Outdoor Growing With BeezLuiz

Hey there everyone! :welcome: I've started my season of growing so it's time to start a new journal. I'm a bit late with the journal, but I'll try to catch everyone up pretty quickly. I'm contemplating making this a perpetual journal so I made the title a little bit generic, but this is my 4th outdoor grow.

A little background here for any new visitors: My son (@Liquidintel ) and I have been growing since 2018, here in San Jose, California (37.3°N). Up to this point, we've been strictly outdoor growers. We grow in large fiber pots (usually 10 and 20 gallon sizes) using soil. You can check out my past journals - links are in my signature.

Here's the original line-up for this year's grow - it's already been changed a couple times.
Liquidintel's plants: My son only wants to grow photoperiod plants after his experience last year with some autos. He doesn't feel autos are worth his time and effort. Now that he has his own home, he'll be growing these at his place and hopefully we'll get some picture updates from time to time.

Zkittles (fem / photo) from Black Skull Seeds
Amnesia (fem / photo) from Dope Seeds
OG Kush (fem / photo) from Dope Seeds
Red Dragon (fem / photo) from Barney's Farm
Phantom OG (fem / photo) from Barney's Farm
Dream Queen from my back yard.

Dresden Green Diamond (fem / photo) from Garden of Green

The Phantom OG didn't crack after 3 days of soaking so it got replaced with a Dream Queen seed that we found on our plant from the 2018 grow. That seed also didn't crack after 3 days of soaking, so it got replaced with Dresden Green Diamond.

BeezLuiz's plants: My plan is was to grow 3 photo plants and 3 auto plants and then 3 more auto plants later in the summer after the first 3 are harvested.

Granddaddy Purple (fem / photo) from Weed Seeds Express
Purple Haze (fem / photo) from Weed Seeds Express
Gelat.OG (fem / photo) from a Spanish seed company
American Pie (fem / auto) from Pyramid Seeds
Zamaldelica (fem / auto) from Ace Seeds
Gorilla Cookies (fem / auto) from Fast Buds
Round 2 later this summer:
Glueberry O.G. (fem / auto) from Dutch Passion
Lemon (fem / auto) from a Spanish seed company
Northern Lights (fem / auto) from a Spanish seed company

These seeds were all started in early April and seedlings were above ground by 4/15 give or take a day. Since all seedlings look the same, I didn't really take any pictures of them that are worth sharing.
 
Hey there everyone! :welcome: I've started my season of growing so it's time to start a new journal. I'm a bit late with the journal, but I'll try to catch everyone up pretty quickly. I'm contemplating making this a perpetual journal so I made the title a little bit generic, but this is my 4th outdoor grow.

A little background here for any new visitors: My son (@Liquidintel ) and I have been growing since 2018, here in San Jose, California (37.3°N). Up to this point, we've been strictly outdoor growers. We grow in large fiber pots (usually 10 and 20 gallon sizes) using soil. You can check out my past journals - links are in my signature.

Here's the original line-up for this year's grow - it's already been changed a couple times.
Liquidintel's plants: My son only wants to grow photoperiod plants after his experience last year with some autos. He doesn't feel autos are worth his time and effort. Now that he has his own home, he'll be growing these at his place and hopefully we'll get some picture updates from time to time.

Zkittles (fem / photo) from Black Skull Seeds
Amnesia (fem / photo) from Dope Seeds
OG Kush (fem / photo) from Dope Seeds
Red Dragon (fem / photo) from Barney's Farm
Phantom OG (fem / photo) from Barney's Farm
Dream Queen from my back yard.

Dresden Green Diamond (fem / photo) from Garden of Green

The Phantom OG didn't crack after 3 days of soaking so it got replaced with a Dream Queen seed that we found on our plant from the 2018 grow. That seed also didn't crack after 3 days of soaking, so it got replaced with Dresden Green Diamond.

BeezLuiz's plants: My plan is was to grow 3 photo plants and 3 auto plants and then 3 more auto plants later in the summer after the first 3 are harvested.

