5) FastBuds / Green Crack Auto - 2nd Try

Week 1 went as well as could be expected. Up to now, she looked like a normal healthy plant. My new veg stage lighting strategy is just leaving the lamp on 24 hours. Leads to some yellowing of leaves, but I don;t really care. Doesn't seem to slow a plant down. A lifeguard on a beach will have a deep suntan eventually. It's alright. So I leave the lamp on 24 hours now until I install the flowering lamp. Makes sense from a DLI chart perspective. And it makes it easier with regards to the dehumidifier that either needs to be left on when the lamps are out (too humid) or you have to get up every day at the same time as the lamps come on to turn on the humidifer. The humidifer requires a touch to turn on.. My next humidifier will have a simple knob or switch turn on/off instead, so that maybe I can just hook it up to the timer and have it work when it's supposed to. Anyway. Was an easy start to the grow.

This week, Week 2, is when all the fun begins. Because this is when LST usually begins. And as you can see from the pictures above, LST began on Day 9. As I say in every diary, the idea is to flatten the plant early. The light hypercharges growth in the way you design it, so get designing as early as you can. If you want her to look like a big-yielding table of weed, turn her into a table on Day 9. By Day 13, as you can see above, I had hooked onto the branches that would be the longest in the end, and started orienting them low to the coco and out to the corners of the tent as I usually do (these are what I call the North, East, West, and South branches.) Things went well this week. Have a great grow day!

This was the week when defoliation began. With this grow I decided I would just be defoliating always. At this stage, I can tell when a leaf is going to be useless or problematic early - so just get at it. Right? But the defoliation that happens in week 3 is very strategic. The bending over of the plant in week two causes the leaves from the main branch (or as I call it - the North branch) to droop over the center of the plant, blocking light to what are trying to become the East, West and South branch launch points. So the leaf I cut off is the one blocking the light. The cutting of one leaf begins the hyper growth of a monster - most important leaf cutting that happens in the life of the grow, under this strategy I employ. This was also the week that I started noticing something peculiar and slightly foreboding. I couldn't help but notice as I was doing my daily LST adjustments on the branches (more on this later) that the space between the nodes were awfully large. I was getting early vibes that this plant was leaning towards the sativa variety of the cultivar. If you know my diaries, you know I prefer the indica varieties better for many reasons I've mentioned before. The key #1 reason is size. The larger the plant, the more complicated things become overall. Heat stress, for example. Or the need to do extra LST work. Light stress. The list goes on. Well, by the end of the week, my vibes were proven right. The ScrOG net went in on day 21 - the earliest I've ever had to do that. At that moment I realized I prolly had to delay installing the flowering lamp on Day 42 as is my "rule" now. But I wasn't certain about that as of yet. But the wheels were already turning about it. Because the "blue spectrum keeps plant short" theory either was working and this plant was just born to be a monster (certainly possible), or it wasn't working and I might as well save 30 W per hour with the 65W veg lamp instead of the big hot 95 W. Right? Anyway, at least I didn't break the main branch in week 3 on this one like I normally do. Trade offs! 😂 So as for the daily LST, the reason for it was exactly that. I concluded during my reflections this summer that the reason why the main branch kept breaking was that I had failed to readjust that main branch and the others on a daily basis. So that was the plan this time - daily LST and defoliation. And with this grow, that luckily proved to be a great idea. Have a great grow day!

The fast and big growth trend continued this week. Had me a little worried and excited at the same time. But only time would tell the story of this precocious princess, so patience would have to rule the day. As mentioned in the Week 3 comments, defoliation was intended to happen early with this grow, and on Day 24, I went around the plant and cleared all the leaves at the bottom under the canopy. The idea was simply to give myself enough room to water under all the tied down branches. I gave myself more room to water this time, given what happened with the stem rot I earned at the end of my prior grow. Other than that, a peaceful week. Have a great grow day!

This week was the week when the first real Monster Alerts went out. Towards the end of the week, I checked my diaries here to see pictures from the same week of prior grows. My concerns were confirmed. By Day 33, this plant was already bigger in size than any other grow I had ever done. I could tell because the NSEW branches (you have to read my diaries to know what this means) were already past the four corners of the inner square of the trellis net. This had never happened so early before. So it was confirmed, she was a fast grower. ' But then I started thinking, was does "fast grower" really mean? Does it mean the plant is growing taller or faster? Or both? Is she maturing fast or is she tall? So there were still questions to be answered. Only time would tell what the farmer would find. Giddy up for the ride. Defoliation continued this week, this time the very large leaves were removed only. I think she was well "scrogged" as evidenced by the pictures above. The net was set to 11 inches above the floor. It would never move from there again. Cuz It didn't matter. No little fence was holding this big bitch back anyways. Have a great grow day.

