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Just watering with PH adjusted rain water, 6.5 or so. A touch of seaweed compost tea I made but the soil has all kinds of good stuff in it so no real nutes until flowering or at least close to. I resist overwatering too so the tap root digs deep, just around the stem if the top gets pretty dry and my finger poked down an inch or so feels moist so it's good.
After 18 days or so she’s starting to grow faster, impatient as I am it's a good thing.😀 The LST even after less than one week is paying off. The tiny leaves at the base of the first single leaf are now big and stretching high to become branches with eventual colas. After each node gets long enough, I bend the stalk to horizontal with copper wire staples and pipe cleaners. The little leaves in the crotch of the leaf stem then get lots of light and grow up into a nice bud site, instead of remaining a pea size popcorn bud. No nutes added yet because my soil mix has plenty of compost and Earth worm castings. Once in preflower I'll add "Fox Farms" Grow Big at 1/2 strength and then cut back and transition into my flower fertilizer ("Flower Fuel").
I noticed fungus gnats starting to take hold, holdovers from my tomato and pepper grow earlier. BT (Bacillus Thurengensis), an organic pesticide cleared it all up within a week. $10.00 for a 16 oz. bottle at Tractor Supply, good deal. I'd add the Tbsp/gallon to my watering, let the surface soil dry out and they're all gone now after one week👍. I added perlite to the top to keep a barrier from any future stragglers laying eggs on top of soil and don't overwater at all. I also sprayed the leaves well with a commercial Neem oil spray and the soil surface as well for a drench, so everything seems to be pest free now and I'll continue with Neem oil spray as a preventative measure until they're into flower. Still hitting the LST diligently at this stage and it's opened up some nice bud sites. I cut three leaves off today (day 25) that were touching the soil and they were only the first set of 3 leaves so not too important all in all. I expect it to start really filling in now as it'll probably be one more week (week 5) and she'll be in the preflower stretch more than likely.
Week five and the stretch has begun, it's noticeably bigger every morning. It's still getting LST to open up and keep open bud sites and I'll start giving her 1/2 strength fertilizer soon. I had a lot of earthworm castings and some Dr. Earth powder in the soil as well as ground up egg shells and powdered dry seaweed so it's not depleted at all. I reckon she'll be in pre flower by the end of week 5 so it really gets exciting from here on out. So far it's bug free after I rid her of fungus gnats, haven't seen even one since the BT (Bacillus thurengensis) waterings. That's great organic stuff for larvae and caterpillars, worked like a charm. I'm resisting for now bringing her outside, last year by doing that there were thrips that were devastating, and the year before that spider mites. No leaf damage from insects rocks!!!
Pistils started to show during week five midway through and now week 6 it's definitely in flowering mode. The LST continues to try and even the canopy, expose all bud sites to direct light, and spread branches out horizontally as much as possible. Tuck leaves daily too rather than prune them. All in all I've only cut off about ten or less leaves, easy does it is best. More leaves equals more energy and as long as they do not completely cover up bud sites, they're welcome to grow and be happy. I'm beginning to add nutes now, about 1/4 strength Fox Farms Gro Big or whatever it's called (tomato on label), IMO they still benefit from a little nitrogen. I use dry powder " Flower Fuel" (1-34-32 NPK) off Amazon for the increase of P &K during flowering stage, no more than 1/2 strength or less-it's potent stuff! Best grow so far with no bugs (have had spider mites, thrips, and fungus gnats before) and it's due to not giving in to temptation and bringing her out on sunny days. No nute burn either so far, a first there too! I'm shooting for 2 hopefully 3 ounces and I'm sure it'll be at least two. I can't wait to see the buds form and grow big.💕💕💕👍👍🌸🌸
Everything is going great, leaves not burnt and dark green, buds forming up, it gets real exciting from here on out as the buds begin to get bigger. It's slowed down this week but we had high 98° temps for 5 days and very humid so not too concerned, it's cooler now so she'll pick up the pace. I expect week 8 to see buds getting bigger and taller so hopefully it will happen.👍
If you look at my latest pics like day 48, does anyone think I should do some fair amount of defoliation? I have picked some leaves that block buds but am torn whether to keep her bushy as is or if it would benefit at all from some decent amount of defoliation.
