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Hello everyone!
This is my second grow. Hopefully with a bit of experience I can make this grow better than the last one. This time I will try defoliation, will be harder on LST and I will be using a 'Hobbyist' set of Advanced Nutrients.
I will also be using fabric pots instead of plastic. Let's see what difference it makes.
I got those seeds a few months ago and they were very cheap - I wonder if it is because of the quality or a rather long life cycle for an auto and lower popularity?
Both seeds popped within 2 days in a paper towel. They are now planted. Top layer of soil in the pots is depleted compost from the last grow - just to give the seedlings a smoother start in life. Let the growing begin!
Strain name: Auto AK
Expected life cycle: 10 - 12 weeks
Breeder: Female Seeds
THC: ~18%
Day 8. Started feeding at half recommended strength, lamp power at 50%.
One plant is visibly more developed than the other. Perhaps it is a stronger seedling, as one seed was much larger than the other.
Day 11. So far so good. The leaves started off a little twisted but everything seems fine now. Not looking too bad for their age.
Day 14. 2 weeks, no issues yet. Seems to be growing perfectly fine. The ladies seem to enjoy fabric pots a lot. No repotting also benefits them. I will start LST as soon as side branches become large enough to grab onto, should be at some point next week.
Day 15. Overwatered the smaller plant a little. Oops 😅
Day 16. Side branches started to develop. LST in a few days. Still feeding main nutrients at 50% strength. Lamp power at 75%.
Day 18. LST introduced.
Day 21. Continuing to adjust ties and keeping branches low. I plan to make the main colas grow horizontally. It only started to smell today but it is everywhere. I hope my carbon filter handles these smelly ladies in full flower or my grow will be compromised!
One more thing... I am starting to doubt if these are the same strain. The difference in fan leaves is huge, one looks more like more sativa/ruderalis strain with 5-leaf fans and the other one seems to be an indica dominant, with dense foliage and full, iconic 7-leaf fan leaves. Interesting.
Day 22. Adjusting ties every day. I will probably leave the plants alone to let them grow freely soon.
The smell is becoming intense. Flowering should be starting in a week or two.
Day 24. Main node on one of the plants snapped. I am not quite sure why, because the ties were not pulling the plant down hard enough to do it. I have no idea what to do now, wrapped the broken bit around and hoping for the best.
Day 25. I decided to cut off the damaged part as it seemed damaged beyond repair... Not quite how I imagined my first HST but let's see how it goes. The plants are forming their first pistils in between nodes so hopefully it is not yet too late. Either way an interesting experience. It's only a shame that I had to remove 2 nodes above that point. Side nodes, activate!
Day 28. We are officially in flowering stage!
Nope lol I love the grower below me hes a top guy but we do disagree sometimes lol my opinion you should not defoliate autos at all no matter how messy they get reason being they already have preditermed lifecycles so if you stress it then it can slow it down a hell of a lot and even add weeks on to the end of a grow. the start of flower is a very complex time for a plant and to add stress ontop of the change already going on can cause hermies :) that and the fact that every healthy leaf you remove is taking away the energy from the plant that it could be using to bulk up your buds that much bigger the only reason to ever remove a leaf is if you cannot tuck it out the way or bend it out the way and if its covering a bud site they are the only two times i would remove a healthy leaf really unless they are photo period then i would defoliate like normal :) its just my opinion its they are your plants do what you like :) 👊
Day 30. The ladies got big pretty fast. Except for missing nodes, the one with chopped stem doesn't seem to care about the damage.
Still feeding at half strength, lamp power 100%.
Day 31. Well, it seems like one plant is a hermie now. I will keep an eye out for pollen sacs and remove them. Hopefully there will not be a lot of them.
Day 33. The other plant seems to have gone hermie too. I have no idea why, because there was literally zero damage done to it. Could be very poor genetics or those are actually very, VERY weird calyxes... Gonna give them some time and see if those pop open or sprout pistils.
