Northern Lights, Purple Punch, AK Autos

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So far so good. AK auto is the smallest plant but already started popping pistils. Purple Punch is started getting the most LST. Northern Lights just started very light LST, just bending the main stem a bit.

Accidentally topped the purple punch early in the week adjusting the LST but it bounced back like crazy with growth from the two tops at the node that accidentally got ripped off.

Getting lots of growth, AK full on starting flower, Purple Punch and Northern Lights starting to pop pistils. Still going well!

Installed the trellis and did some selective defoliation to expose some more tops. Shame I couldn’t fill out the right side because the AK auto plant started Flower so quick and the stems were already pretty stiff. Started noticing some stress in the leaves toward the end of the week. Leaf margins started pointing up. They started stretching pretty good so I moved the lights up some thinking it was some light stress.

Early flower stretch is starting and they’re putting on an inch or two each day. Stress continued with the leaf margins pointing up. First thought was the lights so I backed them off and dialed it back. Didn’t see much progress over the next couple of days so I thought the humidity might be a bit high and I might be overwatering. I was giving them some extra water because they were stretching and I think I overshot it. Overcorrected and waited too long to water and got really wilty so I watered them and raised the fan up so it wasn’t blowing right on the tops and raised the lights up a bit more. Finally started seeing the symptoms lessen a bit so I think it might’ve been a combination of overwatered and light stress. Defoliated a bit for some airflow and to expose more tops. Need to do it a bit more really but afraid to stress them out even more after underwatering and trying to figure the lights out. Had to raise the AK auto plant up on a platform because it was getting left behind.

Rough week, Northern Lights kept getting worse early in the week. I tried upping the cal mag and bloom nutrients but the symptoms kept getting worse. Bought a TDS meter and tested the runoff and it was sky high and the pH was ~5.6 so I flushed her thinking she was locked out, but that really stressed her out too. I checked the runoff the next time I watered and it was even higher than the day I flushed it and the pH was still really low. After flushing the original signs persisted and the tips of like, half of the leaves fried. I’m really not sure what’s going on and I’m not sure she’ll make it. Purple Punch looks like it’s done stretching. The leaf margins are still pointing up, regardless of the light intensity. Checked the runoff and the pH was 5.8 and the EC was pretty high so I’ve dialed back the nutrients and raised the water pH. Didn’t do a full flush after seeing how the Northern Lights reacted so I just did a heavier watering. She didn’t look nearly as stressed from the heavy watering. Hoping I caught that one early enough and she finishes strong. AK auto is looking the best. Starting to show some signs of nute burn and some spots on the leaves so I’m going to dial back the nutrients for her too. She’s getting close to needing the pre harvest flush anyway.

Alright, so the Northern Lights plant is thoroughly fucked at this point. I’ve flushed it to the point where the runoff is finally low enough that I don’t think it’s getting burnt anymore but the damage is beyond done. It’s alright though, I don’t have much in terms of expectations at this point. If the flowers are fine then great, if not, it is what it is. Purple Punch is doing alright. Starting to show some problems but I’m getting the EC of the runoff down to a reasonable level. Hoping that I caught it early enough that this plant doesn’t get as damaged as the Northern Lights. I think I’ll start feeding her again soon, but much less frequently, at lower levels, and watering with runoff the next time I water to stop the salts from accumulating. AK auto is still chugging along. Definitely showing the same signs as the others but late enough that it isn’t going to be impacted terribly. I did the first real preharvest flush on that one last night and am just going to be using pH’d water from this point out. All in all this grow has been a learning process. New lights, new soil, new nutrients, and new container type have definitely all taken their toll. Going to ride this out to the end and hopefully do a better job on the next grow.

Nothing new this week, Northern Lights is still fucked but I guess not getting worse, not sure what I’m going to do with that one once I harvest her. Purple Punch is chugging right along. Not super healthy but she’ll limp to the the finish line. The flowers are plumping up, leaves are still showing signs from the issues a few weeks ago and they’re starting to fade as well. Gave her some nutrients with her water tonight, I think she’s fading a bit too early. AK Auto is just about ready for harvest, the trichomes on the main cola are right about where I want them, the lower bud sites still need a few more days but I’ll probably put her in the dark and give her the chop later this week.