The beginning of this week was the beginning of the stretch. And since the girl on Day 36 was already the largest plant I had ever grown by that date, I felt I had to make a decision. If you read my diaries for some reason, you know that I concluded a couple grows ago that Day 42 seemed to be the perfect day, typically, to switch from my 65 W veg lamp to my 95 W red spectrum lamp. But the way this girl was growing made me second guess that idea. I've mentioned in my diaries several times that a too-large plant is kinda my biggest fear in doing this. So at some point this week, cant remember exactly which day and that's not even important, I decided that switch day would be Day 49. I didn't see any reason to hypercharge the growth of stems and branches on this one with red-heavy full spectrum light. So a very ceremonial thing that is supposed to happen at the end of Week 6 would not this time. I would continue to try to theoretically suppress the growth of this plant with blue spectrum heavy light. I'll discuss what I think about my lighting decisions in this grow in Week 8. But another thing occurred to me about all this. I don't really have a way to definitively prove that whole blue spectrum vs red spectrum thing anyway, do I? Not without risking time-wasting mistakes, right? It's kind of like Pascal's Wager. Better to believe in the blue-spectrum theory than it isn't. So I'm staying with it. It seems to have worked so far, anyway. Was surprised she didn't smell at all. Consulted with Google. Google told me not to worry about it. So I stopped worrying about it. Google would ultimately be proven right. Thanks Google. Couldn't have done any of this without you. Put that on my tombstone. 😂🤦‍♀️ Want to discuss something else. Fertigations. They happen twice a day from Day 2 with me. This week, I went from feeding 600 ml per feed to 1.2L per feed, which would be the amount given at each feeding until the end of the grow. But I have to admit something. Occasionally.. A few times every grow... If I come home stressed or angry enough from work... Yes, I miss fertigations. I admit it. I'm not a perfectly diligent farmer. And since it hasn't cost me anything yet to make these mistakes, I'm likely to keep making them. I've never been a perfect metronome. Oh well. I can see why soil is a good choice for most. Coco coir is demanding.... but also rewarding.... and in my situation it's the only choice. The best thing about coco is that it makes you visit your plant twice a day.. You end up giving your plant more care because of this... So you LST and defoliate like a champ, cuz you're constantly looking at her. But some also believe that coco grows simply yield more than soil grows due to its quasi-hydro nature. And finally, I've heard soil bags can come with bugs sometimes? My cat would love it.. 😼 Have a great grow day.

None of my prior grows stretched unevenly like this one did. On Day 41, check the pictures, the plant had an even flat canopy. By Day 43 above, some brnaches were stretching faster than others, especially in the middle of the plant. I think this happened because I had the lamp too close to the plant and hadn't realized it. It was at 7 inches on Day 42. The fast stretch caught me by surprise. Wouldn't be Green Crack if it didn't have a little monster creature in it, right? LOL. Anyway, I concentrated too much light into the center of the plant - a hotspot, as they call them. It spurred some kind of growth. Wow. Defoliation continued. The RSPEC lamp was installed on Day 49 - set to 18 hours and 10 inches above the plant. Have a great grow day!

I would quickly change the light schedule to 17 hours on Day 50. Why? Well.. Because this nerd found a DLI curve on DeBacco University's website and decided to make this spreadsheet model that would transfer that curve to my setup during flowering. I'll spare you the details - but I'll at least say that for the height of the lamp over the plant at this time (10 inches) a 17 hour schedule was what was called for at the time. I used it for the flowering period of my prior grow to great results. So.. Sticking with it until I find a reason not to. Defoliation continued as promised. The LST hooks to the branches that were velcro-tied to the pot were removed because now all the outer branches and some of the inner branches were tied to the trellis net. You can see this in the pictures. I've always had to do some trellis net tying during flower before, but never as much as this plant. The net and this plant were pretty much one unit. These branches were stretchy as hell. Hard to wrangle. Green Crack - the legend. She was pretty much almost done with stretch at the end of this week. It's possible that my early defoliation and prolonged lighting schedule helped keep this plant in the tent, cuz she pretty much reached the edge of the comfortable limit of size, in my opinion. From that point, my lighting strategy might have been on point. Next time though, I need to remember not to let my lamp get too close to the plant. This happened a few times both in veg and flower. Have a great grow day!

