Autoflower Grow 1

CDLC 1- Took longer to get above the soil than the others. Probably needed an extra day of germination. May be stunted. Ghost Toof got a little leggy. At 2" high, I lowered the TSW2000 to 18" and set power to 50%. 1 week above the surface top watering only with squirter bottle. 10-15 pumps each plant every morning. End of week one top fed 1ml/gallon Sensi-bloom A + B. Filled Autopot reservoir with 10 gallons dechlorinated tap water 6.4ph. Added 1ml/gal Sensi-Bloom A+B and a 1/4 teaspoon Recharge. Turned on the Autopot system. May be too early. Plants responded well overnight to the top feeding. Looks good.

I was getting a little worried that after 8 days these girls were looking a bit pale/yellow. I thought it might be that the Autopots were giving a touch too much water since I turned the pot watering system on a few days too early and had been misting the media every AM. I also was considering turning on the AC Infinity exhaust which I had not turned on yet in an effort to keep the humidity around 80%. Instead of doing both, on day 9, I turned on the exhaust to level 1 which dropped the humidity in the tent to 59%. The very next morning the plants had turned a much deeper green color. Turns out that either they didn't like 83 degrees and 80% humidity or (more likely) they were starved for CO2. This illustrates the importance of air exchange in the tent even at very early stages of growth. CDLC 1- Was the last germinated seed to break the surface of the media. She looks to be 4-5 days behind the largest lady (Ghost Toof) However, she looks like she is catching up pretty quickly so I decided to let her do her thing. Looks good otherwise. CDLC 2- One leaf has a bit of a sideways curl deformation which I would normally associate with root issues. However, since I am using peat based media (Pro-Mix HP) this is unlikely. She looks healthy otherwise. Ghost Toof- This lady is, by far, the most aggressive grower of these four as can be seen from the pics. However, two of her leaves on the second node have been clawing and look oversaturated with water at their tips. For now, I will assume that this is her recovering from 80+% humidity for too long or the CO2 starvation. But will keep an eye on her. No other plants are showing clawing like this. (perhaps one leaf of CDLC 2) Letting her transpire a bit more with the higher VPD might do the trick. Otherwise, she is looking beautiful, symmetrical and is growing aggressively. Mephisto's Wedding- Not much to say about her. She is looking good aside from a slight non-symmetry and is a slightly less aggressive growing at this point. I marked my Autopot reservoir at 5 and 10 gallon levels to make adding to the res easier. I will add to it when it hits the 5 gallon level. When I first turned the system on (too early) it used 4 gallons overnight to get all the pots saturated. I waited until the level in the res reached the 5 gallon mark. (2 days later) and mixed in 3ml/gal of Sensi-Bloom A and B into a 5 gallon bucket and added it to the res giving me an ml/gal of 2ml/gal on the res. All water added to the res is tap water which luckily PHs to 6.4. I leave a full 5 gallon bucket in the grow room at all times to let it dechlorinate on its own. Also I have a small water pump in the res which is plugged into a smart outlet from AC Infinity. I set this pump to stir the res tank every 30 minutes for 4 minutes duration. Day 12 update- All plants are doing very well. Ghost Toof and CDLC 2 have shown explosive growth in the last two days. I added 1ml/gal Sensi-cal/mag to the res. Probably not needed but won't hurt. Humidity levels are spiking a bit higher than I would like at night as can be seen in the photos above. 71% peak. Its not bad, but I would like to keep that a little lower during lights out at this point in the grow to avoid mildew. I set the AC Infinity exhaust to trigger on level five setting when humidity reaches 65%. This only happens during lights out as day humidity levels are pretty stable at 60%. Day 13 update. Stainless LST hoops installed before a couple of the ladies get too large to do it. You won't find these for sale. These are repurposed from 500lb barrels of Lincoln welding wire. These are zip-tied to the pots in two places.

