First Outdoor -ish Grow!

[No3odiesShad0w]

I've wanted to grow outdoors forever. I have a giant vegetable have, I grow berries and tree fruit, herbs and ornamentals. Every time I try growing outdoors, somebody comes and takes the plant at night and I'm just left with a stalk or a hole(yeah they take the fucking roots too). I live on the top floor of my apartment building, so I hung up a window planter box!! It holds 5 gallons of soil which is good enough for an autoflower. I get about 7-8 hours of direct and semi direct sun.

I had to go with an autoflower for this one. A photo periods would get way too big. I'm hoping the auto will be manageable. I popped an Acapulco Gold Autoflower. B/W Label freebie from NASC. They've been laying around for like 2 years. Never been interested in this cultivar. Hopefully she'll be able to handle a warm summer since she's a equatorial variety..... Originally.... We'll see how it goes! The seed popped a tail while I soaked it in the water.... That's a first! I got to put a seed into soil that already has a tail!

The soil mix is my super soil recipe. I got a bit lazy though and just used Fox Farm Happy Frog Soil as the base, then added all my favorite organic amendments and castings from my Vermicomposting bin, mixed it all up and planted some cover crop seeds. Then I covered it with a hair net so the birdos don't get to them. In about 10 days, I'll plant the auto in there! Super excited to have some SUN GROWN BUDS☀️🪴🌼🌱

[Bluey]

You could plant a photoperiod 8 to 10 weeks after the start of the growing season to still get flowers and it'll be about half the size.

[No3odiesShad0w]

I considered it, but I didn't have any sacrificial seeds. I assumed the Acapulco gold would give me the doomies so I never grew it. I'm not sure how this grow is going to go because of all the wacky weather condition we get in the Northeast. I didn't want to use my good seeds. if it works out, next year, I'll do 2 window planters and ill grow a proper photoperiod.

The other problem, my father is growing weed again. which means male plants and he only lives half mile from me, which is within pollinator range. I could end up with seeds in my outdoor grow thanks to my idiot father.

[No3odiesShad0w]

Oh yeah!! Like I said, "by tomorrow it will sprout" she's tiny bit she's alive!! Not bad for an old seed. I never had Acapulco Gold before so it's exciting! First outdoor, first Acapulco Gold.... Still on trend this year with all the New New stuff going on.

I'm curious about the Acapulco Gold because it was a cultivar specifically mentioned by the owner of Cannatrol. In his interview with Mr. Grow It on Garden Talk, he mentioned they ran the normal cure cycle on the Cannatrol unit and after 8 days they tried it and nobody liked it .... So they left it in there to cure another 2 weeks and after that the Acapulco Gold was an employee favorite. Different buds might need different dry and cure times (obviously since some are denser than others). Time will reveal all!

[No3odiesShad0w]

My dad's plants. I bet you at least 1 is a male..... What if the same bee goes on his plants and then flies over to mine? Because I remember last year the female plant was just chilling but the male plants sounded like an angry bees nest. There was never any less than five Bees or bumblebees or other kind of pollinating insects on there. I have so many other flowers on the yard and never saw so many insects go after one flower. They really seem to like male cannabis plants.

Maybe I'll pull those and plant some autoflower seeds in there for the old man. This way at least I'll know he's not ruining anybody's grow including my own.

I think the biggest one is a male. The other 2 might be females but still too early to tell

[SoOrbudgal]

Do it LOL how would he know.

[No3odiesShad0w]

SoOrbudgal He would know because these would disappear one day and then new ones would grow up in its place.... Not that I think he would care. He's gone for the next 4 days so I'm going to rip them out tomorrow morning and plant some auto flowers for him..... Shit might even turn out good for me if they come out looking nice I'll steal a couple of branches for myself 😈

[No3odiesShad0w]

Acapulco Gold is growing really nicely! I give her about 15 hours of sunlight on the window sill so that she doesn't bug out going from an LED light to outdoors. But then at night time I throw her underneath the LED light just to expedite some of the growing. Another week or so and I'll transplant her outside. Maybe I should have done a photo period instead of an auto but we'll see. That's why it's an experiment!

Next update in a week or so. Happy growing! 🌱🌼🪴☀️🍄

[SoOrbudgal]

Just know this about outdoor autos vs photos........they stall under cool conditions and will stunt and become mini autos. Keep it warm and give it light until temps stay about 70f for the auto. That's from my experience, it really slowssssss them down and i swear it takes much longer for them. I'm gonna put 2 autos outside but not until these temps get warmer.