Warm outside. Everyone's like, "This weather in November is so nice!" I quick-flash-think to my poor girl in my little tent and think, "Nah. This weather sucks." 😀 Fortunately, temperature hasn't been too much a problem as temps have stayed around 75 F outside. Things will cool down next week. And that's good. I want temps to cool nicely this winter for this one. Cool temps could make this one a real porn star. With those long legs sprouted out everywhere? Who knows how good this one could be. The stretch stopped and this plant reached the very limit of my comfort without going over... Whew! Have a great grow day!

Buds developing nicely. Getting frostier and stinky-er now. Finally measured her height on Day 64. 13 inches. Yikes, Only 9 inches to the lamp. Double yikes! I'd eventually raise the lamp this week. to get to 9 and a half inches. Which rounded out to 10. OK? My favorite kind of defoliation began on Day 64. That's when I clip any leaf I can find with a discernible stem - leaving behind the more-or-less stemless leaf coming out of the buds. I do this to create more fully-formed colas, as light reaches lower down below to the shady regions. The earlier you do this, the better the entire plant will develop, I believe. Also allows for less humidity/mold issues (as in my prior Lemon Pie Auto grow) and more air circulation. Also dehumidifies the tent. Leaves are little water bags. Removing them creates drier air around the plant in general. I have the sweet skunky smelll of Green Crack on my fingers now. This hobby is a multi-sensual pleasure bin. Hail to the growers!! 😎 👍👊 Temps outside finally started looking like winter around Day 67. Tent was staying perfectly cool at 76 to 78 degrees in the morning. Humidity levels were dry outside too, so no longer needing to run the room dehumidifier was awesome too. The plant defoliation was near completion. You'll notice in the pictures above that some of the buds at the top of the canopy are not pointed straight up. This is because I noticed the possible beginning of light bleaching in those - as they were only 8 to 9 inches from the lamp. So I tied them down on an angle. The branches are too woody now to bend to the light, so sideways those buds will stay. Not as picturesque, but the right thing to do. As the week came to a close, I came to notice that one of the "issues" I had worried about earlier in the flowering period was clearly resolved. The smell. It was fully there now. Hit you like a hammer as soon as you opened the tent. Skunk in your face. The way we like it!

Temps were cooling down outside which was making my tent very happy. The buds were juicing up nicely. She was growing so fast that I had a hard time figuring out when harvest might be. My preliminary thought at this time was Day 91, but I wasn't sure at all. But the buds were looking healthy with mostly orange stigmas, mostly sticking out. The buds were mostly furry looking still, but it was exciting thinking about how much potential she might have. Fingers were crossed. Felt like the home stretch was upon us. Have a great grow day!!

White pistils were still sticking out in many places as the week began. But most of them pistils round the plant had turned orange by now. Orange pistils were sticking out and curly now. There was clearly still time. At least Day 91 harvest - if not Day 98. Wasn't even bothering with checking trichs yet. Some of the leaves were changing weird colors. Autumn had entered my grow tent? It looked beautiful. I was hoping that it wasn't a sign of something bad. Prolly not. It usually isn't is what I've learned by now. I took a peek at her trichomes for the first time on the morning of Day 82. I found a surprisingly high amount of cloudy. We were not far now. On Day 82, my estimation was that she would be harvested between days 91 and 95. But the yellowing of the leaves (flushing had not begun, mind you) and her trichome progression would be monitored in order to see if harvest day adjustments needed to be made. She was looking real pretty as Green Crack, that alien strain, tends to look. Green Crack is very photogenic. Beautiful Alien. Checked trichs again before the week ended. I decided that instead of deciding whether a trichome was cloudy or not, I needed to start focusing on more whether or not I could see general degradation of the full trichome. In other words, if the trichomes don't look plasticky yet, then she ain't done. You can see amber trichs on the very tips of some of the leaves coming out of the bud, but I don't pay attention to them. I like looking at the body of the bud for status. And at this time, the trichs were still quite healthy looking. Harvest was not immminent. My Harvest DAy target was still Day 95. As for pistils, many of the white pistils you could see around the plant were now curling in on Day 84. Though there were some stubborn ones still that were straight out. Getting mixed signals from the plant, I guess? She wasn't foxtailing anywhere. She was just stacking buds. Well, patience and humility is the way of the farmer, and I guess there was nothing I could do but continue to wait and monitor the situation. I'd like to thank @Mr_Weeds_Autos @BlackPlague @iLoveGoodWeed and @Jmaninthemidde420 for helping me out with my concerns about the yellowing of the leaves so late in flower. They all let me know it was normal, which informed as much as it soothed. Thanks so much! I hadn't had that happen before. Now this all feels like a rite pf passage! Ha! 😊👍 Have a great grow day! Have a great grow day.

