Here we go, after a minor haul with photoperiods I have decided to give it a go with autos, I think this is due to the height of my tent being 1.6m high and 75cm wide each way, the plants do not have luxury of space to grow. Despite the disappointing yield the product itself was incredible, Kookie's Kush and Strawberry Lemonade both by Barney's Farm, I had tried the kush in a coffee shop in Amsterdam back when it was the latest cup winner it was really great, and having it been my first grow it tasted all the sweeter the second time around, but this time I had an ounce of it! I decided to go back and have a look at their catalogue and picked 3 strains I've never tried.
If I can get an ounce per plant I will be happy
I germinated these straight into plastic cups I had cut down to a small size, this was because I needed a homemade method of fitting all the plants under the light until they had grown out. I waited a week as they looked ready to move, the seedlings roots had reached the bottom of the shallowed cups so hopefully they will continue in their permanent new homes, I sprinkled mycorrhizae on the roots, placed them on the pot and leveled off with plain soil.
The medium is a 50/50 mix of soil and peat, with worm castings, bat guano, mycorrhizae, Humic acid, and perlite. This time round I have not used any epsom salts or bone meal, but I have additional liquid nutrients from Fox's Farm and some CalMag, I will probably be using the CalMag often to make up for the lack of epsom salts and bone meal. I have 2 5 gal pots and 3 3 gal pots, originally the 5 gal pots were for photoperiods but have been repurposed here 1) because I'm lazy and cheap to buy another 3 3 gal pots and 2) I wanted to see how much of a difference the container size will impact the growth of the plant, and which size to run in the future.
I have free seeds also I planted, nl x critical is in the back left 5 gal, purple kush in the front 3 gal, gg#4 in the 1 gallon for shits and giggles I expected at least 1 seed to fail and I only have enough room for 5 plants, it is just filled with substrate maybe it will be useful to see how it will manage with liquid nutes and will be handy to keep around for now incase something goes wrong. The NL x C has had about a week's head start as I impatiently germinated it whilst waiting for my actual order of BF seeds.
My current aim is to just keep on top of the water, the water is Ph 6.5 which is within range, I leave my water in a bucket to de-chlorify as my water comes from the tap, hopefully the calcium present in the water will be enough for the plants.
My tent is in a cupboard above the stairs in my bedroom, air extraction isn't optimal, the extraction fan blows air into my room and I have no inlet fan, just a fan inside the tent to help shift the air around. I believe air should still enter the tent via the bottom and exit at the top through the carbon filter.
Hey there friend. Would you be alright with me offering some pointers? So cannabis plants LOVE heat and humidity. It is the buds that hate it. In veg we want to take advantage of this fact to help our plants grow along much quicker and more vigorously. In veg we can look for temps of 79-84 MAX with lights on & no more than 9 degrees less with lights off. If we allow for too much temperature swing between lights on and lights off while the plant is still growing vertically up to day 20 of flower, We will cause the plant to stretch ALOT which we do not want. So in veg & early flower, Keeping our temperature gaps nice and close between lights on and off is key. Utilizing humidity in our rooms during veg will also help out a lot with more rapid growth but we must introduce it properly. In our rooms we have our temperature and humidity set-points, But when we combine those 2 it forms a third set-point which is the most important & that is called VPD, Vapor pressure deficit.
I strongly recommend every new grower or old grower who has not learned it yet, To study and understand it & implement it into your room, Logging your numbers daily.
https://cerescann.com/importance-of-measuring-vpd/
For soil, We generally want to go for a PH of 6.1
This website does a GREAT job of illustrating it with a nice graph & very good detailed explanation for soil.
https://autoflowerseedshop.com/cannabis-ph-chart-guide/
As we briefly touched on before, During veg & early flower we want our temperature gap's nice and tight to avoid stretch. Why exactly our plants stretch in response to this is a genetic trigger being activated by the environmental stress essentially telling the plant the end of the season is closer than it really is. In veg & early flower the plant is still in its first stage of development which is to grow up wide and tall so when it produces seed, It can cast them out nicely. Remember, Whether we are growing our plants for seed or bud their genetic responses do not change as they gh sidedo not know any different. Once the plant has finished that first stage of growth by weeks 4-6 of flower with most strains, It is by day 20 of flower. Autoflowers you have to watch for it, But once the plant has finished this goal its new mission is to focus 100% on producing nice big flower clusters & to get very sticky so it can attract pollen to it successfully.
So once that vertical growth is finished, We actually now want to begin to expose our plants to larger temperature swings between lights on and lights off. This will help activate that genetic response and allow us to draw out the most potential from the strain utilizing the plants genetic triggers to environmental stresses at the right times. We can also take this a step further with doing light deprivation in the last 2 weeks using less light to simulate cloud cover. Very cold feed temps on the last flush is very good too. If you do not have them already, Get yourself a good PAR meter & thermal laser temp gun to monitor your plant top temperatures & optimize how much light your plants are getting. We are currently in the middle of producing a very comprehensive tutorial series for everybody to learn from & understand how to grow the highest level craft cannabis all on their own. If this interests you please check out our youtube and subscribe. The first 2 episodes are out the next one is coming in a few days. If you should ever have any questions or need any help, Please feel free to follow my profile and shoot me a DM. I will gladly help you with the pull down & make sure you get the best quality harvest possible as it is the most important step of the entire process. I really think you would benefit from our tutorial series on youtube, Our channel is linked off our main grow diaries profile. We just put up week 3 of plant life care so you got time to subscribe and catch up before the next episode is out! I look forward to seeing you over there and hearing your feedback to better help me shape the tutorials
Happy growing friend!
Dang, should have harvested a bit earlier, amber trichs means you lost some thc potency. Being locked in the couch with cbd filled amber trichs doesnt mean the weed is stronger :/ You want 90% cloudy trichs with 10% still clear, and you want 70% of your hairs to be amber, with 30% still being white. Once harvested and while drying, the trichs and hairs will continue to mature, and by the time they are dry they should be perfectly ripe with 0 amber trichs but 100% cloudy and 100% amber hairs with none white or brown.