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Day 1: I planted all three seeds directly in soil, then kept them warm on top of the wireless router for about 8 hours because it gives off a ton of heat (let's not talk about humidity). But luckily Amazon delivered the humidity dome and heat mat today, a day early, so I transferred the seeds in there as soon as it arrived.
Day 2: Since this is my first grow, of course I'm impatient, so I did something stupid and gently moved some dirt with a toothpick to see if the seeds were germinating yet. Of course they wouldn't be this soon. BUT TO MY SURPRISE... the Ethos and Mephisto had cracked and were starting to sprout. I tried to resist the urge to fiddle more, and just made sure the heat and humidity were high (probably too high). And I didn't resist the urge very well, but at least I tried.
Day 3: Today all three seeds poked their little cotyledons out of the ground for me, within 48 hours of planting. By evening they were ~2 inches tall. Not bad so far. I had to gently remove the stuck seed casing from the Purple City sprout leaf—maybe that's why it was slightly behind the others?
Day 4: I finally set up the grow tent, and moved the plants in there to get more consistent light than our windows offered. It took some time to get the environment dialed in, but eventually found an appropriate temp/humidity balance by putting on the humidity dome cover, but leaving it cracked open about an inch. I'm trying to maintain 70–80° and 60–70% RH. I think that's about right?
Day 5: Nothing to report. Seedlings are growing! They look bright and healthy. Purple City is still lagging behind, but otherwise seems fine.
Day 6: Did a lot of staring at the plants today, fiddling with their position and waiting for something to happen, ha. I finally removed the humidity dome tonight, and the environment is still maintaining a decent temp/humidity balance without it. They look healthy, as far as my novice eye can tell. I'm sure future me will look back on this and laugh at my naivete.
Day 7: Purple City has caught up to the pack! Now the Ethos OG Kush is beginning to look like the runt of the litter. The soil seemed dry (not bone dry, but dry) and slightly separating from the pots, which I think is a sign of underwatering. And maybe it was my imagination, but the leaves also seemed a bit too dark, which I think is also a symptom of underwatering. So I soaked all 3. They just kept drinking it up, so I kept on watering, and probably ended up overwatering. But the peat pots drained a lot of excess water, so I think I'm ok. Still learning and paying close attention so I have a better idea of what's normal for next time.
Day 7 part 2: Whelp, there goes my first mistake! The seedlings were stretching higher than it seemed like they should have been, so after a bunch of research it turned out the grow light was WAY too far away. (I had read that seedlings don’t need a ton of light, but maybe that’s outdoors?) I had the Ionboard S22 positioned 40” above the plants at a 30% intensity, but AC Infinity recommends 18” at 40% (or 36” at 100%). Either way, I was only giving my poor little girls a fraction of the light they wanted. So now it’s at 18”/40%, and hopefully we’ll be back on track soon.
Day 8: Adjusting the light distance and intensity last night seems to have improved things. No noticeable additional stretching this morning, and the leaves are colored a (very) subtly more vibrant green.
Day 9: I finally took off the humidity dome for good, based on my brother’s advice (he’s been growing for years). In the first week I wasn’t able to keep the humidity high enough without it, but now that the plants are growing and getting slightly more water, humidity isn’t turning out to be an issue.
Day 10: I’ve been anxious because it feels like my plants are lagging behind the photos I see online, but I keep reminding myself that I’m only 10 days in.
Day 11: The soil was extremely dry, so I watered heavily this morning. For the last few times I've switched to just dumping water in the pan and letting the peat pots suck it up, and it seems to be working. I think?
I accidentally knocked over the Mephisto seedling yesterday while I was cleaning the tent, and it came out of the soil more than I expected. I’m not sure what a normal level of root development is this stage, but the plant didn’t seem to be anchored well. And then today I noticed it leaning slightly. Combined with the previous stretching, it just didn’t seem solid, so I did another probably stupid thing and (very gently) dumped it out and re-potted it deeper in the same soil and container. A couple of hours later, the plant seemed very stressed—its little fan leaves were drooping significantly. But now a few more hours later, it seems to be slightly, gradually recovering. So hopefully this will work out. Either way, I’m learning some fun lessons!
