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Wk1 So I have never grown a plant of any type before. The most green fingered thing I have done is mow my lawn.
I have lurked a little on this site for a month or so, and spured on by all the amazing "first time grower" diaries and having just bought my first house, I have decided to start a new hobby. I just wanted my first grow to be a learning experience that I could have fun with. I had no real expectations of final result. The only expectations I had was that I would make mistakes and that it was going to be interesting.
I chose the strain based solely on liking the picture used to advertise it (Cinnderella auto) and had one free seed thrown in as part of a promotion (Gorilla Zkittles auto).
So, a friend of mine gave me a tent. I bought an entry level mars hydro light (ts600) my friend also gave me a secondary led , its unbranded and looks to be inferior quality to my mars. But I thought I'd rig it up (more light = bigger buds I guessed?).
I hadn't thought to upload this first attempt to my grow diaries account just take some pictures and see what happened. But, as time went on it occurred to me that I had made so many mistakes that it might be interesting/funny/sad/infuriating for my fellow growmies to see my messy first attempt. As illogical my mistakes will likely seem I'll try and justify my steps with 'what the hell I was thinking '.
Peace
Wk 1 The seed popped out of the soil after a few days, was super excited.
As mentioned in my intro I had been lurking about on here for a while and was looking forward to experimenting with techniques, just to see what happened. I bought an Aptus nutrition tent kit. The kit included Startbooster, Topbooster, Regulator, Super PK, K-boost. I also ordered a bottle of Iconic cal-mag. I read in the nutrition literature that start boost could be added straight from germination, so I added it to the tap water Ibused right from lift off.
Wk2 As the seedling started to look like an actual plant, that could possibly grow if I kept feeding it, providing it light, and air I thought I'd better start learning about what might be needed as it got bigger (very similar to the epiphany I had when my son got to be about 2wks old).
Wk3 So, the first error I made was that the pot I'd planted her in was going to be too small. I thought this could be easily rectified by grabbing a bigger pot from the local garden centre and putting her into that with the same good quality potting soil. I was wrong.
I, somehow, managed to completely faff up even the action of taking her out of her pot. I heard the rip of roots as a big portion of her soil dropped away. Noticed a substantial chunk of root had been torn off and was laying in the clump of soil that fell and exploded all over my attic floor. After fat handedly dropping her in her new more spacious home I gave a good water Inc cal 0.3ml/l of startbooster 0.5ml/l cal- mag (I don't know why this was the time to start cal-mag ...thought it might help).
Literally in a matter of hours she started to droop and look almost at deaths door. It was almost like some dick head had torn her out the ground, inlalataed half her roots and, with ape like dexterity, smash-fisted her into a new home. So yeah she looked like exactly what had, basically.
The days that came she didn't cheer up. There was no sign of the daily growth and changes I had excitedly been seeing. She was bent over looking rough as hell.
Wk 4 I decided it was a 'shit or bust' situation and because I just wanted to see what happened. I propped up her lifeless body and pulled her head off. I was sure that there was no recovery from the re-potting massacre so thought might as well give topping a go just so I knew what to do when I do it on my next grow (since read it isn't something that everyone recommends with autos anyway??)
To my absolute amazement! In the next few days she actually started to stand up a little. I thought that her stress levels where probably at the level of a tweaker disarming a bomb. So I pulled off some of the yellow leaves. But defiantly she continued to improve.
I have no doubt that to her absolute tears of joy delight I was going away for a week. So I set up some cheap and nasty looking auto drip feeders and left assuming I'd return to absolutely no reward for all my fuckery. But again, her metal and resilience completely blew me away. Admitted I had probably put her in a temporary state of arrested development, but when I returned she looked like she had actually started to make what looked like a recovery.
Wk5 Saw further improvement she was starting to look a bit more bushy and definitely far more alive. It seemed that the time away from me had been exactly what she needed. So having learnt my lesson, I decided that I would spend less time pricking about with her and just let her grow. Instead I thought I could spend a bit more quality time with the Mrs. Hellpfully pointing out what she could be doing better around the house and telling in great detail about things that interst me like football and computer games, so as not to drive her to the brink as well.
Wk6 Things had really started to pick up. There was a noticeable smell now coming from the tent when opened. Flower sites have started to properly appear. I have now started to add the flowering nutrients to the feed. On a side note this was the time that I really noticed that my gorilla zkittles (pictured right) was taking on a really bizarre shape. It had suffered almost identical torment to my Cinnderella. But, although somewhat recovered, it was wearing the scars far more noticeably. I actually think it looks pretty cool so will include some pictures as it progresses rather than giving its own identical diary and further highlighting my subnormal IQ.
