ILGM Bubblegum Auto

Eagle680 Pictures show my inexperience with mainlining, topping, FIMing. I did a little of each, along with some LST to get the unique shape of my plant :-) My next grow is using pure mainlining, but this was a good intro experience before going full-mainline.

Eagle680 Starting to smell good, expecting another 2-4 weeks until harvest. Highest four tops are 18" below the HLG 225. I think I'm learning that the top leaves will droop if too-close to the light...plant doesn't like it closer than 18" I think.

Eagle680 Trichomes abounding all over flowers and sugar leaves. Smell getting stronger, kind of skunky. Watching trichomes now for amber, but I think it will be a few more weeks.

Eagle680 Trichomes getting cloudy, should be soon now.

Eagle680 Watching trichomes for maturity, still mostly cloudy with no amber

Eagle680 The bowl-shaped canopy is the result of bad FIM job early on, but I learned :-) This strain seems to go a bit longer for auto-flower, still no amber trichomes after 12 weeks. Other grows I saw here took 15-16 weeks. If I had done a better job, I'm sure this thing would yield a quarter pound...still might, but I think closer to 2-3 oz after harvest now.

Eagle680 Messed-up with the light timer, stressed them out and caused a lot of fox tailing. Learned lesson about the importance of keeping the lighting consistent during flower. There are still a lot of clear trichomes, not many amber ones. I've been cutting some samples from the high colas and bringing the light closer to get some of the lower ones. The taste of the smoke is really sweet, but I think more in a floral way than a fruity way. I will be harvesting it in stages, doing some quick dries (putting buds on top of the LED driver dries them in about 1-2 days, though I'm sure it cooks-out a lot of good terpenes. The more you dry it, the less you smell/taste the terps, but if you just want some supply then it's no big deal :-)

Eagle680 Been cutting samples, quick drying in a ramekin on top of my LED driver for 1-2 days, then curing them and smoking them. It's a wonderful smoke, and smells good after a few days of curing in small mason jars. I'll keep this plant going as long as I can and just picking "fruit" off of it for personal use. I'm thinking it will go another week or two, based on other diaries here for the same ILGM seeds. I'm happy with the seeds, I know I could get a bigger yield if I had done the training better.

Eagle680 Cut off some more of the high colas for stash, it's getting stonier with every new cola I chop. Most of the trichomes are cloudy now, but not many ambers. Will wait at least one more week. This one is going on 4 months, but other growers had the same, so no worries if she needs another week or two. I expect this thing will have yielded 3 or more ounces after it's all done and dried.

Eagle680 Today was the big day for the first major harvest. This ILGM Bubblegum autoflower was my first grow in a long time, and I messed-up the training, and ended-up with a "bowl shaped" canopy. Today I harvested all of the buds that were higher than the lowest-one, so that my canopy would be even (see pics). This ended-up being about 2/3 of the plant. I'm going to let the rest go another week or two, compare the smoke and trichomes. Most of the trichomes are cloudy today, and about 20-30% amber. I've waited a long time (16 weeks) for this plant to mature, and taken some sample stashes the last few weeks, so I know the smoke is reasonably mature (not speedy...more stoney). Previously harvested about 2 oz (wet) for a batch of edibles about 2 weeks ago. The edibles are a bit speedy since I harvested early, but they do the job. I want to make some more edibles with what's left on the plant in a few weeks, see if the edibles are stonier and less speedy.