Grow bags in the ground?

So I want to do a mixed indoor outdoor grow. Indoors for the first 2-3 weeks of life, and after that grow them outdoors. My question is, i've heard people putting 5 gal buckets with drainage holes or no bottom in the ground, but I recently thought about how much cheaper/transportable to the grow area grow bags would be. Could I put a grow bag in the ground and the drainage etc still work fine? The area is excellent with sunlight etc but the soil there is very silty/muddy almost clay like. So I want to put my soil mix in a bag, dig a hole the size of the bag and fill in the gaps. Would it work?

Could fill in with water, could you find anything close by the site to churn into the ground around where the bag will go to give it some airation? Sticks, leaves, rocks, anything to loosen up the earth

Sounds like a good idea, I'm also curious if the roots would eventually grow through the bags or not? Would the contents inside the bag be suseptible to contamination from anything bad in the soil?(pests or poor pH?)

what about smart pots would those work?

Littlebigwig said:

So I want to do a mixed indoor outdoor grow. Indoors for the first 2-3 weeks of life, and after that grow them outdoors. My question is, i've heard people putting 5 gal buckets with drainage holes or no bottom in the ground, but I recently thought about how much cheaper/transportable to the grow area grow bags would be. Could I put a grow bag in the ground and the drainage etc still work fine? The area is excellent with sunlight etc but the soil there is very silty/muddy almost clay like. So I want to put my soil mix in a bag, dig a hole the size of the bag and fill in the gaps. Would it work?

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why do you wanna leave them in the buckets? i'm prepping soil then gonna use a little dremel tool to cut the bucket away. is there a benefit to leaving them in pots?

I've seen a video where Jorge Cervantes talks about mesh bags being used to prevent termites from chewing through all the roots(this was in Cali)

I guess it could help keep other things out of the roots too? maybe prevent other "weeds" from growing roots around the cannabis

the roots will go out the drain holes. sounds like a plan

Theres an example of this in Ed Rosenthals Grow guide. It was a trainwreck plant and turned into a monster

BullwinkleOG said:

Theres an example of this in Ed Rosenthals Grow guide. It was a trainwreck plant and turned into a monster

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An example of what?

mysunnyboy said:

why do you wanna leave them in the buckets? i'm prepping soil then gonna use a little dremel tool to cut the bucket away. is there a benefit to leaving them in pots?

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I want to keep them in pots in the ground for protection from wildlife, it will be an outside guerilla grow. After exploring the area thoroughly I saw 2 foxes and LOTS of holes that appeared to be made by mice & moles or something underground. I don't want them just boring holes through my roots D: Everything is auto-flowering so it would only be there for 2-2.5 months. I have mesh fence stuff to make protection from animals in the area, and im going to get safe pesticides and salt for protection against snails and pest. Maybe some wolf urine to scare any deer away. But back to my point. 5 gal grow bags will work right? I can loosen the areas soil etc I just want to be sure everything will drain and aerate properly underground.

5 gallons for an outdoor grow isn't enough. Hope the soil beneath the bags is good or you'll have less than satisfactory results. There's a journal here somewhere the guy used 150 gal bags. I'd say for an outdoor plant I'd want at least 30 gal of good soil

what iv doen along time ago. was cut the bottom off one bucket 3 inchs up then cut anther 2 inchs up take the bucket bottom that you cut 3 inchs up and put it on the bucket you took 2 inchs off take 2 screws screw the bottom on when you gret in the woods take the bottom off. this lets the roots grow in to the soil. your gonna want to let them on top not in the ground if its wet. now i us one of tow things. first yr i use straw bails just line them up and let them sit for 4 weeks soak them really good. put your clone in them and fertilize. the next yr i take my home made grow bags. i use weeed barrier and stapel them in sacks and fill thme with the straw the next yr. i make the bags really big. the straw breaks down nice for the bags the second yr.

Littlebigwig said:

I want to keep them in pots in the ground for protection from wildlife, it will be an outside guerilla grow. After exploring the area thoroughly I saw 2 foxes and LOTS of holes that appeared to be made by mice & moles or something underground. I don't want them just boring holes through my roots D: Everything is auto-flowering so it would only be there for 2-2.5 months. I have mesh fence stuff to make protection from animals in the area, and im going to get safe pesticides and salt for protection against snails and pest. Maybe some wolf urine to scare any deer away. But back to my point. 5 gal grow bags will work right? I can loosen the areas soil etc I just want to be sure everything will drain and aerate properly underground.

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if you have a dog have them piss near the plants and you should as well, the scent is good for keeping some pests away

will deffinatelty work, i have done that a lot, doing something like it right now with some strawberries,

https://www.rollitup.org/gardening/496698-1000-strawberries-drip-irrigation-semi-7.html
these are supposed to be here for over 2 years .

ohh and it helps with water retention .

Littlebigwig said:

I want to keep them in pots in the ground for protection from wildlife, it will be an outside guerilla grow. After exploring the area thoroughly I saw 2 foxes and LOTS of holes that appeared to be made by mice & moles or something underground. I don't want them just boring holes through my roots D: Everything is auto-flowering so it would only be there for 2-2.5 months. I have mesh fence stuff to make protection from animals in the area, and im going to get safe pesticides and salt for protection against snails and pest. Maybe some wolf urine to scare any deer away. But back to my point. 5 gal grow bags will work right? I can loosen the areas soil etc I just want to be sure everything will drain and aerate properly underground.

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If you want to make it aerate and drain properly that is just a matter of putting in some physical effort. Don't just plop your 5gallon pot into a 5 gallon hole and hope for the best. Churn up the soil and work something into it to keep it loose. The bigger your cultivated soil area the better your plant will grow. Why would you use an autoflower strain? I thought they only get a little bigger than a dandelion...

Why don't you grow a hybrid that finishes early and will get big and take full advantage of the growing season

supchaka said:

5 gallons for an outdoor grow isn't enough. Hope the soil beneath the bags is good or you'll have less than satisfactory results. There's a journal here somewhere the guy used 150 gal bags. I'd say for an outdoor plant I'd want at least 30 gal of good soil

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They wont even be in the bag for more than 1-1.5 months... and I remember watching a Jorge Cervantes video where he said the rule of thumb is a gallon for each month the plant will be in the soil so I feel like 5gal is great. Ive already researched this and found plenty of OUTDOOR grows in buckets and they used 5gals and got huge plants. So im sticking with they're advice. And ive also seen plenty of grows with buckets in ground. The main reason people do it is because the soil in their grow area isn't great.... Im going to make a grow journal since this seems to be an experimental grow not vastly attempted.

Thedillestpickle said:

If you want to make it aerate and drain properly that is just a matter of putting in some physical effort. Don't just plop your 5gallon pot into a 5 gallon hole and hope for the best. Churn up the soil and work something into it to keep it loose. The bigger your cultivated soil area the better your plant will grow. Why would you use an autoflower strain? I thought they only get a little bigger than a dandelion...

Why don't you grow a hybrid that finishes early and will get big and take full advantage of the growing season

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Im moving come summer most likely and also the seeds I bought have yields of 70-100g outdoors and 400g outdoors, hopefully their time spent indoors will rub off for a bigger yield. But yeah, im going auto because of the time limit. Now is the best time, I wouldnt be moving FAR but ill be about a 30min drive away from my current location at LEAST. Also once fall starts i'll be living in a dorm so I want to go auto because of the speed and since they dont rely on the photo-periods which make it impossible to harvest in April-June. Plus im not going for a profit I just really love weed