Jon's First Outdoor Grow: Sugar Breath Photoperiod & Strawberry Banana Autoflower

[Jon]

I'm not sure what the cal-mag content is on the BP line you're using, but if it's low you could add some (unless it's the BP calmag, which is really high in N).

Seems hard to believe you would need to flush a 20-day old plant in a 1 gallon pot!

Hey @InTheShed, so here's what I decided and did about that plant.

I decided it is definitely nitrogen toxicity. I have all the classic symptoms. Green leaves that are darker than they should be. Curved claws. Those spots.

The question is, where the HELL would they be getting it?

I think I figured it out. Maybe. When I was mixing soil for these plants, I had a rough idea of where I was going to end up and what I wanted to end up with regarding my remaining soil with plants and such. I had more Ocean Forest than Happy Frog, and needed the same amount of both. It was only a little. So I filled this one gallon pot with straight Ocean Forest. I figured the plant wouldn't be there for long, how bad could it be? First and only time I did that, and I specifically DON'T do it for a very good reason.

I got my Fox Farms soil blend from the Fox Farms folks themselves, directly. They are the ones who told me it might not be a good idea to use straight Ocean Forest, as it's higher in certain things by far than many of their other soils, and some plants can't take it. The Happy Frog is much more basic and less likely to burn seedlings or cause early veg issues. I forgot I had done that, it fell through the cracks. Not much does around here, but that one did.

So, here's what I did:

- today I gave the first week 3 feeding of Blue Planet nutes as scheduled and at recommended dosage
- however I added a Tsp/gallon of the Humboldt's Secret CalMag plus Iron to that mix
- then tomorrow I am going to up pot her into her waiting pot of Happy Frog/Ocean Forest blend
- and water with plain water at 6.3

Sound like a plan?

Then hope that takes care of it.

 

[InTheShed]

I have to say I've seen folks use straight FFOF for seedlings and start feeding at the second set of true leaves, with no burn whatsoever.

No matter what it is, stick with the plan and see how it does!

 

[Jon]

I have to say I've seen folks use straight FFOF for seedlings and start feeding at the second set of true leaves, with no burn whatsoever.

No matter what it is, stick with the plan and see how it does!

Yup. Yeah, even the FF guys said it's very strain specific. I've done it in Dixie Cups before and had no issues, but never a one gallon pot. But it shouldn't matter. If it is this, (and I don't know for sure, obviously) - then this would be the first strain I've come across that needs something less than straight Ocean Forest. Out of maybe five or six times I did that to strains just for the Dixie cups cuz of whatever reason.

Live, grow, learn, grow better, yea? Heh.

1 plant out of 15 with issues so far, out of 18 if you count the photo tent. I'll take it.

 

[Bill284]

Hey Bill. I have a bag of frass. When I mix soil how does it affect it? Do I have to be concerned with npk? How much is recommended?

Hey Stone how are you doing my friend.
I use Frass & Dazzle you only need a small amount to generate millions of microbes.
I would layer air pots a couple inches of Coco then a layer of perlite sprinked with bokashi and frass.
It was like rocket fuel for roots.
As Jon mentioned its in my Gorilla Glue thread in sig.
They work better together but works well mixed into soil or coco.
So sprinkle a layer over your soil I mist it with kelp water then mix it in.
The microbes basically make the nutrients more readily available to the roots.
Also encourages growth and health.
It'll bring your soil to life.
Won't effect amount of n.p.k in soil but it does make what's there readily available.
Sorry I started typing yesterday but life got in the way.
Stay safe.
Bill

 

[StoneOtter]

Hey Stone how are you doing my friend.
I use Frass & Dazzle you only need a small amount to generate millions of microbes.
I would layer air pots a couple inches of Coco then a layer of perlite sprinked with bokashi and frass.
It was like rocket fuel for roots.
As Jon mentioned its in my Gorilla Glue thread in sig.
They work better together but works well mixed into soil or coco.
So sprinkle a layer over your soil I mist it with kelp water then mix it in.
The microbes basically make the nutrients more readily available to the roots.
Also encourages growth and health.
It'll bring your soil to life.
Won't effect amount of n.p.k in soil but it does make what's there readily available.
Sorry I started typing yesterday but life got in the way.
Stay safe.
Bill

Awesome Bill! That's all I need to know! That has to get in my garden! You're not the first one to say it's a good combo! Thanks!

