Outdoor Effects of RAIN on outdoor autos/super autos

[Somerset]

Hi All - its my first ever grow (see signature for progress) and my plants are nearly ready. They're fully outdoors, rooted into the soil and over 120 days. The rain is hitting relentlessly at the moment (sometimes heavier, sometimes lighter) and other than an earlier mould situation (which seems to have improved since the rain started actually!) are there likely to be any potential issues?

I read somewhere that rain can knock some of the Trichomes off and affect final potency, which may be true although, as a resin I believe they will be water repellant. I also believe that being plants growing fine way before we can along and started cultivating them they should be fairly comfortable with something as natural and everyday as rain, although modern hybrids may have some introduced weaknesses, so I thought I should put it out there and try to gather some collective experience on the subject.

Please post your 2 pence/2 cents/2 pesos worth here!

 

[Dazed]

I have to agree with your first point. They are plants that have grown for thousands of years quite happily in the elements, it's their natural habitat. I'd say that the rain would not effect the resin because as you stated, it's not water soluble (for a reason-nature is awesome!). I can say for sure that when I started using rainwater in place of tap-I noticed a big difference in how they responded to being watered. I'd say a wash down with rainwater is a good thing as rainwater contains trace elements which you would think is acting like a foliar feed.

 

[Somerset]

Nice one Dazed!

Is a foliar feed important at this stage Dazed? To be honest, I've never given them anything than a granular 4.4.4 Growmore kind of mix since flowering and prior to that throughout veg stage that, some MiracleGro slow release pellets (with all the trace goodies in) which is probably why the flowers are fairly small.


I suppose my overall concern is - will leaving them in the ground longer knowing we have another week of thick cloud and rain coming, effect the final potency negatively.


They look so close to being super ready, I smoke tested her about a week ago and it was great then, but I’m trying to leave these in as long as possible for maximum natural ripeness without negatively impacting on strength.


What stage of growing do you not go beyond? How do you know when a plants active components start degrading, and is rain linked?





more photos and a brief report on the journal today:


https://www.autoflower.org/f6/outdoor-uk-first-time-journal-ref-34201-19.html

 

[Muddy]

My concern would be bud rot. I've had it happen where I've gotten heavy rain on mature buds for an extended period of time. They stayed so wet for so long that they started to rot inside the buds. I've also had stems break in those circumstances. The added water weight makes the buds very heavy.

 

[somersetsmoker]

From your forum name.. i'm wondering if you are in a very close location to me.... And it has been hammering it down the last couple days !! :no:

 

[Balarama]

Hi Somerset!

I agree with DSC and Muddy, some rain is always good for plants but long periods of constantly wet buds are a recipe for rot and later mold.
Looking at your photo they look pretty much done to me, so I'd harvest in the first dry period, when the buds are dry through. They could be taken even before the next rains, if no mold or rot was found, don't worry, it usually doesn't happen in one night

Outdoor growing is always a compromise with nature, resin won't be just washed away, more likely pressed down on the bud and glued on it.
And about ancient plants, I don't have such a romantic idea about the old landraces as they are(were) totally different from modern lines in many aspects, from structure, fiber/bud ratios, flower structure up to resin and terpenes. The cannabis gene pool was put on selection since the first growers and I imagine today's strains are mainly bred indoor and not even tested outdoors, with some exceptions of course.

This year I used some drying powder(moisture absorber Air Max or UHU), put it in the drying chamber and after two days the powder pulled almost all moisture from the buds, it's a quick and helpful method if you want to dry your plant in a very humid climate. Here was 60-70% during the day and 90%+ at nights. Also a good inspection of buds before drying is very important.

Cheers

 

[skyhiggh]

How do u know if you have root rot?