Zkittlez Auto and Gorilla Blue - Herbies

Starting this diary a bit late. Zkittlez Auto is at the back and Gorilla Glue Auto at the front, the Zkittlez actually could be CBD Lemon Auto, i mixed the seeds up when germinating and one didn't make it, I won't know until flowering, happy with either though. Gorilla Glue was started around a week after Zkittlez. Zkittlez broke ground on the 8th of May 2022 and Gorilla Glue broke ground on the 13th of May 2022. As of 3rd of June that makes Zkittlez 26 days old and Gorilla Glue 21 days old. The Gorilla Glue seems to be stunted a bit but i'm hoping its just because she's recovering from the LST i've done. Originally decided to leave Zkittlez to grow naturally as this is my first time with autos and only my 3rd ever grow but saw how it was growing and decided to intervene, had some huge fan leaves covering new growth etc so defoliated and did some tying down, won't be doing any more as i've read that defoliating during flowering is a no-no with autos, and she's juuust starting to flower. Hoping the stretch will begin soon. I'm happy with the LST on the gorilla glue, i'm continuing to manipulate it as she grows - the photos for this week are a few days old so shes a bit further ahead. I'll update as much as possible. Still learning, and have decided to just grow 1 at a time after this so i can learn better, focus on one plant. The plants beside them are Jalapenos that i started from seed, they aren't liking to 20/4 light schedule very much it seems, unfortunately its kind of a must have at the moment as we've just entered winter over here. Will be lowering it to 18/6 once they've gotten a bit bigger. Hoping for 5oz in total but thats probably a stretch. we'll see :)

Unfortunately had a bit of a disaster with the GG runt, broke a stem off after deciding to get a bit more aggresive with the LST. I decided to do that as its obviously either a runt or i've done something wrong due to this being my first go with autos. I'm not too concerned, just focusing on Zkittlez now, which is growing really well, liking the node spacing. she's around 10-12" tall at 29 days old, i'm not sure if the grow is going well or not, she looks really healthy but being an auto im not sure if it should be bigger by now or not, considering its meant to be ready for harvest in 6 weeks or so i think i may be a couple of weeks behind? not sure. Zkittlez is starting to flower, preflowers are popping up all over the place. GG is starting to get some as well, which is a shame - it's obvious i wont get much at all off her but it is what it is. probably starting a new grow this week to veg in the small tent for 3-4 weeks. probably going with Critical XXL as the strain. Last feed of veg nutes for Zkittlez, starting flower nutrients next week. at week 6 im going to swap the light over to a 600watt HPS but maybe set at 400, not sure yet.

Zkittlez (or cbd lemon, still don't know) is doing really well, she seems to get a bit droopy in the morning just before lights off time, i think im still getting used to watering autoflowers, i tend to water them at night because im worried they'll dry out over night. i'm letting them both dry out though and then can start fresh. Zkittlez is 38 days today and Gorilla Glue is 33 days old. Gorilla Glue is picking up but is taking its time to flower, has preflowers as you can see in the pictures but shes not really doing much. more than i expected though, and maybe i will get something from her? probably nothing to write home about but doesn't really matter, i've never tried GG before so anything is something :) Oh i've changed over to HPS lighting now, running at 400watt, still 20/4. Wanted a bit more stretching, although node spacing on zkittlez is looking really nice. She's growing around half an inch to a full inch each night, im guessing the stretch period has started :) Crazy to think that i'm halfway there already (for zkittlez anyway) Im actually hoping its CBD lemon and not Zkittlez, and im hoping ill be able to figure that out sooner rather than later so i can harvest before i get any amber trichomes that will degrade the cbd. Not much of a smell yet, soon i imagine. Oh and to people commenting, i cant reply yet as i havent received a confirmation email :-/ but to the person mentioning temps and how they should be closer together (lights on vs lights off), theres not much i can do about it unless i run a heater, which i dont want to do as my grow space is in the garage, which has been known to flood. its too dangerous. oh and its winter here :) thats why im growing autoflowers, so i can keep them warm. its only the last hour or so when it gets down to 13 degrees celcius. i checked at around 2 hours into lights off and it was 16.8 i think, somewhere around there. they havent complained about the cold so far :) one thing i need to work on is humidity, since swapping to HPS its gone from 45-50% to 30-35%. i looked online for simple fixes and have left a pot of water in the tent, supposedly the light will eventually evaporate the water causing moisture. i also sprayed the walls of the tent with a light amount of water, which actually worked pretty well, not sure for how long though, may have to buy a small humidifier.

