Posting this at the end of May is a bit kinda late but I still thought that it may be of benefit to those planning an outdoors grow.......I would normally do the initial and main preparation work the summer and autumn prior to planting and follow on with a little soil-adjustment maintenance of the site each spring after the 1st years use of your new site.

If you can, stop by your potential site/s and test pH of soil. You can buy pH testing kits @ B+Q etc, single kits about £1 and you'll need one per site. If the soil is too acidic you can adjust it with garden lime, too alkaline and you can use ground sulphur. It's best to do this as soon as poss', ideally the autumn prior to using your new site.

Where I am, the soil is on the acidic side anyway and coniferous woodlands are even worse. Most of my growing is done in coniferous forested areas and these do earn their reputation for being very acidic. I take the edge off with 200g/7oz/3/4 cup of garden lime per square meter and this usually takes you ‘out of the red’, so to speak and into the orange colours on the pH kits. Bonemeal is good too and also raises pH levels. For more alkaline soils ground sulphur can be added at about 85g/3oz/ 1/4 cup per square meter. Wood chips, leaf mould and peat moss are also good for lowering the pH in more alkaline soils. These measurements are however general approximations, but should raise or lower your pH by a clear point either way.

You're not looking for perfection, just soil within reasonable parameters but each area treated should slightly overlap the next if possible. Try and turn over the soil as deep as you can, a couple of feet deep is good, deeper even better. Also try and make holes at least 1 metre apart, if you have the space 1.5m is better (allows you to move about plants once grown). 1.5metres is my arms outstretched to the side fingertip to fingertip. Marking the holes that you've dug at this point in time is a good idea 'cause the next time you go back weeds/grass may have covered them up. A good tip, when testing the ph don't take soil sample back home and use tap water, it'll be different from whats at your site, so try to use from near to where you're growing or take pH-neutral water with you in a wee bottle.

Once you've done that the fun starts......

For protection against rabbits (the little ganja-guzzling bastards ), I've found the best protection are individual chicken-mesh cages, fairly easy to do, and remember, even if you can't see traces of rabbits, chances are that they will be around.
To make the cages, you'll have to buy enough mesh to do 4-5ft lenghts per plant. If the roll in the shop is is 3ft high you should be able to half it and get twice as many cages out of the length, (10 plants = 25ft of 3ft high mesh). Also buy garden canes, if you can get 5ft ones just snap'em in half. Snip the mesh into 1+1/2ft high, 4-5ft long strips. Curve/roll to form a slightly overlapping tube, twisting the ends of wire around the mesh/hexagons, carefull though they'll cut up and scratch you. Once you've done that, weave each cane through the length of the mesh tube leaving about 1ft sticking proud (this will be pushed into the ground). Tent pegs are a good extra precaution against rabbits trying to work their way under the mesh, 2 per plant around base of cage. There you are, rabbit-proof protection.

Basic plant cages are explained in further detail here in the September edition of the UK420 Newsletter archives:

http://www.uk420.com/boards/index.php?showtopic=37685

So,

1) check ph using water from nearby of possible, or pH-neutral water taken along with you.

2) Go back with ; lime or ground sulphur if needed, measuring cup or similiar, teaspoon, trowels, mesh strips for the cages laid on top of each other and rolled up as tight as poss', tent pegs and canes. Probably best to make up cages at this point, flatten them to help conceal them and hide them nearby.

3) Turn over the ground where the plants will be. Depending on what time of the year you're doing this, some slow release ferts can be added at this stage as well, not much though, a half-measure or teaspoon in and around a couple feet of your plant holes maybe, it's just to prepare the soil 'cause if you're doing this in early spring chances are you won't be back for a good few weeks. There are many brands to choose from but JA Bowers do a slow release 5-5-6.5 that should be good for 6wks or so and Osmocoate do a 14-13-13 that's good for about 4 months.

Remember to mark where you've dug with a twig pushed into the ground and a twist of poly bag around the top or something. The appearance of your site can change a lot even just over a few weeks and if you don't, you may have a problem finding where you've been digging.

You should be able to fit everything inside a normal backpack so as to appear as normal as poss'. This stage should take about 1-1+1/2 hrs for one person to prepare for ten plants. Oh, and another good idea is to take some water with you to pour over the planting areas, I save up plastic milk containers, 2 or 3ltr ones. Watering at this stage helps wash the lime or sulphur into the soil and moistens the fert' pellets.

