Zkittlez Autoflower

August 9, 2023 Day 92 This week should be the last week for these ladies. So far it's been a great run! Both have wonderful trichome production and have nice dense buds. The focus will be on watering, leaf removal and potential fade. Zkittlez One is about a week to 10 days away from harvest. Her pistils are turning orange quite fast. Much like Zkittlez Two who's turned rather quickly. She will be needing a new reservoir tomorrow. I was going to refill it today, but there is still some water left and I want her to drink what she has currently. I'll be focused on removing lower dead leaves. Maybe a popcorn bud here and there. I'm not sure about that yet. She'll be getting a partial wet trim. I want to clear the foliage from the bottom completely and then the largest leaves with stems I can reach. Happily, that may take a bit of digging deep. I'll have to be extra careful. I figure a partial wet trim will make the rest of the trimming that much easier. It'll definitely take some time. I may trim right in the main tent for both wet and dry. I have learned that where I trim outside is a bit too dusty and honestly harder to do. My only concern is the odor. It will be extremely strong and may overwhelm my house. I hope to harvest her whole. That way I can estimate her final yield. I calculate 8% weight retention after dry and trim. If it's over than I'm happy. If it's under, then I messed something up. I'm still waiting for her to fade. The flawless finish should do it very soon I think. Zkittlez Two is almost ready for harvest. I'm still going to wait for Zkittlez One to finish up. She needs no water as of right now. She's barely drinking. Such a good sign. I expect great things this week. She will be dried whole instead of wet trimmed. There's plenty of open space for each bud to get air around them. I'll be taking a wet weight and leaving 8% weight retention after dry and trim. She has not started to fade yet which is really annoying. She should have started to fade a week ago. Maybe the flawless finish will do the trick this week at the very end. I can't imagine she has even longer than a week to go. I'm still surprised how little amber trichomes she has. The clear are less abundant now. But still, what a long maturation time. This is the beginning of the 9th week in flower. 9 weeks in flower. That's so long for an autoflower, right? Shouldn't it be around 6 to 8 weeks? Oh well. Her massive cola is well worth the time it has taken. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.2° RH: 64.8% VPD: 1.01 kPa August 10, 2023 Zkittlez One got a reservoir refill today. She doesn't need a top watering at all. So that's good. It must mean she isn't drinking as much as she was a few days ago. Then end time is near. Still no fade, but definitely more trichome production. Lower leaves are starting to shrivel up from age and lack of light. The branches are showing great signs as well. They are starting to lean up against each other due to weight. We are also seeing more and more orange pistils. At this rate, it should be a matter of days until the pistils are all orange like Zkittlez Two. I'll start checking trichomes at the end of the week I think. Based on what I have been seeing from Zkittlez Two, the trichomes take some time to turn amber. Maybe because this one is not messy with foxtails, the trichomes will mature faster. I hope som I'm counting on a harvest in the next week to 2 weeks. As I have been saying for the last 2 weeks. Hahaha. Probably a week. She smells great as well. Sweet and earthy. Zkittlez Two got a reservoir refill today and I almost overfilled it as well. There was more water left in than I thought. She hasn't done much of anything. Her trichomes are very slowly starting to show amber trichomes. If I'm correct, that will take another week. Which coincides with Zkittlez One harvest time. She is definitely a smelly girl. So sweet. So earthy. So gassy. So wonderful. I can definitely tell this is gonna be some super good smoke. I've also noticed the longest side branch has its foxtails pushing out even more. Like they have no room to stay tight, but there is plenty of space. Weird. Maybe it's all dense and just the tips all did the exact same thing as the tops. If that's the case, then this plant has a lot of bud on it. I decided to start looking up the street value of the strains I have. This one has an average value in the USA of $11 per gram. $200 per ounce. I feel like that's good information to know. How much you are saving or profiting. Whatever way you want to look at it. Here's the info. Grow System Environment: Temp: 73.7° RH: 65.4% VPD: 0.98 kPa (I swear the tent WANTS to stay here. Nothin I do can keep it away. Smh) August 11, 2023 Zkittlez One looks great! I think she bulked up a bit overnight. Her tops just look more filled in. Her wicking system is working full force and has been since I switched to just flawless finish. That tells me I may have overdone the nutrients. In the reservoir at least. Or maybe nutrient lockout? Well, I learned something. Once the water went in, the moisture level evened out and has been between 52% and 55% since. More orange pistils coming along. Very even spread as well across the whole plant. I'm quite excited for her harvest. I'll be checking trichomes in a few days. There's definitely no need with her orange pistil count. Maybe I'll get some more swelling over the rest of the week. Also, her roots have completely engulfed the wicks. Super impressive root structure. I think we have hit smoothe sailing for the rest of the grow. No signs of fade yet. Maybe in a few days. We are combatting living soil. Maybe this stuff work work at all. Who knows. The water intake improved. So that's good. We shall see. Zkittlez Two is also looking good. Still very few amber trichomes. Mostly cloudy now. So I think she will be on point with her sister plant. She isn't taking in a ton of water as she hasn't for the whole grow. This seems like a bit less. Also a good sign. Now for the fade. Maybe there won't be one. Grow System Environment: Temp: 75.4° RH: 63.9% VPD: 1.07 kPa August 12, 2023 Zkittlez One looks fantastic. She is starting to produce purple hues. Very pretty. I can only assume it will get more vibrant in the days to come. Her pistils are quickly turning orange as mentioned before, but she isn't fading at all. I wonder if the damage from the nitrogen toxicity is preventing that. 