Beginner Outdoor In Ground Grow

[SouthTX420]

Hello all, been lurking on the forum for the past few weeks and finally decided to join.
This is my very first grow, I bought 4 Feminized Durban Poison Sativa Photos and got 4 feminized photo Godfather OG’s Indica for free.
I germinated 2 DP’s and 1 GOG on March 14 and planted them in solo cups with FoxFarm Happy Frog on March 16. I made the mistake of thinking a cheap pair of grow lights from Amazon would get them where they needed to be before transplanting outdoors. They stretched a little bit. I don’t have a grow tent so they are in a cabinet for the time being.

On March 22 I received my ViparSpectra XS 1500 Pro and put that on them at the recommended specs of 11.5” at 25% which according to Photone app was about 300-350ppfd I also replanted them lower down in the cups. They seem to be doing much better. I’ve been watering them every 2-3 days or whenever the soil dries out with. Started with 1-2oz and am now doing 2-3oz of well water ~TDS 400 PH adjust to 6.2. (I have a moisture probe but not sure if I should be jabbing it down in the cups, I don’t want to hurt the roots)

On March 28 I fed them some Real Growers Recharge compost tea. Then on March 30 they got their first feeding of FoxFarm Big Bloom (1/2tsp to 1qt water then PH adjust to 6.2)
I then watered them again with just PH adjusted water on early morning of April 1
Here’s how they look now.

I thought I could transplant them outside after just a few weeks of being under the light but then people said they would go into flower that the days are not long enough yet. I’m not sure in the light settings. Light is currently 12.5” at 25% but today I ran it at 40% ~670ppfd because AI told me to lol that’s where I was getting most of my advice. I know I know go easy on me. I will keep it at 25% for now, running 18/6 with a small fan on them with gentle breeze 24/7
I have 2 gallon fabric pots to transplant into once the roots develop more, I already have a few poking out the drain holes in the bottoms of the cups.

The current plan is to at some point transplant into 2 gallon fabric pots and move them into larger closet area and hang light above them.
When is it ok to plant them outside?
Until I have 13hrs daylight plus 1hr civil twilight? Or just wait until full 14hrs daylight plus whatever civil twilight would be? Whenever the time comes I will start tapering down the light to match the outdoors daylight and will harden them off as well.
I have a huge outdoor garden area with a deer proof high fence and is somewhat hidden.
I’m planning to do an “in ground pot” similar to this, but not nearly that big.

Was thinking either 30” diameter or maybe 36” diameter and 24” deep.
If someone could help me decide on what diameter?
Will put a bag of FoxFarm Ocean Forest in the bottom mixed with 20% Perlite then will fill the rest with Happy Frog mixed 50/50 with native soil and 25% perlite added.
I’m contemplating doing some topping/LST and maybe scrog so they don’t shoot straight up and also increase yield.
I have garden netting to cover them while they are young to keep potential pests away. Planning to run a RainBird drip emitter system and make circles around each plant for watering.
As far as nutes go I have the FoxFarm Trio, FoxFarm BushDoctor CalMag, General Hydroponics ArmorSi, Real Growers Recharge Compost Tea and will probably get FoxFarm Kelp Me Kelp You to help with our super hot summers we get here in South TX ~100° to 105° and high humidity.
I think that’s all for now. I appreciate anyone’s time to read this and offer any advice.

 

[Ninjadogma]

Call me superstitious but I pick the first day in Spring that has a minimum full 14 hour day and that date is circled on my calendar. For me it's May 14 but depends where you are in relation to the equator. I do my outdoor growing in containers and I use sunshine through the winter... but I'm using supplemental lighting through that date and I fire them back up mid July for some plants I want to keep in veg.

 

[SouthTX420]

Call me superstitious but I pick the first day in Spring that has a minimum full 14 hour day and that date is circled on my calendar. For me it's May 14 but depends where you are in relation to the equator. I do my outdoor growing in containers and I use sunshine through the winter... but I'm using supplemental lighting through that date and I fire them back up mid July for some plants I want to keep in veg.

Call me superstitious but I pick the first day in Spring that has a minimum full 14 hour day and that date is circled on my calendar. For me it's May 14 but depends where you are in relation to the equator. I do my outdoor growing in containers and I use sunshine through the winter... but I'm using supplemental lighting through that date and I fire them back up mid July for some plants I want to keep in veg.

