Who here grows outside autos?

I grew photos outdoors for a few years, then moved over to autos outdoors, and that's what I've stuck with since 2018. It sounds really obvious, because it is, but it really depends on the weather. Last year we had historic heat waves, other years we've had late spring snow. I've found autos to be easily impacted by cold springs and overnight lows, it can really stunt them. And like others have said, end of season moisture can facilitate mold issues, doesn't need to be rain, just morning dew can be enough.

My best year I started later, around first week in June, and got VERY lucky and we had a long dry fall (good for cannabis, bad for fire season). The plants got huge. Other years haven't been so lucky. This summer I'll probably run four -- two in a green house in pots, two outside in the ground. I'll start one of each mid-May, and the other two early June. By spreading out my timing and methods, hopefully some of them will finish well.

Last year was the first time I grew autos outdoors in pots. That seems to have kept them smaller than planting them in the ground, but in one case it saved a plant. I had a Dutch Passion Daiquiri Lime which needed a ridiculous amount of time, since it was in a pot I was able to move it into the garage and finish it under a light, long after the outdoor season had gone to cold/rain and the rest of the harvest was dry and in jars. So there are pros and cons to every method. Keeps ya on yer toes.

MATTYMATT726 said:

Does he have YouTube videos? I have zero Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat or any other social medias. They are cancer and i stick to old school communications

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Unfortunately I asked him and he only does IG

Oh the king of outdoor hardiness has to go to Northen lights.

You might remember but it was a week old seedling that I put outside in an unheated green house end of November. Grew like 1mm a week if that lol

It was harvested in august so was like 240 days old lol

Flowered twice actually.. mid way through bloom the bottom branches kicked off and made new bud sites.

pics are on my old broken phone

I have some GG x Anvil Autos from Locomotive Medical out of Oklahoma. I started indoors in 5 & 3 gal pots. 10 days after they sprouted in root plugs and are already on the 3rd node. Planning on putting them outside after they are sexed.

MidWickedWest said:

I have some GG x Anvil Autos from Locomotive Medical out of Oklahoma. I started indoors in 5 & 3 gal pots. 10 days after they sprouted in root plugs and are already on the 3rd node. Planning on putting them outside after they are sexed.

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You got regular autos? That's rare.

twentyeight.threefive said:

You got regular autos? That's rare.

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There are some breeders that sell auto regs just not many sadly

twentyeight.threefive said:

You got regular autos? That's rare.

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Yes sir. Locomotive has a whole gang of reg autos. Every seed I soaked popped and they all look the same so far...Very rapid growth. I've never ran Autos before. Hope to learn from this and have a late summer run as well.

I also live in NY and my best advice is to seek mold and mildew resistant strains for outdoor in NY state we have way too much humidity at least in upstate NY that has been my experience anyway. Also don’t put them out before Memorial Day if they are photos as they will start to flower then go back to veg as the days get longer. Also with it becoming more legal the chances of photos getting pollinated is greatly increased as new growers will be tossing them out all over so be cautious too that as well. This is all just things I have come to learn over my 40+ Years in upstate. Hope everyone has a bountiful harvest this season

I am in a similar area as you... Northeastern states. I tried autos outdoors a couple of years and I gave up. We got so much rain that the snails and slugs were out mid day! My plants were chewed up so bad... And I even lost a lot to mould and bud rot... I am all indoors from now on! I can control the environment. If it ever gets legalized here, I might try a couple of autos in earthboxes in an area were I can put them out on nice days and pull them inside under a light on bad days. But I'm not sure if that's really worth it.

MATTYMATT726 said:

I'm in NY(not fully legalized yet) and only ever did 1 half ass grow is soil, but thinking this summer i might want to throw 2 bigger strains in 10-20 gal sips outside and never really come across any journals with outside plants. Just looking for anyones thoughts, tips, opinions and outdoors grow experience to soak up.

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UK 420 dot com is all about outdoor grow journals with auto flowers

mandocat said:

I have grown autos outdoors in Oklahoma 2 summers in a row. Organic, living soil, 20 gallon pots, planted directly in the pots, never topped. Fastest one finished 61 days from sprouting, usually they went to 7o some days or so. Early to mid July harvests, minimal pests and disease issues, a little PM, no big deal. Fast Buds Mexican Airline tested 19% thc, decent smoke, also ran some Mephisto. That being said, I'll probably never do it again, because the effects, the high, doesn't begin to compare to photo period plants, which I also run outdoors. If you want small plants just put photoperiod plants out later in the summer.

