By continuing to use the website or clicking Accept you consent to our cookies and personal data policy and confirm that you are at least 18 year old. For details please see Privacy Policy and Terms
I wanted to try my hand at growing outside this year so I decided to run 3 autos among my garden vegetables in my back yard garden boxes. It gets a little cold here at night and it is very dry so I put up a sort of greenhouse using materials that my soon to be father in law gave me for free (thanks M!). I hope the greenhouse helps them grow better. I believe they should get about 12 - 16 hours of sunlight but the sun never goes down here. I am not really trying to break the scales on this one I just want to dip my toe in soil gardening in case I decided to make the switch to Coco at some point as I normally grow with hydro. Unrelated: my indoor garden is full!
On rainy days I will bring them into my indoor flower tent to give them a little more sun. I will only be able to do this for a while however as they get heavier and harder to handle.
For nutrients I plan to use pH perfect Advanced Nutrients Gro, Micro, Bloom sparingly through their lives.
Strain: Auto Berry
Breeder: MSNL
Soil: Roots Organic Soil Mix
Water: RO pH'd
-So I decided that I didn't like how my last greenhouse worked so I am rebuilding it. My autos will remain in my indoor tent until my greenhouse is completed.
-It has been super rainy lately so I have just left all the autos in my indoor tent. I am now regretting not starting them sooner inside and them moving them outside I just thought I was going to be planting them in the ground.
-They are all looking a very healthy shade of green but have weird shaped leaves from seedling stress I am guessing.
I redid my greenhouse to comply with local laws where they cannot be able to be observed.I also just was not happy with the first one because it did not seal very well. I used white visqueen for the middle chamber and clear of the others. It is working really well. Much better than the last one.
In the pictures it is from left to right: AB2, AGDP1, AB1
(Below days are stated in time since seed sprouted.)
AB1 - Day 18
AB2 - Day 15
AGDB1 - Day 15
Feed PPM: 340
It wasn't supposed to rain last week rain but of course it did while I was at work and the plants were not far enough under the edge of the greenhouse roof so they got rained on and over watered hard. They have dried out a bit since then so I will be watering tomorrow with 1/4 strength nutrients of AN: Gro, Micro, Bloom, and a little cal/mag, recharge and B-52 as well. The plants are looking a bit light and a little hungry so I think it is time.
I created a ladybug habitat to keep away other pests and I just love it. So neat that I can use nature to help my grow and not more chemicals. Just really cool. Anyway, I bought a bag of live ladybugs from my local Fred Meyer's. I used a cloning water catch tray and cut the top of the dome off to give them a bit of a roof. I then put a wet towel in one corner and a pile of raisins in the other for food. Then I slid it into the cinder block that AGDP2 is sitting on so it can stay in the shade. I emptied a few out over the plants as well.
Pretty happy with how things are going right now and I cannot believe how fast autos are. AB1 has already caught my photo GDP that was planted more than 2 months ago. Thanks and cheers!
In the pictures it is from left to right: AB2, AGDP1, AB1
(Below days are stated in time since seed sprouted.)
AB1 - Day 22 - 17" tall
AB2 - Day 25 - 13" tall
AGDB1 - Day 22 - 13" tall
- Saw some early signs of nute burn on all the plants so I flushed them with about 2 gallons of water each on day 19 and have not watered or fed since.
- AB1 and AB2 are both showing sings of pre-flower with their little pistils coming out so I cannot wait to see them stretch!
- I am just amazed at the speed at which these autos grow! It seems like a lot of fun to have plants flipping faster as a small time grower. Glad I bought a bunch of seeds from the Illuminauto drop!
Big shout out to Rasta Jeff on the Grow From Your Heart Podcast for inspiring me to grow from my heart! Grow on!
In the pictures it is from left to right: AB2, AGDP1, AB1
(Below days are stated in time since seed sprouted.)
AB1 - Day 32 - 24"
AB2 - Day 29 - 22"
AGDB1 - Day 29 - 19"
- Last time I fed them nutrients they burned so this time I thought I would just hit them with a few additives instead because the soil has enough nutrients for them still.
- I am still amazed at the speed of these plants. Each "ring" around the tomato cage is about 10" apart. I love autos!
- I have been watering them every 3-4 days. We have been getting pretty good sun so far this summer.
Good luck out there!
In the pictures it is from left to right: AB2, AGDP1, AB1
(Below days are stated in time since seed sprouted.)
AB1 - Day 39 - 34"
AB2 - Day 36 - 30"
AGDB1 - Day 36 - 26"
- Watered twice with some different AN additives
- I am still amazed at the speed of these plants. Each "ring" around the tomato cage is about 10" apart. I love autos!
- Lots of pistil development in bud sites and on tops so I think she is at the end of the stretch.
- I have been watering them every 3-4 days.
- We have had 4 days in a row of rainy, cloudy days so I think the girls stretched hardcore!
Happy growing!
In the pictures it is from left to right: AB2, AGDP1, AB1
See the last picture for actual nutes used.
(Below days are stated in time since seed sprouted.)
AB1 - Day 46 - 43"
AB2 - Day 43 - 38"
AGDB1 - Day 43 - 31"
- I have been watering them when the pots are pretty dry and I feed every other water.
- I have been removing the upper most fan leaves that cast a shadow over the main cola and lower parts of the plant. My rule is just a few at a time over a few days to reduce and shock.
- I also tuck large fan leaves as well if it is safe to do so.
- AB1 is such a pretty plant. Lots of great branching, perfect inter-nodal spacing, tall. I think she is going to be my biggest producer.
- AB2 is very nice and purple but has very little branching and high inter-nodal spacing.
