My First Outdoor Grow!

[OmittedGrower]

This is my first outdoor grow. It was recommended I create one for reference to my future self on future grows.


Critical tips I learned this grow so far:
1.light cycle is critical during veg
2. Dont top to late or to early as it will stunt growth majorly.
3. LST is the way to go for quick growth and a lot of bud sites.

Pictures are of my first grow from start to now.

Strains:
1. Blue Zkittlez (x2)
2. Chem Dawg

Tactics tried included:
1. LST (Low stress training) constantly
2. topping
3. half soil, half low-no neutrient filled filler and provided the plants with fox farm neutrients on their recommended schedule
4. water has been PH'd to 6.2-6.9

Critical mistakes made so far:
1. As an early clone and untill the 3rd week of having them they were only recieving 12-13 hours if light, resulting in early flowering. (Then put plants back into veg (now))
2. I topped a few of the nodes during the plants early stage of flower.
3. First 3 watering I watered from the hose with PH of 8.5+ and I watered daily resulting in the leaves to be wilty and weak stems for a few days.


MORE TO COME!!

-OmittedGrower

 

[Emilya Green]

excellent start!

 

[OmittedGrower]

Thank you very much! you've been super helpful to me this grow!!

 

[DeanWest89]

You plan on finishing in those pots?? We all make mistakes my friend it’s what helps us learn , it’s how I learn anyway, I’ve killed a few plants along the way , your in the right track, what’s your light cycle where your living this time of year ?

 

[OmittedGrower]

You plan on finishing in those pots?? We all make mistakes my friend it’s what helps us learn , it’s how I learn anyway, I’ve killed a few plants along the way , your in the right track, what’s your light cycle where your living this time of year ?

No, I plan to get 25 gallon smart pots here shortly. And here in cali I'm getting maybe 13 hours of light a day right now, however at night I've been putting them in my garage under 2 500watt halogen shop lights untill they get at least a good 18 hours of light. And it definatly seems to be working so far

 

[OmittedGrower]

So today was a feeding day for my plants I noticed they seemed slightly more dark green than normal today so I gave them just pure PH'd 6.5 water, I was curious so I tested the run off of my plants after the water had gone through the soil and I was getting a PH of almost 5 is that normal? Or should I adjust my PH so the run off is more around 6.5? But other than that plants are still doing great! I did more low stress training today and they now almost fill the entire pot space.

 

[Emilya Green]

So today was a feeding day for my plants I noticed they seemed slightly more dark green than normal today so I gave them just pure PH'd 6.5 water, I was curious so I tested the run off of my plants after the water had gone through the soil and I was getting a PH of almost 5 is that normal? Or should I adjust my PH so the run off is more around 6.5? But other than that plants are still doing great! I did more low stress training today and they now almost fill the entire pot space.

You have a hybrid soil and no one is going to be able to knowingly advise you what is the correct pH to come in at, but your runoff readings have provided a valuable clue that your soil is actually drifting the opposite direction as normal because of your odd mix of half inert filler material pulling the pH toward the negative side. Normally soil drifts the opposite direction and we advise people to come in at 6.3 pH so the drift rises the pH through the entire 6.3-6.8 range. If your Frankensoil is drifting the other way, if you came in at 6.3 you would quickly drop out of the usable range in soil, there there is the rub... can we even consider what you are running as soil?
I would say that if what you are doing now is working well, coming in at 6.5, then stick with it. Knowing now that your medium drifts downward, it might be advantageous to come in at 6.8 a couple of times to see what happens... I suspect that the container pH drops out of the soil range fairly rapidly at 6.5 and at my normal soil advice of 6.3, you would probably kill your plants. Your problem is that you have set this up to drift down into the hydro range, but you are using soil nutes which need to be in the soil pH range. You are blazing new territory with your mix of real and unreal, nutritious and vacuous, soil but not soil... and experts in both the soil world and the coco world are clueless as to how best to help you. That all being said, if its not broke, don't fix it. Keep doing exactly what you are doing.

