Outside . . . in the ground or a 'smart pot'

I'm planning a very small outdoor grow. I'm considering digging a hole and filling with store bought soil. Something like Happy Frog or Ocean's Forest or maybe my own mix.

The area is private property and I live onsite. It's very rural and I've had no issues with trespassing, etc...


Would you plant in the ground or in a smart pot?

If say 1 plant, mobility (could move it if needed) and simplicity (not worrying about your native outdoor soils composition ph or drainage) would lead me to go above ground in a large pot. BUT -- if I was lazy or knew I had rich soil, then I would go in ground.

ComfortCreator said:

If say 1 plant, mobility (could move it if needed) and simplicity (not worrying about your native outdoor soils composition ph or drainage) would lead me to go above ground in a large pot. BUT -- if I was lazy or knew I had rich soil, then I would go in ground.

Click to expand...

The soil isn't the best. It's red clay. I may do 4 or 5 plants. I think I may just use AirPots and camouflage them using tan spray paint to cove the black.

If it was clay then I would use pots as long as you have access to water.

I'd go directly into soil with some compost and fertilizer

I wouldn't spray paint air pots. Might get chemical leach.
They make brown ones if you're worried about color.
And I use air pots outside all the time. Too much builders clay around here.
They will treat your roots a whole lot better.
And they're mobile.

I'd amend a big patch of your backyard soil, a circle of about 4 feet diameter, and dug down 2.5 feet, remove all that and amend it, either follow a recipe for something like Cootz mix, or just try to improve it's drainage greatly with a mix of compost, peat/coco, ewc, and whatever else you have. You won't have as good results if you just try to amend it rather than create your own soil mix, the first year anyway. After amending that spot for a few years, it will destroy any super soil type recipe that's popular. Each year after you harvest in the fall, add an inch or two layer of alfalfa pellets for horses, and just mix it into the top layers of the soil. Add rock dust and gypsum too-find out your soil ph so you know if you need to add dolomite instead of gypsum. I would hate growing outdoors and not taking advantage of growing directly into the soil-that's how you grow trees. Supplement your plants with some Neptune's Harvest once in a while too, makes for potent terpenes.

I wish I had more pics, I keep using the same one ... but you can grow trees outside in pots:
7 footer in a 5 gallon pot. Nothing fancy. Just Roots 707 bag soil, GH Floranova Bloom from day one. And Recharge.
Great results without diggin holes and amending soil.