Not much to update this week, haven’t spent much time with the plants due to an injury so not too many pictures. I have surgery next week to take care of it so next it’ll probably be pretty quite next week too. The trichomes on the AK auto aren’t quite ready yet but should be this week. Northern lights is still as fucked as ever but the trichomes are developing still so I’m gonna keep her and probably just make some hash when I’m happy with where they are. Purple Punch faded super early due to the flush to reset the medium, but she’s doing alright. The EC of the runoff is normal and I’m back to feeding her well. Probably only a few weeks left in this grow, stoked to pop some new beans and apply what I learned from this grow to the next one.

I’ll have to update once the buds are dried and cured, but she smells and looks great and as far as the grow went this one was a lot of fun. She started popping pistils at 2.5 weeks so she didn’t get very large but it turned out to be a good thing because I overfed all of them but this one took it the best because it was already flowering when the other two started showing signs of excess so this one needed the extra nutes anyway. Would’ve been nice if she got a little bigger but other than that I’d definitely recommend giving this strain a shot. It’s definitely a good one if you’re looking for a fast finisher, she really could’ve been pulled out ~2 weeks ago but I broke my collarbone and couldn’t really focus on the garden. Edit: ended up with 46g dry weight of flowers for jars, another 48g of larf and trim that I’ll probably use to make dry ice hash

More of the same this week, freed up some space with the AK auto out of the tent. Brought the lights down a couple of inches since we’re further into flower but I’m getting some weird fox tailing on some of the Purple Punch buds. The buds aren’t really plumping up much or getting very frosty, I guess from all the stress. The Northern Lights trichomes are starting to get some amber so I’ll probably pull her out next week some time.

The purple punch flowers are looking really pretty. I’m still confused a bit because the trichomes are starting to amber but they’re not super frosty and it really looks like the flowers are still trying to plump up and the pistils are still really new looking. I’m going to give her some more time, I’m looking for a good couchlock anyway. I’m guessing the nutrient issues and the flush just really threw her off. The northern lights can pretty much come out whenever. The leaves are mostly burnt to hell but the buds still look alright. I’m thinking I’ll treat her like normal and if the buds taste bad or something I’ll just make some dry ice hash.

Well, sad night bois and lady bois, the northern lights plant was lookin rough (like, extra rough, she’s looked rough for over a month) so I chopped her and figured I’d get as many of the dead leaves off and let her dry. As I was trimming the dead leaves I found some mold in a couple of the bigger buds. I figured she wasn’t worth the effort or risk so she’s compost now. I already have the seeds for my next run germinating — we’re gonna get real fruity with a sweet mango auto and a critical banana smoothie auto, but the once those start flowering I’m gonna give Northern Lights another shot in the attic tent now that the weather is cooling off. I’ve had a few great grows with Fastbuds genetics so I still gave her 8 stars, there’s no way to get an accurate measure of how good the strain was. This one was 100% user error, the combination of the new soil, new nutrients, new light, and new tent was just too much for this plant. The fastbuds AK auto from this run is curing up nice and are some of the best looking flowers I’ve ever grown. I gave the purple punch buds a thorough examination and as far as I can tell she’s clean. I think the dead leaves on the northern lights plant hanging around in those big buds was just begging for mold. Purple punch is getting her last watering tomorrow and going in the dark on Saturday for a couple of days before chopping her. I’m gonna get the tent thoroughly cleaned up before putting the new plants in. So ends the sad saga of my fried Northern Lights. Light one up in her memory.

All in all I can’t complain, I botched so many things with this run straight through to the end but I still got a decent yield of some nice looking flowers, even after losing a few. They dried light green with some vibrant purple that really aren’t done justice by the pictures. The humidity has just been insane around here, even with two dehumidifiers I could barely keep the %RH in the 60’s and lost the biggest cola and a couple others of the big ones to mold. I’m going to have to keep an eye on what’s left and I’m hoping it was isolated to the buds that I found. Ended up with a little over 70g in good dense buds and a bunch more of larf and trim. Thanks for those of you who checked out this grow and followed through the ups and significant down. Started up a new run with a few new strains that I’m really looking forward to so stay tuned for those.