🤔 She also got a full reservoir refill today. So she is going through a half gallon a day still. Another thing to mention is how heavy the tops are getting. More and more branches are starting to weigh down and lean against one another, or up against the tent walls. It's mostly the wide ends where there isn't any interference from 2 more plants. Zkittlez Two is also looking good. Still very few amber trichomes, but there are a couple here and there. I have a feeling that now I'm seeing some amber, they will be coming out on full force now. It's just a matter of time. Days I'd say. Nothing else going on with her. She's drinking, getting light, getting rotated and getting air flow. I have noticed the colas getting fatter. It's mostly the buds spreading out more and more. I don't understand how that works, but I may just have extra bud on top of what are already decent sized colas. It's just the spread is happening everywhere. We shall see. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.5° RH: 61.2% VPD: 1.11 kPa August 13, 2023 Zkittlez One is looking amazing and is really packing on weight. Most of her tops are starting to lean a bit. Some more than others. Even the largest top is starting to lean. Let's hope it keeps up for a few more days. I started pulling leaves that were sticking out over lower bud sites. Not completely on top, but hovering. I didn't have anything else to pull. So now it's just getting ready for harvest very slowly. Her aroma is pungent and certainly strong. No watering needed today. She still hasn't started to fade yet, but I'm finding leaves on the bottom that are starting to. They got plucked. No sense in keeping them. Plus, the more I remove now, the less I have to deal with at harvest. Not to mention, it's slightly lightening up the branches so less lean. They all came off really easily. Just a slight bend and snap. Still don't know if that's good or bad. With this weight being packed on, I am confident she will be a heavy yielder. I'm guessing 6 oz. Maybe 8. It all depends on how much heavier she gets. From wet weight, an 8 oz yielding plant would have been 6.25 lbs whole. That's an 8% weight retention after trimming and manicure. I figure 8% is a realistic number from whole to finished product. Anything more is just the bonus I wasn't expecting. Still, between 6 and 8 oz is where I'm thinking. Maybe less, but I really don't think so. I've had smaller plants with way less bud weigh 3 to 4 oz. And this is the biggest plant I've grown so far. So it would stand to reason that this one will produce significantly more finished product. Zkittlez Two is an interesting plant. On one hand, she's covered in foxtails. On the other, her colas are absolutely massive. And thick. It also seems pretty heavy as well. Top heavy I mean. And that is with a full reservoir and 55% soil moisture. Needless to say, the pot is significantly heavier than the plant, but she's still top heavy. 2 of the main branches are starting to lean and the dop is swaying a bit more with the breeze, but a thing I noticed is how heavy it is. The top would definitely lean if the main stem wasn't super strong. On another note, she still hasn't even come close to fading. I'm starting to think it's the soil I use. Maybe there's just too much nitrogen for autoflowers and they can't clear it out fast enough. I'll be experimenting with how it works for the next grow. No nutrients until flowering. Hopefully that will help clear out the nitrogen. Issue. If that's what is happening. I'm also going to cut back the dose. Normally it's a half dose with every reservoir refill, but I don't think that is necessary. Maybe every other reservoir refill. It's only a gallon at a time, so it won't be wasted and will certainly be used. Let's hope it works the way I think and won't end up poisoning my plants again. However, I did notice that this lady suffered way less toxicity than her sister plant, but was given the exact same feeding regimen and she's not as big. So there's that as well. Grow System Environment: Temp: 75.6° RH: 62.6% VPD: 1.10 kPa August 14, 2023 Zkittlez One is looking fantastic! More orange pistils and the buds are getting tighter. I did a quick trichome check today as well. As expected, she's not ready yet. I'll check again in a couple of days. I will say, I see a few amber trichomes, so that's better than her sister plant. She got a full watering today. One gallon top feed with Flawless Finish and another gallon in the reservoir. That should set her up for a few days. The funny part is the gallon didn't even touch the moisture levels in the soil. She must have been really thirsty. Anyway, she's all set now. Zkittlez Two is also looking great. Her trichomes are still lacking amber, but a couple more. However, I'm pretty sure I can harvest anytime. The only issue is the other 3 plants I have going. I have one in the dry tent because I ran out of space in my main tent. And it's too big to fit in the space available from this lady. So regardless if I want to or not, I'll be harvesting all plants at the same time. It should be fine. The rest will be ready to harvest within the next week. No water needed today either and still no fade. I don't think she's going to fade at all. Unlike her sister plant, who is showing purple hues, she isn't showing any signs of colors at all. Just the green she has been the whole time. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.8° RH: 62.2% VPD: 1.09 kPa August 15, 2023 Zkittlez One looks absolutely amazing. Her trichomes are starting to turn amber. Definitely a ton of cloudy. Very few clear. I'd say a matter of days. I started pulling the extra leaves. Yes I have extra. There's a ton. So I removed a bunch. Mostly lower canopy, but some of the mid as well and a few upper leaves that were just doing nothing. I don't think she will be fading. The purple hues are on the buds, but I see zero signs of fade or yellowing leaves. So I've decided she won't be fading, like most of my other plants. I think it's the soil. Probably too rich in nitrogen. She's about half way through her reservoir. Soil moisture is around 54%. She may get another watering tomorrow, depending on how full the reservoir is. If it's still fairly full, I may hold off on watering for the rest of the grow. Zkittlez Two is ready for harvest. I'm going to wait for Zkittlez One to finish up. I also have those 2 other plants in the tent that should be done within the week. The goal is to harvest everyone at the same time. She smells wonderful and has tons of frost. Even though she's covered in foxtails, her buds are dense and hard. I really can't wait to taste this one. Super sweet and pungent. She won't be needing water anymore I think. Based on how little time she has left, I think letting her dry out a bit would help with her final push. 48 hours of dark and then harvest. Most likely in the next 3 or 4 days. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.9° RH: 62.3% VPD: 1.09 kPa