San diego growers? help!

I'm a new grower in san Diego. Im preparing for an outdoor grow for next season, so I'm doing homework early so come time to plant maybe ill have a chance. First things first, can anyone give me suggestions for a strain that has done well in san diego county?

Once I find the proper strain, i was thinking about building a screen enclosure, to keep out bugs. A few years back I was given a few big beautiful plants that were destroyed by bud worms. What are some thoughts on this? Would it be smarter to build a greenhouse?

I'm going to need so much help along the way, but once I figure out the strain and method of growing i can start to put together a plan. So im grateful for any knowledge anyone can share.

I would think you have a choice of many strains as you have a long season and perfect weather.
Any OG would be a good place to start. Some strains are picky with nutes, topping, etc.
You get to choose between indica, hybrid, and sativa.
Fun fun!

How many plants? From clone or seed? What size containers? Approx where in SD?

PoopBear said:

How many plants? From clone or seed? What size containers? Approx where in SD?

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Im shooting for 6 plants from seed in 45 gallon fabric pots. North county SD

I live a bit further north of you in OC and grow in 2 greenhouses with supplemental lighting and light deprivation year round. My favorite strains to grow here are OG Kush and Blue Power. Fabric pots are great but you get the best use out of them if you can let air flow underneath the pot. This can be done with either a pallet or irrigation channels. i recommend starting from clones for simplicity, germinating sprouting and sexing can have their own issues.

Dudogrow said:

I live a bit further north of you in OC and grow in 2 greenhouses with supplemental lighting and light deprivation year round. My favorite strains to grow here are OG Kush and Blue Power. Fabric pots are great but you get the best use out of them if you can let air flow underneath the pot. This can be done with either a pallet or irrigation channels. i recommend starting from clones for simplicity, germinating sprouting and sexing can have their own issues.

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Thanks alot. Ive heard plants from seed tend to yeild more than clones. Is that true and is it that black and white? Since im limited to the amount of plants Id like to be as strong as possible and yeild as much as I can.

That is somewhat true but if all 6 turn out to be male seeds you will be real bummed, also if you spend $30-120 on fem just for the seeds to mold from a simple overwatering of the towel or worse just not pop. If you feel confident you can sex the plants early germinate without issues and know when to start using small amounts of nutes you will be gold with seeds. I recommended clones for simplicity IMHO your gonna have enough worries your first grow without the hassle of seed management. P.S. I've got a 6ft tall OG Kush that came from clone and only vegged 3 months in partial shade.

Dudogrow said:

That is somewhat true but if all 6 turn out to be male seeds you will be real bummed, also if you spend $30-120 on fem just for the seeds to mold from a simple overwatering of the towel or worse just not pop. If you feel confident you can sex the plants early germinate without issues and know when to start using small amounts of nutes you will be gold with seeds. I recommended clones for simplicity IMHO your gonna have enough worries your first grow without the hassle of seed management. P.S. I've got a 6ft tall OG Kush that came from clone and only vegged 3 months in partial shade.

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Thanks for the advice. Do you know of anywhere locally I can look for clones?

Your gonna need to go with delivery as any good nursery wont let people anywhere near the plants. I've successfully ordered from ups420.com but I wouldn't say I trust their genetics. I've also found a few good deals on budtrader for some healthy teens. weedmaps if you want to pick the actual clone before you since some clinics have clones like the long beach clone center but those are rare.

Nuglove said:

Im shooting for 6 plants from seed in 45 gallon fabric pots. North county SD

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If planting in the ground is an option it's really well worth considering. To start with the cost of the 45 gallon pot could easily cover the cost of another 20-30 gallons of soil. You can do the "double digging" method that mixes your potting soil with your native soil giving you an even bigger area for roots to spread.

One of the biggest advantages is that with a deep planting bed and a good mulch layer you can cut your watering in half, at least, and actually maintain ideal soil conditions for the roots and the soil organisms more consistently than you get from having to water the fabric pots so often.

SchmoeJoe said:

If planting in the ground is an option it's really well worth considering. To start with the cost of the 45 gallon pot could easily cover the cost of another 20-30 gallons of soil. You can do the "double digging" method that mixes your potting soil with your native soil giving you an even bigger area for roots to spread.

