Fast Bud #2 Auto - First Auto Grow

Unkle_JR I kept this under a CFL bulb that was not nearly strong enough, so it stretched way too tall. I eventually moved this to my main grow space. 3 gallon pot, FFOF. Buried so only an inch is peeking above the soil. Using high nutrient soil, I'm not planning on any nutrients until week 5. I'm only adding rain water here.

Unkle_JR Didn't take many pics this week. I was a afraid of stunted growth because of the stretching, but it came back without an issue! Still growing strong here. About a quart of rain water with each watering now.

Unkle_JR Now we're starting to see some good growth here! She's grown large enough to nearly reach the edges of the pot, but not very tall. I moved the lights a little further away to make her stretch a little more. Funny: I was scared that she was stretched before, now I'm trying to make her stretch. Also: New lights have been ordered! I want to add another plant or two to the space and this 100w light won't cut it.

Unkle_JR New week, New lights, New lessons to be learned! I installed the new 200w light this week. I had some problems figuring out the right distance and power settings. This also happened while there was a heat wave in my area. So plant suffered a little heat stress while I figured this out. You can see the slightly curled leaves in some of the pictures. Eventually, I got the light at 75% power, 28 inches away (I will switch to 100% for flowering). I also set up the intake fan to start when the room gets too hot. She's now taking a little over 2 quarts of water every two days with almost NO run off. I'll slowly move this up to 3 quarts in the next week. I'll also be using Real Growers Recharge to keep my everything balanced before I start the nutrients next week. It'll be my first time using that product. Question time: I brought up my the heat and light stress problems on another site. Someone commented that I should not "chase perfection" when growing and just let the plant do it's thing. While I'm all for having a "hands off" approach BUT, This is my very first autoflower. I don't have the option of letting it go for a week to let the plant get back to health. Does anyone else have that concern with Autos? Also: Everyone's comments here have been helpful and encouraging. Thank you 😀

Unkle_JR We're looking and smelling like proper weed now! Started adding Nutrients and microbes this week. Since this is an autoflower in "decaying" soil (FFOF for about four weeks now), I'm going REALLY slow. - 8 oz of full strength Recharge around the stem after regular watering: This will stay at once a week, but I'll move up to 12 oz. - Emerald Harvest three part nutes, "transition" phase, at QUARTER strength. 2.5 quarts of water: This will stay at once a week, but I'll move to "Early Flowering" phase next week. - Green Planet Massive Bloom Nutes, at QUARTER strength. 2.5 quarts of water. This will stay at once per week. I tried tucking a few of the larger leaves to expose the buds to more lights. They just bounce back out unless you tie them down. If I'm going to do that, I might as well LST. I used pipe-cleaners and binder clips. I did this while the soil was dry and I found that the main stem was VERY flexible. I had to be careful not to bend too far. The pictures don't show it, but the plant has a pretty even canopy now. I will start to trim off the smaller buds below the canopy in the next week. I added a tiny (800 ml) humidifier to the grow space. It's a cheap little thing but it works really well. It runs for 8 hours in the middle of the day when its hottest so it lowers the temperature and raises the humidity at the perfect time. At night I can close the bottom vents when the lights aren't running. Since I got the temps and humidity tuned in, I lowered the lights to 2 feet above the flowers. Thanks for reading :-)

Unkle_JR Is this Nitrogen Deficiency, Toxicity or just flowering? I trimmed off some lower buds and leaves this week. When I saw a few older, larger lower leaves drying up. I didn't think much of it at first, but now I'm seeing more of this after that trimming. Since then, I've UPPED the nutrients from quarter strength to half stength. I have not noticed a difference since this change. This is what the plant has fed on since seeing those wilting flowers: - Wednesday: 10 oz of full strength Recharge around the stem after regular watering (rain water). - Wednesday: Emerald Harvest three part nutes, "Early Flowering" phase, at HALF strength. 3 quarts of water - Friday morning: Green Planet Massive Bloom at HALF strength. 3 quarts of water. Thanks for reading!

Unkle_JR My buds are getting BIG and my buds are getting bigger! Little bit of a scare last week when I saw a few too many leaves drying up and falling off. One thing I mentioned earlier: I was pouring in my water extremely slow so I would get very little run off. That was likely causing my problem. Lesson learned. I used a little bit of Tiger Bloom that I had hanging around, then did a light flush (just a heavier watering), added Recharge and we're back on track. I used half strength three part nutes (mid flowering stage with less MICRO), and it's probably going to be the last time. I'll stick with the bloom nutrients (Tiger Bloom and Massive) until I stop feeding her altogether. If I'm reading other diaries correctly, I should be harvesting in about two weeks! BONUS: If you haven't noticed, I added two more plants to the grow space. They're both the same strain as this one. Seeds came from the same pack. Both were germinated and planted at the same time. For some reason, one is kinda runty. She looks healthy just tiny. She's in a one gallon pot just to see what happens. Maybe I'll get a nice sized bowl outta her ;-) Thanks again for reading!

Unkle_JR I like Big Buds and I cannot lie. The Ph was reading too low, so instead of trying to up the ph in the water, I just gave the plant a flush. She took a lot of different nutes, so I figures she needs it. I removed the LST ties and defoliating when I did that. Trichomes are still cloudy. I probably have another week and a half before harvest.

Unkle_JR The last week before the chop! I should have stopped the recharge earlier. Otherwise, she got nothing but ph balanced rain water everyday this week. I kept her her in the dark for the last 24 hours before she got chopped.

Unkle_JR The pictures are pre-chop. I cut the bubs a little smaller and put them in a bowl trimmer. They're now in a drying rack. I think I got about 3 ounces from this plant. I don't weigh anything until after the dry.