 

[Jon]

Awesome Bill! That's all I need to know! That has to get in my garden! You're not the first one to say it's a good combo! Thanks!

Thanks Bill, and thanks @StoneOtter. PLEASE continue to ask questions in my thread. I encourage it even if it's not related to my particular grow. We're all here to learn and the more people who ask public questions and get great answers from Yodas like @Bill284, the more we all grow better weed. THANKS.

 

[Jon]

So Let's Do Our First Bud Check on The Raspberry Parfait
Grow Day 53
Flower Day 17

Here's some pictures trying to specifically show how the RP is budding after 17 days of flower. A couple things to me are noteworthy.

- This plant is INCREDIBLY healthy. One of the healthiest plants I have ever grown. I'm going to give props to @GeoFlora Nutrients for that. She's loving them, obviously. And the ease of using these nutes is unparalleled. I'm in love I think.
- To my eye, this looks pretty damn frosty and a thick coat at that, for only the 17th day of budding. Or maybe this is just what healthy outdoor plants do at this point?

Anyway, enjoy the pictures guys. First picture is the very top of the top central cola!

 

[StoneOtter]

She does look like she's got a healthy attitude!

 

[ProfessorFlora]

I'm a Dad Again!!!
Blueberry Photo Day 1
Strawberry Lemonade Photo Day 1

Ha! For the second time in my "career," I got a seed just tossed in the dirt to sprout! Yay. I love me some Blueberry.

Very excited about the Strawberry Lemonade too. I haven't posted on that strain, so here's a link I found from @ProfessorFlora that says more about it than any literature from Barney's Farm or resellers. And it was grown and written by one of our own! Excellent review PF, thanks! Here's the link:

ProfessorFlora Reviews Strawberry Lemonade By Barneys Farm

STRAWBERRY LEMONADE STRAIN REVIEW Hey 420! Back again with another Barneys strain review and this time it's the Strawberry Lemonade. Before I start this review I'd like to state that I would have liked to have given this strain another week or so in flower but I was forced to harvest a little...

www.420magazine.com

So both these girls are in threes, by necessity, and both are in about 75% coco/25% Fox Farms OF/HF blend, with the FF on the top three or four inches and then all coco underneath. Did not have time to get Bokashi on @Bill284's suggestion, but next time I will be using his mix. Heh. Anyway, since they're basically in coco after the first ten days or so, I'm going to simply give them water Ph'ed at 6.3 for the first week, and starting after that I'll Ph the water to 5.8, also per Bill's suggestion. More like an edict. LOL.

They are getting Fox Farms nutes. Never tried Ph-ing FF nutes to 5.8 before. Wonder how much Ph up and down I'll use? Also wondering just how often I am going to have to water these puppies. Lol.

They will live in the @Mars Hydro rig until they are big enough to strand up to the outside environment (the "all the way outside" environment, lol), and then they'll hit the yard for 10 of sun, 10 of LED until theyre about 2 feet tall or maybe a bit more, then we'll toss them in the yard to go to bud. I"m going to keep them small despite knowing a three will support a larger plant because I want the roots to have space for flower, and if I veg them too long the three will be filled with roots before the flip. I think. Flying a bit blind. But I am kind of expecting the roots are going to build up faster in coco than they do in soil.

So that's about it, here's the babies!!!

- Blueberry photo day 1
- Strawberry Lemonade photo day 1

Thanks for the shout, Jon and good luck with the Strawberry Lemonade. Nice strain but I grew it at the wrong time of year really.

Great looking garden by the way.

 

[InTheShed]

She does look like she's got a healthy attitude!

And happy AF!