Zkittles - 46 days old Gorrila Glue - 41 days old Zkittlez is growing well, quite a small plant though and the stretching seems to have slowed down dramatically, which is odd because i thought the change to HPS from MH would have caused it to stretch more, it was growing an average of almost an inch a night (main stem) but seems to have stopped. Kinda wanted a taller plant but as long as she bulks up i'll happy :) Not much of a smell still, unless the calyx is rubbed, then it smells like yeah, a bag of skittles/candy. Which leads me to believe this is definitely Zkittlez and not CBD Lemon. not 100% sure but almost. 2 side stems have become "fasciated" which is a mutation, no idea what caused it, it looks kinda cool but from what i've read the buds aren't great and could even lower the potency. ah well, the lower buds are forming well, good spacing etc. Gorilla Glue has been incredibly fussy and stunted. im currently letting it dry out completely so i can start fresh with watering, im pretty sure i overwatered it, im still getting used to different strains requiring different amounts of water and food. (the pictures are from after i put a layer of fresh soil on top of the old soil, its not from me overwatering, its dark because its new soil) I decided last night to lollipop it, or at least sort of. I figured its not going to produce much anyway so nows a good time to try out some different techniques. I've also started a Critical XXL seedling, had it in my seedling/veg tent but it wasn't growing that well, think i need a better veg light, so decided to just move it to the flower tent, i've also topped it. i'm not worried too much about this one, and im not even sure why i planted it (i have different plans), so yeah just another practice plant really, see how well it goes with being topped etc. Overall i'm feeling okay about this grow, Zkittlez im pretty happy with, a bit gutted about the mutation but whatever, only another 30-35 days.

Zkittlez day 50 Gorilla Glue day 45 Bit of an early update but its technically the start of week 7 so why not. I'll make it a quick one. Zkittlez is doing really well, the fasciated buds are looking pretty trippy, smells nice if touched, otherwise the aroma is quite minimal. I've deviated from a weekly feeding schedule, this strain seems to be quite hungry so im feeding her based off what i think she needs, judging by condition, leaf colour etc. There's only 1 or 2 tiny nute burn tips and they are old leaves, so may not even be nute burn. Gorilla Glue is slowly doing something, can't remember if i mentioned in my last update but i flushed her, put around 4 litres of water through the pot, Canna Terra is very good at holding water lol, despite being a very "fluffy" medium. I think i'll be adding some extra perlite for my next grow. I've been waiting for her to dry out before watering but today realised shes probably lacking in nutrients so gave her a feed with minimal water. She doesn't look great in the pics but every day shes starting to perk up a little bit more. She's starting to properly flower too, or at least trying to, its looking pretty messy. I imagine things will straighten out in a week now that it's back on track. I'll probably feed Zkittlez once or twice more then just straight water, with a proper flush at day 70, maybe sooner as judging by the speed of growth she might be down in a couple of weeks, but i do want to push it to see how far i can go, my previous grows have been harvested with milky trichomes, i'd like some more amber this time. Oh, i tried to run my lamp at 600watts, managed to get a stable temp of 29-30degrees celcius, but i had to have both vents open, extractor fan on high and both oscillating fans going. I don't think its worth the extra power and noise, so back to 400watt. Lastly, i've got everything running 24/7. figured its only $50-60 a month in power, its not a huge expense. Plus the Jalapenos i'm growing are find under 24hour light too according to the internet.

