Outdoor Soil Grow Advice, South East Ontario.

[Brother_Antioch]

Hi, folks. Now that my winter grow has been harvested and is drying in the tent for another week or so, it's time to start my first real outdoor attempt. I've thrown a seed in the dirt plenty of times, but let's face it, that's not growing a plant, that's more hoping for the best. So, I'm once again turning to you, my fellow farmers, for advice and guidance. I'll be starting a separate grow diary as soon as I start (about a week or so from now). I've ordered a 6.5x9.5x6.25' tall green house for the back lot at my trailer which we just cleared out last weekend. It'll be here mid next week. I've ordered my seeds:

4- Bruce Banner #3 Auto feminized
4- Gorilla Cookies Auto feminized
2- GG#4 Original Glue Photo feminized

I'll most likely keep the GG#4 for my next indoor grow come November, so it'll just be the autos growing in the tent (and, I'm told, 2 tomato plants to keep the g/f happy). From what I've read about soil, there's a lot of complex methods, composts, etc. OR you can buy a really good soil like Fox Farms Happy Frog or Ocean (something or other). Problem is, I can't seem to find where to buy that here in my area, or even ordering online unless it's being shipped from another country. Long story short, that makes it PROHIBITIVELY expensive right now!

Luckily, my trailer is in a park not even 20 minutes from home. As far as watering it goes, I'm there every weekend, and I can pop out once in the middle of the week to tend to them in the evening. I'm looking for advice or guidance into what particular soil I should get. I'll be doing 4 plants at a time, and I can use whatever size pots, fabric pots, etc. someone recommends, if it is the best option. I'm looking for a soil that will be as ideal as possible without it being overly complex. So, let's open this thread up, shall we?

Recommendations, suggestions, any information at all would be greatly appreciated, as I want to get this up and running hopefully by next weekend (June 20th). I'll germinate the seeds, at which point I'll start my grow diary. But, I felt it would be best to seek advice on what soil I should be using for this run.

As always, I truly appreciate any and all help and suggestions.

Cheers,

BA.

 

[Budtirement]

From what I've read about soil, there's a lot of complex methods, composts, etc. OR you can buy a really good soil like Fox Farms Happy Frog or Ocean (something or other). Problem is, I can't seem to find where to buy that here in my area, or even ordering online unless it's being shipped from another country. Long story short, that makes it PROHIBITIVELY expensive right now!

Hopefully someone based in your area can chime in with local options for premixed soil. You might just go to a garden store and ask if they have a premium premixed soil designed for growing cannabis since growing is legal there. If you find some it will probably need an infusion of pearlite so get some of that too.
If you mix a lot of rich soil components together they should be hot and need to set in a compost pile for a month or more for the microbes to break down the organic matter and cool off to be usable. Whatever you decide to do for this season's grow, plan ahead for next season's grow and start a compost pile this summer. If you have your own source for a rich, dark humus full of active microbes that you can add into your premix and use as a top dress next year you'll be ahead of the game.
What grow medium do you use in your tent?

 

[Brother_Antioch]

Hopefully someone based in your area can chime in with local options for premixed soil. You might just go to a garden store and ask if they have a premium premixed soil designed for growing cannabis since growing is legal there. If you find some it will probably need an infusion of pearlite so get some of that too.
If you mix a lot of rich soil components together they should be hot and need to set in a compost pile for a month or more for the microbes to break down the organic matter and cool off to be usable. Whatever you decide to do for this season's grow, plan ahead for next season's grow and start a compost pile this summer. If you have your own source for a rich, dark humus full of active microbes that you can add into your premix and use as a top dress next year you'll be ahead of the game.
What grow medium do you use in your tent?

Hi, Budtirement, and thanks for the response. In my tent indoors, I'm running a DWC hydroponic system, not exactly doable out at the trailer. I absolutely loved the hydro grow and am planning on doing it again this November. I like your idea of planning ahead for next summer's grow so I'm not in the same position I'm in right now, thanks for that. I'll start looking into what the local nurseries are offering. To be honest, I'd not even considered the fact that now that it's legal to grow here, they might have some specific soils for it. Good call!

