First outdoor grow, help very much appreciated

I will be buying supplies for my first outdoor grow soon---

-3 20 gallon rubbermaid bins (going to drill holes for drainage)

-How many 40lb bags (Earthgro Garden Soil) of soil will I need for this?

-3 Miracle-Gro Organic Choice Garden Soil, 1.5 Cu. Ft. to mix in throughout growth

-Water Crystals

-Was looking for a review of this product from you guys: Zeba 'Quench' 52oz - More Water. More Plant. and Zeba® 'Singles' 10-10-10

I'd much rather use FF but the closest retailer is 100m away and all of the above products can be obtained at local Home Depot (any particularly good anti-bug spray to get?)


PS: I am 35 degrees north of the equator--is there still time to start growing this season? (we didnt get our heavy rains until middle/late May)

What do you mean you're going to mix in MG "throughout growth"?

kaiserAxel said:

I will be buying supplies for my first outdoor grow soon---

-3 20 gallon rubbermaid bins (going to drill holes for drainage)

-How many 40lb bags (Earthgro Garden Soil) of soil will I need for this?

-3 Miracle-Gro Organic Choice Garden Soil, 1.5 Cu. Ft. to mix in throughout growth

-Water Crystals

-Was looking for a review of this product from you guys: Zeba 'Quench' 52oz - More Water. More Plant. and Zeba® 'Singles' 10-10-10

I'd much rather use FF but the closest retailer is 100m away and all of the above products can be obtained at local Home Depot (any particularly good anti-bug spray to get?)


PS: I am 35 degrees north of the equator--is there still time to start growing this season? (we didnt get our heavy rains until middle/late May)

Click to expand...

20 gal buckets?!? thasts to big

id start out with 5 gal buckets for each plant. you'll be fine with that.

fuck MG! get fox farms soil or check out the thread in my signature to see my custom soil mix i use.

as for nutes go with fox farms line or earth juice. they have everything you'll need when it comes to nutes.

you location is fine just get started ASAP! and remember
you get out what you put in

Just as stated before...don't use Miracle gro...It killed two of my beauties on my first grow this year. Don't be lazy...you can go online to order nutes for your babies. I use Fox Farms grow big with Super Thrive. I obtained all my stuff online. It may take a little while longer, but its worth the wait. Growing herb takes alot of patience and a higher degree of knowledge of horticulture than your average house plant or flower. Take the time to read everyone's posts and read online the biology of the plant. You'll find a lot of useful information among us growers! As for the 20 gallon buckets...way too big. my 5 week old babies are still in 1 gallon pots. I started them from peat pods. 5 gallon is the biggest I'll transplant them to. That or the ground.
Keep us posted!

jonboy30 said:

Just as stated before...don't use Miracle gro...It killed two of my beauties on my first grow this year. Don't be lazy...you can go online to order nutes for your babies. I use Fox Farms grow big with Super Thrive. I obtained all my stuff online. It may take a little while longer, but its worth the wait. Growing herb takes alot of patience and a higher degree of knowledge of horticulture than your average house plant or flower. Take the time to read everyone's posts and read online the biology of the plant. You'll find a lot of useful information among us growers! As for the 20 gallon buckets...way too big. my 5 week old babies are still in 1 gallon pots. I started them from peat pods. 5 gallon is the biggest I'll transplant them to. That or the ground.
Keep us posted!

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if he has to order organic soil on-line, then he better have alot of money. the shipping is more than the product itself. look for a hydro-store if possible.

Space Angel said:

if he has to order organic soil on-line, then he better have alot of money. the shipping is more than the product itself. look for a hydro-store if possible.

Click to expand...

GOTTA LOVE GOOGLE MAPS.

I used to live in Denver and in Aroura there was this store called the big tomato. good them! freeshipping nation wide with orders over 50 they are awesome people tow ork with as well

well my bins are rectangular, so I guess I will only fill them up halfway. As for nutes, how should I apply them because I will be letting rain water the plants naturally ( I guess get the FF soil to mix in to the top soil).
And by mixing in the miracle gro I meant replacing the top two inches of the soil with it every few weeks.

A few other quests.
Is it ok to just put the seed in the pot outside and let nature take its course?
No comments on the Zeba 'Quench' 52oz - More Water. More Plant. and Zeba® 'Singles' 10-10-10 --The quench is basically crystals and the singles supply nutrients if needed.
How is the 40lb bag of soil? -Earthgro Garden Soil It is organic and says has enough nutes for up to two weeks.


--I read your thread, mpgkush. I am still a little iffy about buying seeds online? I am in an area where it is illegal (How does mailing it to my neighbor's house which is empty at the moment sound?)
--As for the custom soil, I know I will need to add nutes but how do you change your pH of outdoor soil? Just make the water more acidic/basic?

The Earth Gro garden soil is the red and white bag, right?
If thats the stuff I'm thinking about, then I would say thats good stuf to use. Although, I would add a little sphagnum peat moss and pearlite to the mix.
don't fert till the 4th week of growth. I use a mix of 1 capfull of FF Grow Big and 3 drops of "Super Thrive" per Gallon of H2O twice weekly. You can also use this as a foliar spray! The girls love it! Water with the mix like you would water any old potted plant...nicely saturated, but not overly. When you see the H20 coming out of the bottom of the pot, that's a good indication that you've suffieciently watered for the day.
If you haven't recieved enough natural rainfall, feel the soil with your fingertip. If it feels dry, water as described but with just plain ole' water.

kaiserAxel said:

well my bins are rectangular, so I guess I will only fill them up halfway. As for nutes, how should I apply them because I will be letting rain water the plants naturally ( I guess get the FF soil to mix in to the top soil).
And by mixing in the miracle gro I meant replacing the top two inches of the soil with it every few weeks.