Zkittles - Day 58 Gorilla Glue - Day 53 Zkittlez is coming along beautifully, bit of a shame about the mutated buds, i've heard they're pretty bad to smoke, which is fine for me as I prefer edibles over smoking. I'm also pretty interested to cut one in half once dried, i'll be sure to post a picture of a cross section, haven't seen any online so i'm sure people will be interested, maybe anyway. I've been pushing her a bit with light intensity, theres a some slight 'tacoing' going on but nothing terribly bad. I'm definitely noticing a difference between upper and lower bud maturity though, and may need to stagger my harvest but we'll see how she goes. Looking at harvesting somewhere between day 70 and day 75. I've checked trichomes with a microscope phone attachment thing and they're already 70-80% milky (even lower buds). Aiming for 70% milky 30% amber, which is way longer than id usually go for, trying something different this time. Obviously if she starts foxtailing or any other signs of "please harvest me" then ill yeah, harvest. What else... oh yeah, i flushed her yesterday, day 57. put a few litres through i'd say. PH of the run off was 6.0 which is great, although my ph meter probably isn't very accurate. but it matches (almost) the ph of the water i've been using, which has been between 6.0 and 6.5. No more nutes obviously, just water till harvest. I was surprised that she didn't react negatively to being flushed, no difference other than looking thicker lol. My yield guesstimate was 50-55 grams dry, but im now thinking it may be closer to 70 (2.5oz). fingers crossed huh :) Lastly, her smell still isn't very strong, she's nice and frosty but yeah not a lot of smell, that is until you move or touch the plant. Totally fine by me, makes it easier to keep stealth. And the smell from touching is beautiful. Gorilla Glue. She has recovered nicely from being stunted, i think she may have had a nute lock, because after i flushed her she was fine a few days later, then complained, then i fed her some nutrients and she's been happy ever since. The genetics on this strain don't seem to be great, the stems are quite 'straggly' and the main cola is just... weird, to be fair i haven't grown gorilla glue before, i haven't grown much at all. So for all i know this could be how this strain grows. I had to defoliate quite a bit today, which i wasn't really happy about doing because she's in proper flower now, but it was getting way too dense in there, needed more airflow. In the picture i'm pointing at the main cola, as its kinda hard to figure out lol, definitely a mess. This plant has been a learning experience, i'm not worried about yield, but if i had to guess i'd probably say she'll be a 1 ouncer. who knows though i might get lucky. What i've learnt from growing her, is that i much prefer my own method of "LST", which is just opening up the canopy and defoliating the insides so the plant has great airflow and gets light to all buds. I've only grown like 3 plants so far, im a newbie, but i've done that style of training with each of them and they were each a success... so yeah, ill probably keep doing it that way. if i can average 2-3ounces per plant im happy... im just a hobbyist grower that makes edibles, so 2-3 oz goes a long way :) Oh, i almost forgot. i've undone all the tie downs on Zkittlez. Also, i haven't really got a plan on when to harvest Gorilla Glue, but she's looking a good 2 weeks behind Zkittlez so im guessing 20-25 days, which would make her 73-78 days old, pretty on point. EDIT: Forgot to say, Gorilla Glue already has more of a smell than Zkittlez, thought that was kinda interesting.

Gorilla Glue Day 58 So still technically week 8, but I wanted to do an update so whatever. She's bounced back nicely, way better than I thought. Not a huge plant, never expected it to be, she had a rough start - slow growth, broken branch, weird LST methods. After a flush (about 4 - 5 litres), a few days and a small feed she bounced back and here we are now. The smell is definitely different, can't really put my finger on what it reminds me of, but its quite pungent. More pronounced than Zkittlez already. Guessing she probably has about 2 weeks to go, I'd like to push this one longer than Zkittlez, actually try for 70% milky 30% amber, should be easier now that i'll have something to smoke soon. I'd like to keep her in there for 2-3 weeks too so the Solomatic Auto I just started has a good amount of time in the small veg tent, then when GG is done i can swap them over, IE put the Solomatic into the big tent and the harvested Gorilla Glue in the small veg tent to dry - drying Zkittlez in my closet is a bit too stinky, I mean, veg tent is also in my closet but at least i can seal it up. Gorilla Glue is taking nutrients and water in its stride, quite thirsty now. I'm quite sure she did have a nutrient lock earlier on which caused the stunting, i didn't notice any deficiencies so i must have got to the flushing at the right time. Happy with how she's turning out, even if my LST attempt was weird as hell, its working (kinda). I noticed she's stretching more too, thought that was over but apparently not, leaves are quite sativa looking too, don't know why but i always assumed GG was indica dominant. A friend said she'd probably surprise me and she definitely has. I'm a little bit worried about how dense/bushy she is, worried about mould and bud rot. I gave the tent a bit of a clean and will make sure airflow is good. should be totally fine. Moving that San Pedro outside soon too, would like more room as I'd like to start a Habanero from seed. Ideally I only wanted 1 Jalapeno plant in there, the one in the bigger pot, but the smaller one is fruiting and i'd feel awful getting rid of her now lol, the bigger one is obviously healthier and growing much bigger so maybe I will. I've included a picture of the bigger Jalapenos stem, it almost looks like it has Fasciation too! the main stem looking like 2 that have fused together. Plants are certainly strange sometimes. Oh i'm periodically defoliating GG too, to help with airflow. I also looked at mounting my filter and fan on the tent ceiling to get more space but there's no way its going to fit unfortunately, the filter is far too long.

