Tropicana Cookies Autoflower

March 8, 2024 Day 22 Light Specs: Power: 70% Distance: 25.5" DLI: 32.4 mol/m²/d PAR: 500 ppfd Plant Specs: Height: 4.5" Nodes: 2 Leaf Sets: 3 A new week! Week 3 to be exact. So this week is going to focus on lighting and plant growth. Feeding is a thing, but it's not really changing except for the increase. But watering will be the same. 500 ml per day until the container is fully moist. To start, let's talk about the plants themselves. Both ladies look fantastic. They have a wonderful structure but the leaves are still light green. They have 3 nodes and side branches popping out now. I expect her to double or triple in size over the next week as they start to really grow. They should take off any day. Like tomorrow or the next day. I'll be training once they have 4 to 5 nodes. I was thinking about earlier, but they aren't big enough to tie down yet. I've finally installed the basins. The aren't active yet, but will be when training starts. That being said, I had to mess with the light and changed the DLI to 32.5 mol/m²/d. I increased the power to 70% and have the distance at 25.5". This should be perfect for this week. Next week I'll be increasing the power again. Hopefully I can get the distance to around 24" for the rest of the grow. I'll accept 22", but I would much rather have the larger footprint. Especially because the plants are spaced out into their own quadrant. I wasn't expecting to go up to 70% power. Today, they got the remaining water from last week at 475 ml. It was the end of the gallon, so there wasn't a point in making up a new gallon for 100 ml. So tomorrow, I'll water in the 500 ml with the new nutrient dose. Micro: 6 ml Grow: 10 ml Bloom: 6 ml Cal/Mag: 6 ml Recharge: 1/4 tsp Bud Candy: 6 ml This regimen will be for this week. I may add a couple more if I can get them in time. Like Voodoo Juice: 6 ml Piranha: 6 ml Sensizym: 6 ml Rhino Skin: 6 ml (if I can find it) Next is the environment. It's near perfect. I'll be dropping the RH down to 58% for the week and will hold it there for the rest of the veg stage. I'll be keeping the temp around the same at 77°. I might drop it down to 76° if I can. The extra power with the light will increase the temp, so I'll need to compensate for that. I have both circular fans just above the canopy, making a very light breeze to help the plants grow up to be big and strong. The exhaust fan remains at power level 2, which seems to be perfect. It will most likely drop down to level 1. But that's because it's exactly at 58% humidity. Anyway, this is the setup for the week. I'll be keeping a close eye today to make sure they are taking to the light and have no issues. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.9° RH: 60.7% VPD: 1.13 kPa March 9, 2024 Not much going on today. Both ladies were fed 500 ml of the new nutrient dose. I also did a foliar spray with cal/mag. I know you should wait for lights out, but my light isn't bright enough yet to really cause any issues. And the air flow is set to power level 1. Same thing with the exhaust. I'll also do a second foliar spray at lights out. Hopefully the foliar spray with the added nutrients helps. They're still a bit light green. So I'm expecting to see some improvement over the next day or so. No need to change the light yet. Soon though. I'll have to raise the light up a couple inches. The environment is still looking great! 58% humidity and 77° flat. Perfect. It does bounce a bit between 76° and 78° but hovers mostly at 77° all day. Night temps are still about 70°, so that's also a bonus. As for the plants, they are starting to grow pretty fast. The leaves are still a bit like green, but they're robust and getting pretty big. The stems are super strong looking, but I haven't touched the plants to find out. No touching for as long as I can. Grow System Environment: Temp: 76° RH: 59.9% VPD: 1.21 kPa March 10, 2024 Today there wasn't a lot to do. I watered in 250 ml and I'll water in another 250 ml this afternoon. I also checked the DLI. It increased by 0.1 mol/m²/d, so no point in changing it. As for the plants themselves, they are looking great! Growth is taking off. The branches are getting long. Another couple of inches for these two and training can begin. So far, Tropicana Cookies is the largest plant of the four plants in the tent. She is 6.5" tall, where as everyone else is 5.5". However, they are all at the same stage in growth. It's interesting. I may rotate these ladies around and see how things go. I feel like the left back quadrant grows the best plants. My last grow, in this quadrant, I grew a 52" 21.5 oz Gorilla Cookies. It was insane. This seems to be the case this time around as well, so I may rotate them every week and hopefully I get 2 plants of massive size. Tropicana C looks just as good as her sister plant, but an inch shorter. I'm sure it won't matter in a week or two. Anyway, both plants are still pretty light green. I'm not sure if I should be concerned or is it fine? I'm going to research more and maybe ask a question. However, I wonder why this is at all. I've added plenty of nitrogen and Cal/Mag to help feed said nitrogen, but still they are light green. But then it comes down to how they're growing. They are growing quite nicely, so I'm not sure I should be concerned. I've also only done 2 foliar sprays. So I'm sure it will take a few days to start showing signs of improvement. However, it has been over 2 weeks. The next step is a massive dose of nitrogen. The environment is the same. A bit warmer today, but only a bit. The humidity stayed the same though. So everything looks great. