Can i move my plants 1 ft to get another half hr of direct light?

Brother Sweetleaf

Well-Known Member
Plants are 1.5-2 weeks into bloom, can i move them 1 ft to gwt more direct light before being shaded? Dont wanna shock and possibly revert back to veg.
Great question! This sort of thing I can offer some insight on... I've grown only outdoors, & for years I've moved my plants all around, following the sunlight throughout each day. For new locations, pre-season, I study the landscape, follow the patterns of Sunlight & shadow, and even check GoogleEarth to see what the sunlight-shadow situation looks like at different times throughout the year. The idea here is to plan wisely, and minimize the amount of times you move the plants. I've generally kept mine to only 1 or 2 moves a day. You find the 2 or 3 spots in the area that maximize Sunlight for the longest duration of time. The idea is that I position my plants to receive an absolute minimum of 5-6 hours of direct Sunlight each day (if the weather allows).

I keep mine in EarthPot sort-of pots, like you do, but keep mine on an upside-down milk-crate. This not only lets the air-pruning take effect even better (allowing air-flow to the bottom of the pot), but it also minimizes nasty stuff like root-rot, slugs & bugs, and the possibility of the roots growing through the pot & into the ground-soil below, tearing those outer-periphery roots whenever you'd eventually move the pot.

The milk-crate support also keeps the plant a bit safer from curious critters who scamper, scurry & hop about, looking for good healthy greens to eat! It allows for proper drainage when you water as well. The milk-crate also allows you something more stable & secure to grip onto when moving the plant, & doing so keeps the clothes you're wearing cleaner. But perhaps the best reason is that it acts as a base, from which you can build-up a bamboo "scaffolding" to secure your young plant (veggie-phase, before-flowering) for shaping, Low Stress Training, scrogging, & maximum yield (if you're into that sort of thing).

I'm a big fan of the anti-trauma stress-recovery nutritional supplement called Superthrive, but sparingly & only when "needed". I used to baby my plants, treating them with gentleness, as if they were fragile, believing that I'd "break trichomes" or ruin the precious sanctity of the plant. :roll: I've since matured my understanding of this resilient weed and learned 1st-hand of how strengthening it is to plant (and fun for me!) to engage in "rough-and-tumble play" with them (in veg-growth phase primarily). The (young) plants will love you for it, and the plant becomes stronger from intelligent "work-outs" here-&-there and she can take a good man-handling if they need to during flowering.

Included in the pics here is one of me using a concentrated Neem-seed oil insecticide derived from all-natural ingredients (called AzaMax) that worked awesome when used as instructed. I had a terrible case of the spidermites and wanted to ensure that the entire underside of the plant was assaulted fully (they prefer to dwell on the undersides of the leaves). The plant itself is shown hovering upside-down on a support I rigged-up (it all worked-out just fine!), and-- despite taking yet another accidental split-- she didn't slow-down much at all. They're weeds, & they survive to thrive. They take a beating and keep growing. Don't beat them. Indeed Love your plants. But don't worry about moving 'em a bit to get more Sunlight. That right there IS the basis for everything I do in my grow. Everything. It's all based around the portability of the plant.

There's a bunch of other factors to consider, that'll be in my upcoming video series on Youtube... Like watering after moving the plants (why break your back carrying all that heavy, water-soaked soil?)

The only drawback that regular moving of the plants in the way I've described is that it seems the soil gets packed pretty tightly after a while. I think the natural effect of momentum heaving the soil down, packing it with each thump of footstep, & with each "landing". I don't know if this "packed-soil" effect is because of my Moving Milkcrate Method, or if that's just how it gets because of the tight root-structure, or perhaps from hurried waterings that drenched the pot & lifted to the surface most of aeration-material (Perlite, Vermiculite, etc). I'm not sure it's a bad thing, a normal thing, or even if it is a thing, but I've been doing it this way for years now & I'm kinda thinking that the soil compacts denser than it does in a potted plant that is never moved.

But now THAT is where Earthworms come in quite handy, my friend! :wink: They dig tunnels that aerate the soil despite it all!

But I say go ahead & move your girls to drink in that Sunlight! :leaf:
 

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Brother Sweetleaf

Well-Known Member
Wow! I smoked a hefty bowl of Cat Piss before I sat down & wrote all that stuff. I gave a lot of info there in my previous posting, and I see now that it all may seem random & unconnected, but it actually is correlated... I wanted to unpack a bunch of info addressing the different fundamental concerns of the OP, ChronicVanIsland.: Not only about whether or not it's worth moving a plant to give it more Sunlight, but I also wanted to show that cannabis is resilient, hearty, strong, & can handle a lot more than just having it's container moved a foot or 2 away. Once I gave away my method of doing things, it only seemed fair that I also share with you the pros & cons I've seen using the method.

Cat Piss is great weed for writing & sharing info, apparently. :weed:

And to those readers who baby their plants with gentleness as if they were fragile, I completely get it, as I too used to live with the mindset of a "purist"... So despite my having grown (as a person, as a grower) from that belief, to one that now seems sloppy & brutal by comparison, I do totally understand, & I salute you.
 
