Auto Caramelicious Organic Compost

First run using my own Super Soil (Organic **) on the bottom and CoCo Loco on top. I have 2 300 Watt LED's a VIPARSPECTRA Reflector Series V300 and Roleadro LED Grow Light - Full Spectrum Grow Lights for Indoor Plants from Seeding to Harvest Galaxyhydro-series 300W with UV/IR. I'm using in a 4' x 2', 6' tall tent. I'm using a 5 gallon smart pot and I used 5lbs of Super Soil on the bottom of reused Coco Loco which still has lots of root fragments in it. For water I'm going to use tap and I'm NOT going to let the chlorine gas off. I'm also not going to PH the water but I will document the PH of my water from the tap. Started my seeds using the paper towel method. For the seedlings I'm using a small propagator covered with florescent light to start. Mostly to keep humidity high. I'm putting the seedlings in a paper bag with coco loco and will grow them in that utilizing the humility in the propagator before transplanting into the main pot. I'm planning on doing some massive defoliation, potentially Topping or Fimming one time and LST throughout using wire and heavy weights. I'm also going to push a large oscillating fan over the plant to increase my bud potential. If my super soil doesn't provide enough nutrients from the bottom, I'm going to attempt to top dress the coco loco with additional composted super soil first. If that doesn't work I'll rely on Canna CoCo nutrients to finish the job. ** I'll list the Super Soil ingredients and if others want to say I'm not Organic that is fine, but I'm not using any chemical fertilizers in my soil as of now.

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Transplanted from propagator florescent light and high humidity to grow tent with LED lights. Set the lights on same schedule 20/4 and have them 23 inches away with two small fans blowing directly on them. Got worried about very little roots reaching down into the bottom of the 5 gallon pot to get nutes from my composted super soil, so I decided to top dress around the transplant with 1/2 cup composted super soil. Hopefully it won't be too much fertilizer for them. Out of pure laziness I'm using tap water measured at 7.5 PH. I'm really attempting to see if I can get away with non PH adjusted tap water using super soil in bottom of Coco Loco 5 gallon pot. For now I only gave each plant a quart of water. Fans blowing on the soil and plants should keep it from staying too wet.

I'm very surprised that my plants have not suffered from any issues so far. At first the smaller plant 2 had a little yellow in the leaves but it soon disappeared on its own. Plant 2 was quite a bit smaller and I suspect it had not reached the composted super soil in the bottom of the pot yet when I saw the slight yellow. Still watering using chlorinated tap water which is 7.5 PH. I don't adjust it and I don't let it gas off. I know, it makes me cringe too but I really want to see what I get growing with the least amount of hassle. So far both plants are doing great. Maybe a little slower growth, but it's hard to say. Proof will be in the yield. I do have small fans pointed directly on each plant and I'm still watering a quart at a time. This will probably change soon to a gallon or 1/2 gallon. At a quart it takes that about every 3 to 4 days. The leaves one plant 1 (larger) have a fantastic odor, So far plant 1 is the healthiest. I topped plant 1 and tried to top plant 2 but looks like I FIM'ed plant 2 so I'm just leaving it alone. I haven't added any additional top dressing of super soil since the prior application. By now both plants have reached the super soil. Exciting stuff.

Started LST'ing this week. Already made a mistake and tried to super crop one of the larger looking branches. It was too early to try that and the whole branch snapped. I repaired it with masking tape and she should recover fine. I really like using fishing weights for LST. I use that with tomato wire. Tomato wire is a thin wire with rubber coating on it, so as to not damage the branches. Some branches I hang the weights and some branches I add extra wire to the weight so that the weight is actually touching the soil but it lets you perfectly bend the branch as you wish without snapping it and at the right spot so it's more horizontal than pointing downward. We want want those branches to grow sideways! More picture post LST so you can see the recovery after LST. Still plain old TAP WATER AND NO NUTES. I was looking at the plants and a part of me wanted to start some defoliation on the lower branches. I'm unsure if it's too soon so I'll probably wait longer. Plant 2 got a big growth spurt and is now looking even bigger than plant 1. Now watering a full gallon at a time. Plant Issues: there are a few strange spots on plant 1. I hope it's nothing serious. I'll try and document later once I can get a better look / shot.

