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First Indoor - FB Strawberry Banana (grown snug between 2 Amnesia Haze)
First indoor grow! I picked up a tent set from a local supplier that seemed well suited for my space and just contacted them to switch out all the small pots included for just a pair of large airpots (or rootpots, what you prefer). I had intended on growing 2x 42FastBuds Amnesia Haze but the seeds that I ordered came with a bonus seed! So what can you do, I contacted my gardener again to tell them I needed another 22L airpot please, and here is the grow report for that extra seed!
Soil is "common" soil mixed with coco and perlite, the other 'other' component is Lechuza Pon - a stony, long term fertilizing substrate from Germany. Same mechanical function as perlite but also slowly gives off standard plant nutrients. I also added some Guanokalong powder to each soil mixture, about 200g to each 22 liters. A typical first-grow overdone mixture, as it should be! :)
"Mary", as she will be named, will be sitting snug between Petra and Paula (after Peter, Paul and Mary, ye know, Puff the Magic Dragon!).
Besides sitting there happy, watching little Mary grow, I already put the net in. Figured it will give me a visual aid to help estimate total height after stretch - so whether I will need to train more or risk running out of space in the tent. Them shoes turned out to be pretty big (:
I also started working on my first Arduino circuit and program so I will be able to just check my 'grow computer' - if the humidity is right in relation to the current temperature and grow phase - instead of doing it with a VPD chart all the time by hand. Later it should also trigger the necessary equipment via relais by itself.
Maybe a little early with the training in week 2, but I was so excited to get going - and reasonably concerned about the headspace with the big shoes in a 160cm tent.
Started to have problems with too low humidity and added a humidifier - you can see it steaming away in the corner of the last picture there.
The last components arrived and the first version of my grow controller went into action! It's not controlling anything yet though - but it could!
Big training time came again this week - I could have waited with the training until now, would have had about the same result I reckon when it comes to spreading the plant out and would have made my job watering, pruning etc easier through the rest of the grow. One of the many, many things I am still about to learn.. :)
Choppedy chop-chop! Time for some defoliation this week!
And yeah, I am still not seeing the signs of overfeeding/underwatering - just wait and enjoy, it will get worse. "Tune in next time for our extra scary episode, where I'll mistake poor Mary for being underfed!"
Towards the end of the grow I will figure out, that these airpots can not be overwatered and you can basically just install a tap to it and all your problems are solved.
Last week of the veg, and I had now decided that life is too simple and added PK nutes to the sparse feeding water instead of just feeding her enough water, 2 times a day, already.
The training went along, one stem tried to become king of all the other stems so he needed to be chastized and tied down. As I said before, shoulda waited longer with the first training but otherwise its a joy to work with the soft gardening wire and real easy. On difficult/big spots the stem needs some massaging but most can be bend in place just like that.
Sadly only 2 pictures this week - nutrient overdose will slowly kick in now, causing nutrient lockout in all new growing leaves - meaning, all primary and secondary leaves on all the now forming bud sites wont get their micro nutrients of iron etc and will eventually almost all die off showing different and exciting symptoms from now on. Excellent timing, I wont have to prune much come harvest! xD
Aaand here we go. A good 2 weeks of added PK with no need now shows its symptoms - so, around this time I kept scratching my head and dug up and down the internet until an article - mentioning the symptoms of Iron Deficiency being caused by too much P/K in the medium - brought me on the right track eventually.
So while the outside world gets covered in snow, I watch my lady grow - and some time this week finally realize I better start a major flushing project if I want to see something alife come harvest day.
Otherwise the stretch is stretching, training worked out great for a first try if I do say so myself.
24/0 cycle is working out nicely as well in keeping stable conditions in the grow area - buffers the temperature drop from running manual heating (or rather, not running it) at night.
So, while the leaves are doing the dying and I am flushing what I can, the buds come out fine enough from the looks of it. Luckily on the last trimming, I didn't take more than I did, or it could have gone much worse at this point!!!
I am spending a lot of time cutting away parts of leaves or entire leaves now, to help her keep going by not wasting energy. I do not believe I will have an issue with bud rot. 😝
The week before Christmas. Since I planned to visit the family for about a week and the plants not looking nowhere near finished, I decided on a cheap drip feed solution to try for the time. You can spot the black tubing and the sack on the last images.
I kept watering twice a day - in the morning and evening - and what little green had remained was showing healthy colors and growth again now. The amounts of water that were a flushing before started to be absorbed without leaving much drain. A very satisfying result with the problems before. Turns out leaves arent that important after all! 😉
This week / the week before I also started slowly dropping the RH a bit now, away from the VPD calculated ideal for the temperature in the tent. Definitely didn't want to come home to a tent spawning mold on me. 😏
I also gave her another defoliation now, cutting away anything that had any sign of damage and/or was blocking lower bud sites from direct light. Figured the buds are large enough now to do their own thing with all the green mass on them. With Green == Chlorophyl == Active Photosynthesis after all.. Hm.. The kind of thing you really would like to have some clones for to try around with.
I don't believe the pictures show the state after the very last haircut. Had to get the car packed and going, sorry! 😀
Being away with the family, I can only share the state the plant was in on the 31st when I had returned for this week.
The little drip feed solution worked reasonably well and with the lights turned down to 75% and the temperatures having dropped to 14°C inside the tent, she basically froze in development, eagerly waiting for my return. Ok! 😀👍
Solid strain, and behaving very much as advertised - same as the other FB seeds I started at the same time. All plants go like clockwork, the flowering was only hours apart in the whole tent.
Would grow again? Yes!
Will keep buying my autoflowerering seeds from 42 FastBuds? YES!
Smoke Review: Harvested early on purpose, the high is energizing and uplifting - but there is some indica in that strain, and you can feel it too! Especially if you dip a little bit deeper into the honeypot 😁
Smell and taste is a bit fruity, you can find strawberry and banana, so I am very much looking forward to the properly dried and cured buds!
I've ordered myself a little holder thingy for the phone, so I can attach the pocket microscope to it and take stable pictures through it - until then, just believe me that the trichomes started to turn amber in large enough amounts that I did not want to wait any longer. Going for that active, energizing high, it was time to cut her!
I will see that I fill in the growdiary live week by week from now on - I would have added a lot more thoughts and notes that way I believe. Might have slightly helped diagnosing the poor thing earlier. 😅 On the grow itself, there are several things I learned and want to improve going forward. For one, I am not going to carry that much water around a second time 😄
I can't really weigh this right now and I already started smoking it 😇 - but if possible I will try and provide a dry estimate later this month when I prepare the remains for curing.
Steinmarder
