I have been growing for 16 years here in
California. I have had marginal success, I think because I used my own
seeds only. I have a small backyard however the dirt is bad for
growing. So I am going to grow in pots, 5 gallon. I will use good
quality flower soil and mulch as a base. The location is the high desert
2400 Feet. The light cycle is at 13 hours right now, will go down to
11 or so by October. The seeds I am under the belief are 90 day grow from
start to finish. So my first question is, when should I plant? Its now May
8th.
I plan to germinate with moist paper towels which have worked in the
past. The directions you offer in the Bible have been most helpful on
this.
I plan on using the proper NPK ratio fertilizers you recommend.
I plan on testing the ph. regularly as you suggest in the Bible.
Climate hot and dry here. June through October. Good sun all
the time, but very dry. I will use drip irrigation or hand water
Are there any other things you
would recommend for my garden?
To start with I plan on planting 4 plants first time around, which leaves
me with 4 more seeds, when can I plant these?
I wondered about the timing of planting my seeds as well. I suspect we’re at about the same latitude, except for the humidity is much worse here.
I waited to plant my outdoor seeds in pots this year until I knew the evening low temps would not dip below 50 degrees. I ended up planting them about a week ago. I was impatient to get going and probably could have waited another week or two.
Last year was my first grow outdoors in pots and I planted my seeds on July 2nd. I was able to harvest all 3 plants in early October with a pretty good yield.
You really can plant anytime, but planting in order to finish in the cooler October climate is probably your best best. Plants like warmer temps in Veg, and Cooler temps in Flower; So equate that into your time frame.
We all know the daylight gets longer until the Summer solstice in June, from there each day get’s a bit shorter and is working daylight hours in the right direction. This is when I would plant “Summer Solstice”. That gives you 4 months, or so. I do not trust that anything will finish in 90 days, unless you short veg them, or small pot them causing plant to finish due to being root bound.
Drip irrigation is great, but you need to make sure that the root zone get’s plenty of Oxygen. You should not drip into a soil based medium daily, unless medium dries out that fast. ")