How can i protect my outdoor plant from hurricane irene??

i live on the coast of North Carolina, were supposed to get hit by Hurricane Irene here soon pretty hard, should i get a metal stake and tie my plant to it? or is there anything else i can to to protect it???

Don't know how big your plant is, but theoretically, you could place 6 steaks in a hexagon around the plant, screen it with chicken or deer wire, then wrap it with burlap or weed cloth. Instant tube of wind protection.

yo i just posted the same fucking thing haha Check it out.. im so worried too

I'm in the same boat man, i'm in massachusetts and it's heading straight for us. I have metal stake supports around all of my plants already, but with winds upward of 100 mph I can't see that doing much. I thought about putting plastic bags over them just to make sure the leaves don't all rip off, but that could also turn into a sail and rip the plant out of the ground. Other than that, I have no clue what to do, besides pray.

haha yeah man its my first successful grow and its a female that just staarted budding! i might do what TwistedGenetics said

I've also thought about uprooting them and putting them in buckets and bringing them indoors, that would be a bitch of a project but it could save the entire crop. Has anyone been through this kind of a hurricane before with their plants? Is it going to damage them beyond repair?

shes about 4 feet tall

guys we are all worried i am moving bucket plant it sits on top of ground so i am diggin a hole and putting bucket in ground plant is 5 foot from top of bucket and i am gonna wrap it up like a christmas tree when they net it and 2 stake should be ok i hope

85+ mph are enough to shred all leaf matter. Perhaps if your plants aren't too big a plastic garbage barrel could be employed to cover them? You'd have to stake it to the ground.

I live near the Raleigh, NC area about 100-120 miles inland. I was worried as hell about this storm as well, especially the other day when the track had it coming straight at me. It looks like I will be spared, hopefully the hurricane will keep tracking eastward and not bother anyone. I have had experience with hurricanes screwing up a grow before so I definitely feel for you guys. Back in 1996, I had 8 or 9 female plants in the ground. It was early September and the plants were all huge and budding like crazy. Hurricane Fran came in and I didn't know what to do. It caught me off guard. For some reason I thought the plants might actually have a chance. I figured if they get blown over, I can still take off the bud that's already on there. WRONG lol. Even 100 miles inland we were getting nearly 80mph sustained winds and gusts over 100 mph probably. The eye of the storm went right over us. The next day I went out to my spot and actually got lost for a while, because none of the surroundings looked the same anymore. I eventually found the spot, but the plants were all gone. They had become projectiles I guess. That probably would have been at least a 4 lb crop, if not more. The plants were 6-8ft monsters. If you guys are going to make a "shelter" for your plants be sure that it is extremely sturdy. Its just unreal how strong 80mph sustained winds are.

Massachusetts here as well. Luckily mine are in pots, big pots that are a PITA to move, but at least I can move them. Only thing I can think of that might survive is drive some 2x4's or 4x4's about 4FT into the ground in a square, frame it and plywood it in. Or dig them up and pot them, which isn't a great option seeing how we are all most likely in flower now and that could shock them. This is part of the learning curve I guess, next year I was going to plant right in the ground but this is making me reconsider that.

Another good idea is to go out and try to take down any dead trees or limbs near your plants that might fall or get blown around and damage them.

Outdoor growing-Big risk=big reward

You're worried about a plant, but not your life? I live on the east coast, Virginia, we're getting hit on Sunday. The shore will get hit hard. Why aren't you inland yet?

I dont Think there is really anything you can do for your outdoor plants. It's always a roll of the dice growing outside.

Pray op....pray...anything you build will become a projectile with the winds expected, unless of course your a concrete engineer or some other pencil pushing construction design geek.

Don't know anything that will make it totally safe....... 100+ MPH wind gonna tear it all up for sure- unless you build a brick building around it.

Serious guys. Going to home depot, buying six 8' rebars ($10), a roll of deer fence ($40), and weed cloth ($7) is probably the cheapest, safest thing you can possibly do aside from early harvest.

Pound that rebar in DEEP, circle it with fence, circle it with weed cloth, secure cloth by twisting a rope around structure ... and just for safe measure wrap it in one layer of deer fence (to be absolutely certain the cloth doesn't fly away). Then, selectively slice some of the cloth between the squares (one small slice to form "diaphragm") to reduce air resistance and prevent mold, which is the least of your worries at the moment.

It will be big and ugly but it may be the only thing that saves your harvest.

Moving plants is just too risky at this stage of the game. They will take a serious shock unless you have a frigging backhoe. Outdoor root systems are gigantic.

edit:
...go one step further by placing 3 more rebars (as close to 45 degree angles as you can get) at the staggered tips of the hexagon to form a triangle between the rebar the ground, and your "hurricane tower". This will make it even stronger (if your plant is really tall and you can only pound in 2 feet or so).
A 45/45/90 triangle is one of the strongest shapes you can build into a structure.
Good luck guerrillas

Looks like my area is going to get a semi-direct hit starting Saturday night. Winds are projected at being around 50mph (gusts).
I guess I am going to have to take my own advice? I suspect that 50mph gusts will destroy my 12-13 foot momma.

I will go to home depot later, and possibly post some pics of my progress.

Doesn't have to be that way if you construct a better house to keep the wolf out. Remember this houses(most) are built cheaply hence why they often get torn to shreds by tornadoes and even hurricanes especially with fallen trees. The reason is they're made out of cheap spruce and pine. Start re-enforcing a structure with rebar and you're on the path to protection. Nothing will save things if a giant tree falls right on it but if you can get that rebar in the ground and secured with good hardware and build up a solid covering you will probably survive things. Geodesic dome structures are very strong but that's a lot of space to cover a monster plant. Perhaps a triangle or teepee shape would be better with the sides re-enforced with more re-bar(attached with hardware/bolts etc). You could cement the rebar in the ground. Or you could start by cementing pipe in the ground to raise things up then add the 10' rebar. Add maybe chicken wire over top followed by some thick covering with any seams on the north side.

mine are in 5 gallon buckets dug into the ground, i think im supposed to have sustained of 40 gusts to 80, think mine will be okay? their in a meadow below the other weeds height level, they are also lst and tied down like 10 times

thoughts and best wishes are with all you guys.