Cheers,

BA.

 

[Budtirement]

I'll start looking into what the local nurseries are offering. To be honest, I'd not even considered the fact that now that it's legal to grow here, they might have some specific soils for it

I'll tell you I'm really surprised that more garden centers around here don't stock our stuff and advertise to get our business. There's money to be made in soil and amendments that they already have logistics capacity for, but you don't see any signage even for something like Happy Frog. You just have to go in and see what they have and what they charge. You see a wall of Espoma bags but nothing like kelp meal or rock dust.

 

[EternalSun]

Promix should be popular and available in your area. Good stuff.

 

[Brother_Antioch]

Promix should be popular and available in your area. Good stuff.

I've used Promix HP in last year's indoor grow before switching to a DWC grow for my last run. The only thing I am leary about is there are no nutrients in it, so I have to make sure to add them when I fertigate. If all else fails, I'll go back to it and add my GH Flora trio notes to the water every other watering.

Cheers,

BA.

 

[Brother_Antioch]

I'll tell you I'm really surprised that more garden centers around here don't stock our stuff and advertise to get our business. There's money to be made in soil and amendments that they already have logistics capacity for, but you don't see any signage even for something like Happy Frog. You just have to go in and see what they have and what they charge. You see a wall of Espoma bags but nothing like kelp meal or rock dust.

So am I, actually. Now that growing is legal here, that's a huge market suddenly opened up.

 

[GNick55]

i’m in southern ontario,.. sarnia and growing in the ground is best, lots of sand in our soil but there’s also areas of just hard clay which you would have to dig out and fill with good soil,.

 

[Brother_Antioch]

i’m in southern ontario,.. sarnia and growing in the ground is best, lots of sand in our soil but there’s also areas of just hard clay which you would have to dig out and fill with good soil

Unfortunately, where our trailer is situated, the ground is bloody awful. Very acidic, lots of cedars around, just overall poor soil and lots of sand. People have tried planting shrubs, flowers, etc. in the existing soil and within weeks they're deader than Disco.

I'm going to be putting the greenhouse on a platform of skids screwed together and with metal screening on the floor to keep the bugs out and the airflow going, so planting in the ground just isn't an option. I'll have to scour the local nurseries and find the right soil for the plants, I suppose. I was just hoping to find something that I might have to only top dress a few times over the 10 weeks, and not have to amend the water every other watering. But, as I said earlier, worst comes to worst I'll just use Promix HP again and use my existing nutrients left over from the DWC grow.

Cheers,

BA.

 

[GNick55]

Unfortunately, where our trailer is situated, the ground is bloody awful. Very acidic, lots of cedars around, just overall poor soil and lots of sand. People have tried planting shrubs, flowers, etc. in the existing soil and within weeks they're deader than Disco.

I'm going to be putting the greenhouse on a platform of skids screwed together and with metal screening on the floor to keep the bugs out and the airflow going, so planting in the ground just isn't an option. I'll have to scour the local nurseries and find the right soil for the plants, I suppose. I was just hoping to find something that I might have to only top dress a few times over the 10 weeks, and not have to amend the water every other watering. But, as I said earlier, worst comes to worst I'll just use Promix HP again and use my existing nutrients left over from the DWC grow.

Cheers,

BA.

can always amend with dry amendments like gaia green and bloom or jacks,..

 

[Brother_Antioch]

can always amend with dry amendments like gaia green and bloom or jacks,..

I'll have to dig a little deeper into that as I've only every used liquid nutes for my indoor grows in the past. No doubt it's relatively straight forward, and I'm sure I can glean what information I need from various posts here at the farm.

Cheers,

BA.

 

[Hossgrows]

I'll have to dig a little deeper into that as I've only every used liquid nutes for my indoor grows in the past. No doubt it's relatively straight forward, and I'm sure I can glean what information I need from various posts here at the farm.