Granddaddy Purple (fem / photo) from Weed Seeds Express
Purple Haze (fem / photo) from Weed Seeds Express
Gelat.OG (fem / photo) from a Spanish seed company
American Pie (fem / auto) from Pyramid Seeds
Zamaldelica (fem / auto) from Ace Seeds
Gorilla Cookies (fem / auto) from Fast Buds
Round 2 later this summer:
Glueberry O.G. (fem / auto) from Dutch Passion
Lemon (fem / auto) from a Spanish seed company
Northern Lights (fem / auto) from a Spanish seed company

These seeds were all started in early April and seedlings were above ground by 4/15 give or take a day. Since all seedlings look the same, I didn't really take any pictures of them that are worth sharing.
Amazing so far! Everything looks all ready to get started, and to setup. I’m definitely In on this one! Locking In!
 
The year started off with me receiving some great prize winnings from the Plant of the Month contest. My goal is to try using as much of the swag as possible. To start things off, I set up my new light from @NextLight :yahoo: This is my very first real grow light so I'm supper excited to try it out. I cleared out a corner of my messy garage and hung it from the ceiling. I decided to start one of my autos early, and American Pie was the lucky winner. She sprouted on 3/13 and was promptly placed on a folding table under my NextLight Core.
Here's some shots of her along the way:


I set the light schedule to 20hrs on / 4 hrs off, and I must say American Pie loves the new light. I think this is probably the nicest auto I've grown to date. That light is super bright and since I have no tent, every time I walked into the garage I felt like I needed to wear sunglasses. :cool: I decided to put up a partial barrier and was inspired by @Carcass use of cardboard. I taped together two large pieces for a 2-wall design... at least for starters.

I figured if the light is good for cannabis, it should also be good for tomatoes, and once I started the other plants in my lineup, things started getting a little crowded - now I understand what you indoor folks have been whining about all this time. :laughtwo:

American Pie stayed in veg a long time so it gave me an opportunity to actually do some training. I topped her on day 17 and began some LST. She didn't show her first pistil stigmas until day 33.

With American Pie spreading out and the other plants beginning to take off, I decided it was time to add some reflective material to the walls. I bought some Reflectix insulation from Home Depot and taped it to the cardboard walls. I'm pretty happy with it, to be honest.
 
Amazing so far! Everything looks all ready to get started, and to setup. I’m definitely In on this one! Locking In!
Hi Chronic! Glad to have you along. :thumb:
 
things started getting a little crowded - now I understand what you indoor folks have been whining about all this time. :laughtwo:
Lmao Beez!!! I’m so glad you’ve started your new journal. You’re always such an inspirational grower. Beautiful new light and wow, it’s producing some great results already! Looks like we’ve got a couple plants in common this grow :high-five:
I can’t wait to see the rest unfold :popcorn: :popcorn:
 
I can’t wait to see the rest unfold
:rofl:.... sly cardboard reference,HH!

Nice job on the indoor growspace, Beez!
Cardboard is hard to beat for simplicity (and price:))
 
wonderful start and well underway already! It’s shaping up to be a great summer in Luiznliquidland :)
:circle-of-love:

didn't crack after 3 days

seed also didn't crack after 3 days of soaking,

...can’t leave without ... I never wait for seeds to crack, you really don’t have to. I soak 12-24hrs and plant directly into soil/medium. I have 100% germination record (not bragging, illustrating a point ;) ). Personally I prefer that they don’t crack in the water. I’d never ditch one because it didn’t ... they’ve probably sprouted somewhere :laughtwo:
 
Looks like we’ve got a couple plants in common this grow :high-five:
Indeed, we do :high-five: Your OG Kush and Lemon Auto are ahead of mine, so I'll be watching those closely, and my Amnesia is a photoperiod so your auto version will be done, harvested and probably smoked long before mine even flowers. :laughtwo:
I hope those seed are soaking next to the Hunts or they'll never sprout.
You bet they are! Don't mess with a winning combo.
:rofl:.... sly cardboard reference,HH!
Nice catch, C - that one got passed me. :laugh:
I never wait for seeds to crack, you really don’t have to. I soak 12-24hrs and plant directly into soil/medium.
That's very useful info - I didn't realize they could still sprout. While it's too late for those two seeds, I've got a bunch of backyard seeds (from Liquid's grow last year) that soaked with only a few cracking open. I did indeed put the rest into soil yesterday so we'll see if any of them sprout.
Great start Beez. Looking forward to the growing! :meatballs:
Thanks Stunger! Glad you're along for the ride. :Namaste:
 
According to the breeder, American Pie should be ready for harvest in only 60 days. Well, today it is 83 days old and still not ready yet. Here's some recent pics of it.