Seed to harvest in 62 days - really can't complain about that huh! super easy grow, zero pest problems, quite a hungry strain it seems - I'm sure I over fed her a few times and saw maybe the smallest nute burn? definitely could have left her another week if I wanted to, but after checking the trichomes i saw 96% milk/cloudy and 4% amber (I know thats very specific lol), I thought about it for a while but seeing as i make edibles more than i smoke i figured now would be the best time since she'll have peak THC The mutated buds aren't great obviously, but to be honest i don't think they're gonna be as bad as everyone says, and besides, like i said i make edibles, it'll be fine for that. 163.83grams wet, that does include some heavy stems though. From what I've seen online people tend to say dry is 15-20% of wet weight, but im not so sure with this one. I haven't grown a lot, far from an expert, but whats drying looks substantially more than my first grow (2 plants, around 1.5oz each), I mean it doesn't look more than both but it looks more than 1 of them, so im thinking ill get at least 1.5oz dry. I'll report back obviously. They're drying in a cupboard with a fan underneath for circulation, it's not blasting directly onto them. I'd like a slower dry this time. Definitely going to post a picture of a cross section of the Fasciated buds. For some reason the whole question on whether this is actually Zkittlez or if its actually CBD Lemon (mixed up seeds, pretty sure i explained at the beginning of this diary). Guess i'll find out once I smoke it, Zkittlez is supposed to be 20% THC or more, while CBD Lemon is 17% THC 17% CBD. I realise those are "in an ideal world" numbers but i'm sure i'll be able to tell the difference once smoked. I decided it was Zkittlez a while ago based on smell, CBD Lemon is supposed to have a pronounced lemon smell, while Zkittlez smells like, well, skittles, Candy etc. This smells fruity, and honestly it's not super smelly, like unless you touch it, it doesn't smell a lot. who knows! I will definitely grow this again, whatever it is (i have seeds for both). Gorilla Glue I'd say has 2-3 weeks to go, she's actually bounced back which is cool, won't get a lot, 1 ounce max i reckon. Autos are pretty fun to grow though, even if the yields are low. I'm starting to appreciate quality over quantity more anyways. I have a Solomatic CBD seed about to sprout, and will be growing CBD Lemon (actually this time lol) next, but thats another diary :)