If you haven't planted out yet, now is a good time to stop by your site/s to clear any weeds grass etc from around your pre-prepared holes. They've had a good chance to establish themselves and pretty much every undesirable that will grow under and around your plants will be visible at this point in the season. A systemic weed killer will work wonders but there are many to chose from both organic and chemical.

'Bishops weed' can be both a nuisance and an allie in outdoor growing. 'Bishops weed' are those tall (in mid-summer about 4 to 6 ft) purple stemmed weeds with white downy, fluffy tops on them that can leave you looking as though you've just walked through a blizzard. They can afford supplementary cover for 'our kind of plants' but personally I wouldn't tolerate any within about a 1 metre radius of one of my girls. Apart from being a nuisance to yourself, the white, fluffy 'down' that they produce will stick to your buds and mess them up.

If you are following the mesh cage protection for your plants don't worry about the cages being very exposed and obvious for long, grass will still grow around the base of your plants and will soon grow up and through the cages, covering them up nicely.

All the vegetation around your site, including any Bishops Weed even if only allowed to grow around and outwith a 1 metre radius, will help prevent folks from spying your crop. Cannabis plants have a remarkable ability to blend in with their surroundings and can be incredibly difficult to spot (even for you who knows exactly where they are) and I'm still amazed after years of growing outdoors how often you're almost upon them before you can see them. Also, if you're going to be planting out soon, now is a good time to give the plant sites their measure of slow release ferts for vegging. Adding some more water at this stage moistens ferts and activates their gradual breakdown.
Now is also a good time to drop off and hide any compost/peat that you'll be adding when planting.

C'mon outdoor veterans, anything else that can be added or that I've forgotten to mention.
This is just the way that I do things, but tried and tested.
Any other input appreciated.
From what I've read here on 420, there are going to be a lot of outdoor grows this year...............reckon it's great how last years good summer has encouraged others.

I dug most of my holes March/early April... added a little slow release fert. couple of weeks after that.... didn't test the soil tho'


..but as they are growing in a dense carpet of nettles should be ok

Laz

Tip for the day.........if you visit your site, pretty much from now on through the summer, your footprints will undoubtedly leave the grass,etc flattened for a while and if you visit along the same route a couple of times too close together the grass and weeds can lie flattened for a worryingly long time revealing a 'trail' to your grow.

A systemic weedkiller in one of those hand-held, bottle-gun type things may be the answer.

If you roughly estimate your stride and give the grass,etc a quick scoosh in a disrupted zig-zag pattern back to the path/road/whatever you will have a series of 'step-stones' to walk on without leaving any flattened areas and if you do it right, they won't even appear out of place to any passers-by...............

Excellent detailed post it has helped me out allot I have 7 early skunk seedlings from sensi at the moment they are a week old from first sings of life.

I plan to leave them growing for another week and a half before I plant out as they are quite big already. Am I a bit late planting them out? if so will this make a big difference to my grow

Not really, I wouldn't have thought. Early skunk shouldn't be ready 'til about 2nd week in October and shouldn't start to flower 'til mid August. That gives you a couple of months outdoor growth.............

Mind you 3 or even 4 months outdoor growing would make for far better yields.....

Nice thread although I wish I'd noticed it a bit sooner.

I took some cuttings when my girls first showed sex about a month ago, potted them in 3" pots, and just left them on the shed roof to their own devices.

They have grown upwards exactly zero, but all have nice little roots on them now, so I went for a hike yesterday with a mate, and planted them in strange, out of the way places.

I went for, you know when a farmer cuts his field, and if theres a hill in the middle, he can't mow it and they get covered in weeds, well I planted on the East facing hills, amongst the nettles and shit. My arms are covered in little white bumps now.

How often should I be checking up on them? Every day is totally out of the question. I'm not hiking 5 miles there and 5 miles back more than I need to.

Any other takers?

No?
Well, I'd just leave them to get on with it and maybe stop by at the end of next month simply to see if they're still alive and how they're doing.
Did you give them any food?
If not you could wait for a week to let them settle in and stop back with some slo-release munchies for them.........
I'd never underestimate the possibility that someone, somewhere , will see you. Hence the trying not to go back too often.......

