Beginner outdoor grower from Northern California

[Redfro89]

Beginner grower from Northern California recently purchased and potted my plants.

 

[Imzzaudae]

Make sure and give them Bone meal.

 

[Oldchucky]

Welcome! Northern Sacramento Valley here!

 

[FuzzyW]

Hi, everyone, this is my first post! I too am a beginner outdoor grower near Sacramento in Northern California, so I thought I would just add on my questions here.

Sacramento has hot, dry summers from May through September. Daytime highs in July and August probably average 95F and are sometimes above 100F. However, our evenings are breezy and typically cool down to around 60F, even in the height of summer. Not sure if that is important or not. We have low humidity, with no rain from May through Sept, typically. Our days last almost 15 hours at their longest.

I know nothing about gardening, not even houseplants. I'm a rank beginner.

But I have a backyard. And I would like to try my hand at growing a plant or three of sativa, outdoors in direct sunlight. I'm told the time to plant is now, late May. So many questions:

- Which strain of sativa would grow well in my climate? Some online research indicated Durban Poison or Super Silver Haze might work well.
- Feminized or Auto, for a beginner outdoor grower? Auto sounds weird, a bit unnatural. But I read they are shorter plants, which is good for me. All other things being equal, I'd rather not have my judgy neighbors seeing a 10-foot plant over the hedges. So does the tradeoff come down to "unnatural" versus "tall"?
- What do I need to buy to get started, besides seeds, 10-15 gal pots, and potting soil? I have a garden hose.
- and the dumbest question of all - what do I do with the plant after harvest? Do I chop it down, dig it up and compost it? Or do I leave it in the ground over the winter, and if so, does it then produce more flowers the next year?

Like I said, rank beginner here, so I appreciate your indulgence. I'm going to poke around now for more "beginner" threads. Thank you for your advice. I hope to be able to repay it (or pay it forward) some day.

 

[newbiegrowertas]

Hi, everyone, this is my first post! I too am a beginner outdoor grower near Sacramento in Northern California, so I thought I would just add on my questions here.

Sacramento has hot, dry summers from May through September. Daytime highs in July and August probably average 95F and are sometimes above 100F. However, our evenings are breezy and typically cool down to around 60F, even in the height of summer. Not sure if that is important or not. We have low humidity, with no rain from May through Sept, typically. Our days last almost 15 hours at their longest.

I know nothing about gardening, not even houseplants. I'm a rank beginner.

But I have a backyard. And I would like to try my hand at growing a plant or three of sativa, outdoors in direct sunlight. I'm told the time to plant is now, late May. So many questions:

- Which strain of sativa would grow well in my climate? Some online research indicated Durban Poison or Super Silver Haze might work well.
- Feminized or Auto, for a beginner outdoor grower? Auto sounds weird, a bit unnatural. But I read they are shorter plants, which is good for me. All other things being equal, I'd rather not have my judgy neighbors seeing a 10-foot plant over the hedges. So does the tradeoff come down to "unnatural" versus "tall"?
- What do I need to buy to get started, besides seeds, 10-15 gal pots, and potting soil? I have a garden hose.
- and the dumbest question of all - what do I do with the plant after harvest? Do I chop it down, dig it up and compost it? Or do I leave it in the ground over the winter, and if so, does it then produce more flowers the next year?

Like I said, rank beginner here, so I appreciate your indulgence. I'm going to poke around now for more "beginner" threads. Thank you for your advice. I hope to be able to repay it (or pay it forward) some day.

For starters I wouldn't think of autos as unnatural. Autos are simply a indica, sativa, or hybrid crossed with a ruderalis cannabis plant. Ruderalis is a "wild" cannabis plant from a place with long days most of the year, that then naturally developed a set flowering time and age. Kind of like a garden weed. When crossed you get a plant that is by all means a cannabis plant and in no way unnatural? At least no less unnatural then it is making custom strains.

