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Diary copied from UK420
Introduction
Welcome to my diary!
I’m very glad to be able to join this year’s Sweet Seeds competition. It has been a crazy year outside of the forum for obvious reasons. Things have been hectic, and still aren’t getting any easier. To be honest, right now it’s worse than ever with the new lockdown, my wife needing to go out to work whilst I am working from home whilst also trying to “teach” our two young children.
However, I am going to ensure I dedicate time to do something I love over the next few months. I’ve really enjoyed the past couple and it feels like a privilege to be able to take part again. I enjoy the process of growing, the patient wait watching the plant develop. I like keeping the diary as a record of what I’ve done (something I was too scared to do for years as a grower before eventually joining in here) and I have learnt so much about photography. It’s great to be part of the community here which is full of kind, helpful and openminded folk – I lurked here for years before ever posting and so much of my knowledge comes from UK420. I can’t go much further without mentioning the incredible, hugely generous prizes Sweet Seeds offer. But the greatest reward for the effort necessary, is the big jars of delicious, sticky, stinky, mindbending buds I hope to end up with - if it all goes well.
I also just want to mention here, kudos to my wife for inspiring the thread title, when I read out the strains for this run she said they sound like some kind of superhero gang! :rofl: I definitely want to be on whatever side Gorilla Girl XL is on.
Strain Selection
I am going to grow a selection of autoflowering strains. When I first began growing, I used photoperiods. I switched to autoflowers in recent years for a combination of reasons. On the personal side, I had children and consequently changed lifestyle a little – we moved house, and my secret cupboard growroom was dismantled. I now have more space in an en-suite bathroom, but we more frequently have guests stay with us, so my crops must be carefully scheduled so everything can run, from germination to through to drying and jarring, whilst in between cycles visitors can use the same space to shower.
I’ve chosen the following selection, of which I will aim to grow one plant each:
Cream Caramel Auto
Cream Caramel is one of Sweet Seeds core lines – a famous, highly accoladed indica, renowned for a potent sweet flavour and relaxing effect. That sounds exactly like what I’d like, yet to date I’ve not tried it nor any of the versions now available – Auto, F1 Fast nor CBD. The auto version itself has a great reputation, it seems to have been one which convinced a few people autoflowers could be tasty and powerful as well as quick and convenient. I really am very excited to try some modern classic genetics with this one.
Red Poison Auto
You are probably familiar with Sweet Seeds logo tribute to the Ramones which they have used for stickers, t-shirts etc (I used a badge for the above photo) with Cream Caramel, Green Poison, Big Devil and Jack 47 taking the place of our heroes Johnny, Tommy, Joey and Dee Dee. I love Sweet Seeds and I love the Ramones, but I realised as well as Cream Caramel, I haven’t tried any versions of Green Poison nor Big Devil either. I wanted to grow some colour this time, so I thought the colourful versions of those would be perfect. Red Poision Auto sounds a great indica-dominant resinous plant, I hope I get a good representative.
Dark Devil Auto
This is classic from the catalogue, one with a little more sativa in the background with some Jack Herer in the ancestry via Big Devil XL Auto. Again, I have gone for the colourful, auto version of a plant on the Sweet Seeds Ramones logo, created by crossing with purple genetics from the Pakistani Hindu Kush, as with Red Poison. Will it be dark? Will it be big, or even extra-large? I hope so, and I also hope for the abundant resin, and the fruity citrus and incense aroma described in the catalogue.
Gorilla Girl XL Auto
This is a more recent addition to the catalogue than the others, and promises a lot. It’s a sixth-generation auto, reflecting the development of autoflowering genetics through making crosses, with selection for the best traits. This breeding process is how auto genetics have improved so much in recent years, and it is thanks to the hard work at places like Sweet Seeds that autoflowering strains are now available with excellent potency, aromas, variety and consistency.
The genetics behind Gorilla Girl XL Auto originate in the US with the famous strains Gorilla Glue, and the Girl Scout Cookies Thin Mint pheno. Sweet Seeds crossed these together for Gorilla Girl, then Gorilla Girl with Sweet Gelato Auto (itself derived from Girl Scout Cookies Thin Mint and Sunset Sherbet, via Gelato, crossed with Killer Kush Auto to introduce the autoflowering trait). Well, I loved all four Killer Kush Auto plants I’ve grown so far, and the Sweet Gelato Auto I grew last year was fantastic too. I have very high hopes for this which sounds super potent and super tasty.
Ice Cool Auto
This is the one I have grown before (during last year's competition), which turned out to be one of my favourite plants ever. The dense sticky buds on that one had a very sweet vanilla/sugar smell like jellybeans, and a wonderful potent effect that hits both the mind and body hard. I still have a tiny bit left which is saved for special occasions, so I am looking forward to getting that jar filled with more of the same again, if I can be lucky.
Setup and Equipment
I grow in a Hydrolab 12SX tent with a footprint of 120 cm by 60 cm, and height of 160 cm. It fits perfectly under the sloping roof in the attic en-suite, extending round the corner into a shower area
It’s a great spot to grow in, though I do wish the room was a bit better insulated. It’s not cold however, as there is under floor heating as well as a small central heating radiator behind the tent, and I also place a small oil-filled radiator out of shot on the right hand side, next to the tent intake vent. I can run the air straight out through a roof vent that is normally for the bathroom extractor fan, which I leave there for the duration dangling out of the way. I’m using phonic trap ducting to cut down on the noise of air movement, and the ducting has to go via a 6 inch -> 5 inch reducer to fit the existing vent.
I will be using coco (Canna Professional) and my nutrients are in front of the tent – Terra Aquatica TriPart Grow, Micro and Bloom, though I’ve still got the old branded FloraGro and FloraBloom left over to use up – same nutrients, different label. I have put my feeding schedule at the end of this post. I have a bottle of pH Down, some measuring syringes, a pH pen and EC pen, a bucket and stirrer to mix it all up, and a jug for pouring. You can see my red watering can with as adapted drip tip I made from a straw (the original rose was too slow), and next to that is the weather station monitor which links remotely to a sensor I can place in the tent to read temperature and humidity without opening the tent.
At the back left, behind the sink is a small table with the lighting ballast placed on it. There is another one behind the tent with the power connectors raised from the floor, and another extension lead on the top of the tent. The floor should never be wet in there, but just in case there are any leaks or spills, everything electrical is up off the floor.
There’s a toilet on the left, very handy for getting rid of runoff, whether your own or the plants. The shower, not visible on the opposite side of the room is great for filling up the bucket with water – with the shower head removed it is basically a hosepipe.
The tent is lit by a 315W CMH Philips Agro bulb in a Maxibright Focus reflector. I like this lamp a lot, I’m a huge fan of CMH technology. The extraction is a 6 inch Phresh Hyperfan. Later I will add a Mountain Air filter but for now, the fan inlet is just covered with a piece of filter sleeve to protect it from dust. I think the filter will last longer if I don’t use it just yet, especially whilst the air is being kept damp with a humidifier.
The humidifier at the bottom right is Levoit, it is great for the first few weeks of a grow before the plants start really transpiring. Then I’ll take it out, and shortly after that I will add a dehumidifier for the final few weeks, to remove some of the water and prevent budrot.
Above the humidifier, attached to the tent pole is the weather station sensor I mentioned. I’ve added a paper hood to try to shade it from direct light, but even so I think it absorbs some radiant heat which results in slightly higher temperature readings, and lower humidity readings than it really is. I also have a hygrometer at the top of the tent (in front of the fan) which I think maybe gives a bit more accurate data on the air in the tent. Sometimes, especially with the lights off, they will both read very similar, but more often the one at the top will read a degree or two lower than the weather station probe, and anywhere between 5 -10% more humid. Top left is a small USB fan for air movement, I have a couple more of these I will add to the tent as the grow progresses.
I’m using 10L and 12L fabric pots, a mix of different brands, which are stood in large Tupperware boxes. Five is a good number for the tent, it should hopefully get packed in there. I have found that when things go well, I can get virtually the same yield whether with four plants or five, so I like to start five so I can remove one if anything goes wrong with it (e.g. hermie) without worrying to much about the impact on the final result.
On the left is a new thing I am trying this time. I don’t want to just rehash my old diaries, I do want to do something new and learn new skills, so I am having a go at time lapse photography for the first time. My intention is to catch a plant from start to finish. I’m not sure how it will go, I do not know what I’m doing when it comes to video, I’m not even sure whether my old laptop is up to the processing requirements, it did struggle with a test shoot I did of some clouds rolling by. Still, it is exciting to do something different and definitely outside of my comfort zone!
Feeding Schedule
I have planned a feeding schedule for my plants, using TriPart Grow, Micro and Bloom. This is based on my previous grows of Sweet Seeds autos. It can be adjusted if necessary if the plants seem to need a bit more or less, and the switch over to the Bloom phase can be moved forwards or backwards, but I hope should be in about the right place for most of the plants which are all listed as between 8 and 9 weeks to harvest.
The time is days from sprout. The measurements of Grow, Micro and Bloom are in ml/l. The EC is based on the readings I get from my tapwater, which is typically 0.4 EC. I will always pH the solution to between 6.0 and 6.2 after mixing the nutrients.
I also plan to regularly (eg every 4-5 days) spray the foliage with Epsom salts to keep magnesium levels high.
Germination
The seeds were soaked on 6th January. I placed them in tap water and put them into the airing cupboard where it stays around 26-28°C. A day and a half later, the Gorilla Girl XL Auto, Cream Caramel Auto and Ice Cool Auto seeds had cracked open.
I transferred these directly to the fabric pots of coco in the tent. The coco had been watered with EC 0.7 nutrient solution a few days before and allowed to dry a little bit. The seeds were gently covered over with a little coco, about 5 mm deep but with plenty of air space to allow respiration to begin. The light has been on with a 20/4 cycle.
