60

Well-Known Member
Holy shit! Lmao! That’s awesome! Fuck I would need to add some more height to my fence if they get that big! Hahaha
Are your plants in the ground? Or in a raised bed?
In the ground an those are tied down big time, if you have never grown in the ground in full sun it will shock you on size.that green house yeilded 25# plus lots of trimming.
 

TreeFiddy350

Well-Known Member
Plants out door can get huge mine get 8-12 ft tall that's with lots of tieing down with netting.this pic was mid july lots of growing still to come.View attachment 4456307
If you don’t mind me asking, for a regular full season, about how much money do you think I would need for the season? Maybe like 500-700 for the season? Veg, bloom, microbes, myrizA(spell check), Silica? Off the top of my head, those are what I can think of right meow
 

TreeFiddy350

Well-Known Member
In the ground an those are tied down big time, if you have never grown in the ground in full sun it will shock you on size.that green house yeilded 25# plus lots of trimming.
Shit, Idk if I can go straight into the ground because of the red dirt/ red clay shit.
 

shorelineOG

Well-Known Member
Shit, Idk if I can go straight into the ground because of the red dirt/ red clay shit.
Take a post hole digger and put a couple of gallons of soil for each plant. If you're directly in the ground you won't need to water as often, that's a big advantage. If you grow in containers you may need to water twice a day.
 

TreeFiddy350

Well-Known Member
Take a post hole digger and put a couple of gallons of soil for each plant. If you're directly in the ground you won't need to water as often, that's a big advantage. If you grow in containers you may need to water twice a day.
How deep should I make the holes? 3 feet deep? 3 feet wide? I don’t mind digging some holes and replacing with soil, but I am afraid that once they get passed the soil that they will hot that dirt/ clay and will get fucked and die or something. Lol that could be the inexperience of outdoor growing in the ground.
I can def dig holes and plant that way if that would work for me.
 

shorelineOG

Well-Known Member
How deep should I make the holes? 3 feet deep? 3 feet wide? I don’t mind digging some holes and replacing with soil, but I am afraid that once they get passed the soil that they will hot that dirt/ clay and will get fucked and die or something. Lol that could be the inexperience of outdoor growing in the ground.
I can def dig holes and plant that way if that would work for me.
Does anything grow in that soil like grass or sunflowers? Its probably not as bad as you think, and you will also be watering, fertilizing, and topdressing. I only dig about 18 inches and the width of a post. You kind of want a plant to be a little root bound when it goes into flower, so energy goes to flower production. I plant first of June, by August the plants are touching the top of the greenhouse and I'm trying to slow down the stretch. Put them in the ground, feed them every watering and they'll be good.
 

CanadianJim

Well-Known Member
Mycorrhizae, singular mycorrhiza.
It's an uncommon word, so the site's spellcheck doesn't know it. Lol, doesn't know "indica" either.
Being Canadian I use English spelling, so a few of my correctly spelled words come up with little red lines under them.
Mycorrhizae should help with the clay, and the way I planted my plant outdoors was actually pretty close to what @shorelineOG suggested, which is a good one, although if you are using those garden beds in the first image it looks pretty well cultivated. I would amend the beds with some black soil though. You can get bags of it from local nurseries or sod farms. It'll be the same stuff Home Depot sells only a lot cheaper since they're the ones supplying HD.
 

TreeFiddy350

Well-Known Member
I may end up not using that space and letting the gf use it. There is more space on the other side of the gouse. For soil, I’ve usually just used happy frog. If I was gonna dig some holes and add happy frog to the hole to start it out in the ground, do you think that would work as well?
 
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