- AGDP1 is much shorter and bushier than the other plants but she is ready to pack on weight. I wish I had given her a bigger pot.
Happy growing!
In the pictures it is from left to right: AB2, AGDP1, AB1
See the last picture for actual nutes used. I mixed the amounts in 4 gallons of water.
(Below days are stated in time since seed sprouted.)
AB1 - Day 53 - 44"
AB2 - Day 50 - 39"
AGDB1 - Day 50 - 32"
- Every morning when I open the greenhouse I am greeted with a very pleasant flowery smell that is getting stronger every day. Terpinator👍
- I have been watering them when the pots are pretty dry and I feed every other water with about 1.5 gallons of nutes chased by a quarter gallon of water.
- I have been getting more aggressive with defoliation because I think it is nearing the end of most veg growth based on how much taller they got over the week. I probably will not take many more leaves from here on out.
- I think the stretch is over for the most part.
- I am not super familiar with autos but just taking a shot in the dark here, I think they have another 3 weeks on them at least based on their flower structure.
- Had to throw out my indoor crop because of spider mites so I am hoping these plants are not infected as well. There are what could be light signs of them but they would be very early.
- Almost Overdrive time!
Really enjoying growing outdoors. I would love to enlarge this set up to a full size greenhouse at some point.
Cheers to anyone stopping in. Happy growing.
In the pictures it is from left to right: AB2, AGDP1, AB1
(Below days are stated in time since seed sprouted.)
AB1 - Day 59 - 45"
AB2 - Day 57 - 40"
AGDP1 - Day 57 - 32"
- The smell is getting stronger and stronger! We have been having some nice mild to moderate winds and depending on which way it is blowing I can smell it from about 100 feet away and it just puts a smile on my face. Go Terpinator!! 👍
- Because it is an outdoor grow, I will most likely be using some sort of bud washing technique to make sure I get all the normal outdoor dirt and stuff off the buds before they cure.
- I am guessing another 2 weeks of nutes for these girls but I will be checking calyx trichomes later today. I will have pictures of those next week.
- I dug my flower pots down into the dirt a bit to keep them cooler and give them more vertical breathing space.
- I have been watering them when the pots are pretty dry and I feed every other water with about 1.5 gallons of nutes chased by a quarter gallon of water.
- I have found very minimal signs of spider mites on the lower leaves so I have been removing them on a daily basis. I am being diligent and looking for anything and everything. There are no large colonies, or webs anywhere and I have been letting small garden spiders set up shop and found several small mite carcasses in the webs so go natural predators! I have also been leaving the hoop house open for longer periods of time because it is getting closer and windier and that supposedly keeps their number slow and slow growing. If I had longer to flower I might be worried but they are so minimal that I should make it to harvest no problem. Thank you to @B4RNS and @Bigdaddyk for the advice on that.
Cheers to anyone stopping in! Happy growing.
So I had two phenotypes grow out. I had a purple Autoberry and a green one. The purple one has a very strong fruity odor with a hint of gasoline. The green one just smells like cut grass still despite hanging dry for 6 days @ constant 60% RH then slow curing for 2.5 weeks. The buds are super airy and never got the chance to fill out but to their credit they are covered in trichomes, very frosty. Our summers are short here so I planted on June 1st which is the first day to grow but they needed another 1-2 weeks, maybe more but it was too cold and wet outside. These were cut down at day 64. As it was, I was battling spider mites and I lost half my Auto GDP to bud rot so they had to come down.
The high feels like a classic indica that is still a little light because they need another month to finish curing.
It has been a rough season but I have learned a lot. Good luck out there and thanks for stopping by.
So I battled spider mites and had to throw some of the harvest away due to them. Learned a lot about insect prevention.
Thanks for everyone stopping by. New diary should come out in a week or two.
-Grim
So I had to harvest these a 1-2 weeks early due to spider mites and bud rot. I lost about half this plant, including most of the main cola, to bud rot unfortunately. It was very light grey and deep in the bud so by the time I saw it it was way too late. I am lucky I was able to salvage anything. It just got consistently cold and wet like it always does here in August.
The smoke: It smokes very smooth and has a heavy indica feel to it. I am actually pretty proud of how powerful she is after all she went through. A longer cure would have done her good but because of the mold I dried her quick and I have been smoking it for a bit now.
Lots of good lessons learned. Thanks all.
I learned a lot this grow. Outdoor growing is neat but I am not sure I am going to do it again next year. I think I would rather just get my indoor set up dialed in. Outdoor growing just feels so vulnerable to theft and insects and the weather. Thanks all.
Yeah outside is a whole different game. Things can go bad real quick. At least you got something to show for your effort. And you learn. Dealing with problems makes us better Growers. I wish you good luck with all your grows. 👊👊
Bro this 🐞 are amazing! Is just very curious for me to see what stuff you can get on your local market... where I am there is no way to find them... just no way...
Fantastic, on the first look I've thought you'd bought a Greenhouse, then I realized after reading that it was 100% homemade 👏👏👏
Just one thing , it's risky to bring outdoors plants indoors with others indoors plants , it's the best way to bring bugs inside your tent , and once the bugs inside your tent it's a pain in the *** to get rid of them. Outdoor most common bugs like thrips and spider mites get eaten by natural predators.
Brighid at work , keeping daddy's MJ 👍
You can give Mag Sulfur to the strawberry's when they start flowering, you're gonna have some nice fat and sweet juicy strawberry 🍓
Looks great man, I was planning on building a greenhouse this winter so I'll follow along and see how it goes for you. Hope everything goes well for you!
GrimbolTheDruid
