Second Grow: Variety!

DegenMJ Recapping my previous post, all of these were planted from rapid rooters to 5 gallon fabric post of a 50/50 Fox Farm Ocean Forest / Happy Frog soil mix and put in my outdoor greenhouse. I leave the zipper on the end undone so they can get a breeze every once in a while. The average height of them is about 4 inches. Technically, the White Widow, Pikeapple Kush, and Gorilla Glue germinated first, then I re-tried new seeds of Northern Lights and Girl Scout Cookies and they germinated, then after the Pineapple Kush died I replaced it with another Gorilla Glue seed and it germinated, so these aren't all on the exact same schedule but they're pretty close. The first Gorilla Glue Auto is leaning pretty heavily to one side so I am hoping it is just "chasing the sun" and doesn't snap like like Pineapple Kush did. Why did I choose these strains? Well, first all Autoflower strains because I'm starting "late" in the season and want to grow discretely without my judgy neighbors finding out, Northern Lights because from my research it's one of the easiest to grow (insect and fungus repellant), White Widow because it came free with my other orders, and Girl Scout Cookies and Gorilla Glue because they are both 20%+ THC, tend to grow 100cm or shorter, are accustomed to warm/Mediterranean/subtropical climates, and are indica/sativa hybrids.

DegenMJ All 5 still alive! However... the stems are extremely weak and flimsy. One day this week I went outside and 3/5 were leaning over, almost touching the dirt, and the next day the other 2 were also. Not sure why, but the three conditions that I changed from my previous grow to this one are: 1) Used Fox Farm ocean forest / happy frog mix instead of just ocean forest, 2) germinated seeds in rapid rooters, and 3) watered them more so the soil "levels" seem to have dropped. The things I am trying to help rectify the weak stem situation are 1) tied each of their stems LOOSELY to sticks that I found on the ground to prop them up in the opposite direction that they were leaning, 2) "topped off" each pot with more soil to give the stems more support, 3) ordered a 5" fan to put in the greenhouse to give them some wind, and 4) ordered some Silica Blast to start feeding them.

DegenMJ To strengthen these stems I added a small 5" fan to my greenhouse to give these some wind, and also started feeding them Silica Blast at 1/2 tsp per gallon. Also I ordered bamboo sticks to help keep them upright so that I wouldn't have to use random sticks that I find on the ground. These have grown an average of 1" over the past week, measuring from where they pop out of the soil, so maybe a little more since I added soil to each of them. So far, so good!

DegenMJ So far, so good. The stems are all still really thin though, and one of the Gorilla Glue's still sometimes needs the support to be held up straight, otherwise it just leans over almost touching the soil. Noticed some holes in the White Widow, might be caterpillars, so I sprayed it with a B.t./Spinosad/water mix to hopefully kill them.

DegenMJ A moment of silence please for one of the Gorilla Glue's which is now dead. Don't know how or why it died, but its stem was always very thin. Upon emptying the fabric pot I noticed several bugs in the soil that looked like beatles. Maybe they ate the roots and killed it? The others are coming along well, although I'm still using some plant ties to give some of them support. I MIGHT try low-stress training the Northern Lights, Gorilla Glue, and Girl Scout Cookies, but I'm hesitant because when I tried that with my previous grow of White Widow (auto) it responded very poorly to it. I'm also hesitant because the stems still seem thin to me. Still feeding them 1/2 tsp per gal Silica Blast every day with their water in hopes of strengthening the stems. Also still have a 5" fan in the greenhouse giving them all almost constant wind. They've gone from 5 inches to 11 inches on average in the past week, which is substantial vertical growth.

