Hello,
I am thinking of trying an auto outdoors in Minnesota. Is this possible? I am experienced in indoor photoperiod growing, but have never attempted an auto or outdoors. I’ve read they can be finicky.
I will not be upset if I fail, but curious if anyone has done it? I am comfortable with starting it indoors to give them a head start if that is necessary. I typically transplant my vegetable seedlings outdoors in late May. Minnesota’s first frost is typically in mid October if that too.
I am leaning towards auto outdoors because I want it to stay concealed by my privacy fence, even though it’s perfectly legal here now.
Thank you in advance for any advice/tips!
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I don’t see why you couldn’t. I would wait a couple/few weeks, probably closer to May, that way you get the most of the longer days. Autos are finicky indoors because of the training needed to utilize the indoor space and even light distribution. Outdoors, as long as they are in a nice open area that gets lots of sun and a little breeze, they’re golden. Give them a good start, and they can absolutely boom outdoors. I’ve had a handful of +4ft autos outside.
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May be visually concealed but you’ll smell it further than you think lol. Been there! 
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I’m in Minnesota and grew a few outside last year. Grew 2 Fast Flowering photos from 420 FastBuds and a Strawberry Banana Auto from them as well. The two Photos grew really well. They had about a 7 week flower time and thanks to global warming we get a little extra fall weather in Minnesota before the deep freeze sets in. I started the auto indoors right around Mothers Day and brought her out around the first week of June. She grew super well and was done before the kiddos went back to school. None of the plants got above 5 feet tall so they blended perfectly with my veggie garden, and besides the smell, you’d never know there was the devils lettuce hidden by the romaine lettuce.
The one thing I noticed with outdoors the buds did not get super dense. A lot of what might be considered somewhat larfy. Not bad but definitely not dense. Now it was my first attempt at a true outdoor grow so there are definitely things I coulda done better to get denser nicer buds, but ended up turning most of it into hash and joint weed anyways so no big deal. You’re definitely going to want to wash your bud when you harvest. Outdoors gets a lot of bugs and dust. But at the end of the day, Mother Nature will grow them right. I planted them in a 5 gallon bucket with big holes drilled in all along the bottom half so they started in a nice super soil and then were able to grow into the earth to stretch.
Good luck on your outdoor grow!!!
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Did you plant in a full sun location?
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Full sun for most of the day. It was next to a big cedar tree so usually around 4-5pm it got a bit shaded. Which did help them not get too hot, but I’m sure if they had gotten a little bit more light it would’ve helped the buds.
This summer I’m gonna move them to the other side of the main garden where they can get full sun the entire day without shade. I’ll throw up some shade cloth for the super hot days I believe and see how that turns out.
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Maybe more sun will equal tighter buds this year
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Hope so. Either way I’ll wind up with a good amount of hash!!!
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I think this is pretty common for outdoor weed in the Midwest. Some seems better than others but even the better doesn’t really compare to a put together indoor grow.
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I have been growing autos outdoors for a while now,i suggest to get auto seeds that are good for outdoors , not all grow big and nice…I have had a lot of small girls .
Make sure they get consistent light as much as possible.
Generic really matter outdoor, be wise what seeds you greminate (can try gg4, gorilla zkittlez ) I just harvested a gg4 and gz is at week 3 veg
Looking good
Happy growing!
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I’ve had a lot of problems with bud rot and caterpillars growing autos outside. They bud right in the hottest most humid part of summer and the moths seem to lay eggs in them every time. Also as said before, less dense buds than indoors. I’m in upstate NY for what it’s worth.
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Thank you, everyone! Very good advice! I appreciate it! I have some autos from Purple Caper (runtz cake) and from Twenty20 Mendocino (Hot Damn). Both were freebies so if I fail, I will only lose my labor, but I think the experience gained will be worth it. Anyone have any opinions on which of those to try? Do you start them indoors? Is there a timing issue in regard to the daytime hours and transplanting outdoors? So do I want to make sure to transplant at the longest amount of daytime hours in MN? Thanks!
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If you start them pre-Spring indoors be careful putting them outdoors before there’s enough consistent light to keep them in Veg or they’ll start to flower and then later as the Summer arrives they’ll re-Veg on you and it’s an unnecessary delay and reboot. In MD we wait until Mother’s Day to transplant seedlings outdoors.
If you can put them directly in the soil, no container, you can grow large enough plants that you can chuck whatever the bugs foul up and still have plenty left overs lol.
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Happy piece-o-cake day growmie 
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Happy Versery @TuxBob
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