Introduction from Canada

Jrgrowin

Member
Hi, brand new to the site and brand new to growing. I have 3 outdoor grown white widow plants that vegetated for 8 weeks and just noticed they are starting flowering. Super excited and looking for any advice. I have them in 5 gallon pots, used premium soil, I have a rain barrel so I water daily with stored rain water. And give them fertilizer every couple weeks about half the recommended does each time. I'm not aiming for crazy harvests just enough for me to smoke for frwe till next year. Any and all advice will be greatly appreciated!

Justin
 

torontoke

Well-Known Member
Hi, brand new to the site and brand new to growing. I have 3 outdoor grown white widow plants that vegetated for 8 weeks and just noticed they are starting flowering. Super excited and looking for any advice. I have them in 5 gallon pots, used premium soil, I have a rain barrel so I water daily with stored rain water. And give them fertilizer every couple weeks about half the recommended does each time. I'm not aiming for crazy harvests just enough for me to smoke for frwe till next year. Any and all advice will be greatly appreciated!

Justin
I'd recommend not watering them unless they need water.
2-3 days and feed every other time.
Not sure how much u use but 3 5gallon plants might not give u as much bud as your hoping for.
Might need to lower your expectations a lil bit.

Welcome to Riu btw
 

Jrgrowin

Member
Thanks for the info! I don't smoke that much. My wife and I maybe 2 or 3 times a week and even then we're only smoking a bowl each. Is there a way I can monitor the soil moisture and take out the guess work?
 

torontoke

Well-Known Member
Honestly the easiest way to tell is to pick them up.
Light n dry give em water.
Still heavy they are ok.
Mj seems to grow best when happy.
Not over or under watered.
 

Jrgrowin

Member
Hmm good advice. I actually noticed that a few days ago when I moved them one felt a little heavier than the other two. I didn't think much of it at the time, just huh thats strange, until I read your post. Thanks for the info!
 

Jrgrowin

Member
Already getting less than 12 hours light? You are definitely way north of me.
I don't think that rule totally applies to outdoor weed. I think they begin to flower shortly after the summer equinox. Not 100% sure though still new to this.
 

Kidbruv

Well-Known Member
Already getting less than 12 hours light? You are definitely way north of me.
I live at almost exact same latitude as jrgower (hi and welcome btw - I'm in Toronto) and we are still getting well over 13 hours now on Sept 1.

But jrgrowin is right. 12-12 is just the accepted standard for indoor growers to be guaranteed enough dark time. It's strain dependant and though I dont grow indoors, I would guess that 13-11 or even 14-10 would work for a lot of strains.

It's also because the light outdoors can mimick darkness to the plant by including high amounts of the far-red spectrum of light around sunset and sunrise. The far-red light extends the dark period because the plant's phytochromes can't "see" far red light in a sense. So 13 hours of outdoor light might be the same as 12 hours of indoor*

*Disclaimer: everything I just wrote is based only on my memory which is historically unreliable and could potentially contain absurdly false information

But welcome to the site jrgrowin and from what you said, it sounds like you're all set to have plenty of good smoke. Don't get too caught up in the volumes and volumes of discussions on things like what are the best NPK ratios and calmag requirements for an indica dominant hybrid from feminized seeds and grown in coir in 2000 gallon smart pots using etc etc etc. Don't get me wrong, theres a shit-tonne of good info on here, but it's too easy to get caught up in a lot of hype and forget about basic plant needs.

Sounds like your plants roots must be pretty tight in those containers. Mine is in about a ten gallon and same situation. I'll put a pic in below. I would suggest that if yours are like mine, you will need to be watering every day. When they are super root bound, the soil dries up real quick. The nutrients arent held in much either so a slight bit more feeding could be necessary.

I'd love to see pics of yours
IMG_20160831_0937042-01.jpeg
 

Jrgrowin

Member
I live at almost exact same latitude as jrgower (hi and welcome btw - I'm in Toronto) and we are still getting well over 13 hours now on Sept 1.

But jrgrowin is right. 12-12 is just the accepted standard for indoor growers to be guaranteed enough dark time. It's strain dependant and though I dont grow indoors, I would guess that 13-11 or even 14-10 would work for a lot of strains.

It's also because the light outdoors can mimick darkness to the plant by including high amounts of the far-red spectrum of light around sunset and sunrise. The far-red light extends the dark period because the plant's phytochromes can't "see" far red light in a sense. So 13 hours of outdoor light might be the same as 12 hours of indoor*

*Disclaimer: everything I just wrote is based only on my memory which is historically unreliable and could potentially contain absurdly false information

But welcome to the site jrgrowin and from what you said, it sounds like you're all set to have plenty of good smoke. Don't get too caught up in the volumes and volumes of discussions on things like what are the best NPK ratios and calmag requirements for an indica dominant hybrid from feminized seeds and grown in coir in 2000 gallon smart pots using etc etc etc. Don't get me wrong, theres a shit-tonne of good info on here, but it's too easy to get caught up in a lot of hype and forget about basic plant needs.

Sounds like your plants roots must be pretty tight in those containers. Mine is in about a ten gallon and same situation. I'll put a pic in below. I would suggest that if yours are like mine, you will need to be watering every day. When they are super root bound, the soil dries up real quick. The nutrients arent held in much either so a slight bit more feeding could be necessary.

I'd love to see pics of yours
View attachment 3770453
Hi thanks for the postive comments and advice! Southern ontario is the place to be! I used to live in etobicoke. Still work there. Here's a pic of one of mine it's the only pic I have on my phone. I'll upload some more when I get home!
DSC_0241.JPG
 
Top