Tropicana Cookies Autoflower

February 15, 2024 Welcome back to another season of Insane Autoflowers. I have 11 weeks to finish these ladies up before 4/20. Then I have a competition to join. That being said, let's go over the setup. This setup is an AC Infinity 3x3 automated grow system. I'm running a 4" exhaust fan with carbon filter. 2 fans. Both are 6" with one being oscillating. The germination kit is also AC Infinity. With the new AC Infinity supplemental lighting, a small computer fan for air exchange and a nice shot glass to germinate these little babies. I'll be using root riot plugs and 3 gallon AC Infinity fabric pots with the AC Infinity bottomed feed watering basins. There will be a total of 4 plants in the tent. These ladies will be sharing the space with a pair of Banana Purple Punch Autos. For the seedling stage, I have the light around 250 PPFD and will bump it up to 350 PPFD in the last couple days in the germination center. I'll be reusing Sohum Living Soil. This is the second time using it, but it should be fine. I reused the same soil brand with my last grow and the Gorilla Cookies in that grow gave me 21.25 oz dried and trimmed. So, it should be fine. I also have advanced nutrients just in case. I may give a weekly dose of recharge and the base nutrients just to keep everything from getting drained completely. This strain is 8 to 9 weeks to harvest. Let's hope it doesn't go any further than that. I'll be using a couple training techniques. LST to start. If need be, I'll use a SCroG net as well. I may end up topping. So far I have noticed every single plant I've grown does better when topped. However, I have a feeling that slows the plants down and goes beyond the suggested life span. So hopefully I won't need to top them and they do just a well as my last grow. Let's hope for 10 oz per plant. One last thing, I have the new little square hydrometer from AC Infinity in the germination center. I plan to keep the temp between 75° and 80° and RH at 75% to 80%. That should be everything for today. February 16, 2024 Day 1: Both ladies popped last night and had taproots this morning. Just peeking out. Perfect time to plant them in the plugs. They will be in the Germination Center for just a couple of days. I like to ant in the final containers just before the roots break out of the plug. That way there is no stress whatsoever. I may add a bit of my seed starter soil in the top part of the pot. Just to keep the seedling from burning. However, I haven't had a burn issue yet, so there may be no point. Honestly, the seed starter soil is really for the Photoperiod plants. The ones that last about a week or two in the Germination Center. That should be all for the day. Ladies are planted. Germination Center Environment: Temp: 77.6° RH: 82.9% VPD: 0.55 kPa February 17, 2024 Both ladies are showing some green coming out of the plugs. I feel like they will pop the surface later today. I'm having a bit of an issue keeping the temp above 75°. I'm sure it will adjust once the lights go on, but for now it's just below 75°. The humidity is a bit bouncy as I can't find the correct spot for the "exhaust fan" yet. It won't really matter until the lights go on and both ladies have popped. I didn't end up filling the pots up yet. I have to wash the basins out first. I'll do that today and prep the pots tomorrow. Quick Update: I turned the light on now that I'm seeing green but not quite popped yet. It should help with keeping the heat up. Germination Center Environment: Temp: 76.5° RH: 82.1% VPD: 0.56 kPa February 18, 2024 We have some little green babies! They're perfect and it's only been 2 days. I expect these 2 to be super vigorous with how that look now. As long as I don't screw anything up. For starters, the light is 18/6 as of today. The Germination Center Lights are set to 60% power with an intensity level of 250 PPFD. Hopefully that will keep the stalks thick and short. I don't like lanky seedlings. Much harder to work with. Today, I decided to fill the 3 gallon AC Infinity Fabric Containers with reused Sohum Living Soil. This is the first time being reused so everything will be perfectly fine. My last grow had a monster plant grown in the same used soil. So it's all good. The goal is to plant the babies in the pots before the roots start to show too much. Normally I'd use a couple of nursery bags, but this time around I don't need to. I pan to use the tent environment this time. No domes, no extra bags. Just plug to soil. I plan on having the light around 18" with a humidifier. It should do the trick. I'll also be keeping the light around 300 PPFD for the first couple of days. Power should be around 20% after they establish a root system, I'll move the light up to 24" and increase the intensity to around 450 PPFD. Normally I'd work with DLI, but I don't need to yet. I will once the light is raised. So that should be an excellent transition from dome to tent life. If all