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First of all, I'm in an overseas location with severe penalty for growing or possessing. I was anxious, to say the least, about getting seeds here. I had a previous Lemon grow using primarily whatever I could get my hands on. I do have Humboldt's Secret, a great fertilizer. My yield was low but adequate then from two plants. I'm only looking for personal use stash and thus I'm putting up four LSD-25 Autoflowers this time around, enough to provide me eight months of yield. I cannot get Fox Farm soil here without huge expense so I blend my own with a mix of soil-less, vermicast, rice hull, etc. I have a shack where I set up a grow arrangement utilizing a KingLED 600W for the first two weeks, then switching to the KingLED 2000W for the larger footprint and added illumination. Now I'm on a 20/4 schedule roughly and use a fan on constant flow to move air adequately.
I am trying to maintain a feeding ph of 6.8 and have been using my swimming pool as the initial source of water versus using tap water here with large amounts of TDS. Before you yell, be it known that my pool is bionized utilizing copper ions and has no chlorine whatsoever. It's drinking quality and the plants seem to like it. 😁
The first two pictures in this diary show the ladies outside for the first time. (nervous Dad here). I moved them out to allow run-off after watering each of the 4 gallon pots thoroughly, one gallon of water only each. I had previously been watering only in the close proximity of the stems to feed the young root systems. Seeing the spotting on the leaves of one of the larger plants made me think I'm watering incorrectly or that I may have overdone the nutrients. This pics are also just one week after transplanting them. I know now after reading up that Autoflowers should be started in their final pots due to the lessened grow cycle. Surprisingly, the growth wasn't affected in the least, or so it seems.
So.....they're heading back inside later this afternoon. I hope they've enjoyed their day trip and don't bring home any unwanted visitors with them in the process. I treated the outside of the pots and the surrounding ground areas with Neem Ant Spray prior to bringing them out. I'll give them a foliage bath of Neem Foliar spray tonight before putting them down for their nap too. Pests are extreme here as is extremely high temperatures and high humidity; all of which I can do little to compensate for.
It will be a struggle to make the best out of these conditions. I gratefully welcome any advice or comments made for my grow and I'm hoping someone can shed some light on the source of the spotting on the plant pictured. Thanks everyone for reading, I'll post pictures next time showing the primitive grow room that I've put together for lack of something better. It will make you chuckle.
This looks to be the start of nitrogen toxicity ... autos don't like a whole bunch of nutes early in the game! I'm growing some now (autos are ALL I grow) that have reacted badly to ANY nutes even at 4 weeks and in flower! Each strain is going to be different and the best thing to do with them is to wait until they're about 3 weeks old to introduce nutes and then ONLY about 1/4 strength. If they tolerate that, you can up them to 1/2 strength the next week and go full strength in week 5... This one seems to be telling you they're not happy with the amount of N they're getting - but it's VERY minor and probably not worth a flush. You don't mention what kind of soil they're in but if the soil itself has any nutes in it, what I've said goes double!
All in all, this look great with just a hint that you're giving too much nitrogen ... if you back off on that, those leaves will NOT show any improvement but what you want to be looking at and checking are the new leaves ... THEY will show you if you've sorted the issue.
Good luck and enjoy the journey!
Five days since first post and the gals are growing like weed(s). Thanks for the comments about the early Nitrogen burn, it is corrected. Have since gone to the water only, water only, feed cycle. The soil I put together had an unknown quantity of nutes on it's own. Sage advice noted and taken humbly. Don't overfeed Autos! So it looks like flowering is in store for the upcoming week. They remain bushy with mostly close intervals between nodes. It's getting fun now. The primitive grow room is mostly pest free, a stray white fly here and then that I dutifully hunt.
I'd appreciate any thoughts on when it would be OK to prune out just the mammoth fan leaves that shade the node spots lower down. They're like friggin' umbrellas. When, if it all, would it be safe to do so?
They're a little small (not the leaves - the plants!) to do any defoliation... what I would do (and what I do myself at this stage) is to tuck those large leaves under and get them out of the way or tie them down much like the LST process... they're still there, still providing photosynthesis to the plant, still moving nutes around and in general providing the plant with what it needs. As the plant gets much taller and more into bloom, you can trim a few of them if you need more airflow. I generally will trim fan leaves that grow toward the main stem but only when they're a few weeks into bloom.
