By continuing to use the website or clicking Accept you consent to our cookies and personal data policy and confirm that you are at least 18 year old. For details please see Privacy Policy and Terms
Finishing up my first attempt at Auto Flower. Just discovered the site and am looking for feedback. I will start by outlying my tent setup.
1x Vivosun 2-in-1 36x48x72 inch Mylar tent
1x Vivosun 8" 740 CFM in-line vent fan
1x 1500W equivalent LED (full spectrum)
2x 1000W equivalent LED (full spectrum)
1x 8" high velocity fan for airflow & low stress training
2x 5 gallon fabric pots.
1x STC-3028 Temperature & Humidity Hygrometer/Thermostat Controller
1x Light Timer
1x 1 gal cool mist humidifier.
Tent is vented outside. I don't use a carbon filter because it's legal here and doesn't stink up the house venting outside.
The STC-3028 hygrometer and thermostat device keeps my tent pretty steady. I left the variable speed selector on the Vivosun blower at high and, and wired a plug in outlet to a Leviton wall light dimmer switch to control the ventilation blower. Using a dimmer switch gave me the flexibility to use the alternate leg for auxiliary control to wire into the temperature relay on the STC-3028 thermostat. This let's me kick the exhaust up to 100% when temperature exceeds 86°F (30°C), then brings the exhaust speed back down to my preset level when it gets back to 77°F or lower.
Likewise, I have the Hygrometer relay wired up to a wall plug outlet, and this controls the humidifier. If anyone is curious about my setup, please ask!
I've adopted an 18/6 light cycle. I sprout directly in the 5 gallon fabric pots by fully saturating the soil and then just barely pushing the seed under the soil. I then cover the fabric pots with white translucent plastic bags and put them under the grow lights for greenhouse effect. They will stay under the plastic until the first couple of nodes branch out, keeping the humidity at 100%. This saves the need for running my household-grade humidifier at levels it wasn't designed to run at.
Nutrients are all Fox Farm's basic trio: Grow Big, Big Blooms, and Tiger Bloom. Using Fox Farm Happy Frog soil. Added about 1 solo cup of perilite per 5 gallon pot of soil to retain moisture. Plan to give give nutrients every other feeding. Following FF's soil schedule.
Plants uncovered for about a week. Left under plastic for 2 full weeks to get good maturity in high humidity environment. Seeing 4 nodes already. Plants are genuinely thriving. Watering hasn't needed much because I've got the humidity cranked up to 85%.
Already noticing some buds starting to form! They warned me autos bloom quick, but I thought I'd have a week or 2 more with them in veg! Time to start introducing the flowering nutes...
They are going through more water and every time I open the tent it's like they've grown another inch.
Noticed the other plants in the tent (not journaled in this diary) are starting to curl at the tips. Research points to nutrient burn, so cutting the nutrients in half.
My brother-in-law is growing in a tent right beside me, and he's amazed at how tall my autos are compared to his. Granted, his are different stains, but I attribute this all to me covering the plants during the first 2 weeks until I saw 2 nodes, then keeping the humidity super-rich and SLOWLY tapering it down to about 65% over the course of 5 weeks. Plants seem to like it. Afraid to top these beauties, don't know what the protocol is for topping on autoflowers. Next batch I'm going to top at week 4 and see if I can get that candelabra effect that all the growers seem to be having amazing results with...
Defoliating some leaves to keep my canopy even. I didn't try topping because I was afraid to freak out the auto, I'm beginning to wish I had.
Really getting some good purple buds. Thought it was a trick of the lighting but through the uv goggles I realized it's real. This shit looks alien!
This brings things up to present day. I am 3 days into cutting out nutes for flush. Have a scope, things are pretty clear still on the trichromes. Hairs still white and stems show no purple lines yet so I figure this will be getting closer to ready in the next few days.
I've had to copy this from notes, because I just found this site last week. I'm going to try my next round with just 2 plants in the tent instead of 4.
This is my 2nd grow ever. First I had a male pollinate before I knew exactly what I was looking at. The weed came out good, but seedy. I can only imagine how they would have turned out if they would have stayed virgin.
I'm looking forward to these feminized autos. I didn't chart the other in a separate diary yet, but the other strain growing along side is Blueberry X Big Devil by Papa G Genetics.
Will post next week if still in Flower and haven't harvested.
Seeing more yellowing of the water leaves. Water uptake slowing down to 1 quart every 2 days. Humidity at 44% and Temps at 24°C. Been flushing for about 5 days now. Giving it another week...
On day 70 I was told by someone that about 5 days worth of flush is all you need, and not to start flushing until I see some amber on the trichromes. Still no trichromes, so I am giving them another couple of weeks, and gave them some fuel. Thinking I want that really in-the-couch narcotic effect, so I'm going to shoot for 30-50% amber. Next week hopefully I'll start seeing some amber. It's hard to tell because of all that glorious purple. I'm shooting my photos through a UV lens and the microscope is bright white LED, so what you see is pretty accurate. I'll take some better pics once I pull them out of the tent for harvest. This is the purple sticky. Really resiny. Hope it tastes half as good as it looks. Alien weed!!