 

[OmittedGrower]

You have a hybrid soil and no one is going to be able to knowingly advise you what is the correct pH to come in at, but your runoff readings have provided a valuable clue that your soil is actually drifting the opposite direction as normal because of your odd mix of half inert filler material pulling the pH toward the negative side. Normally soil drifts the opposite direction and we advise people to come in at 6.3 pH so the drift rises the pH through the entire 6.3-6.8 range. If your Frankensoil is drifting the other way, if you came in at 6.3 you would quickly drop out of the usable range in soil, there there is the rub... can we even consider what you are running as soil?
I would say that if what you are doing now is working well, coming in at 6.5, then stick with it. Knowing now that your medium drifts downward, it might be advantageous to come in at 6.8 a couple of times to see what happens... I suspect that the container pH drops out of the soil range fairly rapidly at 6.5 and at my normal soil advice of 6.3, you would probably kill your plants. Your problem is that you have set this up to drift down into the hydro range, but you are using soil nutes which need to be in the soil pH range. You are blazing new territory with your mix of real and unreal, nutritious and vacuous, soil but not soil... and experts in both the soil world and the coco world are clueless as to how best to help you. That all being said, if its not broke, don't fix it. Keep doing exactly what you are doing.

Okay. I'll adjust up slightly too see what happens and maybe give them a flush next feeding. And the soil is just a premixed from the store. It claims to be "organic potting soil"

Included picture is what the "frankensoil" is made of. (New favorite mixed-soil term) I just know some of the ingredients such as worm casting carry neutrients and some of it like cococoir doesnt so I wasnt sure if it's a soil or a soil mix, didnt quite know what to call it yet.

 

[Emilya Green]

describe what a flush during next feeding would be... I don't think you and I are using that term in the same way. After seeing this mix, it isnt nearly as scary as I was thinking but there must be a lot of broken down peat moss in there to be driving your soil so far to the negative, but now I am not convinced that this is causing as much of a drift as I was thinking, especially if you flush out some of that debris.
The worm castings mainly bring organic life with them, and that is a good thing, the coco is a common filler, perlite is normal to have in a grow, and then the recycled forest products sound like a compost mix. This is good stuff, and again, I would say don't do anything different than you are doing right now, and just be aware that as that peat breaks down, a large enough portion of that debris does wash out in the runoff, and it makes the runoff appear to be very acidic. Because of this, you might be experiencing a false reading on that runoff pH. Unless you start seeing a deficiency, I don't think I would advise you to adjust up... lets have you do a proper flush of all that peat debris and then recheck your runoff ... I suspect the new reading will be much more reasonable.

 

[OmittedGrower]

describe what a flush during next feeding would be... I don't think you and I are using that term in the same way. After seeing this mix, it isnt nearly as scary as I was thinking but there must be a lot of broken down peat moss in there to be driving your soil so far to the negative, but now I am not convinced that this is causing as much of a drift as I was thinking, especially if you flush out some of that debris.
The worm castings mainly bring organic life with them, and that is a good thing, the coco is a common filler, perlite is normal to have in a grow, and then the recycled forest products sound like a compost mix. This is good stuff, and again, I would say don't do anything different than you are doing right now, and just be aware that as that peat breaks down, a large enough portion of that debris does wash out in the runoff, and it makes the runoff appear to be very acidic. Because of this, you might be experiencing a false reading on that runoff pH. Unless you start seeing a deficiency, I don't think I would advise you to adjust up... lets have you do a proper flush of all that peat debris and then recheck your runoff ... I suspect the new reading will be much more reasonable.

Phew I feel better. And I just filled a 5 gallon bucket with water PH'd it to around 7 and flushed untill runoff was clean and around 6.5. It only took about 2/3 of the bucket the plants are now drying out in the sun. I also wanted to flush because i think i may if added to much fertilizer and became a little toxic on nitrogen. So with this flush done I'm going to let them sit for a few days now and keep an eye in them and give them an actual feeding of the same 6.5ish PH sometime this weekend probably.

 

[OmittedGrower]

Phew I feel better. And I just filled a 5 gallon bucket with water PH'd it to around 7 and flushed untill runoff was clean and around 6.5. It only took about 2/3 of the bucket the plants are now drying out in the sun. I also wanted to flush because i think i may if added to much fertilizer and became a little toxic on nitrogen. So with this flush done I'm going to let them sit for a few days now and keep an eye in them and give them an actual feeding of the same 6.5ish PH sometime this weekend probably.

The dark green and clawing of the tips (probably just paranoid and over thinking it but. . ) plus it's been about 4 weeks of neutrient feeding and the fox farm schedule recommended a flush so I figured why not hopefully this will help correct my weird readings color/reaction if the plant.

But other than those little paranoid precautions the plants are doing very well. Still growing slowly but surely!