As the week began, I found myself reflective of what I'd learned during this grow. Cuz every grow I've done so far has taught me something. So I'd like to share what I was thinking I'd learned by Day 85. I definitely learned that the right level for room humidity (not tent) in order to be able to well control the environment inside the tent is 35% humidity. And my dehumidifier can puppy down to those levels, so that was reassuring. I'd also learned that you can get potassium lockout by giving feedings with a ph above 6.2 too much. So it's in bold print next to my feeding schedule now. Ph levels would be well controlled since then. And I learned once again that the growers' community is as great a community as I'd always found it to be. Thanks everyone for their help and support. So I'd responded by giving her 5.8 to 6.1 EC feeds since this determination. And if judging by how many new and non-foxtailed white pistils were visible by around Day 89, it looked like she was still growing and responding well. I mean, most of the plant's foliage was still nice and green. She might have been eating less, but she wasn't starving. So if she was still throwing up healthy white pistils and wanting to grow buds, she must have still been pretty happy as a plant. Checked trichs again around Day 89. Lots of cloudy around. Clear trichs weren't hard to find tho. Seemed she was peaking. This is about where I harvested my 1st grow ever and attempt at Green Crack Auto. I would later think I harvested that one one to two weeks too early at least. => On Day 89, it was looking like Day 98 minimum - not Day 91 at all. And this is why NOT flushing, in my opinion, is better, especially with coco coir that is only a 6 day flush max. I think flushing is a good way to be forced to harvest your plant earlier than you'd like, and the whole theory about making the buds use up all the excess this and that.... Bullshit. I just don't think science works like that. If it did, you could give yourself a bigger "arm" by not eating for three weeks, because in response to your near death, your body is going to prioritize the growth of your "arm." Talk about reasons to justify plant anorexia. I stop feeding her three days before harvest cuz the pot should have enough for her to eat, but I don't flush. If I had started to flush around Day 86, I'd have regretted it because I would have been forced to harvest this plant too early. The seed companies were going to have to wait for me to reorder more seeds. Patience is a virtue. Let's Feed The Virtue! (not the seed companies). And by Day 91, even more patience would be necessary because I was thinking Day 103 to 105 was the most likely harvest window. At this point, most of the white pistils were curling in - very few straight white pistils around. Trichs were clear to cloudy - but mostly cloudy. I was just feeling like she still had more potential. I raised the lighting schedule to 17 hours from 16 because I realized that my DLI had been off course for weeks because I had it set to 98 days instead of 105. I don't think this makes a massive difference. Heck I'm not even sure that any of this "DLI curve" thing means anything - and don't let me get existential on you. 😂 But she seemed hungry, so I simply fed her some more light. She was smelling like a dead skunk in the night and she was getting ugly chunky now. I was so excited!! 😜😝😎😏 Have a great grow day! 😎✌️

Did a trich check on Day 92. Started to see some trichome stem degradation for the first time. And the heads were looking snowy white. This was my first sign that there weren't going to be many more signs to check anymore. At this point, I made the determination that she should go about another 10 days, My subconscious was telling me this. I didn't have a scientific reason. I mean, I like head highs - not body highs. But I like big dense juicy buds too. If I wanted pure head high, she was pretty much already ready to go at this point. 10 days was what I was willing to sacrifice from peak in order to satisfy the second goal. Get it? Good. Me too, I think. So we were on target for a Day 103-105 harvest? Her lighting schedule was reduced to 16 hours on Day 95..... and then to 15 hours on Day 98. And it would stay that way until the cows came home. Moo. 🐄 Have a great grow day!

THE FINAL WEEK (prolly?:) On Day 99, she was looking awfully juicy with big bulky buds. White pistils really couldn't be seen almost anywhere anymore. Trichs were pretty much all cloudy now, and pretty milky. Felt like some trichs were threatening to amber already. We were real close. But I still didn't know exactly what day I would cut her down. But I did know, we were at most 10 days from harvest. By Day 101, checked trichs again, I noted "all cloudy, 5% ambering." So my subconscious was telling me that Day 107 or 108 was the likely day. At this point I was only fertigating once per day with lowered EC. Was getting less runoff but not zero runoff this way, so for how much time she had left and how much more II would feed her, this was fine. Salt buildup could happen if it liked, I could care less. The trichs were starting to look like frosty sprinkles around the plant. You can really see them in the "lights off" macro pictures I took. Fun times. Fun times. 😎✌️ Have a great grow day!

