Outdoor My first all auto outdoor grow

[Rogue Chief]

We got worms... I've got friends growing in this county whose plants have never had them, and I had none the first year I grew at this location. Each subsequent year they come back stronger. I think I'm going to have to stop growing outdoors until I can build a solid well screened greenhouse. I was hoping that since I started really early this year I might get the plants finished before the moth/worm cycle got going, but the cold spring weather kept the start slow. The one I've taken down does not have any visible worms, but chances are we'll be smoking eggs...

This is a Sky Stomper, and we had to cut off all of the tops of the biggest colas so that the worms would not work their way down the plants.

View attachment 931762

Oddly, they don't hit every plant, for whatever reason some attract them more than others. Two years ago they ravaged a Jillybean, had to throw the whole thing out, but they didn't touch a GG4 (what I don't know is; if the Jillybean hadn't been there, would they have gone for the GG4?). I'm afraid that the giant 5+foot tall Blueberry could be totally lost to them -- they love the tallest plants and the longer it takes to finish, the more eggs seem to get laid. I've tried BT and other sprays, so far nothing stops them.

Did you use the BT as a preventative or only once you saw the problem? It is best to use as a preventative throughout your grow because it mostly effects caterpillars before they get big, once they are an inch or two in size the BT doesn't work as well. Though it would essentially take care of all the young ones coming up, just not the bigger ones that are already there.

 

[Humanrob]

Did you use the BT as a preventative or only once you saw the problem? It is best to use as a preventative throughout your grow because it mostly effects caterpillars before they get big, once they are an inch or two in size the BT doesn't work as well. Though it would essentially take care of all the young ones coming up, just not the bigger ones that are already there.

Usually I apply it several times during veg (it being a mix of Neem oil, Organocide, and BT). My understanding is that the way BT works is that it's poisonous when they eat it, so they hatch, eat some foliage with BT on it, and then die before they can get big and do much damage.

This spring was unusually cold and rainy, so I only got one chance to apply it and that probably washed off in subsequent rains. Since they are autos, they started to flower early and I don't spray after flowers start. I have a couple of photos that are still vegging, they'll probably get 3-4 applications 7-10 days apart before they start to flower (and the rains have stopped until September). Even with that I always get some worms, I think it's just where I live, they seem to be abundant in my area.

 

[Rogue Chief]

Usually I apply it several times during veg (it being a mix of Neem oil, Organocide, and BT). My understanding is that the way BT works is that it's poisonous when they eat it, so they hatch, eat some foliage with BT on it, and then die before they can get big and do much damage.

This spring was unusually cold and rainy, so I only got one chance to apply it and that probably washed off in subsequent rains. Since they are autos, they started to flower early and I don't spray after flowers start. I have a couple of photos that are still vegging, they'll probably get 3-4 applications 7-10 days apart before they start to flower (and the rains have stopped until September). Even with that I always get some worms, I think it's just where I live, they seem to be abundant in my area.

I definitely have moths and caterpillars where I live too, with a big veggie garden there are cabbage white moths that fly around year round, let alone any of the other types that come around too, noticed a few inch worm types last year too.

 

[Humanrob]

I just took down 1 and about 2/3's plants today. The complete one was a Six Shooter, looks decent. If I had never grown Mephistos, I'd probably think it was great... but I suppose frostiness isn't everything (?), we'll see in about 5 weeks how it smokes.

The 2/3's was the Sky Stomper, what a sticky plant she is! It totally SUCKS that the worms in my area have such good taste! They left the Six Shooter almost completely alone, and hammered the Sky Stomper. The first picture shows a cola top that had already been removed because of bud worms, the second one is the cut where I took off the top 2/3's (the rest will mature for another week or so), the third is a big old fan leaf, the last is the combined harvest of the two plants (so far).

