Dutch Passion - Auto Ultimate

Week 1 germination was successful and all 3 Auto Ultimate seeds sprouted. Not much to show yet, just small little ladies. Keeping eye on environment, watering when dry, and watching for pests.

Not much to see and not much to say this week. Watering when dry, monitoring the environment, keeping an eye on plant structure and making sure to watch for pests.

End of week 3 currently. Will be updating end of the week for week 4. Plants are growing fast and strong. Started the low stress training by pulling the ladies over. Going to keep monitoring environment and watering when dry with decholrinated tap water at PH of 6.3-6.6.

Another week, some more training, and girls seem healthy and green. No real clear signs of flower yet, meaning it may be bigger girls. Hopefully nice growth in the next week as well. Will continue to water when dry at a PH of 6.2-6.8, with decholrinated tap water and, keeping bottom of fabric pots wet to encourage root growth. Also keeping top soil moist and making sure they are getting decent light exposure. Will be amending top soil around and of week 5. Otherwise been easy and just monitoring heat and humidity. So far been easy to maintain 50-55% and temps from 22-24C during day. Sits between 19-20C at night. Continue to pull top sites down with LST and a couple leaves here and there, but otherwise usually tuck leaves under prime bud sites. I've decided another grow light would be the best way to go. I have bought another light and will update the diary next week with that information!

So it is the end of week 5 currently. The week was progressing well, especially after buying a new light. To say the least, I was quite underpowered and my goals were difficult with the levels. So I decided to buy a COB Cree LED light, and it seems to be quite powerful and bright. Week 4 features some pictures of that set up however I have added a picture to this week as well. Shortly after setting up the new light, I noticed my plants were showing some interesting signs on their leaves. Started out as kind of grayish - blueish patches, which progressively became brownish spots on the center of the old growth fan leaves. The tips were normal, and not drooping, however the stems of the old growth were purple / reddish. I had seen this before in some of my previous experience, but I did research enough to realize it was most likely a deficiency of nutrients. Unfortunately I got busy during the week with work, and didn't think about where I was on the schedule. Not only did the plants require food, but with the installation of the new light, the plants were upping the photosynthesis and thus demanding phosphorus. At the same time, to double whammy the effect, the girls were also starting to show early signs of flowering. So with flowering coming on, new light, they were hungry to say the least. So I quickly amended them all with 9 tablespoons of 2-8-4 bloom from Gaia Green, 3 tablespoons of 4-4-4 All Purpose from Gaia Green, and 3 tablespoons of Glacial Rock Dust for minerals and trace elements. Also, to give them a quick chance of recovering and not stunting my overall growth, I fed some Advanced Nutrients. I did not add it to the list of nutrients as it was more of a mitigation measure than it is a constant use. I do use small amounts in my water usually, just to encourage good microbes and PH. The plants seem to be recovering well, the new growth was starting fast after the feed and no new leaves are showing symptoms. I have left the leaves with the symptoms, just to see if they progress to be worse. So to conclude, I continued to LST by tying down new top sites and leveling out the canopy. Same time also doing light defoliation such as any leaves near soil, lower growth that won't amount to anything, and any leaves I can't tuck that are covering prime bud sites. So far the ladies seem to be getting big and I am hoping that continues! I also realized, the nutrients are in "TSP" not in tablespoon. So I have updated it for accurate feeding amounts currently.

