Old dog, new trick

Just getting things started...I wish I had started in the eventual 3gal container instead of smaller cups.....but have never grown autos. Live and learn

Just getting things started...I wish I had started in the eventual 3gal container instead of smaller cups.....but have never grown autos. Live and learn

So I transplanted to the 3gal pots....haven’t noticed any real shock. I’d love to know what others think...to me they look healthy but they are quite short and bushy....

I was worried about their squatty size and got some advice straight from HLG, which is the light I’m using. They advised turning down the intensity and raising the light from 24”. So I did and it seemed like they took a little jump...not huge but an improvement. I tried some LST and managed to get taller plant to cooperate but the shorter bushier one is just too thick and sturdy to bend. It looks like there is some pre-flowering going on in a couple spots. Let me know if I’m wrong about that. So far it’s been nothing but water, light and some sweet talking to them. We shall see what happens.

These plants are quite the learning curve. They began to flower around Day 30 from sprout. Other than a few burnt yellow leaf tips the plant looks good. Not big plants but will hopefully stretch out through the flowering.

I left town for 6 days....I watered before I left and had a friend give each plant 1/2 gal of water with a tiny bit of fish sh!t and big bloom on Sunday. I came home last night (wednesday night) and the plants were looking rough....leaves were very limp and the soil was bone dry. I have to assume it needed water. So I gave it the same recipe, 1/2 gal of water with a trace of fish sh!t and big bloom. The pics were taken today around noon.....it looks better and the only thing I notice is a few fan leaves have purple-ish stems. I’m def at a critical stage and wanna make sure I don’t feed them too much but give them what’s needed to fatten up it’s buds. Any thoughts ???

Things seem to be progressing....the plants are so small it’s hard to consider them a success, but this is my first grow with an auto strain. I’ve learned a lot and think I can improve for the next grow. I have 3 plants and the middle smaller one is a full 10 day younger, yet started flowering at the same time as the other two. Plus it’s a darker green

Things are def progressing. Buds are developing and filling in...and tons of trichomes. All 3 plants are the same strain from same pack....super skunk auto. Two are lighter green but all look to be in decent health. The smell is more of a northern lights aroma than straight skunk, and it’s very mild so far, but I am pumping a large exhaust fan. Having only grown outdoors, many yrs ago, and w/ zero experience w/autos, I’d guess 4 more weeks and they’ll be in that window....crossing my fingers.

Things were rolling along and I noticed 2 of the 3 plants looking very pale all over, with just a few leaves more yellow with blotchy spots. The third plant is 10 days younger and looks much better....darker green and the buds are looking better. The buds on the fading plants seem to be progressing slower and are mostly pistils with lighter calyx formations. I was educated to the fact that the two plants were hungry and beginning to show it. Since I used Ocean Forest I gave no nutes until very recently and went extremely light. Tomorrow is watering time and I’m gonna increase the feed quite a bit and give a full dose of cal mag. I hope that satisfies them.....the middle plant looks to have just a few weeks left, and the other two will likely need a month. Lack of nutrition slowed things down I believe.

A few days late with this week’s update.....things are puzzling. 3 plants, all super skunk autos, same seed pack. 2 of the 3 are on day 74 and the pics are from today. The 3rd and smallest plant is on day 63....and couldn’t be more different. The older two are almost identical, except for some yellowing leaves and brown blotches on one and it’s lagging behind developing its buds. I just know there’s a ph issue causing this. I am feeding around 80% of a full suggested dose. I also believe the two older plants have more sativa genetics.....which isn’t a bad thing, I just hope they finish strong in the next few weeks. The 3rd plant is younger, darker green, smaller and a helluva lot “danker” than her older sisters. All the buds are packing on trichs, but this one is just better in every category. Buds are hard as rocks and just beautiful with brighter orange colors against its dark green hue. The one thing that I wonder about is the smell. U can have your nose right on top of a bud and not really smell it. But gently touch it and your finger will smell like skunk, tart, super kind bud for the rest of the day. Growing in Ocean Forest is sometimes a mystery wrapped in an enigma. In other words, you just don’t know WTF is happening sometimes.

So today is day 80 for the two lighter green plants and roughly day 70 for the short dark green indica leaning gal. I know by looking at them several times a day it’s tough to see progress....but man these plants are just creeping along. I think I overdid the bloom nutes last week, so they’ve only gotten water and a sweet little concoction of banana peels and molasses tea. All 3 plants are showing swollen calyces that are kicking out thick clusters of heavy white pistils. It almost looks like fox tailing, but even the lower buds are doing the same. For the most part the buds are hard as a rock. The trichomes are a mix of clear and cloudy....maybe 50/50.....haven’t located the first amber. So I think I’ll continue on with just water and molasses and see what happens. Two of the three are still very green top to bottom. I think we will be here a while.