I’ll just take a moment to mention the seeds themselves. I noticed the Cream Caramel Auto seeds were very large compared to some others, whereas the Red Poison Auto and Gorilla Girl XL Auto seeds seemed a bit smaller than average. I took a photo of three of each for comparison.
I wasn’t satisfied this showed the difference very well, so also put the six remaining seeds of each on the scales, just to see exactly how much larger they were :nerd: The Gorilla Girl XL Auto seeds weighed 86mg in total, whereas the six Cream Caramel Auto seeds were 119mg – that’s 38% bigger, almost kind of like you’d two extra if you had five lol :smokin:
It took the Red Poison Auto seed a few more days of absorbing water through imbibition before it cracked on 9th January, and I put that one in the tent too.
By this point with no action from the Dark Devil Auto seed, I decided to pop another into water. I’m not sure what happened to the first one, but I am very pleased to say that its replacement cracked open quickly. I didn’t bother with an original dry seed photo, but this is what it looked like after about 32 hours in water. This last, late one went into the tent with the others yesterday, 10th January.
Sprouting (11 Jan update)
The Cream Caramel Auto, Ice Cool Auto and Gorilla Girl XL Auto all emerged simultaneously on 10th January, practically synchronised, so yesterday was day 1 for them. I took a few birthday pictures.
The Red Poison Auto sprouted 11 January, I got a very early shot as the cotyledons unfold.
I am keeping the coco moist at this stage, just watering a very small bit round the edge of the pot each day, not wetting it through. The temperature is typically around 26°C, it was maximum 28°C and minimum of 21°C the past couple of days. I crank up the oil-filled radiator when the lights are off to stop it dropping too low. Humidity usually reads around 60% at the top of the tent, whereas the lower down probe might say more like 50-55% most of the time.
Hopefully their final companion, the Dark Devil Auto, will be along shortly.
Sprouting and Seedling Growth (13 Jan update)
I’m very happy to say my final femme fatale, the Dark Devil Auto, has joined us today. She came up wearing a helmet, which I had to assure her won’t be necessary.
I saw the stem sticking up this morning with the seed on top like a lollipop, so I put a drop of the nutrient solution on to soften and left it for half an hour. After the short wait, the seed had opened a bit more and the first leaves were poking through more, which is when I took the picture above. I took a pin, and very gently helped it off.
The others are doing fine. I’ve just got one picture I took yesterday of the Red Poison Auto already showing interesting colouring, very pale in the first true leaves. Hopefully this lack of chlorophyll will be like a fresh canvas for her to show off lots of other colourful photopigments.
The room has remained nice, warm and damp for the plants. Typically it’s around 26°C, the maximum over the past two days was 28°C with a low of 23°C, humidity I try to keep about 60%, maximum reading has been 70% and lowest recorded was 40%.
Seedling Growth (update 17 January)
The young superheroes are enjoying their adventure so far
I have been following the feeding schedule in my introductory posts, gradually building up the feed for each plant, on day 5 to 0.8 EC, and on day 8 to 0.9 EC. The aim at this stage is to keep the coco moist but airy, so the roots can spread quickly throughout the pot and still breathe. Most of the water loss is to evaporation, the plants haven’t really started to drink at all yet.
It’s been said you cannot overwater in coco, and that may possibly be true with fully rooted out plants in appropriate sized pots, but I have learnt the hard way that putting a seedling into huge final pots and keeping it saturated is not the best way to grow. So I have not been watering through, I have just been adding a little each day – maybe 200ml if it still seems damp, or more like 400-500ml if they a bit drier and lighter. On days 5 and 8 when the EC increased for each plant, I gave about 700ml (a full watering can).
Today is day 8 for the older three plants. I’ve taken some pictures of them on days 5 and 8.
The Cream Caramel Auto is growing just fine, producing a nice chunky flat set of first true leaves.
The Ice Cool Auto is growing very well too, and is slightly larger, however it has a crinkly texture with very deep serrations and curls at the leaf edges.
Of the first three, Gorilla Girl XL Auto is a little bit smaller than the others, at least so far. It’s only a small difference but she’s not quite as tall nor as wide.
The Red Poison Auto is a day behind those three. I took a day 5 picture a couple of days ago, and I will try to get one of her tomorrow on day 8. She remains very pale, more yellow than green. Also I notice the interesting shape of the leaves which was hinted at right at the very start, broad and rounded.
Today is day 5 for Dark Devil Auto. So far so good, not far behind the others at all.
The humidifier is still doing a lot of work to keep the air moist for the seedlings. Humidity has been between 60-70% the majority of the time, with a maximum reading of 78% and minimum of 40%. Temperatures have always been between 21°C and 29°C, with the lights on I aim for 26-27°C and it is usually that or slightly below, most of the time.
The timelapse camera has been taking photos of the Gorilla Girl XL Auto every ten minutes, and yesterday I took seven days worth of images and tried to make a video from them. It was difficult to process them for several reasons. Like a bad workman I will partly blame my tool, and moan about my laptop which groaned and struggled for half an hour before crashing a couple of time, sending me back to the start. Also I do not know what I am doing with video, or even what software to use. I’ve put the pictures together with Windows Video Editor, and eventually managed to export it. There’s no text or any other editing, but I did remove the dark periods. I put it on YouTube and made it visible to people with a link, so a bit of luck, this will allow you to see my first timelapse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkQgiMotsmQ
I hope you managed to see it, and enjoyed it if you did. I am very pleased with the results. I moved the camera a little bit, a few times when trying to check and adjust the settings, and eventually I managed to line it up straight, but otherwise things have come out nicely I think. There’s a bit of mist from the humidifier in some of the shots which makes it flicker slightly in places, but it's not bad. I think I was very lucky with the way the plant first uncurls towards the camera at the start. I’m looking forward to adding another seven days of footage next weekend!
Seedling Growth (update 21 January)
The girls have continued to grow nicely and as expected, mostly. The exception is the very pale Red Poison Auto. I took a picture on day 8 when I increased her nutrients to 0.9 EC. You can see a bit more of a green tinge starting to appear in the older leaves, though the second pair of true leaves are very pale too. Yesterday was day 10 and I noticed there was some damage appearing at the edges of just one leaf.
Today is day 11 for this plant, and my schedule plans an increase to 1.0 EC, however I am holding off for her for now. The damage looks no worse today, whilst the leaves have continued to expand fairly well. I will keep a close eye on it and keep it on a more relaxed feeding schedule. Unusual plants often give interesting end results.
Yesterday was day 11 for the older three plants, they still seem happy and I went ahead and raised their EC. I gave them about 500ml each, which was enough to fully saturate the pots with a tiny bit of run-off. As they are so wet and still so small, I am not watering them today, I am leaving it for 48 hours.
Looking back at my previous diaries these ones are doing fine, and going to start exploding with growth next week, all being well. The Gorilla Girl XL Auto remains short but the leaves are just as big as the others, so I have no concerns.
As per my schedule yesterday I increased the feed for my Dark Devil Auto, from 0.8 to 0.9 EC, since it was her day 8. Again I, managed to wet the coco through, I didn't mean to, so I am leaving it to dry a little today before I water again tomorrow.
On 19th January I gave all the plants a spray with Epsom salts solution, which I made by mixing 1/2 a teaspoon of it into tapwater. When I spray, the focus is on the underside of the leaves, which are better at absorption. I will do this every four or five days whilst they are in veg, until the flowers appear.
The temperature got a bit warmer one day when the weather changed (it wasn't really warm, just not quite so cold!), and the tent reached a maximum of 30°C just for a moment, but most of the time it's more like 25-26°C. The lowest recorded was 21°C since my last update. I'm trying to keep the humidity a little lower than at the very start and I've turned the humidifier down, I am aiming for 50-60% now. In the past four days upper and lower readings have been 77% and 38%.
Thanks for looking at my diary.
Seedling to Vegetative Growth (update 25 January)
The gang are growing up and moving on, now they’ve established some roots. Once an auto is about two weeks from sprout, they begin a phase of vegetative growth, with rapid leaf expansion and quick node production. Sidebranches will begin to sprout soon.
I planned to raise the EC to 1.0 on day 14, which I did for the older three according to schedule on Saturday. This is the point I begin regularly watering through with runoff, rather than just keeping the big pots moist, so I have raised those plants on cake racks above the Tupperware. I am going to water on a 48 hour cycle to begin with, so I did it for those three again today.
The three older ones are doing great, as is the Dark Devil Auto. The Red Poison Auto continues to struggle. She’s not always by the humidifier vent – besides the Gorilla Girl XL Auto, I have been switching their positions in the tent.
The environment has been very steady in there, humidity is nearly always between 50-60%. Across the past four days since my last update the maximum was 67% and minimum 39%. Temperatures have been between a low of 20°C and high 27°C, usually more like 25°C with the lights on.
I didn’t raise the EC on day 14 for the Red Poison Auto, I kept her on 0.9 EC. To keep things simple, I will raise it a couple of days late, so her feedings are the same as the Dark Devil Auto. I’m not sure what is wrong, I suspect I have kept the coco a bit too damp which will not have helped. I’ve not watered at all the past couple of days. Here’s a closer look, you can see the damage has got worse and spread to other leaves.
She has an interesting superpower: webbing! Or at least one webbed leaf, like a duck’s foot.
The Dark Devil Auto may have sprouted two days later but it’s a much bigger plant now, much more healthy and green.
All of the plants are showing their Auto heritage proudly now, with very broad fat leaves. The indica dominant Cream Caramel Auto is surprisingly possibly the narrowest of them at this stage.
The Ice Cool Auto is a bit taller than the other two, and she loves to pray to the light – I caught her during her Sunday session. Some double-serration saw edges starting to appear.