Odd note about the leaves; for some reason on this Sky Stomper about 1/2 of the leaves had either one or three blades, it was only the largest fan leaves and the leaves towards the top that had five or seven. I don't know if it was nature or nurture...

Two other random shots, another one(!) of how big the Blueberry is... it kind of pisses me off because I never would have planted them so close if I knew it had so much photo period genes in it. It's a bummer because all the other plants in the bed now only get morning or afternoon light, it's the only one in that space that gets sun all day -- and ironically it's taking a long time to flower and the taller they are the more moth eggs they get, and the longer they take to finish the bigger the worms get and the more damage they do. Sorry for the bitchen, I just hope that one is worth it in the end since it's completely impacted everything around it.

Last shot is of a Sour Stomper, one of the runts that grew one single stalk... I'd bet it'll have less than half an ounce on it. It is showing some pretty fall colors though...

 

[TheMongol]

Wow bro, what a plant, good job...how waa season so far?

 

[Humanrob]

Wow bro, what a plant, good job...how waa season so far?

Thanks I'm seeing once again that it's 90% genetics. I treated all my plants 100% the same, most are within an average height, one is over 5' tall, and a couple of others are just a single stem with a handful of buds on them. And that's OK, I like a nice simple grow style, the plants that do well with my methods are the ones I'll grow again. Simple enough.

So far most of the plants are doing their part. I can't complain. But I still do from time to time... :smoking:

 

[TheMongol]

Yeah, it's all about genetics And grow skills of course to, curious how this summer turns out for you, i'll watch for sure, passing some

 

[Humanrob]

...They left the Six Shooter almost completely alone, and hammered the Sky Stomper...

Some updates... The Six Shooter I mentioned above was hit by some other kind of worm -- I've had three different kinds that I could differentiate. As it was hanging to dry over a table, I noticed droppings collecting on the table, and as it dried small worms fell off of it. This type of worm had been boring through the stems and then eating their way through the calyxes. The plant looked fine from the outside, but turned out to be a total loss. If I had realized the issue right when I cut it I could have tried an H202 bath and that might have washed enough poop off to make it salvageable for hash, but now that it's dry it's too late for that.

From a start with 16 plants I'm down to five still growing -- three autos and the two photos. My primary goal for this summer's grow was to finish some Mephs outside so that I could compare how they grow inside. That goal was accomplished, because worm damage aside I did collect bud from a Sky Stomper, Sour Stomper, Chemdogging, and Cosmic Queen. In this grow I used up all of the non-Mephisto seeds I had collected, and there isn't a single breeder of the group I would buy from again. I will grow out the rest of my Mephs, and if I end out continuing to grow autos I would probably try some Dutch Passion strains. But none of the others impressed me. Maybe growing them outdoors was not a fair test? But still, the Mephs did fine outside...

I'm still noticing huge differences among autos, from my uneducated guesses I have some hypothesis. The plant characteristics that I had never seen before growing autos causes me to imagine the Ruderalis plant has thick stems and leaves, and odd uneven bud formations that have few trichomes. Some of my plants lean strongly in that direction, and some are more like the photos I've been growing for years, and some are in between. I could be totally wrong about that, it's just an observation.

Yesterday I cut and composted a Berry Ryder because after [Edit: misread calendar/fixed] 12 weeks of growing it was ugly as hell and all the hairs were still white. No way I was going to take the time to trim and process that one, let alone continue waiting for it to finish. I also composted the very strange -- but pretty -- Thai Ryder. It had turned fall colors and the hairs had darkened and then it burst out a complete new set of white hairs. Not seeing any amber trichomes, I made the mistake of letting it keep going another couple of weeks, thinking the buds might continue to fatten up. The buds did become more and more dense and when I finally took it down they were all bud-rotted at the core from trapped moisture.

Here's some pics...

