Fantastico, amigo! You have a challenging environment there.
Thank you, it is a gamble every time you plant in the desert. All the strains were pretty ok with the 40-45 degree temp changes throughout the day except the Blackberry Kush, that strain did not like the desert environment.
Very different from mine, though. Almost opposite -- so much sun, but so dry and hot.
I also get heat in summer, but very, very wet, and tropical storms.
I kept reading about everybody else mold problems and was grateful that was the last of my concerns. I was actually spraying water on the plants in the hottest part of the day.
Impressive yields, you must be high about this. hahahahahhhahaa!
Happy on my high horse! I was blown away after harvest and did the math. Let just say, this summer grow saved me $6400 USD in buds alone. Not to mention the time & gas it takes to drive into town to go to the dispensary.
I start mine in 5" pots, which are about 1 L = about 0.25 gal.
I just keep them there for about 3 weeks, at which time the roots fill the space,
just start to show out the bottom, but are not root bound.
Haven't had any deficiencies at this point.
But this may depend on your soil mix.
I also have some chem nutes I could add (but haven't needed to add).
A 1 lt. pot sounds perfect. I mixed coco coir in with the potting soil last time. I am going to try just 100% soil this time. I am with you on putting them in at three weeks, that seems to be the magic time for everybody.
From your yields, seems that the raised bed plants did much more than the pots.
I have done pots, fabric pots to increase drainage from very high rainfall.
But also did some straight in the soil. I was afraid of water saturation.
But in my present location, straight in the soil seems okay.
The soil in my raised beds is rich is worms, lots and lots of worms. In addition to being amended over the last eight years with veggie scrap compost and microbes. The buds grown in the dirt were far more superior to the bud grown in the pots.
I was conservative with plant placement last year, I think I have room to get a few more in the dirt and save the containers for tomatoes & basil.
I used to be an obsessive indoor grower, but now my outdoor grows more lazy.
Just add some basic amendments to the soil a few weeks before hand,
and then drop the 3 week seedlings into the soil straight.
Just leave them be.....
In the soil, I've found that the water levels are far, far more stable, and less likely to dry out.
I don't have the room for an indoor grow, and that is probably a good thing. I am with you, put the plants in the ground and let them do their thing.
I did notice something interesting last year. I use a dripper attachment called a "bubbler". It lets you adjust the area of coverage that gets watered. As the plants grow, I increase the watered area to encourage root expansion because the first few meters soil completely dries out. What was cool to see, was how the plant naturally sent buds over the area of wet soil, thus absorbing the evaporating water from the ground. So instead of growing taller, they bushed out, following the drippers. Even the D. Lime I grew did this with it lower branches.
He da man, Don Skelly!
