Growing outdoors in less than ideal light: seeking advice

[turtlebear1956]

June 16 2017


Hi,


I didn't expect to have something to ask about the very day after I joined this site, but things have changed in my plans as a result of hanging out here for a couple of hours and reading some threads.

I live in a small town in semi rural New England, lol, a stone's throw from a state university, but my town probably has more moo cows than people.

I have access to a patch of land that has some advantages and some disadvantages. On the plus side, it's well "stealthed" and thanks to a blessing of weeds that only gets denser as the summer goes on, that's only going to get stealthier. And it's sloped just a bit and drains well. On the minus side, it's got a pretty decent canopy going, with a maple tree and its sumac minions soaking up much of the sunlight. I figure that the area I am looking at gets maybe 4 hours of direct sunlight a day, all the rest is indirect.

But I was thinking, this area, even with its limitations of sunlight, grows a wealth of weeds, and not right away but over the next few weeks, I can start to remove parts of the maple tree that's sucking up most of the light canopy now...

Meantime, all this light is now going towards... unuseful weeds and maple leaves. I could make better use of that light if I put a couple of autos out there to convert it from useless weedage to useful weedage... but it's already the middle of June, gotta get a plan up and running fast.

And just reasoning this out in my head so far, I am thinking, get a couple of large "Dirt Pots," like the 20-25 gallon size (that way might not have to water 'em every day, as would have to with smaller pots), fill it with a supersoil to keep it really simple, and start some auto seeds right now - that's the only part I have actually taken big steps in, germinating a 4 pack of Pyramid Auto Super Hash and a 3 pack of Seedsman Auto White Widow - to turn that now-wasted sunlight into a few colas.

( This is the part of the cartoon where Tudor Turtle used to cry out, "help me, Mister Wizard!!")

I am a reasonably old hand at indoor plants and gardening, but a complete novice to cannabis culture. I haven't set anything up yet, as I said, didn't even have this idea before yesterday, but now hastening to take advantage of the summer, would appreciate any suggestions by anyone with experience growing auto strains outdoors in New England.

 

[G.Leave]

June 16 2017


Hi,


I didn't expect to have something to ask about the very day after I joined this site, but things have changed in my plans as a result of hanging out here for a couple of hours and reading some threads.

I live in a small town in semi rural New England, lol, a stone's throw from a state university, but my town probably has more moo cows than people.

I have access to a patch of land that has some advantages and some disadvantages. On the plus side, it's well "stealthed" and thanks to a blessing of weeds that only gets denser as the summer goes on, that's only going to get stealthier. And it's sloped just a bit and drains well. On the minus side, it's got a pretty decent canopy going, with a maple tree and its sumac minions soaking up much of the sunlight. I figure that the area I am looking at gets maybe 4 hours of direct sunlight a day, all the rest is indirect.

But I was thinking, this area, even with its limitations of sunlight, grows a wealth of weeds, and not right away but over the next few weeks, I can start to remove parts of the maple tree that's sucking up most of the light canopy now...

Meantime, all this light is now going towards... unuseful weeds and maple leaves. I could make better use of that light if I put a couple of autos out there to convert it from useless weedage to useful weedage... but it's already the middle of June, gotta get a plan up and running fast.

And just reasoning this out in my head so far, I am thinking, get a couple of large "Dirt Pots," like the 20-25 gallon size (that way might not have to water 'em every day, as would have to with smaller pots), fill it with a supersoil to keep it really simple, and start some auto seeds right now - that's the only part I have actually taken big steps in, germinating a 4 pack of Pyramid Auto Super Hash and a 3 pack of Seedsman Auto White Widow - to turn that now-wasted sunlight into a few colas.

( This is the part of the cartoon where Tudor Turtle used to cry out, "help me, Mister Wizard!!")

I am a reasonably old hand at indoor plants and gardening, but a complete novice to cannabis culture. I haven't set anything up yet, as I said, didn't even have this idea before yesterday, but now hastening to take advantage of the summer, would appreciate any suggestions by anyone with experience growing auto strains outdoors in New England.

Hey great to meet you bud...a well thought out thread. Jeez 4 hours of direct is not very much. Bud that comes out of that much limited light will almost certainly be fluffy, density will be low....potency will be fine though. In one of my location i get 8 hours tapering down to less than 6 by harvest. Hopefully your indirect light still shines here and there on the plants....our maples(3-4' diameter) almost totally shade out the plants when the sun goes behind them.
On the positive side is the one thing that is hindering you is also a benefit. Large maple trees produce some of the finest topsoil every season when their leaves drop and compost. Perfect PH and great draining soil with solid nutrients(though not quite enough to feed a heavy feeding cannabis plant).
Check this thread out, might give you some tips to help out. https://www.autoflower.org/threads/maximizing-outdoor-autos-guide-to-growing-under-the-sun.56402/

 

[turtlebear1956]

Hi,

First of all, I want to say how impressed I am by this site so far, for me right now it's this vast LIBRARY, where you're limited here only by how much time you have for reading, and jumping around from thread to thread.

Second, thank you, "912GreenSkell," for timely advice. It wasn't what I was hoping to hear, but isn't that so often the way of it about questions you have to take to others anyway, you already have a feeling that you're in a fix and you just want that confirmed by someone...

Plus I already knew that light = growth, period. And at the end of it all, limited light will equal limited growth that you can't compensate away by just adding stuff.

