Hi All… I have been a lurker this site ever since I purchased the seeds for this summers grow. I wanted to share the process with anyone who has attempted to grow in containers outside on the California Coast. I started this grow with the purchase of new pots. I chose Air Root 5 Gal with the idea that I could carry the plants anytime during the growing cycle and it is a good thing I did. I started out with the seedlings in a small green house. One of those plastic jobs with zippers. As the plants grew and the temperature started to rise, it was clear that the plants could not survive in the tent all day long. I started to move the plants outside during the day and then I would return them at night. I had to carry the plants across the back yard to a small hillside, where they would receive a good 9 hours during the veg state.
I used a passive manipulation method to develop buds. tying down the the main shoot and then trimming out branches until I got the balance I wanted. During the late veg state I started to trim and feed every other day. At about 10 weeks I Popsicle-d the remaining branches and further developed the buds on those sticks.
The issues I faced during the grow were small containers drying out daily. To fight this off I feed every other day and watered with fresh water on the other days. I had no issues with over watering and it got to the point where I felt like I was developing a hydro grow. I even started to cycle down the PH and add more nutrients as if I was plugged into a feeder. Second issue was thrips. At first the plants were in the tent so I had no reason to suspect any issues but one day I saw an adult on the plant and knew that I was in for a fight. Prior to this siting I was watering from both the top and the bottom of these pots so the soil was prime for thrip eggs and it wasn’t too long until I saw some juveniles hanging around and speckled fan leaves. I used spinosad and that was that. I stopped watering from the top as well.
Third issue was a surprise. I took down the tent mid around mid July and started carrying the plants into the garage, which was a hike but I was afraid of moths during the full moon and otherwise. The garage was still and humid. One morning while I was carrying the plants back to the grow site I spied a white patch on a Silver Haze. I grabbed the spectacles and saw the crystals of a form of mold. I used baking powder and dish soap a few times and trimmed off the infected leaves. I started to partially open the garage door and vent the room with a fan until it would cool down. I lost one super silver haze but it was an experimental plant that I was testing my technique on so no great loss. So to date I have four plants out of the six I started with and they are raging. I used Fox Farm nutrients and some Hawaiian bud developer to get to this point. I am flushing once a week these days and using 125 ml of Tiger Bloom per 5 Gal of filtered 60ph water. .