Day 12, AM: Woke up to bone-dry soil again this morning, so maybe lack of humidity *is* a problem after all. I don't think I should be watering every day, but this is forcing me to. I noticed the VPD was extremely high (1.9) last night before going to bed, but figured I'd let it ride through the night to see how the plants responded. They didn't seem happy, they were drooping terribly, but maybe a little dehydration will aid their root development? I dumped 16 ounces of water in the drip pan and they sucked up most it immediately, I'm eager to see if they've perked up a bit when I get home from work.
Day 12, PM: The plants didn't seem to be in much better shape, so I put a humidifier in the tent. Just a plain old bedroom humidifier while I search for one that's programmable. Fingers crossed.
Day 13, AM: I'd set the humidifier to only run for 4 hours, so it turned off in the middle of the night. Soil was dry again this morning, although not quite as bad as yesterday, so I watered them. The Mephisto plant is still grumpy and doesn't seem to be progressing at all since I shocked her. But she's still alive, so hopefully there's time to recover. I'm not looking for a high yield, just a learning experience and a few buds.
Day 14: Things are not going well! I've apparently made a cascading series of mistakes that caused growth to stagnate. The kiddos were drooping again this morning, even after a couple of days in a more appropriate humidity range, so I think the next problem is temperature. I've had trouble keeping the tent above 65°, and the plants don't seem pleased. All three were drooping today; not quite as bad as the Mephisto, but still not healthy. I did add about an inch of soil to each pot to help stabilize the stems so they can hopefully focus on growth instead of staying upright. We'll see what effect that has, if any.
Day 15, AM: For the first time in a while, the soil wasn't bone dry by morning, so I held off on watering. The existing leaves don't look any better than yesterday, but there's new growth that does look healthy, so maybe we're on the right track.
Day 15, PM: A few things:
1. All the plants were watered heavily, they wanted it bad. The humidifier is helping, and I really think under-watering was a big part of my initial issue.
2. I used the Photonic light meter app on my phone to test the light, and the PPFD is about 322 (18" away, 80%), which seems about right for seedling / early veg. So I think that's dialed... for now.
3. There is now a tiny 500 watt spacer heater in the tent. I don't yet have a controller to automate its on/off cycles, so until that arrives next week I'll just have to manually turn it on and off.
The plants still seem to be struggling, but we’ll figure this out. I’ll increase the heat and humidity tonight and hope that helps.
Day 16: BACK IN BUSINESS! I woke up to three healthy little seedlings. All of their fan leaves looked fresh, bright green, unwilted, and energized (at least compared to the last week). I've tweaked so many variables that it's hard to know which was the issue, but I suspect it was some combination of humidity, heat, AND under-watering. Next grow, I might experiment with keeping the humidity dome on until strong vegetative growth begins.
Day 17: Soil was completely dry this morning, but plants looked healthy and vigorous anyway. No drooping or wilting! I gave ’em a big gulp of water, they seem happy. It’s exciting to see progress again, it seems like heat really was the missing link. No doubt this early screw-up will diminish the final product, but as long as I get any meager harvest I’ll be thrilled.
Day 18: More healthy growth! The soil dried out again by late afternoon, so I soaked them. A few hours later, the plants seemed grateful. I need to consider re-potting to forever homes soon, they’re finally outgrowing their containers.
Day 19: Growing! No news is good news?
Day 20: Beginning to notice a subtle scent when I open up the tent. 🌿 Fan leaves are now wider than the containers, so I think it’s time to re-pot these teenagers into their forever homes.
Day 21: The UIS outlet controller arrived yesterday, and I connected it to the space heater to better modulate heat and humidity. It seemed to work great at first, but... at midnight (when the lights are scheduled to turn off), the temp dropped to 65° and humidity shot up to 80%, and stayed there all night until I checked at 5:30am. Fan leaves were all heavy and sagging, but had mostly recovered when I checked again at 8:30am. So it seems like adding the UIS outlet has somehow screwed up my automation, will need to investigate.
