Grow journal - Outdoors 2024 - Frisian Dew, Frisian Duck, Sweet Tooth Auto, Early Skunk

[HandyGringo]

Hey guys, just thought I'd collect all my plants in one place, easier to keep track of for myself and easier to get help if needed. I don't plan on updating it every day, the reason I'm growing outdoors is to keep it simple and not have it be a full-time job, that's also why they're in soil and they're all pretty resilient strains that can handle some rain and some pests, knock on wood.

They're all in the same soil mix, two of them are directly planted in the ground as an experiment. (I tested my own soil, it's decent, filled with earthworms, I heard that's a good sign)

The others are in a soil mix consisting of, Biobizz Light mix, extra perlite, 10% coco, and Plagon supermix (Amendment with seabird guano, minerals and worm castings)

They're all in smart pots and they're roughly this old currently:

Frisian Dew: It was started indoors in the middle of March, put outside in April, and got stunted because of cold weather, I had a thread about it here where I got some great advice.



Frisian Duck 1, 2, 3: They all started in April when I was fearing for the life of the Frisian Dew. One of them is planted directly in the ground because I couldn't bear throwing it out. (Frisian Duck 1 and 2 was repotted 2 days ago, from 0.5 gallon smart pots to these 3 and 5 gallons, so they should be topped up on nutrients now, if you think they're showing a deficiency at the moment)

Early Skunk: It started alongside the Frisian Duck in April because I got it for free. Planted directly in the ground as well.

(Frisian Duck is on the left and Early Skunk is on the right. I know they're too close to each other. I fucked up. But we'll see how it goes)



Sweet Tooth Auto: It was planted about a week ago, so I have something to do in two months. Didn't have the patience to wait for fall to start harvesting all the others.




That's it for now! Thanks for taking a look and feel free to give feedback. All the advice I've gotten so far from the Newbie forum has been great. I'm a bit rusty and haven't really grown in soil or outdoors before so it's a great help. (Except for a single auto last year that we will not talk about)

My last serious grow was back in 2016, Blue Dream Indoors, so I have a rough idea of what I'm doing, but outdoors is a different beast

 

[HandyGringo]

Just a quick question/update, both Frisian Ducks are showing these symptoms on the lowest set of leaves. I'm 90% sure it's a deficiency from having been in too small of a pot and the nutrients in the soil running out, but just in case it's something else, please let me know! They were repotted 3 days ago to a bigger container with fresh and nutrient-rich soil, so they should be okay if nutrient deficiency is the issue.

 

[HandyGringo]

Pest control - Luckily she has her eye on eating some of the other plants (A hemlock)

 

[HandyGringo]

Topped the Frisian Dew again. One of the two tops from the first topping had gotten significantly taller than the other, so I topped that one only. Hoping all the tops will be roughly the same height now.

 

[HandyGringo]

Everything is trucking. Both Frisian Ducks have been topped. Autoflower Sweet Tooth is growing as expected and in-ground Early Skunk + Frisian Dew also just doing their thing.

 

[HandyGringo]

Had a few days of heavy rains so I've put everything inside a little plastic greenhouse. The autoflower is looking unhappy (First pic) everything else is just, growing slowly due to overcast and rainy days.

 

[HandyGringo]

The Frisian Dew is showing some signs of pests. Some of it looks a bit like thrip damage and the holes look like some kind of caterpillar, but I'm not sure.

I've started spraying with BT (Bacillus Thuringiensis) to combat caterpillars. I've dusted the medium with Diamatacous earth to combat stuff crawling up the stem. I've bought some thrip strips to catch and identify the pests and I've bought Neem oil to spray preventively and some "Canna cure" as well. I might have gone overboard.

 

[HandyGringo]

Outdoors is tough man! Dealing with all kinds of pests and buying all kinds of things to combat them, the latest on the list is slugs, for which I have to find a decent solution.

Pictures in order: Frisian Dew, 2 Frisian Ducks in pots, Sweet Tooth Auto, and Early Skunk and Frisian Duck in the ground.

The Early Skunk in particular is half gone, to slugs.

I'm not panicking, because I planted this many plants so I would have some fail-safes and backup.

But it's annoying to see the Frisian Dew eaten by thrips/caterpillars/aphids/fungus gnats, or whatever the fuck.

I've defoliated the Frisian Dew several times to allow more light to bud sites, but it still looks bushy.

 

[HandyGringo]

The plants are doing fine in general except for the two afterthoughts that I planted in the ground somewhere in the corner of the property. They don't get as much love and it seems like they're right where all the slugs live. So they're both almost gone from slugs. But I've done everything I can to let them recover.

I dusted them and the ground around them with DE, sprayed them (and all my other plants with neem oil) - I set up a small wall of copper (Slugs hate copper), hoping this does the job.

