High Country Haze

This will be an outdoor grow of three Purple Haze Auto seeds in soil. We live on top of a mesa in the Painted Desert at 6700 feet in evergreen woods in northeast Arizona. Our homestead grows organic heirloom seeds for vegetables, flowers and herbs. The air is indescribably clear and the sun is amazingly intense. Water is from a sandstone well. I make my own soil with rotted pine and juniper mulch from ancient trees, composted manure from open range cattle, donkeys and horses, elk, deer and antelope, chickens, sheep, goats, composted straw, coffee grounds, egg shells from our free range chickens, hardwood ash and biochar made on-site. Also crop remains, cut weeds and small bits of rotten wood. June 26: First seed is up, germinated in rotted Juniper mulch. Planted June 23. Looks vigorous. She will be named PH1, very clever. I'll let her build some strength and then transplant her into a 5 gallon pot, probably tomorrow. June 27: She looks vigorous with good color. Hints of purple around the edges. I want to let her build some more strength, but I know it's important to get autoflowers into their container rapidly. Maybe tomorrow. June 28: She's looking strong, so I moved her into her 5 gallon container today. I read on the Humboldt County Growers Association website that it's best to move autoflowers directly into their final pot right away rather than step them up through several sizes. They recommended the possibility of planting directly into the final pot from the beginning. Our nights here are too chilly to go that route. To sprout well and get roots started, they need to be in plugs or nursery trays to keep the roots warm enough. I have two other seeds left. I am considering an experiment to step up rapidly through several sizes to coddle the root system over the first 10-20 days. I understand their point. Autoflowers grow rapidly and don't have long to live. So you don't want to shock them because they can't afford the recovery time. It should also be taken into account that this advice comes from commercial growers who have to deal with a lot of plants at once. I work and live on the same property and only have three auto seeds so I can give each of them lots of attention. This is my first grow with autos. I think I'll run one up through the sizes and learn what I can. June 29: The other two seeds are breaking surface now. PH2 will get the same protocol as PH1, spend a day or two in the six pack and then go into a 5 gallon. PH3 will go through a rapid step-up protocol. She will remain in the six-pack for maybe a week, little less, then go to 4-incher for a week or so, then to 1-gallon, then 5 gallon. This lets me compare both methods side by side to see if planting autos straight into big pots is the better protocol at the other end of the season with our farm specific conditions at this latitude, altitude, sun, soil and water etc. June 30: PH1 looks great so far. Nice color, gaining size. PH2 shows good strength ad color. PH3 is still gaining strength, but seems fine. July 1: Transplanted PH2 into a 5 gallon and moved PH3 into a different six pack with growing soil instead of sprouting mix. Experiment underway, but ran out of space on my phone so no pictures. July 2: All three ladies looking happy. End of week 1.