Soil vs Sun Compromises

I am growing Purple Haze outdoors in Massachusetts. My best sun is in the front of the house, facing the street. I have four plants in 4 gallon pots that I move through the day to make sure they are in direct sun as much as possible, as well as out of sight as much as possible. I also have 7 plants in the ground behind the house, where they get only about 4 hours of direct afternoon sunlight each day.

All are in flower. The sunny plants in pots are larger, and as flowering progresses, the fan leaves are turning yellow en masse. Only the sugar leaves are staying green. I think they are root bound, but as I need to move them, I didn’t want the pots to be too heavy and here in mid-flower, I don’t want to disturb them by one more transplant 4 weeks before harvest.

The plants in the ground are all nice and green with just a few lower leaves turning yellow, like they are still in veg stage. My theory is that the lack of sunlight is making these plants retain their chlorophyl later in the season. The segments on these leaves are very fat, I think for the same reason, to maximize sun absorption in their mostly-shady environment. These low-sunlight plants have decent flowers and pretty good collections of trichomes.

Anyone have thoughts on planting in pots with good sun versus planting in the ground with limited direct sunlight? I am trying to make a plan for next year.

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That is an excellent question that I will be interested to see the answers to. It does not impact me directly as I am exclusively indoor but more information about how the plants respond to different conditions is always helpful.

I’m here in Massachusetts and grow in 5 gallon buckets. As of now I’m unfortunately getting a limited amount of sunlight do to the change of sun. Would hit the plants at 7am in May now in September it’s 10:30am ish then really spread out after that so around the 4-5 hour mark. But there healthy as can be in week 6 of flower

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The increase in the amout of sunlight received increases photosynthesis, therefore increasing water and nutrient uptake. Your plants that get more sunlight may just be hungry.
I have plants in two fields. Large field received sunlight ALL day. Small field only received about 5 hours of direct sunlight. My plants in the large field have consumed a lot more nutrients this year.

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Also plant grown straight in the ground can gather unlimited nutrients throughout the whole earth, not just a 5 gallon pot

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You can transplant into a bigger pot without disturbing the roots if your careful… say ur in 5 gal and want to go to 10s full the 10 half way with dirt put the 5 gal in the 10 gal pot and fill the rest around the plastic with more dirt pack it kinda tightly around the 5 …pull the 5 out gently to not. Disturb the pot indent u made gently wit a precise razor cut off the bottom of the pot and put a slice all the way up one side take the bottom. Off put the whole pot bottom off now back in the 10 gallon and the rest of the pot should slide right off with the slit In the it and vioala 2x the dirt no transplant shock … and if you spri k some Mycos and or azos in the 10 gallons indent to make the roots explode …some good phd water will be all u need first wetting… transplant into foxfarm strawberry feild it’s a fruiting a flowering dirt made for budding

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I have some plants in the ground and some in pots also like you. All receive great light through the day but it’s been consistent with same stains for me that the plants in the ground are at least a week behind the ones in the pots.
Not sure if anyone else has had the same experience. I’m seeing the same thing even in the greenhouse with my chocolope. 2 in ground and 1 in growbag.

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This is a brilliant transplant method! I’ll try it out. Thanks!

That’s what I do with my mangoes but I dont pull the bucket all the way out I pull it up a little and leave it so when I water the water stays by the roots and dont run off dont need to build a watering doughnut around base of the tree to hold the water to the roots …I got 25 total acres of exotic fruit trees I’ve planted irrigated all me and my dad come up witha few tricks of the trade but I would never grow in the ground (canabis that is )down here in florida waaaay to many pest and even more nosy ppl and police…so many bugs so much rain so unpredictable theres no real space that’s close that’s that remote enough to do this by me so it’s just not feasible in my location I’m in broward theres no land here I did the 25 acres in palm beach and belle glade u name the exotic fruit I’ve grown it

UPDATE: I conclude that soil is more important than sun. Purple Haze feminized.

I had four plants in pots that I moved around the yard to follow the sun. They all were pretty much defoliated (yellowing leaves) when I harvested them yesterday. Nice sticky flowers, I’d say they were successful.

My plants in the ground only get direct sunlight from about 2:00 pm until sunset. Their leaves are all still dark green and the flowers are bigger and denser than the potted plants. These plants are shorter than the potted, but flower production is better.

Because they dont have root limitations

Finger lime?

Whhhaaaaatttt lol

Tropical fruit!!

I’m lost lol

Oh I forgot I mentioned my farming exotics but that’s one I’ve never heard of honestly

[quote=“fano_man, post:9, topic:35320”]
u name the exotic fruit I’ve grown it
[/quote have you grown the finger lime?
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Jojoba, jujube, longan (brown leeche) red lecee, miracle fruit ,passion fruit, 25 kinds of mangoes florida and hass avocados 3 kinds of cocoanut 5 kinds of papaya pink, and white guava 17 kinds of banas from every continent a banana grows love the dwarf reds and the Brazilian dwarfs…the skin is like paper thin the thinner the skin the sweeter the nanner plantains, yukka, ací, mame, yellow name, white name, russet potatoes Yukon golds all kinds of veggies dragon fruit pink, yellow and white 2 kinds of grapes giant black berry’s the size of your thumb , mulberry jack fruit… we got a 42 lb jack fruit this year bunch of different melons and peppers squash a little bit not right climate for gourds really kinda hot here In florida year round…loquats, comaquats , limes lemons ugly lemons honey bells water oranges sour oranges giant carambolla regular carambolla (star fruit) I made a really good recipe of star fruit chicken it’s really good …couple others I cant think of off top of my head …