My Gorilla Girl XL Auto likes to reach up too.
I’ve been working on the video again. Serendipity came my way this week, as I have just been given a nice surprise bonus for work I did in April, when the pandemic lockdown first hit the UK. I also have a bit of money left over from my diary prize last year – there’s not been much opportunity to spend it, and I had not quite managed to send it all to messrs Vapefiend, Vapewellness, Vaposhop, Namaste et al just yet. It made perfect sense to spend it on a laptop actually capable of editing video, and so I ordered an Asus Zenbook. It arrived on Friday, and I’ve spent the evenings over the weekend trying to learn how to use it, and being in awe of how nice it is.
I tried a few open source video editing packages, mostly without any kind of success, before I settled on Shotcut. I managed to pull together the pictures from the first two weeks, stabilise the footage, and add a bit of text. I’ve put it on Youtube again, and this time I’ve tried to do everything I can to avoid it being tagged as possibly inappropriate on upload. Hopefully embedding it will actually work, and you won’t need to log in this time: https://youtu.be/s-B3XSWgzZM
I am very pleased with how this has come out. I can be critical about it, and notice how the camera wonders around a little bit off centre as I struggled to keep it still. I would have liked to have moved the shot a bit less in the second week, with fewer steps out. I missed the focus around day 8 which is a bit of a shame. It is difficult to get it where I had positioned the camera to see the screen and make adjustments, something I am definitely considering more as I think about recomposing the tent and the camera for veg. The text is mostly just there as a test, as I try to learn about keyframes and filters and the other video editing basics. But overall, yes I am very happy, and looking forward to seeing her really move this next week. I will have to try and work out a soundtrack for her to strut her stuff to.
Vegetative Growth, Updated Feeding Schedule & First Pistils (update 30 January)
Earlier this week I looked at my plants, and again over my old diaries, and I realised my plan to water every 48 hours from day 14 was too much to young. The bottom of the pots were still saturated after two days so I knew I needed to leave it longer. The old diaries have been really useful for planning, but one thing I didn’t properly account for in my thinking was the larger fabric pots I’m using this time. Previously I have tended to use airpots with less coco, which would dry out quicker.
I’ve made an updated feeding schedule and included the planned watering frequency.
Four of the five plants are following this exactly so far, the older plants are up to day 21 today. A 72 hour cycle seemed much better for this past week, I need to make sure I do not drown the roots at the bottom of the pot. From tomorrow they should be ready to move to every two days. The youngest, Dark Devil Auto, is also bang on schedule, just three days behind.
The Red Poison Auto schedule is slightly delayed/relaxed by a couple of days – the move up from 1.0 to 1.1 EC was on day 16, and she’ll go up to 1.2 EC on day 22.
I also sprayed all five plants with Epsom salts twice this week, on Monday and again on Friday, keeping up a four day cycle. I managed to take a photo including the spray last time, but not mention it in the text. I’ll keep up the spraying whilst they are young, but once flowers develop I will stop.
I rearranged the tent on Wednesday, and I took out the humidifier. I spread the plants out and moved the camera, and I hung a t-shirt up to be a background for the next shot in the video.
Without the humidifier, the tent tends to level out around 26°C and 40% humidity with the lights on. Since Wednesday the maximums were 27°C and 50% humidity, and minimums have been 20°C and 37% humidity. I’ve been looking at leaf temperatures too with an laser thermometer and typically finding these between 21-23°C. Looking at the VPD charts/calculators in a few places shows this to be a bit drier than would be ideal, but so far the plants seem to be enjoying it. The problem might be that I end up overfeeding the plants due to the increased transpiration. I know I am pushing the food hard, hopefully I am as close to the limit as possible, whilst still being inside it.
I took some pictures yesterday and the day before. The Ice Cool Auto is the leader of the gang so far. She’s very vigorously producing lush green leaves, and already developing a thick trunk and decent side shoots.
The Cream Caramel Auto looks just as nice and healthy too, but not quite as tall and chunky.
The Gorilla Girl XL Auto is doing fabulously too, all three older ones are still almost synchronised in development.
The Red Poison Auto is one day behind those three, but much smaller, and still very yellow. I’m not worried, I read over my diary from last year where I had a Sweet Gelato Auto which struggled to get started a bit like this one (not pale, but it was virtually as small)… but she gave a great result – great taste and effect, and it was the biggest out of three Sweet Seeds plants that time. Hopefully Red Poison Auto will prove you don't need to be a hulk to be a superhero.
She is continuing to grow and develop. I noticed she is the first plant to get pistils.
I had a good look over the others yesterday and I couldn’t see any at all on any of them, but today I had another peek and it looked like all the older ones were just beginning to show female parts too! :naughty:
The Dark Devil Auto is younger than the others, but the main stem elongation means it’s already the tallest. I’m not sure if it is the sativa heritage causing it to start to stretch up already.
I want to supercrop them very soon, they are producing their fifth nodes now and will soon be adding them quickly, as well as putting more space between nodes whilst the plants begin to flower. If I do it at the right time I hope to limit the height and cause the sidebranches to develop more, without the hassle of tying them down which is tricky in fabric pots.
Thank you for looking.
Vegetative Growth & Supercropping (update 3 February)
The plants have really started growing now, so I decided to start the supercropping on Sunday, day 22 for the older plants. For the Cream Caramel Auto and the Ice Cool Auto I was happy to pinch the stem and bend them over between the third and fourth node
I wasn’t gentle. I learned to pinch them hard, to allow them to bend without snapping. They recover quickly and the healed stems will soon be thick and hard. Within 24 hours they were stood up straight again. I took pictures again yesterday, 48 hours after bending them over.
The Ice Cool Auto responded really well to supercropping, and is producing vigorous side-growth already.
The Dark Devil Auto is the plant which most needed supercropping, despite being three days younger. On Sunday I gave her a squeeze and bent her over like the other two, between nodes three and four, though she was only 19 day old but taller than the others.
I should mention here, all the plants are now showing pistils, I could see them clearly on all plants by Sunday. Although they are all now producing pistils, the growth is still directed towards leaves and roots so I’m still calling this the vegetative growth stage, though it all merges together with autos as it’s so fast. Dark Devil Auto won the pistil race really, being this developed by 19 days from sprout.
All straightened up yesterday, I've given her a few pinches lower down to limit height too.
For the sake of the video, I did not want to bend the Gorilla Girl XL Auto over, but I did give the stem a good squeeze on Sunday when I supercropped the others. She’s doing great really, but she’s very short and squat, so far any way. I took a picture of her yesterday, too.
I did not bend the Red Poison Auto either, but I did give a gentle squeeze to the stem. She’s doing ok, the new growth looks alright. She’s a bit sparse and pale, and slightly slow, but still not that far off where the Dark Devil Auto is really.
She’s been following the slightly more relaxed feeding plan, so her nutrient solution was increased to 1.2 EC on day 22, and I’m delaying the move to a 48 hour cycle slightly for her as well, since she has less foliage. The others are all following the new plan in my most recent update to the letter. I also sprayed all the plants with Epsom salts solution again yesterday, sticking to the 4 day spray cycle.
The tent has been fairly stable since my last update, usually around 25°C, up to a maximum of 27°C. When I get a chance I crank up the oil filled radiator shortly before the light goes off, and the minimum only reaches 22°C, so the environment stays within a 4°C range, which is fantastic. But this isn’t always possible, and some days it gets a bit cooler, and the minimum recorded since Saturday has been 19°C from the times I didn't. Humidity has been between 35-51%. I will usually find it reading 40% at 25°C which is a little dry but OK.
I’ve rearranged the tent again slightly. I had to work out how to regularly get the runoff out from under the Gorilla Girl XL Auto without moving it. Normally I move the plants around in the tent, swap positions etc, and take the plants out to remove the runoff, but I want to keep her in position for the video. To solve this, I have raised her rack onto some storage tins, so the Tupperware box can be slid out from underneath.
I did this rearrangement on Monday, which gave me an opportunity to get the pictures from the timelapse camera up until then. I put it together with the first couple of weeks footage, and I eventually found some music licenced under Creative Commons which I was happy to use. https://youtu.be/WlbLjBAJJ3U
Sidebranching & Budsites Formation (update 8 February)
The plants have begun to form budsites, where the calyxes develop in clusters, which will go on to swell and develop into the sticky resinous flowers we love. I took some pictures on Saturday and Sunday. The Dark Devil Auto is the youngest, but good to illustrate the process since (as I hoped) the calyxes are dark red/purple. She also shows how the sidebranches are developing very well, since the supercropping.
The Dark Devil Auto is taller than the others, and I have pinched the stem a few more times in different places, and bent her over again on day 24, as I was getting a bit concerned. As a result she’s looking a bit crooked but she’s growing great.
The Red Poison Auto has even nicer looking colour, perhaps more striking because of the contrast with the pale leaves. She also demonstrates nicely how the plants are moving over from symmetrical node development, where leaves form in pairs at the early stage, to alternate node formation that we see at plant maturity. Leaves (then pistils, and sideshoots) form on one side of the plant, then the other alternatively up the stem. She’s still pretty sparse but still looking very interesting, and very pretty. I’m happy to keep watching her closely when she looks like this.
The pick of the crop remains the Ice Cool Auto. It’s really filled out and made a canopy now. The sidebranches are very vigorous and have really filled it out into a dense bush, a great scaffold to start producing some buds on.
There are sidebranches creeping through the tent like vines since supercropping. The Cream Caramel Auto's doing great, a lovely lush green, and I like the way she is staying very short. I’ve done the supercropping earlier than before, I’d only really experimented with it later in the grow when the plants were already big. I’m really pleased with how it’s stimulated lateral growth, including right down to the shoots coming from the first true leaves.
