Indoor/Outdoor Season Journal

Well, This is my first attempt at a serious grow and things are going surprisingly well...for now at least. I have a few different crops set for this summer and fall so I guess I'll just start off with my outdoor grow.

Strain: Homegrown Fantaseeds Outdoor Mix from Attitude (regular)

I was curious what strains they put in it so I emailed Homegrown Fantaseeds and here is there reply:

Hello *******

Thank you for your email

Our Outdoor Mix is a random mix of seeds suitable for outdoor growing.
And there is Skunk#1, Masterkush, Top44, Flashback, Caramella, Afghani. Northern Lights, in there

Regards

Homegrown fantaseeds

Seems like a decent mix to me, especially for only $28.

Soil: Miracle Gro Organic Choice Garden Soil
I heard this stuff isn't really the best for cannabis, but I didn't really have much of a choice. There isn't anything except Wal Mart and Lowes around here, so I'm stuck with what they have unless I wanna drive 2 hours or pay outrageous shipping costs. I was low on cash at the time and figured better off using the money for seeds. To be honest it's actually pretty decent stuff. Not a lot of bark and twigs and no added fertilizer. Just a little perlite and you're good to go.

Lighting: (2) 15w T8 4200K Fluoros
Not really top of the line stuff, but good enough for this application. I plan on starting them indoors for 2-3 weeks before I move them out to the bush so I'm not really going to worry about it. More would be better and higher temp would proably help me out more, but they are actually growing pretty awesome considering. The thing is I have a brand new 250w hps but no room to use it. I think I might give it a dry run after I get these plants out and before I start the next batch.

The Grow: 7 out of 7 germination
2 were looking pretty scrawny and starting to turn brown. Didn't think they were gonna make it so I pulled them today (day 10). Gives me more light and room for the other 5.


So here they are at day 10:

growing chronic is fun isnt it.

Yes sir it is. Thanks for stopping by.

Well, it's only been a few days but the little guys are growing fast and thought I would post an update. I went away for the weekend and was happy to see they were looking good when I got home.

I tried out the 250w hps the other day and I don't think it is going to work. Got way too hot for the grow space. Even with the door cracked it hit 90 degree, so going to have to get by with the fluoros for now. Finally bought a timer, so they are on a 18/6 now instead of 24/0. Think it will be better having them on a lesser light schedule for when they go outside. I was planning on putting them outside the weekend of May 7-9, but I think they are outgrowing their containers, so I might have to move it ahead a week to the weekend of March 30-May 2. They are only the small #3 Jiffy Pots for anyone who ever used them.

Noticed one of the plants is developing some brown spots. Not really sure what it is from but if anyone can diagnose it I would appreciate it.

Also, noticing some yellowing of the oldest leaves more than I would like to see at this point. I know it's normal, but I wasn't expecting it so soon and this much. It's slightly visible in the pics if anyone can check it out. Think it might be slight nitrogen deficiency, so I went ahead and fed them today at 1/4 strength Schultz 10-15-10 plant food. I ordered a quart of Botanicare Pure Blend Pro Grow formula the other day and was hoping to wait for that to come before I fed them, but they looked like they could use a light feeding. I hear that Botanicare is some pretty good stuff and got a good deal on it online so I went with it. Was going to use that Fox Farm stuff everyone on here raves about, but this stuff seems just as good if not better so we'll see. If it works out, they have a Bloom formula I might pick up when I get to that point.

Noticing a pretty strong skunky odor coming from the one plant. Wasn't expecting that so soon.

Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated guys!

Just started "Phase 2" of my operation and thought I'd give a quick update.