goes as planned, these 2 should live up to their full potential. Quick Update: I decided to drop the light power down to 30% and gradually turn it up over the next couple of days until they need to come out of the dome. So 2 days max. Then I can turn the big light on and work from there. Germination Center Environment: Temp: 76.5° RH: 76.4% VPD: 0.74 kPa February 19, 2024 Today is a new day and a new stage. Both ladies were planted in their final containers. I watered them in with 250 ml of plain water PHed to 6.2. I didn't concentrate all of the water at the base. I made sure to start with 100 ml around the base and the rest covering the whole top soil. Their tap roots were poking out from the plugs already. I was kind of hoping for one more day in the Germination Center, but then I would have had to set up the nursery bags and that wasn't the plan for this run. Hopefully my calculations are correct with the 250 ml. I'm using the 3.4 gallon fabric pots from AC Infinity I already mentioned. They are also used from 2 runs ago and washed thoroughly. Domes were added and the main grow light is now on at 20% power. The light height is around 30" and the intensity is at 290 PPFD. It's a bit high, but the domes block out a bit of the light, dropping the intensity down to 200 PPFD. The tent isn't all that warm currently due to cold weather, but I'm hoping the heat of the main grow light will increase the temp in the domes. Currently the tent temp is 72° and the temp under the domes is around 68°. I'm hoping over the next few hours, the temp will raise up and the environment will stabilize. I can't keep the domes off either as the RH is hovering at 43% in the tent itself. I have a humidifier, but that dropped the temp down even more, hence the domes. Kind of a pickle I'm in. I'll keep trying different things until I get it right. I hope it won't take me more than a day or 2. If not the next few hours. Grow System Environment: Temp: 68° RH: 79% VPD: 0.49 kPa February 20, 2024 It's day 4 since seeds and these ladies are doing perfectly fine. Right on cue as well. I expect them both to hit the Veg stage in just a few days. Should be by the end of this first week. Maybe a day or 2 after. The domes are doing their job perfectly. Just a little bit of dew and the temps are finally leveling out at a reasonable number. 75° by the end of the morning, the environment should be spot on. That's all for the day. No watering. I'll water tomorrow another 250 ml for each baby. Grow System Environment: Temp: 75° RH: 75% VPD: ? (I'm taking readings from 2 different hydrometers. One of the main tent for temp and the one for the Germination Center for RH) February 21, 2024 Both ladies got another 250 ml of filtered water PHed to 5.8, spread around the entire pot surface. I was thinking about doing another 250 ml around the outside of the pot. It may be a good idea to start moistening the rest of the soil. So when they start the veg stage, they can take off immediately. I'll probably wait until this afternoon and then decide. I did notice that A had drier soil than B. B is in the front and A is in the rear. I wonder why that is. They look absolutely wonderful. Slightly praying and they both have really nice steady growth. The leaves are a beautiful dark green. So healthy and ready to go. The baby fan leaves have some really pronounced, serrated edges. As for lighting, I've been paying attention over the past day and I think the domes will come off tomorrow or the next day. The light may also need to be lowered when the domes come off. Currently the intensity is 200 PPFD. I think 300 PPFD should be a good starting point starting week 2. I've also been researching and I think I have a good light schedule for the whole grow. At 18/6 Week 1: 200 PPFD DLI: 13 Week 2: 250 PPFD DLI: 16.2 Week 3: 350 PPFD DLI: 22.7 Week 4: 640 PPFD DLI: 41.5 Week 5: 700 PPFD DLI: 45.4 Week 6: 725 PPFD DLI: 46.7 Week 7: 725 PPFD DLI: 46.7 Week 8: 600 PPFD DLI: 38.9 Week 9: 550 PPFD DLI: 32.4 This is based on a 3 week veg time and 5 week flower time. Update: Domes Removed. I was researching as to when to remove a humidity dome from a seedling and everything I've read is to remove them a day or 2 after sprouting. So I removed them. The tent has been sitting nicely around 68% and 77°. So everything should be fine. I'll have to keep an eye on the light. Without the domes, they are getting the full intensity. However, I'm not all that worried. They are both praying, so a bit more light won't hurt. Grow System Environment: Temp: 73.6° too low RH: 77.5% spot on VPD: 0.95 kPa estimate February 22, 2024 Not much to do today. I filled the humidifier, cranked the heat and spritzed the babies with a mist of PHed water. Took some photos and that's all. No adjustments needed. Both plants look absolutely perfect. Their leaves are flat, so I know the light is right where it needs to be. Grow System Environment: Temp: 75.9° RH: 80.9% VPD: 0.93 kPa