The Gorilla Girl XL Auto is doing fantastically too. She’s got many sidebranches sneaking up and out as well. One job in the tent at this stage is tucking – getting those sideshoots up and over the larger fan leaves, so they can get direct light. I think she might benefit from the extra space at the end of the tent, or perhaps from not being moved about like the others. It’s a close call between her and the Ice Cool Auto as to which has most foliage.
I don’t have a video update this time, but I have a shot set up which I hope will look good if I leave it for a while.
I set up the huge Mountain Air filter on Friday, before they really start to smell, and I also added another air circulation USB fan.
I thought this would add a bit of pressure on the fan so increased it very slightly (it’s only around half power). However I was surprised it seemed to have the opposite effect, airflow seemed easier and the tent seems to run a lot cooler since. I can't really explain it. Between Wednesday and Friday, before I added the filter, the tent was hovering around 25°C and 45% humidity with the lights on (max 27°C).
I put the filter in on Friday, turned up the fan only a little bit (there’s no scale, but perhaps from 50% to 55%) and left it to settle. Hours later, with the lights on, the tent remained only a degree warmer than the room (21°C in the tent). I turned the fan down again now, below where it was before, maybe to 45%. The temperature is 2-3°C above the surrounding room now, so it’s more like 22-23°C. The minimum has been 20°C, with the lights off. Humidity is staying in the low 30s with the lights on typically. Since my last update the maximum has been 54% and minimum 29%. It's a bit dry still but the plants seem very happy so it's not a problem.
The plants have all been on a 48 hour watering cycle, with nutrients at EC 1.2. The older ones are on day 30 today, so will be watered again tomorrow on day 31 as planned. They are definitely ready for it – I considered moving to daily watering for them yesterday on day 29, but I thought they’d be alright for one last time after having a good check.
Beginning to Flower (update 11 February)
The gang have been very eager to burst into bloom, so I have a quick update with a few pictures of them from this week I wanted to share.
No mistaking they are female, but I am looking closely every day to make sure they are completely female. No balls so far!
A few more from Wednesday - incredibly quick development and wonderful colour on the Dark Devil Auto:
They are just bursting out with new growth. They look bigger every time I open the tent, and the smell is getting more noticeable – a nice green waft of air greets me when I unzip it now.
I measured them today too. In height order:
Dark Devil Auto – 60cm (day 30)
Ice Cool Auto – 50cm (day 33)
Red Poison Auto – 46cm (day 32)
Cream Caramel Auto – 45cm (day 32)
Gorilla Girl XL Auto – 40cm (day 33)
There is still some room to grow, but the size already of the Dark Devil Auto is a bit concerning. She’s getting tall, and also throwing her branches out wide. I squeezed and bent her over near the top again today, giving a good look at the colour on the underneath of the leaves.
The environment has been stable, if a little dry. It’s been very cold outside but I’ve made sure the room stays nice by adjusting the oil filled radiator, especially cranking it up for lights off. I have read that a big temperature drop with lights off will encourage stretch, whereas keeping the temperature as close as possible during the night to daytime will keep plants short and squat. Since my last update on Monday, the temperature has remained between 20°C and 24°C always, and usually 22°C, lights on or off. Humidity has been between 26% and 36% – normally I find the hygrometer reading 30% but it gets a bit higher when it’s cooler, and lower when warmer, as expected.
The older plants have been on a 24 hour watering cycle since day 30 as planned. The Dark Devil Auto seemed to be a bit more thirsty. On Tuesday it was day 29 and I had to water it rather than leave it for the final planned no-watering day, meaning that it really moved to a daily cycle from day 28. They’re all now on EC 1.2, and still on the 3:2:1 Grow:Micro:Bloom ratio, since they are still growing a lot of leaf and stem tissue.
I’ve been spraying every four days with Epsom salts solution, they were due this yesterday but I decided to stop this since the buds have started to develop. I do not want to damage them or cause them to go mouldy, so foliar feeding was only for the veg stage.
Thank you for looking at my diary .
Early Flowering & Stretch (update 15 February)
The plants are fully in bloom and the canopy is almost filling the tent now. Things have been a bit hectic lately but I managed to get a few photos over the weekend. I took a closer picture of each to show the flower development on Saturday, and a whole plant portrait on Sunday to show their general size and structure.
The Dark Devil Auto is still looking the most developed of the five, and is absolutely gorgeous. Despite being the youngest she is also the tallest. I felt I had to do something more about it, so on Friday (day 31 for Dark Devil Auto) I squeezed the stem and bent her over again. This time she gave up the fight and has kept a zig-zag shape to her stem, which should help.
The Red Poison Auto is just as pretty and colourful but not as tall. She’s not producing long sidebranches like the others, perhaps because I haven’t supercropped her, and have only given a couple of gentle squeezes to the stem.
The Ice Cool Auto is just thriving.
She’s starting to get quite big too, the internode spacing is increasing rapidly as she stretches up. I think the density of foliage is contributing to it now the canopy is full, and maybe the plants are starting to show shade avoidance as they compete for space and light.
Gorilla Girl XL Auto has maybe slightly slower switch to flower development than the others, but is not far behind. She has lots of side branches, but the main stem remains a bit shorter. No shortage of leaves, though!
The Cream Caramel Auto is doing very well too. I’m not sure why but she doesn’t like to pray to the light as much as the others, more often her leaves are flat or dangling down, but otherwise she seems as happy and healthy as the others, and is developing nicely. Her sidebranches really want to reach out wide.
The plants are really rocketing upwards at the moment. Cream Caramel Auto and Ice Cool Auto are both well over 60cm now, and several of the Dark Devil Auto sideshoots reach even higher. To keep on top of it I am squeezing the stems of the plants every day, just gently where they are getting tall.
Environmentally I have made some adjustments. My last update was on Thursday, and for the 48 hours between then and Saturday the temperature stayed constantly between 20°C and 22°C, and humidity 26-36%. It was very cold outside, so it was a struggle to keep it warm. Thankfully the weather has turned today and the snow has melted.
I noticed that the fabric pots were getting very cold when I checked them with the laser thermometer - 18°C at the top, and more like 15°C at the bottom – one plant even read 13°C in one spot! :ohmygod: I’m not sure exactly how it gets so cold when the air in there isn’t that cold, I suppose it must be to do with the physics of water evaporation having a cooling effect like in leaf transpiration, and sweating, and the fact the fabric pots give a large surface area for evaporation… I’m not sure, but I knew something must be done to change it because that is too cold for the roots to work properly.
I turned down the extractor fan even lower, it’s possibly at about 40% power now (but there’s no proper markings). I also bumped up the underfloor heating, and the oil-filled radiator to keep it warmer throughout the day. In the 48 hours from Saturday evening to now, Temperature has been up to a maximum of 27°C, and is more like 24°C with the lights on, down to a minimum of 22°C. Humidity has gone up a little in this time too, ranging between 27% and 46%.
Previously I had been applying nutrient solution at 19-20°C, but now I have changed routine so I put the bucket in the airing cupboard with the hot water tank all day to warm up before watering, so it is given at 23-24°C instead. Additionally, the past couple of days I gave extra when watering to try and bring the pot temperatures up, 3 litres instead of the usual 1.5-2 litres they have been getting every day recently.
I switched the food ratio over for the older plants to a 1:1:1 Grow:Micro:Bloom yesterday, as planned on their 36th day. The Red Poison Auto (being a day younger) was due to switch to this intermediate ratio today, and the Dark Devil Auto would have been due to switch another two days after this. I decided to switch Dark Devil Auto along with Red Poison Auto both today to the 1:1:1 ratio, since the Dark Devil Auto is already very advanced, and I want to limit her height so could do with reducing the nitrogen content in her nutrients, and also for the sake of simplicity so all plants are on the same ratio again.
I also have replaced the old USB fans in the tent with new 120mm fans. I have two of these hung in the top of the tent. One blows across the tent over the light, and the other blows towards the wall and ceiling. They are much quieter than the old fans and seem to move more air. I’d had the old ones a long time (I think the older plastic one around 10 years) and they won't last much longer. These new ones were very cheap from a well-known online auction site.
I also bought a new pH pen which was under £5. My old Bluelab one (again, around 10 years old) seems to take a very long time to reach a stable reading and I was becoming suspicious how reliable it is these days. It has a strange brown stain on the glass bulb but it calibrates reliably, if slowly. I thought the new pen was perhaps a gamble and too good to be true for the price, but it’s fantastic, very quick, and so far seems accurate. I cannot believe how little it cost.
Thank you for looking at my diary!
Video Update & Trimming Lower Branches (update 16 February)
I have a video update showing the Gorilla Girl XL Auto, from 1 to 14 February (days 23 to 36): https://youtu.be/9kxMeRE8YEc
I hope you enjoy watching the plant twirling and reaching up and outwards, whilst I try to tuck the biggest fan leaves back down! Hopefully you can see it. I've just uploaded it for the third time, I am not sure what I am doing which has been causing it to be flagged and restricted to 18+. It may happen again to this one, so I am keeping it very simple with the video name and description and not adding much info on Youtube.
I really wanted to include this with my update yesterday, but I just didn’t get a chance to put it together until now. It’s half the speed of the last video with music, to make it last longer, since this only covers a couple of weeks - this one is 25 frames a second. I will probably go back up to 50 fps for the final video when I put it all together, so it’s not too long.
I will take this opportunity to say that today I trimmed the lowest two sidebranches from the first node from the Gorilla Girl XL Auto, Cream Caramel Auto, and Ice Cool Auto, which are all on day 38, plus a few extra tiny bits from low down. These plants are all very thick with leaves now at the top, and I know from experience these lower branches won’t produce much. They can’t make it to the top and get light, there is just no space for them, but they are trying anyway. The individual plants, and the tent as a whole will be better without them, so I snipped them off.