 

[Emilya Green]

I think you are on the right track. Flush when they suggest to do so and I think you will have tamed this frankensoil mix of yours. If you later on want to go with a more stable system, look into an organic grow with a super soil below layers of the two mixes you have. A grow like that would be particularly strong, and by going with organic microbial inoculations of the soil rather than feeding nutrients out of a bottle and having to worry about pH, amazing things could happen.

 

[OmittedGrower]

I think you are on the right track. Flush when they suggest to do so and I think you will have tamed this frankensoil mix of yours. If you later on want to go with a more stable system, look into an organic grow with a super soil below layers of the two mixes you have. A grow like that would be particularly strong, and by going with organic microbial inoculations of the soil rather than feeding nutrients out of a bottle and having to worry about pH, amazing things could happen.

Thank you! I'm going to try that. Maybe when I transplant into my smart post here soon I'll switch up my soil mix to the layered super soil with the organic Costco mix and see how they do.

With that I'd just have to water them and with normal hose water and be set? That sounds a lot easier.

I know with my next grow I'm planning on getting a little tent and trying my hand with a coco grow along with doing another outdoor except all the right way next time

 

[OmittedGrower]

Thank you! I'm going to try that. Maybe when I transplant into my smart post here soon I'll switch up my soil mix to the layered super soil with the organic Costco mix and see how they do.

With that I'd just have to water them and with normal hose water and be set? That sounds a lot easier.

I know with my next grow I'm planning on getting a little tent and trying my hand with a coco grow along with doing another outdoor except all the right way next time

But yes I just did the flush with them at least the two that were showing signs of toxicity and brought them in under the light for the night as rain is starting to fall. Gonna check in on them in the morning again and pray for the best

But they're looking pretty happy so far.

 

[OmittedGrower]

Daily update.

After doing the flush with the plants they appear to be doing much better today. They have regained some of the light green hue back already and the clawing at the tips of the leaves has gone away. Plants are back to how they should be I think. And continue to bush out by the hour it seems like lol.

 

[OmittedGrower]

So today I transplanted my babies into their forever pot. 20 gallon smart pots. I went with another cheaper organic soil (within budget) again. I'm going to give them another feeding from the week 4 veg cycle fox farm feeding schedule with an added tsp of cal mag for good luck. They look happy still with much more room to grow and train outward for another month or so

 

[OmittedGrower]

So it's been 3 days since my transplant and the plants are still looking really happy, I think today I will restart their LST in the new pots and perhaps give them another light watering in the evening if it doesnt rain. Little chemdawg is moving slowly but surly, looking good aswell.

 

[OmittedGrower]

So update for today with the plants.
I'm going to give them another feeding today from week 4 fox farm recipe. I decided to go with 1 gallon of fertilizer per plant untill they get bigger. (Dont want to have to much sitting water while the roots grow.)

After low stress training yesterday the plants are responding well, they are already starting to regrow back upward at the tips of the tied down nodes. Starting to show signs of upwards of 30 bud sights now if I can get good light penetration this next month .

 

[OmittedGrower]

Update:
Plants are doing okay still. I gave them food yesterday. Week 4 fox farm schedule. And did more low stress training.

The only thing I noticed that's slightly concerning is some yellow leaves at the bottom of the plant. With very light yellowing if some upper leaves. I just fed them yesterday with a ph of around high 6 using plenty of nitrogen. I'm thinking it's just from maybe the stress of transplanting or maybe some of the roots ends got lost that went to those leaves causing it to look deficient. All the other upper leaves look nice and green though with no signs of deficiency (to my eye at least.)

I have pruned some of the yellow leaves that looked more dead than they did yellow Haha and will continue to keep an eye on them and adjust care accordingly.

Any advice or thoughts are always welcome and appreciated.

And of course pictures have been attached at the bottom for reference or if you just wanna look at them

Thank you!
-omittedgrower

 

[OmittedGrower]

I think you are on the right track. Flush when they suggest to do so and I think you will have tamed this frankensoil mix of yours. If you later on want to go with a more stable system, look into an organic grow with a super soil below layers of the two mixes you have. A grow like that would be particularly strong, and by going with organic microbial inoculations of the soil rather than feeding nutrients out of a bottle and having to worry about pH, amazing things could happen.

Hi again so I was trying to find some information about this weird sploching that's developing. I has a few yellow leaves that died that I had removed. But the weird pattern on the leaves is new and dont know if it's something to worry about or not.