Autos, from what I have read online while trying to educate myself, seem to be the choice for beginners. You can plant them directly in their final pot, reducing transplant shock and errors from beginners. Transplanting autos robs you of time that autos have so little of. If you're trying to avoid nosy neighbors you don't need anything bigger than a 5 gallon bucket or 10 gallon pot if you want to push the auto to make bigger buds.
Photo periods in california will switch to flower after the solstice. If you top/train a photo period you can keep it short with many bud sites and could get a big yield with the extended time you have to let the plant recover from topping and transplant shock. So really it comes down to how much work you want to do for your first grow.
A photoperiod sativa in california sun will get out of hand fast, my wife's father had cannabis TREES in a small plot of soil on the side of his house, and he would have to get on the roof of his house to see the buds on top.
I myself am in socal growing super silver haze and a white widow auto flower. I recently read online that autoflowers can herm or reveg during summer days in california due to excessive light, because of this some california growers grow autoflowers during winter so that they can have an autoflowers in flowering conditions, light wise.

After harvest you can compost it or if you want to try and revive a plant you can cut off the buds only and see if the plant survives with its foliage left. Just keep watering here and there. If it survives, it will produce buds again eventually.

 

[Galgrows]

Beginner grower from Northern California recently purchased and potted my plants.

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[FuzzyW]

For starters I wouldn't think of autos as unnatural. Autos are simply a indica, sativa, or hybrid crossed with a ruderalis cannabis plant. Ruderalis is a "wild" cannabis plant from a place with long days most of the year, that then naturally developed a set flowering time and age. Kind of like a garden weed. When crossed you get a plant that is by all means a cannabis plant and in no way unnatural? At least no less unnatural then it is making custom strains.

Autos, from what I have read online while trying to educate myself, seem to be the choice for beginners. You can plant them directly in their final pot, reducing transplant shock and errors from beginners. Transplanting autos robs you of time that autos have so little of. If you're trying to avoid nosy neighbors you don't need anything bigger than a 5 gallon bucket or 10 gallon pot if you want to push the auto to make bigger buds.
Photo periods in california will switch to flower after the solstice. If you top/train a photo period you can keep it short with many bud sites and could get a big yield with the extended time you have to let the plant recover from topping and transplant shock. So really it comes down to how much work you want to do for your first grow.
A photoperiod sativa in california sun will get out of hand fast, my wife's father had cannabis TREES in a small plot of soil on the side of his house, and he would have to get on the roof of his house to see the buds on top.
I myself am in socal growing super silver haze and a white widow auto flower. I recently read online that autoflowers can herm or reveg during summer days in california due to excessive light, because of this some california growers grow autoflowers during winter so that they can have an autoflowers in flowering conditions, light wise.

After harvest you can compost it or if you want to try and revive a plant you can cut off the buds only and see if the plant survives with its foliage left. Just keep watering here and there. If it survives, it will produce buds again eventually.

Thank you, Ngtas! You convinced me to go auto. With an auto plant do I need full-day direct sunlight here in CA? There are parts of my backyard with shade during parts of the day, either from my house or one of the houses next door.

Also, what do "herm" and "veg" mean. I know I saw a glossary on this website somewhere...

 

[FuzzyW]

I now see you actually wrote "reveg" not "veg." I found a definition for "vegetation" phase so I'm guessing "reveg" means that there is so much daylight the plant will regrow leaves or even height after it flowers and would otherwise stop growing? Is that bad?

 

[Oldchucky]

There’s no reason you couldn’t grow An Auto in one pot, and a feminized in another, and compare the results! And as far as I know autos, don’t revege! Photos reveg! And all of the direct sunlight you can give them! And good well draining soil in As large a light colored fabric pot as you can swing! Your job is to keep the root zone cool on a 100+ degree day! Big pots help with that! If you take care of the bottom half the top half Will take care of itself!

 

[newbiegrowertas]

I now see you actually wrote "reveg" not "veg." I found a definition for "vegetation" phase so I'm guessing "reveg" means that there is so much daylight the plant will regrow leaves or even height after it flowers and would otherwise stop growing? Is that bad?

Herm means a female plant becoming a hermaphrodite due to stress, if the plant does this and starts making seeds your buds suffer. Reveg means exactly what you said, the plant continues to grow through the buds, although your plant will also grow alot during flower, reveg would stop your buds progress. Not bad if that's what you want but the plant will stop focusing on buds and your buds will lose their full potential. BTW it is very hard to reveg a autoflower, much easier with a photo period.