MSNL Auto Widow

This morning (6/21), 4 days after planting these in the soil, they finally started to poke above it. These photos are from this afternoon when I checked on them again and they are about 1 inch tall each. Fingers crossed that they continue to grow! As mentioned in my previous post, they are in 5 gallon fabric pots of Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil. No added perlite, no nutes, nothing fancy. I've read that it's better to start seedlings indoors and in a "less hot" soil, but also that autoflowers don't like to be moved so I decided to put them right into their final destination. I was worried that the heat might have killed them since it has gotten up to about 100 F outside the past couple days, although surprisingly they're hanging in there, and I was delighted to finally see them pop above soil this morning. Haven't been measuring how much I've been watering them. When the soil looks bone dry that's when I've been giving them a little water, about once per day. Maybe 2-4 ounces per day (0.02 gal) if I had to guess. Doesn't seem like much, especially considering the hot conditions in the daytime, but trying not to OVER-water them since that seems to be a common rookie mistake. I come from the wine industry where it's actually good to make the grapes work for their water, although if anyone thinks I'm no watering them enough let me know and I'll step it up! UPDATE 6/22: The auto widow circular leaves are curling at the tips and turning brown, and one of the pineapple kush auto circular leaves is not only brown at the tip but looks like about a third of it on the end is gone. See photos.

The auto widow is now about 1.5 inches as compared to about 1 inch last week. Not huge progress, although not unexpected considering that daytime temperatures have gotten up to 100F. The pineapple kush may be slightly taller than last week, although now definitely only has 3 leaves rather than 4. The one round leaf that looked "burnt" or "brown" last week has now completely fallen off, but it doesn't seem to have died. The widow seems to be growing more than the pineapple. What I've been doing is putting them into the shade during the middle of the day during the hottest part to try to prevent them from burning any more and/or their growth being stunted. It seems like most of the other grow diaries during week 2 are showing a lot more growth than mine, and I can't help but to think the heat might be the cause. This week daily high temperatures are looking like only 90F and afternoon thunderstorms are expected, so next week we'll see how they've grown with a little less heat and more water.

The widow has doubled in size in the past week from being about 1 inch to being about 2 inches, and it seems its first set of "true leaves" are forming. The pineapple is also showing signs of growth since last week, but it has only gone from about 0.5 inches to 1 inch. *** 7/8 EDIT *** Yesterday I noticed some white spots on the top and black spots on bottom of the widow leaves, so I made some neem oil spray and sprayed them down in case it was some kind of insect. Today I brought the plants in because it started to rain outside, and my cat got to both of them. He ripped the pineapple right out of the soil and chewed on it, and he took several bites out of the widow leaves. Unfortunately the pineapple is dead, but the widow seems to be hanging on. I ordered a small greenhouse so that I can keep future plants in it outside without having to take them in every time it rains.

The pineapple kush auto is dead after my cat pulled it out of the pot and chewed it up, so all that's left now for this grow is the auto widow, which my cat also got to but only took bites out of some of the leaves and didn't kill. The auto widow is 5 inches now, so nice growth considering last week it was only 2 inches. I want to do eventually do some low stress training, but at 5 inches it might still be too short for that. If you don't think so, let me know in the comments. The weather has been much nicer this week than the past couple weeks. Highs have only been about 85 instead of 90 the week before and 100 the week before that. It has also been raining a lot, so I've been trying to do my best to keep it out of the rain, but because I work at an office sometimes I can't make it home until hours after it has already been rained on. The rain doesn't seem to be killing it though! When it does get rained on a lot I just skip watering it until the soil dries back out. I ordered a small greenhouse that hopefully I can set up soon and start keeping it in so that I can leave it outside without having to worry about the rain, and not have to bring it inside and worry about my cat eating it!

So far so good. Started doing some LST, although had to be very gentle and careful since it is still only about 5" high. Trying to do a "spiral upward" design. The leaves have been drooping in the evenings but becoming perky again in the daytime, so maybe just a sign of resting. The bottom two leaves both have yellow/brown spots, although I have no idea what it could be. After researching, it could be basically anything (watering issue, fungus, bugs, pH issue, nutrients issue) which isn't helpful at all, although I did spray those leaves with a neem oil mix in case it helps. Haven't done any nutes yet, but might start next week at 1/4 the recommended strength since this is an autoflower and the 5-gallon pot of soil already seems to already be relatively nutrient-rich. If this auto widow plant can make it all the way through harvest and I get at least 1 oz. of bud from it though I'll be happy. Not sure how big it is going to get though since almost every other journal that I look at on this same week has bigger plants. It has rained literally every single day this week. I try to keep the greenhouse flaps open as much as possible so the plant gets some natural wind and air circulation, but occasionally the rain comes out of nowhere and I'm not able to close the flaps in time before the plant gets rained on. The soil has appeared moist all week, so I haven't watered it all week.