Day 21, PM: Repotted into 7 gallon fabric pots, then watered each with 20 oz. of water in a ring around the plant. The roots weren’t as robust as I’d hoped (especially on the Mephisto—the root ball essentially fell apart). But I planted the stems deep, which will hopefully spur a bit more root development, we’ll see.
Day 23: Plants are growing in their new pots, and still seem healthy despite being runts. There’s a bit of curling on some leaf edges that I’m thinking could be an early sign of an issue. But I haven’t seen enough cannabis plants growing in my life to have a good sense of normal.
Day 24: I just noticed that the stems have finally started getting thicker and more flexible, and losing their red tint. I can bend ‘em around without feeling they’re about to snap! They’ve been rigid toothpicks for most of the grow, so this is a nice development.
Day 25: After switching to the big pots, I’m totally lost when it comes to watering. An inch below the surface, the soil didn’t seem bone-dry, but also not wet or even damp. Just… regular old cool and semi-humid soil. Is that dry enough to water? No idea. So I gave them each about 30oz of water in a wide circle around the base. Is that enough, or should I be soaking these until I get some runoff? We’ll see what happens.
I also did some research on appropriate lighting levels at each stage of development to verify that I'm on target. And I am!... more or less. Photone's blog (https://growlightmeter.com/autoflowering-cannabis-lighting/) says that in the 4th week of veg, DLI should be around 30–38. I measured at about 40, so I decreased the intensity just slightly to get back into that range. Of course I know the timing of "weeks" is just approximate, especially given how I stunted these guys early on, but at least this will give me a baseline to work from in the future.
Day 26: Growth seems to be speeding up, tonight for the first time I noticed an obvious size increase compared to the morning. Hooray! But on a less positive note, I was rotating the pots and accidentally dropped the Purple City from a few inches up—not a massive drop, but enough to jostle the soil and the plant quite a bit. Hopefully it won't be an issue.
Day 28: Last day of week #4 and I’m happy with the progress so far! This morning the plants greeted me with a big hello. Or maybe I interrupted their sunrise yoga session. Either way, they were showing off a nice posture and significant visible growth since yesterday. It seems like it might soon be time to begin LST, but I'm not sure it's necessary yet—all of the plants’ internodal spacing is extremely tight, and there's no prominent top to bend out of the way. I'll probably give it a few days and then reevaluate.
I just re-potted three young autoflower plants from 4” peat pots into 7 gallon fabric pots, but underestimated how cramped they would be in my 2x3 tent. Is it safe to re-pot them into smaller pots within a few days, or could that over-stress them?
To be honest, it's not the size of the pots that is going to be the problem... nor IS it a problem! The pots are always going to stay the same size.. it's the plants that will grow. You're going to have a space problem anyway, trying to fit 3 autos in that size tent but there you are... smaller pots will NOT equal smaller plants unless you go to something like a solo cup! LOL! And autoflowers absolutely hate being transplanted so please don't do that.
What I would suggest you do is plan to do some serious LST (and you can LST as often and as much as you need to) ... and you'll probably have to do some defoliation as well... which will probably include choosing only the best bud sites to leave and trimming off a LOT of lower bud sites.
Good luck! You're going to have a jungle! Make sure, when they get into flower, that you keep the humidity low (30s-40s) so you don't run into fungus/bud rot issues...
I've crammed 3 young autoflowers (all different cultivars) into a 2x3 tent, which I now realize is a novice mistake (first grow! 😄). Would you...
1. Keep growing all 3 to maturity, use LST to manage size
2. Sacrifice one plant for the good of the other 2
3. ???
Thanks!
That is such a hard decision... I know I've told you to prepare for a jungle - and you should - this is going to have to be your decision - but why don't you wait until they're bigger and you can see what they become? Look at it this way... let's say you pitch one plant today but in 4 weeks time, you realize you COULD have fit that 3rd one in and been ok... or in 4 weeks time, one plant dies of its own accord because of X, Y or Z and now you're left with only 1 plant... Stick it out until you can't stick it out any longer...
You can do this! You really can!!!
This morning I noticed some branches on my young plants had turned reddish on top.
Last night the humidifier ran out of water and RH dropped to 40% overnight.
Could this just be a stress reaction to that low RH, or sign of a deeper issue?