DegenMJ So far, so good! No change in average height this week, but for my previous grow there wasn't any change in height either from weeks 5 to 6. The difference with this grow though is they are an average of 10" tall whereas my previous grow they were 5" tall. The differences: 1) This time using FFOF/FFHF blend of soil instead of only FFOF, 2) I've given these no nutes, 3) I haven't tried LST'ing these (and probably won't), 4) the outside temperature hasn't risen above 90-95F, and 5) I put these in a mini-greenhouse with a fan so that they get constant wind and are sheltered from rain. Stems are still relatively weak though. Went out to water one morning that the Auto White Widow was leaning all the way over, so I stuck a stick in the pot and tied a "loop" around the stem to give it some light support so that it wouldn't be falling over. Hopefully it'll strengthen. Still giving all of these Silica Blast every morning during watering at a concentration of about 1/2 to 1 tsp per gallon.

DegenMJ Groups of white pistols now emerging from every plant. Growth from last week from an average height of 10 inches to 13 inches. Only nute I've been giving them is silica blast at about 0.5 tsp/gal to help strengthen their stems.

DegenMJ Increase in average height from 13 inches to 14 inches. This week I added Fox Farm Big Bloom nutes at 1 tsp/gal (1/3 the recommended dose). Still feeding them Silica Blast to help the stems. Another week of great weather and no rain! Even though there are 4 different strains I can't really tell them apart at this point other than by the labels that I made for each.

DegenMJ Stopped feeding them the Big Bloom nutes because noticed some of the bottom leaf tips started to turn yellow. Apparently Happy Frog is pretty good premixed soil on its own! Still feeding them Silica Blast though to keep the stems strong. No vertical growth; same avg. height as last week. Lots of white pistols still emerging and some are even turning amber already. Another week of pretty good weather and no rain.

DegenMJ No change in height this week. Maybe 13 inches is as tall as they'll get? More pistols on white widow and gorilla glue have darkened. Pistols on northern lights and girl scout cookies still very white. Makes sense, I suppose, since flowering time for the former is listed at <8 weeks, whereas for the others is 8-10 weeks. Interestingly, caterpillars seem to have taken a shine to white widow, considering some holes in some of the fan leaves and the fact that I literally saw a caterpillar on a leaf and plucked it off (which also happened with my other white widow grow) although this time instead of spraying the leaves with neem oil and insecticidal soap (which my other white widow plant DID NOT like) I sprayed it with a water/B.t./spinosad combo, and so far the leaves seem to be handling it OK.

DegenMJ So far, so good. No news is good news, I suppose. I accidentally tapped Gorilla Glue with my measuring tape as I was measuring it, and it started leaning pretty far over, so I tied it up with a bamboo stick and plant tie to give it some support. Seems none of these grew anymore in height. Most of the pistols on White Widow have definitely darkened, but I know by experience that the buds aren't finished thickening, and it seems new buds are still forming near the bottom. Didn't even bother checking the trichomes. These now have a nice smell to them.

DegenMJ Disappointingly, the sun has reached a point where my house and the trees completely cast a shadow over the plants, so they are no longer getting any direct sunlight. Also, it has been overcast/cloudy outside ALL WEEK. So this week these plants look exactly how they looked last week. But because they are autoflowers they are getting closer to harvest. For the white widow, almost ALL the pistols are now darkened. Under a jeweler loupe, the trichomes all look milky and/or cloudy, and I did not notice any amber, so I might be able to keep it alive for another week or two without sacrificing THC quality. Because of the cloudy weather, I moved all these plants into my closet under 80 watts of CFL's, which isn't nearly enough for them, but might at least be better than complete shadow outside, and this way they aren't exposed to the outdoor elements like insects and mold. For a longer-term solution, I ordered a Spider Farmer SF2000 grow light for finishing the grow inside. I've simply gotten too frustrated with all the outdoor grow challenges, and am very disappointed with how short and thin these plants are. Hopefully the grow light will at least give them some growth as they reach the end of their lives. I'll start my next grow completely under the grow light, and if the plants are still thin and short I'll then know that it's a seed genetics or soil/nute problem instead. The grow light doesn't get here till Friday, so unfortunately these will be stuck about 2-3ft under about 80W of CFL light until then. Maybe because these are so small I'll be able to re-use all the soil after harvest for the next grow.