Added maybe a quarter of a gallon or a fifth of a gallon of of Fox Farm Big Bloom this week at a strength of 1 tsp/gal, which ended up being a huge mistake. I don't know if my plant is getting nute burn from the Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil or from the added nutes, but leaves especially toward the bottom are turning yellow and crispy if not falling off altogether. From what I read, there is not much that can be done about nute burn in the vegetative state, other than doing a flush, measuring pH, adjusting pH, etc. but quite frankly I don't want to have to buy all the stuff to have to do that. I didn't buy pH'ed soil so I would have to check pH every day, it shouldn't be that hard to grow a WEED! I read about "runoff" although every time I water the plant there is no water coming out of the bottom. Don't know if that's because it is a fabric pot, because it has 5 gallons of soil, or because I'm not giving it that much water. It has been VERY humid out lately. Mushrooms are popping up all over my yard, so I suppose the weather lately would be a magic mushroom grower's dream! It is week 6 and still all the plant has is 3-leaf shoots, which seems uncommon since most of the other autoflowers I see around this age have 5-finger and/or 7-finger shoots. Also there are no signs of flowering yet, which I suppose is a good thing considering how small it still is. Despite what looks like nute burn (which may or may not be a big deal in the vegetative stage, depending on who I ask) and the plant being relatively small, it is still alive, and for that I am grateful! What I might try for future seeds/seedlings is using a different type of soil. I read that Fox Farm Ocean Forest can be "hot", so it might be killing my seedlings before they even have a chance. I ordered some Fox Forest Happy Frog to try instead for new grows based on reviews of it being less "hot" and more "airy", so we'll see how that goes.

It's looking MUCH better than last week! Since learning that I basically can't over-water it since it's outside and in a fabric pot, I started giving it water every day even when the soil was already wet. Also, I stopped giving it nutes and "undid" all the LST ties. Figured that if the plant is stressed from nute burn the LST can't be helping, and at this point I don't care as much about yield as I do it just surviving. Only took 5 days for it to grow from 5 inches tall to 12 inches tall. It has grown a couple 4-fingered leaves, and finally ONE 5-fingered leaf. Also it is starting to grow "mini leaves" out of the sections where the branches meet the main stem. Don't know what the significance of that is, but since it is new growth I'm assuming it is a good sign. Overall, it still looks much skinnier and much less "leafy" than every single autoflower grow that I've seen here on growdiaries, but it's my first grow, so trying to not be too hard on myself, and will be happy if I can eventually end up with 1 ounce of bud from this. It seems most autoflowers on growdiaries are flowering by week 7-8, although as long as mine is still growing and not dying I'm happy. My 8 week plant seems to look like everyone else on growdiary's 2-3 week plants! To help with future grows since I've had so many seedlings die in the soil, 1) I ordered rapid rooters to germinate and let them grow a little first, instead of planting seeds directly in soil as soon as I see the taproots, and 2) I ordered FF Happy Frog soil to mix with FF Ocean Forest for a less "hot" soil mixture for my next grows. Hopefully those two changes in combination with more water will help prevent the damage that has killed all my other seedlings. Started with 5 seeds, and if any of them germinate I'll start a new diary for them.

In case you're just tuning in, the only surviving plan has been the auto widow. I've gone through literally over a dozen seeds now, most have germinated, and most have died in the vegetative state due to heat, under-watering, nute burn, or a combination of the three. And arguably this plant is stunted as a result of one or more of the aforementioned conditions. Having said that, I am quite happy with this week's progress! It has grown from 12 inches to 18.5 inches, and started showing signs of flowering with the white/green pistils. I honestly didn't expect the plant to make it this far. If it makes it to harvest and I get a single gram in dry weight of bud off of this I'll be happy because it'll be my first successful grow. A couple days ago I re-introduced Fox Farm Big Bloom nutes at 1/3 the recommended strength and it seems to be handling it pretty well. This next week I might start adding it at 2/3 the recommended strength to find out if it can handle that much.