Wk7 I know that I have done a lot of damage to my yield with my early shenanigans I have likely had a week of complete halt to all development. In my mind I'm looking at this as grow week 6. But I'm actually really happy with how she is looking. It actually feels for the first time, since the grow started, that I might actually be able to see this through to the end.
Day time temperature has gone absolutely insane the heat in my attic is almost unbearable for a web fingered Welsh man. I have had to leave the tent door open during the day and allow more air to circulate and hope to drop the temperature.
Bought an additional fan... broke it during the complex standing it in the tent process.
Wk 8 So the British summer returned and day time temperature is back down in the very low 20's (c), which has been far more agreeable.
She seems to be responding well to the cocktail of brown liquid nutrients that I'm giving her (although I could very easily be convinced otherwise by literally anyone with an opinion).
So my thoughts are that I start to flush her of nutrients next week (9) as this should be done 2 weeks before harvest this puts the grow time a week above what fast buds had said to expect??? Regardless.. as this is in the past and I'm actually writing this in week 9 the mistake of doing so is already made.
Top buds are starting to look really nice and the smell is getting stronger by the day. The lower buds are a little small and spread out (popcorn buds I believe???).
But whatever I get will be miraculous and more than i deserve given what I was looking at weeks 3 and 4.
Wk9 Flushing. So I think that I'm not actually flushing properly.... but thankfully, I am probably not causing irreparable damage.......???
I am not giving any nutrients just water I have done this for two feeds now. I'm not increasing the amount of water I would ordinarily give them (2L). This gives me good run off and the plants don't seem to be under any extreme stress.
Ok I think now might be the time to reach out...... I'm going to ask for some advice.
Edit: Thank you so much to all who reached out to answer my question, super cool of you! Based on this feedback I am going to call halt to flushing and water and feed as normal for the final 2 - 3 weeks of my grow.
10 weeks into my Cinnderella auto grow. Should I start 2 weeks of plain water flushing as its a 11/12 advertised harvest time?
Do I increase the amount of feeds or how much water I give each feed? I haven't got a ppm meter yet, is it a pointless exercise without one?
I am not a huge fan of flushing to the point where we deplete the medium with copious amounts of water. It does not do the things they claim it to do.
If you want more trichomes get better genetics, the more stress you put on the plant does not always equal better results. They can go hermi from stressors or foxtail.
Flushing does not improve bud taste, that is a myth and does not have backing, studies have confirmed buds that has been flushed have no more or no less "buildup" in the buds when compared via gas chromatography to each other. A technology that is far superior at detecting these microscopic differences within a substance. On top of this when given a blind taste test via humans senses they have seen that the judges "well seasoned smokers" can not tell the difference between a well cured bud that was flushed or not flushed.
You should decrease the feeds as the plants enter their last stretch of life before harvest as they are not using up the same amount nutrients in the medium. This is something similar that happens in the rainy period end of year. if you want you can give only water the last week of life to save yourself some money on nutrients go nuts, but don't water with runoff as the plant will be using the last bits up and starving it is not going to overproduce trichomes in this small period of time, this is done in its main life, cant create something from nothing.
If you lack a EC/TDS pen, confirm you are getting runoff if growing in soil less medium of about 10% every time and the buildup of fertilizer in the medium will be minimized. Work your way down to 1/2 then 1/4 the recommended dose of feed for the last 2 weeks of life. and it should be fine. I use a cheep TDS pen and it does the trick. fancier ones exist and some people just never use one. I like it for the diagnostic purpose to help troubleshoot things like this.
As for advertised finishing times. they are not always accurate. especially with autos as they can be quote unpredictable. keep an eye on the plants growth/pistils and trichomes for indicators of when its ready.
Good Luck!
Buds spent 8 days drying then got put into Mason jars. The high from the dried was very cerebral. First smoke of the day gets my heart pounding, and creativity flowing.
Beautiful smell of peaches which lingers after smoking. Fantastic evening smoke. My only minor criticism is that the duration of the high is a little short. It hits hard but does pull back pretty quickly. I'm not sure if this is something that might improve once I have them jar'ed for a few weeks? Would love to hear any opinions below.
tedthetattooist