It's not a really large plant, but I really like the bud structure - nice and dense - and smells super fragrant. I just left it in a 2 gallon plastic pot. I didn't want to waste the soil and space by placing it in my usual 7 gallon fiber pots. I fed it Mega Crop while it was in veg, and then switched to Emerald Harvest liquid bloom nutes once it started flowering. I'm guessing maybe I'll get 1.5 ounces out of it.

So far, the trichomes are still pretty clear, and I don't want to rush anything this year, so maybe one more week before harvest.

 
Since this is an outdoor grow journal, I guess I should start talking about the outdoor plants.:p Here they are at about 11 days old, still in their solo cup homes and under artificial light.

I had some difficulty locating my preferred growing media which is Fox Farms Ocean Forest, so I was delayed a bit in getting them into their final 10 gallon homes. I actually transplanted them into 1quart (maybe they were 1/2 gallon) pots while I searched for FFOF or an alternative. My grow supply shop stopped carrying the FFOF and instead had a custom blend that I reluctantly bought a couple bags of. I ended up making my own mixture of this custom blend, last year's recycled FFOF, and some fresh FFOF (I still had a couple bags of new stuff left over from last year).

Another challenge I had was getting the plants weened off the 20/4 light schedule to Mother Nature"s sunrise/sunset schedule. To the American Pie's detriment I slowly adjusted the light schedule to match the sunrise/sunset times (approx 14/10). I adjusted by 30 minutes each day, then hardened off the plants for outdoors. My tomato seedlings (34 of them) were also sharing the same light and also needed the hardening off period. Once they were all moved out from under the Nextlight, I reset the timer back to 20/4.

Here's the first 3 plants after being moved into 10 gallon pots and just before getting transported to LiquidIntel's place.




By now, I was feeling a bit overwhelmed with so many cannabis plants going, tomato seedlings going, and many other veggies needing to be planted in my garden. I decided that I only wanted to grow 2 photo period plants along with the autos, so I gave my Gelat.OG plant to LiquidIntel as well. (I ended up planting 20 tomato plants, 9 pepper plants, 10 green bean plants, and some herbs.)

I was at Liquid's house yesterday to take him to the airport (he's going backpacking in the Colorado Rockies) and was able to get these shots of his plants. I was surpised by how much they've grown in just the short time he's had them. They have all been topped once already and when he gets back from vacation he'll be topping them again.






Oh, I want to talk about nutrients! While in veg under the Nextlight, I fed all the plants Mega Crop, gradually increasing to about 2.5g/gal by the time they were transplanted. Part of my contest winnings was GeoFlora veg and bloom. Liquid likes simplicity so he was really onboard with giving GeoFlora a try. Before transplanting his plants into the 10 gallon Geopots (also winnings from a previous JotM award), I mixed in 1 cup of the GeoFlora Veg into each pot and moistened, about 24 hours before transplant. So far they are looking great! :cool:

I've given him 5 of the 6 plants he plans to grow. I'm still taking care of the Dresden Green Diamond which is a couple weeks behind the others. I'll transplant and give to him next week maybe.
 
Great update BL and the plants are looking ready for the summer of bushiness! Good idea passing along more to LI rather than get stressed out by how much there is to look after. Always good to know your limits. That's why I'm way down from my peak in summer of 2019.

I was waiting to find out what happened to the American Pie though after this:
To the American Pie's detriment I slowly adjusted the light schedule to match the sunrise/sunset times (approx 14/10).
What was detrimental about it? Did it go into flower?
 
Good idea passing along more to LI rather than get stressed out by how much there is to look after.
To be honest, I'm not a heavy consumer. One or two autos would yield me enough to last a year, but I do like a variety and enjoy giving it away.

What was detrimental about it? Did it go into flower?
Maybe "detrimental" was a poor choice of words. The lower leave's typical yellowing during flower seemed to be accelerated when I reduced the light cycle, but that may just be coincidence. Also the buds are not as "frosty" as I was hoping, but again maybe not due to the reduction of light - probably just genetics.
 
Here's a quick little update on a couple plants. The Dresden Green Diamond that is slated to join LiquidIntel's grow, is now 34 days old. This morning I topped it above node 6 and removed node 1. I'll probably transplant it into a 7 or 10 gallon fiber pot later this week and send it over to Liquid's house this weekend.


The American Pie auto is still not looking ready for harvest yet. Still has quite a few white pistil stigmas and lots of clear trichomes even though it also has about 10% amber now. I'll take some trichome shots in the next day or two, but here's what it looks like this morning.

 
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