Week 6 was smooth. Especially after correcting the signs of deficiency. The plants have bounced back quickly after being fed and are thriving in the environment. New growth shows no new signs of deficiencies, and old growth did not get any worse. Luckily it was caught early enough and corrected. At the end of week 6 I continued to tie down shoots and continue the LST throughout the canopy. Light defoliation was also done around prime bud spots, and the lower skirt near soil. Technically also removing lower growth that won't amount to much, aka "lollipoping." Plan for week 7 is to continue to water when dry to a PH of 6.2-6.6 and LST with light defoliation where needed. Monitoring the environment and running dehumidifier to 45% RH. Fans are blowing and these seem like they will be big girls. These are some of the bigger autos I have seen personally. *UPDATE* One plant is showing nitrogen toxicity. Leaves are curling bad at top. I took her out and flushed her, as I may have built up too much with run off when fixing the phosphorus issue. Continue to monitor and hope it recovers quickly. But have also seen a lot of other grows with similar leaf traits with downward curls, might be genetics. None the less, will let dry and water thoroughly all plants next time with PH 6.2-6.5 water. *UPDATE 2.0" So the girls soil was not good. Turns out my calibration was off on pH meter and was flushing with around 7 pH water. Read the soils and one plant, that had the claw and dark leaves, was above 7.0 soil pH. Others were below but still a bit high. Have been adjusting pH of water to about 5.8-6.2 pH for next few to help lower it. One girl is not happy. We will get the train back on the rail though.

So it is now the end of week 7. Excuse my French, but I royally fucked up. My pH meter kicked the bucket, and I didn't check to make sure like an idiot. None the less, girls are still alive despite my poor care taking. They had been fed and I knew they should have plenty of food. Yet, deficiencies and curling leaves were continuing. I checked my soil with my pH tester, and sure enough, they were almost all above 7.0 pH. After flushing the one with curling leaves, I thought it may fix it. Unfortunately I flushed with high pH water due to bad meter, making it worse. So the last few waterings have been more acidic around 5.8-6.2 pH to encourage the soil a d root systems back down to an area where nutrients can be taken up by plant. Which basically was starving them. I do organic nutrients and usually pretty hard to do nutrient lock out. So with hope, passion and focus, maybe I can get this train back on track and finish them out with a decent result. It's a good lesson and allows for learning, unfortunately I am unhappy with myself. Hope to still show the power of Dutch Passion genetics.

So week 8 was definitely a trying one. I was coming off of not only being behind on food from a couple weeks back, but also having a soil pH problem at same time. So I fed them a couple weeks back, found the pH issue and flushed with proper pH water. However, some of the damage and deficiency signs were still hanging around. I decided to give them each a top dressing of 6 tbsp's of 2-8-4 power bloom, in case I washed a lot out during the flush. At the same time, continuing to water at a lower pH of 6.0-6.5 to encourage my soil to go back to an optimal level. On the soil pH tester they are all sitting from 6.6-6.8 pH currently. Which was a lot better than the 7+ I found during the issue. These girls are growing big and are constantly hungry for water and nutrients. The amount of leaves on this strain was quite impressive. On that note, I had to do a lot of defoliation at the end of week 8. Hoping to encourage longer bigger colas and allowing light to penetrate to lower canopy. Plan is to keep watering when dry, adjust LST as the weeks go along, and defoliate where necessary. I do apologize to Dutch Passion, as I feel I've done them a disservice with my issues this time around. So if the result of this strain from me is sub par, it would not be the strain at this point. But I will continue to do my best to make a good result!👊 Happy growing! P.S. forgot I named them to track their health. Big Red, Stubby and Corona Virus. Big Red is largest but has red stems and leaf discoloration. Corona Virus is like Big Red but more leaf issues and Stubby is shortest one but by far healthiest so far.

So the plants are still alive at end of week 9...somewhat. Unfortunately I have damaged them with the pH lockout. None the less, Dutch Passion genetics are still trucking on, even though I gave them poor care. The hope is to keep watering when dry at 6.0-6.5 pH. Same time keep adjusting low stress ties and defoliation where needed. Hopefully still get some good buds even though I messed up. You live and you learn, I'll have to re-do Auto Ultimate for them to have a better chance.

So we are at end of week 10. Big Red is starting to get thicker and has some nice long buds. Stubby has the most resinous and smelly buds. It's also by far the healthiest with green nice leaves still. Corona Virus is pretty sad compared to others. Feels pretty light in the buds, but it could be a bit behind if it was shocked or damaged from pH issue. In fact they all suffered with a lot of leaves showing the damage of my faults. Yet, I still have hope for them all. Hopefully Corona Virus starts to fatten up and I haven't damaged its growth too much. I still think we should have some decent bud, but it could have been done much better. Happy growing and here's to this week, cheers!