DegenMJ My grow light finally arrived, and I didn't realize that the standard hanging equipment made it hang so low, so it is currently only about 12 inches or less from the tops of all the plants, which is probably too close. Going to tinker with it when I get the chance to find out if I can drill some new holes in the ceiling, relocate the mounts, and raise it higher. They're on a light schedule now of 18 hours on, 6 hours off. I was sick all weekend and also hurt my back badly, so lately unfortunately I haven't had the chance to give these plants the daily care they've needed. The white widow is probably ready to chop down since there's not really any more week-to-week growth and the trichomes don't seem to be changing. There are still white pistols on the northern lights and girl scout cookies so those probably have a couple more weeks to go. The gorilla glue is looking pathetic, but might as well give it a chance and see what it might do the next couple weeks. I also ordered 2-gallon fabric pots to be used INSTEAD of these 5-gallon pots, considering how damn small the plants are. I might attempt transplanting them so that I can move the plants closer to the area directly under the grow light. Some of them are basically only getting side lighting from it. It's kind of funny to me how the bamboo sticks I used for support, that are only about the thickness of a pencil, are thicker than the stems!

DegenMJ Absolutely explosive growth from last week! I'm completely shocked. Apparently the grow light is massively more effective than depending on the sun this time of year. And to think 2 weeks ago I was really disappointed and thinking these were about ready for harvest. Don't think I'll ever depend on the sun again for growing. Noticed some of the leaves starting to turn yellow. I raised the grow light to be as close to the ceiling as possible, in case it was light burn, but the leaves toward the bottom seemed to be turning yellow first which leads me to believe it instead cold be 1) natural because these will be ready to harvest soon, or 2) a nitrogen deficiency. These are in 5 gallon pots of Fox Farm Happy Frog soil, which is probably an overkill size for auto's so I'm thinking it's NOT a nitrogen deficiency, but just to be safe I started adding Fox Farm Big Bloom at 1/4 the recommended strength every other watering.

DegenMJ White widow: Noticeable growth from previous week. Some of the white pistols are darkening. Northern lights: Same as above. Gorilla glue: Noticeable growth, BUT noticeable LIGHT BURN also. All fan leaves are either yellow or lime colored. Turned grow light down to 50% power! Girl scout cookies: Same as above.

DegenMJ Noticeable growth from last week, although not as much as the previous week-to-week growth. Added CalMag at the recommended dosage (once per week) in case nute deficiency (not just light burn) might be contributing to the yellowing leaves. White widow is the only one possibly approaching harvest time in the next couple weeks since it's the only one with a lot off darkening pistols. For the others, this might be the longest grow for autoflowers in history! Maybe that's what I get for changing the light source halfway throughout the grow. Gorilla glue looks to have light burn on the tallest bud, not just the leaves, although it hasn't seemed to have gotten worse since I dimmed the grow light to 50% power.

DegenMJ Over the weekend a herd of ladybugs made their way through my front door, and others were hanging out on that side of my house, so I captured about 10-20 of them in a mason jar and set them free in my grow room since they're supposed to be relentless spider mite eaters. Hopefully they don't eat each other instead! At least a handful of them are still alive though and seem to be congregating on top of my grow light (photos attached). Regarding the grow, not much of a noticeable difference from last week, other than the pistols continuing to turn darker on the White Widow. My previous grow was ready to harvest at week 20, so I'm expecting a couple more weeks, and even longer for the others since their pistols are either all completely white or only a few have darkened. The re-vegging caused by the introduction of the grow light a couple weeks ago probably slowed their growth. I'm not in a hurry though, and would prefer better, bigger buds over harvesting earlier anyway. I plucked off a bunch of the droopy yellow/brown leaves because all they were doing was blocking the rest of the plants from getting light.

