Multi-strain Autopot grow

Mistakenly had the light too far away from seedlings causing a huge stretch. after moving the light closer and transplanting with most of the stem covered, 3/4 seem to be doing well. The Royal Gorilla seedling seems stunted and struggling.

3/4 plants recovered well after repotting to 1gal containers. The royal gorilla not so much. Very stunted and slow. Towards the end of the week I germinated a new Royal Gorilla seed in case the current one doesn't make it.

Overwatering issues this week. Forgot to clear out the runoff water in saucers at one point on top of giving them too much too often. Decided to scrap the original Royal Gorilla and divert all attention to the new seedling. I may experiment with colloidal silver on the stunted one separately for seeds.

After letting the substrate dry out nearly completely to fix the overwatering problem, I re-potted into the AutoPot containers. I debated a lot over repotting when they were stressed out from overwatering, but they were getting quite big for the 1Gal containers. They took to the new containers very well and showed almost no signs of transplant shock. A decent feeding and they were perky and happy looking. I also amended more perlite while transplanting, to try and get closer to a 50/50 mix coco/perlite. As per the AutoPot instructions, I will let the plants root into the new containers for 7-10 days before turning on the whole watering system.

This week I got prepared to set up and turn on the water reservoir. I somehow managed to have lost 1 of the plastic autopot covers (not important), and a top hat grommet (very important). I managed to get a different grommet fitting just fine for the one pot and turned it on for the first time Wednesday evening, just in time as they looked thirsty. Thursday morning they look fantastic so I'm assuming it's working and water is adequately reaching the roots -- STARTING SYSTEM -- ✨ Wed Sept 07: ✨ PH 6.4 PPM 650 EC 1400 ✨ Fri Sept 09: ✨ PH 6.3 PPM 795 EC 1655 The plants drank way more than I expected in 2 days (about 2/3 of the reservoir), but it could be due to them being very dry when I first turned the system on. While the PPM and EC are still in the recommended range according to the GH Floraseries chart I'm following, the numbers increased about 20%. I was going to dial back the nutrients about 10%, and realized this corresponded exactly with the change from 'Medium Feed' to 'Light Feed' on their chart. ✨ Sat Sept 10: ✨ PH 6.3 PPM 685 EC 1447 Initially i was concerned if it would be difficult/clunky to refill the reservoir, but its actually very simple. Shut off the valve, fill up a 5gallon bucket with water, add nutrients, pour into reservoir, adjust PH, turn valve back open. At most I would only fill about 10 Gallons in the reservoir to feel comfortable about spillage in my room, so adding (2) 5Gal buckets of water at most. The plants seem to be doing fantastic. I probably should have flipped to flowering earlier, but I've been pretty distracted with the AutoPot system. Going to defoliate and flip to 12/12 today.

So far the plants look great, a little stretched out but seem healthy. They stretched a bit further than I would have liked before flipping to 12/12 but that's ok. The netting I ordered is too small so I will try and add some more sections with some string or something. Did some light defoliation, when the plants are healthy I like to defoliate pretty heavily and continuously throughout flower. The Autopot has been great so far, there's been a slightly concerning smell from the reservoir, but not alarming. ✨Thurs Sept 15✨ 6.4 ph 710 ppm 1410 EC Reservoir is starting to smell quite nasty. I added 5 Gallons to push it to the weekend then I will do a full clean. Plants are looking fantastic

Plants are quite taller than I would have liked. I've been busy and haven't been able to train them as I usually would. Gave them a defoliation and tried supercropping a few of the really tall branches Sat 24: Defoliated more and supercropped a few more branches. Moved the net up and tried to tame down the height. hopefully it stops stretching soon i don't have much more vertical space. Other than that issue the plants are doing great. It looks like no issues with deficiencies or anything, The autopot is doing great.

not much to report this week, plants are looking very healthy and happy. Struggling to keep them away from the light. stems at the base of the plants are looking beefy. So far this has been the healthiest and most vigorous looking grow I've had (aside from letting them get a little out of hand in size)

plants are doing alright, their stretch is STILL going. trying to tie the out of control branches down when I can

A few bud sites had ended up hitting the light and got burnt, but not a huge deal. Managed to get the light as high as I can and bend over some of the highest branches. Some plants are thickening up quite nicely, others like the royal gorilla are looking a little lackluster.

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Beginning of the week had a bit of a problem with the irrigation lines flooding somewhere. Once i removed the water and dried it out I inspected to see where the problem came from. One of the float parts on an aquavalve was getting stuck instead of floating up causing it to continuously be open and receiving water. it was kinda hard to tell why it was stuck but there was a decent amount of gunk and buildup in the system. I had been cleaning my water reservoir but neglecting to clean the tubing or the actual aquavalves. Pretty sure this is due to my negligence. I Bought some House and Garden drip clean to try and fix this problem for the rest of the grow and future grows. The plants are fine though, fattening up and getting some nice color in them. A slight bit of amber trichomes so they should be ready very soon.

The Gelato grew beautifully. I had my own mistakes with the plants getting too big and not managing the height and spacing, but as for the strain itself it looks beautiful. Pretty purple color coming out of it. Due to the spacing/crowding issues, the buds came out small, airy, and larfy. But oh damn do they smell amazing.. I'm really bad with describing cannabis smells/tastes but it smells so fruity, like a literal fruity gelato 😋

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Despite being the strain i had the most trouble with, the royal gorilla is looking chunky and frosty. Without the other plants holding each other up, the buds on the gorilla are falling over from their own weight. Still needs a bit longer to amber up. Stopped using the main line of nutrients. Just dry koolbloom and some molasses in the water.

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I seemed to have some issues with growing this strain. My first seed was so stunted I had to start over with a new seed, and the second one grew funny and kind of weak all throughout the grow compared to the other plants. stems were thinner and more leggy than the others and the leaves started to yellow when the others did not. Hard to say if this was due to grower error or the seeds themselves, I would have to grow it again by itself to know if it just needs different care. At the end however the buds look nice and chunky.