Late season grow 2022

Week 1 The seedlings are all doing well now after being hardened off outside this week with a bit of wind and rain. I like giving them exposure from early on so they can handle harsh conditions if required. The Banana Krush is about a week in front of the others too, due to freebie germination fails. I also included an "Auto seeds - Girl Scout Cookies Auto" in this diary. I left it out initially as it was a freebie and I was concerned it wasn't gonna make it, but it seems to be worth keeping at this stage.

Week 2 for chunk and Kush, week 3 for Banana. The seedlings are healthy and growing well. However I used a small cheap greenhouse this week due to some rain and strong wind at times. They loved the humidity in there but after just a couple of days they got really tall. I was trying to avoid this. It’s not that big of a deal, just have to add supports. I have mastered these using chopsticks and tie wire creating a loop for support. After a week or so I will transplant into the living soil and grow bags and the supports will go. The garden is looking good at the moment with butternut pumpkins, passion fruit and sweet potatoes just a few things doing nicely in this weather.

This week I took the family to North Stradbroke Island for a beach holiday. I was away for 4 nights, so the update is a bit late. I was also really worried about leaving these young plants for that long. My wife came up with this great idea with the Chinese takeaway containers. She pierced a small cut in the bottom and when filled up, they dripped out a drop of water about every 10 seconds. So before I left I gave a deep water, then set one of these containers on the soil. It worked beautifully. Even in a heatwave, they were still moist when I got back today and really nice and green too! Again they got taller because I had to leave them under cover on the porch, which is the only hassle. I did some LST on the little auto last week and as it grew, it got a bow in the stem. So I came up with the old Tenno ball to help cradle the stem into a great shape, and I now have 3 nice tops. I love improvising with shit like this

Week 5 of growth 9/2/22 The plants are all doing well now. They are well established finally, so I don’t need to worry about leaving them out in the strong southerly winds we have been getting. I forgot to take pics of the Kush this week, it’s at a mates place to finish it’s days, and keep my numbers down. Out of this lot, it is the chunk I am most anticipating. I really hope I get that funky tangy type. It’s taking great shape and recovering well from topping. A bit of nute burn early this week, so I have backed the feed off for a bit. The banana KK is such a bushy nugget, I needed to take some of the bigger leaves off cos they were clashing into eachother due to its stout shape. Will be interesting to see if it’s any good cos it’s a bit of a pig to grow and look at. The auto seeds auto cookies is surprising me with how good it’s going. It could be a decent little yield for an auto!

6th week of growth. They are doing well after a wet week, and some milder temps. I made a batch of worm tea which hey seemed to really enjoy. Auto cookies is exceeding expectations. Banana Kandy looks like a shaggy dog, but healthy, and chunk is taking a great shape No real problems to this point 🤞🏼

Week 6 - 7 weeks of growth All plants have now begun to flower, and are stretching out a bit. Especially the chunk, thank goodness. I have introduced the bloom feed at lower volumes while continuing with veg feed and veg boost to try and get the most out of the stretch. They are in great shape, apart from the HG Kush, which I gave to a mate to grow out. As you can see he has butchered it really, with neglect and not enough light exposure resulting in a beanstalk. For a bit of interest I have attached some pics of my awesome dragon fruit plant which flowered beautifully earlier this week. It is a cactus like plant which looks ugly as hell for the most part. When in season, small buds appear along the stalks which grow and turn into long bulbs prior to flowering. They flower properly for one night only! It is an awesome sight as you can see. This is the one chance to get out at night and hand pollinate the flowers. The female organ protrudes from the flower with fingers raised waiting to be pollinated. You can greatly assist the process and increase your chances of fruit if you get out that night and collect the pollen from the rear of the flower, and rub it into the protruding receptor. I am fascinated by this, and was quite excited about this fleeting moment of beauty on an otherwise ugly plant.

Week 8 of growth A solid week of rain here, with a once in 100 year weather event resulting in local flooding. I have been fortunate not to have any serious damage here and the plants have spent most of the week in the shed. Although they have missed out on some valuable sunlight, they are doing really well. When it’s not raining, they are getting ideal wet and steamy conditions which has resulted in lush green colour. The caterpillars are already out. These will likely get worse in coming weeks, so I will need to be onto it. Of all the plants, it’s the chunk im most excited about. It seems to have stopped growing now, so I am a bit pissed off that I didn’t put it in a smaller pot. Despite this, it already has some smell, and I can confirm it is a fruity pineapple smell which is the most desirable phenotype. I can tell from the spaced out structure that I won’t get much from it so it will go into my private bin for special occasions only 🍻

Week 9 of growth. Intense humidity now after the wet, and the plants are loving it. Chunk is my favourite easily, the smell is like juicy fruit. I wish I had used a smaller fabric pot though. Caught 3 caterpillars this week, all on the Banana KK, so must be something about that one. The HG Kush has made a miraculous recovery! I visited it at my mates place, which was almost flooded out last week. I though 2 weeks ago it was a write off, but it has just surged into action and looks so classy and full now, so I take back that I called him a butcher last week

Week 10 of growth Plants are looking and smelling really nice now. Chunk is still the king in the yard. Banana has heaps of frost, although the smell is not that strong though. I swear it smells a bit peppery. Auto cookies is nearly done, and has a strong citrus pine smell, a bit weird really. HG Kush seems to have finally stopped growing. It’s ridiculously tall, but healthy The weather is cooling off a bit now, and the sun is dipping lower every day, so I’ve been repositioning the plants to get the best sun. Have a great week growers

Week 10 - 11 weeks of growth 22/3/22 Harvest for Auto Seeds Auto Cookies. A greats size and my best result for an outdoor auto yet. Unexpected from a free seed. It’s called cookies but that’s where and similarities stop. It smell like strong pine citrus. I had an early taste test, and the smell doesn’t come through in the smoke, but it tastes great and is just the right strength for me, so a nice bonus. Banana is coming along well too, but the pineapple chunk is the absolute king. The buds have swollen into these massive chunks that wobble all over the place. The smell is hypnotic and I just can’t get enough. I really hope I don’t have any dramas getting chunk finished, because it is my favourite to date.

Week 11 12 weeks of growth Another week of persistent rain, with 3 days in a row in the shed after relentless rain. Banana KK looks good, still hoping for a bit more fattening of the buds, which I expected due to the really thick stems it has. Pineapple chunk is just a beauty. It’s been on flush for a week, with one more to go I reckon. So impressed with every aspect of this plant, most of all the hypnotic smell I just can’t get enough of.

It was funny to watch at times, as my old mate who grew this basically just left it to do its thing. He got about an ounce or so in the end. Very hardy reliable strain

Chunk is a bit of a tease I think. This is the 3rd one I have done. 1 was big but tasted shit. 1 was small but tasted amazing. This one is somewhere in between. Great grow with the best smells ever. No hassles till the last week with a patch of rot. 62 grams dry in 12 weeks. I'm happy cos it's a great smoke but not the elusive taste I wanted.

Banana Kandy Krush was a great freebie. 2oz of nice shit in the end. It didn't blow my socks off, but it is tough and easy to grow outdoors. Plus it gave me some much needed stash for the winter