Day 29, AM: We made it to week 5! The soil was dry again today (and even the leaves felt a little crispier than I'd like), so I gave them a huge drink of water, about 30oz per plant this time. This still resulted in almost no runoff, so I suspect I under-watered last time. But immediately after watering, the leaves started drooping severely. I'm not sure if that's because I was pouring from a mason jar and splashed some of the leaves, or if I drowned the roots temporarily. An hour later, they've mostly perked up, so I'll be more careful next time to avoid hitting the leaves and see if there's a difference.
I also moved the light closer to increase the DLI from ~30 to ~40. Photone recommends (https://growlightmeter.com/autoflowering-cannabis-lighting/) between 40–50 in the 5th week, so I may need another increase soon, but I want to proceed gradually and not shock the plants with a massive change all at once.
Another issue I'm wrestling with is whether to top, FIM, LST, or just let them grow. The deadline for making that choice is approaching fast... I see pistils!
Day 29, PM: I decided against any high-stress training techniques; the plants are already behind schedule, and I can't afford to lose any more growth. So that would leave low-stress training, but the plants are so stocky and short that I can't pull the main cola far without bending the entire stalk. And anyway, since this is my first grow, I'd like to interfere as little as possible so I can gain a better understanding of how a plant naturally grows. But the main cola blocking the lower leaves IS a problem! So I compromised on the least invasive "training" method I know: ponytailing. I don't read much about ponytailing, probably because it's either ineffective or inappropriate for most grow situations. But I think my husky little plants just so happen to be very well-suited for it (I say to myself confidently... as if I have any idea what I'm even doing).
So I'm starting with 4 hours of light, extremely gentle ponytailing today, then maybe 4–6 tomorrow and Saturday. I'll reassess after seeing how the plants respond.
Day 31: Yesterday I worked from home so I used the opportunity to do another 8 hours of ponytailing. They seemed to respond well, although the ponytailed leaves wilted hard and took a while to recover. So that was probably too long. But this morning they looked healthy again, so I did another 2 hours before having to leave for the rest of the weekend. It seems to be working! The undergrowth is filling out, with no obvious signs of stress to the plants.
Day 32: We were away for most of yesterday and today so I worried the plants would miss having me around, but it seems like the opposite. I came home to a healthy-looking tent—they’re still very short but filling out well. I’m doing another 2 hours of ponytailing tonight since it’s (apparently?) working well so far.
Day 32, PM: The "another 2 hours of ponytailing" turned into about 6 hours because the undergrowth still seems like it could use a boost.
Day 33: The soil was finally dry enough (probably too dry) that I felt it was safe to water. Each plant got about 64oz of water, with almost no runoff, so I likely waited too long. But the plants aren't showing any signs of discomfort, so who knows. I also put their top leaves up into ponytails again, and trimmed a few small leaves that were touching the soil. During that whole process, I noticed a white mark on two leaves, which I worry is WPM, but looks more like the mineral deposits we get on our Brita filter pitcher. And the last time I watered a few days ago, I used unfiltered water straight from the tap AND I splashed the leaves quite a bit. So hopefully that's all it is.
Day 34: I haven't had to run the humidifier in a few days, the moisture in the plants and the soil has stabilized.
Day 35: It's approximately the halfway point of this grow, and everything is finally progressing nicely. At this point the Ethos OG Kush is growing most vigorously, followed closely by the Purple City Razzberry Gastank. The Mephisto freebie is lagging behind with the fewest fan leaves and bud sites. But it IS growing very neatly, and seems healthy. It looks like the flowering stage is coming soon, and I'm excited!
I just noticed this tiny white spot on a leaf of two different plants and having trouble ID’ing it. It doesn’t seem powdery or fuzzy and almost looks like a mineral deposit… but I really have no clue.
Appreciate any ideas—thanks!
Probably just some nutes that dripped on the leaf... have you tried to wipe it off with a damp cloth? It certainly doesn't look like a nute issue nor does it look like WPM...
I wouldn't worry about it myself... good luck!
Day 37: Growth is speeding up! I gave each plant around 80oz of water and they seemed grateful. I also ordered another light because this 2x3 isn’t comfortably lighting all three plants now that they’re getting bigger.
