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Starting off my first grow in a spacebucket! I'm going for the most simple setup and see how it works out.
4x23W CFL lights and a 300 led strip (5630) to help with flowering.
I germinated 2 seeds of autoflower Tutankhamon. One for the spacebucket and one for the windowsill. On day 5 I noticed that the seedlings might be stretching a little so I moved them closer to the light.
Moving the plant closer to the lights was definitely a good thing. she stopped stretching and is showing some nice leaf growth. She's about 5-10 cm (2"-4") away from the CFL lights and doesn't seem to have problems with heat. I guess the outtake fan is doing its job!
Little side note on smell, she is starting to give off a little scent! Very encouraging 😁
I'll order some bloom nutrients this week to be prepared for when she starts flowering.
Week 3! Things are moving so fast!
I've had a busy week so did not get around to order nutrients. For all my worries, she seems to do just fine without them. I do not want to get over confident though. Gotta get on it!
I was tempted to top her or start doing LST since she is growing so well, but decided against it because I want to let her grow naturally.
This is my first grow, so best see what happens to a plant in spacebucket conditions without interference. Learn from that and experiment later on. Plus I feel that patience and restraint are key to completing a successful first grow.
-On topping autos: I've read that autos should never be topped. This might have been true in the past. From what I've read new strains are more stable and can be topped without problems if the plant is growing well. (3-4 nodes by end of week 2) This allows her to recover before going into flowering.
Despite her being only 10cm tall her leafs span nearly 27cm! Auto Tutankhamon is basically AK-47 (stativa) with ruderalis so I was expecting a rather tall plant.
On day 16 she started showing her first pistils! 😍
Last week was a turbulent one.
She started showing signs of flowering so I turned on the side leds. For some reason this resulted in drooping, and papery leaves. A bit too much light maybe...
Against all reason I felt she needed to be transplanted to a bigger pot. Everywhere I looked I was advised against it. But she seemed strong enough and I went for it.
With my new pot prepped I waited until nighttime. Checked if the soil was dry, and just before the lights went off I did the deed. She never saw it coming. In one fluid motion I turned her upsidedown, slid the old pot off and nestled her in her new pot. I added finely hand-crushed soil on her sides and completed the act with a generous watering.
The response was beyond belief. She took to her new home as if she was born there. Grew about 10 cm in 4 days. Seeing her thrive like that made me feel at ease again.
But for how long?
I'm still not feeding her any nutrients since she's apparently happy without them. I'm trying to figure out why the leds have such a bad effect on her. I'm guessing an aversion to the light warmth? or maybe because I did not use them from the start? I've seen a bit of information on LED lights providing different results than cfls. specifically in the turning of the color of the pistils. Maybe because she is an auto she enjoys having 2700K light in the spectrum provided by the cfls?
So many questions!
So short summary of events:
-New pot
-No nutrients
-No LEDs
-Happy plant
Cheers!
Second week of flowering.
Things seem quiet on the plant front. She is doing her thing looking good and enjoying a bit more space than before.
Lower leaves turned yellow and died off. Probably because of nitrogen deficiency. The rest of the plant seems fine.
Third week of flowering, and I had to leave!
I left her out in the sunniest spot I could find, wished her her well, and took off.
When I returned I did not know what to expect. What would I find? Maybe she wilted away and was now but a shadow of her former self? The imagination gets dark really fast during these times apart.
Lucky for me she survived!! First thing I did was water her and make sure she was back in her spacebucket warm and cosy.
Trichomes are starting to show clearly and some of the pistils are turning brown here and there.
I bent her down a bit so she would not touch the cfl lights. 1 inch away is no problem but direct contact turns the leaves brown.
Happy 4/20!
4th week of flowering, her flowers are starting to fatten up. (sporadic frostyness!)
I'm turning on the leds now and she seems to be fine with it. No more light burn! She is putting all that energy into the flowers.
*Update 04/24*
Took a pic with flash and it really brings out the trichomes.
Super easy to take care of. Very resilient to my inexperienced manhandling. I did a comparison with one plant growing in a spacebucket and another on a windowsill. Spacebucket plant had much more branches and a lot more buds. But because I did not give her any nutrients they stayed relatively small.
Lessons learned:
1. Start in the right size pot
2. Better to underwater than to overwater
3. Patience and moderation key to success (and not killing your plant)
4. Nutrients help a lot.
5. There is such a thing as too much light
6. Don't let your plants touch your lights! (cfl, close is ok but contact will mess it up)
In retrospect I probably won't use the spacebucket any more. For my consumption I can just have 2 tiny plants growing at all times and that's more than enough. Windowsill plant grew perfectly fine in a 2L pot with around 3-4 h of direct sunlight a day. And looks nice on top of that.
It was awesome to share my findings here! I like the discussions and the feedback from people. Looking forward to my next diary!
Like I said above - If you're growing in a spacebucket get nutes and you'll be fine. On a windowsill just don't expect much and nature won't dissapoint you 😀
Peace0
I am also growing Auto King Tut in a spacebucket, and it looks like I'm about a week ahead of you. I saw your pistils came out on D16, but I still haven't seen any on my girl (maybe I'm overlooking them). This is my first bucket/first grow, and I started doing some LST around the end of week 3/beginning of week 4. She seems to be responding fine, but DAMN if her natural symmetry isn't just stunning. I'm keeping an eye on your grow, and I can't wait to compare notes at the end. Hopefully I can pick up some tips and tricks. :D
@LordWasr, @wilfie I must have gotten a femenized photoperiod by mistake. I had to manually switch to flower. How's your girl, @lordwasr? @wilfie yours turned out great, especially with no nutes! What was the final weight?
I'm looking forward to this, I actually just popped the same seed. She's also going in the Space Bucket too. How long did it take for the seed to sprout? This is my first grow using a seed lol. I have another plant thats in flowering that I received as a clone.
@wilfie, Ooo good looks! I'll check that guide out and probably transplant into the main pot this weekend. She finally popped today ! I noticed that the leaves are a bit yellow and burn already -_-
@BigDaddyK, you got me there! It's a 2,5l pot, so a bit short of a gallon. I was gambling on a slightly smaller pot to produce a smaller plant without getting rootbound. I'm a bit worried though.
Looking great man she's the picture of good health, may I ask what is a space bucket ? I've never heard of them you don't put a lid on do you to make it a grow in a bucket ? Brb I'm gunna go google it xD
@wilfie, I think i might have to try it out, it would make an ideal space to keep a mother plant for cloning ! and I got plenty of cfls and led strip light handy (probably wrong spectrum though) thank you for enlightening me !
@Prince_Fatty, thank you! Spacebuckets are awesome 😁 ! They have a really friendly community over on reddit with tons of guides and examples. If you like DIY stuff try it out!
wilfie
