Final results are in and a little dissapointed with my yields. Barely pulled 2 off the Nirvana Northern Lights. It looked really dense, but lost so much when drying. The second fantaseed plant, which I thought was my biggest plant, only gave me about 3 oz. Based on the size of that girl and the amount of bud sites I thought I'd be looking at double that. So with the Ceres Purple around 3 oz and the first fantaseed around 3 oz, I'm at a grand total of approx 11 oz this season off of 4 plants. It's a respectable yield, don't get me wrong, but for plants that were started back in late april/early may that's kind of pathetic. It was like 3 months veg time. I really wish I couldn't let the last 2 plants go another week, but I really think I made the better choice pulling them a little early. We got about 5 inches of rain in a 3 day period. Next year if I do this again, among other things, I want plants that will finish by Oct 1.
As for smoke, the Ceres Purple wins by a mile. Really strong sweet smell and taste. The Nirvana NL, which was odorless even while drying, is starting to develope a suble, sweet smell now that it's been in jars for a few days. I'll be doing a smoke report in the smoke report section on these two in the near future. As for the 2 fantaseed plants, that would be pointless since I don't know the strains. I have my personal thought on what they could be, but nothing definitive. The breeder said they can't even be certain.
I think things turned out about as good as I could have expected for a first time outdoor grow and I learned a lot for next year.
1) Bigger holes are a must. After I cut each plant, I dug up the roots and they were pretty root bound. I thought if they out grew what was there, the roots would propagate into the surrounding soil. They did a litte, but considering it's hard clay it wasn't to the degree I expected.
2) More light. Even though the Ceres Purple and the NL were in the worst spots, they still gave me a total of about 5 oz. I think that's due to being in the deepest holes with Sunshine Mix. My plant with the most light was in a very small hole, but still only yielded around 3 oz. My job between now and next year is to look for some better spots. With a little more trimming I think I could use the one over again though.
3) More water. I Underestimated how much water they would need, especially during dry streches. The 2 gallons of supplementary water they would get once a week with their feedings just isn't enough. After seeing the root mass, plants that size could easily take 5 gallons. Problem is finding a spot or spots closer to water. There was a pond close by, but it's a little far to be lugging 5 gallon containers. Maybe one at a time, but ideally I'd like to find somewhere where I can carry one in each hand if needed.
4) Better Seed Selection. While I got lucky and it worked out, definitely not doing anymore "outdoor mix" packs or anything like that. I current have 3 left in the Homegrown Fantaseed outdoor mix, 3 fem Nirvana NL, a Barney's Blue Cheese, a Barney's Red Diesel, a GHS White Widow, a Magus Motivation, and La Blanca, Mataro Blue, and BCN Diesel from Kannabia. While I think some of them might do well outdoors, I'm probably going to buy new seeds for next seasons outdoor and save what I have for any potential indoor grows in the future. Hopefully they all still crack by then. The weather turned to crap on me really fast, so I'm going to try for strains that will finish by Oct 1.
So if there isn't any more questions, I'm going to consider this journal closed. Thanks again to everyone who followed along over the past few months, I appreciate it. I especially want to thank RIU and the couple vet growers who helped me get my act together earlier in the season. I never would have gotten this far and had such good (albeit modest) results.