Day 38: The Ethos and Purple City bud sites are developing nicely and emerging from the jungle of fan leaves. The Mephisto is still lagging with only a few small bud sites, but otherwise seems very healthy. Yesterday’s watering perked everyone up, I think I’m letting the soil dry out just a bit too much between waterings.
Day 39: A single light wasn’t cutting it, so I bought another AC Infinity 2x2 to get more even lighting on all sides of the plants. Much better, although it’s frustrating that AC Infinity doesn’t yet support daisy-chaining (even though their spec sheets claim they do).
Day 40: This morning I noticed a couple of fan leaves with "burnt" edges. Not a lot, but enough to be concerned. The affected leaves were right next to the space heater that was running all night, so I think it's probably just localized heat stress.
Day 40, PM: Did some leaf-tucking and gave each plant about 30oz of water because the top inch or so of soil was dry.
Day 41: Everyone seems happy!
I noticed this browning on the edges of two fan leaves this morning. The affected leaves were right next to the space heater that runs all night (cold basement!), so I *think* it’s probably heat burn/stress. But don’t want to ignore a potentially more serious issue. Thanks!
I'd keep my eye on them, tbh... it certainly COULD be from the heater but it might also be the beginnings of a phosphorus deficiency.... I don't see any pH information or nute information in your diary - but you need to keep the pH between 6.0 and 6.5 for a soil grow...
Good luck! Nice looking jungle so far! :-D Did you decide to keep all of them going? Hope so!
Day 43: I woke up to both the Ethos and Purple City drooping, with new red coloring on top of their higher stems. The Mephisto looked much healthier, and it's about six inches shorter than the others, which suggests to me that maybe light stress is the issue? Measuring the DLI supported that theory, as the Mephisto canopy was at 55, while the others were around 90. I think photos can handle that amount of light, but I don't think autos appreciate it. So I reduced the light intensity to 60%, which put the DLI at about 50 for the two big plants. Now the Mephisto probably isn't getting enough light, so I need to find a shim of some sort to bring its canopy up to match its step-sisters.
Day 43, PM: Morale improved somewhat throughout the day; the Ethos is back to standing at full attention, while the Purple City is a bit more reluctant.
Day 44: The lighting adjustment hasn't improved things significantly, especially for the Purple City which is still drooping. But the plants were all dry and thirsty again, so I gave each 30oz of water. Probably not enough still, but will recalibrate tonight after seeing how the day goes.
I'm also having trouble maintaining a consistent DLI because the canopy height varies so much, so I tied down the two larger plants’ main colas to try to even them out. (Amazing how quickly the tied-down flowers turn upwards toward the light again—less than an hour!) The Mephisto is too thick and stiff to bend, and seems to be developing a sturdy main cola, so I'm letting it fly all natural to see what happens. So after evening out the canopies, the DLI was still quite high (around 60), so I adjusted the lights to bring that back down to around 48. That's still at the upper suggested range, so might have to dial it back even more.
Day 44, PM: Worked from today so I had some afternoon time to putter around with the plants. I gained some confidence from the morning training, and did a little more LST, even on the Mephisto. Its main cola was still unassailable, but I was able to spread most of the flowering branches out from under it.
Day 45: Mephisto is looking strong, but the Ethos and Purple City are struggling. I’m having a tough time diagnosing the issue. I think I messed up by waiting this long to feed them; I’ve heard that Fox Farm Ocean Forest is so hot that I was nervous about nutrient toxicity, but (as with the watering) I might have gone too extreme in the opposite direction.
So I topdressed each pot with 4 tbsp of Gaia Green 4-4-4, gently mixed into the surface and watered lightly.
I also did some light defoliation and pruning of low and weak bud sites that are unlikely to be productive.
Day 48: The plants’ decline seems to have slowed and maybe even reversed. I’m not seeing any additional spotting on the leaves since yesterday. Maybe the nutrients? Although I’m not sure how quickly they become available. The soil was dry this morning so I gave each plant 64 oz of water, and they responded well throughout the day, so I think I need to step up my watering game (in this grow, and future grows). Still getting a feel for things.
