Watermelon Autoflower

August 30, 2023 Day 92 I have no idea when these 2 are going to finish up. Watermelon One looks done, but has very little amber trichomes. Maybe this week? Watermelon Two is a wild card now. She does not look done and the fade only started just the other day. So, she is very far behind. I might have to extend the grow out yet another week. Watermelon One is looking great as ever. She has beautiful colors and rock hard nugs all over the place. And I mean rock hard. No bend or SQUEEESH whatsoever. It's wonderful. Her trichomes are still mostly cloudy, but still no where near enough amber trichomes. There has to be something wrong with the environment, or something I'm doing or did to extend the grow out so long. Anyway, this plant should hopefully be ready by the end of the week. 7 days is plenty of time to finish up. Watermelon Two on the other hand is going to take much longer than expected. We are talking a total of 15 weeks? 17 of you count drying. Either way, it's going to take another week or 2 for her to finish up, maybe over 2 weeks. Now I'm just throwing numbers out there. 2 weeks more would be ridiculous. The fade is gradually increasing. I'm wondering if it will take off suddenly. Especially because the grow tent is getting cooler as I fight with temps in my dry tent. So it's a win win for me. As long as it stays like this for the next week or 2, maybe I'll have some impressive bud. Maybe not the best structure, but certainly potent and strong. Grow System Environment: Temp: 73.9° RH: 57.5% VPD: 1.20 kPa August 31, 2023 Watermelon One has super dense purple buds. Some really pretty pink edged leaves. Tons and tons of cloudy trichomes. What a coating of frost she has. Still waiting for those amber trichomes to come out. Watermelon Two is fading in earnest now. I'm not entirely sure what to expect from this plant. Her buds are nowhere near like the ones on her sister plant. It's definitely a sign of stunted growth and just didn't recover in time. So I have some wispy buds, some dense tops, but not a lot. Quality should be good though. We shall see what happens when she is fully mature. Anyway, her trichome production is decent. Not as coated as I'd like, but still pretty good. The environment is now looking pretty decent. Humidity is in an acceptable range if not a little too high still. Temps have backed off a bit for the final bit of flower. Everything is leveling out. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.9° RH: 57.4% VPD: 1.24 kPa September 1, 2023 Watermelon One has more amber trichomes! Finally coming along! A few more days should do it. The chop will be happening this week. I ended up adding another half gallon to the reservoir. She was getting a bit too dry for the day. So she may be a bit moist, but probably not. Strong aroma and super sticky. Buds are getting darker and leaves are developing more purple tones. There's also more dying leaves. Everything looks to be in excellent order. Watermelon Two is getting some amber trichomes as well. Leaves are fading all over now. The top buds are hardening up while lower buds are a bit wispy and loose. This last week should put more weight on before harvest. Her tops are definitely really light. I can't wait to get this one harvested. I feel like the quality is going to be really good. Grow System Environment: Temp: 75.5° RH: 54.2° VPD: 1.35 kPa September 2, 2023 An oversight on my part here, but my light was at 25" from canopy and at 70% power on a 240w light. Well, I thought that was a good height and intensity. But then I noticed some leaves reaching and up from the outside edges of the plants. So I checked the PAR and found it was like 680 PPFD or so. So I increased the intensity to 80% and dropped the light down to 22". Now we have a nice reading of just over 800 PPFD. I've definitely learned quite a bit from this grow about what not to do with lighting. And to double check my work like I should have in the first place. Whoops. Watermelon One has maybe 3 days left. The pistils are starting to really curl up and shrivel. I didn't realize they still had shrinking to do. So now that they are, I'm sure it's a sign of doneness. Also, strangely, she needed another half gallon of water. She completely soaked up the first half in no time. I'll check later today to see what's happening. Everything else looks great. There is that one weird branch that I spoke of a while back. It has foxtails all over it and is definitely behind the rest of the plant. Well, I think I figured out the issue. An error on my part while training. There is a side branch that I somehow overlapped the auxiliary branch in question. So I believe the side branch choked the foxtail branch and caused the issue. I could be wrong, but that's all I could see that was odd, and it makes sense. There's even a bud growing around the side branch. It's curious indeed. Watermelon Two is flash fading. I swear. Nearly every leaf on the plant started yellowing over night. Quite a few leaves have some really coming through now. Not much in purple on the leaves, but the purple in all over the buds now. A few more days like this and she will be full of wonderful purple plant. Or at least a starburst type of color with purple hues everywhere. I dunno. I'll have to see. She should be as pretty as her sister plant. She also completely ran out of water. I'm going to add another gallon to the reservoir for now. It seems she suddenly picked up in absorption speed a bit. Grow System Environment: Temp: 75.9° RH: 53.2% VPD: 1.40 kPa September 3, 2023 Another super humid day. Which is messing with the temp in the tent. Right now it's 80° where is should be around 75° humidity is 80% outside today, so boo to that. Temp is also 76° today. So it's muggy to say the least. Watermelon One is nearly ready. Another couple days I think. Just waiting for a few more amber trichomes. No watering today, nothing else either. Just a couple pics, a check of the trichomes and that's about it. More dying leaves, more purple. Deeper purple too. Watermelon Two has about 5 days to a week left. Her fade is really taking off now. Not as pretty as Watermelon One, but still very nice. Super fat buds. Honestly, I can't wait to see what she smokes like. Maybe she will be top notch. We shall see. Grow System Environment: Temp: 77° RH: 55.5% VPD: 1.39 kPa September 4, 2023 Watermelon One is looking like she is just about done. I'm going to give her another day or 2 to completely finish up. Happily, she will be harvested the same day the plants in the drying tent come out. So there won't be any space issues. I think I'll clear the fan leaves out tomorrow evening. Her reservoir is empty and won't be refilled. The buds are all deep purple. From what I understand, that's the Tropicana Cookies parent. Very nice. Watermelon Two is a different phenome I think. She didn't get purple like her sister plant. However, her buds are now almost as dense. Not quite, but almost. Maybe another week for her. Maybe less. I might be super wrong and she'll be harvested tomorrow or the next day. I just have to double check the trichomes. Update: I checked the trichomes of both plants and I think I'll be harvesting in 2 days. Both of them have almost all cloudy trichomes and some amber. Watermelon One has more amber trichomes and very few clear. Watermelon Two has mostly cloudy trichomes with a couple amber and maybe 5% clear. The 2 days should let them fully ripen. Grow System Environment: Temp: 77.5° RH: 58.4% VPD: 1.31 kPa September 5, 2023 Watermelon One will be chopped tomorrow or the next day I think. She has a decent amount of amber trichomes now and very few clear. I'll give the next day just to make sure. Watermelon Two looks like she still needs more time, but I may actually be incorrect. I've been basing her age on the color of the buds, but I think this is a green phenome. She does have hues of purple, but no color besides green and yellow. I'll keep checking her trichomes for the next couple days. I may even have to harvest tomorrow as well. It all depends on what I see today and tomorrow. Her trichomes do have a few more amber spots and much less clear than the other day. Grow System Environment: Temp: 76.5° RH: 57.7% VPD: 1.29 kPa Update: After carefully checking each bud and a deep look at the trichomes of both plants, they are both ready to go. I'll be harvesting tomorrow after I pull the 2 drying plants out of the dry tent.