So it’s taken me this long to realize that growing under LEDs will produce better results if the temps are a good bit higher than I’ve been running. A leaf temp around 80f is ideal, which equates to a room temp of 82-83f, give or take. So for the last week I’ve been trying to dial this in while battling extremely low humidity. I’m thinking my subpar VPD is a major factor in the slow maturation of my buds. Anyway, just finished up day 86 and all can say is they’re not ready…..I’ll report back next week. I will say that the buds are stacking on some weight and are covered in trichs. Strong smell of citrus, skunk and gas.

Ok, things are getting strange. About 3 weeks ago these plants looked like they needed another 2-3 weeks. Now, 3 weeks later, they still look that way. Out of the blue the best plant of the 3 started rapidly producing these giant swollen calyces that are spitting out the thickest tangle of white hairs ever. She’s growing these little foxtails on every bud. So Much for harvesting anytime soon. I did check the trichs and they are about 50-60% cloudy with a random amber here and there….still a lot of clear ones. Last, but not least, I found a damn nanner…two actually. I plucked and will ride it out and hope for the best. So much for the breeder’s 9-10 week seed to harvest timeline……all 3 of these plants are going to be 15-16 weeks minimum. I will say that from sight, smell, and texture, the quality of the bud is A+…..all the buds are hard as a rock. Thanks to everyone that’s been helping me figure things out. Cheers.

So we just passed the 100 day mark and these plants just don’t wanna finish. New white hairs are constantly poppin, and the old ones aren’t turning and receding very quickly. I have to admit that I screwed up big time recently. For some unknown reason I defoliated almost all the fan leaves. I instantly regretted it and just as fast almost all the remaining leaves began to yellow or die. Two of the three plants are very close to being ripe….literally one little burst will do it. The third plant isn’t as far along…..lots of stringy white hairs that are just going nowhere and doing nothing. I don’t know what else to do that will get these plants to finish. The trichs are all cloudy but no ambers….it wouldn’t matter anyway b/c I don’t harvest a plant that isn’t ripe. Once it’s ripe I chop….and the trichs are what they are. I just don’t know what to make of things…almost all breeder timelines are bogus but when a 9-10 week auto is taking 16-17 weeks (or even longer) something is amiss. I’d appreciate any advice or comments. Thanks

Round and round we go, when these girls are gonna finish….I do not know. I can’t believe we’ve been at this for 15 weeks. All I can say is we’re not gonna chop them just to chop. They will get ripe at some point I hope. Actually my smallest plant is basically there. She threw off a wave of little foxtail calyces that spit out some super thick white pistils. All of those are now finished as they turned orange and receded back into the very swollen calyces. So in my eyes she is ripe….but she has hardly any ambers and more than a few clear trichs. That should change quickly, so I’m watching daily and once I see 15-20% amber it’s go time. The other two plants look around one and two weeks behind respectively. With any luck I’ll harvest the early plant this weekend. Although these plants and the word “early” don’t belong together. Happy growing for now.

I’m not sure what to do next…if anything. These plants are not behaving like normal plants. For starters the smallest one finally looks ripe……meaning no more white pistils and everything has turned and receded. I don’t think anyone could look at it and say that it needs more time. But it has no amber trichs and still a fair amount of clear ones. I’ve found a couple small clusters of ambers but literally zero elsewhere. Plant 2 is barely behind #1. Still a few white pistils but most have turned and receded. She has more trichs overall but none are amber. Most growers would have chopped her already. Plant 3 is a real problem child. She’s shaggy, long unkept hairs, still throwing off white pistils and they are slow to turn orange, then they do not recede. I’ve never seen anything like it. Her trichs are about 75% cloudy 25% clear…..zero ambers. These are autos and damn near 17weeks old. They are taking 2 weeks to make 2 days worth of progress. Some have said it’s unstable genetics….it beats me. I dunno. What I do know is I’m running low on patience. I really hope to harvest the one plant this week. The buds are hard as rocks….and should be fine smoke….. Until then I’ll see u next week.

Another week and I’m still watching these plants do very little. 2 of them just won’t finish and the 3rd plant looks totally ripe but has almost no amber trichs. The one thing that is happening with all 3 is the dying off of the remaining leaves. Things are getting critical as I have no idea how a plant can stay alive with no leaves…? I’m trying several things to push them across the finish line. I’ve lowered nighttime temps into the low 60s. Also my last watering was with some cold cold water….. But the bottom line is 2 plants still have white pistils showing and none of them have more than 2-3% amber trichs. I’m out of tricks and ideas. I’ve used up 17 weeks worth… I’ll give one more week and if i don’t see some movement I’ll likely chop. What a bummer and a mystery.