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Hey Mandocat -
about to start some freebie autos outside in Texas. never grown autos before.
did you start your autos in spring, or wait till after the summer solstice to start for fall harvest?
supposedly, the seed manuf claims that southern states can get 2 harvests (and possibly a 3rd) per year with autos. that might be pretty cool to make happen while waiting on my photoperiod plants to finish up.

my question for you (as your climate may closely resemble mine (DFW area Texas) how did your autos do with the summer heat?
the sun here is pretty vicious. some plants love it, others get their asses kicked. do you see the same issues where you're at in oklahoma?

Till Valhalla said:

Hey Mandocat -
about to start some freebie autos outside in Texas. never grown autos before.
did you start your autos in spring, or wait till after the summer solstice to start for fall harvest?
supposedly, the seed manuf claims that southern states can get 2 harvests (and possibly a 3rd) per year with autos. that might be pretty cool to make happen while waiting on my photoperiod plants to finish up.

my question for you (as your climate may closely resemble mine (DFW area Texas) how did your autos do with the summer heat?
the sun here is pretty vicious. some plants love it, others get their asses kicked. do you see the same issues where you're at in oklahoma?

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I started mine in April, directly in 20 gallon pots outdoors. I mulched the plants and the pots heavily to keep them cooler, and harvested in early to mid July. They never had any problems with heat. I did use hardware cloth domes to keep birds from eating the seedlings and for hail protection, until they got bigger.Good luck!

@mandocat -
thanks for your response. appreciated.

good to know they can deal with the heat (they won't have much choice).

first time with autos, so will be an interesting experiment. have a bit of those freebies laying around collecting dust. time to put them to work... see what they produce.

good luck with your grows as well.
cheers

conor c said:

There are some breeders that sell auto regs just not many sadly

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I picked up a bundle of auto regulars from "Just A Handful Seeds", 4 different varieties for a hundred bucks-ish. Left a really big male from of the packs to pollinate all the others. Now I literally have thousands of regular, autoflowering seeds. Best investment I ever made (why don't more people offer regular autoflowering seeds?). Autoflowering plants are great for Canada; I start them indoors about mid-May under 24 hours of light in a tent. Move them outside around labour day and have a nice harvest of those to keep me patient waiting for photoperiods to finish in the fall. Although I didn't have to bother doing that this year...I still have shoeboxes full of weed from my outdoor last year.

CannabisCanuckles said:

I picked up a bundle of auto regulars from "Just A Handful Seeds", 4 different varieties for a hundred bucks-ish. Left a really big male from of the packs to pollinate all the others. Now I literally have thousands of regular, autoflowering seeds. Best investment I ever made (why don't more people offer regular autoflowering seeds?). Autoflowering plants are great for Canada; I start them indoors about mid-May under 24 hours of light in a tent. Move them outside around labour day and have a nice harvest of those to keep me patient waiting for photoperiods to finish in the fall. Although I didn't have to bother doing that this year...I still have shoeboxes full of weed from my outdoor last year.

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Cos 1 u make more money selling em fems as they need to come back each season for more 2 you need to select for things like potency resistance and faster bloom times not everyone wants that work i agree tho i wish more sold reg seeds of auto lines

MATTYMATT726 said:

I'm in NY(not fully legalized yet) and only ever did 1 half ass grow is soil, but thinking this summer i might want to throw 2 bigger strains in 10-20 gal sips outside and never really come across any journals with outside plants. Just looking for anyones thoughts, tips, opinions and outdoors grow experience to soak up.

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I’ve been researching for my first outdoor grow and will be going with 5gal bags and autos: Northern Lights, Gelato, and Gorilla Glue #4. Unless you have a greenhouse you may not do too well with photoperiod plants this late in the game. But I have no first hand experience, I’ve just been reading a lot! I live in southern BC, Canada.

conor c said:

Cos 1 u make more money selling em fems as they need to come back each season for more 2 you need to select for things like potency resistance and faster bloom times not everyone wants that work i agree tho i wish more sold reg seeds of auto lines

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Oh so GREED. Because you can't clone an auto flowering strain. That makes sense. And I just kept a male around to make more seeds. I don't care to 'breed' these autoflower seeds for any particular traits (all 4 cultivars turned out great), just have some to give to friends in the spring for free.

CannabisCanuckles said:

Oh so GREED. Because you can't clone an auto flowering strain. That makes sense. And I just kept a male around to make more seeds. I don't care to 'breed' these autoflower seeds for any particular traits (all 4 cultivars turned out great), just have some to give to friends in the spring for free.

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Sadly yeah greed lol