My First Outside Grow
I started growing autos inside and in 2023 I decided it was time to venture outside in the northwest hills of Aztec, NM.
Anyone who's ever been here knows it's a tough place to grow. It's sand and not much else, so I took all the soil I had from my indoor grow made a enclosed garden and bought an electric rototiller and went to town. I got some compost from my chickens the year prior and dumped that in, plus ashes from our fireplace and coffee grounds from household (who btw should own stock in folgers). I roto-tillered it all together and within a week had planted four feminized plants and two autos.
I'll never grow autos outside again because they get about a foot tall and become one bud. The Feminized plants did great and I harvested about one pound per plant. I considered that success for my first time and couldn't smoke all that weed in 3 years even if I tried.
So, growing outside is pretty easy and cheaper. You get more, you spend less because you are not constantly giving nutes or buying materials and the sun pretty much takes care of everything, so your electric bill isn't outrageous. I bought a drip hose and a battery operated water timer for the outside spicket, so I wasn't spending all my time watering plants. All in all, a water bill, a drip hose and a timer with the help of mother nature I had a pretty good harvest. Outside of a bunch of rain after flowering that causes problems with mold damage to your buds, life seems to be a whole lot easier!
Growing Inside Is a Lot More Work
Growing inside is more work for sure. You have to water twice daily and give nutrients (Nutes) on a schedule. not to mention trimming and making sure mold doesn't exist, making sure the PH of the water is good and netting to train plants.
However, it's also rewarding because autos grow so much better indoors and I don't have to wait six to seven months to harvest, more like 60 to 90 days! You can get about a 1/4 to half pound from each plant and you can grow three times as many because you use pots instead of buying topsoil (at least in new mexico where its all sand) and they take less time to produce large buds. Nowadays, with Fox Farm potting soil and the advancement in LED lights with multi spectrum bands it's a lot easier to keep plants going without nutrient burn and/or excessive lighting burns. However the cost associated for tents, lights, soil, pots and electricity throws a lot of people off of growing indoors. But if you have the means and the patience to gather cheaper materials its possible to grow autos successfully in a walk in closet and some cheap silver emergency blankets, clothe pots and LED lights from amazon. That may allow you to keep cost manageable and yield plenty of bud to last for a long time.
However, it's still not easier than germinating a seed and planting it outside and letting the sun, a drip line and a battery operated timer do the work for you! Plus it seems to be a lot cheaper to grow outside and forego all the costs associated with inside grows.
No Matter what you choose I don't think there is a wrong answer... as long as you have enough bud and you're happy with the outcome, it's always 420 somewhere!
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