I already had an idea of how much this canopy might slow down the growth of my autos because I had bought a package of "Auto Duck" seeds just to play with. The few reviews I saw of this strain made it sound like its potency was a "wild card" or just plain low, but the plant might be just plain fun to grow.

I germinated all 5 Auto Duck seeds, gave 2 away and have the other 3 around. One I have in a pot in the garden with some basil plants, and all out in full sunlight and relatively plain view, and it's thriving. Anyone asks what that plant is, I will tell them it's an exotic basil from "Weedistan," one of those Central Asian countries best known for spicy food and "president for life" type dictators. Another of the Duck plants, for "spits and giggles," I am growing with a tomato seedling in a "Topsy Turvy" planter, a cylinder you hang that's full of growing medium in which the tomato plant (and Auto Duck plant too, in this case) grow upside down out of a hole in the bottom of the cylinder... there, so far, there's a problem I hadn't anticipated, that the tomato seedling is just MUCH more vigorous than the Duck and keeps crowding it for light! And the third Duck is in large wooden planter in a place where it's getting a few hours of light every day, less than a full day's worth, but still more than what I anticipate my "canopy" plants would get, and that little Duck plant has whopping big internodal spaces of bare stem. (And I know that's part of the "low density" thing that 912GS was warning me would happen if I went with the area I was thinking about for my plants.)

Oh, one more thing, Happy Juneteenth, everybody! (Worth a google if you don't know the meaning of June 19 in American history)

TB

 

[G.Leave]

Hi,

First of all, I want to say how impressed I am by this site so far, for me right now it's this vast LIBRARY, where you're limited here only by how much time you have for reading, and jumping around from thread to thread.

Second, thank you, "912GreenSkell," for timely advice. It wasn't what I was hoping to hear, but isn't that so often the way of it about questions you have to take to others anyway, you already have a feeling that you're in a fix and you just want that confirmed by someone...

Plus I already knew that light = growth, period. And at the end of it all, limited light will equal limited growth that you can't compensate away by just adding stuff.

I already had an idea of how much this canopy might slow down the growth of my autos because I had bought a package of "Auto Duck" seeds just to play with. The few reviews I saw of this strain made it sound like its potency was a "wild card" or just plain low, but the plant might be just plain fun to grow.

I germinated all 5 Auto Duck seeds, gave 2 away and have the other 3 around. One I have in a pot in the garden with some basil plants, and all out in full sunlight and relatively plain view, and it's thriving. Anyone asks what that plant is, I will tell them it's an exotic basil from "Weedistan," one of those Central Asian countries best known for spicy food and "president for life" type dictators. Another of the Duck plants, for "spits and giggles," I am growing with a tomato seedling in a "Topsy Turvy" planter, a cylinder you hang that's full of growing medium in which the tomato plant (and Auto Duck plant too, in this case) grow upside down out of a hole in the bottom of the cylinder... there, so far, there's a problem I hadn't anticipated, that the tomato seedling is just MUCH more vigorous than the Duck and keeps crowding it for light! And the third Duck is in large wooden planter in a place where it's getting a few hours of light every day, less than a full day's worth, but still more than what I anticipate my "canopy" plants would get, and that little Duck plant has whopping big internodal spaces of bare stem. (And I know that's part of the "low density" thing that 912GS was warning me would happen if I went with the area I was thinking about for my plants.)

Oh, one more thing, Happy Juneteenth, everybody! (Worth a google if you don't know the meaning of June 19 in American history)

TB

Hopefully i have not deterred you with negative thoughts bud....all of the toke i have grown in the partial sun garden has been just fine in quality...in fact most have been much better than just fine!! As for the duck it does indeed seem like potency is hit and miss. I grew out the photo version of the duck last season and with a sound cure its solid toke, will cross finger for potency on yours!

 

[Jcloud777]

I had the same problem with two trees by a metal shed. That blocks my grow from morning east sun to the afternoon. I receive around half a full day of sunlight for my plants. But at first I saw two seedlings beginning to stretch. Because two huge trees on each sides. So I grabbed a battery operated sawzaw. An grabbed a ladder. Climbed pretty high trimming huge branches like 15 branches from each tree. An now they are growing fair. It's one thing to trim it. But keep it trimmed also. Wild trees grow fast especially after a good trim. An I just so happenedto have great angles nobody can see. Because, the shed and tree cover. Im a newbie grower though. Hope this gave you some ideas.

I'm growing some stranger seeds lemon candy regulars, strawberry kush hybrid regular, fruit bowls photo regulars, and stinky seeds stink finger feminized. My strains are on seedfinder

 

[G.Leave]

I had the same problem with two trees by a metal shed. That blocks my grow from morning east sun to the afternoon. I receive around half a full day of sunlight for my plants. But at first I saw two seedlings beginning to stretch. Because two huge trees on each sides. So I grabbed a battery operated sawzaw. An grabbed a ladder. Climbed pretty high trimming huge branches like 15 branches from each tree. An now they are growing fair. It's one thing to trim it. But keep it trimmed also. Wild trees grow fast especially after a good trim. An I just so happenedto have great angles nobody can see. Because, the shed and tree cover. Im a newbie grower though. Hope this gave you some ideas.

I'm growing some stranger seeds lemon candy regulars, strawberry kush hybrid regular, fruit bowls photo regulars, and stinky seeds stink finger feminized. My strains are on seedfinder

Hey, if you ever need any help, give me a shout.

 

[Jcloud777]

Hey, if you ever need any help, give me a shout.

O.k. awesome thanks man love this community