CBD Lemon Auto + Critical XXL Auto

Starting this a bit late. Critical XXL Auto has just sprouted, so day 1 CBD Lemon Auto is at about day 5 Medium - Canna Terra (peat based) Nutrients - Emerald Harvest Cali Pro Grow + Bloom Light Schedule 20/4 Haven't tried Critical XXL before, I've avoided it because it didn't really appeal to me that much, but i'm trying to actually get at least 2oz from a single plant, apparently the yields are pretty good so lets see :) Taking a different approach to this grow, usually i'll do some LST, bunch of defoliating and adding nutes before they need them. So this time, no LST, no defoliation (until it really needs it) and no nutes until week 4 at least. Critical XXL is in a 10.5 Litre (2.77gallons) pot CBD Lemon is in a 11 litre (3 gallon) air pot, never tried it before so should be interesting. Because i have these in the flowering tent, i'm putting domes over them (as you can see in the pictures) to help with humidity, i'm also going to stick with HPS throughout the whole grow instead of MH for veg HPS for flower. Something i've wanted to try, theres a lot of debate around whats best so i'm interested to see how it goes.

Critical XXL Auto - Day 18 CBD Lemon Auto - Day 22/23 These pictures were taken a couple of days ago, there's been a bit more growth since then. Grow is going well, I've done my best to not defoliate... until today lol, CBD Lemon's massive fan leaves were resting on top of stems underneath, squishing the new growth... so they got the snip. Nothing much to report. Probably going to feed them light veg nutes next watering.

Critical XXL Auto - Day 25 CBD Lemon Auto Day 29/30 Didn't really want to post this update as they're in a pretty embarrassing state, I'm having some watering problems with both, Critical has been worse. I've tried drying them out completely in case of overwatering, hasn't helped. Not really sure what to do. hoping once critical starts flowering it'll push through it. Have fed them once, a light feeding, a single dose split between both of them. Really trying not to get too worked up and upset about how they're looking. Doesn't get me anywhere. CBD Lemon started flowering a few days ago. Had a bizarre problem yesterday, one of the side stems/nodes was floppy.. like, halfway up the stem it was hard then it just went soft (see photos), i propped it up and next day its totally fine. She's also got some different mutations this time, 2 different nodes are double headers, looking forward to seeing the outcome. Definitely going to give the tent a big clean after this run, have a bit of a white fly problem. Not quite an infestation but no doubt it'll get that way soon enough. Currently it's just a few flying around, i'll probably spray both with neem in the next week or so. Now that we're out of winter and it's getting slightly hotter outside, the tent is definitely getting hotter too. I've never grown with HID lights in summer, hopefully it wont be too much of a challenge. Oh, i noticed one leaf on cbd lemon that looked like a deficiency of some sort, added some epsom salts to todays watering just in case.

CBD Lemon Auto - Day 37/38 ---------------------------------- Trucking along nicely, had 2 feeds so far. Don't think shes gonna get very tall but is what it is. Noticed the 2 header bud has a flat stem, much like the fasciation mutation of the other 2 i've grown. So it's probably a variation of the same mutation. This will be the last time I grow this strain. Left a review on Herbies site, was a 3 out of 5 star review, not surprisingly it hasn't been approved. Kinda disappointing to be honest... it wasn't a scathing review, it was honest. Disappointing because I like Herbies as a company, lost a bit of respect for them for not approving an honest review. Critical XXL Auto - Day 33 ------------------------------ I've tried drying the soil out a few times, no difference. Now I've re-potted her as a last ditch attempt. Not holding my breath but we'll see. Think it's probably a nute lock... next fix attempt will be to flush her.

