Watermelon Autoflower

July 26, 2023 Day 57 Watermelon One: Height: 15" Light Distance: 18" DLI: 41 mol/m²/d Watermelon Two: Height: 13" Light Distance: 18" DLI: 40 mol/m²/d This week we will focus on watering and freeing up bud sites. These ladies aren't very leafy, so it shouldn't be all that hard to open them up. Watermelon One is looking great! She has some good sized colas for the height of the plant. She's definitely getting thirstier. Close to a half gallon a day? Buds are getting fat with massively long pistils. Such a good sign. I expect to see some big fat colas in the weeks to come. Watermelon Two is a fail in my opinion. Buds are small. Everything is stunted. What's weird is these 2 plants have been treated the exact same way. The only difference is they are in different tents. So it's gotta be the environment in the big tent. Not that it's bad, but super crowded. Maybe she will start getting better now that she is at the top of the overall tent canopy. We shall see. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.1° RH: 61.8% VPD: 1.07 kPa July 27, 2023 Watermelon One is looking fantastic now. She has a lot of tops and her structure is mostly a flat canopy, if not a little chaotic. But she has great color and wonderful buds. They are FAT. And they can only get fatter. I have noticed a few things about this plant in particular. First was the split branch in the beginning of the grow which has 2 amazing tops I might add. Then the pistil length. Extremely long and beautiful. Finally something I haven't mentioned is there's a couple of branches with 3 buds per node. Even the very tops have 3 buds forming together. It's only a couple branches. Maybe 3? It's hard to tell now that everything is starting to connect and meld into one. But I can see it plainly on 2 branches. The last thing I noticed is that this plant was the first of all 4 I'm growing to have a strong aroma. Very nice. Not as pungent as the Zkittlez strain I have in the tent, but strong and wonderful none the less. She is also really enjoying this light. It's a Mars Hydro TS 600 about 18" from the canopy. It's nearly perfect. The DLI is right on point as well. I'll have to check again tomorrow to make sure it stays right around 40 mol/m²/d. Watermelon Two is healthy and happy... For a stunted plant. Her buds are nothing to be impressed with, but I guess they could bounce back in the weeks to come. As they swell and stack. We shall see. Lots and lots of trichomes everywhere though. And I mean everywhere. So that's good. Both ladies got their reservoirs refilled today. So I'll make sure to keep a closer eye on their watering for the rest of the grow. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.2° RH: 62.6% VPD: 1.06 kPa July 28, 2023 Watermelon One is actually looking really nice. Her buds are getting super fat. Really frosty and the aroma is wonderful. Sweet and crisp. She's happy as can be. Watermelon Two is looking the same as ever. Small buds, no vigor, but a nice color. She needs nothing now. So I'll let her ride out the last couple weeks. Bud is bud. Let's see how she does with the final product. Grow System Environment: Temp: 75.1° RH: 59.6% VPD: 1.17 kPa July 29, 2023 Watermelon One looks good. She's swelling up nicely. She also had a reservoir refill today. No top watering needed. But she is going through a half gallon a day. There is nothing to do at the moment. She's just bulking up and producing trichomes. Lots and lots of trichomes. Watermelon Two is there doing a thing. Nothing has really changed at all over the past few days. No watering needed. Just observation. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.8° RH: 60% VPD: 1.15 kPa July 30, 2023 Watermelon One has so much frost! And her buds aren't even fully developed yet. I cannot wait to see the outcome of this little one. She has some really nice auxiliary branches reaching straight up. It definitely helps with filling the canopy in. She's drinking nicely as well. She definitely has more time than the 70 days. But that's ok. I have another plant that needs more time as well. So harvest should still be at the same time. Watermelon Two has underdeveloped buds, swelling kinda, but still really underdeveloped. Airy and just overall not the best I've seen. Maybe one of the worst plants I've grown. I still have hopes though. Something out of her would be fine. She is still super frosty. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.6° RH: 63% VPD: 1.06 kPa July 31, 2023 Watermelon One is looking great! She has very nice bud production going on. She smells great and the trichomes are stacking up. She isn't drinking too much, but that's expected of a plant this size. I lowered the light 2 inches as well. She was reaching a bit much for my liking. So 2" should just about do it. The DLI will be a bit high, but nothing to worry about. The light is 14" from the top of the canopy, so not bad for a 100 watt. She smells great! Like a gentle breeze of sweetness and lemon. Lots of lemon. Or citrus. Watermelon Two for a reservoir refill today. Still no change in the quality of her buds. I can only expect them to start swelling in the next week or so. I don't have high hopes, it I'm still going to finisher her out and call this a new learning experience. The lesson I think here is to make sure the plants match the light intensity for their stage of growth. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.5° RH: 63.1% VPD: 1.05 kPa August 1, 2023 Watermelon One has some really fat buds now. Round and plump. And they are getting bigger. Still a good 3 weeks left in her grow and I'm hoping for some ping pong ball sized buds. Which it honestly looks like they might end up that big. The pistils are still super long and stacking. I really think she will end up a really good yielder for her size. No water needed today. It seems like she is taking 3 to 4 days to clear a gallon. It's definitely going to increase water intake for the next couple weeks, but not by much. I've also noticed the lower buds are even getting a nice shape. maybe not so much popcorn buds. Probably because the whole plant is 15" tall and there is plenty of light penetration with such a shallow canopy. Not to mention she doesn't have all that many tops so there's a lot of open space. These buds are also super dense. I should also mention the temp and humidity in this tent. It's hovering between 77° and 80° with an RH of 57% roughly. Watermelon Two is actually bulking her buds up a bit. Surprisingly, they are also dense for what they are. You cant even tell the difference in the budlets. They are all so very tight together. But not as big. It's really sad because she is so healthy. Not a single nutrient issue whatsoever. Just the stunting and light stress. But still healthy. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.1° RH: 63.4% VPD: 1.03 kPa