"Phase 2" consists of:
(2) Nirvana Northern Lights fem
(1) Ceres Purple fem
(1) Advanced Seeds Low Girl auto fem
(1) Reserva Privada Cole Train fem (freebie)

All seeds cracked within 36 hours and are in soil as we speak. None showing their heads except for the low girl. Can see a little bulge in the soil. As for the Cole Train, still didn't crack. Gonna give it one more day then consider it a bust. Oh well, glad I didn't pay for it. Since I'm having pretty decent luck with my current setup, I don't plan on changing much. 3 weeks veg indoors then out to the bush to 2x2 holes filled with *sigh* miracle grow organic choice garden soil mixed with about 25% perlite. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't so heavy and didn't have so many little twigs and bark in it. What really bums me out is that I just found out today a place about 20 min drive sells Pro mix bx. When I was there two weeks ago they said they never heard of it, then I'm driving by there today and see bales of it sitting out front! So I stop and the guy says "oh, we just got that in." Too late now. The holes are already dug and full and don't have the time, money nor the willpower to re-fill them with the pro-mix. Hopefully, this doesn't come back to bite me in the ass, which knowing my luck, probably will. At least I know they have it now when I need soil for the phase 2 plants.

As for my first 5, they are really starting to get big. I wasn't planning on moving them out for another week, but I think I'm going to take the biggest three out tomorrow night if it isn't raining since they are getting a little to big for my setup. Here is a "family photo" from about 2 days ago

View attachment 912814

The one on the bottom right is the biggest of the 5. Since this is an outdoor mix I have no idea of the strain, but it looks the most sativa-like of the group. Have a feeling it's going to get pretty big once the sun starts hitting it and I can start feeding it. Don't know if I mentioned it, but I'll be using Botanicare Pure Blend Pro Grow for veg and if it works out I'm gonna buy the Bloom formula down the line. Let's just hope they are ladies.

This has certainly been an exciting past couple days. Actually the second time I'm typing this since the first time took me so long when I hit reply I was logged out and lost everything! So this is going to be a lot shorter. Well I decided to take my plants out late sunday night/early monday morning. To be consistent I'll say 5/3. It was rainy all day, but for a few reasons I wanted to get them out that night. Mainly because they were getting too large for my completely inadequate setup, but also because I had to pick my brother up from college the next day and I was going to stay the night and didn't want to leave them unattended until tuesday. Around midnight the rain let up and the clouds looked like they were starting to lift, so I got everything together and headed out. I had the 5 plants packed in a box with packing paper wedged in to keep them from falling over. So I make my way out to my first site, which is about a 15 minute hike, where I planned ahead of time to plant 3 of the 5. I get all 3 in the ground no problem and start making my way down to the second site which is another 15 minute hike away. About halfway there, I notice the clouds start rolling back in and it began to lightly drizzle. No big deal, by this point I was a little sweaty anyway from the hike, so the cool rain felt good. Right before my second site, there is a small stream I have to cross. By small I mean SMALL. Like 6" wide at best. I usually just step across it. Well, with all the rain we were having, this small trickle swelled up to about 5-6 feet across. By this point the light drizzle turned into a downpour, so I was already pretty much soaked, and there was no way I was going to try to jump it holding a box of baby pot plants, so I say fuck it and just walk across it. At this point, I realize I'm not alone...a small snake decided it was going to cross too and was about 3 feet away from me swimming. Upon closer examination, I notice it isn't just a common black snake or garter snake, but a copperhead! Wonderful! If I would have decided to cross just another 2 or 3 steps farther down I probably would have stepped right on the thing. I have to admit it kind of freaked me out a little. I grew up in these woods and have seen plenty of wildlife over the years. Bears, snakes, even bobcat, but never at 2am, alone, and in the rain. Now that I think about it, this is probably the first time I was in the bush alone at night not drunk. Hell, I use to walk home from bush parties alone all the time without even a flashlight. Guess when you are drunk you don't really think about it. Anyway, I finally make it to my second plot and start looking for the holes I dug. I forgot to mention beside the box of plants, I'm also carrying a bag of soil that I was suppose to take out the day before but never got around to doing. I walked up and down this little hill at least 20 times, but still can't find either of the holes. I usually don't have a problem finding warm, wet holes in the dark, haha, but after over an hour of searching I gave up. I stashed the soil and the plants and head home.
I was too hung over yesterday to go out and finish the job, so I got up bright and early this morning. The 3 I was able to plant are looking great. One of them especially, I think it is going to be a monster. I make my way back down to where I stashed the other 2 plants and by some miracle nothing ate them and they didn't fall over. I actually stashed them in a pretty good spot with a lot of sun, so they even showed some new growth in the pots. Pick them up and start looking for the holes again. The reason I couldn't find them is because it has been about 2 weeks since I was at the site and the brush grew in all around them. It's actually a good thing since they are even more stealth now. So all 5 plants are in the ground now and are doing well. I'll take my camera out the next time I go out and take a few pics.

