Strategy for earlier spring outdoor planting?

[mudrunner]

I was browsing around looking for ways to help with frost damage since where I live (western oregon) has such unpredictable frost dates, and I found these. Wall O' Water, 3-Pack - Garden Harvest Supply Inc

I have a couple questions pertaining to them.




Has anyone ever used them? if so did you like them?

Do you suppose they would be suitable for cannabis plants? (i.e. keep the soil/foliage warm enough to promote any vegitative growth during daylight hours?)

has anyone ever tried any other frost preventing methods?

these will be grown guerilla style approx. 15 miles from my home so it really isnt practical having to go out there every evening and cover the little girls up with a sheet. Now by no means am i planning on planting in febuary or anything like that, but hey if it could add another 3 or 4 weeks of veg to my plants ... seems like a good deal to me and I wouldnt use them for all my plants and risk losing all my beans. I think it might work if I put some nice stocky youngsters in there and see what happens, what do you guys think?

 

[jdub]

I think it seems like a good idea, but then again I've never used them... If u get them let US know how they work for you

 

[420 Warrior]

Sounds like potential experimental grow journal material to me, you might start a revolution

 

[mudrunner]

Ha thanks for the comments guys! Now if someone could elaborate on this for me that would be great... so it makes sense that the longer your plants are in veg the bigger they are, and the higher the yeild will be ... or is there a concept here that im missing?

 

[jdub]

Theoretically, yes, but there are so many other factors to it than just how big your plants are, I had a friend that did an outdoor grow and had four 8'plants, but he only got 1lb on harvest day. The strain of the plant as well as its direct genetics, temps. Nutes, its all very important when it comes down to it..

 

[mudrunner]

ok man thank you guys for the good info. im growing white widow and big bud cross feminized. i figured i would have the best of both worlds there with the big bud yield and the wonderful, wonderful high of white widow . im still unsure on nutes. i really dont think im going to use a ton of them. any further info or advice is always appreciated.

 

[jdub]

Check out the sponsor blue planet nutrients.. he's got some great nutes for cheap...

 

[420 Warrior]

New growers are always in good hands here at 420 magazine

 

[TorturedSoul]

Seems like it would be a pretty obvious thing that you wouldn't want in a guerrilla grow. Were you growing in your backyard, I'd suggest either a simple cold-frame or perhaps something a little more involved such as a cold-frame with the ground sloped so that there is a downhill path (cold air sinks) and maybe even a water-line grid that you could circulate warm "water" (with some kind of "anti-freeze" component just in case you forget to open a circulation valve on a cold night) through. Insulating the lines as much as possible everywhere outside except for the actual growing area so that the heat isn't leached out into the ground or air (as the case may be).

Simplest solution is probably just to start the plants indoors and keep them there until the danger of frost / low temperature is safely past. If you're not concerned with flowering and huge growth then you won't need much in the way of light; a CFL setup would work, although you'd get more growth for each watt with a small HID. Just make sure that you aren't running significantly more light-hours than your area has at the time you'll be setting them out so that they don't end up starting to flower when you make the move. (And if you are concerned about having a hard time fitting them into a container of some sort for the move, try tailoring your nutrients more toward the flowering end of things - although you don't want to short them of nitrogen, of course - as that seems to help keep the stems flexible.)

It just occurred to me that if it's frosting at night, you probably aren't seeing extreme temperatures during the day. Could you find a cover material that allows enough light in to allow some growth? Maybe placing them on a slope with a small gap between the cover and the downhill side so that you can have some air-exchange without letting any residual heat (there won't be much, I guess) easily escape?

 

[mudrunner]

Tortured I always greatly value your input. You really are just full of advice. As for the guerilla/stealth factor it really isn't an issue to me. I have one fly over in early september and that is all im aware of. And I have some light ash tree cover where ill be growing
. The tough thing about coastal oregon is we may have frosts any time through the first half of june. I was just thinking of using this as a safety precaution on 3 of my plants (as they come in a 3 pack) to at least make sure I will have at least 3 plants make it through the frost danger period.
Another thing I saw was using plastic as synthetic mulch over top of the soil in a 3 foot square or so like just using a garbage bag for example it can help keep the soil up to 6 degrees warmer. Now even if there wasn't a frost danger that would benefit the plant regardless, right? Another bonus of that is it can help reflect light to the underside of the plant as well.

Thanks again for all the advice everyone its helping me out more than you know.

 

[mudrunner]

Check out the sponsor blue planet nutrients.. he's got some great nutes for cheap...

Ooh, im really liking those nutes man! And from what I've been researching they've gotten nothing but good reviews. However I don't see a soil formula. It seems like there only geared around hydro... anyone have any any info on this? Man those prices sure are attractive too. Its looking like this may be a blue planet guerilla grow haha