Oudoor Autos - Earth Juice Trials 1

The first week of my Cream Caramel Auto outdoor grow. The weather has been ideal for cannabis outdoors; mostly sunny days (some June gloom) with in-sun temps maxing out at 95 degrees Fahrenheit, while ambient temps rest at 75 degrees Fahrenheit. A coastal region with humidity swings from 20-80% from noon to midnight, but usually sitting at about 55% during the day. Medium is a DTE All-Purpose dry-amended Roots Organics Formula 707 mix including homemade worm castings. Very little Crimson Clover will be seen but I will not be factoring that in. The hydro shop sent me Earth Juice "Elements" Grow and Bloom to run trials. I will be subbing this pair in for the originals and using the Earth Juice “Big 5” system. I will be doing a comparison to the Original Earth Juice Grow/Bloom using Sweet Seeds Caramel Cream Auto. This is just for fun and I will be holding trials on three or four different genetics to account for phenotype differences. 100% Germination on all FOUR seeds sent in my 3 pack (As always, thanks for the freebie, Sweet Seeds), but only three seeds will be tested; Elements Grow/Bloom (green tag), Original Grow/Bloom (red tag), and control (filtered water and additives only; no Grow or Bloom) (blue tag). The Earth Juice “Big 5” system will be supplemented with Hygrozyme, NPK Industries RAW Bloom Microbes, Mammoth P, Extreme Gardening Azos & Mykos, Yucca powder (surfactant), Worm Casting Teas (2 cups to 5 gallons water fueled by 80ml Blackstrap molasses 24hr brew), and Corn Sprout Teas at different intervals throughout the grow cycle. The actual substances going in the water then into the soil will be documented week by week in the "Nutrients" section of the diary. I germinated by placing seeds in a Ful-Humix solution 24 hrs. Next, I placed seeds into a damp paper towel and placed that into a glass food container. When the taproots reached 1/4" I planted them in 6 gallons of soil using 7-gallon fabric pots and watered with Mykos. They sprouted after 2 days and that is my day 1 (seen in pics). I began the first days with a half-strength fertilizer solution/ full strength Mykos mix, and as the week ended increased Catalyst, Microblast, and Grow to 5ml per gallon.

The weather was gloomy for week 2. Although the June Gloom and coastal morning mist were around a bit more than the week prior, the temps and humidity were about the same. The fog would rise up about noon and the full sun was available. Tragedy struck on day 10. One of the animals must have taken a nibble out of the control plant. So much for minimal stress... This test was more about the Original grow vs the Elements line so we will keep moving forward. The control plant will not be the same, but hopefully, it will still give some good fruit to test against the others. Needless to say, I am sad but the show must go on. As far as nutes go, I have not changed anything for week two and I am keeping it light. Lots of Mykos for root development. There is already a noticeable difference in size with the elements plant looking taller and more robust. Not sure if this is phenotype based or nutrition-based.

Week 3 was a paradise for outdoor growing. Full sun all day and temps getting a little hotter but maxing out in the low 80's. Humidity is balancing out and staying around 50%. Nothing eventful other than the boom in growth from all of the ladies. They have all doubled since last week and they are looking healthy and happy. Elements is taking a clear advantage in the size department, but frankly, I expected that. Elements measures in at 7 inches while the other two are at about 4 inches. I will be judging the flowers based on taste as well as yield and overall health of the plant, so size isn't everything. the control is coming back after the tragic nibble incident. By the way, of whom I've yet to find a culprit! For nutrients, I decided to try a new product on all three as a supplement and that's the Grotek Pro-Silicate. I wanted the GodSilica From Earth Juice but I'm not exactly sure they still produce it. If anyone out there knows give me a shout, please. I mixed it in first as per the instructions and many suggestions online. It raises Ph quite a bit so I'll be lowering it using critic acids until I run into any problems. Citric acid can sometimes be unstable and Ph will raise after some time. All and all it was a good week for these ladies and I'm excited to see them going forward. I will be starting out next week with a worm castings tea to offset any imbalance that silica has the potential to create. Just being cautious plus I think its time for the first inoculation with a worm tea.

Hey there, Peeps! I was traveling the majority of week 4 so this week was a surprise for me too. I took pics the morning I departed which was day 1 of week 4, or day 22. I fed the plants a generous amount of earthworm casting tea with the corresponding nutes that morning as an extra measure against drying out in a week. This ended up working well and the plants looked great when I got back to them. I took some extra pics from the day I got back, day 28, to make up for the lack of pics for the week. As you can see from the pics, these ladies have entered flowering and are looking healthy! I researched the weather for the week and although a couple of days topped out at 90-93 degrees Fahrenheit, the mean high was 84 and the overall daytime average was 79. The humidity was a bit higher than the previous weeks at about 67%. It must have been pretty muggy and a little miserable for humans, but not for these ladies. I fed these plants the same amounts as the previous week with the addition of the earthworm castings tea. This brought my PPM to about 900 and this is the minimum I will be feeding these plants in the upcoming weeks. I will be adding a few more things to the mix for flowering so pay attention to the nutrients section week to week. Again to clarify, the green tag is getting Earth Juice Elements Grow/Bloom along with the rest of the Big 5 Earth Juice line, the red tag is getting the Earth Juice Original Big 5 line, and the blue tag is getting the Earth Juice big 5 line minus any Grow/Bloom. It looks to me as though I might be getting 3 different phenos, either that or the elements is simply crushing the size portion of the trial. Upon arrival, I measured Elements at 12.5 inches, Original at 9.5 inches, and Control at 6 inches. They will be getting their first flower feeding this next week and I'm excited to see what happens next. Stay tuned. Wondering if I should do any Low-Stress Training, which I normally do, since it throws another variable in the experiment. Shoot me a comment and let me know what you think.