Day 15- All plants are looking good with no issues aside from one leaf on CDLC 2 which I removed. Possibly septoria. Probably not. 👍 I will wait a few days and then start gentle LST on the two bigger ladies. Day 17- Zero issues with all plants. I started LST on CDLC 2 and Ghost Toof. Just a gentle bending over and removed the fan leaf that was blocking the lower sites on both plants. I used the standard twist-tie garden wire available anywhere. I wrapped this wire around the plants stem twice without knotting it or twisting the wire. I do this so that the tie has zero chance of choking the plant if forgotten. Increased AC infinity exhaust to level 6. This weekend I will dump the reservoir and refill with fresh water and nutes as it is looking a little scummy. It may have been a mistake to put Recharge directly iMay also bump the nutes to 5 ml/gal of each part Sensi-Bloom A & B. The temptation is high to turn the LED up one notch but considering the super tight internodal spacing on these ladies, I feel it would be a waste at this point. Maybe in week 4. These plants are constantly praying except Ghost Toof for some reason. Perhaps a cultivar thing. Day 18- Previously I had put a dose of Recharge into My nute reservoir. I had been questioning this move since. Recently the res has been looking a bit scummy so I asked Scotty Real from DGC. Here is the conversation: From Lori F: - Hello, I put a dose of Recharge into the nute res on my Autopot system a couple weeks ago. I am wondering if this was a mistake as it is looking a bit scummy in there. I am running Advanced Nutrients into 3.9 gallon Autopots. I have a small pump in the res the cycles every 15 minutes for 4 minute duration to keep things stirred up. I am running autoflowers that are all constantly praying and looking exceptionally happy always. They don't seem to mind. Since the pots feed from the bottom I thought that adding Recharge to the res would be the way to go. Do you think the scummy res is an issue? The ladies are all perfect. From Scotty Real: - Hi Lori, The Recharge is not meant for reservoirs and if it's in there right now I would probrably change the res out. You'll want to mix recharge in a watering can and top water the plants. The microbes are aerobic and work well when in a media with plenty of both air and water. You don't need much Recharge solution on each plant (maybe a pint each). The idea isn't to saturate, but just introducing the microbes to the soil. Try it as a top water and let me know what you think. Thanks Scotty Needless to say, putting Recharge into your res a no-no. I had to rinse the Autopot system, valves, bases and res in scalding hot water to kill any bacteria that existed. The silver lining to this whole thing is that I just happened to notice that the water line for the Autopot system going to Ghost Toof had been sitting under one of the circular feet for the Autopot bases and was totally kinked off. Ghost Toof had always looked a bit limp even though she still is the biggest lady in the tent. All other plants were constantly praying and I could not figure out why. Well there is my answer. Her supply from the res was choked off. After using the contents of the scummy res to water all of my other countless plants, I refilled the res with dechlorinated tap water and put 5ml/gal of both Sensi-Bloom A & B into the res and turned the system back on. I also scooped about a cup of water from the stirred res and dumped it into Ghost Toof's pot. I assume she will look much happier in the AM. DON'T PUT RECHARGE INTO YOUR NUTE RES...😌

(Day 22) I have started LST on all plants. Light defoliation only on an area or two where large leaves were covering bud sites. All plants look very healthy. No signs of any problems at all. (Day 25) Continued LST and light defoliation. Noticed light burn on some leaf tips on CDLC 2 and have concluded that Ghost Toofs droopiness is likely from light stress. I raised the light to 30" and bumped up the power to level 7 on the AC-Infinity controller 69. PPFD numbers are now 330-370 at canopies read with a Spot-On brand quantum sensor. I did this to help better distribute light across the canopies since my light is a quantum board style LED. It made a very noticeable difference in light penetration as well. I will still gradually raise PPFD numbers through the grow and watch for signs of light stress in the plants. I also added a mild dose of Sensi Cal-Mag Xtra to the res and top fed a mild dose of Recharge to each pot. (Day 27) Continued LST and light defoliation. Soil slurry PH tested at 6.7. All plants are beginning to flower very lightly showing only a couple hairs here and there. Ghost Toof perked up immensely after raising the light and lowering PPFD. Mixed 7ml/gal Sensi-Bloom A & B, 3.5ml/gal Carboload and 3.5ml/gal Bud Candy into a five gallon bucket and added it to the reservoir. (Day 28) I actually turned off the Autopot system last night thinking that it might actually be overwatering the plants. This morning all plants including the always droopy Ghost Toof were praying and perky. There was also a good growth spurt from all of the plants after yesterdays LST and defoliation. Ghost Toof and Meph Wedding are both starting to flower pretty fast now compared to the two CDLC. CDLC may want to veg a touch longer than the others. I cannot decide if it was the Carboload and Bud Candy that I added to the res, the bump in Sensi-Bloom from 5ml to 7 or if it was simply turning the Autopots off over night that made all the girls so happy. I may turn the system off again tonight and see how they look in the AM.