I think my window to plant outside will be April 27 to May 11 during the waxing phase of the moon. I’ll be around 13.5 hrs daylight plus almost 1 hr civil twilight. So bout 14.5 hours of light.

 

[mstrpkl]

Niiiice i have no experience growing outdoors but im excited to see where your plants go man!

 

[Smokey_LaFleur]

I did my first grow ever outdoors last season. I'll never do it again. Too many worries... bugs, rain, humidity, bugs, nosy neighbors, rippers... bugs. You do you, though! Hope you have better luck than I did!

 

[SouthTX420]

I did my first grow ever outdoors last season. I'll never do it again. Too many worries... bugs, rain, humidity, bugs, nosy neighbors, rippers... bugs. You do you, though! Hope you have better luck than I did!

Ughh not what I wanted to hear.
May I ask what area you’re in?
Also what kind of bugs? Sounds like I’ll be applying Lost Coast Plant Therapy every week.
Now I’m second guessing I wondering if I should look into a grow tent and all that goes along with that. Figured these Durban Poison Sativas would thrive outside.

 

[Oldchucky]

I think my window to plant outside will be April 27 to May 11 during the waxing phase of the moon. I’ll be around 13.5 hrs daylight plus almost 1 hr civil twilight. So bout 14.5 hours of light.

If you put them out too early, you will know pretty soon! And it’s not a pleasant experience! South Texas? You got your work cut out for you even if they don’t prematurely flower! In my opinion, premature flowering it’s about the worst preventable thing that can happen to an outdoor grower! I’ve done it a couple of times! But I live where is possible to recover by starting over! Good luck!

 

[BearWater]

Ughh not what I wanted to hear.
May I ask what area you’re in?
Also what kind of bugs? Sounds like I’ll be applying Lost Coast Plant Therapy every week.
Now I’m second guessing I wondering if I should look into a grow tent and all that goes along with that. Figured these Durban Poison Sativas would thrive outside.

Hes not wrong man. But dont let that get in your head! You do you, you have an idea, get it going : )

It’s not a game for the faint of heart but you gotta start somewhere. you can do it man!

look into what kind of bugs you got in your area and what kind of stuff youll need to combat. You can make a thread about “Texas growers” maybe and see if you get any info there (just an idea you totally dont have to do that) here in Cali we have all sorts of things that’ll eat your plants. different types of mites (pretty sure those are all across America at this point and even beyond) also we get these freaking moths/caterpillars that will chew through your bud stem and kill it, if it doesn’t die from that the buds will get all moldy during drying or earlier on the plant from the caterpillar shit.

Also (not passing the buck here) but check out past threads using the search feature, TONS of reading that can help ease your mind on some stuff during those sleepless nights wondering if what you just did to your plants was the right right thing!

 

[Galgrows]

Hello and welcome to the forum. I'm in Oregon and i LOVE growing outdoors. Don't let bugs scare you off. You sound like you've done your homework and then some. Try and keep it simple don't go too fancy the first time. Listen to Oldchucky him and others like me been outdoors for many years.
Your issue is what you said high temps and humidity think of ways to keep the plants from sweating and don't plant them real close to eachother lots of air flow.

I can't set the photoperiods out till a couple weeks into June. I start them indoors like you and transplant into 1 gal. plastic nursery pots there easy to get plants out of not so much the fabric but i've never tried the fabric to up pot with. I do grow indoors fulltime also and use fabric it's great. The ground has lots of minerals as you know and the soil you use you can amend it with good organic composted materials. Go slow early on with the new seedlings on fertilizer. I grow Indica leaning hybreds cause they normally finish sooner. I spray with Capt. Jacks deadbug and neem products throughout the grow until mid flower we get catipillars mostly those white moth buggers.

Just don't rush it and keep us posted we'll have a outdoor grow post going for others to share on and give tips. Sorry i could go on an on. I don't grow inground anymore i use 15gal pots.

 

[Galgrows]

Ughh not what I wanted to hear.
May I ask what area you’re in?
Also what kind of bugs? Sounds like I’ll be applying Lost Coast Plant Therapy every week.
Now I’m second guessing I wondering if I should look into a grow tent and all that goes along with that. Figured these Durban Poison Sativas would thrive outside.

