Outdoor auto and regular queries

[Parkesy]

Hey guys, it's been a while since I've been here

Haven't been growing for a couple of years with family additions and house moving playing into it!

 

I've had quite a few successful grows indoors in the past and loved growing in hydro. But now with much more space and some prime north sun facing yard I'm going to venture in to outdoors.

 

I've been doing a lot of reading but finding so much contradicting info and when it's relating to other climates across the other side of the world it's hard to know what to follow. I wanted to avoid posting incase I'm going over stuff already covered but as this site had helped me immensely in the past I figured ill ask!

 

Basically I've got my hands on some auto seeds, as well as a few freebie femmed seeds and some left overs from previous indoor grows.

I've got a couple of original sensible Jack Herer autos, a couple of sensi blue amnesia xxl autos, a regular femmed jack herer, a femmed super silver haze, a couple of regular slee stack skunks and 4 regular BC sweet tooth.

 

At the moment I've got a freebie cheese auto just started in a 27cm pot. Its about 5 days above soil and hasnt grown a whole lot. I started in a jiffy pot which I used to do with my indoor hydro. I used to notice a stunt in growth for a week or so and am starting to think it may be the jiffy peat pots? I always tear the bottom off then plant. Soil is a mix of hortico un ferted potting mix, some vermiculite, a bit of bunnings coco, and some compost towards the bottom. That way I figured by the time it's extended roots down the bottom it will be ready for feeding, although I've read autos should be fed from day one?

The stunted growth was never a worry in hydro because they always came good after a week but with an auto I'm thinking every day without much growth counts! Apart from that it looks healthy, gets taken indoors at night under a fluoro and then back outside in the morning for all day sun. Water is distilled bottle water and it's only been watered twice. I can post a photo if it helps.

After deciding to ditch the peat I've got one of the jack herer autos in some home made seed mix, consisting of sifted non fert potting mix, vermiculite and propagation sand. It sprouted in paper towel and is now in a jiffy pot in that mix and I'm hoping will poke its head out in the next couple of days. I used the jiffy pot so I can still tear the bottom off for planting. Any thoughts on the seed raising mix I made? Am I starting the autos too early? I'm not after massive yields, an ounce off a few autos by Xmas would keep me going until the real girls are ready

 

So the autos are just there so I can get some quick smoke. What I'm really looking forward to though is the outdoor photo period strains! When should I be starting those? I'm thinking about now? They'll be going in 45cm pots. I want to be able to move them for when parents and relatives visit. Is a 45cm pot big enough for a seasons grow? I'll top them a couple of times to help with height. Any idea how big they could end up being? Am I better waiting until Xmas to start them? I'm hoping to keep them under 5 foot by harvest.

Also I was thinking for the non femmed strains I could start now, then take some clones when they're ready then bring the clones inside under lights to force flowering and find out which are the girls and boys. Then I can cull the boys, and have the option to take a heap of clones and keep more smaller plants and cull the big ones if they get too big to manage?

 

Sorry for the long post and my ramblings. Any ideas / suggestions / brain farts welcome! Especially on seed germination and seedling raising in soil. I want to avoid going to a hydro shop as there isn't one nearby. I'm hoping everything I need I can get from bunnings. I've got the option to start under a 250 watt MH or HPS, but don't want to keep them going too long or crank out the 600HpS because I'm a tight arse now on power consumption! Besides a pathetic little auto I planted a couple of years ago in too shady a spot, I've got pretty much zero experiences growing outdoors in Melbourne!

Thanks guys.

[chookymeister]

Good read very knowledgeable. Would love to hear how the autos turned out.