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.9° RH: 60.2% VPD: 1.16 kPa March 12, 2024 Not much going on early today. I watered in 250 ml and may do another 250 ml later in this afternoon like I did yesterday. The moisture has finally hit the bottom of the containers, but the outsides are still dry. I need the WHOLE container to be moist. I'll also check the lighting this afternoon. I will need to raise the light maybe an inch. They are starting to grow fast now. Not quite as fast as I would have hoped, but with the lack of nitrogen and me not knowing how much to give, I'm afraid this is what I'm dealing with. Maybe the extra boost of nitrogen will work. If not, I'm going to increase the dose to 16 ml/gal for 2 waterings. The environment hasn't changed one bit. I'm super impressed by this. Especially because one of my main issues I've had for previous grows was environmental. This run, I'm able to keep it level. As for the plants. They are still light green, almost like they were intended to be so. Especially because both are doing it. It could also be that this strain is particularly hungry. However, they are both growing the fastest of the group and have super broad seven finger fan leaves. The side branches are starting to come along as well. I'd give it four more inches and I can start training. The leaves have also met the edges of the containers. That should mean the taproot is at the bottom of the container. I'm not sure though. The way I watered in the moisture, slowly over time, may have controlled the direction of the tap root and held it in the center of the soil longer than normal. No idea if that's good or bad, but I feel a bigger and longer taproot will help with later root growth. Like root ball for days. The environment is still spot on. Being around 68° to 70° at night and 76° to 78° during the day. Anyway, that should be all for today. I'll update later on if I decide to do the extra watering and light change. Update: I didn't end up watering the plants again. I may water later on, but chances are I won't. Same with the light. It's roughly at 550 ppfd so it's all good. What I did end up doing is rotating the plants. Now Tropicana C is in the back. Tropicana Cookies is getting noticably larger than her sister plant, so I figure if I move them, the light should do better in the back and Tropicana C will catch up. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.8° RH: 58.6% VPD: 1.19 kPa March 12, 2024 A bit of a to do today. I had to start training Tropicana Cookies. She is taking off earlier than Tropicana C and is almost 2" taller as well. So I tied down the top as one should and leveled the canopy with her sister plant. I'm hoping that helps and the branches get as tall. I also tucked a couple of the big fan leaves to open up light to the branches. So every branch is exposed to the light. I'm also going to do my best to avoid a trellis. Unless I really have to I'm order to keep the canopy level across the whole tent. So far, I have had zero luck growing plants of the same size. My last grow, one plant cannibalized another plant and nearly the other two in there, but it grew to such a massive size, it was worth the 21.5 oz dry yield from the one plant. This time around I'd rather have all four plants in the tent be the exact same size. They are supposed to have super dense buds and massive yields without growing to a massive size. I'll be watering 500 ml later today. The pots are light and they are drying out a lot faster than I thought. So I may start watering a liter in next week. I should get some runoff and then I can activate the bottom feed system. The basins hold a gallon of water. I feel that it may be a bit of extra work, but it helps to keep a better eye on the plants. And the reservoirs don't get gross as quickly. I also mix my nutrients in a 1 gallon water jug. That also takes a bit longer than filling up a 5 gallon bucket, but it's much more efficient. Not to mention, I can change the nutrient regimen for each plant if need be. For example, if I can't get this nitrogen deficiency to go away, I'll add more nitrogen to these two plants and leave the other 2 in the tent alone. However, I feel all the plants are suffering from nitrogen deficiency, but the Banana Purple Punch string sharing the tent has nice dark leaves and is being fed the exact same nutrients and has the exact same soil from the same container. Lighting is looking pretty good especially since I trained down Tropicana Cookies, so I don't have to move it yet. I will check later this afternoon to see if it needs to be adjusted. The environment is still spot on. A perfectly cool 68° to 70° at night and a warm 76° to 78° during the day. The humidity is still on point from day and night at 59%. I