Don't it's all gardening weed or veggies don't worry you can do it. Good stuff Lost Coast

 

[Smokey_LaFleur]

Well, I've never had caterpillars destroy ANY plant I've grown. Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, peas, assorted flowers. Until i tried weed outdoot. Not to say I've never had bug issues, but, again, nothing that wiped out a whole plant. I invest too much time to have it go south because of bugs. Just my experience! I'm keeping it indoors now.

 

[Smokey_LaFleur]

I'm in northern Illinois, by the way.

 

[BearWater]

Well, I've never had caterpillars destroy ANY plant I've grown. Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, peas, assorted flowers. Until i tried weed outdoot. Not to say I've never had bug issues, but, again, nothing that wiped out a whole plant. I invest too much time to have it go south because of bugs. Just my experience! I'm keeping it indoors now.

Yeah man that shit can be heart breaking! Definitely villain origin story material! Hahaha!

 

[Smokey_LaFleur]

Yep! Especially when your only a few weeks from finish. Damn caterpillars!

 

[Oldchucky]

A friend of mine saw me growing and decided to give it a try in Madison Wisconsin! Plants were coming along great and he was just so proud of them! One day he sent a picture over! I said, Jesus Chuck! He was a Chuck too! have you been painting over those plants? I hope that’s bird. Shit! He called his kid over to confirm the diagnosis! WPM! As bad as I’ve ever seen! Lol he was devastated! Traumatized! Now he goes over to Illinois to the dispensary! Won’t touch a seed! Ha ha!

 

[SouthTX420]

If you put them out too early, you will know pretty soon! And it’s not a pleasant experience! South Texas? You got your work cut out for you even if they don’t prematurely flower! In my opinion, premature flowering it’s about the worst preventable thing that can happen to an outdoor grower! I’ve done it a couple of times! But I live where is possible to recover by starting over! Good luck!

Well just to be certain when would you suggest? A full 14 Hr day? I’ve heard Mothers Day weekend, I’ve heard some say June. Would tapering down the lights help at all?

 

[mstrpkl]

I think a farmers almanac would be very helpful to you for figuring out exactly when your part of the world will see its first 14 hour day this year

 

[Thatoneguyyouknow_]

I did my first grow ever outdoors last season. I'll never do it again. Too many worries... bugs, rain, humidity, bugs, nosy neighbors, rippers... bugs. You do you, though! Hope you have better luck than I did!

genetics matters a lot for outside. A lot more then what you as the grower choose to do or not do in response to environmental factors. Your average seedbank pugs and club clones will suffer under the boiing nuclear furnace that is the sun and the gauntlet that is pest and fungal disease in this day and age, not without proper genetic scrutiny and careful choices anyway lol.

@SouthTX420

I cropped out several pounds of columbian hybrids through a hurricane last fall. Lost under an ounce to mold and rot total. Land races and their crosses are an excellent choice to run outdoors. Your durbans should not disappoint. Anything durban, mexican, or columbian in lineage will (probably) do ya very nicely in Texas.

i didnt even spray for pests through flower, and all i did for mold and rot was citric acid spraying after rain events while the ground was still wet.


If you transition them to the natural photoperiod outside at least a week or two before preflowers show, it wont matter what the daylight hours are because the hormone systems will be entirely aware the days are already getting longer. I had preflowers in early and mid may all the time. Never saw revegg issues. They dont have to go in ground yet either if you dont want at that point.

 

[Oldchucky]

That’s a tough call because going by San Antonio your longest day of the year down there is 14 hours, I think between sun up and sundown! That’s an hour less than up here. So I don’t wanna give anybody bunk advice on when to put them out! Probably OK mid May. But not certain! I wait till June here! Maybe one guy has it figured out! I just don’t think you’ve gained that much at the end of the grow by trying to get them out a couple of weeks early! Since you have them under lights, I would be inclined to wait until the last week of May or 1 of June just to play it safe! I’ve been burned and I wasn’t putting them out that early. Probably May 1 or thereabouts!

 

[Smokey_LaFleur]

I think for most of us in continental u.s., sometime around the summer solstice is when we get 14 hours. I have always planted veggie seedlings around end of May. To op, have you considered how/where you're going to dry your harvest?