CBD Lemon Auto - Day 45 Still a small plant (12") and not really stretching all that much. not expecting it but hopefully it bulks up nicely... this one does look a tad thicker than my other 2 grows of the same strain. I'm glad theres no fasciation with this one, the 2 headed bud is interesting. Trichomes are starting to develop. Much like the last 2 grows, it's yellowing early - i'm pretty sure its the nutrients... didn't notice the word "reservoir" on the bottle, so i'm guessing I haven't been feeding it enough for a soil grow. Next feed in a few days i'll try adding maybe 2.5ml instead of the 1.5ml the bottle suggests. The nutrients get good reviews online so I must be doing something wrong. No smell yet other than a not very appealing "plant" smell. I'm liking the air pot though, thinking about trying out fabric pots next. Critical XXL Auto - Day 39 Not much to report other than it's finally coming back to life! to be honest I thought it was a goner, but it's starting to properly flower now, and after a re-pot with new soil, letting it dry out and then watering with a nice dose of nutrients it's sprung back to life. Doesn't look good but at least it's still alive :) will be a shitty yield but whatever, i'm just glad i didn't scrap it. it's 11" tall. another small plant. dunno what i'm doing wrong :-/ Raised the light to pretty much as high as it can go because I moved my Jalapeno plant back in - it was taking a bit too long to ripen its fruit in my small tent (with a shitty underpowered LED), I didn't want to scorch its leaves, which was happening before I took it out... seems okay so far. All plants are getting around 50-55,000 LUX so all good :)

CBD Lemon Auto - Day 53 Chugging along nicely, despite being a tiny 13" tall lol. I can only hope it fattens up but basing off previous grows I doubt it. Looks like the extra nutrients i've been feeding it paid off, nice and green again (which some slight burn). Maybe that'll be the difference and it will bulk up? who knows. I'm gonna pull at around 70-75 days, which is a good week or so longer than previous attempts. The double headed buds are looking pretty cool and the nodes are tight, so that's good at least. Critical XXL Auto - Day 47 Looks to be stretching better than CBD Lemon, she's at 14" now. Seems to be a slow grower but I'm liking what I see so far, probably because it's different to the last few grows... it's nice to have something grow a bit different shape-wise. Gonna use some epsom salts next watering as it looks like it's got a small calmag deficiency, nothing major though. No more feeds for CBD Lemon, maybe 1 more for Critical. Made some CBD and Kawakawa salves/balms from leftover buds that I used to make infused coconut oil, plus some un-decarbed trim. If anyone's interested in the recipe feel free to ask :)

I swapped over to a digital timer as my analog one was making a not-so-great sound and unfortunately I didn't set it right, lights were off for I think around 9 hours :-/ this happened twice in a row. Fingers crossed nothing bad comes of it. CBD Lemon Auto - Day 60 She's starting to bulk out nicely. Looking like it'll yield better than my last attempt at this strain. I'm glad I realised I was underfeeding them, it's nice and green compared to the last grow at this stage (which was pretty much totally yellow). I'm guessing that's why it's bulking out nicely. Today was the first watering without nutes. Probably not going to flush it, just 10 or so days of water only. Trichomes are coming along nicely too. Critical XXL Auto - Day 54 After a couple of nights of timer problems, letting it dry out properly and a good feed afterwards, she's sprung back really nicely. Very slow grower comparatively to other strains i've grown though. Probably gonna be an 80 day-er.

CBD Lemon Auto - Day 67 The harvest window has opened up, trichomes are mostly milky (see pictures). Really want to wait till I see a decent amount of amber this time, in saying that though I'm probably going to harvest this coming weekend regardless (maybe), it'll have it at day 71/72 - which is the longest I've let this strain go. Breeder recommends harvesting before any amber trichomes appear, as they will apparently degrade CBD. So maybe 90% milky 10% amber, I really just want to see how far I can take it, its slowing down on adding bulk though. I'd like to see the lower buds develop a bit. I've done a bunch of trimming this week, to try and get more light to lower stuff. Gave it a big dose of nutrients (2.5ml of each bloom) at the start/middle of the week... even though I had decided to stop nutes a week ago... thought it could use some. Not overly worried about harsh smoke as most of it will be used to make FECO. Critical XXL Auto - Day 62 Slowly starting to bulk up and trichomes are also slowly developing. Gave it a bit of a haircut. That's about all there is to say. I now have 3 Critical XXL Auto seedlings started. The weather is starting to heat up, so in turn the tent is too - got up to 25.5degrees celcius. Not sure how summer is gonna go, will be my first using HID.

She's trucking along, taking her time. Looking pretty good though, hopefully it'll fatten up more. Would like it to hurry up so I can up the humidity for the seedlings. Raised the light because of the seedlings, bout 16-18". She's still getting around 75,000lux at the highest point so all good. Fingers crossed for some more Trichomes. Looking a bit bare so far. Minimal smell too. Not having a lot of luck with these cheap seeds... hopefully the new ones do better. Probably gonna look into a different seed bank. MIDWEEK UPDATE 3RD NOVEMBER: I had a 45watt LED panel I had laying around doing nothing so decided to install it as a side light, no idea if it'll do much but no reason not too. She's chugging along really nice (see pics), hard to get a good photo of it but the leaves are starting to frost up nicely... pretty sure she'll be very frosty come harvest time, can't wait :) after the disappointing harvest of my CBD Lemon Auto, this will be a nice little present.

