Indoor grower hoping for outdoor success in the Midwest

Outdoor Growing
#1

Now that it’s warming up a bit, I find myself thinking about trying an outdoor grow this year. I tried last year with so so results. I was hoping with the help of the wonderful members of OG, I might find a bit more success this time around.

I’m in Missouri, so I assume it’s either autos or starting the process indoors then moving outdoors when the time is right. I would love some input on that one.

I typically grow with Jack’s in coco so I’m going to have to learn a lot about soil soon. Is there a good, “For Dummies” thread on some decent outdoor soil options that won’t cost a fortune?

I plan on documenting my grow here. I hope to learn a lot and have fun in the process.

Thanks, OG!

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#2

It’s very easy try not to do any over thinking and keep it simple…growing a vegetable garden outdoors is much harder than growing weed outdoors…

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#3

First thing I’d do is find out what type of soil you have in your yard. If it has good drainage I would mix in some organic dry ammendments and put them right in the ground. If it’s clay, go for pots or a city picker with cheap bagged soil and dry ammendments or compost. In ground is the best hands off autopilot way to get healthy plants that don’t need much maintenance.

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#4

Thanks for the link. I’ll be following!

#5

Thanks for your input. I’m on a pretty solidly rocky spot with crap drainage. Last year I dug decent sized holes and put one of the brand name soil mixes in there. I can’t remember which one, but whatever the hydro store recommended. Looking back, I guess that was a bonehead move because, regardless of soil quality, if the hole itself has lousy drainage, it could lead to root issues.

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#6

… unless you have gophers like I do…

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#7

I have moles up the ass and do pretty well. Precautions can be made if you know the enemy.

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#8

I assume your referring to open field cultivation e.g. no greenhouse, hot house or covered area.

First I would suggest checking out your specific local weather averages for each month. Knowing your last frost, first frost, precipitation, humidity and temperature throughout your growing season is important. Then base your strain selection on that.

Looking at missouri as a whole, it seems you have a very humid, hot and rainy summer. with fall having somewhat cold nights, sporadic precipitation and mild humidity.

If you go fully auto, I’d try and find something tropical/subtropical sativa based. Something that can handle flowering in a warm wet humid summer. Maybe auto zamaldelica, auto malawi. You’ll want to sprout these directly into 5gal pots as they don’t respond well to repotting.

You could go with semi autos. Pre veging indoors is discouraged on these. Unless you really know what your doing, they sould be planted directly outdoors. Maybe a timewarp cross, purple pineberry, freezeland, erdpurt. there is a decent amount of options here but they can be somewhat difficult to source.

If you want to go photo dependent, you’ll want to select something that can handle your fall weather 50f-40f nights mild rain and humidity. You would probably do well with bangi haze, nepalese jam. Something holding nepali or north indian genetics is a good bet. Those high altitude sativas are known to handle cold and moisture well.

As for medium, id suggest going with what you are use too. Ive seen some real nice outdoor coco runs. You probably have a pile of old coco root balls handy. Just break them up while pulling out the larger root chunks and add a bit of enzyme to break down the smaller root bits. Plus the increased speed of growth with coco is nice.

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