[Balcony] Auto Dutch Orange Bud

I've been putting my plants out on the balcony around 4-5AM (I know, but it's nice to have something to do if the sun's gotten me up that early anyway!). Summers in Berlin are very bright since we're so far north, with sunrise before 5 AM. The balcony faces east and is only partially recessed, so the plants get good light until around 3-3:30 PM. Then if it's not overcast, I bring everyone inside to sit at my western-facing windowsills. I feel so bad for them because they do crane towards the light once they're inside, alas it's all I can offer them. This was the earliest I've put a seedling outside (starting 8 days from seed), and she seems to be happy. I added two BAC biotabs (https://www.dutch-headshop.eu/bio-tablets-soil-improver-bac-12-pieces) to the 3gal pot once I saw a fourth node coming in 13 days from seed. I think I may have did this too soon actually. But all is well so far.

This week ended up pretty sunny. At 16 days from seed, she was already half a centimenter wider than the Green Crack plant was that I had from the Rainbow Mix, and that thing is a bushy monster now (update for Day 21: now over 5cm wider than the GC was). It's nice to see this because I'm trying to only compare myself to myself for now. Tragedy struck on Day 16. I'm blessed with ignorance about what thrip damage looks like because I've only ever had fungus gnats in my houseplants, so I didn't recognize that some of the older plants had thrip damage on the leaves. I honestly thought from the rain or something because it rained in on them a bit the week before. Luckily, it was pretty minor, and I managed to manually remove what ones I could see. But I still went to my local growshop the next day where they hooked me up with something to spray on the leaves and soil (https://www.greenlight-shop.de/Neudorff-Spruzit-Schaedlingsfrei-250-ml). I sprayed everyone down after sundown and left them out overnight. Nobody died!

Week 4! We've had some really strong wind and sun here, which I now know is a good thing lol. I love this stage because she's basically in kaleidoscope mode with the leaves. Still no sign of preflowering, but I believe I detect a faint citrusy scent. I was spoiled by starting with Pineapple Expresses, which smell absolutely amazing and then got bamboozled by a Zkittlez that is just so very dank. So I'm happy this one seems to be living up to its name and smells a bit orange-y. I don't know how to add biotabs to the nutrients section on here because it's set up for liquid nutrients I think, but I added two BAC biotabs (https://www.dutch-headshop.eu/bio-tablets-soil-improver-bac-12-pieces) to the soil at 13 days from seed and won't be adding anything else than watering some Bud Candy once she starts to flower. Otherwise, I'm watering the cloth pot when it feels light.

Week 5! Summer is starting, and I've been able to leave the plants out overnight here. Previously, it was getting down to 7-9°C (44-48°F), the lowest being around 4AM, so I was sometimes keeping them in until like 7 or 8 in the morning once it warmed up a bit. But those days are behind me, now I'm just obsessively checking the rain radar before going to bed because they're not 100% safe if it really starts storming. I had my first 9-fingered leaf ever! This is a big deal because I just harvested my first plants I started in April this year (Pineapple Express autos), and I had some that never even got past five. It's really rewarding to see that I'm actually getting better :D The problem with my first round was the weather here was so cool that they didn't go outside for three and a half weeks. A lot of stretching and too little soil probably (was only in 5l, this one is over twice that). But this one is doing so well! I wish I could keep her around longer. Something is snacking upon this plant, but that's just the fun of having them outside. I've been manually removing what I can see (couple of little black specks on the stems). Otherwise she seems to be looking pretty good. Lots of leaf to spare I guess? The seedbank recommends against topping or ScrOGing this strain because of how bushy it is, so I'm not going to be doing any training.

Week 6! This is a seed from this mix (https://www.dutch-headshop.eu/auto-rainbow-mix-private-label-5-cannabis-seeds), and I started the others about two and a half weeks before this one. I can see the others started flowering this week, but this one seems content to keep vegging out. The others had smaller pots and shared resources, so this makes sense. It's going to be very hot and bright here this week, which is terrible for me, but lovely for the weedlings. The shape is like a lovely squatty Christmas tree. I'd grow it again so it'd be at this stage for the holidays, but we'll be back to sunup at 10AM and sundown at 4PM by then :/

Week 7! This plant might have transitioned into flower this week. I feel like I'm having trouble gauging it because all the other plants I've grown were smaller and had less nodes that could flower maybe? I see a lot of pistils a lot of places on this one, but it's not super obvious at the main cola. There also is a ridiculous amount of leaves on this, so who knows what's going on in there? The seedbank says it should only be around 50-100cm tall, and I'm already at 70+ going into flowering. It's only a bit awkward because I'm not super keen on having these plants visible over the balcony, even if it is legal here. I live in Berlin, and I've only seen one very obvious grow tent on a balcony so far (bare balcony, just a grow tent on the top floor of a building). So I'm obviously worried about busybodies like me peeping my plants.

Week 8! I defoliated this plant finally. It took quite a while to even go into flowering (wasn't until the 7th week), so I'm hoping I didn't defoliate too soon. Ton of little bud sites now visible. I'm so curious how it's going to mature. Mix of thunderstorms and bright sun here. It's probably getting less light than it should because I'm keeping it under the roof a lot of the day.

Week 9! This was a really hot week. I ended up harvesting three other members of the Rainbow Mix (Part of Zkittlez at 74 days from seed because I found a bit of mold, Blueberry, Green Crack the rest of Zkittles at 78 days.) Only this one and a Purple Haze that's two weeks older remain. She's finally stopped growing up at 92cm. I wish I had a way to know how many flowers this plant has because it's so huge! The buds are starting to form a bit. I'm super curious how it'll end up. I have some discoloration in the leaves, but other than that, the plant seems good. I added biotabs a lifetime ago, like during the second week, so if it's from a deficiency of something, there's not much I can do. But still, everything else seems to be going well.

Week 10! I've harvested and cured 3/5 members of the Rainbow Mix. Only this one and the Purple Haze remain. I found two seeds in the Zkittlez that I think were stressed-induced by a partial harvest most likely (took like 80% of the plant and left 20% that ended up making a few seeds), but now I'm super paranoid there's pollen where no pollen should be. I can't see any male flowers anywhere, plus I can't do much to separate anyone anyway. I only have these two on the balcony and some extraordinarily frosty Gelato Autos, so the fear is real. The weather's been all over the place with it getting pretty cool at night randomly, but the balcony population seems to be happy. I've found a bit of powdery mildew on the Purple Haze I was able to cut off. I'm not sure what to do about that besides bringing them in completely when it rains because I can't improve the airflow or temperature or anything else. That being said, that's the biggest issue I've had so far growing on the balcony.

Week 11! This plant is starting to fade quite a bit, but technically this should be in its harvest window next week. I'm honestly a bit bummed because I don't have any young plants anymore. My balcony feels, I wouldn't say empty because these plants are still pretty big, but it's kind of sad because it's a few older plants in their twilight weeks. I've harvested the rest of the Rainbow Mix (Blueberry, Green Crack, Zkittlez, Purple Haze) and was able try a few. Green Crack has been my favorite so far, very buzzy high. I've been making little tinctures with high proof alcohol. It's crazy because you only need 3-4 grams for 50ml, which is like nothing. It barely made a dent in what I'd harvested. This plant is like 4x larger than any of them were though, so if I'm lucky enough to make it to harvest, I'm probably going to need more jars. Once I harvest this, I'll share how I'll process it down.