(Day 30) - Humidity in the grow tent has been steadily climbing (Mid 70's) We were hoping that this would not become an issue but it is plain that it will be very soon. I had been putting off buying a good dehumidifier but it is very plain that I should have already had one on hand. Did some research and purchased the Frigidaire 35 pint unit which claims that it can do its thing up to 1500 sqft. Reviews agreed with those claims. It has a humidistat which is extremely important and also has a feature that allows a person to attach a hose to the water trap which will allow us to have it drain into a much larger container which is also extremely important. This will be used in the lung room, not inside the grow tent. Since the lung room has an entry door into a bathroom, I will put a decent door seal on the bottom of the door on that entry to avoid humidity from the bath/shower from entering the lung room. I will leave the main entry door unsealed to allow fresh, CO2 laden air from the pets and ourselves exhaling to continue to enter the lung room. When the Dehum arrives I will set to 45% humidity and hope that the humidity in the tent sits somewhere in the 50-60% range. We shall see. The tent has always been exhausted to the exterior of the house as can be seen in the above pic. **NEWBIE TIP ALERT** In an effort to lower humidity within the tent I made the rookie mistake of opening two of the bottom intakes on the MarsHydro tent which normally have velcro covers in place and bumped the AC Infinity 4" exhaust to level 8 on the Controller 69. We then went to work and came home 11+ hours later to find that the entire lung room was flooded with extremely dense humid air. Numbers for the interior of the tent showed 80+%. Lesson learned. YOUR TENTS NEED TO HAVE INTERNAL NEGATIVE PRESSURE to properly exhaust hot/humid air from the grow space. If you have high humidity in the warm months and are not running AC in your home, you need to vent tent exhaust out of your grow room and preferably out of the house. If you are venting to the exterior of your home and the side walls of the tent are not sucking inward when the exhaust is on, turn it up or your lung room will only recirculate the nasty air that has escaped your tent back into your grow. See the above pic which shows how we have our passive intakes set up on this tent. One on each side covered with a ladies nylon stocking to keep pests/debris out. I also added one more of the AC Infinity 6" reciprocating fans to the tent. I have one below the canopy and another above in an effort to keep molds and mildews from developing. This is a must. You need at least 3 total fans in your tent no matter the size. One exhaust and two to maintain good air movement. Stagnant air and high humidity equals mold/mildew/bud rot. I also bumped up the MarsHydro TSW 2000 a bit and am now getting 500ish PPFD at the canopy according to the SpotOn PAR meter. Of course this will be slowly increased the deeper into flower we get. (Day 31) - Plants are responding well to the increase in PPFD. All are looking happy and are having no issues. I removed all LST ties from Ghost Toof. She has ten tops and may end up with a few more by harvest. Still continuing with LST and light defoliation on the others. There is now a very pronounced lemon smell when I open the grow tent. It smells like sucking on a Lemon Jolly Rancher. I believe this is coming from the CDLC ladies. Mephistos Wedding smells like armpits for some reason. (Day 34) - All plants look great are doing very well. No issues to report. (Day 39) - Defoliated the bottom third of each plant and thinned out the canopies to allow more light to reach bud sites. Average PPFD numbers around 550. VFD holding pretty steady in the 1.2 - 1.3 range. All plants are looking very healthy and happy. They are drinking five gallons from the res in just a couple days. Ghost Toof is still the tallest/largest lady in the tent at about 30" and at least a dozen tops.