The rest seems to be doing well. Frisian Dew is recovering nicely from whatever attacked it. I have started taking pest control more seriously so I will be spraying with Neem every other week or so. Also, have BT if caterpillars show up again.


Frisian Dew:



Frisian Duck #1:



Frisian Duck #2:



Sweet Tooth Auto:



Frisian Duck #3:



Early Skunk:

 

[cannabiscrusader]

Good luck out there!

 

[HandyGringo]

Just another status update. Everything doing ok. Auto showing signs of some nutrient issue, not sure what. Both Frisian ducks showing some pest issues but I believe I got pest issues under control. Both ground plants are shook by the slugs, but recovering. Just topped the Frisian Duck in the ground today, since the current top was half eaten anyway.

Frisian Dew looking fine:



Sweet Tooth auto, maybe nutrient deficient or something.

Frisian duck #1:



Frisian Duck #2:

Ground plants, frisian duck + early skunk:

 

[HandyGringo]

Still just trucking, finally having some decent weather.

I believe the Frisian Dew is starting to show signs of a deficiency. It's the oldest of the plants so it makes sense that it would run out first.

I added some organic fertilizer to the top of the soil a week or two ago, so hopefully, that starts working soon. But I also realized I might have a PH issue. My water is almost at 8, so I need to start ph'ing my water to avoid lockout.

I also added these small bags of predatory mites to each plant, they will be eating thrips and fungus gnats, I believe that's what's causing the small white dots on some of my leaves. Still spraying with BT and neem weekly as well and I watered with nematodes today to catch anything in the soil.

Frisian Dew:



Frisian Dew unhappy lower leaves:



Frisian duck 1:



Frisian Duck 2:



Sweet Tooth auto:

Frisian duck in the ground:


Early skunk in the ground:



The sticky traps from the last two weeks, I believe what I'm seeing is a shitload of fungus gnats?:

 

[cannabiscrusader]

Yeah, lots of gnats. I saw a pube stuck there too on pic 3.

Made ya look.

The neem and bt are going to kill all of your predatory mites too

 

[HandyGringo]

Yeah, lots of gnats. I saw a pube stuck there too on pic 3.

Made ya look.

The neem and bt are going to kill all of your predatory mites too

Lol

I haven't applied Neem or BT for a week, so perhaps I'll hold off for now. I don't want to kill my predatory mites. But my BT is for caterpillars only, I believe.

I just realized that the predatory mites (Amblyseius swirskii) don't target fungus gnats. So all they're attacking are thrips and white flies. I guess I have to hang some more traps and hope the nematodes against fungus gnats were sufficient.

 

[HandyGringo]

Everything is going smoothly right now. The weather is nice. I believe I've solved my slug problems. Fungus gnats seem to have been defeated by nematodes and watering from the bottom / letting the top of the soil dry out, the signs of deficiency are not increasing, I guess the PH'd water and cal mag helped.

Moved all the plants alongside a wall, because they're getting tall enough that people might spot them from the street, so I'm going to have to figure something out before flowering. Or move them to a more secluded spot on the property. I've topped the Frisian ducks again, to even out the canopy and keep them a bit shorter.

Sidenote: I keep reading that the Frisian Ducks are bad/average bud, so that bums me out, luckily I got Sweet Tooth and Frisian Dew and Early Skunk to make up for it. If Frisian Duck is really that bad, I'll make edibles.

The two plants in the ground are slow but growing. The slugs did a number on them.

 

[HandyGringo]

Small update. All plants looking ok. Worried about the size. Have to start training things I believe.

The Frisian dew (The biggest plant) is showing some slightly yellow tips on new growth. Not entirely sure what the cause is. Maybe nutrient burn if I overreacted to the prior deficiency?

I posted some closeups in this thread, in case anyone feels like helping diagnose it

 

[HandyGringo]

Tied down all the branches of the Frisian Dew. So make it more bushy and short. It looks ugly. I should have done it sooner, it's a bit too rigid now. But it does the job.

 

[HandyGringo]

Perfect cannabis weather. The biggest difference I'm seeing is the Sweet Tooth Auto. Leaves are huge and it's growing quickly. I think it might have started flowering. (See the closeup) - It's the healthiest of all my plants, somehow.

The two in the ground are still growing extremely slowly while recovering from slug attack I assume.

 

[HandyGringo]

Small update. The LST'ed Frisian Dew is starting to fill out better. Frisian Ducks looking great. Sweet Tooth Auto is flowering, but the two plants in the ground are still stunted.

 

[HandyGringo]

Sweet Tooth Auto is flowering nicely but for some reason top leaves are droopy.

It was dry a few days ago, and it was droopy. Then I gave it a big watering and it's still droopy today. So I have no idea.