A few other quests.
Is it ok to just put the seed in the pot outside and let nature take its course?
No comments on the Zeba 'Quench' 52oz - More Water. More Plant. and Zeba® 'Singles' 10-10-10 --The quench is basically crystals and the singles supply nutrients if needed.
How is the 40lb bag of soil? -Earthgro Garden Soil It is organic and says has enough nutes for up to two weeks.


--I read your thread, mpgkush. I am still a little iffy about buying seeds online? I am in an area where it is illegal (How does mailing it to my neighbor's house which is empty at the moment sound?)
--As for the custom soil, I know I will need to add nutes but how do you change your pH of outdoor soil? Just make the water more acidic/basic?

Click to expand...

placing the seeds in the ground or ur pot and letting nature takes its course is possible but not suggested. seedlings are very sensitive to at time harsh outdoor conditions. so u can do it but the chances of survival are silm to compared to if u vegged indoors. 40lb bag should be more then enough. how many plants again?

Three this season, but I'm going to expand next.
--I found this awesome 20 ft high rock out in the woods with barely any foilage on top. Animals wont bother it and people will only be able to see some randomly placed weeds growing around (cant see pots from ground) ---And the rock also means I wont have to cut down any branches for light because the nears trees are in like 50ft-100ft diameter
I'll veg next season, this season I'm just trying to do everything ASAP, clearing it out today (not really needed, wont be hard) and then later going to HD/Lowes for anti bug

And uhh, Actually the half-way full bin idea, should keep the seedlings out of too much sun and too much wind until they are about 1ft tall so win-win <--im newb does that sound right? lol



AWESOME QUICK REPLIES, thanks

[Edit] The foilage was a pain in the asss--in the winter i assumed 2inches of top soil wouldnt allow much growth but tons of small bushes and annoying weeds and i had to cut down 3 trees >.<

For the sun part, seedlings love lots of sun...too much wind is no good...but if you let the plants live in an environment, they'll adapt to those conditions. just watch em'. Herb is a pretty hardy plant.

Yeah that's mostly what I have been hearing--plant and let be. So what is my best bet for adding nutes to the soil? I'm pretty sure the 2 most popular methods are liquid and mixing in a layer of nute-enriched soil about 2 inches down and then water to pull them into the soil.

--Is collecting rain water a good idea to just keep near my grow site? --I have neighbors around and me walking back into the woods with two milk jugs every other day would be kind of suspicious
--i know, i know the more attention I give it the better, but if i had to could i take care of it by visiting once a week? (more if there is a drought or something)

PS: The Earthgro is not the red and white back type, it is white with green strips on the side: http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100355668&N=10000003+90089+528811
--Also, while clearing my grow site I saw that every plant had at least 10-20 leaves without holes from being eaten. It seemed like most of these holes were from moth larva (and i did see a lot of moths flying around), but I'm not sure. I also saw a LOT of spider webs, but each one had a decent sized spider so I don't think there are many spider mites yet...However in a few months the area I live in has a goddamn swarm of lady bugs that comes through so I'm pretty sure I know what they are eating and what is coming x_x.
--and i found a turtle at my grow site, was like FUCKING YEAH! GO TURTLE! (i hope he lives throughout my first grow, im gonna make him a DIY home, lol)

get neem oil for the bugs!

Oohh Lol thats what you said in the earlier post. Ok, I'm going shopping/ordering tomorrow. Thank you for the advice but unless that is sold in a major retailer I am probably going to get this:
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=136457-316-HG-10433X-5&lpage=none
I figure a few bottles of that sprayed directly on my plants and plants surrounding my own will do the trick ( I like that it also kills eggs)
I'm also going to buy a few bottles of spider spray (tons of spiders, and it's nothing to do with plant health i just dont like them), and spray all around my grow site.


With neem oil I would have to purchase an $8 24oz bottle with $6 shipping and that wouldn't get fun after a few grow cycles.

mpgkush said:

GOTTA LOVE GOOGLE MAPS.

I used to live in Denver and in Aroura there was this store called the big tomato. good them! freeshipping nation wide with orders over 50 they are awesome people tow ork with as well

Click to expand...

Dude, thanks so much for that. I looked it up and found the website.

http://www.thebigtomato.com/

38qt FF ocean forest, shipped across the country to my front door for eighteen bucks is fucking boss.

That's cheaper than the nearest hydro store, which is like 40 miles.

+rep for you

kaiserAxel said:

With neem oil I would have to purchase an $8 24oz bottle with $6 shipping and that wouldn't get fun after a few grow cycles.

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They have neem oil at lowe's or hd.

And 24oz of concentrate will make 24 gallons of spray. I use 3-4 ounces per application. Maybe 10 applications a year. Do the math.

yea good shit the guys @ the big tomato are the shit they hook it up. i had a 64 plant indoor operation goin like a year ago when i lived in denver

Ok I'll get the Neem Oil then, thanks. I've got everything planned out now, except for which strains. My first picks would be WW, Bubblelicious, or Ice. Are any of these good/bad for outdoor?

As for strains it all depends on what you like. You as a new comer should start with an easy strain for outdoor, i suggest Early Girl

Also some ak48 (outdoor) should be easy enough. they are large producer and easy to grow.

I know the comment to my 'can I still start growing outdoors?' was go ASAP...but I still need to wait for seeds and other supplies...so what is the latest possible time to start growing outdoors?