 

[Jon]

@NextLight Auto Rig
Day 54
Final Fattening Window Underway!!!!
Fun With Light Experimetation

These autos are totally humming along. They have exploded in pistils and fatter growth in the last couple days. That's usually a sign in my auto experience that they are entering the final two/three weeks of growth and fattening up. The Strawberry Bananas are getting ridiculously fat and the buds for the most part are very indica looking. They are also incredibly dense with frost as you can see. The Gelato is budding slower and will finish after the SBs. The buds are beginning to get fat though. Excellent yielding plant I can already see.

I also did something I never did before with the lights. I have the 420h NextLight on 100% power and centered, and then a blurple on either side of it. Once they started to show buds, I switched the two blurples to bloom only, ie, reds. So I have full spectrum from the main light and reds from both sides to augment it. This works remarkably well and I have done this with both photos and autos, always with great results.

But I wanted to see what would happen, so I switched both blurples back to full spectrum, and we're going to keep it there for the rest of flower until the two last days before the chop. I did this a few days ago. This is after about a month with the reds, and almost overnight they exploded in pistils. Timing and would have happened anyway? Maybe so. But maybe not. They seem to really really like it so I'm going with it. Then, for the last 48 hours before the chop, since I have the blurples and they will do it, I'm going to try the ending blue light treatment on these girls. I will turn off the NextLight and run only the two blurples on Veg only, ie, blues only. 48 hours of blue light. I've read a bunch of folks who get good extra trich and terp production from this, although I have yet to see any science on it. But I know it can't hurt, and it might help, so we'll try that, followed by 36 hours of darkness. Then chop. See how it goes.

Here's the girls as they head into the weekend. There's a group shot then bud porn. I apologize for getting too close and a little out of focus on a few, but you get the gist of it. Lol.

1. Everyone
2. Gelato Bud 1
3. Gelato Bud 2
4. Strawberry Banana 1 Bud
5. SB 2 Bud
6. SB 3 Bud
7. SB 4 Bud

 

[Bill284]

@NextLight Auto Rig
Day 54
Final Fattening Window Underway!!!!
Fun With Light Experimetation

These autos are totally humming along. They have exploded in pistils and fatter growth in the last couple days. That's usually a sign in my auto experience that they are entering the final two/three weeks of growth and fattening up. The Strawberry Bananas are getting ridiculously fat and the buds for the most part are very indica looking. They are also incredibly dense with frost as you can see. The Gelato is budding slower and will finish after the SBs. The buds are beginning to get fat though. Excellent yielding plant I can already see.

I also did something I never did before with the lights. I have the 420h NextLight on 100% power and centered, and then a blurple on either side of it. Once they started to show buds, I switched the two blurples to bloom only, ie, reds. So I have full spectrum from the main light and reds from both sides to augment it. This works remarkably well and I have done this with both photos and autos, always with great results.

But I wanted to see what would happen, so I switched both blurples back to full spectrum, and we're going to keep it there for the rest of flower until the two last days before the chop. I did this a few days ago. This is after about a month with the reds, and almost overnight they exploded in pistils. Timing and would have happened anyway? Maybe so. But maybe not. They seem to really really like it so I'm going with it. Then, for the last 48 hours before the chop, since I have the blurples and they will do it, I'm going to try the ending blue light treatment on these girls. I will turn off the NextLight and run only the two blurples on Veg only, ie, blues only. 48 hours of blue light. I've read a bunch of folks who get good extra trich and terp production from this, although I have yet to see any science on it. But I know it can't hurt, and it might help, so we'll try that, followed by 36 hours of darkness. Then chop. See how it goes.

Here's the girls as they head into the weekend. There's a group shot then bud porn. I apologize for getting too close and a little out of focus on a few, but you get the gist of it. Lol.

1. Everyone
2. Gelato Bud 1
3. Gelato Bud 2
4. Strawberry Banana 1 Bud
5. SB 2 Bud
6. SB 3 Bud
7. SB 4 Bud

Excellent work Jon.
Stay safe.
Bill

 

[StoneOtter]

They're blasting pistols! NIce!

 

[Rexer]

Awesome, look how dense they are and throwing pistils like crazy. These girls are on track for some beautiful flowers

 

[Jon]

They're blasting pistols! NIce!