Phase 2 isn't going quite as well. The Cole Train never cracked and the others are stretching REALLY bad for some reason. I don't know if Nirvana Northern Lights is just a leggy strain or what but they look like they are going to fall over. The first 5 didn't stretch hardly at all and are in the same exact setup. I only have (2) 15w T8 fluoros, so I have to keep them really close. In a period of about 8 hours they actually grew up past the light and went UP and AROUND the bulb. I'm surprised they are even still alive. I think I didn't bury them deep enough so that might be part of the problem. There was some extra room in the pots, so I filled them up the rest of the way to try to prop them up a little bit, but the are still pretty bad. It wouldn't be as bad if it was only stretch, but they are all bent too. The Low Girl is bent so bad it is practically 90 degree and I need a straw to straighten it out. If anyone has any advice I would appreciate any suggestions. I have a oscillating fan on them to try to stiffen up the stalk. I'm going to give them a week and if they don't look better I might just say screw it and get rid of them. I really don't want to because they are fem seeds. The first 5 that I already have out the woods are just regular seeds, so if I'm lucky I'll have 2-3 females out of them. Here is a picture. The lighter is for reference.



BTW- this is an "open" journal, so if anyone has any questions, comments, or suggestions feel free.

My OCD got the best of me today and decided to transplant the Ceres Purple plant in order to bury some of the stem. Someone told me if a seedling is too leggy, you can transplant it and bury the stem. In the process, I destroyed about 3/4 of the root structure. Lets see if she survives. Pretty sure it will, but growth is definitely going to be stunted.

It's been 2 days and the plant I botched seems to be doing OK. No new growth, which isn't a surprise, but the plant seems to be hanging on. Thought I would post a pic at day 7



The two on the ends are the Northern Lights. Second to the left is the Ceres Purple I almost murdered. Second to the right is the Low Girl. Low Girl significantly smaller, which makes sense considering it is an auto flower.

Well they were calling for a late season frost last night, so I went out this morning to check and see how the plants were doing. My thermometer said it only dipped to 35 degrees, so no frost damage. Unfortunately, there was still a casualty . At first I thought an animal or something got it, but nothing was eaten. It was just uprooted somehow. With the strong winds we've been having, I'd think it was the wind, but something about the way it was laying makes me doubt it was the wind. You would think if it was an animal they would have ate at lease some of it, but there wasn't even a bite taken out of it. Strange. I'd kind of want to re use the hole for one out of my next batch, but I'm a little hesitant just in case it was some kind of animal. I guess it will depend on whether I find another good site between now and then. It was a pretty deep hole with a lot of dirt and it was only in for a week, so I don't really want to waste it.