This starts week 8. All the leaves look real healthy without bugs, nute burn, or deficiencies. The flowers are slowly starting to take form and are loaded with pistils and I can see trichomes under the loupe, mostly on the leaves near the flowers right now. I'm giving about 1/2 to 1/4 strength "Flower Fuel" fertilizer about every third watering. I water nearly every day with 2 liters but not unless the pot feels pretty light when I pick it up.
At about day 60 literally almost overnight, I noticed a lot of instant yellowing of older leaves. It's too early for it to be aging and nearing the end. The veins of the yellow leaves were still dark green, kinda zebra style. Leaf charts online made me suspect magnesium deficiency so I added 1tbsp Epsom salts to 1/2 gallon of water, and some homemade calcium from vinegar soaked eggshells f.or the past two waterings. Thankfully it stopped the yellowing dead in its tracks! I removed nearly all the dead yellow leaves and two days later no more have started, I dodged a bullet big time and it was an easy fix. I also gave it a little boost of nitrogen fertilizer in addition to my "Flower Fuel" bloom nutes. With the buds just now forming well and starting to stack I want it to go the distance and now I feel she will. 👍
The trichomes are mostly all milky now and I cut off all the browned leaves that were past yellow so it's mostly all buds now. She’s getting there but I won't hurry it either, I'll wait some more rather than to have just a few random amber trichs. like it has now.
@nhcowboy, I hear you! I know my ladies would LOVE some sun and a nice breeze, but I know the same thing will happen. It is what it is…bids in a bubble right!! I like GC’s strains, I did a tangie and critical purple auto, both came out alright. Good luck boss, I hope you get some monsters!!!!
@Fordsie, Thanks, this year I swear I will not take her outside to sun. Last year I did that to my critical purple and got thrips and the year before the tangerine dream spider mites! If I keep bugs off her I'll be super stoked. LST is my prefered way to grow so maybe after werk 2 I can get that going.👍
@HowdyThugger, I got over two ounces from that critical purple after curing. I was bringing it outside on sunny days but got thrips that devastated the leaves, thrips are really really bad. It made it through but I learned not to bring them outside anymore and get bugs for the sake of a few hours of natural sun, it wasn't a good trade off at all. I kept up the LST on that really well. First plant I grew I let go natural but no more. The even canopy from LST is awesome and I get so many more buds that way. For me it's the way to go. 👍
@nhcowboy, kinda funny, but I also grew that critical purple outdoors in Colorado last summer. Growing outdoors there is hit or miss for me, maybe bc of low humidity. Yours looked much better than mine. Good job.
I keep my auto flowers on a 20 hour light on schedule all the way through and that seems to work out fine. I'm really liking the Spider Farmer LED light over the blurple kind I do have to say. They really throw a lot of light and natural looking light at that. I think after week two it'll really take off, right now it's putting a lot of energy into the roots. As soon as I get about the third or fourth set of leaves it'll be LST training. I do that to all my girls and the yield is soooo much better and with a nice even canopy loaded with bug buds!
@HowdyThugger, I think they are stretching a little but it's hard to tell honestly, I tied down the branches LST style with long pipe cleaners so always kept it flat. I undid those today though and It's looking like the bud sites are getting taller. It may have stalled some too in the heat wave and high humidity but it's looking pretty good so I'm happy. 😀
WOW yours look so much better than mine I am so jelly. I can smell them from here Mmmmm Good.👍 All the best and I might have to try another one to see if I can get 1 like yours. Keep on growing they look awesome.
If I take a plant outside, it stays there. One because of bugs and I thought moving from led to real sun takes a week for your plant to adjust to Uv rays.
Que maravilha ✌️
Boa sorte no cultivo e aproveita o desenvolvimento 👍
E no final que tenhas uma grande colheita 🌱🌱
Se quiseres passa pelo meu diário e deixa o teu apoio
nhcowboy
