Teetee's Awesome Blue Amnesia Auto XXL

Welcome to my second diary here on Growdiaries. This is the companion to the massive White Widow XXL that I showcased in my first diary..... ......so I want to give a big THANK YOU to Mark at Dinafem Seeds for the opportunity to grow some DinaFem strains again and I'll hopefully show you another fantastic grow! Auto Blue Amnesia XXL - the name says everything.... taste, high potency and yield! I'm such a lazy stoner, I forgot to buy more Coco after my last grow, so I wasn't able to use my usual method of planting directly in 20L airpots. I have 5L airpots which I sometimes use if my 20L ones are still in use, but there wasn't enough coco even for them.... I only had a small amount, maybe a couple of litres. So I got a few paper cups, poked a few holes in the bottom and filled them with coco, soaked them with EC 0.7 feed made up of 0.3ml/L House and Garden Cocos A&B, 0.1ml/L drip clean, 0.3ml/L Roots Excellurator and 0.3ml/L Nitrogen boost. I selected one of each Dinafem strain, and also 2 Dutch Passion beans for the ride. I planted the seeds about 2cm under the surface and covered each cup with clingfilm and topped them with some thick card to keep the light out. I stuck them under a Skyline 400 LED at max height for a bit of warmth. 2 days later 3 had popped, the Blue Amnesia was first, follwed by the White Widow, then the DP Night Queen. The next day there was no sign of the DP Glueberry OG so I carefully dug down to find her with her helmet off, cotyledons out and looking very pale - almost white. I teased her head out of the coco and pretty soon she started to stand up and turn green.... 100% succesful germination technique..... just. I started feeding the same mixture on day 3, and again on day 5 and 7.... using a 50ml syringe to deliver 100ml gently around the seedlings. I am going to focus on the Blue Amnesia in this diary, she is going to be something special!!!

I was getting impatient.... the new Coco still hadn't arrived, and I didn't want to have the tap roots hitting the bottom of the cups as I want to avoid stressing them out during the transfer to the 20L airpots. Finally it arrived on day 9..... so I filled up my trusty 20L airpots, and made a hole in the centre to fit a cup in. I used scissors to cut the bottom of the cup off, made a slit up the side of the cup, then carefully plonked it in the hole, and slowly pulled up the cup, leaving the seedling in place in the 20L airpot. I used the syringe to give them another quick 200ml feed just around the seedlings, and got on with the rest of my day. That evening, I mixed up another 40L feed, upping the Nitrogen to 0.4ml/L making it EC 0.8, pH 5.8, and gave each pot 10L to saturate the coco and get a bit of run off. The Aquavac is a vital piece of kit for sucking up the run off in a jiffy and giving the tent floor a quick hoover. I had them under 2 Skyline 400 LEDs and was turning them a ¼ turn every day. By day 13 the Blue Amnesia was about 5 inches high. She took to the 20L airpot very well, and I was feeding her 1-2L a day, and that's just giving me a dribble of run off. If I wasn't using Drip Clean, I would give them more (but don't start Drip Clean mid way through a grow - either use it from word go, or not at all). I gave her EC 0.7 from the start, increasing to EC 0.8 (mainly by adding extra Nitrogen boost) from day 9. From day 13, I increased the feed strength to EC 0.9, this time by adding a touch more A&B (from 0.3ml/L to 0.4ml/L) and starting Multizyme. I use House and Garden nutes and additives, except 'Bloom' Cal-Mag. She was looking picture perfect!

The Blue Amnesia is looking lovely and is growing so nicely that I don't have to do any leaf tucking just yet. Her leaves are longer and thinner with longer stems and so has lots of space to let the light in. She's 18cm high and 40cm wide. I'm still rotating her a ¼ turn a day, and she's drinking about 4-5 litres of EC 0.9 feed daily. Now that she's well established, I've started adding Amino Treatment - basically Silicon, and she has a Skyline 400 all to herself, about 70 cm above her. I’ve also started adding Multizyme to get the best out of the root zone. and I increased the Nitrogen Boost to get her REALLY going!

By day 28 you could see that she was just ready to explode with growth. The veg period had produced a bushy plant with loads of tops.... now that she's approaching stretch, we should see some major action!

On day 31, I decided to spend some time with the Blue Amnesia and stake her out..... she was getting bushy and needed to spread out a bit to let more light and air in. Now's the time to expose as many tops as possible before she goes into stretch, and at 1 month old, she was just starting to flower. The other option to staking is to remove leaves, but I prefer this method. The photos show her after staking out all the long stemmed lower branches on day 31.... A close up shows those stems bent out at almost 90°, but the tips and side branches recover very quickly and start growing upwards again. . It's a bit like a low stress supercrop! I put my stakes in early, and only down the edges of the airpot..... I figure that if there's any damage, it's only to the root tips, and that's much better than severing a main root closer to the centre of the pot. Air pots are successful because the root tips get air pruned, so damage to the tips from staking will have the same effect I suppose? I dunno. In any case, I prefer to give them NO stress in the first 4 weeks, to make use of that limited veg time, and I try to do my staking before the roots get to the edges of the pot, so for a 20L airpot, 28-30 days is a good time to do it.