Hello again. Nothing major going on this week, which is week 2 of flowering. There is a slight hint of sweet and fruity cannabis now coming off of the bud sites, but not enough to set off any alarms. The weather has been very mild, and all of the plants are loving it. The days are staying right around 75 Fahrenheit and the nights near 65 Fahrenheit. The humidity makes the sun feel great at approximately 55-65%, although the coastal fog does come in late at night and fade in the morning. The ladies are getting full sun all day long until the sun sets at 8 pm. The plants have not gotten much taller, but are now getting a full flowering formula. I didn't mention that I took the worm castings tea I made a few weeks back and used it as a Preventative Pest Management foliar spray; they all received a foliar spray once per week in the last two weeks. This week I used a foliar spray made of homemade Lactobacillus and Molasses. I will continue to do so for the next couple of weeks or until I see the bud sites are getting too big to spray around. I've decided not to do any training with these plants and just let the experiment ride on the nutes alone. The sacrifice in yield is one I am willing to take to determine what qualities the nutrients will bring. See you next week! Thanks for the likes and the views!

Hello again peeps, Week 7 began to show what I wanted to see during this experiment. The Earth Juice Originals formula is killing the trichome production, and I bet the terps are not far behind. The Control is beginning to show some differences when comparing them to the Elements' size and the vigor and resin production of the Original. It seems that Grow and Bloom are not just marketing in a bottle :). The weather was fantastic all week long and stable overall again. Temps were in the mid to high 70's during the day and the mid 60's at night. The leftover humidity from the coastal fog is keeping everyday very comfortable. I am finding these ladies reaching for the sky daily. The nutrients stayed the same as last week except for the addition of a little more molasses. I'm about to turn the bloom up quite a bit in the coming weeks, but it looks like I better hurry because these ladies are eager to finish. I'll be giving them a mid-week watering with an earthworm castings tea to make sure that I am capitalizing on everything in the soil. I am now feeling what I think might be remorse for not doing LST on these plants. They sit next to one that is LST'd, and it is quite a bigger animal. It's all good because I see the benefits of each formula, which is what this experiment is all about—that and getting to smoke on these super lovely berry smelling sweet ganja nugs. See you next week. Things are getting good.

Hey there peeps! Another exciting week for these ladies here by the coast. The weather has seemed a bit hotter, but upon checking the averages it seems to have only gone up a few degrees Fahrenheit. Summer is in full swing and the conditions are still very good. It's been getting a little colder at night, which is a little weird, so some purpling is happening at the tops. Nothing major but combined with the crazy thricome production these little ladies are something to look at. The smell is now very noticeable when I walk by a few feet away. It's a sweet smell. When I rub the sugar leaves it reveals the details. Grape cake, fruit punch, raspberries... maybe peaches. The traditional weed smell is secondary with some slightly skunky menthol and fresh rubber but you have to look for it. The oils leave my fingers smelling like bitter citrus rinds. I fed more bloom respectively to turn the PPM way up and I cut the Xatalyst out this week. Normally this is when I would begin cranking the nutes, but as I look at the progression week by week I think I may have to begin flushing... These autos are only my third auto grow, and although I would consider myself very adept at working with many photoperiod strains, I'd have to say that these could have flourished with someone who knows autos a bit better. First off, I should have definitely done some low-stress training. The reason I didn't is that initially, I thought the nutrient lines would affect yield a lot more than they did. Is this the only reason these autos stayed so small? I doubt it. But do I know that for sure? NO. I am a rookie with autos and until I get a few larger harvests I won't consider myself otherwise. Second, I have no idea what's happening with the advancement of bud development with these autos. Thankfully I know enough to check for clouding and ambering in trichome heads, but in week four of flowering, they appear to be getting ready for harvest. The leaves are discoloring and the buds are looking SO ripe. Anyone that checks this out with experience on this strain in particular please let me know if I should flush now. I'm only guessing, but if I'm guessing: I'm guessing they come down within a week or two. I'll chop them down when I see 10% amber regardless of where we are on the calendar. Right now we are changing from clear to cloudy with 50% or more already cloudy. The end of this week marks day 22 of flowering. Please help.

Ohhh noo peeps!!! Tragedy. This has been a very good outdoor grow and I have had very few hiccups overall. Everything was going well and then boom... the Elements and Original's tops were attacked by worms. I had been closely watching them because something didn't feel right and I woke up to the tops showing what appeared to be light burn. Upon closer inspections I found the culprit and was able to salvage a lot of the plant. However, it was not without the loss. In the end I lost about 2 grams from the top each of the infected plants. The Control plant remained unaffected, thankfully. This is not the end of the world, but I am a visual person so seeing the tops damaged is going to hurt me for the remainder of these girls's short life. I believe the reason these two were attacked is because the were too far along in bud development by the time I began spraying for pest prevention. Also, I could have sprayed them weekly once I did begin my pest prevention regimen. In the end would it have been worth it to spray these nugs deep into development... I guess so. The weather is getting a bit hotter and the sun is beating down. I have begun flushing all three and I believe I may be taking them down within the next 10 days. The smell of these nugs is amazing and the coloring on the tops before we lost them was pretty. The trichome production on the remaining nugs leaves me to believe this is going to be great smoke soon. I dry for 14 days in darkness and 60% humidity to make that happen. See you next week for what could possibly be the last entry in this diary. I will update after cure as well to update on the final results of the nutrient line comparison. PS. I am trying a different camera. Lets see if it helps the quality.