Sweet Seeds Femme Fatales

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.