First Oregon Outdoor Grow

Hello! I will eventually start a grow journal but for now I'm just going to post what I'm hoping to accomplish and what tools I'm going to use. Insights and criticisms are welcome and encouraged.

So my wife has Ok'd me to do two plants outside this summer as long as they stay smaller. We live in the Willamette valley microclimate(Portland). Here is what I've come up with.

2 nirvana seeds Northern Lights Feminized. (Northern Lights for size and smell) start on April 24th inside.
Move outside May 15th after hardening off. (Recommended tomato outdoor transplant, plus the later date will help keep the plants smaller)
2 - 10 Gallon Smart pots
Black Gold Natural and Organic Soil
15 Dollar costco nutes - https://www.whitneyfarms.com/plant-foods/organic-natural-tomato-vegetable-food
Watering with Hose water

Pests- I know my garden is already full of Aphids so I will be planning around that. (I shook a hundred off a rose bush last night) I plan on using companion plants and maybe adding ladybugs if I still have problems. Chems will be a last resort.

Companion Plants will be planted in a raised bed garden right next to my 2 plants - Peppermint, Mums, Dill, Chamomile, Basil, Coriander.

Part of the reason I'm doing this grow is to see how little I can get away with. The companion garden was already planned I just change a couple plants around. If I can get away with cheap costco nutes, tap water and the Sun I will be feeling pretty good at the end of the grow. I have a big indoor grow going already that will be done right about the time this one starts so I should have plenty of bud to last me if this fails.

I plan on topping and LSTing to keep them smaller.

Goals - 1 LB total

I guess technically this grow will be organic, although not it's primary purpose.

Does this all seem reasonable?

Edit: More info on the nutes. All organic - 2-4-2 - Wheat Middlings, meat and bone meal, Calcium carbonate, potassium sulfate, feather meal, fish meal. $15 for 15lb

1lb total is a good bar to set for 2 10 gallon plants. They will grow root bound quick outdoors if you are starting them in April.

Do you really need to start them indoor if you want to keep them on the small side ?

I'm east of PDX in the windy NE corner of Multnomah County. I'm also going for smaller plants, with some similar goals to you, except my wife is OMMP so we are going with 6 small plants (3 pairs each in different settings/circumstances). Last year I put them out late April and early May, and it was too soon. They got ridiculously big. This year they go out June 1st. Last year three were in the ground and two in 100 gallon pots. This year two will be in the ground, two in 15 gallon pots, and two in 10 gallon pots.

Last year was our first outdoor at this property, and my first outdoor (by myself) ever. My wife is a gardener, and our back yard is largely an edible landscape. I grew four plants, which I built covers for (mostly for the fall winds (near the Gorge) as much as rain), and I sprayed them religiously, all organic. She just put a plant in the garden with her other plants. Hers had no shelter, was never sprayed, and was only fertilized late in the season with some Kellog Organic dry ferts (from Home Depot). Her plant was the best smelling and tasting plant of the bunch, and never had a spot of mold or mildew. Several of mine had both by the end of the season. I learned a lot from that experience.

To be fair, her plant was from seed, sadly a mystery seed whose origins are totally unknown. Mine were from clones. Plants from seeds seem to be more resilient, this year they are all starting from seeds. I learned about covering -- but not trapping in moisture -- important lessons I'll carry forward to this years crop. If you've got Indica dominant strains that will finish early, then covering is less of an issue. My wife prefers Sativa dominant, so we need to plan for late harvests.

The other big lesson I learned was about the sun. In the early spring (March) we looked at the angle of the sun to see where it would reach in the yard come fall (October) when the plants were finishing up, and then we chose our plant locations. Duh... we did not account for deciduous trees. Come fall we had so little sunlight directly hitting two of the plants that they did not finish at all, they never fully matured -- and because they went into the ground in April they were HUGE. Oh well, lots of good compost. We also took down one evergreen tree on the south side since then, and are much more prepared in terms of placement.

It's a fun adventure you are embarking on.