Oh, and given the choice.............I'd plant on the western side of a hill.
Facing east, the plants will be recieving the cooler part of the day.
Facing west, they will recieve the warmest..............

I think I'd best stick to indoors

I was thinking, "Rises in the East, sets in the west".

Feck.

Hey, Spliffy, it's nothing ventured, nothing gained and if they're cuttings it's not like you've invested a whole bunch of cash into something that may or may not work out.
They may do alright without food and being east-facing, it's just that, and it's only my opinion from experience, that the munchies and warmer, sunnier conditions would fare them (and ultimately you), better.

I'm still learning.........after many years.......

Good luck with your grow,spliffy

Tip for the day.......if you are wanting to stop by your grow site, try to coincide the timing of your your visit with 'something big that's on': a grand-prix race, football match, tennis final,etc. Doing this will mean that there should be less other folk around (more folks watching TV at home/at the pub, or actually attending event).
You may miss the event yourself live,but you can always record it.

Apart from when these events are on I would try to avoid weekends, bank holidays etc, there's too many folks out and about (cyclists, walkers, birdwatchers.......)

Going out to check up on your grow when the weather isn't very nice is another one, who else would want to be strolling about the fields and woods when it's pissing down with rain but always try to have a credible reason prepared for your being wherever you are, should you be asked.

Todays tip for the day; Fert's.
If you're going to be looking for some flowering ferts for your girls outdoors come Aug/Sep, why not try 'Vitax Q4' (pelleted). Npk is 5.3-7.5-10 and should do your plants good for 3 maybe 4 wks during flowering.

It's 'available at all leading garden centres', as they would say on TV. And after about 4wks, just stop by your site again and give your girls another boost to see them through to the end of their flowering.........they'll love you for it and should reward you many times over............

so bb do you reckon my indica will trigger around mid august?
mm + 9weeks is mid/end of october..... brrrr!!
anyone know a website that shows the daylight hours in the uk?

Is that the Mazar that I stopped by to have a look at the other day along that footpath?
Could be a bit after that MDP, might not start to flower 'til towards end of august and 'cause she's a lazy lady probably wouldn't get round to finishing 'til end of October...............and you know how cold it can get at that time of the year!
Mind you, it wasn't really that cold in oct' last year and it was a long, drawn out gradual drop in temp's if I remember right.
It's folk like you that give us Scots the reputation of being a bunch of crazy, tenacious f*****s, ...............whehey! bring on the late season Scottish clan!
Just hope your girls isn't still trying to do her duty come November!

I showed up to a totally new spot the day of planting, dug a small hole, mixed in some manure & organic topsoil w/ humus, threw in a fert pack and water crystals, and left it alone... seems to be fine! Here's a pick of some plants where I soaked the water crystals in Ionic Grow.... look at that color!

cheers bud

looking good, skinny d.

Yep, I agree. If it aint broke, don't try to fix it.
Done many grows without doing a lot of what I've been posting, but those grows that I have done with what I've been posting have, of course, been better.
Initial reason for starting this was to give outdoor growers with little or no experience a clear and concise guide for getting the best out of their efforts.
I'm getting a lot of fun and satisfaction out of this thread, especially the 'tip for the day', hope others are too.
Wot about the wabbits skinny d?

I keep da wittle wabbits at bay (usually) with some green mesh fencing that I picked up from the hardware store. Also, a REALLY cheap alternative I have figured out, that nobody else has ever posted (I think), is to find some straight twigs and stick them in the ground in a circle around the stem, protecting it... like a fort!

And you've never had the wee fu***rs jump over and munch your girls?
How tall do you make the fence/fort?

It's just that I've seen rabbits climb over fences/gates and once lost a crop 'cause they jumped, or climbed, over a chicken mesh fence that I'd put around the plants. The fence was at least 2ft high, supported vertically with garden canes, about 20ft in circumference and one day I stopped by the site, the mesh fence was still perfectly intact, but every plant was gnawed down to a inch high stump..... it was wabbits. The fact that the fence was still perfectly upright meant that they'd jumped over. They can't do that with individual cages, 'cause the cage is only about 14" across.

........and at least 18" high.
But, hey, if your little fort made out of twigs works..........

