Herbies Beginner Auto Mix Grow

10 July 2022 (day 29): 4 weeks in and the PCA finally has some pre-flowers shooting pistils, which means the horror stories about Herbies Autos aren't all to be believed. Sure enough, the GCA's fan leaf I snapped yesterday had died on the plant so I put it out of its misery. The grow tent is stinky as hell. Both it and its lung room (a walk-in wardrobe) are climbing in humidity as the grow goes on and tending to average around 70% RH, which is the opposite of what I want as I move into flower. I'm going to tinker with the AC Infinity's settings, but in the meantime I have simply opened the wardrobe to expand the air available to the grow tent. Took some PAR readings today to calculate DLI, which I think is a bit on the low side for flower so the lights may move down again to get closer to 12 inches than the 24 at present. DLI readings at canopy -- GCA: 28.2; AFA: 31.4; PCA: 27.6 -- a lot more visible pre-flower action and just better spacing for the AFA generally... hmmm.... 11 July 2022 (day 30): The girls are 30 days old! After topping up their soil a bit yesterday they were a bit dry, so each got 500mls of a 1.5l jug of water, mixed with a 1/8 dose of veg nutes (0.975ml for 1.5l of Veg A and Veg B) and 1/4 dose of bloom nutes (1.875ml for 1.5l of Bloom A and Bloom B). The GCA is still a total jazz cabbage but I tucked all the girls in and adjusted their LST ties (pictured, pretty poorly, post-tuck). 12 July 2022 (day 31): Not a watering (or feeding) day for the girls so I measured them before applying further ties. Trying limply to break the apical dominance, particularly of the AFA that is shooting up. I noticed some yellow spots that I think are new now appearing on the old fan leaves of each auto... no detailed photographs as I'm slightly in denial. Also notice (post-photos) that one of the PCA's lower fan leaves is rapidly yellowing... or it could just be the washed out old iphone camera and the intense 100% grow light! Root to canopy heights - GCA: 18cm; AFA: 24cm; PCA: 17cm. 13 July 2022 (day 32): Girls had a water and a feed today that they immediately sucked up. Rather than the 500ml waters, I'm thinking the next soak will be a full litre each because there was effectively no runoff from any of them for any real period of time. As suspected, a couple of the PCA lower fan leaves are yellowing out. I am choosing not to see it in terms of a deficiency/lockout at this time but it may be they'd like more nutes. Because they have no plain nutrient-free feedings, it's equally possible it's in a lockout scenario. Pity I don't have a control of the same species to test with, will definitely not be doing a mixed-species grow next time! Increased the tension on some of the LSTs and added another to the AFA. Really, the AFA is the only specimen with nicely spaced nodes where I have a good handle on bud sites. The GCA is still way too dense to effectively separate the canopy to expose bud sites without some defoliation. The PCA is just a bit light on bud sites altogether and is the Sick Man of Europe in the context of my grow. Onwards! 14 July 2022 (day 33): The grow tent has been averaging 71.2% RH throughout the week and spiking up to a max of 82%, so I have finally done something to address the AC Infinity's automations. The tradeoff of having the fan work harder than 2/10 is that a lot more heat will be lost through the air exchange. That's probably not the end of the world but it will be a case of continued monitoring. The PCA's yellowing fan leaf has now almost completely blanched and I'm wondering whether I might need to be incorporating more plain water feedings. Also potentially a concern is that I'm headed away for four nights during which the plants will be essentially unattended. I may have to call in a favour to get them watered! 15 July 2022 (day 34): Leaving my girls for 4 nights tonight so a quick check in and tuck before I do so. The changes to the AC Infinity settings seem to have been successful in bringing the average humidity down below 65%. I am wondering with flowering stepping up whether I should be targeting an even lower humidity figure, but the weather here (rainy winter) makes everything pretty damp at all times. Will be interesting to see how they survive with non-PHd water and 4 nights without their dad!