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Joncoh101

Well-Known Member
Great question! This sort of thing I can offer some insight on... I've grown only outdoors, & for years I've moved my plants all around, following the sunlight throughout each day. For new locations, pre-season, I study the landscape, follow the patterns of Sunlight & shadow, and even check GoogleEarth to see what the sunlight-shadow situation looks like at different times throughout the year. The idea here is to plan wisely, and minimize the amount of times you move the plants. I've generally kept mine to only 1 or 2 moves a day. You find the 2 or 3 spots in the area that maximize Sunlight for the longest duration of time. The idea is that I position my plants to receive an absolute minimum of 5-6 hours of direct Sunlight each day (if the weather allows).

I keep mine in EarthPot sort-of pots, like you do, but keep mine on an upside-down milk-crate. This not only lets the air-pruning take effect even better (allowing air-flow to the bottom of the pot), but it also minimizes nasty stuff like root-rot, slugs & bugs, and the possibility of the roots growing through the pot & into the ground-soil below, tearing those outer-periphery roots whenever you'd eventually move the pot.

The milk-crate support also keeps the plant a bit safer from curious critters who scamper, scurry & hop about, looking for good healthy greens to eat! It allows for proper drainage when you water as well. The milk-crate also allows you something more stable & secure to grip onto when moving the plant, & doing so keeps the clothes you're wearing cleaner. But perhaps the best reason is that it acts as a base, from which you can build-up a bamboo "scaffolding" to secure your young plant (veggie-phase, before-flowering) for shaping, Low Stress Training, scrogging, & maximum yield (if you're into that sort of thing).

I'm a big fan of the anti-trauma stress-recovery nutritional supplement called Superthrive, but sparingly & only when "needed". I used to baby my plants, treating them with gentleness, as if they were fragile, believing that I'd "break trichomes" or ruin the precious sanctity of the plant. :roll: I've since matured my understanding of this resilient weed and learned 1st-hand of how strengthening it is to plant (and fun for me!) to engage in "rough-and-tumble play" with them (in veg-growth phase primarily). The (young) plants will love you for it, and the plant becomes stronger from intelligent "work-outs" here-&-there and she can take a good man-handling if they need to during flowering.

Included in the pics here is one of me using a concentrated Neem-seed oil insecticide derived from all-natural ingredients (called AzaMax) that worked awesome when used as instructed. I had a terrible case of the spidermites and wanted to ensure that the entire underside of the plant was assaulted fully (they prefer to dwell on the undersides of the leaves). The plant itself is shown hovering upside-down on a support I rigged-up (it all worked-out just fine!), and-- despite taking yet another accidental split-- she didn't slow-down much at all. They're weeds, & they survive to thrive. They take a beating and keep growing. Don't beat them. Indeed Love your plants. But don't worry about moving 'em a bit to get more Sunlight. That right there IS the basis for everything I do in my grow. Everything. It's all based around the portability of the plant.

There's a bunch of other factors to consider, that'll be in my upcoming video series on Youtube... Like watering after moving the plants (why break your back carrying all that heavy, water-soaked soil?)

The only drawback that regular moving of the plants in the way I've described is that it seems the soil gets packed pretty tightly after a while. I think the natural effect of momentum heaving the soil down, packing it with each thump of footstep, & with each "landing". I don't know if this "packed-soil" effect is because of my Moving Milkcrate Method, or if that's just how it gets because of the tight root-structure, or perhaps from hurried waterings that drenched the pot & lifted to the surface most of aeration-material (Perlite, Vermiculite, etc). I'm not sure it's a bad thing, a normal thing, or even if it is a thing, but I've been doing it this way for years now & I'm kinda thinking that the soil compacts denser than it does in a potted plant that is never moved.

But now THAT is where Earthworms come in quite handy, my friend! :wink: They dig tunnels that aerate the soil despite it all!

But I say go ahead & move your girls to drink in that Sunlight! :leaf:
Amazing stuff thank you man! Some good info for me as a relative noob lol. Purely out of interest, what are your yields like on 6 or so hours of sunlight? Im in the same boat having to follow the sun because of my garden
 

Brother Sweetleaf

Well-Known Member
Amazing stuff thank you man! Some good info for me as a relative noob lol. Purely out of interest, what are your yields like on 6 or so hours of sunlight? Im in the same boat having to follow the sun because of my garden
Thanks, Brother! My yields are pretty low, because I generally only grow 1-3 plants each year, get them going later in the year than is ideal, and always have had 1/3 to a 1/2 of my yield decimated by bugs or rot or mold...

Until THIS year! :leaf:;)
 

Joncoh101

Well-Known Member
Thanks, Brother! My yields are pretty low, because I generally only grow 1-3 plants each year, get them going later in the year than is ideal, and always have had 1/3 to a 1/2 of my yield decimated by bugs or rot or mold...

Until THIS year! :leaf:;)
lol shit i hope i dont get that this year!
 
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