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.
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!
@LegacyMarketFarm,
Hi friend, thanks for your comment and tips, i appreciate and welcome any and all constructive criticism, tips and suggestions :)
Unfortunately there's not a lot i can do about the temperature swings at the moment, it's winter where i live and my grow space is in the garage (which is very cold and has no heating). I could run a heater/invest in temp control systems but to be honest i'm just a hobbyist grower, not too keen to spend any more money. Plus the garage has flooded before, so i don't feel comfortable running any sort of heating down there. The lights are only off for 4 hours, and the tent only gets down to the low temp of 13-14degrees Celsius for around an hour or so, i checked at about 2 hours into 'lights off' and the temp was 16.5degrees.
Node spacing seems to be pretty good so far, there's a lot of bud sites and she's (zkittlez) is growing about an inch a night.
So yeah, im fine with how it is at the moment :) and once winters over and things start to warm up a bit ill give photoperiods another go, until then its autos at 20/4 :) thanks again for your input.
@VertiGrow, thanks :) its a pretty popular strain apparently, personally its far from my favourite though, although that could be because of my stressed plant growing quite airy buds, still trying to unlock the solid nug achievement lol