You're going to have a monster plant by the looks of those leaves! Enjoy!!
Currently running my KingLED 2000 with both Bloom and Veg switches on. Is this the correct time to go just with the Bloom lighting? There's no harm in running both throughout; correct? Except to the power bill of course. Any thoughts?
I run my autos (they're all I grow) on full spectrum 24/7 throughout their lives and they love it. I find my electric bill to only be about /month different than when I don't run them at all... I like my ladies to have as much light as possible!
Good luck with the grow!
One week into flowering. One is a superstar, bushy and many bud sites. Another is a bit tall and the two shorter ones have added some height and bulk. I added another LED at a different level to accommodate the little guys and it's paying off, plus it adds peripheral light to the two taller ones at the lower nodes. I turn the pots 90° twice a day to get even lighting; think rotisserie chicken. This week also saw the addition of HS Sweet and Sticky and Flower Stacker to the nute regimen, fed at half strength, every third watering. The set-up is far from ideal with the open room arrangement and plausibility of whiteflies, gnats, and spiders coming to town, so I've been aggressive with Neem as foliar spray and surrounding area surface deterrent. So far, so good!
hey there snapfest, since the leafs already have 5 fingers , pruning wont really help with the final product, so if it doesnt help, dont do it. these gens in particular are not that bushy so hold off until you're well into flowering for the time being. hope this helps ! 🚀
Week two of flowering and they're starting to take off! The runts have mostly caught up in size with the other two and bud sites are coming up everywhere. They're responding well to Humboldt's Secret nutes but have also become very thirsty. Watering now 1/2 gallon each daily and the soil is still mostly dry. Better to under water than over. The divine smell has also increased dramatically so extra attention is being made for pest searching. If it smells good to me, it smells good to them too!
Hopefully they'll add some weight in the next two weeks, it's been a tough time lately battling critters, heat stress, and high RH. Otherwise, they look good still with bud sites filling out nicely.
A pretty good week! I'm loving the trichomes and purple colors that became evident over the last few days. I'm guessing two more weeks to go. Again, staying on top of pests as best I can, avoiding overfeeding, and keeping a good flow of air moving through them. Fast Bud's LSD-25 Auto is a fantastic and hardy strain. For anyone who's been following, you'll know I have little control over temperature and RH here. I can only imagine the results under optimal conditions. I'm hopeful for some bulking up during the time remaining even if I know that the high temperatures will greatly affect my eventual yield.
On the home stretch. Two of the four are noticeably taller but all are filling out well. High temps and RH have had a negative effect but I still think I'll end up with 2 oz. of dry premium per plant average, maybe more. The shed is aromatic, to say the least. Lovin' it!
Trichs are almost all milky but most pistils haven't turned brown yet. My question to the novices and pros in our community is when to harvest this? Not all plants exhibit the same signs so I've included representative bud shots. I prefer an "up" buzz not the amber couch lock.
turns out pistills are no good at predicting "ripeness", dont worry about white pistils almost all of them will become brown after the chop anyway. just go with the trichomes always full milky no clears no ambers is the max potency possible. hope this helps ! 🚀
I'm trying to decide to best time to harvest. Almost all trichomes are milky white on three of the four. The tall one is turning into the beast with the main cola filling to better than 7 inches. Oddly it's also the one that is showing the least color. I think it has a solid week left to go. I might take the others on Tuesday. Generally I'm still pleased with the results. Heat stress, high humidity, and not equal distance to lighting have all had an effect. I'm anxious for harvest day!
Another week to go still? And should I stop all nutrient feeding with approximately that much time to go? It's been five days since they were fed last, the last two waterings were fresh only. Any other advice for the final push would be greatly appreciated.
Get a magnifying glass and check the trichomes have turned from clear to milky/amber then it's ready.
What nutrients depends on the manufacturer and feed schedule.
Last week or so when ready I just give pH neutral water flush.
Hope this helps
wait ... I would wait first .... that is the ready ones ... do not cut everything .. try to experiment technique wake up a plant that still a few weeks tries to give some PK and drink if it continues instead on the ready ones try to keep them 3-4 days in the dark before collecting do some tests .. every truth has its time
Snapfest