So far so good! Upped the Fox Farm Big Bloom nutes to 2 tsp/gal from 1 tsp/gal and it seems to be handling it well. Grew thus past week from 18.5 inches to 22 inches, which isn't a lot, but I actually don't want it to grow any taller, otherwise it'll outgrow my small greenhouse and I'll have to purchase a tent or something to put it under! Pistols still emerging and developing but not quite looking like buds yet.

Grew from about 22" to 24" tall, ALMOST hitting the ceiling of my mini-greenhouse SO I ordered a 10x10 ft. tent to put the plant under, and on a table, IF it continues growing vertically and starts pushing up against the top. Hopefully it is finished growing in that direction! Noticed some flying insects on it yesterday evening so I brushed them off and then sprayed the leaves with neem oil. Sprayed the grass inside the greenhouse with B.t. and Monterey Garden Insect Spray, and the area OUTSIDE the greenhouse with Bifen I/T and I.G.R. Tried upping the Fox Farm Big Bloom nutes to 3 tsp/gal and noticed leaves near the bottom turning yellow and crispy and falling off, so I reverted back to only feeding1 tsp/gal. Ordered a 5" fan to put in the greenhouse to give it some wind to help strengthen the stem and support the buds that are growing, AND to help keep insects off and humidity under control.

This plant DID NOT LIKE when I sprayed it last week with the neem oil & pesticide soap mix. It seemed to stain all the leaves that I sprayed, and some of those spots eventually turned into holes in the leaves. Wonder if I used too much of the soap or if the plant is just getting OLD and the leaves are getting sensitive, thin, and crispy from that. Whatever the case, I snipped off the leaves that looked really bad (photos above). Also, I scaled back the feeding to only 1 tsp/gal of Fox Farm Big Bloom. This week I'll probably stop feeding it nutes altogether. It hasn't grown any vertically from last week, so I presume it is finished growing upward and is focusing on budding. Overall, the plant is tall and skinny because it DID NOT LIKE low-stress training in its early life. The buds are looking great! Lots of pistols still forming and all are still white in color. Lots of sparkly trichomes! Keeping a close eye for bud rot since I live in a hot humid location, and this plant has NOT had an easy life up to this point. I've probably (unintentionally, of course) killed 10 or 20 seeds or plants in the early vegetative stage in the same time this plant has successfully grown. This week I moved it from the greenhouse to outside on top of my flower bed in the morning, and then under a tent in the afternoon. When I go to move from the flower bed, there are usually spider webs on it, although there doesn't appear to be an infestation. Also I noticed ants crawling on it, so I dumped a tablespoon of cinnamon on the soil around the base and that seems to have worked and scared them off. Also this week I added a pole to help support its since it started to lean over (probably from the buds forming and adding to its weight).

A brown spot showed up on the top largest bud, so I snipped it off about an inch below the bud, out of fear that it's bud rot (see grow question), and in hopes of preventing it from spreading. Today was a sad day. Snipped and saved the sugar leaves in case I can mix them with my AVB and use them for cannabutter or cannacaps in the future.

As you can see from the photos, I had to chop 2 buds off the top from them getting bud rot. Shame becuase that probably made up 1/3 of the total buds. Hopefully the rest of the plant is salvageable. Also you'll notice that apparently spiders LOVE this plant because they won't stop making webs in it. The top bud has mostly amber pistols, but the bottom bud has almost no amber pistols, so I don't think it's harvest time quite yet, but it's getting there. As long as I don't lose the rest of the damn plant to bud rot! Plant now 21" instead of 23" in height.

More pistols are turning amber colored, including those near the bottom. Still waiting for MOST of the pistols near the bottom to turn amber colored before I harvest, but it's getting close! Leaves are looking fuzzier and shinier. The buds have definitely developed more since last week, so glad I haven't harvested yet. And there hasn't been any rain this week so didn't have any bud rot problems this week, thank goodness. No change in total height.

Getting close to harvest time! Then again, I've been saying that for the past couple weeks. What keeps happening though is new batches of white pistols keep popping out and the buds keep growing. Now about 50% of the pistols, on average, have turned amber. More on the top bud and less on the bottom bud. Ideally, I'd like to wait till 70-90% turn amber before I harvest. However, even more ideally, this week I ordered a jeweler's loop with 30x and 60x magnification, so as soon as that arrives I can look at the trichomes more closely to help make a determination of when to harvest. Hopefully it isn't too late where most of the trichomes have already started turning amber, but because only about half the pistols have turned amber I'm guessing that won't be the case. Almost all of the fan leaves have rotten and fallen off, and some I've manually trimmed off because they looked so bad, so the plant is now mostly buds, sugar leaves, and stem now, with only a couple fan leaves left that are really starting to show their old age! Thankfully no rain this week so no further problems with bud rot. A couple weeks ago I really thought I was going to lose the whole plant to it.

