The Growers Guide to Cannabis
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Outdoor growing

“each year I assume this time it will go smoothly, each year something new happens” …

Well, that was how I finished my introduction … sometimes you have to be careful what you say or it may be true. I was going to write next about the maincrop plants I’m growing this year followed by my experiment with autoflower.

INSTEAD …

Due to circumstances beyond my control I’ve had to dig up my outdoor plants from the ground, transplant them into 100L pots and move them.

Rather than spend the next 200 words cursing and bemoaning fate, lets use this as a experiment so hopefully anyone else who might find themselves in the same situation can benefit from this experience. Nope, sorry can’t help myself, lets get the rant over quickly:

NEVER TRUST A HIPPY landlord: for even though you know he has grown them himself at this address, he may threaten to ring the police to denounce you for growing cannabis “yet if I was to move out immediately and leave the plants he would finish growing for me and let me have the flowers when they were ready”  ummm … yeah right mate does it look as if I’ve the word “mug” written over my forehead …

OK rant over …

I’ve killed two thirds of the marijuana plants and selected the most interesting seven to transplant:

• 2x white widow
• 1x fast neville
• 1x shark attack
• 1x lowboldt which never auto flowerd
• 2x OEW (locally produced hybred)
• 3 AK48 (auto) seedlings                   in 1L pots
• 3x “chaze”(super auto) seedlings     “”      “”

ok let’s begin:

To see if it would work I selected 1 plant, a white widow, at around 1m 20 tall. When the plants were about 30cm tall, I had pinched them out for a shorter, bushier plant.

• I watered the plant heavily and  I clean cut a 60cm radius circle evenly around the stem to a depth of about 45 cm (I would have liked to do more but the ground was like concrete and I had to be able to lift and move my babies).
• Once I had cut I then inserted a shovel and working around the plant gently prised the plant little by little working around the circle to insure I had the main root ball and as much of the tap root as possible
• I then lifted the plant by the root ball and placed in a 40L pot and watered heavily with pHd plain water, misted the leaves with plain water. I put the plant in a concrete block built water tank which I sprayed down heavily, leaving pools of water on the concrete to keep a high relative humidity and erected some shade netting to cover the area.

The plant was then left for 24 hours to see how it coped.

before transplant

the next day

After 24 hours the plant looked pretty good – much better than I expected, so with this mini experiment successful it was time to transplant the other six.  Instead of using pots to transport we used black plastic wrapped tightly around the roots. I had to move them up and down mountains where transport could not reach, and even the wheelbarrow struggled. Do you know how heavy these plants and their rootballs (with soil) get?

in the back and ready to go

Next onto the other plants – I decided to leave the easy sativa in situ as she is two to three weeks into flower  and there is a serious danger of the plant becoming hermaphrodite if moved at this stage.

Prior to transplanting marijuana I had prepared a new site which provided me with a lot of shade.

I mixed 600L of pro compost with 100L of  perlite and 3/4 filled seven 100L pots which I placed against 1 wall of a tumbled down shed.  I then dry built a block wall two blocks high and a meter out to protect the black pots from direct sunlight. When the plants arrived on site I planted the pots, watered heavily with 10L of water and 20mm of stress hormone, erected the shade and gave ’em a kiss goodnight. I have to say that at this stage I wasn’t very hopeful. Maybe it was partly that my nerves were shattered from the hour long drive to the new location, but I knew the rootballs weren’t as well protected as they should have been, and the plants certainly looked to be suffering.

BUT – I checked the plants the next day and 5 out of the 7 seem to be coping fine: 2 have the symptoms of  under watering probably for sure due to root damage: they got the right amount of water, but the damaged roots weren’t able to take up the water and get it to the leaves.

I’m hoping they’ll recover, but accept that weight per plant will probably be a lot less than it would have been.

So given that, and given that I had to get rid of so many, the moral of the story stays the same: never trust a hippy!

For an update, please read here … and it gets worse! read here

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