Organic Gnome Automatics Blackstrap Auto

Transplanted at 2 weeks veg. Bags worked great, no stress to the plants. Hopefully the worms and microbiology break them down as I don't want to disturb the soil.

One week in their final homes. None of the girls showed any signs of transplant shock.

One plant started to flower near the end of last week and another is showing pistils. These ladies are hitting their stride, huge growth explosion this week.

I thought it was odd that only two plants had flowered after 35 days, so I double checked my seeds again. Annnndd the two in veg are photos 😜. So I beat them up some, topping one and super cropping the other. I don't want them to get too big since I now need to wait until the autos are done before I can flip them to flower. I used a scrog net last cycle, and didn't like how little access I had to the plants. Trying some bamboo stakes and garden ties to train them for a few days. Loving how the bigger auto looks like it will stack on the main cola!

Chugging right along on autopilot this week. I tested a 3-day dry back between watering and only one auto showed any signs of slowing down. I was impressed. I target 5% container volume typically, and like to water that amount daily. Given that the autos are under 900ish ppfd, I thought they would need water sooner. The Blackstrap is starting to show her namesake on the sugar leaves. I really can't wait to see how black these buds will be. The fan leaves on these photos are going bonkers. I've never grown any that have gotten this big.

Fair amount of growth this week. #2 put another 6" on and is throwing out a ton of flower sites. The photos are getting overgrown and need some heavy trimming. I had a loose plan for some maintenance today, which turned into a 3-hour project after changing gears midway through and setting up a second tent. Blackstrap Auto Day 63 | Flower Day 24 68° | 46% RH | 700 µmols | 45 DLI The autos got a moderate defoliation today. Standard fan leaf removal, cleaned up the center larfy bits and lollipopped the lower branches. After defoliating and planning to keep the autos in the 4x8, I suddenly felt compelled to rehome them to the 3x3 tent since it's staying in the 40-50% RH range in the basement. I went a little minimalist (for me) on hardware and am not heating or using de/hu units in the 3x3. It will be interesting to see how they respond to the cooler temp range since I typically don't let it get below 70 in the tents. #1 appears to be having a "bad reaction to the inputs". Might let her go w/ just water the rest of the way. Elsewhere in the tent... Ethos Mandarin Haze Day 63 | Veg Day...49 😲 75° | 63% RH | 250 µmols | 16 DLI I guess that could be the name of this strain, it just says it's Mandarin Cookies crossed w/ Haze. It was a freebie pack 🤷‍♂️. Whatever it is, #1 has been growing like a madman. I thought about letting it fill out and flowering it solo in the 4x8, but I really want to get through a bunch of seeds before summer. I took a few clones, did an extreme defoliation, hacked down a bunch of branches and topped everything that was left. If they recover soon, I'll flip them in a couple weeks and hopefully have them drying by the end of January.

Day 35...ish of flower. RH in the 3x3 tent has been in the mid to high 50s, even after outside temps dropped into the high teens. Tried a couple small dehu units that did nothing so I ordered one that is rated for 3K sqft. Hopefully it will regulate the humidity in our basement which is around 1700. I always vent into the lung room, which causes a fair amount of finessing tent humidity. Maybe this new unit will simplify things a bit for the smaller tent. The buds on both plants continue to fatten up. I'm concerned they'll get bud rot if I don't get the humidity down into the 40s. Again, the new dehu should help, but won't be here for almost 2 weeks. Both plants have clear overfeeding signs, nothing I can do about it now except ride it out and cut the amendments next time. I have been using Mosquito Bits for fungus gnat control and got a box of Pot Poppers to try out, I recently found out about them. Two bags watered into each pot 'should' add a couple million nematodes. We'll see how many more gnats I have to smash ✋

Blackstrap Auto Day 89 | Flower Day 50 73° | 44% RH | 650 µmols | 42 DLI Man, three months down already, I thought these would be chopped by now. I was able to get the 3x3 environment dialed in really well using the dehu from the 4x8 and the new 3K sqft unit set at 40% in the open basement. I scored a rando killer deal on Amazon and this thing is definitely going to be a game changer for me in the warmer seasons. The 3K unit pulled a ton of moisture out of the air the first few days and RH has been holding steady in the high 30s in the basement. Easy enough to keep the tent humidity a few points higher.  Methinks these things are gonna be a huge pain when it comes time to trim, so I've been defoliating 3-5 fan/large sugar leaves each day to try and strip some of the excess before the wet trim. #2 has finally started to darken up and get a bit fatter. She's developed some real bad canoeing the past couple weeks and I thought it might have been the light intensity. I don't see any other symptoms of light burn and dimming them didn't have any effect. Chalking it up to the overfeeding. I checked the trichomes on #1. Overall, looking mostly cloudy w/ a few clear and amber heads, depending on where I scoped. When in doubt, "2 more weeks" right 😝 I've backed myself into a corner for harvest because I don't have a separate space to dry the plants. I'll have to take #1 as far as I can while waiting for #2 to catch up, which seems to be 2-3 weeks behind. These things already smell gassy as hell, so having one that goes a bit longer and delivers more couch lock is perfectly fine by me. I was hoping these would be good to try on my cheap rosin press, but they're just not as frosty as I was hoping for. I know that's not the hallmark sign of good oil production, so I'm keeping expectations low. I definitely don't have a refined extraction process yet so the mids, larf and trim have been voluntold they're in the hopper for rosin deployment.

Blackstrap Auto Day 110 | Flower Day 70 68° | 44% RH | 0 µmols | 0 DLI After almost four months and 10 weeks in flower, finally that's a wrap for these ladies 👏 Not much excitement over the last few weeks, the girls continued to look like crap and #2 finally put a little girth on the colas. They didn't get as dense as I'd hoped, but I don't want potency to drop too far from peak. Did some light research on leaf deficiencies re: the canoeing and necrosis again, and I'm just left with more uncertainty. Seems an argument cold be made for nutrient deficiency as much as toxicity. I ignore pH because the microbiology should regulate it in an organic setup. Just have to see how the next cycle does with what's available after these are harvested. Scoped the colas this morning and overnight the amber trich head population seemingly exploded. Putting these ladies in 48 hrs of darkness then harvest, wet trim, hopefully a 14-day dry, trim jail and weight, then finally a 3-4 week cure. Not looking like it will be ready to smoke for the Superbowl lol. I lost an LED bar on my 4x4 light after 15 months, so silver lining for the autos I guess. I'll put that light in the 3x3 next round and pick up something that will flower a 4x4 footprint for the grow side of my 4x8 tent. I do prefer bar style lights, but will look beyond Mars Hydro for the next one. I really like using the scrog net and heavy training for photos. I think I should get some solid yield/watt numbers with more power and a larger flowering footprint going forward. Til final numbers time ✌️