Tip for the day..........
Want to dissuade other folks from going to near to your site, without attracting curiousity?

Try and get out to where there are some old rusty barbed wire fences, snip off maybe 10ft lengths and get them back to your site. Doesn't matter if they break up a bit, it's just to work around the undergrowth a good distance outwith your growing area. If you 'peak' and coil it upwards to about thigh height (2.5' to 3') it won't pose as a hazard to anyone unless they try to negotiate past it and folks' dogs will be able to get underneath without harm.

It's simply a deterrent. Nobody likes barbed wire, and when it's already rusty it doesn't look out of place. Scrap heaps, dis-used land and railway lines may have old bits lying around, you don't necesarily have to get out to the countryside and pillage farmers old fences.

hi there,
peep's for the people that dont allready no of me well im smiffy22toke from scotland 'well then that's me introdused anyway im very pleased iv found this thread as bush B is a very imformitive well experanced planter and i agre with him totely, well then iv leaft my grow to veg under energy saveing light bulb's for the past month now i need to put them outdoor's, so that's were im at well then i went for a walk yesterday and found 2 grate spot's {dont put all your egg's in one basket} anyway im pritty sure i can get the plant's hidden from sight if i plant them in bettwen bushes and stuff like that also iv hered about putting them up tree's on man made platform's and also digging a hole and put perspec's over so there is 3 option's there so i think il stick then near bushes less hassle also im worrieing about other plant's stealing there fertilizer's and stuff like that, so what could i do there !

apart from line the ground and then add my own soil which will take me a good couple of day's but i think it will be the best way, i think some plant's will stael there space thou, so then for security i recomend sellatapeing the sole's of the traner's or boot's as your trak will be left also like bush B said there is weed killer to hide your foot path's which is realy important so im going to use a basic cutting soil with perlite and then buy a basic tommato feed for fertz then hopefully induce the plant's after july into 12/12 for flowering ? is that right bush B ?also im near water so it's not going to be a big problem to be hiking with tub's of water so that's a plus so all my plat's are a good 8-9 week's old now im still not sure about the sex but il be cheeking today as my freind is keeping them for me so il be going to transport then to the grow site this week i first need to prepare the soil for them, that's what il be doing this week i think, anyway folk's im sure by this time next christmass everyone will have some good weed to toke so keep fighting the good fight and the rest will fall into place

-peaceout-smiffy22toke-

Ah, I see now. Sounds fair enough and as you say, skinny d, it's about as cheap a way to protect your plants as you can get.
Nice one.

hi there,
uk'er's alike well then today is realy wert one i was going to dig my plot today but i just said it's to wet so tommoro im thinking so then i went to my freind's house yesterday to look at my babie's and wow thay have stretced and bushed since the last time i looked nice one also no sighn's of decreped plant but im sure il get one so then just to recap on what im putting outdoor's well if all the plant's turn out to be female's,well then im going to be realy bizzy transplanting them out the hole 10 of them

list of strain's im growing

veitnam black x chinese thai crosess 4 off
teskenty x chinese thai crosess 2 off
paragyauan pure sativa 1 off, im thinking that the plant is a male not to sure thou
durbon poisson x skunk 1# crosess 3 off, all good

so im up agenst it here but i no a can do it what worrie's me is that i cant harden them off thay need to go from the grow cupboard to the plot so what should i do peep's bush B ? well im pritty sure im going to have a nice season but do you no what i dont want the seasion just to pass me by that's how i fell so anyway i just mentiond the up tree thing for people that cant grow on a plot sp thank's u-b for you help in constructing one i might do that next year il see so then peep's try and wright a list of YOUR strain's so we can all compare !!! ok enough said keep cool bush B and thank's for the pm's thay help me imensly with confidence cheeeeeer's
-peace-out-smiffy-

Have to agree with you on that one smiffy, even though you're a bit further north than me it has been absolutely pouring down here this afternoon. Rivers are in spate and half of the road outside is covered in water about 2" deep.
So, after getting a wee bit carried away earlier, todays tip for the day is...........
When it's this wet don't even think about going out to check up on your plants and just stay in to browse uk420 instead, it really has to be the best way that you can spend your time when the weather is this crap.
(can't really be arsed today).

How tall are your plants, everyone? Pinched out the main growing tip yet?

