Fire Purps (Humboldt CSI) Outdoor Grow

Welcome to the outdoor grow of 2023! This season we will be growing outdoor plants for the first time. The two plants we will be growing out is a Fire Purps (Humboldt CSI) and a Blue Dream (ILGM). I'm super excited to get this going. I will be starting the plants inside in my tent and will be hardening them off in about two weeks. They will then go into two 3x3x2 garden beds. I got the Fire Purps as freebies from Attitude when I purchased the Chemdog D and I'm really excited to grow it. These outdoor diaries won't be as detailed as my indoor as I don't want to spend too much time on them, but there will be good pics and updates. See you next week!

Nothing much to report other than she's growing as expected. Will probably transplant into a 5 gallon fabric pot next week.

Transplanted her on day 16. Her root mass looks pretty decent. I sprinkled some great white myco on the roots and put her in the 5 gallon fabric pot. She took well to the transplant and has been growing well. I've started hardening her off. Both plants will be getting an extra hour of outdoors every day for a week or two. I want to transplant them into their final beds by may 14 but depending on the weather and how fast they harden off I may have to wait an extra week or two.

Nothing much to report other than I've topped her and given her a few hours of sunlight. They also took to the transplant into the 5 gallon pot nicely. Going to progressively give her more hours outside until the planned transplant outside. I've just finished digging the holes and making the beds. Hopefully I can get her outside by the 14th.

Been hardening her off outside. She is ready to go in the beds in a few days. Just waiting for some cold weather to pass.

Put her outside on day 39 in a 4x4x2 raised bed and placed a cage around her to protect her as well as for training in the future. She took well to the transplant and has been growing despite the extremely cold nights we have been getting. Some nights it will go down to 41f! Surprised at the resilience of the plant and relieved that I managed to harden her off well enough. Her structure is pretty strange. She's growing straight up despite the topping. I'm definitely going to open her up by tucking branches through her cage when she gets large enough. See you next week!

Easy week for the Fire Purps. Weather has gotten a bit warmer and it seems like she likes the outdoors. Nothing to report other than that I'm going to being training her branches next week probably. Also, need to get some mulch down in the beds at some point.

Still going strong. Accidentally split the stem right at the top when tucking branches beneath the cage. Put a zip tie around her and she is fine, almost like it never happened at all. I'm impressed with the vigor of this plant. She stanks like crazy too. This week I also sprayed her with some neem oil. 2 tbsp of neem with 3 tsps of castile soap into a sprayer. Made sure to spray later in the day to prevent leaf damage. Haven't noticed any pests yet, but would rather be safe than sorry. She is getting quite big. She may be a monster come flower. See you next week.

Good growth this week. Need to defoliate her at some point. Her stank grows by the day.

She's still going strong. Been defoliating here and there. Going to get underneath her and get some airflow down at the bottom of the plant. I sprayed neem oil and will continue to spray every 1-2 weeks until flower.

She has responded well to defoliation. I've also been bending branches down in the cage. She is shaping up to be really nice and getting a strong kushy/pine smell. No problems with airflow or training. Topping was a good idea, as new tops are growing in the center of the plant and the airflow is pretty superb.

She is growing very well with very minor issues. Been spraying neem once a week, will probably bump it up as she approaches flower.

She is getting big. Fortunately I've been on top of training and pruning. Got down and cut more out of the bottom and some inside. The inside is nice and cleared out, but not 100% perfect as its difficult to get in there with the cage on her. That being said, this plant has been an absolute breeze to work with and she is an absolute beauty. She takes well to the hot weather and being pruned and she has very little pests on her. Great airflow through the middle and she is getting big! She is 5 feet tall and getting bigger. Very excited and nervous for flower. Been spraying her alot more with the neem. Going to continue to aggressively spray her until she starts flowering. I'll probably get some ladybugs.

Keeping up the neem and taking crappy leaves off her. Making sure the spray the FUCK out of her as much as I can with neem. As you can see, there is some pest damage on a few of the lower leaves. Other than that, there's a bit of yellowing of lower leaves from what looks like standard nitrogen deficiency. Will probably feed early next week with some craft blend.

Every week that goes by is another week of mounting regret. This plant is gunna be so fuckin' huge man. I'm gunna have to work my ass off. That being said, shes still doing great. A bit more of the N deficiency, and alot more pest damage on the fan leaves. I've been spraying more aggressively recently, trying to get as many sprays in I can before flower. Early this week I fed with about 2 cups of craft blend. I'm definitely going to need more and will probably use some Down To Earth I have lying around as the Craft Blend is expensive. If the N deficiency starts getting really bad I may look at organic high N liquid fertilizers. I really hope she flowers soon. Every day she gets in veg is another day of stress. Growing a giant plant like this is great, but definitely comes with some drawbacks. I really hope we can make it to harvest. Crossing my fingers!