I’ve left the Dark Devil Auto and the Red Poison Auto alone.
Here’s a look in the tent again this evening, after the trim. I am tempted to go a step further and take the Red Poison Auto out completely. It’s stunted and pale, and the leaves have developed a mottled unhealthy appearance.
I think the tent works very well with four plants in a row. It’s a bit of a squeeze with all five in there. I really think the gang might be best dumping their weakest member, and carrying on without her. She’s an interesting plant that might do well with some special care, but perhaps the others will be better off and more productive with the extra space? I don’t think she’ll be yielding much. I’ll sleep on it tonight and make the decision tomorrow.
And Then There Were Four (update 17 February)
I was ruthless and did it, I took the Red Poison Auto out of the tent. I didn’t need the night to make the decision, I did it shortly after my last post, before I went to bed. I did not like to see the others squashed in, the tent was unbalanced and overcrowded. I mentioned a previous Sweet Gelato Auto which got off to a slow start but ended up producing very well – by the one month point it had bounced back and was much bigger than this Red Poison Auto, which just hasn’t got going. Taking it out now seems like the obvious and sensible choice.
The four remaining plants now stand in a row, so are allowed a 60cm x 30cm footprint each. The bit of space in front and behind them there is now allows the light to reflect down lower, which should help limit the stretch. I’ve moved the lamp up slightly too. There’s not much room, but the tops were almost within 30cm of the reflector which is too close.
I will cycle the three on the right so different plants are directly under the lamp each day, and the Gorilla Girl XL Auto will stay posing nicely on the left for the timelapse. I think it’s better for the plants with more space, and it’s definitely better for me when I have to water. It's still fairly crowded!
I don’t like to defoliate, only when leaves are ill and need to be got rid of, or a very small bit from lower down as I showed in my last post. I’ve been tucking the larger fan leaves on the plants constantly instead, so the smaller shoots and budsites lower down can get light. Unfortunately the Cream Caramel Auto has lost a few leaves this way. The petioles seem to break off very easily at the main stem, they are very hard and rigid on this plant and I just pushed them too far. I broke one off over the weekend, and another last night.
I was trying to be careful but today I broke a third off. So (for lent) I am giving up tucking leaves on the Cream Caramel Auto. They are such lovely leaves too, lush and green. One has 11 fingers, a sure sign the plant is happy and healthy (or was, until I had a go at rearranging her!). I still had the leaf from yesterday, so I took a picture with todays leaf and a Dynavap and a regular lighter for scale – I can’t believe I’ve made it this far without including a Dynavap yet.
A quick update on the environment: over the past 48 hours it’s been a maximum of 25°C, minimum 21°C. I’m very glad that the cold snap is over. Humidity has been between 40% and 53%, usually somewhere in the upper 40s – it’s getting damper in there as leaf mass increases, transpiration rises, and the plants start to drink more.
Flowering (update 21 February)
The four remaining plants have continued to grow nicely and are fully in flower now. I took a picture of each plant on Thursday, and a couple today including full plant shots to show their structure.
Ice Cool Auto always looks very happy, reaching up for the light. Despite the supercropping, she retains a dominant main stem. The sideshoots are healthy and developing well, but just not as tall.
My Cream Caramel Auto is shooting out pistils, perhaps ever so slightly ahead of the other green ones in that respect, but not looking as crystally. Her sidebranches reach out tall and wide now, catching up with the main stem.
Gorilla Girl XL Auto is starting to pile on the pistils now too, and you can see trichomes start to develop a frost. The side branches are stretching out of the shadows to catch up with the main stem. The are looking for the light but sometimes they are finding the tripod instead.
The Dark Devil Auto is just stunning in her colour, speed, and development. I bent over a couple of the tallest sidestems on Friday (day 38 to her) because they were getting out of hand. Hopefully they will stop getting taller and start getting fatter very soon.
Now they are fully in flower I have switched the nutrients to a flowering ratio, 1:2:3 Grow:Micro:Bloom, EC 1.1. I had planned to do this after a week of an intermediate 1:1:1 ratio, and the three green plants switched over as planned on day 42, yesterday. The younger Dark Devil Auto is ahead of schedule a couple of days, and moves to the flowering ratio 1:2:3 today, which is day 40 for her.
The environment seems very good for VPD right now. The temperature has remained between 21°C and 25°C since my update on Wednesday, and humidity between 37% and 56% - more and more I am seeing it over 50%. I take the air temperature and humidity at canopy level, in the shade in the corner of the tent. Leaf temperatures are typically around 2°C cooler than my air temperature readings, except for those at the top directly under the lamp, where the leaf readings match the air temperature readings from the edge of the tent.
Thanks for looking at my diary.
Flowering (update 24 February)
Here’s a quick update as the plants start to bloom, with some pictures from yesterday. They’ve slowed on the vertical growth, and have started to stack up calyxes. The Cream Caramel Auto is shooting out pistils and looking really hairy.
Gorilla Girl XL Auto has these lovely long pistils, it’s like this femme fatale is fluttering her eyelashes. She’s getting frosty too – it’s a difficult call between her and the Ice Cool Auto as to which is putting out most trichomes.
Dark Devil Auto is powering onwards, forming a proper cola. I’ve noticed she has a really nice fruity smell when I’ve touched her.
The temperature has been between 20°C and 24°C over the past three days, humidity between 43% and 57%. The lowest temperature is actually with the lights on, during the early morning hours when the house central heating is off, shortly before it comes back on first thing in preparation for when we wake up. At this point the air in the room has reached a low of 19°C. The lights go off in the afternoon/early evening for four hours each day. When the lights are off it’s been 22-23°C in the room, and the same in the tent.
I am still watering once a day. I have considered moving to watering twice a day at around this point, as I had done previously using airpots. I checked the weight of the pots mid-cycle and decided it wasn’t necessary yet, they still feel quite heavy. The fabric pots I’m using are bigger and hold more coco, so it makes sense. I will check them again regularly and go to a 12 hour cycle if needed.
Cream Caramel Auto is the tallest now, just edging over Dark Devil Auto. There’s about 30cm between her highest point and the bottom of the reflector, which is almost too close, and I cannot raise it any further. If she grows any taller I may need to find a solution, such as leaving her at the side, or bending her over somehow. Ice Cool Auto is shorter and when it’s her turn at the edge, she’s crowded out a bit - perhaps I should keep her in the middle, or raise her slightly? Gorilla Girl XL Auto is also shorter, but is raised a bit compared to the others.
Thanks for looking
Flowering (update 28 February)
The plants are continuing to flourish safely in the tent. They are no longer going upwards. Instead, they are getting fatter, stickier and more smelly. Leaving the tent open for half an hour to water or take pictures, the room fills with an odour which starts to drift down the stairs – fortunately not a problem with my living situation. The three older ones reached seven weeks from sprouting, so they are entering the final furlong.
Ice Cool Auto is being a model plant, and I’ve very glad to see is growing very like the previous one I harvested. It has strong thick stems and vigorous lime green leaves. The calyxes are very large, with a covering of trichomes which extends across the adjacent leaves. I hope it has the same powerful effect and taste as before. I am really excited seeing this in the tent. Ice Cool Auto is being a model plant, and I’ve very glad to see is growing very like the previous one I harvested. It has strong thick stems and vigorous lime green leaves. The calyxes are very large, with a covering of trichomes which extends across the adjacent leaves. I hope it has the same powerful effect and taste as before. I am really excited seeing this in the tent.
The Dark Devil Auto has stretched more than the others, and has a more open structure, with less foliage. She has a notably thinner stem at the base, but the buds are already looking large. Her colour is just stunning, just what I was hoping for when I picked this strain:
Gorilla Girl XL Auto seems very promising. She is looking very productive, both in terms of general yield, and in trichome coverage and therefore hopefully potency. As with the Ice Cool Auto, the crystal-coated calyxes are starting to swell very large. It looks like she is becoming the potent, sticky powerhouse I am hoping for. There’s even a hint of ripeness, the first pistils starting to turn orange, and trichomes starting to amber on the sugar leaves, but there’s a good couple of weeks to get fat before harvest.
Cream Caramel Auto has a dense mass of leaves which the sidestems stretched above, giving a thick canopy which the flowers float on top. The calyxes are not so big here, but they are very numerous giving the flowers this hairy look. The oldest pistils are just beginning to turn orange, but many new ones are still being produced. There are plenty of trichomes visible on the calyxes, however the leaves are not frosty in the same way as the others.
The plants generally are looking very healthy. Down at the bottom, they have all lost their first single-finger true leaves, and the fan leaves at the second and third nodes have started to become brown and crispy at the edges, particularly the Ice Cool Auto. I expect this, and by this point in recent grows my plants have usually lost a few more of their lower leaves. I think the feeding schedule ramped up quickly, which has helped to avoid the plants feeling hungry and harvesting those lower leaves for mobile nutrients, and the Epsom salts spraying helped early on.
However, I have noticed some unhappiness on the Cream Caramel Auto, where brown spots are showing on younger leaves higher up in the light.
Dark Devil Auto is also showing similar damage but it’s not as advanced. I’m not sure but I think perhaps it looks like a sign of calcium deficiency? I don't know what to do about it and I don’t want to react too quickly, especially with the finish line almost in sight, but if I could work it out and avoid it in future grows I would be very happy.
The environment has been steady, and very similar to the last update. The past four days have remained between 20°C and 24°C with humidity between 40% and 56%, it's roughly in the middle of those figures most of the time. Humidity has stabilized. When, in previous grows in spring and autumn, I have needed to add a dehumidifier towards the end, I don’t think it is going to be needed this time. The winter air is cooler and dryer. The tent has a more relaxed feel this time, I think the yield might be a little lower as a result, but I am less worried about budrot.