Hi there Pengu. I have bad news for you, the answer to your question is "yes" . Unfortunately , it's really early in flowering, meaning that if you decide to "fight it" you have to do it for so many weeks and so much time that it will eventually be impossible and the other plants in the grow room will get polinated for sure. Sometimes if it's late enough in flowering you can fight it by using a razor blade to carefully remove them one by one, and you have to check the plant completely several times a day. Here you have time , usually the bannanas will take some time to mature . So what you can do is plan to remove it. Put a black trash bag on top of it and move it, this will protect the pollen sacks from accidentally opening up and contaminating the other plants. I'm sorry growmie, but I hope this helps ! 🚀
Day 36. Reduced light hours to 12-14. Removed a couple of pollen sacs and new ones do not seem to pop up. Hopefully no more will. Flowering proceeding and tiny buds are now clearly visible. Maybe it is not all lost!
Day 38. Still no pollen sacs. Everything seems good so far. Flowers grow surprisingly fast.
Day 40. Looking good so far. The plant at the back seems much stronger and healthier than her sister. I think there might be a big yield difference between those.
Day 42. Going strong, buds are getting solid. Still a couple of weeks to go but I already can't wait!
Day 43. Just waiting, not much happening at the moment. I may go higher on nutes for the bushy lady as she is getting small brown spots.
Day 46. Slightly increased nutes and added cal-mag.
Day 60. Buds getting slightly bigger every day. About 50% pistils are brown.
Day 63. Maturing every day. Buds are still getting bigger but they are super slow... Harvest planned in 2 weeks 😁
I have 2 different phenos of auto AK. The one at the back (yellowing one) is much fatter. About 50% pistils curled, trichomes milky. How much longer do you reckon they will take? According to the breeder it would be 1-3 more weeks, I am planning to keep going for 2 weeks.
Yep you defo got 2 different phenotypes there. I would carry on feeding for 2 more weeks then flush for a week at least. Good luck with remaining few weeks left.
Day 66. Nearly there! Last week of feeding, flushing next week. The buds look yummy, especially the ones at the back - those actually started growing sideways 😁 Not sure about the yield, does not look huge but it's really rather hard to tell.
Day 68. Started to flush.
Day 70. Week 10 complete, flushing in progress. Havest planned in 1 week. About 90% pistils are curled, trichomes are white.
Very fragile strain, only capable of handling very gentle LST. It will herm if getting too much light, rather demanding with nutrients. Long grow cycle for an auto. On the up side, very resistant to disease, handles stress quite well and the flowers look pretty nice. Unfortunately, the yield is not very impressive.
Very nice smoke with high potency. The smell is super intense, the flavour is very flowery and herbal and leaves a nice sensation if your mounth. The weed is VERY potent and you can easily go over the limit, resulting in a knockout.
If you have a lot of skill and patience, this is a good strain for you.
Hey! Happy growing my friend! I hope you do well and get some good results! I will come by sometime to see your progress!
If you ever visit my page please say hello!
Peace & love L.S.T
@PenguHB, THC and especially terpenes are highly volatile, meaning even the light will degrade them... less light means better tasting and more potent product, everyone is an expert but nobody wants to use logic or even believe their own eyes, but happy for you and your plant you have an open mind 😉
@CRiSPrGrow, I can imagine why, losing a few light hours may sound bizzare when it comes to autos... At that point I really had nothing to lose though 😀 But hey, still at very least 4 weeks to go, anything can happen. I will keep checking the plants for another week or two and if they don't continue to herm, I can call it a success.
@PenguHB, you got it growmie ! many people dont want to hear that advice about the light cycle, but it doesnt change reality, yagetme ! anyway glad it worked out for you growmie 👊
@HideAndFly420, Hi buddy, in general it is a good idea to add calmag as soon as flowering begins. I started adding it later on because my base nutrients already contain some calcium and magnesium, however at one point I started to notice it was not enough (you can read that from plant's leaves), so I decided to add some extra. I hope this helps 😁
@Miacara, Hi Mia! The manufacturer recommends up to 90x90cm in veg phase and up to 75x75 bloom phase (in bloom the lamp needs to be lower so it covers a smaller area). If you go for a 70x70 tent, I recommend growing max 2 plants, 3 if you have experience with training techniques, possibly 4 if you use scrog and a lot of training - you gotta keep them rather small for this technique. Hope this helps and good luck 😁
PenguHB