The four that are remaining are looking great! They pretty much doubled in size in the past week. I know they really start getting big around the one month mark, but I attribute it mostly to being out in the sun. I'm actually a little worried that they may get too big. If they keep growing at this rate, they are going to outgrow the holes. Not to mention become more visible. I might have to look into topping, but I'll cross that bridge if and when I get there. Four of the plots (which included the one that I lost) get direct sun almost all day. There is one, which you can tell by the shading in the picture, which I thought would get more sun, but the trees around it grew more leaves than I thought they would and are blocking out a lot of the morning sun. So here they are at one month (one week outdoors). You can clearly see the plant in the last picture is significantly smaller than the other three. It was an outdoor mix, so it could be due to strain, but I'm convinced it is because it isn't getting as much light. Also, in the 3rd picture, I didn't want it recessed in the ground that much, just ran out of dirt. If there is one thing that anyone reading this can take out of it, it is that however big of a hole you dig, it will probably take about TWICE as much soil to fill it than you think. Actually two things...if you are doing your scouting when there aren't any leaves on the trees, you really need to consider what it is going to look like when the trees in the area (if there are any) are full of foliage. Don't take anything for granted. I thought the tree that is blocking me out in the last picture was dead and wasn't going to grow leaves. Needless to say it wasn't as dead as I thought, haha.

Live and learn, as long as you learn lol. Looking good and healthy sonar. It's going to get in the low 30's here again but I'm not worried.

northeastern lights said:

Live and learn, as long as you learn lol. Looking good and healthy sonar. It's going to get in the low 30's here again but I'm not worried.

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Same here. They are calling for similar temps as last night. I'm not as worried now that I know they survived last night without any problem.

Yeah I don't think I'll be making these same mistakes twice, haha. That's why I wanted to keep such a detailed journal, so I know for next time.

Took two more plants out last night. Had a few beers, so I was feeling a little adventurous and decided to take the biggest Northern Lights and the Low Girl out. Haven't read too much about Low Girl and haven't seen anything about how it grows outside, so I'm interested to see how she turns out. I didn't take a picture before I took it out, but it looks good and I imagine it's going to respond well outside. I checked my plants from the first batch on Friday and everything is looking good. I wanted to feed them, but it's done nothing but rain the past week so the soil was already pretty wet.

I also started to germinate a Buddha White Dwarf auto. Was going to just hang on to it for a future indoor grow, but I figured the hell with it and started it. Figure the only benefit of auto strain are planting them outdoors for an early harvest.

So, all that's left inside is my other Northern Lights and the Ceres Purple. Both are looking good and seem a lot bigger than my first batch at two weeks. I was going to take them out tonight, but I still have another hole to dig and don't really feel like doing it today, so it's going to have to wait until during the weeks sometime. Here they are at two weeks old.



The roots on the Purple are starting to squeeze out of the bottom of the Jiffy pot already. I was surprised to see that since that's the one I almost murdered when it was only about 4 or 5 days old. It's still much smaller than the Northern Lights, but made a nice comeback.

The cold temps had no affect over here. I'm busy planting myself, couldn't get them all out this weekend so I'll have to finish it up the following weekend.

northeastern lights said:

The cold temps had no affect over here. I'm busy planting myself, couldn't get them all out this weekend so I'll have to finish it up the following weekend.

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Yeah mine made it through without any problems. Have to admit I was a little nervous. Now I just gotta wait for the spring rain to stop and get some sunny weather. Dunno about where you're at but it's done nothing but rain here the past week. Thanks for stopping in and checking up.

Been fairly dry here exept for the last week every night was in the 30's. Seems the weather will be improving shortly.

looking good so far buddy! You have some beefy stalks on those outdoor plants. I hope my Coletrain fairs a little better, I have never tried anything near trainwreck and hear alot of good things about it. Reading about it they say that it's supposed to yield quite a bit because of the jasmine cross and finish quickly as well. I'll be interested to see how the Ceres purple plays out. I REALLY wanted to do Big Buddah Blue Cheese this time around but attitude was out of stock for like 2 weeks and I got tired of waiting and picked out my Nirvanna Bubblelicious ladies instead. Don't MJ plants just look awesome? Stand out big time from all the other forest foliage!