Also, I put my grow tent on a kill-a-watt meter and discovered my actual power consumption including humidifier, fan, thermostat/hygrometer, and lights draws 440W total. Not much more than a computer, and 2 monitors running 24/7. I've updated my lights to reflect the actual power consumption. They said on purchase that they were 1000W and 1500W, but I'm honestly grateful they don't consume that. Electricity is fairly expensive in my area.
Edit: rearranged the tent a bit, so I had the chance to take some pictures under normal light. Day 73
Based on this week's pictures, does anyone have a guestimate for approximate time to completion? I'm monitoring it closely, checking trichromes every other day...
I want to say anywhere from 1 week to 2.5 weeks.
I don't see any amber but it could be because of the background redness and my shity monitor.
just like how @ezzjaybruh said depending on what you aiming for in terms of high, more amber more couch lock
less amber to no amber more heady or cerebral.
Best of luck!
Day 77: Still no amber on the tricrhomes. Leaves starting to yellow out a lot, flushing the nutrients thinking it's probably burning it up. I know it's supposed to go yellow towards the end, but this is ridiculous. Temps steady at 25C, Humidity at 53. Things should be wrapping up soon, but the other strain that's growing with This Dark Devil, planted at same time, still has mostly white pistils, so maybe the 9 week timeframe old dude gave me was just a WAG (wild-ass-guess).
Day 79
Keeping at it. Waiting to see some amber development. Uploaded some pictures of the plant to show how much the water leaves are yellowing. I think she's ending her life-cycle in beautiful fashion. Flushing.
Day 82:
Uploaded some trichrome porn. Thinks are looking a little more ripe. My leaves are all yellowing out because I've started my flush. The tent-mate plants that are in here are ready, and my tent is the only place I really have the room and environment right to dry in, so I guess it is getting time to cut the lights.
A buddy of mine recommended I turn the lights off for a couple days before cutting and hanging. Think I'm going to follow his advice. The lights go off tomorrow at normal time and the sun never rises on these wonderful ladies again. 2 days of dark will put me into Day 1 of week 12 as cut day. Going to just chop and hang, no defoliation until trim time.
Planning on curing in the tent, lights removed and with fan on high and humidifier controlled at 52%
4 likes
comments
Share
12
Week 12. Harvest
3 years ago
Happy Harvest Day!
Papa G Genetics - Sour Dark Devil - Custom Breeder & Strain
I enjoyed growing this strain, and still in love with the purple colors. A little concerned because my leaves all went yellow at the end. The seeds were from Papa G Genetics out of Payson, Arizona. I would share their website but it's currently down.
I've got 2 more seeds, planning on trying another run to see if I can get better yield with low stress training and ph balancing the soil out with compost and worms.
These plants had another stain grown in the same tent, so my square footage was divided between 4 plants, and kind of crowded. Next grow I'll only do 3. Lesson learned.
I will amended this with better pics once I take them off the stems and get the buds cleaned up and on a scale. Thanks for all the awesome input.
Please note these weights are wild-ass guesses at this point. More like prayers. I'll list dry weight after 11 days of drying on stem and a good trimming. - day 4 of drying. Plants cut at 12 weeks to the day.
02-22-2022 Update: pulled 1.5 ounces off this, and off the trim extracted 3.6g of shatter. The weed is still curing and haven't even smoked any yet... but the shatter I just did 3 hits off a vape pen and it came out phenomenal from a denatured alcohol
evaporation run. First time ever making shatter, but I'm very pleased with the taste and quality of high is absolutely amazing.
Gave a sample bud to get tested by a commercial grower. Will report back my THC percentages.
Can someone explain what these oily sites are popping up all over my buds 4 days into drying? They looked like beads of water, but upon further inspection they are thick sticky oil?
Haven't trimmed any leaves off yet...
I had the same thing happen to me if you look at my grow questions. its called guttation. this thread eased my mind about it https://www.thcfarmer.com/threads/literally-oozing-with-resin.102285/
I just completed my first grow with Happy Frog Soil. Soil PH is high after the grow. I'm experimenting with dropping it down to 6.5 after. Right now I'm using coffee and earthworms in 2 of the 4 fabric pots.
Do you recondition soil, or replace w/ new soil?
If you want to reuse the medium over a few times it needs to go though a phase where it composts a bit and is ready for new life.
It then needs to be fortified with minerals and organic matter that was lost in the last grow.
One quick way of doing this is to toss it into a pressure cooker and zap it so its sterile and then fortify it. More life will be needed in the soil like worm castings or you will run into problems with this method as the pressure cooker is killing most of the life in the soil, good and bad.
Its not like the earth outside is getting new soil, when farmers grow they cycle crops and refortify the soil with manure/green manure. When we grow with much smaller amounts of soil we need to really add a lot more into it as we don't have the luxury of it being outside.
To make it stupid simple toss your old soil in the garden and grow some tasty veggies with it, get new stuff when you want.
I myself plan on reusing my medium a few times and will compost it in batches on my deck in a black garbage bag before incorporating it into the garden.
Best Of Luck!
JohnQPublic1917
