Moving a mom outside, bad idea? What should I consider?

Outdoor Growing
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I received a King Tut Cut from @Rhino_buddy long ago when I first started growing and when he lost his original i decided this was a strain I wanted to preserve. Years later I was finally able to get him back as many clones as he wanted. I have given out close to 100 cut/clones of this to new growers in my area, so it’s safe to say it won’t die out around me for a while. I really don’t know much about this strain but I have grown and flowered at least 6 of them and grown many more. I currently have a bonsai mom and another big bush mom. The bush mom is getting pretty old and I am thinking about killing it since I have plenty to become new moms. However, the thought occurred to me yesterday, what if I put it out side!

I have never grown outdoors and I am a little worried about some of my neighbors not loving it. But one plant is probably ok. Some questions I have for you experts:

  • Is this worth considering at all? The alternative is to just kill the mom cause I dont even want to flower it right now due to space and having plenty of cured tut for now.
  • What sort of hardening do I need to do? Yeah I read a little over the years and seem to remember moving from indoor to outdoor needs to be done with care. But that’s about all i know.
  • I can of course pop the whole pot outside and leave it in the pot but it’s only 4 gallons (maybe even 3) so I was thinking about putting it in the ground.
  • When should I put it in the ground or does it matter? I am in the midwest and its currently swinging from nice tshirt weather to snowing and then back again every other week.
  • If I put it in the ground soon I guess it will veg for quite a long time before the seasons force it to flower right? Will it just become a monster over the summer and then start flowering in fall? I am really an outdoor noob I know. If i do this I will be researching outdoor tech a lot more.
  • Anything else I must know or consider before trying this?

Thanks in advance! I am also curious if anyone on the forum has grown King Tut, if so what more can you tell me about this strain. I gave a bunch away at a growers meetup locally and I really didn’t know what to tell people about the strain other than its not super dank but I really like it and so do a lot of my buddies. I can’t really put my finger on why i like it tho haha. Maybe its just the mystique around it and the fact i never heard anyone else ever talk about it.

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If you are going to put it OD you will need to “harden” it. First put it in partial shade for the first day and for the next 5-6 days slowly get into more hours of light.
If you are going to put it in the ground you will need to dig a large hole, about 3 ft wide and 3 ft deep and then amend the soil. Use a bunch of perlite and you can amend with promix and guano. I highly recommend using Osmocote in your top inch of soil.
I wouldn’t put it out until about the middle of May as by then most of the bad weather should be passed. And yes if you are successful you will get a monster plant that will start to flower in early fall and finish whenever that strain will be ready…….

I grew a couple 12 ft plants last year using the methods I just described:

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If you put them out too early without supplemental lighting they will start to flower. Mid may-June 1st is great for clones. Seeds can start outside beginning of may and not be a problem with early flowering. I have never hardened off a potted plant I took outside. They just go right into the sun. Not to say it wouldn’t help, just personally I have never done it and seen no I’ll effects.

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I have had some that did just fine putting straight into sun. Others wilted really bad and took awhile to come back. Now I take the extra step just to make sure.

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Everyone should put thier mothers out and stick them in the ground and take cuttings off them before the second week of July.Planting them in the ground resyncs them to Mother Earth and resets them you won’t get that drift thing.DJ short has had his original FLO for over twenty years now.He puts his out every year and does the same thing.I’ve been doing it and I’ve had a cut for going on 4 years now and it’s still as good if not better than when I got it.It went from 3 leaf sets to 5 now it’s at 7 sets and couldn’t be happier

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