Watermelon Autoflower

July 19, 2023 Day 50 This week is a focus on some defoliation as LST is no longer possible. However I'm concerned about actually defoliating Watermelon Two. Her leaves are tiny and she is definitely stunted. I'm certain it was due to the amount of light changes she was exposed to. Watermelon One is getting bigger with massive pistils on the buds. She's taller and broader than her sister plant. She was also stunted I believe, but she recovered when she got a consistent light intensity. I'll have to grow this strain again to see its full potential. Watermelon Two, as stated, is definitely stunted. She has small buds and is just really compact. I chalk it up to space restrictions and bad lighting. I also suspect her transplant wasn't as successful as I hoped. Especially when it was a seedling at the time. It's probable that I did the same thing with Watermelon One. Quick Update: I decided to pull the largest branches down a smidge on Watermelon Two. They are just barely over the rim of the plant. The goal was to open the canopy a tiny bit and happily it worked like a charm. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.9° RH: 60% VPD: 1.15 kPa July 20, 2023 Watermelon One is looking pretty good. Super long pistils and coated in trichomes top to bottom. She is super sticky and smells great! She got a defoliation today. More like a half defoliation. Just to free up air movement and light penetration. So far she seems pretty good with it. No dropping or signs of any stress. I honestly can expect some really good bud out of this one. Not sure how much yet, but we will have to see. Maybe 2 oz or 3? It depends on what she does over the next 3 to 4 weeks. Watermelon Two is a problem child. Her buds are small and pistils are kind a messed up. They aren't sticking straight out. It looks more like each one was squeezed or crushed. It's weird indeed. Her compact size has me concerned for her overall yield. I don't think there will be much. Maybe she will make up for it with bud production and potency. Grow System Environment: Temp: 73.7° RH: 61.3% VPD: 1.08 kPa July 21, 2023 Watermelon One looks pretty good. She's stretching and building really big buds. She's not tall, but at least stretching. I removed a few leaves today. Just ones covering other bud sites and some overlapping. Now she has a really nicely open canopy and plenty of air flow. Watermelon Two is kind of stagnant. Her buds are small. Her leaves are small. Her branches are small, but really stiff. I don't really understand what happened. I guess I'll just have to accept the consequences of my actions. Next grow wont be staggered and will be only 2 plants instead of 4. So I'll do my best to keep her as healthy as possible. She's good with water and isn't showing any signs of stress. Great color, bud structure is pretty good. She may end up stacking pretty well. That's about it. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.1° RH: 59.8% VPD: 1.14 kPa July 22, 2023 Watermelon One looks great! She is 14" tall now with some fantastically big buds and massive pistils. Still not tall, but taking in water at a decent rate now. Nothing crazy, but more than she was. She got a full reservoir refill today. She also has some pretty decent tops. Not a ton of them, but maybe 16 to 20. They arent tall, but they are growing beautifully. I removed a few leaves today. She has a bunch with really long stems encroaching on buds halfway across the plant. Those came out as well as a few that were just overwhelming the canopy. Everything looks good now, so that's nice. She's still enjoying the solitary tent. However, I fear I may have to replace her with a Zkittlez Autoflower that's growing in the big tent. It's got around 2 weeks left. So does this one, but might take longer and I will need my dry tent back. Her structure is a bit chaotic, but everything is pointing up, and that's what matters. I dropped the light down to match the recommended DLI of 40 mol/m²/d. So the light is 16" from the canopy now. Watermelon Two is just a stunted little devil. I've managed to get her positioned in the tent as to only brush up against the other larger plants. I've also lifted her up to the same height as the other plants in the tent. The DLI is 40 mol/m²/d. She will be needing water in the next day or 2. Her buds are still small. No real swelling yet. Not like her sister plant at least. Maybe the higher light intensity will help with bud development. Grow System Environment: Temp: 75.1° RH: 60.3% VPD: 1.16 kPa July 23, 2023 Watermelon One looks great now. Not tall, but nice tops and good bud production. I decided to pull the outside branches out a little bit to make more room for the central canopy. Unfortunately, I cracked one of the branches at the base. It didn't break, but definitely cracked. Let's hope I didn't screw up too badly. It's still early flower for her, so everything should be fine. Watermelon Two is a lost cause in my book. Bud sites are small and leaves are a huge mess. I have single finger leaves all over and almost all 3 fingered leaves for the rest of the plant. She is just an unhappy healthy girl. I'll keep her going for the rest of the grow. Why not. Weed is weed. Maybe I'll toss a bloom booster her way to see if I can salvage her buds. If I do, I'll start that next week. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.6° RH: 60.3% VPD: 1.14 kPa July 24, 2023 Watermelon One is looking quite nice. Great buds and beautiful color. She's praying nicely as well. She got a reservoir refill today. Still no top watering needed. I haven't checked 0ut the root structure on her in a bit, it it looks pretty good. I'll take a better look at the start of next week. Maybe the roots will have dipped back into the water. She needs no defoliation and every bud sites is pretty much open to the light and air. Watermelon Two is still a tiny hot mess. It looks like her buds are starting to get a bit fatter. I'll definitely need to run this strain again sometime to really see how it does without stunting. She got a reservoir refill as well today. Everything looks good otherwise. Her colors are still really beautiful and vibrant. Although, her leaves are really small and definitely not right. On another note, her branches are really stiff and have hardened off. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.4° RH: 59.5% VPD: 1.15 kPa July 25, 2023 So these ladies aren't all that big, but they make up for it in trichome production. They're covered in frosty goodness. The smell is also starting to get stronger. It could also be from the 2 Zkittlez in the tent as well. Watermelon One is looking fantastic now. As said before, she's not super big, but her buds are and they are certainly covered in frosty from the outer leaves in. Nearly every fan leaf has a bunch of trichomes on it. I'm not really expecting them to be harvestable by day 70. That may put a huge kink in my plans. I'll need the big tent to dry the 2 bigger plants in there, most likely sooner than these ladies. Although, the goal was to harvest at the same time, when the last one finishes up. But I couldn't extend the grow for the other 2 plants for too long. Watermelon Two is still runty of course, but as I said before, she is covered in frost. However, I did notice that she is starting to drink a decent amount. Maybe the buds will bulk up in no time. The biggest issue here is that although, the breeder says 9 to 10 weeks, they also say the flowering period lasts between 42 and 49 days. These ladies took 4 weeks to flower. Add the 7 week flowering time and we are a minimum of 1 week behind. 6 weeks of flower would be alright. That would be the 10 weeks I was planning on. The issue is that this is the end of week 3. They have a minimum of 3 weeks left. So to play it safe, I'm expecting them to be harvested around day 77. 1 week later than the other plants in the tent. Maybe. I'm not sure now. Either way, it's a sound theory. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.6° RH: 61.1% VPD: 1.12 kPa