It's day 37, week 6, and the Blue Amnesia XXL is well and truly in flowering mode. By now, a lot of growers will have switched from grow to bloom nutrients.... but I use House and Garden coco nutes, and they do things slightly differently. They have an A&B that you use throughout the grow, along with a root stimulator and a enzyme. In veg you add the product 'Nitrogen Boost' and in bloom you drop it and use Bud XL and all the bloom boosters like PK 13-14 etc. In other words, there's no separate veg and bloom nutrients. During week 6, they're stretching as they move from vegging to flowering, so I keep giving Niitrogen until the stretch stops.... usually midway through week 6. I also start giving Bud XL this week, as flowers are forming, so I want to support that as well. This is also when I drop the Silicon as I don't want that shit in my buds. So basically this week is an overlap of feed types... tapering off the Nitrogen while introducing flowering additives. The NPK of the A&B is 4-3-9, so there's a lot of potassium in there. I'm giving between 0.3 and 0.4ml/L in veg but have to lower it to around 0.1ml/L in Bloom to allow for the high strength bloom boosters like PK 13-14 (week 8) and later on Top Shooter (weeks 9 to end) which is essentially PK 20-9 .... both of which I use at full strength. The NPK of the Nitrogen boost is 27-0-0 and I give between 03 and 0.5ml/L in veg, stopping when stretch stops. Last grow, a mate of mine suggested giving Nitrogen for a bit longer for Sativas as they need it to develop those longer colas... I might try that on this grow. Last week I staked her out, and she went into stretch. Now she has plenty of space to fill out with some fat buds! She is 55cm high and 65cm wide, and looking very healthy with tons of long stems all ready to explode with flower.

This Blue Amnesia is like a Triffid on steroids, she won't stop growing!!! On day 49, I gave her a good defoliation underneath, cutting any leaves that aren't getting much light and any poxy stems that won't get near the top, or produce much more than wispy flowers. She started the week on an EC 1.0 feed, giving A&B, Cal Mag, Roots Excellurator, Multizyme, Bud XL and Nitrogen Boost..... basically my usual veg mix plus Bud XL. During the week, I added Bud Candy and reduced but not stopped the Nitrogen, to keep her a bit greener during flowering. Then I start adding the flowering boosters..... starting with a few days of Bud Ignitor then next week a few days of PK13/14 round about day 50, and finishing off with 3-4 weeks of Top Shooter. She drinks 6-7 litres a day. but could use an extra feed during the day.... I only mix up a 20L bucket of nute for all my plants, so there's none left to top up during the day. I am gonna buy a bigger tub, maybe a 60 Litre one so I can really max her out in flower. I'm also getting a bit sick of lugging a 20L bucket upstairs on a daily basis.... a bigger batch of nute makes sense all round.

This week the Blue Amnesia XXL has shifted up a gear, and is catching up to the Widow. The staking out really paid off because she is just full of long stems packed with flowering sites. She's been on PK13/14 in the form of House and Garden's Top Booster at EC 0.9 for 2 days, I usually give it for 4 days, then move to Top Shooter till the end. While giving Top Booster, I drop the Roots Excellurator. I have also increased the Cal-Mag slightly as she's getting so BIG!

These pictures from day 59 show just how big and beautful the Blue Amnesia is.. She is absolutely choc full of sticky bud!!! Now that she's done with the PK 13/14, I've moved onto the final flowering booster, House and Garden's Top Shooter at half strength and resumed the Roots Excellurator. Thanks for checking in!

The Blue Amnesia is just amazing - she's full of big fat colas, they are covered in trichomes and smell beautiful. I've increased the Top Shooter to full strength and finally stopped Nitrogen.... I think she's grown enough! The colas are continuing to fill out with flowers, and she's beginning to give off a really intoxicating berry scent. I've given her another good trim downstairs, now I just have thick fat buds on the way - with no popcorn!

It's day 74 and they are all hurtling towards the finish line. I thought I'd show you just how big the Dinafem Girls are compared to the Dutch Passion's. The picture shows clockwise from top left and also in decreasing height... White Widow XXL, Blue Amnesia XXL (both at the back), Glueberry OG and Night Queen (in front). I strapped on the macro lens so this week is all about trichomes.... The Blue Amnesia is very heavily coated. A lot of milkies, but also plenty of clear ones..... there's also loads of white pistils so she still has a good few more weeks left in her, I think.

Now into week 11, day 81, and the Blue Amnesia XXL is getting close to the finish. She's been a looker right from the start, she's fat, she's hairy and she absolutely stinks! In the first photo, you can see how much I have trimmed away, look at all that branching! The Blue Amnesia looks like being the tastiest of the bunch. There's more than just blueberry in that smell, it's very intoxicating just smelling my fingers after I've plucked a few crispies out. Yum!

