Support & Trellising for big outdoor plants 🎄

[roosterhash]

Hey all! Looking for advice from the folks who grow the BIG GURLS outdoors…
I’m seeing my plants get to a new category of big this year, (from big to big-normous), and it’s time (maybe past time) for me to re-think my staking/trellising/support strategy. Before hurricane season!

So far, I’ve been tying the main stem to a central stake to help prevent them from tipping at the roots in high wind — this happened a few times last year, and they always bounced back unharmed once I staked them upright again. I started doing it proactively and it’s been ok so far — it works, but the stake rubs against the main stem and branches as it sways back and forth. I’ve also had wooden stakes snap in a gust, so not perfect.
I’m thinking of switching to bracing them between three stakes arranged radially like in this pic here:

Or ‘triple’ here:

Seems like a smarter way to brace against tipping over in the wind — less chafing, less leverage on the stakes. Anyone have success with a similar bracing strategy, or have alternate schemes to prevent tipping?

The other issue is branches breaking — usually right where they join the main trunk. Had a few of these last season, usually the big lower branches, later in the season when they were heavier. I’ve had success tying the branch back to the main trunk, supporting it in more or less its original position. Sometimes I’ll do a little wrapping at the point of the break as well. Again, usually the branch will rebound after the trauma and do fine (always surprised by this plant’s resilience!) and I think I only lost one branch entirely last year.

For better branch support, I’m considering four perimeter posts and square netting. I see some version of this all over the place:

My plants aren’t quite that big, and my setup ain’t so slick, but you get the idea!

I imagine that it’d make pruning the interior of the plant a bit harder, but maybe not that hard to deal with?

Timing wise, I’m guessing you could put this up at some point during stretch, so that it’s close to it’s final size but still some amount left to grow through the netting.

I’m also hearing this helps spread foliage for better sunlight/airflow exposure.

Anybody swear by this or similar methods? Any hot tips?
Flip side, anyone consider this unnecessary, and let their outdoor plants go au natural?

Thanks for any thoughts!

[Foreigner]

If it suits you then have at it but no sense trying to reinvent the wheel.

Sometimes shit happens in bad weather no matter how well prepared you are.

I like 6’ bamboo poles

[Kavman]

I agree with the above post. I will use a tomato cage first and as they grow through I switch to 6’bamboo.

[herojuana.tom]

I don’t have a solution for outdoor grows but I just felt the need to post some exclamations!!! Those are some nice trees you have there!!! Are those Sequoia’s or Redwood’s?

[Longtooth]

Happened to me today. This topic was timely. Brutalized…. The tendency to split has made me reconsider topping and FIM for outside gals, at least not without additional trellises and support. My girls with multiple colas did not fair well. Lots of bandaging with gardening tape. Not looking good. The Christmas tree looking indica just bent a bit and said “wut?”

[Pigeonman]

This is my attempt:

[Pigeonman]

With the Manitoba Poison you can see the hopeful end result:

The branches are held to the poles with garden clips. The buds grew around the clips lol.

[PhilCuisine]

My farmer buddy grew this and it was 8ft. tall without any support and he lives by a wind generator area with a lot of winds…I think the wind makes the branches stronger so it won’t snap…he never grew before, last year was his first…I just told him to stick it in the ground keep it watered and don’t over think about it…here’s his results.

[Oldjoints]

You can try a windbreak. Though nothing is going to guarantee success if something like a hurricane does come around.
Here is how I employed a windbreak for my OD girls:

You can check out the whole thread here:

Getting ready for OD

I am going to start this thread now but this will actually will be for my outdoor season this year. I live in a rural area surrounded by woods. I have spent many hours using google earth and walking the woods to find spots that tick all the boxes for a good grow. I have been growing guerrilla for 40+ years and have had great seasons and total losses. I have found the spots for a successful venture and will be using this thread as a grow log showing my techniques and methods. Also my success …

You can also make a windbreak separately for each plant. Just takes making a swinging door with hinges.

[Dr.VitaminGreen]

Haha, about a lb give or take

[PhilCuisine]

He actually had 1 Matanuska Thunder Head and 2 Kush strains and all 3 strains were tall…he doesn’t even smoke weed… He gives it away and he has given me almost a pound already for my brownie treats.

[Dr.VitaminGreen]

That’s dope. I see that alot now that it’s less frowned upon and people have started to think for themselves instead of blindly following bad laws. They don’t even want or need to smoke it, just want to grow it and help others who do use it.

Got a spare 5-10sq foot of space? I bet a pot plant would fit

[noknees]

@Longtooth

topping and FIM for outside gals

[roosterhash]

@herojuana.tom I can’t take credit for the plants in the post! I was just using that photo for an example of the kind of trellis I’ve been seeing a lot. Mine are getting up there, but there nowhere near that big around! …Yet?

@Foreigner & @Kavman, are you using square netting with 6’ bamboo, or tying off branches to the 'boo? Luckily, I’ve got a pile of nice bamboo earmarked for this!

@Longtooth

Brutalized….

That sounds rough, Longtooth. I haven’t played around with any topping on outdoor plants. Good luck!

@Pigeonman, that’s smart, and looks pretty minimal in terms of materials & setup time! It’s usually my lowest two branches that are trouble, I could probably start with four stakes per plant and deal with most of it, add as needed. Gonna consider that vs. netting

@PhilCuisine you’re the angel (devil?) on my other shoulder… the other side of the argument is, they’re probably fine on their own, and losing a couple branches might be less trouble than setting up complicated infrastructure… I’m probably looking for a middle ground here, where I can spare myself a worthwhile amount of grief without doing a ton of work that the plant is fine without! But it’s the right question to start with… can I just Leave It The Fuck Alone?

Thanks y’all, great to hear everyone’s strategies

[Foreigner]

I’ve never used the netting. I find it annoying for maintenance. Mostly tied branches to the bamboo. The main stalk can pretty much take care of itself.

[roosterhash]

Cool, thanks — I know from years past that I’m gonna need to watch like a hawk when it gets to botrytis/PM season, I’m wary of the net getting in the way when I wanna get in there and keep things trim

[ColeLennon]

something maybe to consider next grow. I use 4-foot large gauge tapered cages like for tomatoes and then zip tie my shoots to the cages come 3-4 weeks bloom you can see this in my outdoor 10x10 gauntlet of clones Peace that is what I did to this last years MAC and Shiskaberry

[roosterhash]

Ran out to the garden for some photos, this is what I’m working with:

There’s a few that topped out around 5’ and are getting real wide, but most of the hybrids are in the 7-8’ range. The two sativa ladies at the head of the row are cruising past 9’.
I had them closer together last year and decided to add more space between — then I went and grew larger plants!
I just gave them a trim to thin out and clean out sucker branches a couple days ago and it looks like I can dive right back in for another round already…

This here is the classic lower branch failure I’ve been hit with in past:

Point of failure is where it joins the main trunk, again usually the big low branches.
This is a successful fix so far, I’ve tied it back to the main trunk a bit further up to support its weight, and cinched the break together pretty tight. This one split off pretty spectacularly and was hanging on by a relatively small strip of fibers. It’s been about a week, and I could see the leaves struggling in the heat — the ones on the broken branch couldn’t get the same turgor as the rest of the leaves, you could see it from pretty far away. It’s pretty much back to normal now, I’ll probably re-wrap the cinch to allow for trunk growth and keep it on a bit longer.

[ColeLennon]

ya those cages I’m talking about aren’t enough for those monsters lol

[ColeLennon]