I really think when I switched back to full spectrum after reds for a month it made them do this. The timing is too uncanny otherwise. I wouldn't try this with prize photos probably, as I believe strongly in environmental consistency, including light, with them, as the sun doesn't suddenly change spectrums one day like we do with LED. But autos can take a lot more abuse I've found. I could be wrong, but they were not doing this, not like THIS, until I switched the light back to full spectrum. Hmmm.....

 

[Jon]

Friday Night Porn Special
Strawberry Banana (Strawnana) Autoflower #2
Colas Only Porn
Day 54

I can't tell you guys how psyched I am to have four healthy roaring Strawnana's almost ready to harvest. Not only is it one of my all time favorite strains, this is my first shot at growing it and MAN is it awesome to grow. BIG, chunky, trichome-laden buds that look every bit like the world's strongest autoflower of 2021 (according to 420FastBuds). This auto gets up to 27%!!!!! Up to now the strongest auto I've grown was the Cinderella Jack from my second grow. These buds are WAY denser, and WAY more trichome laden. They also stink and smell SOOOO good. Sweet, definitely smell the strawberry, not so much the banana, and the entire lennai stinks from them and the Gelato. Also psyched to have the one photo of it going and uppotted today. Can't wait to see what she produces. 420FastBuds says this auto can get tall, like 150 cm. All these I topped and trained and bent early stems and such, so I chose to not let that happen this time. But I want to to see what happens left unchecked, now that I've seen the other way, and I have more of these seeds. Also have 3 Zkittlez from Royal Queen Seeds on the way. I smell more autos coming. Lol. Oh, and another bag of Sohum mysteriously showed up on my card statement. Lmao.

So this focus is on SB#3. Earlier I showed you a bud top from each plant. These 4 cola shots are all from SB#3. These are four of the six main apex colas, there is a lot more central interior buds, and these are so dense and wide that they practically all grow together at the bottom. The other 2 apex buds are not quite as fat as these four, still sweet, but not AS sweet, and didn't make the pictures. This little, fat, glistening lady looks like she'll yield more than it appears on first glance. VERY indica pheno I guess, these are classic. I defoliated the inner part carefully cuz she's so dense in there and the leaves are so greasy and covered with trichs.

These four pictures all look different depending on where the bud was in relation to both the lights and my painting behind the plants. In some they look purple, in others, not so much. I did no editing on these, just enhanced the clarity and definition a little bit. I thought they looked kinda cool.

Please get off well on this Friday night porn. I did. More than once. Heh.

 

[Jon]

FULL DISCLOSURE POST
Nutrient/Sponsor Related

Well, I made a small mistake with the @Blue Planet Nutrients. I jumped into using them immediately, the day I got them in the mail, because of where the plants already were in growth. I did no research on them as I always do. I just assumed I could use them fine and have no issues.

I was wrong. Some of you may have seen me and Shed discussing the clawing on the Strawberry Banana Fast Flowering Photo plant - she was getting Blue Planet nutes. The other 2 plants were the Dos-Si-Dos autos #1 and #2. So three total plants got the first couple weeks of BP nutes till today.

The SB FF Photo was showing clawing, and spotting. I uppotted her to her 3 today. Also flushed her. The 2 DSD autos were both showing signs that they were not growing as vigorously as the other DSD auto or the Gorilla Zkittlez auto, or any of my others. They don't appear to have any issues yet, but they just don't have the oomph they should at this stage.

So I made the difficult decision to discontinue Blue Planet nutes for this grow. I'm SORRY BP guys. It's not your product, it's my inexperience with using it. And bad timing. I was all excited to include you guys and have four sponsors in the mix, and I got carried away. But at the end of the day I simply cannot sacrifice three plants, or even compromise them, on my last grow here when the goal is maxing yield before a break. I decided to go instead with something I felt more comfortable and familiar with. So again, please understand, by no means am I saying the least negative thing about BP nutes. It is more an indictment of my lack of skills. I promise in the future to do a proper grow journal and use the BP nutes and do a proper focus on them.