So far, so good. Had another nice week of weather with no rain! Trichomes still clear and new white pistols continue to emerge, so still not harvest time. Still no nutes, just water from the outside hose.

More pistols have turned amber and more trichomes seem to be turning milky white from clear. I finally bought a jeweler loop. The 30x magnification works pretty well when I put my eye really close to the loop, and the loop really close to the buds. The 60x magnification is completely useless because the lens is so small I basically can't see anything other than a blur unless I basically touch a bud with the lens, and even then I can barely figure out what I'm looking at. Can't believe it's week 17 and still not ready to harvest! Over 4 months now since germination. Thought autoflowers were supposed to be ready in 2-3 months. The remaining leaves on the plant look absolutely awful. Thin, crispy, dirty, and spotty. Nevertheless, the buds continue growing and developing.

Will probably harvest soon. Seems most pistools have darkened and curled in (95%), trichomes are milky rather than clear (90%), and there are some (less than 5%) trichomes that are amber. Also some of the tips of the sugar leaves (which are really dirty now from catching dirt in the air) are yellowing. The plant is probably begging to die! Didn't think an autoflower could even live this long.

*** 11/21/22 UPDATE *** Dry weight: 2.2 grams. *** 10/28/22 UPDATE *** The buds started easily snapping off the stems, so transitioned the buds from the dry rack to a mason jar to cure for at least a couple weeks. It's kind of funny that I bought a whole pack of 32oz. wide-mouth mason jars thinking that's what I would need, and I would fill several up 75%, but in this case the buds only fill 1 jar up by about an inch. Anyway, i stuck a 62% humidpak and hygrometer in there to try to keep the humidity around 62 degrees and to be able to monitor it. At least the buds are still a little sticky, and they smell great! *** 10/21/22 *** This was my first grow and it sure wasn't easy! This was the only surviving plant out of over 10 seeds that I tried germinating and tried to help survive through the vegetative state. I researched a lot beforehand, yet still made a lot of mistakes along the way. The fact that this plant survived it all is probably a miracle! Still have a 3 day to 10 day dry period, and then a 2 week to 6 month cure period, so won't know how this tastes nor its effects for at least another month, but when that happens I'll update the diary! The total wet weight of only 9.8g is disappointing, considering that the average from other grows of this same strain is about 34.9g (1.2oz). After drying I expect to only end up with 20-25% of the wet weight which would only be about 2g. However, as you can see I wet trimmed and removed stems rather than leaving them on and dry trimming so I may end up with a little more than 2g. Will update later when I find out for sure. LESSONS: -Seeds really don't like hot temperatures. -Fox Farm Ocean Forest is too "hot" for most autoflowers in their seedling and young vegetative stages. -Germinating by peat pellet gives seeds a better chance of survival once planted, because it gives them a chance to develop for a couple extra days into vegetative state, rather than being thrusted right into soil that might be too "hot". -With a premixed "super soil" like Fox Farm Ocean Forest or Happy Frog, it is really easy to get nutrient burn if ANY nutrient mixes with bat guano or earthworm castings are added, even at as little as 1/3 strength. -Early in its vegetative life, I brought the plant inside to be away from the rain and my CAT chewed up one of the few and major fan leaves. I'm lucky that my cat didn't outright kill this plant like it did the pineapple kush plant. I learned to not even let the plant near my cat, and got a greenhouse for outside to protect plants from light rain that way instead of bringing them inside. -Insects REALLY like auto white widow. The only ones that seemed to cause an issue was caterpillars that tore up the leaves. Spiders made webs in the plant, but they didn't really do any damage to it. -For pest control, the plant did NOT like a neem oil / insecticidal soap combination, but did OK with a B.t./spinosad combination. -Plants do NOT like humidity. While this one didn't get wet much directly, when it rained a lot for several weeks the plant got bud rot TWICE and I had to chop off some of the largest buds. Since then I set up an indoors closet with CFL lighting to move plants to from outside on days/weeks when it is expected to rain a lot. -Didn't track P.H. levels at all, yet didn't seem to have any problems related to it. -Only gave the plant water from a hose with NO NUTES for at least 2-3 months of it life, yet it didn't seem to have any nute deficiency issues.