Sweet Seeds Femme Fatales

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.