Thanks man. Yeah they really exploded when I took them outside. I've never seen anything like it before in my life. Those pictures were taken only a week after I took them out. I guess once I got them out of those small peat pots and in the ground under the sun they were loving it. I had an oscillating fan on them most of the time during the light cycle which helped to beef up the stem beforehand, but it didn't get that thick til I moved them outside. I agree cannabis is an amazing plant. To tell you the truth, I'm not even that big of a smoker. I just like the excitement of watching them grow. I think I like that little element of danger too.

Yeah I was about ready to call it quits on the Ceres Purple, but it's making quite the comeback. If it ever stops fucking raining here I'm going to go out and find a better spot for it and my other Northern Lights.

I have a Barney's Blue Cheese I got as a freebie from attitude. I was going to germ it, but I changed my mind at the last minute and did the Purple instead. I think I'm going to save it for next year or if I move before then do it as an indoor under the hps. The seed looks mature, but it's tiny, so I hope when the time comes it actually germinates.

I'm not sure if you knew this or not but Fox Farm's website has a "store locator" link that finds the closest Fox Farm retailer near you based on your zip code. I found a sweet hydro store 30 minutes from my house that I have passed numerous times and didn't even know existed. $25 for a 1.5 cubic feet bag of Ocean Forest soil, eff Amazon's $60 shipping charges lol.

As far as the MG organic is concerned, I used it in my last bagseed grow and it seemed to do pretty well. However, once I started using Fox Farm's Ocean Forest I noticed an immediate difference. I almost don't have to use nutes at all durring veg because it's all in the soil already. Which is good for me because I am on a budget and still using the free nutes I got from Bio Bizz back in days of my last grow. That coupled with the nute sensative bubblelicious plants I have = conservation win.

I also seemed to find that the MG stuff is really harsh on seedlings and younger plants. It actually killed one of my roomates bubblelicious ladies because he overwatered a bit and the soil compacted HORRIBLY. It actually seperated the roots from the stem underneath the dirt. The plant lived and hung on for dear life for a bit but it just wasn't growing so it got ousted.

If you want, you can check out the earlier pages of my grow journal (possibly the first?) and there should be some pics of my last grow where I used that soil on a bagseed.

Yeah I checked that out. The first time I looked the nearest place I found was like an hour and forty five minutes away. I went on again a few weeks later and went through them all for my state and found a place that sells it in a town I never heard of that's only about an hour. Still pretty far, but if I was gonna do an indoor grow I'd probably take a ride down and get some. I'm not sure if you ever did an outdoor before, but it's best to dig holes and fill it with better soil. Since they get so big outside they gotta be pretty big holes, so I found a half decent local brand that was a little cheaper since I need so much. Each hole took about 1.5 cu ft bag, which is still kind of small compared to how large some guys dig there holes.

I used the MG organic garden soil, which doesn't have any added nutes in it, but it's kinda heavy so I added a good bit of perlite to it. The only thing is that it has a lot of bigger pieces of bark and twigs in it, but I did the best I could to pick it out. So far it seems to be ok, but I definitely won't use it again. One of the problems with the MG potting mix is that is has those little pellets of time release fertilizer, so the more you water it the more gets released, which I think gives a lot of people problems.

Took the Ceres Purple and the other Northern Lights out last night. The closet is empty now except for the White Dwarf I planted about 3 days ago. There is a small, seasonal flower and vegetable seedling shop not too far from where I live and was driving past yesterday and noticed they had bags of soil for sale. I pulled in quick and saw it was Sunshine mix, so I picked up a 1.5 cu ft bag and planted them in that. It was actually less money, I think like $7, and a hell of a lot better than anything else I've seen. Very light and peaty. Seems very neutral, so I'm going to have to keep an eye on them and feed them properly. Oh and the girl working there was fucking smokin hot, so that was an added bonus.

Since it's been so cold and raining for the past week or so, not much growth from my older Fantaseed batch or the Northern Lights and Low Girl I took out on Saturday night. It's gorgeous out today and they are calling for nice weather for the next week. Maybe spring is finally here to stay.