Post defoliation. Seems like the plant is smaller than when I used liquid nutrients. Lots of LST'ing still going on using fishing weights. Still no nutrients and tap water.

No major issues with nutrient deficiencies still using tap water no PH and only the nutrients from the composted super soil. Serious defoliation occurred today. Pretty much all fan leaves are gone. I've got lots of breeze hitting all the bud sites and now lots of light on all the bud sites. Time for the bud show!!! I'll be taking pictures to show how quick the bud growth should spurt with this defoliation technique. 3 days later, more defoliation on plant 2. It got bushy again in a matter of days. I have never hacked my plants back this much during flower but the idea is plenty of breeze around the buds and plenty of direct light to each bud (not just the tip of the bud).

Plant 1 which germinated about 2 to 3 days ahead of plant 2 is way far ahead. Plant 2 is the same strain but it's way more bushy. I've had to defoliate it at least times. It may be that one plant responded differently to topping. I think plant 2 ended up with more of a FIM than a top. Plant 1 got topped for sure and I think it did stunt it slightly. This could be a really good way to keep this strain manageable in a small space. Still no nutrients and only tap water that is not being PH adjusted. So far this is the easiest, most low maintenance grow ever. I may just start only doing super soil and auto grows. It's super easy. If you are a beginner this is the way to go. And product is yet to be tasted, smelled or smoked. Even though this is an easy method for beginners, it is yet to be judged in quality vs liquid nutrient methods.

So this isn't my first grow and I've always been suspicious that my 300 watt LED's just aren't powerful enough to really put on giant bud. I've learned a lot on how to get the most out of the lights though and trying new things. (I'll probably end up getting 2, 1k LED's for my next grow.) In any case I thought of testing the limits of the lights and decided to move the Roleandro and ViparSpectra 5 inches from the canopy. The Roleandro ended up burning the leaves after about 5 days. However the ViparSpectra did not burn them the same way. However the leaves were drooping more than normal on the second plant with the Vipar and they do look slightly bleached. I did some research and moving the lights closer during flower as opposed to veg is advisable. I've settled on 15.5 inches for now. I'll take some pictures of the burn I experienced. Smell is really fragrant on plant 1 and it seems like that plant 1 is weeks ahead of plant 2 even though they are only 3 days apart. The amount of bud sites on plant 2 have me very optimistic on a decent size harvest on plant 2. I am going to have to defoliate plant 2 for like the 7th time. The thing is a bushy beast. I'm going to make sure all those bud sites are getting really good strong light and plenty of airflow. Also, getting rid of fan leaves. Update on watering. Still using tap water and I've been giving plant 1 (the smaller one) about 1/2 gallon of water every few days and the larger plant 2, 1 gallon at a time. I let it get to almost no moisture in the soil before I water. Plant 1 is very small but it's doing very well and is extremely fragrant. More quality pics to follow as usual.

Full flower and plenty of fun pics. Enjoy. Plant 1 is nice buds and full flower, plant 2 is coming along but not nearly as thick.

Well somewhat sad to say I decided to start giving nutrients to plant 2. I used the least amount of Super Soil on that one. I used 5 lbs of Super Soil but it looked like it filled 1/8th or less of the pot. On plant 1 I used more than 5 lbs. I filled it about 1/3 of the way on a 5 gallon cloth pot. Plant 2's leaves were starting to yellow all over just slightly. Also the buds were not developing correctly. Based on my experience and instincts I concluded the plant had run out of food. I used Canna Coco A/B + Cannazyme + Molasses + PK 13/14 on plant 2. I still used tap water but I did PH it down to 6.3. On plant 1 I decided to add a little Molasses but I'm still using tap water without any PH adjustment.

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