So we are at the end of week 11 of flower. The smell is starting to come on strong and the resin is building up. 2 of the three are showing nice thickening and dense colas. One is showing a lot of bud sites, but not as big buds as the others. "Stubby" is the healthiest and showing thick colas with lots of color and resin. "Big Red" has the longest and tallest colas which are also dense. "Corona Virus," by far is doing the shittiest, as per it's nickname. It has lots of buds but not as big as others and really got hit hard by my pH lockout. I still think they will all deliver a nice product and definitely would do these girls again. Thanks for support, happy growing!🥦🤜🤛

So another week and some more thickening and ripening. The smell is like blueberry on one and the others are sweet as well. Slightly different smell to each. Watering when dry still at pH 6-6.6 and monitoring overall plant trichomes. At this point it's autopilot to the end. No more feeding with slow release and will slowly flush the remaining food out next few weeks. I like my trichomes to have some amber, not too much but mostly cloudy with some amber. Seems like most will be dense, except one plant I've called corona virus. It has smaller buds but are really resinous and smelly. Cheers and happy growing!

It's now over the end of week 13. These pictures are about 2 days past a week. So I will upload next step in about 5 days. Things are smelling great and nugs are getting dense. Colors are coming in purples on the fade, looks nice. Trichomes are milky on most but still some clear, not much amber. Will be waiting likely another week or 2 even to see what happens. So far these have been champs, honestly been a pleasure to work with. Though I think the plants might not agree! Even with the mishaps we got some good bud going and some great crystal coverage. Excited to see the drying and product. Cheers everyone, happy growing.

So here we are roughly at end of Week 14. Some photos are from after that point as we are getting close to harvest. What can I say about these plants other than what they already are showing. I royally gave them some bad treatment with pH lockout, and still managed to come back together and finish strong. Noticing, these are all the same strain, with some clearly different phenotypes showing through. To that matter, they all are amazing and showing some real quality signs. The trichomes are almost all cloudy and I have a few amber coming in. The terpenes are coming out and the plants are finishing out the remainder of nutrients in the soil with some good flushing as well. Right now the ladies are in the dark for the next 48-72 hours. After that time period, I will check the trichomes one last time before I chop them to hang. The size of these nugs is not only impressive in terms of length, but the density is also there to back it up. These are some dense, resinous, long ass nugs! Corona virus has the best smell and smells almost like it's got a blueberry undertone going on. It is also packed with resin, which is a bonus, however the nugs are smaller than the other two plants. Big Red has the longest and most nugs out of the three. It's smell is not really much to speak of, and the resin is decent comparing to the others. Stubby has the thickest, densest and most crystal coverage out of all three of them. Unfortunately it is shorter and the overall yield is not as impressive as the other two. So they all have their pro's and con's, but I am thinking I am looking towards a decent harvest with some well grown bud. This might be a grow I am not as ashamed of in my history! 😆 Happy Growing, cheers! 👊😁

Sorry for the delay first and foremost. I've been busy with well, life things haha. Harvest was very smooth, but lots of work to trim these ladies! None the less, the results were impressive. I let them dry in my crawl space with a fan moving air l, not directly on them. At first it was 19C and about 65% RH. I dropped temp with AC to about 17C and maintained 65% RH for 7 days. Some of the smaller stems snapped, bigger ones not as much, but the bud was getting crispy on outside. I trimmed it all up, and wet weight was around 845 grams, after dry it is now 478 grams. The bud is nice, definitely some of the better stuff I've grown. It's been curing for a little over a month, and the smells are coming in really nice. I've smoked some, and it hits super hard! It's sticky and resinous. The flavor is interesting and has that sativa sort of taste at times. Amazing seeds, I am happy with the outcome and we have quite a bit on the shelf. Happy growing, will be back for a new grow soon!