Deficiencies (response to @jadenugs 1 March)
Thank you very very much @jadenugs :yep: You are absolutely right, a deficiency in the leaves doesn't mean a deficiency in the medium, often it indicates a problem with uptake. I'm fairly sure I have plenty of calcium in my 0.4 EC tapwater. My water report (which must be years out of date since the figures never change) shows I do, in fact the ratio of calcium:magnesium is a little higher than ideal, hence the Epsom salts spray. I tend to have the pH on the higher side for hydro, so I don't think lockout due to low pH is an issue.
You encouraged me to examine and think more about the environment, and what I saw today makes me think you are right to consider transpiration. Today I was periodically checking humidity, air and leaf temperature to keep an eye on VPD. I found that most of the time, the air was around 22-23°C, with the humidity hanging around the low 40's -slightly drier than other recent days maybe. Leaf temperatures across most of the tent were around 20-21°C. This is a good place to be for VPD, perhaps a bit dry, so transpiration would be high, but within reasonable limits. However some leaves were equal to air temperature, and the highest on the Cream Caramel Auto (taking a turn directly under the lamp) were a degree or two above it. I swapped her place with the Dark Devil Auto, which had been at the edge, and I saw the leaf temperatures swap over as you might expect.
I think the tops of those taller two have been too close to the lamp, and picking up excessive radiant heat. The leaves are warming up, and evaporation would increase in those conditions. I like the VPD chart at opennlabs: http://opennlabs.com/vpd/VPD_calculator.php. Redrawing the chart with a leaf temperature 1°C above the air temperature shows the air is too dry for this, VPD is too high - plants will close stomata to limit water loss and transpiration in these conditions. I believe that's what's been happening, the Cream Caramel Auto and Dark Devil Auto are both the tallest. I said 30cm was almost too close, I should re-evaluate that and say it is too close.
I've taken some steps to try and make things better. I raised the light ever so slightly - I said I couldn't, but I gained an extra inch by replacing one of the adjustable hangers with an S hook and piece of green plant tie. I thought this was not much but the best I could do, until I stood back and realised I could lower the plants too. They are on racks on large tupperware boxes, ready to catch the runoff. This way I only have to move them once each day to remove the runoff, and I can place them back in the tent ready for the next watering. It's slightly more work, but I can place plants in the tupperware boxes without the racks, then take them out during lights-off to water them, water them outside the tent and allow the runoff to drain freely, before I put them back. I've lowered the Dark Devil Auto and Cream Caramel Auto in this way. Ice Cool Auto and Gorilla Girl XL Auto are both still raised. There's at least 40cm between the reflector and the tops of the plants everywhere. Things seem a lot more equal in the tent now, the Ice Cool Auto doesn't look like it is drowning under the others, and the light is better spread across the plants.
Supercropping was supposed to be an easy, low hassle alternative to training but it's not working out that way exactly. Next time I think I will just tie them down!
Tent Rearrangement & Video Update (update 2 March)
As I mentioned yesterday I have rearranged things slightly in the tent. To solve height issues I've managed to raise the light a final inch higher, and placed the Dark Devil Auto and Cream Caramel Auto directly in the boxes on the floor of the tent, instead of keeping them on the racks like Ice Cool Auto and Gorilla Girl XL Auto still are. I need to take them out and raise them up to water with runoff now. Also, I have added a third USB fan, below the canopy, in the corner next to the Gorilla Girl XL Auto, to move the air around lower down in the tent.
The other change I have made is to move to twice-daily watering from today. The pots were not exactly light this morning, but they were getting lighter and starting to look slightly dry around the edges. Their main watering is now in the evening, when I give them each two to three full watering cans during lights off, getting plenty of runoff (the can holds about 650ml). I will also give them one can full each in the morning when they are 12 hours into the light cycle - not enough to give runoff but enough to keep the coco moist from top to bottom.
Over the past couple of days temperature has been between 21°C and 25°C with humidity between 37% and 56%. Leaf temperatures have been better with the extra distance, and I've not spotted any above the above the surrounding air temperature since making the changes.
I’ve put together a video of the past two and a bit weeks with images I took from the timelapse camera during yesterday’s dark period. Again this is at a slower more relaxed 25 frames a second, each shot 10 minutes apart, when I plan to make a final video showing the complete grow at twice the speed. This is Gorilla Girl XL Auto from day 35 to day 51: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0BTfJ4xsFY
I hope you enjoyed it – thanks for looking!
Flowering (update 7 March)
I’ve had a busy week but have a chance to catch up and show you some pictures I’ve taken over the past few days. The plants have been busy too, building up flowers and covering them with trichomes. The tent is very full now, taking the plants in and out is starting to get difficult, especially squeezing the last one back in. Here’s a look in the tent on Friday.
I’ve noticed that heat is getting trapped at the top of the tent since I moved the light as high as possible. The thermometer at the top would previously come to a very similar maximum to the probe at canopy level, within a degree. However over the past five days, the probe at the top has recorded a maximum of 26°C whereas the maximum at the canopy hasn’t exceeded 24°C, and with the lights on I usually observe the same 2°C difference. I think the air circulated better before I moved the light higher. The minimum has been 20°C. It’s been a bit dryer, minimum 36% and maximum 48% humidity, tending to hand around the mid 40s.
Gorilla Girl XL Auto is still looking great, with dense green foliage at the top, which has lightened slightly in places and started to purple a little. The lower leaves are fading fast where there is very little light now. She’s got a fantastic main cola which looks dense and crystally, as well as decent buds on the sidebranches, all coated in trichomes. She is going to be really sticky.
Ice Cool Auto is doing very well as well. Her leaves are still a lush green but there is a hint of burnt tips since switching over to the flowering ratio for nutrients. The very top is probably still slightly too close when she’s directly under the lamp. The buds look to be developing a good density, like the previous one I grew. They are very frosty too. One or two trichomes are starting to amber here and there, but they are mostly at the clear to cloudy stage, indicating the cannabinoids are still building up.
I really enjoy taking trichome photos. I find them the most challenging pictures to take since they require a lot of setting up to get the light and focus right, and tiny touches and adjustments (deliberate or accidental) make a massive difference. On the other hand, they offer lots of opportunity to be creative and find different angles and compositions, and the satisfaction from getting a nice image feels great.
Cream Caramel Auto is showing the scars from getting too close to the lamp across her leaves. She’s a big plant with multiple colas developing on tall sidebranches, and the flowers are starting to fatten up quite nicely now despite the damage. She’s showing a few orange pistils but there’s still plenty of fresh ones still coming through. She’s starting to pack on some nice milky trichomes too now.
Dark Devil Auto has suffered even more and is losing leaves as they turn brown and crispy. I also notice she is drinking less, and will only need about two and a half watering cans (total about 1500ml) to get a couple of hundred mls of runoff each day – the others will take around three and a half (i.e. around 2100ml). Still, the flowers look incredible with the deep rich purple colour. They are big, but not as dense as the other plants. Looking at the trichomes is like staring at the Milky Way, and almost as beautiful. I took an ultra-closeup of the top section of the flower above, using the Raynox attachment.
Flowering (update 12 March)
I have some pictures of the plants from the past few days as the plants continue to fatten up and begin to ripen.
Gorilla Girl XL Auto is starting to swell. Purpling leaves in parts. Ripe red and amber trichomes are growing in number but still a small minority. So many trichomes! She wins the crystal contest, Ice Cool Auto tried hard but hasn’t quite kept up.
Ice Cool Auto is developing large chunky calyxes and looking nearly done now.
I’m really pleased with the way the flowers are fattening up on the Cream Caramel Auto, making them look quite dense now across the plant. I love the bright orange the pistils are turning too. I’ve noticed a really nice smell coming from this one, very very sweet with hints of tropical fruit (orange, mango, pineapple) – I think it’s going to be a tasty vape. She’s getting a fair covering of trichomes too, so hopefully she will be strong as well as tasty.
Dark Devil Auto’s gorgeous deep aubergine colour is enhanced by the green and orange contrasts in the leaves and pistils, and the sparkly coating of white trichomes gives it a beautiful velvety appearance under the light, which still photos just do not capture.
It was getting awkward moving the Dark Devil Auto around, and swapping positions with other plants in the tent. The stems are long and not very thick, and the weight of the flowers mean they start to lean when unsupported. A couple of days ago I decided to leave the Dark Devil Auto at the far end of the tent, and just rotate the Ice Cool Auto and Cream Caramel Auto in the middle two slots. I’ve also raised the Dark Devil Auto back up for this final bit, since she isn’t directly under the lamp, to even things out a little. I will still turn her around each day when I take the runoff.
The environment has held steady over the past five days between 21°C and 24°C at the canopy, with a maximum air temperature reading of 26°C at the top of the tent. The humidity has been between 39% and 49%, most often low 40s when I check it with the lights on. They are slowing down but they’ve not quite finished just yet.
Thanks for looking!
Flowering (update 17 March)
Here’s a few pictures focussing mostly on the trichomes as the plants near full ripeness. I was considering starting the 48-hour flush and harvesting this week, the calyxes look nice and swollen at the top of all of the plants, and some of the leaves are in quite a poor state. However, I looked closely at the trichomes over the past few days and decided they could do with slightly longer.
Dark Devil Auto is the youngest but has developed the fastest throughout the grow, so it is no surprise the trichomes are starting to turn first. I would say the majority are cloudy, and there are more and more red and amber appearing, clear trichomes are in a minority. Some patches are looking very ripe. She’s pretty much done. There’s a bit of fluffy stuff lower down which isn’t quite as developed or swollen but it doesn’t amount to much. I will start the flush very soon for Dark Devil Auto, and harvest at the weekend.