[No3odiesShad0w]

Thanks SoOrbudgal good tip. I'm meeting the auto inside for now because it's young. I don't want the birds to rip it out. I want it more established. I have it in my basket cups so I can just plant the whole thing. Next week it's going to start getting warmer so it seems I'm on track!

[Allenpro]

North Atlantic Seed Bank is my go to for seeds, I cant say enough good about them, however a freebee is free so dont put much faith in them. Growing outside has its own challenges compared to growing indoors in a controlled environment. Bud rot is the biggest problem I have had and its makes the plant a total loss in a short time. I am in Northern New England and I have been advised by the folks at NACB to plant later in the year so I will try that this year.
The biggest mistake I have made growing was a photoperiod I was growing outside and then I decided to finish it inside. Despite actually giving the plant warm showers when I brought it in it started a 2 year battle with spider mites and then they damn thing hermied
Anyway, have fun

[SoOrbudgal]

Yes that's a hard lesson to learn by. That's a huge fear of mine, and i never had to deal with it thank goodness.

[No3odiesShad0w]

Yo I can't talk shit about freebies because some of the freebies I've gotten from them outperformed the seeds I paid for. But it's also why I'm using a freebie for an experiment. If it goes well then Woooo! If not, it's not a big loss. It's just 1 plant 1 experiment. My high performance babies are indoors.

[No3odiesShad0w]

I had mites before .... It sucks that's why I'm so super anal when going from my yard outside to my indoor yard.

[No3odiesShad0w]

The cover crop is coming in nicely on the window planter! The Acapulco Gold is looking really nice and healthy on Day 5 of life. I'm starting to harden her off to both humidity and temp. I also keep her in the window during the day to get her used to the sun light.

My strawberry patch is in full bloom. I have my veg planted and my yard amended with compost from my bins. Weed mats (cardboard) are down. My berry bushes might give me berries this year. Black berry and raspberry.

All the outdoor set is up and running. Last thing to do is transplant the Acapulco Gold into the planter in about 12 days or so..

Next week temps are going to be in the 70s and mid 50s at night. Still could wait a bit longer before they go out. I want her to have the best chance.

[SoOrbudgal]

Great looking garden fella. I've spent the day filling all my outdoor pots with soil. We have decent weather headed our way they say mid week. It's been flooding rain last 7 days just a wash out. I checked my green beans i'm sure half the seeds rotted, don't see carrots yet they may of drowned. My onions don't look bad there still standing. It's only in the low 50s with a cold wind, really getting antsy for some warmer weather. I had to give some food to my outdoor clones they are yellowing on the lower leaf, they are more than ready to go outside by the size of them but it's too damn cold.

[No3odiesShad0w]

Yeah I'm looking at about a weeks worth of rain. Fingers crossed they'll be okay

[No3odiesShad0w]

Ouch!!! It just hit me.... She might be unhappy because the VPD is probably high.....I checked.....omgl almost 2.5kPa 😱😱😱. I'm trying to harden her off but this is just too much. It's going to be even warmer tomorrow but it's also going to be more humid so she'll be okay hopefully. Otherwise this outdoor grow isn't going to go well. I need to be a bit more gentle at least for a few more days so she can get a good root system. I don't want to stunt her.

[No3odiesShad0w]

Today is the day!!! 🌞

It's Day 13 of life for her... She NEEDS to get transplanted today. Last night looked like the last cold spell. At night it's been dipping to low 60s(15-16°C) during the day it should be around 75ish (23°C), probably warmer in the sun. She had to come out 🤷♂️. She's either going to get stunted by the container or she's going to get stunted by the cold or temp swings 🤷♂️ what can I do. That's outdoor growing for you. I think she looks healthy and she perked up a bit from when I planted her this afternoon. Not much sun, it's going to rain then some sun then rain again then maybe some sun and rain and rain. But it's going to be warm consistently so she should grow pretty well. Fingers crossed 🤞

SB: This is going to be the last post in this thread. I'm going to merge this thread, my Halloween in July thread all into 1 BIG Summer Auto Grow. I'm popping new seeds Thursday night, all autos, and a special surprise appearance too 😉
As wallets I have big plans for big NEW things. I'm staying on theme NEW NEW NEW

[No3odiesShad0w]

All the evil thoughts