think I'll keep it the same for next week as well. When flowering starts, I'll then change the temp and humidity down. Maybe drop the temp down to 75° during the day and leave the night temp the same. I might drop the humidity down to 55% for the first three weeks of flowering and then gradually drop it down to 45% by the last week of flower. It should be a perfect transition. I will also back the light off in the last two weeks of flower. It should end up being right where I want it. I'd also like to mention that even thought these plants are suffering nitrogen deficiency, they are growing at a really good rate. I'm still hoping for the high nitrogen dose to work it's magic. Update: I decided to water in 250 ml instead of 500 ml. The containers are moist everywhere. Not completely soaked, but moist enough. I'd also like to note that Tropicana Cookies has a bit of clawing. What's weird is that this plant has shown signs of nitrogen deficiency through the whole plant, but a couple of leaves are clawing. It's definitely not overwatering. But how could it be nitrogen toxicity? Unless this particular strain has lighter colored leaves. It's a bit confusing. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.8° RH: 59.1% VPD: 1.18 kPa March 13, 2024 Both ladies got their morning 250 ml today. They will get another 250 ml this afternoon. Starting next week, I'll do a liter at once then activate the bottom feed systems. Once the bottom feed systems are active, I won't need to top water for the majority of the rest of the grow. When the plants get big enough (over 40") , the bottom feed system won't be enough. I decided to tuck the leaves on Banana Purple Punch B and had to readjust the tie down on Banana Purple Punch A. Just a little. I honestly forgot to anchor the base and the plant just straightened up at an angle. Now it's fixed, and they are even in height. The light got lifted and inch as well. The DLI was at 37.6 mol/m²/d and I dropped it back down to normal. The goal is to find that perfect praying position. Also, I found a leaf that looks like it was chewed. I couldn't find anything, but I sprayed the tent with pesticide anyway. It's organic or something but apparently super safe with no nasty chemicals. I threw the bottle out about a year ago. No clue what the brand is, but I remember researching and finding it's pretty good stuff. Oh well. Anyway, the environment is still right where it needs to be. It's honestly baffling to me. How is it so perfect this time around? Maybe it's the lack of extreme weather? Or I finally just have my bedroom environment dialed in. I keep it around 71° and 45% humidity. Very comfortable. Update: I only had 750 ml left in the jug, so I watered in 175 ml for each of the 4 plants in the tent. Another Update: I just discovered that the nutrient dose is too low by about half. I'll be adjusting that tomorrow and feed in 500 ml at once to let it all seep in immediately. Too bad I didn't find this earlier. Although, both plants are growing nicely regardless of the nitrogen issue. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.3° RH: 60.0% VPD: 1.13 kPa March 14, 2024 The last day of week 3 and we are seeing signs of the female sex. Wonderful! Since that started, I did a little bend on Tropicana C and readjusted Tropicana Cookies with a second tie down. So far the method, as always, works wonders. The branches are nearly level with the bend and the color seems to be getting a bit darker. Tomorrow when I water to runoff is when I'll increase the dose way up to where it should be. As for the plants, Tropicana Cookies is robust and bushy. She's definitely the stronger of the two. Great fat leaves. Well spaced nodes. Not too for but not too close. Tropicana C is also looking pretty good. Nearly identical spacing. Maybe a tiny bit shorter, but she is catching up to her sister plant quickly. For training, as I have always done tie down LST, I have noticed that my plants seem to grow faster and bigger this way. Normally an accidental topping gives me a bigger plant, but I think I can get better quality of I don't top at all. More time to grow and more time to produce massive dense buds. The lighting stayed the same today. I'll be changing that tomorrow. I may increase the intensity again, or I may drop it down to 22". Because the plants are so spaced out, the footprint matters a whole lot. 24" from the canopy opens the light up from wall to wall with the concentration as far out as the plants are. It gives a much better blanket of powerful light. So maybe I will increase the power after all. Only to 80% though. I'm sure I'll be at 100% in the next two weeks. I'm going to try to get the DLI around 42 mol/m²/d. It calls for 40 to 45, so 42 is good and a bit closer to the low end so I don't cause any light stress. Or heat stress for that matter. The environment was a little on the cool side last night and this morning, so the VPD is a bit off. The humidity is also a bit high. 61% instead of the 58% I was really striving for. It fixed itself late morning, so I'm not worried, but it wasn't perfect. And that must be noted. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.9° RH: 59.7% VPD: 1.16 kPa