I've done a few indoor's now and I've grown a couple in the greenhouse, I think it's time for an outdoor adventure.

Spot's picked, been and cleared 6 seperate spots I plan on putting upto 4 in each spot. I left the decision to grow outdoors a little late I think I should have prepped the spot last year, but I've got a plan.

1. I'm going to take 24 clones from AK47 mums in the next couple of days. Once rooted, I shall repot to 7 inch snakeys (About 3-4ltr pots. Veg 'em up until my flower space is free, them pot them up again into 11ltr buckets and veg them until late may. I shall train the plants to keep them short and bushy so they'll only be a foot tall but very branchy and wide.

2. Then I'm going to cut the bottom off the buckets and dig the buckets into the ground so the stem of the plant is buried upto the first set of leaves.

3. I shall water the plants for the first 2 weeks until they can support themselves from the ground. Then I shall visit them once every 2 weeks to spray them with SBPI, possibly water them in needed and feed them if appropriate.

4. Around the middle of september I shall start spraying her with rot stop and visit weekly from then on.

5. I shall harvest said plants, dry them, cure them and then I shall smoke them.

6. I shall prep site for 2008 before the weed is dried and cured as I'll not bother when I'm stoned.

I was told by an experienced garderner that burying the pot completely would help the roots plunge deeper into the ground and help keep the plants roots more seperated. Sounds like bollocks to me but I want to keep them in the pots and I can get the buckets for 50p each.

No photo's yet as there's not much to see but some mums which we've all seen too many before.

firstly dont worry about being a little late, last year i started sowing seeds many months from now and still got some nice smoke.

I dont think id keep them in pots mate, take them out totally id say, why restrict the root growth?

i dont know if id bury them especially deep either, could encourage rotting in the stem maybe?

Good luck with the grow matey

all very valid points. let them spread the roots. that way when the droughts of summer come you'll have bigger root system to cope with the lack of rain. although deeper root systems will get more water when it doesn't rain. you will risk over wetting when theres heavy rain and also root lock in the pot itself. i also second the stem rot theory, ive had plants 4 wks into flower just snap off at the stump from stem rot caused by over saturation of the rockwool near the stem. but good luck what ever you choose to do.

good luck mate i hope u have a fruitful season

I'm going to pretreat the ground 1 week before they go in with mycorrhizal fungi and a few 150ltr bags of compost dug in. Probably rootgrow as it's a lot cheaper than soil secrets. I personally would ditch the pots but my friend is helping me and he's pretty insistent I might try and convince him to do at least some without pots for a comparison for next time.

Might be helpful for you to have a read through the threads in this section, the outdoor mix one that is pinned is pretty helpful. Maybe show your mate some pictures of what people on here have done in the past etc.

best of luck to you whatever u decide