Outdoor Auto Banana Blaze

I germinated 2 seeds of Auto Banana Blaze from Dutch Passion. The seeds were germinated in about 3 days. I planted the seedlings in small pots and wil keep them inside or outside, depending on the night temperatures. I am located in Western Europe so the chance of getting temperatures below 5°C is still plausible. At daytime, the temperatures will get much higher (>20°C). I'm keeping the pots moist until the seedlings pop above the soil. Seeds looked great at arrival and germinated properly. One seedling came a little bit behind when popping from the seed, but I'm sure it will catch up.

A great week for both plants, being inside the greenhouse, where temperatures could go up to 30-35 °C, depending on wind and time of the day. A bit more humidity is also welcome in these rather hot, but also dry weather for the time of the year here in Western Europe. Soil is being kept moist by watering multiple times, because of high evaporation. Mr. High is similar in height of my Blackberry Kush, but the other one seems to be lagging 1 week behind, although being planted at the same time. They all look healthy and I'm looking forward to next week, where I will maybe have to accompany the stalk with a little stick.

The beginning of the 3rd week. Plants are looking good, but not great. I expected them to grow a little bit faster, but maybe I forgot the time it took between germination and first leaves with 3 leaflets. I'm still glad they do just fine and look healthy. I keep them in the greenhouse and repotted them in a pot that's a little bit bigger. Temperatures are great, but still a little bit too risky to plant them already in the garden, especially in the night where temps could drop to 5°C.

Week 4 What a week again with a lot of sunshine for the plants, but also (finally) some rain. Plants are still inside the greenhouse, so no direct rain onto them. Humidity got raised to 75 from the moment the rain started. I'm tempting to top one of the two plants, but I don't know which one yet. Also going to apply lst to both plants by bending the branches away from each other. I did not fertilize yet for the second time, because I don't want them to grow out of their pots already. I still can't plant them outside, because nights are too chilly. They are thriving anyway, but once they will be in full ground, I'm sure they will even do better. UPDATE: I topped the biggest plant (Mr. High) at the 4th node, so 3 nodes remain with possible 6 new growing points.

Week 5 This week started with a lot of sun and will go on far at least this week. Temperatures are going up to 35 in the greenhouse. Today (2nd day of this week) I will plant all of my ladies in full ground. I prepared a plantbed 2 weeks ago with soil, potting soil, blood meal, bone meal, lava powder and mycorrhiza. I watered and mixed the soil and nutrients really well until today so the bed is moist enough to plant them in. The topped plant is doing well, although it should grow a bit faster, especially the side branches. They look really small, but I think they will stretch when planted inside full ground, with no restrictions for the roots. They still have about 6-7 weeks to grow or stretch until harvest. I applied LST to the plant that was not topped, so the side branches could get room to grow. Also trying to hold all branches as close to the ground as possible, because I planted them in an area that looks out onto another street (50m away only). So I want them to keep invisible to the public as much as possible. I noticed some green aphids on the topped plant. I cleared the plant from the aphids, but normally it's no big deal to have them while growing outside. It's very normal to have some insects crawling onto your plant, as long as it stays healthy.

Week 6 Plants are starting to show more preflowers, but not ready to call it flowering period. Plant is still making new shoots at a slow rate, mostly because I applied LST so the stem is almost horizontally growing. Also, the plant(s) get a lot of colder nights for this season (around 5°C and lower), so growth is a bit stagnated at the moment. In the daytime, it can get 20°C maximum. This week ended with a lot of heat from the sun and no rain at all, which they like very much and you could see it on the side branches which became longer and bushier in general. I still water every day because we haven't had rain in 1.5 month, so ground level of water is too low to olnly rely on that supply.

Week 7 The week began with some good conditions: a lot of heat and sunshine. Plants are looking more bushy than ever and side branches are elongating. They start to smell a little bit more like they do in vegetative state, but still lacking pistils to call it flowering state. I quit applying LST so the main stem can grow upright next to the side branches growing horizontally. I decided to apply LST to the topped plant on the third day of this week, because branches suddenly grew faster than expected. Also the other banana blaze plant that I LST'd before got LST'd even more (moved the wire further a node) since they both are not in flower yet. I also cut away the very first side branches from the topped plant (the ones closest to the ground) because they were too small and were getting almost no sunlight.

Week 8 Flowers are coming! A week with no rain (since 2 months) and a lot of sun and heat. Plant is growing very fast in this week wit a beautiful screen of green thanks to the LST and topping I did. Both plants are in a growth spurt, while Mr. Low is doing great as well with a lot of side branches, evenly distributed around for a good amount of light on almost every growing point.

Week 9 I started this week with applying some more LST because all side branches did shoot up in the air like crazy. So I pulled some branches down, but also redirecting the growing points so that I can create a SrOG as much as possible. I also defoliated a bit, because some beginning buds were getting almost no sun and were very small in comparison to the upper flower buds. A few days after and growing points are back pointing up towards the sun . Now almost every flowering bud gets direct sunlight. Plant looks happy, so I'm happy too.

Week 10 This wonderful plant is going wider (and bigger) than ever thought. Flowers are coming at a fast pace now and making a vast surface of different side branches. The skeleton of the plant is clearly visible at the pictures taken from below. The other plant is doing just fine, but rather smaller than the other one (the one that is topped). Flowers are also more abundant and the pistils from both plants are getting really fat (but slightly brown at the tips). Not really any trichomes are found and smell is still very low, more to the "plant-ish" smell than a banana smell, but that is still coming. Both plants are scheduled on 12 weeks, so we'll wait it out.

Week 11 She fattened up in bud size and smell this week. Also a lot of leaves began to grow bigger so they catch a lot of sun. I kinda leave the plant alone for now, just maybe a bit of correcting LST and moving away fan leaves that are on top of buds (not cutting away). She is really a fat one and didn't expect her to do so great after topping her and LST-ing her to the maximum. She even broke a big side branche, but I managed to hold it together to the main cola with some small wire. The wound healed carefully and buds are doing just fine. Smell is getting really pungent with that classic sour smell that does me think of a critical kush. The smaller one is also beginning to smell really pungent, but it's not the same type of smell as the topped one. She smells more smoothly and fruity. They both are going into week 12, but I think harvest will be in week 13 or maybe even 14.