apologies for the week mix up, this is actually week 9 for Gorilla Glue, shes at day 63. Packing on lots of weight, smelling amazing (pine and diesel) and getting super frosty. I've included some pictures with and without flash. I've never grown something this sticky before, and i've become a bit worried about bud rot, trying to keep humidity down but is a bit hard with new pots with damp medium being introduced, humidity is sticking around 45-50% though, and i have one of my oscillating fans on full and extractor fan at about 70%. I'm sure it'll be fine, regardless though i gave her a haircut - which i know a lot of people say isn't the best idea to do to an auto during flower, but she was getting too thick and blocking light from bud sites (my own fault really, because of the weird LST attempt). After my current grows are done i'm probably going to invest in some bigger pots. I've been using around 2.8gallon pots, from what i read, 3-5gallon is perfect for autoflowrers, but i can't even do the "knuckle test" to see if she needs watering as the roots are taking up pretty much all the space in the medium, hopefully she doesn't get too root bound (never had that problem before). I have some airpots i wanted to try, but turns out they were knock off ones, and i dont know about the legit airpots but these were very wide, only 3 gallon but wide enough that i'd only be able to fit one in my tent (2 at a stretch). Really want to push this grow further, i read that the led lights from those microscope attachments for phones can be deceiving, as in they reflect light onto the trichomes which can make it look like they're milky when they're not. I think that's where i went wrong with Zkittlez, thinking that she had 95% milky trichomes when in fact they were probably more like 50-60%. I pulled her early, i know that now, so really want to learn from that mistake and not repeat it. This was a free seed from herbies, so i have no idea what breeder its from, so no estimate on seed to harvest. I'm thinking another 14-21 days, so 77 - 84 days in total. I've stopped feeding her nutrients, just sticking to water now and will do a flush in 7 days :) Height is 13" at the highest point Oh! I have noticed a lot of red veins on the leaves, not all of them though just older fan leaves. I don't think its anything to be worried about, probably just stress from when she had a nute lock and probably stress from the LST. and lastly, as much as im enjoying growing with HID (especially during winter), i think i'll probably go back to LED after winter. Never got any light bleaching from the COBs i used to use, but every plant under HPS has been bleached so far, and the bulb isn't too close, its around 14/15 inches from the highest point, middle of the canopy is reading 65,000 lux. So who knows. I have to use it during winter as i dont want to have to use a heater, and the city im in gets quite cold during winter. Even at 400watt HPS i'm only just managing to maintain 22-24 degrees. I've tried upping it to 600watt (its a 600watt bulb, digital ballast) but that extra 200watts reeeeally pushes out a lot more heat, to be able to maintain 28degrees (as high as id feel okay about going) i need to have the extractor fan on full blast, both oscillating fans going and one lower mesh flap open the whole way, not worth it, If i continue with HID i'll probably invest in a cool tube. who knows though, i change my mind every 2 seconds hahah.

day 68, i know im a week ahead but whatever. She's chugging along nicely, kind of. To be honest she's looking a bit overcooked in my opinion lol, i thought the light may be too close but nope, light meters reading between 50,000-70,000 which is normal, plus the 70k is at the tip of those big colours. Super frosty, smells delicious, its mostly the 2 big colas at the back that need to hurry up, i've included photos. She's had 2 flushes now, last one was a few days ago. So hopefully she'll finish up nicely. No more nutrients, definitely looks like the leaves are starting to deplete themselves of food and may start dying soon. I'm guessing she may be done at day 75? hopefully. gotta remember shes about a week behind because of the time she was stunted. Just a quick update and a bunch of photos :) oh! and a video.

Day 74 Harvest time! She didn't have the best start at life, lost a major limb/side stem early on (my fault, too aggressive with LST), and got a bit stunted from stress I think. Flushed twice (once was to get her out of being stunted, it worked). Probably could have left it another couple of days as some of the lower buds were still maturing, not many though, and i needed to get her out of there so I could turn the extractor fan down to bring the humidity up for the young plants. I'm really happy with the result, especially after the small disaster that was Zkittlez (which im pretty sure was actually CBD lemon as its not potent at all). Not a big yield, would have been a lot bigger had she not lost a limb. I'm not too worried though, quality over quantity right? im pretty certain this is the best stuff i've grown so far, 5th times the charm huh? Trichomes are about 80-90% milky and 10-20% amber, first plant i've actually let get amber, so yeah, finally grew something right lol. No nutes for about 2-3 weeks before chop, and yeah 2 flushes, so im hoping it'll have a nice taste. Oh, and i didn't water for 3-5 days before harvest, which could explain why she's so light (not a lot of water weight), visually looks similar to the harvest, size-wise, yet a good 60grams lighter, will be interesting to see what the dry weight is. I'm gonna throw out a guess of 38gms. Even though she has a great smell, its not very stinky while drying, nor was it in the tent. you have to touch the buds to get any scent, pretty handy tbh. Currently drying in my wardrobe with a fan blowing underneath (not touching the buds) for airflow. Happy! EDIT: not the best trim job, im not very well at the moment so just wanted to get it done. plenty of trim that im going to use to make pain relief balms/lotions