Cheers,

BA.

I'm using Jack's this year. So far...I like it. So do they. I usually amend with fish carcasses around this time, but the damn weather is keeping me off the lake.

 

[Brother_Antioch]

Sounds like a great setup for a first outdoor run. I'd keep it simple, use a quality potting soil with some extra perlite, run 5–7 gallon fabric pots, and focus on watering and sunlight. The same approach works well with theseedpharm autos too. Healthy roots, plenty of light, and minimal stress usually lead to great results. Good luck, and definitely start that grow diary.

Thanks, shidawin. The latest update is the seeds are with customs in Montreal at the moment. As soon as they clear, it should be a couple of days and I'll receive them, so (fingers crossed) I'll be germinating them this coming week and planting them next weekend. I have the greenhouse all set up and the ideal spot picked, where I get direct sunlight from around 9:30 in the morning until around 6:30 in the evening, when the sun dips below the tree line. With the 3 screened windows on either side and the air flow from the platform I'll build this weekend, it should keep temperatures and humidity at decent enough levels. Here's a quick shot of it from my deck last weekend the morning after I set it up.

The plan is to get the platform built this weekend, get the 7-gallon fabric pots this coming week (have them bookmarked on Amazon already) and get the soil, perlite, nutes, etc. this week so that (if all the gods are smiling) when the seeds arrive early this coming week I can get 2 Bruce Banner and 2 Gorilla Cookies germinated and ready to transplant by the weekend. But, as they say, "Men plan, gods laugh", so we'll see! For sure, though, the moment the seeds get here I'll be starting a new grow diary here on The Farm. I will update my old diary in another week at most with a final tally on what I got as it's still finishing drying in the tent. I figure early next week I'll be trimming, weighing and putting it all in jars to cure. Most likely I'll do weekly updates on the trailer grow, as we only go out there for the weekends.

Cheers,

BA.

 

[Like2Grow]

Thanks, shidawin. The latest update is the seeds are with customs in Montreal at the moment. As soon as they clear, it should be a couple of days and I'll receive them, so (fingers crossed) I'll be germinating them this coming week and planting them next weekend. I have the greenhouse all set up and the ideal spot picked, where I get direct sunlight from around 9:30 in the morning until around 6:30 in the evening, when the sun dips below the tree line. With the 3 screened windows on either side and the air flow from the platform I'll build this weekend, it should keep temperatures and humidity at decent enough levels. Here's a quick shot of it from my deck last weekend the morning after I set it up.

The plan is to get the platform built this weekend, get the 7-gallon fabric pots this coming week (have them bookmarked on Amazon already) and get the soil, perlite, nutes, etc. this week so that (if all the gods are smiling) when the seeds arrive early this coming week I can get 2 Bruce Banner and 2 Gorilla Cookies germinated and ready to transplant by the weekend. But, as they say, "Men plan, gods laugh", so we'll see! For sure, though, the moment the seeds get here I'll be starting a new grow diary here on The Farm. I will update my old diary in another week at most with a final tally on what I got as it's still finishing drying in the tent. I figure early next week I'll be trimming, weighing and putting it all in jars to cure. Most likely I'll do weekly updates on the trailer grow, as we only go out there for the weekends.

Cheers,

BA.

I've used a greenhouse before and it keeps humidity too much for my liking. I'm back to growing open air.

I've put some aged manure and peat moss in the ground and planted the plants. They are in the shadow of a large garage which is helpful because of the neighbors with solar on 3 sides of the roof that light up the yard at night. Your plan of platform and earth selection sound like an inside grower going outside. Outside for me is putting the plants in the ground, getting the light and water that outside provides.

Plants don't get handled a lot outside at my place. I clean up dead leaves, open the plant up to get sun and air, support for wind which gets worse in the fall when the stalks are heaviest, and water when needed. I haven't added nutes this year. At the end of the summer I've had good results for a few years now :-).

Neighb's house this morning

Plants in progress this year.