THE FINAL WEEK (a new record!): At Day 106, a new record was set with this grow, as she was now the longest grow in terms of time I'd ever had. This wasn't due to a slow growing plant, as you'll see if you read the rest of this diary. It mostly had to do with my greater patience with the process at this point. Basically, having less to prove to yourself with each successive grow means you're less eager to see what the next new and exciting phase of the process is. I guess I'm becoming a little more "professional" about all this. Well, this is a diary about a plant, not me. 😂 I checked her trichs early that day ---> and she was ready. Determined at the time that i could wait a couple more days but not much more. Many of her leaves had yellowed and dried off by now. In fact, I had a chuckle with myself thinking trim jail might not be so hard with this girl. She had already taken care of much of the problem by now. Yeah, she was pretty much just big (for me) buds on branches now. Foliage had really dissipated. So she couldn't go much longer anyway. In my relatively novice opinion, the plant had a week more left tops before it turned into an emergency. So on Day 108, I cut her down....

DRY TIME 12 or so Hours: I've been concerned about this plant's ability to dry well for several weeks now. The yellowing and drying of the leaves pre-harvest means that you don't have those lush water bags around to keep the area moist as it dries, helping to create the desired slow-dry. If you read my diaries, I judge how dry a plant is by how big the difference literally is between the number representing the temperature in the tent and the number representing the humidity in the tent. Right now, the difference is 15 as the tent is holding 68 degrees with 53% humidity, That's a a big number at the start. To be fair, the air in my apartment is early-winter dry at about 40%, and it would be much lower if I didn't have my humidifier going at full blast. Maybe my way of measuring this is voodoo science. Totally possible. So what can I do about all this? Easy. The best I can. What's the best I can? The best I can is keeping the air in my apartment as cold as comfortably possible while wet as possible, while leaving the fan in the tent at its lowest setting. Beyond that, things are outside my control, except for maybe taking a shower with the door open to humidify the apartment air temporarily, She's a nice grow. Of course, I'd like to not have her be grassy. But I've had a couple grassy-ish grows already, and guess what. They still got me pretty high. And ultimately that's what this is about. I am not a professional grower. I'm a home grower. I can't guarantee great results like a well-funded mass operation can, say, but I can try. We all go to the court and try to hit 3s like steph curry. Why not? So always just try your best, and don't be surprised that despite your best efforts, your shot hits off the back board. Let's see how this goes. More later... DRY TIME 2 days and 3 hours: Things have moderated a bit. When I woke early this morning, the tent was showing 66 degrees and 60% humidity. The numbers change a bit. So it can widen out to 68 degrees and 57%, but not more than that, and that's good for where this dry is from my experience. I think what might have made a difference was changing the humidifier from AUTO to HIGH. AUTO on my humidifier can be a bit sus. Given the dry winter air amongst us now, my little humidifier can't reach a target anyway, so HIGH is the appropriate setting. I'll note that for next time. You see? Every time you do this, you learn something new that can make the next grow better. So much fun! 😉👊 Will check her after 3 or 4 days have passed. Looking forward to trim jail for one reason only - the weighing. I don't expect this one to break my personal record for a grow (5.5 ounches), but it might crack 5 ounces. The colas on this plant were more "gappy" than the Wedding Cake that set my record. Anyway, thanks for reading. DRY TIME 3 Days 8 Hours: Most likely more than halfway through the dry now. Had a mishap this morning. Humidifier ran out of water, Whoops! My bad. Filled her up and got her going immediately after noticing. Now the tent is doing well again. Humidity levels in the high 50s with temps in the high 60s. Good place to be. Will check her soon. DRY TIME 4 Days 14 Hours: Went into the tent. Took one of the thinner branches with buds in my hands and tried to bend her. She was pretty bendable, No crackle. Def no snap. So there's still time. Good. This likely means the trim will happen into the 6th or 7th day, Still using the humidifier, but it's back on Auto. Humidity levels locally have gone up, so it makes sense to let the machine regulate itself. I found the sweet spot setting and the temps and humidity in the tent are still in a great range. Upper 60s in temp, upper 50s in humidity. By the way, the buds look great. Has me a little more excited about the trim. Only a little. 😂 DRY TIME: 6 Days 7 Hours: She's ready to be trimmed. Went into the tent and the same branch that was pliable two days ago is now woody and has a little tactile snap when you bend it. Felt the buds. They were crispy on the outside. A little concerning. But we'll see how it goes cuz she's gonna be where she's gonna be. Nothing one can do now. Talk to ya later. (Bw, I think this is my longest dry ever. Too patient now?)