That said, I amended all three of those plants with @GeoFlora Nutrients Veg nutes today. They are all in FF soil, the Geo nutes I already know work well with my mix. So Geo guys, you now own most of my outdoor grow except for the plants in Sohum. The nutes better be as good as reported.

I agonized all day over this post. I didn't want to have to tell the BP guys I stopped with them, and it's too bad my inexperience cost me that for this journal. Sorry again BP folks. Like I said, I'll make it up to you. But again, in the end, I would not be accurately representing my grow if I didn't share this information.

Next application of veg nutes for those three is 11/18.

 

[Jon]

Outdoor Photos Update of a Different Sort....

Here's the RP and the PUC after a day and a half of solid rain for the first time since they've been outside. They live here in direct sun during the day. Today we got an inquisitive visitor, who I watched for a while until he got too close to my plants and I thought he might try to eat an RP bud, so I took this picture through the sliding glass door and then opened it and chased him off. Molly goes nuts over this guy. I fed him a small tilapia I caught one day when he was close to me as I caught it. Tossed it his direction and a few minutes later he speared the thing and ate it. Ever since, he stops by daily, and sometimes in the late afternoon when he sees me fishing. Crazy. But today was the first time he showed interest in the plants. Great. As If bugs, mold, and whatever else aren't enough to worry about, now I gotta worry about rogue gigantic birds eating my buds too?

 

[Rexer]

Outdoor Photos Update of a Different Sort....

Here's the RP and the PUC after a day and a half of solid rain for the first time since they've been outside. They live here in direct sun during the day. Today we got an inquisitive visitor, who I watched for a while until he got too close to my plants and I thought he might try to eat an RP bud, so I took this picture through the sliding glass door and then opened it and chased him off. Molly goes nuts over this guy. I fed him a small tilapia I caught one day when he was close to me as I caught it. Tossed it his direction and a few minutes later he speared the thing and ate it. Ever since, he stops by daily, and sometimes in the late afternoon when he sees me fishing. Crazy. But today was the first time he showed interest in the plants. Great. As If bugs, mold, and whatever else aren't enough to worry about, now I gotta worry about rogue gigantic birds eating my buds too?

Beautiful picture with the Crane in it!

 

[Jon]

New Autoflowers Check
Day 13
3 Dos-Si-Dos (2 in 7s/1 in a 5)
1 Gorilla Zkittlez (7 gallon pot)
DSD #1 and #2 @GeoFlora Nutrients next veg application 11/18

These gals are basically big enough to start their outside by day/LED by night regimen, which they'll maintain for the rest of their lives. They'll start outdoors on Monday. 10 hours sun/10 hours LED.

All of them are looking pretty healthy now and displaying excellent 13 day growth, especially the two Sohum plants. The two that just got nute switched and in FF soil are a touch behind but still looking great. I just watered in these pictures, but these girls all pray daily to the @Mars Hydro FC-E6500. Forgive the droop.

I also put in a three picture display of exactly how I am watering these autos. Remember, I'm trying to fill a seven with an auto root ball in soil. Sure it can be done. Especially with the outdoor element in play. BUT....I figured it's going to take very targeted watering to effectively grow out these roots. So here's the pics, with explanation:

1. Plant before I water and what the surface looks like. She looks lonely all small in a seven. Lol. Not for long.
2. I dig a trough with my fingers in a circle around the plant maybe half an inch deep. This is going to hold the water in an exact circle around the plant. I water slowly, so the trough never overflows. This allows for extremely targeted watering with no extra. To target, I use the circumference of the plant as a guide and create my trough in a circle around that circumference. Each time I water the circle trough gets a little bit larger. I am trying to give my roots what I think they need to fill this pot. Targeted watering like this has got to help. Here's the trough.
3. What the surface looks like after watering. No dark (watered) dirt anywhere but in the trough around the plant. None in the middle where it's still dry. None wasted around the outside of the trough, which allows for quicker dry out before the next watering.
4. Sohum plants, DSD #3 in the back, Gorilla Zikttlez in the front, both in 7s.
5. Fox Farms soil plants with GeoFlora nutes, DSD #1 and #2, 1 in a 7, one in a 5.