Day 50: Watered 64 oz per plant in the morning. Still seeing deficiencies but didn’t have time to feed before work. The buds are filling out and getting less wispy, so even with all these issues I’m optimistic I’ll get some sort of harvest out of this.
Day 51: Either last week’s nutrients weren’t strong enough or haven’t mobilized yet, because more leaves are now showing signs of a deficiency. So I topdressed another 2 tbsp of Gaia Green 4-4-4 per pot, and watered 30 oz just to incorporate into the soil. Probably will do another feeding this weekend, it’s getting late in the game to wait longer. On a positive note, trichomes!!!
Day 52: Leaves look worse! No surprise there. The Purple City plant seems especially distressed, but the others are showing signs of illness as well. So I topdressed each plant with another 4 tbsp of 4-4-4 and 32 oz of water to integrate into the soil. Hope to see effects from this and yesterday’s feeding in a few days? It’s a Hail Mary, we’ll see if it’s enough to keep them alive to harvest. I also removed all of the remaining LST wires, as the plants have pretty much filled all of the available space and seem fine without guidance at the point.
Day 54: Yesterday I (very) lightly defoliated some of the worst-looking leaves. I'm not sure there's any benefit to doing so, but it improves my mental state, which hopefully will transfer to better plant care. And this morning the plants were looking slightly better—or at least not worse—so perhaps the nutrients are beginning to uptake. I was short on time so quickly watered about 24 oz per plant. That didn't seem like enough, but I was late for work, so I may supplement with a bit more later. Despite my mismanagement, the buds are fattening up and starting to get frosty, especially on the main colas.
Day 55: The bleeding has stopped, I think we’re recovering. 32 oz of water per plant this morning.
Day 57: The Ethos and Mephisto were dry and got about 64 oz of water, but the Purple City soil still had plenty of moisture so it got none.
Day 59: A bit more water today, about 48 oz. The every-other-day watering schedule seems to be working out alright.
Day 61: It's probably waaay too late for this to have any effect, but I'm not sure how long these plants will go and I want them to finish strong, so... I top-dressed each pot with 2 tbsp of Gaia Green 4-4-4 and soaked 'em with about 48 oz of water
Day 62: Gotta be honest—my plants aren't looking great, but are still limping along. They're not pretty, but the buds seem healthy enough and I think I'll still get a small harvest, maybe an ounce or two? Interestingly, the Purple City plant has been sprouting some new growth in the form of *very* vigorous, attractive little sugar leaves (or maybe young fan leaves? I dunno). I assume this is in response to the nutrients finally being uptaken. So I'm kind of excited to grow this cultivar again, with a bit of experience under my belt, to see its actual potential. As-is, the buds are extremely resinous and fruity, should be an interesting smoke.
Day 64: 48 oz of water per plant, and very light defoliation of yellowing leaves.
Day 68: I thought we had a few more weeks to go, but upon a closer look with my jeweler's loupe I'm seeing a lot of cloudly trichomes, and even some amber. So I think we're close to harvest.
Day 69: Watered about 1.5L per plant this morning. Getting antsy!
Day 69, PM: Okay, harvest day! Well, sort of. The Mephisto's three biggest colas were all cloudy with some amber, so I chopped them down to open up the canopy for the lower buds. I'm still deciding what to do with the other two plants—they're close, but I'm not sure they're *quite* ready. Might make a decision later this evening, after another inspection.
Day 69, PM: Okay, after a closer inspection it turned out they were all ready to go. I chopped the biggest colas from all the plants, and will probably chop the others tomorrow.
Day 70: All plants chopped and hung to dry! The fun part is done, for now. Final yield is very small, but a tester bud from each (I'm editing this a week later) smoked really well! So as long as I don't screw up the dry and cure, I'm going to call this a success.
Harvested on day 70, dried for 9 days at about 70F and 45% humidity. I struggled to keep the humidity high enough for a slow dry, but just purchased an AC Infinity T3 to help dial in my next grow and dry.
Rough trimmed on 3/20 and stored in a mason jar for curing. Only harvested 37g of flower and about 8g of trim + kief. It’s a meager harvest, but quality seems good and it’s more than I’ll personally use.
zacwaz