The pretty but odd Thai Ryder (composted)

the ugly Berry Ryder (composted)

a Meph bud for comparison of what I think a bud should look like

the base of my Blueberry tree (she's got a few more weeks to go, it's been [Edit: misread calendar/fixed] 12 so far)

two mofo moths I managed to step on while they were mating

The five plants I have left, I actually don't care much about, it was getting the Mephs through that was my focus. I'll keep watering them, but the remaining autos are taking a ridiculous amount of time to finish, I'd say in the end they'll go at least [Edit: misread calendar/fixed] 15 weeks, maybe more. It makes me think that since all of these autos are Ruderalis/Sativa-Indica hybrids, some have more auto tendencies and some have more photo, and these last ones seem to have equal parts of both?

 

[Sensi Jay]

Some updates... The Six Shooter I mentioned above was hit by some other kind of worm -- I've had three different kinds that I could differentiate. As it was hanging to dry over a table, I noticed droppings collecting on the table, and as it dried small worms fell off of it. This type of worm had been boring through the stems and then eating their way through the calyxes. The plant looked fine from the outside, but turned out to be a total loss. If I had realized the issue right when I cut it I could have tried an H202 bath and that might have washed enough poop off to make it salvageable for hash, but now that it's dry it's too late for that.

From a start with 16 plants I'm down to five still growing -- three autos and the two photos. My primary goal for this summer's grow was to finish some Mephs outside so that I could compare how they grow inside. That goal was accomplished, because worm damage aside I did collect bud from a Sky Stomper, Sour Stomper, Chemdogging, and Cosmic Queen. In this grow I used up all of the non-Mephisto seeds I had collected, and there isn't a single breeder of the group I would buy from again. I will grow out the rest of my Mephs, and if I end out continuing to grow autos I would probably try some Dutch Passion strains. But none of the others impressed me. Maybe growing them outdoors was not a fair test? But still, the Mephs did fine outside...

I'm still noticing huge differences among autos, from my uneducated guesses I have some hypothesis. The plant characteristics that I had never seen before growing autos causes me to imagine the Ruderalis plant has thick stems and leaves, and odd uneven bud formations that have few trichomes. Some of my plants lean strongly in that direction, and some are more like the photos I've been growing for years, and some are in between. I could be totally wrong about that, it's just an observation.

Yesterday I cut and composted a Berry Ryder because after [Edit: misread calendar/fixed] 12 weeks of growing it was ugly as hell and all the hairs were still white. No way I was going to take the time to trim and process that one, let alone continue waiting for it to finish. I also composted the very strange -- but pretty -- Thai Ryder. It had turned fall colors and the hairs had darkened and then it burst out a complete new set of white hairs. Not seeing any amber trichomes, I made the mistake of letting it keep going another couple of weeks, thinking the buds might continue to fatten up. The buds did become more and more dense and when I finally took it down they were all bud-rotted at the core from trapped moisture.

Here's some pics...

The pretty but odd Thai Ryder (composted)
View attachment 937455

the ugly Berry Ryder (composted)
View attachment 937456

a Meph bud for comparison of what I think a bud should look like
View attachment 937460

the base of my Blueberry tree (she's got a few more weeks to go, it's been [Edit: misread calendar/fixed] 12 so far)
View attachment 937457

two mofo moths I managed to step on while they were mating
View attachment 937458

The five plants I have left, I actually don't care much about, it was getting the Mephs through that was my focus. I'll keep watering them, but the remaining autos are taking a ridiculous amount of time to finish, I'd say in the end they'll go at least [Edit: misread calendar/fixed] 15 weeks, maybe more. It makes me think that since all of these autos are Ruderalis/Sativa-Indica hybrids, some have more auto tendencies and some have more photo, and these last ones seem to have equal parts of both?

Apart from Mephisto, all the other breeders autos Ive grown have gone longer than 80 days.

I agree that the sativa cross can result in a lengthened flower. Meph seem to have nailed that early dev in most of their phenos.

 

[Sensi Jay]

Has your blueberry started to flower? Think all mine started, end of July.