Protect the Seedlings!

This is my second outdoor grow attempt (last year was pretty poor), and though I've done more preparation this time, my little seedlings are getting thrashed by the torrential rainstorms we've had over the past few weeks.

In the woods near my house I have 5 5-gallon buckets, each filled with gravel, then cow manure compost, then mushroom compost mixed with topsoil. They are fenced in a little area surrounded by thornbushes that gets good southern exposure. I germinated and planted 5 AK-48 Nirvana seeds about 2 weeks ago, but only 3 sprouted. Then 2 of the seedlings were killed by heavy rains (one was strong enough to come back). I planted 2 more seeds last week and 1 of them sprouted, so now I have 2 small seedlings, one about 3" with 3 sets of leaves, and the other about 1" just working on its second set. Each bucket has about 5 1" holes in the bottom.

So now I have 2 seeds left, and one last chance to get my babies off to a good start this year. Once they get a little bigger, I'm going to start the FF soil nutrient trio. But in the meantime, what can I do to keep the seedlings safe until they're big enough to grow unprotected? I've read that jars or 2-liter soda bottles can be used to cover seedlings. If I go the soda bottle route, I assume I'd cut off the bottoms and dig them down a little bit so they don't fall over. But do I keep the caps on or poke holes in the bottles? Pretty newb question I'm sure, but any help is appreciated.

I wish to hell I could just grow in my backyard, but it's way too open to the neighbors and my kids are old enough to recognize what kind of plants they are. We have such a beautiful raised bed garden though, and our veggies are blowing up with no nutes at all. One day cannabis will be legal, and I'll grow fat, happy buds next to my tomatoes. But for now, a secret garden will have to do.

Peace all.

Anyone? Best methods for keeping small seedlings safe from the elements (besides starting indoors)?

yea just do what you said...get clear 2 liter bottles cut the bottom off and put over the seedling. Dig it down enough so not to fall over and poke holes in the top to let water in but not to big to let bugs in....also leave cap off for water b/c of course it will still need it.

yea the 2 ltr bottel idea 100% i used that in the first 3 weeks from frost, wind ect and look at them now in the sig. they are healthy as can be.

best of luck

perk

Thanks. I'll try it out in the next couple of days. I don't drink much soda, but 2-liter bottles shouldn't be too hard to find.

Thanks again for the replies. I checked out your journal, perkie. I like the under the bed idea to get your plants sprouted. Thanks to everyone that posts ideas and suggestions from their own experience, because it helps newbs like me figure out what they're doing wrong

I sat by my campfire with the trusty dugout a few nights ago and thought about why my plants haven't grown nearly as well as the ones in my raised bed vegetable garden. Last year I had two fenced-in gardens in the woods, each with 5 plants directly in the ground. No real soil preparation or amendments, just mother nature. And it failed miserably. I lost one whole garden to runoff from major rainstorms, and the other yielded about 1/8 ounce from 3 pathetically small plants. I planted in the woods to avoid detection, but the sunlight is poor. This year's crop was off to a similar start, even though I planted in buckets with lots of compost and good soil. A few things became glaringly obvious, so I decided to be a little bolder in my approach.

At this point, I have one plant that's about 8-9" tall, another that's maybe 2-3" tall, a small seedling with 4 starter leaves and only 1 seed left from my 10 Nirvana AK-48s. So I moved the two larger plants to a much sunnier spot surrounded by tall milkweed stalks in my backyard. I need to dig holes and provide some camouflage for the buckets, but otherwise it should be a good home - there are so many weeds I don't think anyone would notice a couple of small herb plants. The other two are in a similar plot about 30 feet away. I no longer need to tramp through the woods to get to them, which will make it easier to water with nutes as the summer goes on. The morning sun is definitely better than afternoon sun in this location (it's in a valley with southern exposure), but from what I understand morning sun is superior if one has to choose.

The surviving plants look healthy and their future seems brighter (literally). I can tell that the. I'm going to plant my last seed later this week, and hopefully will have better news to report soon.

Well, I lost another one, dumb bastard that I am. I never did cover up the small seedling, and I came home last night to find that the thunderstorm had snapped the stem just below the leaves. The two larger plants are fine, so I guess they're hardy enough to deal with harsh storms at this point. But it's definitely a lesson for next year, to start the seeds in a sunnier spot with protection, and not put them out to their final location until they're strong enough to handle the summer rains.

Live and learn, I guess.

Take your buckets and move them under a tree until the storm is gone.

Well, the remaining two plants still look healthy. But they still seem so small. The larger one is about a month old, and still barely a foot tall with only a few sets of leaves. I started applying fox farm nutes last week, and will continue today. They are in direct sunlight, though in a valley. Is there anything else I should be doing to help them grow?

I took another good look at them yesterday, and gave them a good long drink with nutes. It was a hot one, and very sunny for most of the day so they looked pretty happy. The larger one is definitely bigger than last year's crop was at harvest, so I guess things are looking up. The main stem is thicker too, so I'm hoping the next two months will see her grow big and strong.

Definitely some good lessons for next year.

Things are looking up indeed. Spent some time with my girls yesterday, and they are indeed girls! Just starting to show sex in the past couple of days. And their new locations is definitely doing them good - the larger one is just under 4 feet tall, and the smaller one is a bit over 3 feet. Starting to get some 7-leaves on both plants too, over the past 2 weeks.

We should be getting some good rain over the next few days, and that can only be a good thing.
I'll post some pics soon.

I've had the best luck using straight potting soil. It gets expensive but well worth it. In 45 days my outside plants went from seedlings to 5 footers. 7 to 8 hrs of direct northern sunlight per day. Unbelievable growth

Been a while since I've updated here, and unfortunately no pics. One of my girls turned out to be a dude, so he was trashed the first week of August. The one remaining plant has grown up into a beautiful 5 footer. I had to move her into the woods about 3 weeks ago because the wife freaked on me, but as all of the inferior weeds around her are dying off, there's enough sunlight to be found. She's flowering nicely, with 2 main colas and 4 nice sized secondary blossoms. I think she's got 3-4 more weeks...