Fed another 4 cups of dry amendments. Will likely feed again in a week or so. Plants are growing like crazy. THink they're about to enter preflower. There's still a bug issue on this one, but i'll be getting some ladybugs soon.

Still a bug issue, but ladybugs should be coming in early next week. She's fuckin huge man. Not sure If i'm going to be able to make it to harvest. I've got a bad feeling that even if she turns out good, the weather is going to rip her up a bit considering the massive size of her. Probably gunna feed again soon. I want to dump like 4 cups of DTE all purpose and maybe some of the 7-7-2 fish meal. She's entered preflower. She is throwing off pistils here and there and I expect her to be in full flowering withing the next week or two.

Fed her 4 cups of Down To Earth Bio Fish this week. As you can see her lower leaves are becoming yellow and dying off. Hopefully the Bio Fish fixes that up. The bug problem has gotten worse, but I cannot spray it now that's its in flower. I got a bunch of ladybugs and spread them on the plants, so hopefully they do good work. Branches are starting to break off her. I don't have any trellising. Hopefully nature remains kind to me for the next few months.

Ladybugs didn't seem to do much help. Bug damage on her is legendary. Almost all leaves have some sort of damage on them, but she keeps going.

I guess the Fish stuff helped a bit. I'm noticing that the leaves are yellowing and dying off slower than before which is a relief. That being said, the bug damage is out of control with no end in sight. If she makes it to harvest hopefully most of her buds will be okay. I've definitely learned my lesson with this plant. If you're reading this thinking about growing fuckhuge monsters, I advise you to not. You can have a big plant, but a monster is such a pain to manage.

She's producing buds, but they're pretty small. Many of the pistils are starting to turn brown. Crossing fingers for a good clean finish and hoping maybe some of the top buds will be really nice quality.

She's still going. Buds aren't stacking well on most of the plant however the top buds still have a bit to go. Still crossing fingers that we make it!

Disaster has struck! A storm came through and just decimated the Fire Purps. Entire branches have come off and she looks like a mangled mess. Definitely pretty bummed. This is what I get though for not supporting her with trellis or stakes. I've learned my lesson though. I definitely will not be growing plants as big in the future. I'm not quite sure if she will make it. If I had to guess, she's probably got two more weeks. Odds are that only a few of the top colas will be worth harvesting. Oh well, you live and you learn.

An even larger disaster has struck this week! The Nor'easter came through and wrecked havoc on the garden. Whole damn plant is wet like a sponge and slumped all the way over. Colas broken off and in the mud. Fuck. I had to take off some of the tops before the plant got permanently wrecked. Not all is bad though. With this early chop comes the opportunity to finally learn how to harvest an outdoor plant and get a bit of experience with the labor necessary before I actually have to commit to a full harvest. Not wanting to waste my time, I went out during the storm to chop. Shit sucked. I chopped the colas off in the field and then performed a quick trim right there in the rain. Stuck the partially trimmed wet colas into a tote and brought them in to be trimmed further and bud washed. The buds weren't too bad actually. Definitely about a week too early which is a bummer, but mature enough that it should be a decent smoke. First time budwashing and it was strange as hell. Never before have I taken a fat cola and just dunked it right into water before. Did the three 5-gallon bucket method with the first bucket filled with 1/2 cup of baking soda and 1/2 cup of lemon juice. Soaked those bitches and then threw them up on the line for drying. The next post will likely be the full harvest. On top of the three days worth of storm we got, there are two more days of rain on the horizon. The plant is definitely getting budrot so I don't know how much I'll be able to harvest. I've got alot of work to.

Finally! After like 25 weeks of growing she is finished. Had to do a staggered harvest due to the Nor'easter and the budrot. Literally had to throw out 90% of the plant which is a huge bummer. That being said, the colas that made it out okay ended up pretty nice. The storm knocked her over completely. After the initial harvest during the storm, there were only a handful of colas left that were harvesting. Ended up harvesting this one two separate times which was a huge pain in the ass. Spent an eon in trim jail trimming the colas on chop, then before budwash, then after dry. This grow definitely tested my patience as it was just consistent hours of work for little return. That being said, I ended up with 180g of decent flower from this huge ass plant. Huge disappointment considering the absolute monster this plant grew to be. The bud from this plant is pretty gnarly. Super dank and puts you out if you smoke too much of it. Shame that I could only harvest so little! I've learned alot from my first outdoor grow and hopefully I can also help you learn something as well if you're thinking about starting an outdoor grow. Don't grow monster plants unless your environment is perfect, your genetics are on point, and your beds are big enough. If your plants end up too big, they will likely get budrot in late flower if you get storms. If your plants grow too tall, they are susceptible to falling over (which happened to the Fire Purps). If your plants outgrow their beds, you'll get nutrient deficiencies. My plants were definitely a bit too big, especially the Fire Purps. Next grow I'm probably going to just direct sow into the soil at the beginning of June. For reference, I started these plants in the grow tent like 6 weeks before transplant which was a mistake. Glad to put this grow behind me and excited to do better next year!