Pretty disappointed by the yield. In saying that it looks a lot more than 85.86 grams, fingers crossed it doesn't lose as much weight as other strains. Harvested at 71 days, which is longer than last time and the buds are way firmer because of it. So yeah, maybe i'll end up with an oz, hope so. Hanging up to dry with a fan blowing underneath. Will update once dry. Most, if not all, of it will be going to make FECO, to make edibles.

Day 77 Going really well! I noticed it bulked up quite a bit after being flushed. I made sure to do a good flushing this time, quite a few litres through it. Pistils are finally going orange, I've kinda just accepted how slow it is now lol. I reckon it'll be a 85-90 day, any more than that and it's getting ridiculous for an Auto. Hopefully the 3 new ones won't take this long! from what I've seen on Grow Diaries, there's a fast pheno and a slow pheno. This is obviously the slow one hahah. The smell is coming out and it's really nostalgic, reminds me of my teens/early 20s. Really looking forward to this one. Gave it a haircut to get more light through it, couldn't be bothered taking photos afterwards sorry!

Day 84 I'm pretty glad I didn't get frustrated and pull it early, it's looking great! 5-7 more days I reckon, I've checked trichomes and they're very milky. It's coming along fast now so I'm hoping she'll be done by the end of the week. I took a small sample, a popcorn bud that wouldn't have finished up anyway and wow, talk about strong hahah. It's gonna be great for making FECO. I've opened up the canopy some more too, not a lot but enough to help out. I stopped watering it for a few days because I wanted to dry it out before harvest but decided to give one more water because it was taking too long. No more water from now. Hopefully lol. MIDWEEK UPDATE: I got a new tent :) 4 x 4 x 6.5 or 120x120x200 Very happy with it, it's huge compared to my last one, strange how just 1 extra foot feels like such a difference. It's especially nice being able to stand up in it, no more hunching over. I'm thinking about getting a wooden pallet or something to raise the floor a bit, feels odd having such a tall tent and everything on the ground. Thought about swapping back to LED's but tbh I think I'm going to stay with HID. I'd need to spend a lot to get a big enough LED to heat this tent in the winter, no way am I going to use a small heater in the tent like I've heard some do, feels like too much of a fire hazard to me. One slightly annoying thing is keeping the humidity down. My old tent was pretty consistently 40-45% with extractor fan at low medium, while this new one is around 59% with the extractor fan at slightly over medium. As long as I can keep it under 60% I'll be fine, I've heard over 60 is when the risk of but rot gets higher. I don't want to run the fan any higher than medium because it's way too loud, that and it's been going almost non stop for a year lol. Next purchase will be (instead of a new light setup) an AC INFINITY T-6 Inline fan, according to the specs it's literally half as loud - 32db VS 65db (my current fan). I only got the one i'm using because I got a good deal on a display model (with a speed controller). I'll need to get a new carbon filter though, as it's a 150mm fan, mines 100mm. Anyways, happy!

Harvested at day 89. Could have left it for longer but I recently installed my new (bigger) grow tent and I'm having a hard time keeping the humidity lower than the mid 50s - most likely due to the size increase (4x4 from a 3x3. 40cm taller too). Trichomes were milky with a sprinkling of amber so it was time, I was getting pretty annoyed at how long it was taking too. Will be interesting to see how long the next 3 take, they all look like different phenos too. Breeder claims 77 days, from what I've seen on here, the grow times are all over the place lol. Buds are nice and firm, nice fruity smell to them. Don't want to do a wet weigh as it always lets me down lol. I did weigh the main cola though, 21.5grams - decent. This is supposed to be a strong strain, the popcorn buds that I quick-dried were strong, I'm looking forward to making FECO (rso, oil, whatever you want to call it) and edibles :) Will report back with a smoke report asap. Currently drying in my closet with a fan blowing air beside them (not on them). Last grow I dried too quickly (5 days), don't want to rush this stuff.