Newbie question about feeding

I have a pretty basic question, i've been searchin for a clear answer for a while now but still without succes...

So, im wonderin how people feed their plants planted in the ground. I have one female plant, she has been in a pot till now, a 25l one atm (about 6-7 gallons). i've been usin liquid furtilizer in water and waterin her with this every week till the soil is saturated. so far this went well, but i want to put her into full ground.

Now should i keep doin this? it seems pretty impossible to saturate the ground surrounding a freely growin root system without usin tons of fertilizer, or am i wrong? Or should all the work be done by mixing good soil to start with so you dont have to feed along the way? in that case i think i have a problem since im already at 6-7gallons of used up soil wich will contain the biggest part of the final root system. Or is foliar feeding the right way? dont hear about it that often on this forum so i guess its not that popular..

Or if u think my pot is too large to transplant into full ground or anything, let me know please. its my first grow so im always very open for any advice!

Any help would be greatly appreciated! thanks

What type of native soil would the plant be going in? Heavy clay? Loamy? Sandy? Need more info to give you a decent answer.

Mainly loamy. but i can always add more soil if i transplant in the ground.

It just seems as if i'd be usin 10x the amount of fertilizer im usin now by just waterin the plant with soluble fertilizer, but let me know if thats the way most people do it, just dont have any experience

project45 said:

Mainly loamy. but i can always add more soil if i transplant in the ground.

It just seems as if i'd be usin 10x the amount of fertilizer im usin now by just waterin the plant with soluble fertilizer, but let me know if thats the way most people do it, just dont have any experience

Click to expand...

Well I am doing my first outdoor grow as well. You can click on the link in my sig line to see the issues I have had with a heavy clay soil. If I had it over to do again, I would place my pots in the ground with plenty of openings for the roots to expand into the native soil. I would not amend the soil.

Now with a loamy soil, you pretty much have the best of all the worlds. You have good water retention in the soil, nice drainage and it should be relatively easy to break up. With a loamy soil I would plant directly into the ground if that is a possibility.

If you decide to amend the soil, I would make sure that you blend a minimum of 50% native soil into the hole that you dig. That way there is little possibility the plant's roots would want to stay in the "better" soil.

Also you need to dig at least a 10 gallon hole to make digging the hole even worthwhile; otherwise leave it in the pot and just bury the pot about halfway into the native soil. A ten gallon hole is about the depth of a 5 gallon bucket, but twice the diameter. If possible make the hole square and make sure that you break up the bottom and sides of the hole (you want lots of nooks and crannies for the roots).

Hope that helps. Quite a few of the more experienced growers have given me some pointers on my first grow. Maybe one of them will pop in this thread and tell you what they think.

If youre goin to put your plant in the ground try to dig as big of a hole as you can, it also is more prudent to dig to dig no deeper than 3 feet as MJ roots barely go past that depth, they tend to have much larger horizontal root systems. To answer youre fertilizing question you dont have to feed a inground plant a lot more than potted plant. Fertilizing should be done according to plant size, as the plant get larger its goin to need more water, therefore more nutes. If you do put youre plants inground build a well around each plant that can hold at least 5 gallons. You also mentioned foliar feeding, theres nothing wrong with foliar feeding it is a very efficient way to feed your plants, just make sure you do it in the early morning or late afternoon after the intense sunlight is over so you dont cause leafburn. Hope everything goes well.