This weekly updating has to be getting old for anyone following….because it’s def getting old for me. Thankfully it looks like all 3 plants are finishing up. They are slowly adding a few more amber trichs daily and the leaf situation isn’t getting much worse. The real bummer is one plant’s sugar leaves are yellowed….and I mean the tiniest ones as well. I’ve painstakingly went through the plants and tried to snip off any dead leaves that were close to touching the buds. In some cases I’ve had to separate the bud a little to get to the leaf stems. I hate doing this but I’m afraid of bud rot if I leave a totally dead leaf sandwiched in the middle of a bud. I’m sure manhandling the buds is not a good thing but losing an entire cola or the whole plant is much worse. Anyway, I plucked two small pieces off the one fully ripe plant and hung them in my drying room. I wanna do a test run and make sure I’ve got my temp and RH dialed in…..the temp is steady at 57-59F…..it’s a cellar that is really just a room in my basement but it’s the same temp always. I am using a humidifier and an able to keep the RH between 52-60%……which by all accounts should be perfect. I know it’s gonna take a long time to dry before it’s ready to cure. I was gonna chop the one girl today but the soil is too wet still…..so tomorrow (Sunday) is def the day. The other 2 will likely be next weekend at the latest. I checked the 2 small buds that I hung and after 48 hrs it’s still like I just clipped them….I can’t tell where they’re drying at all…..but I’m sure they are. Next week I will have a hanging plant to show for sure….

Alas, I have a plant hanging in the dry room. Exactly one week ago I chopped the smallest of the 3 plants. I think I have pretty decent drying conditions in the cellar of my basement. Temp is rock steady at 58F and RH is dialed in between 57-63%….depending on which hygrometer is accurate. Yesterday I took the smallest and least dense buds and started their cure. I decided to split things up and put half in a Mason jar and half in a Grove bag. I hit the mark pretty close and the rh is reading 61% in the jar and the bag. I opened both this evening, 24hrs after going in. For whatever reason the jar had a slight grassy smell, but I could still make out the good skunky aroma. The whiff out of the Grove bag was noticeably more dank and pungent. I’m thinking one more day for the rest of the plant before the cure starts. I did weigh the entire plant as soon as I chopped it…..I was surprised that it weighed 288grams….but that’s a very wet 288. But there are very few leaves to remove….She was trimmed up tight. I’m guessing after all the buds are finish trimmed and fully dry I may end up with a little over 2 oz. The very small amount of looser buds I removed weighed 19grams dried and meticulously trimmed. I’m surprised and very happy with the yield off a tiny plant that started flowering around day 25 from sprout. The other 2 should yield a bit more. I’ll let u know and give a quality report on the recent chop soon enough. You can see in the pics that the one plant still has tons of white and somewhat white hairs showing. These hairs have been in the same state for 5 weeks or longer. Other calyces formed and their pistils grew, turned orange and receded. But the first wave of them never fully turned and did not recede at all. It’s very strange and I’m not sure what to think. On the bright side, the trich production is crazy on the hairy girl….Better than either of the other two. One last thing…I’ve spotted a few small oval smooth edged leaves that grew on all 3 plants. Although I have no knowledge on the subject, I thinking the plants all began re-vegging some time ago. It might explain why the one has “dormant” white pistils that have been there for 5-6 weeks. Regardless, the trichs are definitely growing in number…..I’ve noticed more new clear ones recently…along with the originals, which are almost all milky and beginning to go amber. I’m gonna give them one more light feeding and hope it can carry them across the finish line. What a strange and unusual grow….taking forever but I really think the bud will be outstanding once it’s all dried and cured for a month. The pics are from today and I swear almost all of those white hairs have been there 5-6 weeks and will just fall off when touched.

Finally glad to get the one plant dried and is curing. Ended up with right at 70grams of dried and trimmed. I haven’t smoked any yet, but will in a couple more weeks after curing in Grove bags. I may be wrong but the buds lost some smell and stickiness from growing so long. They were def smelling and feeling better several weeks prior to harvest. I waited and waited for a decent percentage of amber trichs but they never appeared. I’m whacking the other two this week for sure. It’s time to stick a fork in this grow, because it’s done.

So after 5 months these girls are finally hanging. And given the problems and mistakes that happened it was no surprise that they threw one last curveball the day before harvest. I was inspecting with my magnifying glass and spotted a strand of spider web. One single strand but it wrapped all the way around the bud. This freaked me out and I spent the next 2hrs looking at every nook and cranny on every bud. I found 3/4 more of the same thing. I assumed spider mites but I couldn’t find any evidence. I decided to give the buds a washing and did the 4 bucket process w/ lemon juice+baking soda in one, peroxide in 2, and plain water in 3&4. I really liked the way the washing turned out. I found a single wolf spider but no sign of mites. I didn’t weigh but based on the yield off the first plant, I can say these 2 should yield around 4oz total….minimum. I’ll report back with a dry yield and smoke report.