One of the biggest advantages is that with a deep planting bed and a good mulch layer you can cut your watering in half, at least, and actually maintain ideal soil conditions for the roots and the soil organisms more consistently than you get from having to water the fabric pots so often.

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It is an option but the ground is very dry and hard there is very little nutrient in the native soil and im sure I would need to rent equipment to dig down far enough to make it worth it. Im open to suggestions. I plan on building a compost.

Nuglove said:

It is an option but the ground is very dry and hard there is very little nutrient in the native soil and im sure I would need to rent equipment to dig down far enough to make it worth it. Im open to suggestions. I plan on building a compost.

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Depending on the type of native soil, if it's even accurate to call it soil, you may be better off paying someone with a bobcat or similar piece of equipment for an hour or two to come out and do the digging for you. Long contigous beds are also better than single planting holes.

While most people plant decent size plants to get the biggest plant they can I have to plant clones that are just established and plant them late to keep them from getting too big and they still turn into monsters bigger than pretty much everything else in the same area.

Wish I could plant in the ground but 12 inches down and you hit boulders here. Those monsters look gorgeous Joe, why not just get a bigger greenhouse for them instead of starting late?

Dudogrow said:

Wish I could plant in the ground but 12 inches down and you hit boulders here. Those monsters look gorgeous Joe, why not just get a bigger greenhouse for them instead of starting late?

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They already fill the yard. I could add some height but they're already about as tall as they can be and still be manageable when ran as manual light dep.

SchmoeJoe said:

Depending on the type of native soil, if it's even accurate to call it soil, you may be better off paying someone with a bobcat or similar piece of equipment for an hour or two to come out and do the digging for you. Long contigous beds are also better than single planting holes.

While most people plant decent size plants to get the biggest plant they can I have to plant clones that are just established and plant them late to keep them from getting too big and they still turn into monsters bigger than pretty much everything else in the same area.

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Impressive. Do just use basic clear poly sheeting?

Nuglove said:

Impressive. Do just use basic clear poly sheeting?

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The standard black material that you'd get from the paint deoartment at Home Depot. Ive been looking at alternatives though. There are plenty of similar materials purpose made for agricultural mulch. There are even some that are completely biodegradable.

If you were to even dig down that 12" you'd benefit from it. You could also do a raised bed with a material that's not so breathable as fabric pots. It may seem counterintuitive since one of the big benefits of the fabric pots is their breathability but you'd get the same affect from raised beds without having to water as often.

Think OP meant for the greenhouse wrap not the ground cover, but could be wrong on that. Yeah i get what your saying about the 12 inches but I don't mind watering every day and the ground is seriously hard here. From what I've heard and experienced most of the nutrient and feeding takes place in the top 16 inches of the soil. IMO you want a big wide area not necessarily a deep one.

Dudogrow said:

Think OP meant for the greenhouse wrap not the ground cover, but could be wrong on that. Yeah i get what your saying about the 12 inches but I don't mind watering every day and the ground is seriously hard here. From what I've heard and experienced most of the nutrient and feeding takes place in the top 16 inches of the soil. IMO you want a big wide area not necessarily a deep one.

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The feeder roots are shallow but the depth acts as a moisture reserve that gets wicked up as it's needed.

One other advantage of a planting bed is that you can mound it which creates more surface area increasing feeder roots and the aeration of the root zone.

Dudogrow said:

Think OP meant for the greenhouse wrap not the ground cover, but could be wrong on that. Yeah i get what your saying about the 12 inches but I don't mind watering every day and the ground is seriously hard here. From what I've heard and experienced most of the nutrient and feeding takes place in the top 16 inches of the soil. IMO you want a big wide area not necessarily a deep one.

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For some reason I thought they were asking about the planting beds. The greenhouse plastic is Sunmaster greenhouse film.

the first thing you should do is your legal research.

outdoor grows in SD are not legal. also check for your local county for laws on # of plants if any.

to get busted for something you can be doing legal(ish) with some simple paper work to help your case if needed.