(Day 43) - All plants are looking good. They are now drinking nearly 5 gallons of water from the reservoir per day. Temperatures inside the tent are higher than I would like but the dehumidifier is adding considerable amounts of heat to the lung room. I will take the higher temps if it means my humidity is fairly decent. Although, humidity is a touch higher than I would like as well. I am keeping very good air circulation going in the tent to prevent problems due to humidity levels. Should start seeing bud sites developing rapidly over the coming days. Added Advanced Nutrients "Overdrive" to the feeding schedule at 4ml/gallon. (Day 46) - Trichomes now appearing on all plants aside from CDLC 1 which is a few days behind the others. Lollipop maintenance and light defoliation continues. PPFD ranges from 650 at the lowest cola to 850 at the highest as read by an Innoquest SpotOn PAR meter. The benefits of upgrading to a bar style light with a little more wattage are even more apparent in the flowering stage. Light dispersion is much better on the bar style vs the quantum board. I did have to raise the light a few inches as the plants had grown into the light and were getting over 1000 PPFD at the very top. Plants are still drinking close to 5 gallons of water/nutrients from the reservoir daily. I need to order more Sensi-Bloom A&B.

(Day 53) - All plants are looking healthy although CDLC 2 may be showing very early signs of calcium deficiency. Grow medium slurry tested at a PH of 6.3. Just to be sure, I added the recommended dose of Sensi Cal/Mag to the reservoir. CDLC 2 and Mephisto's Wedding are the frostiest in the tent by far. CDLC 1 will catch up. She was a few days late popping out of the soil. I am done with defoliation at this time aside from removing small bud sites from the bottom third of the plants that have been fully defoliated. The CDLC plants are still very bushy but I am not going to worry about it. A Brix test on CDLC 2 using a calibrated refractometer shows just over 12%. This number indicates a healthy plant. I would like it to be a little higher but this number should increase over the next couple weeks.

(DAY 60) - The plants are all looking good for the most part. Although we have never used the "grow" nutes in our feeding schedule and have only been using the "bloom" nutes from Advanced Nutrients, it still appears as though we are a touch heavy with the nitrogen. Tip burn and even the sawtooth edges of some leaves have been showing signs of nute burn. Soil PH is remarkably steady in the mid 6s. I was surprised by this as I was worried about the plants running out of nitrogen in the flowering stage. This is absolutely not the case. We are altering our feeding for future auto grows from 8ml/gal of the base nutes to 7ml/gal at the very most. Ghost Toof- (Day 60) - Bud growth on this plant is incredible. They are stacking tightly at least a foot down from every single top. It looks like this plant will need to go 80 days or more to finish. None of the pistols have begun to change color yet. She has a very pleasant banana/mango smell at the moment which is supposed to mature to more of a lemon starburst terp. It is plain to see that the harvest on this girl is going to be quite impressive. Mephisto's Wedding- (Day 60) - This will likely be the smallest harvest from this grow but the smells coming from her are absolutely amazing. Butter cream frosting terps fill your nose so much so that you can actually taste it. Most of her pistols have changed color from ivory to burnt orange. I will be surprised if she yields above 100 grams but I already feel like this plant will always have a spot in the tent. Amazing. CDLC 1- (Day 60) - This is the lady that is about a week behind the others as she popped from the soil late. She is constantly praying aggressively. I expect her to yield as much as her older sister when she matures. CDLC 2- (Day 60) - Like her younger sister, this one is constantly praying. And just like MW, her pistols have changed color to a burnt orange hue. She smells sweet and floral. Her terps are a touch muted at this point but as her flowers bulk up she should end up quite loud as Mephisto has placed an odor control warning on these ladies. She looks like she is on track to yield well above 100 grams.

(Day 65) - From this point on the plants will be getting nothing but PH'd water and a weekly dose of Real Growers "Recharge". I know that this practice is controversial and that there have been studies that show no appreciable benefit of doing so however, I am at the very least saving on very expensive nutes and reducing the overall amount of nutes being consumed. I expect that Ghost Toof and Mephisto's Wedding will likely take 85 days to finish fully and a 20 day flush might seem extreme but these plants have been given an excess of nutes for a long time before I adjusted their feeding schedule. I believe this will make for a better product once dried and cured. We shall find out.

Overall we were a touch disappointed with the dry weights on these two phenos. However the other two cultivars from Mephisto (Ghost Toof, Mephistos Wedding) more than made up for it.

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