Most of my girls out in the woods are about 1.5ft tall and had their main tip pinched off while they were hardening off, but just a few days before going out to their new, and final, home outdoors.
Now, the large majority of my plants are indicas, yet even if I stop by at, say, the end of june and pinch them out again, AND poss' stop by to do them again a third time, they nearly always end up at eye height (about 5') and that's about as tall as I, personally, would want them.
Apparently a lot of 420's outdoor growers are dealing with sativas this summer and those girls can grow really,really, tall.

So............todays 'tip for the day' is,
If you haven't already, why not take off the main growing tip. Personally I never really bother with side-shoot tip removal, just the main stem. You'll get two new growing tip's for your efforts, help keep the plants' overall height down and if need be you can do it again in another month or so's time......................

Hope everyones plants are lush and green, doing well and not easily seen.
BushBandicoot

Wonder how everyone's plants are doing?

I'll be posting some pics of my Grow B (outdoors) soon

Looking forward to it, skinny d. More the merrier.

Hello went out and dug my plot in the woods today I have made two sites, 4 spaces at one spot and 3 at another.
I started by turning up all of the soil in and around the surrounding area and dug quiet deep to ensure no roots would interfere with my plants when I finally plant them out. I also got some weed killer and covered any weed within a meter perimeter of the spots with it.

I dug 4 main holes within the turned up area of soil and filled the holes with all purpose compost I then covered the top of the 4 holes with the already turned over soil. I did the same at spot 2 but with 3 holes instead
I then covered the turned up area of soil with some leaves that where lying around on the floor near the spots to camouflage the area so that if any one was to walk past they wouldn’t notice a massive round patch of freshly dug soil.

I stuck sticks in the ground where I had dug the four holes to ensure I plant in the correct places. BB I took your tip of covering up my trail as I went I took large steps and made sure I didn’t flatten to much while I was out I didn’t see one person and I was there for a long time I also didn’t hear anyone.

All that’s left to do now is to get some chicken wire and put it up around each hole and then plant my plants out.

Sounds a good effort, SGF !
I had to smile there when I read about you not hearing anyone whilst you were busy.
Last summer or autumn I was at one of my gro-sites one evening, crouched down amongst my ten plants. They were all about 4 or 5 ft tall and there were other tall weeds and grasses all around, so I couldn't really see far at the time. There I am, all hyped up and getting on with whatever it was that I was there for. Very still and quiet evening when all of a sudden I hear what sounds like a fairly loud, and close, deep guttaral cough. I was in a small clearing in the middle of a small copse of trees. It sounded like a farmer. And I nearly s**t myself. Practically frozen still, only my eyes, as wide as plates, shot from side to side expecting farmer bloggs or someone to walk right in on top of me and my ten incriminating girls. Do you know what it was ? A fucking hedgehog! Now I've never been one for cruelty to animals but I'll tell you, that hedgehog will never know how close it came to getting..........

Contrary to what you may think, digging up and turning natural, undisturbed soil is NOT a good thing; it increases the rate at which the microbes in the soil break down.... not as healthy as normal, unturned soil. Mel Thomas says that in "Cannabis Cultivation".

You know what still suprises me about that hedgehog business? I've lived and worked in the countryside for many, many years and I'm well used to hedge hogs with their grunting-and-a-snorting and how loud they can be. But at that moment in time, something like a deep guttaral cough was the one thing that I least wanted to hear and was afraid of. However, when I heard old Mr hedgehog making that noise, I immediately thought that it was ' the one thing that I least wanted to hear'- a cough. Imagination can be an incredibly powerful force and can twist your senses and perceptions. Fucking hedgehogs.

skinny d, fair advice perhaps. But if you're adjusting the soils ph with lime, or whatever, and haven't been able to do it the previous autumn, turning over the ground well is the only way to ensure even balance, along with a good watering.
And chances are that slo-release nutes are going in too.........

Plus if I hadn’t dug up the soil at my spots I wouldn’t have been able to get all those god damn roots out. I think if I hadn’t of got the roots out there was that many that I think it would of effected my grow a lot in terms of roots interfering with my plants at least now my plants will have a larger area to spread their roots and not get tangled in others

Good point, well presented, SGF.

Good contribution, UB, regardless of how stoned you may be.
I was going to ask you for an opinion as well..............nice one.