DegenMJ Lost most of my northern lights plant to bud rot. Couldn't bring myself to killing it completely, so I spared just the bottom 2 buds that didn't seem infected yet. Got a little paranoid about some of the sugar leaves having brown coloration on their edges, but I submitted photos and asked the grow question, and that might actually be light burn from introducing the grow light at full intensity several weeks ago before I brought it down to 50%. Also got a whiet fly infestation earlier in the week, but it seems spraying the undersides of the leaves with a water/spinosad mix killed or scared off most if not all of them. Hopefully too many didn't fly into the buds. Stopped giving white widow nutes because most of the pistols are amber at this point, and I'm just waiting on the two buds at the bottom to turn so that I can check the trichomes under a jeweler's loupe to confirm being ready for harvest. My previous white widow grow was ready at 20 weeks, although wouldn't b surprised if this one took a little longer due to introducing the grow light relatively late in its life, and that triggering new growth. All 3 of the others look like they have a little while longer to go, based on most (or all) of the pistols still being white. Planned to measure new heights, but forgot again!

DegenMJ Bruce Banner and Girl Scout Cookies are both dead. Both got bud rot, so I had to chop them. Basically nothing was salvageable. White Widow is looking ugly learning over, and the top is still brownish, but I'm not convinced it's bud rot just yet since it doesn't seem to be spreading and stated right around the time I introduced the grow light, so I'm thinking it could be light burn. If it does survive, I'll have to look into bud washing since the white fly infestation got so bad. Northern Lights is tiny since I chopped off about 80% of it last week due to bud rot. Hoping I can still salvage a gram or two worth. Pulled off some yellow leaves this week.

DegenMJ Trichomes still milky and almost none amber, so not in a rush to harvest yet. Bottom colas still have a lot of white pistols. There has been a hard freeze almost every night this week, so I convinced my wife to let me temporarily bring the plants and the grow light inside. With a less limited space I was able to raise the grow light to be much higher above the plants, so I also turned the light intensity up from 50% to 100%. Not surprisingly, they seem to love warmer temperatures and lower humidity, and haven't noticed any new pest or mold problems ever since. Whole house smells like weed, so will have to kick the plants back outside in the next couple days.

DegenMJ Sadly, what's left of white widow is the only plant left. Noticed more brown fuzz on what WAS the rest of northern lights this week, so I chopped it down completely. Noticed a small part of one of the top buds on white widow was turning orange, so I chopped the top buds off just to be safe, so what you see in the picture is all that is left. Trichomes still milky or clear, no amber, so still not harvest time yet. Shout out to my wife for letting me keep the plants indoors for another week, despite the hard freeze in the area being over!

DegenMJ Will probably harvest this soon. Hate to do it with a lot of the lower bud pistols still white, but the plant has been through a lot, and I think is about ready to be put out of its misery. I didn't think it was even possible for an autoflower to go 22 weeks (almost 6 MONTHS) without completely dying. Those seed-to-harvest timeline estimations are B.S. It has been chopped twice already from a white fly infestation and possible bud rot, so what you see in the photo is all that's left. Even after spraying the plant and shaking it every time I water it, it seems a couple white flies still fly off of it. Hopefully after I harvest, if some of them got stuck in the buds, smoking the little bastards won't kill me. In good news, I got a grow tent this week, which should help a lot with my next grow: specifically with preventing insect and bud rot issues in the future which I haven't seemed to escape yet.

DegenMJ Harvested a little over 9 grams wet weight, which is about as much as I got with the previous grow of Auto Widow. Not much, but on par with expectations considering I had to chop some buds off from both bud rot and white fly issues. Should end up with about 3 grams dry weight after drying and curing. Considering the low yield, it didn't take long to harvest at all. The white flies are probably pissed that I finally chopped it down. *** 1/20/23 UPDATE*** After a week and a half drying on rack, dry weight is 1.7g.