Ice Cool Auto flowers appear very ripe and fat to the naked eye, but when I look closely at the trichomes I see the majority are turning from clear to cloudy, so will still be producing cannabinoids and increasing in strength, with a lower number that are fully mature. I’ve been trying to use some extension tubes I bought for the camera, which let you to get even closer to the subject. They are fiddly to use, the shots are more difficult to set up, light, focus, and process afterwards, and there is a little bit of loss of image quality, but they’ve allowed me to get as near as this. The leaves are browning and curling up, due to the close proximity to the lamp. The foliage is a bit healthier and much more green lower down.
Cream Caramel Auto is in a very similar position to Ice Cool Auto, I would say the trichomes are ever so slightly ahead and a few more have reached full ripeness, but there appears to be plenty still clouding up. Looking with the naked eye seems to tell the opposite story, where Cream Caramel looks ever so slightly behind Ice Cool Auto with more white pistils remaining, especially lower down the plant.
I think Gorilla Girl XL Auto is a little less ripe than the others, but not far behind. There are definitely lots of cloudy trichomes visible, and some turning brown and amber, but a higher proportion remain clear. I do not have many trichome shots of Gorilla Girl XL Auto. I don’t want to move her at all while I am shooting the timelapse video, and it’s not possible to set up the camera tripod and flashes in the tent.
The calyxes are getting nice and very swollen at the top, but lower down this process is still ongoing. The pistils are orange at the tips of the buds, but looking across the plant the majority are still white. I managed to take a handheld shot which didn’t come out great, but illustrates the appearance and density of trichomes.
Temperature has usually been around 22°C at the canopy, up to a maximum of 24°C and minimum of 20°C over the past five days. The air temperature reached 26°C at the top of the tent but is more often about 23-24°C with the lights on. Humidity has ranged between 36% and 53% and is typically low to mid 40s.
It’s become too much of a squeeze to get all four plants in the tent, so since Sunday I’ve been keeping just three at a time, rotating the Dark Devil Auto, Ice Cool Auto and Cream Caramel Auto. Two will be in the tent with the Gorilla Girl XL Auto, whist the final one takes a break and stands outside the tent. I am swapping them round twice a day – mid-way through the light cycle, then again during lights off. It’s not ideal but it means that across three days, those plants are under the light for 40 hours instead of 60, i.e. an average of 13 and a third hours a day. It also allows the light to better reach those lower parts. I might be concerned about hermies if I did this earlier in the grow, messing with the light cycle, but at this late point it’s not a worry. I will keep the Dark Devil Auto out of the tent permanently very soon, and the rest won't be much further behind.
Flowering (update 21 March)
I have a few quick pictures I took of each plant today, as the plants approach harvest. Cream Caramel Auto is looking nice and chunky now. The leaves at the top are scabby but they are still lush lower down.
Ice Cool Auto is a smaller plant but the buds look nice and dense now too. Like Cream Caramel Auto, the leaves at the top look faded and unhealthy, but there’s more green lower down, and some nice red now.
Gorilla Girl XL Auto has faded fast over the past few days, with very rapid degradation of leaves at the top of the plant. Gorilla Girl XL Auto has stayed in the tent under the timelapse camera, whilst I have been continuing to swap the three others round, so two are in at a time whilst the third has a half-day break.
I decided it is time to take the Dark Devil Auto out for good. On Friday (66 days since she sprouted) I flushed her with tapwater (EC 0.4, pH’d to 6.0) instead of the usual nutrient solution. I used plenty, until I had several litres of runoff. She was in the tent for half the light cycle (i.e. 10 hours), and in the dark next to the tent for the other half. I did the same thing on Saturday, flushed her again and gave her 10 hours of light. I don’t have a chance to do anything towards harvesting her tonight, hopefully tomorrow, but I am leaving her out of the tent for good now and haven’t watered again today. Where the buds are getting heavy, the thinner stems are bending over so I added braces to Dark Devil Auto and Gorilla Girl XL Auto to anchor them.
They will all be flushed and harvested very soon, probably later on this week. I cannot keep them going any longer with the state they are in, really. They are all practically done in any case.
The environment has remained between 21°C and 24°C at the canopy since my last update, and up to 26°C at the top of the tent. The humidity has been between 37% and 47%.
I have had some problems this weekend. First I smashed the probe on my new pH pen putting the lid on wonky. :doh:Then my main camera lens (the Olympus 14-42mm kit lens that came with the camera) randomly malfunctioned – it works zoomed out at 14mm, but when I pull the ring to zoom in it makes a strange noise and the camera gives an error. :ouch: And finally I have noticed that my coco is now infested with springtails – where do they come from?? :frown: These things are all annoying but I can work around them, and there is only a small way to the finish line now.
Thank you for looking!
Flowering (final update 25 March)
I switched the oil filled radiator off and pushed this behind the tent, and I also switched the underfloor heating off when I hung Dark Devil up on 24 March. The room has been staying at 19-20°C for the past 24 hours, with humidity 36-43%. That’s a bit drier than ideal perhaps but hopefully will help avoid budrot.
From Sunday to Wednesday the temperature in the tent was between 21°C and 24°C at the canopy, and in the past 24 hours without the additional heating it has dropped to between 19°C and 21°C. Humidity had been between 35% and 46% before I switched the heating off, and today was slightly higher, as might be expected with lower temperatures, reaching a top reading of 49%.
Vape Report: Dark Devil Auto
I was pleasantly surprised with this one. I’m not quite sure why but I had a preconceived idea it wasn’t going to smell or taste very nice, I thought it was all about the looks with this one. Actually it has a very pleasant aroma, very sweet and floral with background incense notes. There’s something extra to it, almost like mint or eucalyptus. This translates into a lovely rich sweet flavour, I would say floral and lavender tones dominate.
I have had cannabis with this quality before (the particular smell, but not the colour), but it was a long time ago before I grew my own, and I remember it distinctly and have wondered what it was ever since. I sometimes wish I had the knowledge and language to be able to accurately describe it, so I could say for example, this plant must have had a lot of this terpene or that terpene, but I just don’t. Then I could find it in other strains, it is a flavour I really like.
I’ve really enjoyed the effects, which I find are light and uplifting. It’s a great daytime vape. It’s not especially powerful and it’s more of a relaxed, meandering mindset I find myself in, compared to some other more sativa types which get thoughts racing. It’s been great for creative inspiration, where it can oil the brain a bit to loosen up some ideas, but then give some energy and focus to keep going. The more subtle effects, combined with the lovely taste makes it very moreish!
The first of the gang has fallen. I spent a couple of hours each evening on Monday and Tuesday slowly cutting off leaves, before I finally chopped her at the base and hung her up yesterday, which is 71 days since she sprouted. I switched the oil filled radiator off and pushed this behind the tent, and I also switched the underfloor heating off when I hung her up. The room has been staying at 19-20°C for the past 24 hours, with humidity 36-43%. That’s a bit drier than ideal perhaps but hopefully will help avoid budrot.
Vape Report: Ice Cool Auto
Ice Cool Auto is the strain I had grown before. I just wanted more of what I got last year really, one of my favourite plants ever. I’ve only sampled this a little bit, but it’s not disappointed me so far. It’s not quite the same but it’s 90% there.
The smell and taste were very strong with the last plant, whereas this time it’s just a little less. It’s very similar to before, very sweet and sugary smell, almost vanilla. I notice light earthy and spicy undertones in the smell I don’t remember so much from last time. This adds a bit of woodiness to the sweet taste when I’ve vaped it.
The effects are perfect to me. Very relaxing physically, accompanied with a mental massage that gets my mind wondering and pondering. It’s good in lower doses where the cerebral side is more stimulating, or in larger amounts where it will push me back into a chair, happy and relaxed but not sleepy. The last one had great strength, and so far this one seems just as potent.
Harvest: Ice Cool Auto
I harvested the three remaining plants over the weekend. I switched the light off on Saturday morning, which was 77 days since they all sprouted – 11 weeks of light. I trimmed leaves off over Saturday, Sunday and Monday, before I chopped them down and hung them up on Monday evening, day 79. She looked just about perfectly ripe to me when I checked the trichomes. Most of the trichomes are milky white, there are a few still developing but there’s at least as many that have reached full maturity and have started to die off. I hope it will be the knockout smoke that it looks like it should be. She looks very similar to the one I grew last year with these very big calyxes stacked up, covered in frost. The smell is similar too, sweet and sugary, almost vanilla, but this one has a slightly lemony edge I don’t remember.
Vape Report including Making a Dynavap Stem
I wrote vape reports, not smoke reports. I have not smoked for nearly three years now, although glass pipes used to be my main method of consumption. Dynavap must really take the credit, I am not sure I would be able to say the same thing if I had not bought a vapcap. I have other vapes but I use vapcaps by far the most.
I have a small collection of different tips, stems and caps. I think it’s great how George embraced the development of third party accessories for the vapcap, and nowadays there are all sorts of different stems available in different materials. I have spent too long on places like Instagram, Etsy, eBay, vape dealer websites, Reddit etc essentially looking at these tubes, and too much money having them sent to me. I have metal stems, glass stems, wooden stems, even a meerschaum stem.
When I was harvesting my plants, I had an idea. I thought it was strange how I had never seen a stem made of, well, a stem. There is someone who posts about their quince stems, but I hadn’t seen anyone using our favourite plant.
My plants always seem to have a hollow centre to their stems, and they did again this time. I kept the main body of the Ice Cool Auto once it had dried and the buds had been chopped off. I saw there were two decent sections I might get from the main stem – a knobbly section which showed the scars of supercropping, and a smoother section from the node below. I got my sharp knife. I trimmed down the sections carefully so as not to split them, and to try to cut them straight. I managed to get both sections fine, so I used the straight piece, and kept the knobbly one as a backup.
