I apologize if this post inquiry duplicates others, but I couldn’t find any that came close to the questions I have.  I plan to grow four different strains of auto flower from 420 Fast Buds seeds (White Widow, Gorilla Cookies, Guava and Jack Herer — most are listed as “beginner” strains) this coming spring/summer in Minnesota which recently legalized cannabis growing.  I have spent countless hours researching my approach (including Chris’s books) and have some very basic plans formulated.

First, I want to grow outdoors on my patio  since I don’t need much product (if I end up with one or two ounces per plant, I’ll consider my project to be wildly successful).  I’ve grown tomatoes on my patio for years with great success, so I feel the location will have plenty of necessary sunlight with the patio facing east.  I plan to grow in fabric bags that are tan colored (I may have to place them into larger light colored containers to avoid frying the roots) and using Foxfarm Ocean Forest potting soil mixed in equal parts with their Happy Frog potting soil, placing germinated seeds into a space of about the size of a cup or two of just Happy Frog soil.

From my understanding of various sources, you don’t want to burn the seedlings which is why I’m placing them into Happy Frog mix and then letting the roots grow into the 50/50 mix.  I feel that the 50/50 mix may be better for auto flowers since some of the Ocean Forest higher concentrations of nutrients will be diluted out and the Happy Frog will provide some microbial additions.

One of the things I heard Chris say is that (any maybe I’m taking it out of context) growing autos in containers using an organic approach is challenging.  On the other hand, I’ve heard from numerous sources that if you can grow tomatoes, you can grow cannabis.  If Chris is right, what should I do to improve my odds?

I’ve also understood from Chris that you probably don’t need any additional nutrients until about week 3 – 4 when the plant burns through the existing soil nutrients.  If I want to continue down the organic path, what suggestions do people have about additional nutrients/microbial additions, etc?  Are teas preferable to surface feeding?

I don’t know anyone who has grown outdoors and, given my low level of consumption, it makes no sense for me to make a steep investment into an indoor grow.  I want to make things as easy as possible, but also as organic as possible.  Maybe that’s a contradiction in terms.

Thanks for any help on my project and a big thanks to Chris for all his work in helping people like me in so many ways.