It's day 97 and I only have the two Dinafem Girls left in the tent...... they are both IMMENSE!!! All eyes were on the White Widow, for pure size and aesthetics, but the Blue Amnesia..... she's something special! I had a look at the trichomes on the Blue Amnesia, and they are all opaque with a couple of ambers here and there..... so I will start flushing tomorrow and get her down over the weekend..... I use plain rain water, plus 1ml/L Advanced Nutrients - 'Flawless Finish'. I put 10L in immediately, then an hour later put another 5 in...... and keep putting 5L in every 3 hours for the first day, then slow it down to 5L twice a day with a 3L given an hour after the 5L.... if you see what I mean..... I hydrate the plant, then allow time for the excess nutrients to move from the plant into the medium, then flush again to bring the EC of the medium down again...... rinse and repeat.... After 4-5 days the EC is down to a steady 0.1, so to avoid bud rot, I get chopping! Not far to go now!

So on day 102, I took these last photos in readiness for the chop the next day. The harvesting was reasonably easy, each stem had a fat cola on it, and so I just cut the stems off near the base, snipped off any side branches and pulled out any crispy leaves out by hand. Like the White Widow, there wasn't many big leaves left really, just trichome encrusted sweetleaf, I manicured them using clippers, and hung them in batches. The main stems were just hung directly while the side branches were clipped to 'sock hangers'. It probably would have taken less time if I pulled my finger out and rolled less scissor hash enriched joints! The final shots of the enormous Blue Amnesia XXL before she came down show just how massive she is. The colas are like Rugby balls, and they are thick and solid all the way through. The main cola itself is collossal.... longer than a Bluelab Truncheon! She was left to dry hanging in the tent, not very often I get the opportunity as I usually have the next grow going just before I crop.... I used to spend ages taking a branch off, then removing all fan leaves. Then I'd take the time to clip away all the sweetleaf - collect that and freeze it for canna-coconut oil, and then once manicured, I'd cut off each and every bud, grade them and brown paper bag them so I could hang them on the sock hangers. All with wet bud... all stems and leaves removed. Long winded and really took ages especially with the bigger plants..... and I've had a few of those! On the face of it, it does seem easier removing all the leaves immediately as they stand out, but if you cut say 5-6 stems off and work through those, the leaves start getting limp and more difficult to trim off... lots of tangles. I would also get worried about degradation of terpenes while piles of wet bud were sitting around for days, and of course, there's the threat of the dreaded mould setting in...... I'd harvest late at night, so after a long manicuring session, the last thing I wanted to do was grade them and bag them up to hang.... Now initially for time reasons, I cut a branch off, chop the stems off, and just remove the fans. I'd do a rough clip of any small leaves, but then just hang them. I can get a plant down in less than half the time. I was fortunate with the White Widow and the Blue Amnesia, they went that long that most of the larger leaves had dried and I had plucked them out. The Glueberry was a lot more leafy, and the Night Queen, leafier still. They all took about 3 leisurely nights each to harvest, and they were all vastly different in size and yield. Leaving a fair amount of crystal laden sweetleaf on them allows the buds to dry more slowly as the leaves dry and wrap around the bud a bit. Leaving the buds on the stem, again slows down the drying process. The slower the better in terms of final smoothness/harshness. Once dry I'll clip the buds off the stem, do any final manicuring and jar up. The manicuring is much easier on dry leaves compared to wet.... the clippers don't keep getting jammed up with resin as often! I think too much fiddling removes a lot of the trichomes.... which is why I don't brown paper bag them anymore - just cuts out one big handling step. Same for anal manicuring.... (I meant over-zealous manicuring...... not..... ahem.....) it's great getting loads of sticky balls of scissor hash, but I'd rather all that goo stayed on the bud really. It makes me cringe when you see those trimming machines in action, they're hammering all those valuable trichomes off..... no wonder dealer weed is so shit compared to the home grown stuff! Now we're ready for the final weigh in..... you'd better take a seat......

The Blue Amnesia XXL took second stage to the White Widow... like an Ugly Sister pushed to the side. But..... while the Widow hogged the spotlight, the Amnesia fattened up, and produced colas that looked like rugby balls, and lots of them..... When I was cropping her, there seemed to be even more than I pulled from the White Widow. I weighed this lot after cropping.... checked the numbers...... then weighed it again...... ...then I took some bud and put it in a jar with a hygrometer...... hmmmmmmmm 54% RH........ So here goes.... the Blue Amnesia gave me a dry haul of..... 18.40 ounces...... thats 521.63 grams WTF???????? Whoever heard of an Auto grown in coco giving almost 18½ ounces??????? There's not even a gram of popcorn, and no mould. Just fat hard sparkly buds! Thanks again to Mark at @DinafemSeeds, for the beans and to a special friend who made sure they got to me over here on the other side of the planet. Each plant was under a Skyline 400 LED unit which has a 200W draw. I used 4 Skyline 400's in total. A big thank you to my main man Muddy at Ledhydroponic for these fantastic lights! I need to have a smoke... I'm still trying to get my head around 18.4 ounces.......0