To attach a tip I used a short steel collar, from an old metal hash pipe from back in the day. It’s a bit wider than a Dynavap stem, so I added a couple of extra fat o-rings over the existing ones on a tip. To get a good fit around the top of the stem I wrapped some degummed hemp fibre around it.
The collar has a thread inside it, so it could screw onto the stem, and the tip could then be gently twisted into place. My real aim was to make something which looked cool for the photo, I wasn’t sure it was really going to work very well, however I was pleasantly surprised when I covered the top of the tip with my finger to test, and the seal was virtually airtight. So I loaded it up and tested it out – it actually works very well! The stem is 92mm in length so it’s a bit longer than a usual vapcap, which helps with cooling. The material doesn’t really absorb much of the heat so the vapour is still a bit fresh and warm. The biggest problem is that it’s a bit fragile, and could easily split if crushed (e.g. with your teeth) – if it wasn’t for that I’m sure I’d be linking you to my new shop now. lol
Vape Report: Cream Caramel Auto
There is a fruity freshness in the smell that comes out when it is ground up, very pleasant and sweet. When I vape it, it is very smooth and easy, the fruitiness is a background note in a more general creamy flavour. It is tasty, but the flavour is not a strong overpowering one.
It’s a relaxing, laid back high. I seem to feel it rise up from my legs and through my body first, then follow into the head where it stays for a few hours. It’s a great one to have before bed, but also it can be nice in the daytime too, if I have time to sit back and relax and feel nice but don’t want to feel too mangled.
There is a fruity freshness in the smell that comes out when it is ground up, very pleasant and sweet. When I vape it, it is very smooth and easy, the fruitiness is a background note in a more general creamy flavour. It is tasty, but the flavour is not a strong overpowering one.
It’s a relaxing, laid back high. I seem to feel it rise up from my legs and through my body first, then follow into the head where it stays for a few hours. It’s a great one to have before bed, but also it can be nice in the daytime too, if I have time to sit back and relax and feel nice but don’t want to feel too mangled.
Harvest: Cream Caramel Auto
Cream Caramel Auto was the biggest overall plant, end up at 79cm tall, with several sidebranches almost as high. Dark Devil Auto finished at 74cm, whilst Ice Cool Auto was 70cm. Gorilla Girl XL Auto was shortest of them all at 68cm.
She’d really suffered from being too close to the lamp, some of the leaves are just awful at the top, but the buds look alright. The buds themselves are pretty dense, and they have a fantastic tropical fruit smell with pine overtones. I am really looking forward to trying this. She was very ripe by the end of the grow. I couldn’t see that many clear trichomes, though there are still some. The majority were cloudy or amber, and a good number had browned off.
Vape Report: Gorilla Girl XL Auto
No surprise, I really like this one! I said at the start it promises a lot and I haven’t been disappointed. It has a pungent aroma, that is immediately hash-like, heavy and earthy, but then there is a sort of fruitiness or citrus that’s underneath. When I vape it I find there’s a complex taste, more sweet and nutty more earthy, but a bit of both. It’s similar to the Sweet Gelato Auto I grew before, which is not surprising, but not the same.
The effect is not subtle at all, I find it a buzzy uplifting high that has more of a cerebral side than most other autos I’ve grown. I don’t find it sleepy or couch-locking, more like the opposite. Instead it seems to inspire thoughts and either push me to focus on something, or be happy to sit and watch something interesting. It’s been a great one for music, listening and playing.
***Timelapse Video: https://youtu.be/A-UGv4MEafs***
Harvest: Gorilla Girl XL Auto
Gorilla Girl XL Auto may not have been as tall, but not as top heavy as the others, and loaded all the way down. The best yield must be between her and Cream Caramel Auto but I can’t guess yet which is top.
The leaves really were a state by the end of it – main colour: autumn brown. Without (some of) the leaves you can really see the flowers, as well as the supports I had to add over the last couple of weeks as the sidebranches started sagging. The flowers have swollen and ripened all the way down, and the sidebranches look just as good as the main stem, just not as fat.
Gorilla Girl XL Auto has a potent odour, smelling strongly of pine and earthy tones. There’s a hint of lemony citrus but it’s not very fruity or sweet at the moment, however these flavours might just be overpowered while it’s fresh, and some more sweetness might come through in the cure.
I’m not sure if the buds are quite as dense as the Cream Caramel Auto or Ice Cool Auto. They might be, I’m mostly assessing by eye though, as I don’t like to handle them too much. Maybe they are, but even if they aren’t quite, they more than make up for it with the thick covering of trichomes.
Until I came to it, I wasn’t sure she would quite be ready, however looking closely I was satisfied. There still seems to be a fair few clear trichomes developing, but there are many cloudy, and many brown or amber ones all over the plant.
The three plants are hanging up now. The Gorilla Girl XL Auto and Ice Cool Auto are hanging in the tent, and I have hung the Cream Caramel Auto outside. I’m trying to keep it at about 20-21°C. The last couple of days with the lights on in the tent but no additional heating, the canopy was between 19°C and 21°C and the room was only slightly colder with a low of 18°C. Once I switched the light off on Saturday, the temperature dropped over the following 24 hours to a low of 16°C which is too cold, and could lead to budrot.
I don’t want a repeat of a couple of years ago, where I lost a whole Crystal Candy Auto and the best part of a Mohan Ram Auto to grey mould at this stage. I found out recently that whilst the latin name is usually given as Botrytis cinerea, an old alternative is Botrytis fuckelania – nowadays a name that’s (I’m not making this up!) just used for the sexual anamorph, when it's more commonly the asexually-reproducing type which ruins our plants. It was actually named after the German botanist and mycologist Fuckel, but Botrytis fuckelania was very similar to what I said when I finally realised what was going on. I do have a diary of that if you want to re-live my pain :ouch:
This time I don’t want to be caught out like that, especially with these ropey leaves, so I put the underfloor heating back on, and the oil filled radiator, to bring it back up slightly. Over the past few days since I did this it’s usually 20-21°C, with maximum of 22°C and a minimum of 19°C. Humidity has been between 40-46%.
Dark Devil Auto is basically dry, she was very crispy on the outside today and some of the stems are brittle. I took her down today, 7 days after she was hung. I cut her up a bit, not completely but into long stems, and put these in a shoebox just to even out any remaining moisture. There’s hardly any wetness in her still, the buds were not dense but I won't put her in a jar quite yet.
Final Reflections on the Grow
I’ve been busy the past few weeks and the buds have had a chance to begin to cure. They’ve not quite had as long as ideal but I’m up against the end of the contest, and after a month or so in the jars there is a bit of difference versus freshy dried buds. I’ve written some vape reports based on the little samples I’ve had over the past couple of weeks, and taken some pictures. I will have to add a drink report when I get a chance to have a proper sample, unfortunately this weekend it is just not possible.
First, the yield. The Dark Devil Auto was the lightest as expected, at 55g. The Ice Cool Auto did a bit better giving 68g. I said it was difficult to guess between Cream Caramel Auto and Gorilla Girl XL Auto which was more, and they both measured at 92g. So, all in all 307g. That does include some stem, and a little bit of leaf because my trimming is not thorough, I’d expect it adds up to 5-10% if you saved it all up and measured it. I just vape the leaf anyway, and the stem is good for poking etc.
It’s OK, but it is significantly less than I can get from the tent. There are understandable reasons why, and I did expect the yield to be down on previous grows from the outset. I did not train the plants, which is really the first time ever I haven’t. I’ve always LST’d since I first started growing photoperiods, but since I was making the video, and since I never had done it, I thought I would experiment with allowing them to grow vertically but controlling the height with pinching and supercropping only. I knew I wouldn’t get as good side growth and canopy shape to fill the tent.
The next reason was a knock on effect from the lack of training, which resulted in the plants growing too close to the light and suffering damage. I’m a bit annoyed at myself still, because I knew 30cm was too close really, but I didn’t have many options and I thought I would just leave it and see what happens. I won’t make that mistake again. When I did move the light, I was surprised just how much of an effect on the airflow round the tent it had. Before, with a decent space above the lamp, the whole space was more even and warm throughout. When I’d moved it up just a few inches and the air couldn’t circulate above it so well, there was a pooling of heat at the top of the tent, and a drop in temperature lower down. I have to remember that is partly because the canopy filled up, but I am convinced the space worked so much better before I had to move the light.
My lesson is learned and I will train my plants next time, it is essential with my limited headroom. I’ve been inspired by some of the things I’ve seen here this year so I have more ideas how to do this, without it being a too much of a problem for watering the plants, moving them and draining the runoff whilst using fabric pots.
The schedule worked well but it was not perfect. It was good at the start I think, despite my slightly overwatering them at times during the first few weeks. Later, in flowering the plants faded quite quickly, perhaps the feed at the end was not so well suited. I don’t know if I should make the switch over later, or perhaps use the intermediate 1:1:1 ratio for a bit longer? The Gorilla Girl XL Auto in particular I think could have had a bit more nitrogen and then gone another week or two.
All four strains are ones I potentially would like to grow again. The biggest reason I might not is simply that I can only grow a limited number of plants. I already have a good stock of seeds including several varieties I haven’t grown but would like to, and I see Sweet Seeds have added several new autos to their catalogue this year including some very special sounding strains. Bruce Banner Auto and Runtz XL Auto continue a theme I like a lot, and have both gone straight to the top of the want list. Red Strawberry Banana Auto looks like a chance to try something like Red Poison Auto again, hopefully with more success.
I am not sure what I will grow next time. Hopefully I will be able to share a diary with you. Thank you very much for looking at my diary, pictures and videos.
Looking good and sweet photo shots !!!!
Please feel free to check out/show love on some of my recent grows (Tropicana cookiez/Venom OG/Banana Mango )
Also I have a lots of growing tips on my profile page (comments section)
delagdo
