First time growing outdoors

These are 3 clones I got from a family friend, so no clue about the genetics beyond "gorilla glue". I grew them inside (where I had some thrip and pH issues delaying growth) for a bit over a month, and moved them outside May 30th. I topped once, and supercropped once before bringing them outside. During the first 2 weeks of being outside I did some LST to encourage lateral growth, and they took to becoming dense shrubs pretty well. For most of June I rarely had to water them; they got some rain and seemed to just sip the water. Starting about 2 weeks ago they got much thirstier, and I first had to do 3 gallons/plant every 2 days, and the last 3 waterings were 5 gal/plant and 2-3 days apart each time. Looking through previous outdoor growers reports, most in my area see flowers forming in mid August. October weather can be a real crap shoot where I live, so I light-proofed my shed and starting last night (Jul 19th) I'm moving them in there over night to give them 12 hours of dark. I'll do this for at least 3 weeks, but will likely continue until I hear of other locals with outdoor photos showing bud. The dolly I have to help move them has really small wheels which sucks for going over grass. Further complicating things, because of two narrow spots just a bit wider than the stake width I need to push the dolly rather than pull. Assuming that there isn't an early flower season that occurs, I've gained 2-3 weeks against October weather. Because of the narrow passages I mentioned, I decided to stake and support the girls, and needed to remove the lowest growth that was only growing outward, and too far outward at that. It's a bit sad; previously they were all ~36" wide, and now they're ~28. There's also some people asking for clones, so I'll likely take a few cuttings since flowering hasn't really started. I just wish I knew yesterday; I took off so much vegetation, especially from down below; I could easily have done the 15 clones I can handle in my setup.

One week in, and I'm already annoyed with moving them back and forth into the shed. Part of the problems is 1) the door way, and 2) an equally narrow section between a trellis (with grape vine) and hedge mean that I need to be pushing the dolly (so the leaves/stems get pushed upwards and don't catch against obstacles. Pushing, instead of pulling, a dolly with a heavy object is non-optimal for bumps. Between this year and next I'm planning to get some Tropicanna Poison, which is an F1 child of a photo and an auto. So while it flowers like standard photos, it flowers faster, like an auto. Assuming we like the product that I'll grow over the winter, we can have some clones ready for next year's outdoor grow and the fast flower will hopefully mean I can get a harvest without worrying about Oct. weather. The stretch is definitely underway, with the tops putting out a bunch of tops with pre-flowers very evident before the leaves are even fully formed. I find it odd that I'm seeing less physical stretch (i.e. height) than I saw with the indoor plants. Only about 4" of difference in height of the branch I use for measuring.

First buds appeared this Wednesday! Still continuing with shed time at night; I'm still dwelling how/when/if I'll stop this. From start to stop, I can get the plants out in the morning in 7 minutes, and put them away at night in 5. It's also time I'd love to get back. But it also could prevent them being seen by casual weed thieves, as well as saving them from frequent night rains in Sept. But they're also soon going to be getting sticky which will suck for handling them. Speaking of, I'll probably pick a separate shirt to use while doing this, as even tying them up a bit more today has probably made it so I'll reek of weed until I change. Speaking of tying them up, the video allows one to see trees in the background getting tossed around in the wind, while they don't have too much movement. And I love my windchimes :) . Still watering 5 gallons every 2-3 days. Today was pretty cool; only a high of 26C.

Sigh, first problems for outdoor grow. I think it looks most like calcium deficiency. And given that Pro Mix Organic is mostly peat and coco coir, cal/mag are likely to be at issue. Mixed up some weak nutrients+calmag into water, and corrected to 6.35 instead of playing loosey goosey with the pH during the last few weeks for their watering on Saturday. Today I mixed a foilar spray with calmag and a bit of micro mixed in; they're still drying off in the shade right now. The buds are making good progress, but watching a number of leaves slowly turning yellows/browns has been a bit painful.

After the answer that it might be potassium deficiency (and hey, going in to flower), I added some flora micro and bloom to the foliar spray I did, and that seemed to slow/arrest the yellowing leaves. I stopped the foliar and continued feeding similar to the indoor coco grow, but the yellower started up again. Foliar fed this morning (calmag, micro, bloom, liquid koolbloom), and I think I'll continue every other day well into flower. Because of the volume, I'm using tap water, rather than RO for the outdoor grow, so that's almost 600 EC before I add anything. As such, the concentration of nutes making it in is lower than I'd like; hopefully the foliar spray well off set this. Assuming I don't lose the harvest to pests/thieves/mold/rot, and I grow outdoors next year, I'll likely try super soil.

Things have mostly just kept on trucking. With the break in our heat, watering/feeding was 3-4 days. It was windy enough that I was really happy to have support preventing the stems from getting blown down. Plus they can keep energy all towards growing big buds rather than further strengthening the stems.

A crappy thing from a security perspective; a neighbour informed me (not complaining), that they can smell the plants from the second they step off the bus (we leave near a bus stop). Granted, they can't tell exactly where the smell is coming from if they didn't already know we're growing, but they were just kind of awe struck how powerful it was. So I think my nose is broken between the indoor and outdoor grow; I can only smell anything when I'm a few inches from a flower, or if I just brushed up against one. A smaller lower bud was rotting at the top, so I cut it off a few nodes under. I'll need to closely watch that. I was thinking that I might still be good for a bit to not bring them under our covered deck (they're heavy to lift up the 1+ foot to the deck) for all but the heaviest of rains, but that might show it's time to rethink that. I'm unsure about the leaf yellowing; foliar feeding seemed to start making it worse, so I've stopped. I'm pulling off the leaves after they become more yellow than green. I figure others defoiliate far more severely than this is ending up. Some of the leaves have white speckles as I'm pulling them off. It really doesn't look like PWM, and the leaves that I've kept haven't seen to get worse. I think it's thrip bites becoming stark white scars as the leaf yellows. Speaking of yellowing, a lot of trees/shrubs are showing some opportunistic early leaf colouring and losing leaves, so maybe it's partly weather? As the buds are looking good, and future outdoor grows will be super soil (assuming I get a harvest (sigh, strong smell)), I've decided to not sweat this too much, and just keep defoliating as the leaves look yellow enough that I consider them more of an energy sink than a benefit.

I'm seeing a bit of purple starting on some of the colas - which I thought wasn't expected with this strain. It probably has more to do with the cooling nights than with fall coming on. We've had a few nights down to 10C now. Currently expecting rain off and on with cloudiness for the next few days, so I might leave the girls up on the deck, unless I get some ramp or easier/faster way to move them up/down. When they've just been water, they've got some weight to them, and the lateral growth makes it difficult to get close to them without getting a sticky, stinky face. Without being close to the object lifting, leverage and physics aren't on your side. I thought that I've been pulling leaves before they get to the point of falling off, but upon closer inspection I saw each plant had 5-10 leaves that had fully necrotized and fallen, and were on top of buds (the first time seeing this, I thought it was more bud rot. So I took off what felt like a lot of leaves, but the in grand scheme isn't too much. I also tied a few colas to try to better space out the growth.