Tropicana Cookies Autoflower

March 29, 2024 Day 43 It's a new week and things need some changing. First off, the light was changed around. Secondly the reservoirs are all clean now and have a fresh gallon of nutrients. Finally, environmental factors. Both plants look absolutely beautiful. They have buds popping up everywhere. They are both 14" tall and have the same structure. They are seriously hard to tell apart. Flowering just started and we are in the beginning of the stretch. With the current stage and current growth patterns, hopefully I can expect between 24" and 36" plants. They are also perfectly level with the other 2 plants in the tent. So it's quite a nice ocean of tops. Some of the branches are a bit lower than the majority. I'm not worried. They are pretty strong branches. They just need more time to adjust from the training. I'm also considering the SCroG net more. It looks like I'm going to need it for a few branches. Mostly the main side branches, but the auxiliary branches are roughly the same height. I won't be doing any more structure training. Now it will be keeping the canopy level and minor adjustments. The shape and structure of both plants are exactly where I want them. Not too wide and just barely touching the other plants. Now it's a matter of upward growth. Personally, and based on experience, I think a 36" to 48" plant is fine to manage. Anything bigger in this size tent and it becomes unmanageable. As for lighting, the light was about 22" from the canopy today. I raised it back up to 24" and increased the power back to 90%. The DLI is roughly around 44 mol/m²/d. The PAR is around 675 ppfd. Something like that. Also, the very outside of the tent walls, the DLI is around 40 mol/m²/d. So it's still in range for the whole tent. Perfect footprint. Watering was reset today. All reservoirs were cleaned out and a fresh gallon of nutrients went in. That includes the B-52. Next watering I'll be adding Sensizym when it arrives. As for the nutrient regimen, I undecided to stay with a half dose. Especially considering the fact that I'm running a bottom feed system which provides a constant water source. So the uptake could get a lot of build up with too much nutrients. This happened with some nitrogen toxicity last week. It was cleared up in no time, but that was just too much nutrients. So half I go. It should turn out perfect. The environment is looking great! I won't be changing anything up yet. The temp is spot on around 77° and the humidity is at 55%. Exactly where I want it. I will keep this environment for the rest of the flowering stretch and then I'll start to drop things down. Down to 75° and humidity of 50%. The last week of flowering, I'll try to drop the temp down to 73° and 40%. It shouldn't be a problem. The light will also be backed off with a decrease in power. But that's not for weeks. Maybe even a couple months. But the way these are growing and the reputation FastBuds has, they should be ready in 3 to 5 weeks. According to FastBuds, the veg time is between 30 and 45 days. And flowering time is the 40 to 45 days. So around 8 to 10 weeks. It took 41 days to hit flower, so that's on the high end, but within range. Maybe it will be the same 40 days in flower. Maybe 30 days. I'll take 4 weeks. Grow System Environment: Temp: 76.0° RH: 53.8% VPD: 1.38 kPa March 30, 2024 Not a lot going on for these two today. Both ladies drank about a third of a gallon yesterday and seems to be holding steady. I also checked the roots. Tropicana C isn't showing any at the moment. I was sure they would be showing by now. However Tropicana Cookies has roots showing. The funny thing is that they are the same size and still look the exact same. Both ladies got a haircut today. Not much, just some outer leaves to keep them more compact and within their quadrant. However, based on their size and growth, I may have to put the SCroG net up at 18". That should do the trick if there are any branches that take off. I also ordered the crossbars by AC Infinity. Very happy with this purchase. Now I can run the SCroG net across the entire tent without it sucking in. I can also mount my supplemental lights on it horizontally. That will give even more lower light coverage. The goal is to have no larf this go. Popcorn buds are fine as long as they are dense. This strain is supposed to produce massively dense buds. So with the setup I'm running, I should be expecting some quality bud throughout the whole plant. The light also got lifted again today. I kept the power the same, but the DLI was high at 55 mol/m²/d in the center. Much too high. Also, Tropicana Cookies was drooping before the lights got shut off yesterday. A sure sign of too much light. It seems that quadrant, in the back left corner, has more light. Maybe the grow light isn't level. Anyway, I lifted the light to 25" above the canopy. The footprint is amazing. With the center of the tent producing 48 mol/m²/d with the outside at 44 mol/m²/d. Not much of a difference and the lighting is great everywhere. I'll have to check back and see what Tropicana Cookies looks tonight. The environment is mostly alright. The temp is a bit high at 79.5°. But the humidity is perfect at 55%. Unfortunately the temp is throwing the VPD off by a decent amount at 1.50 kPa. It needs to be around 1.33 kPa. The daily average is spot on though, so that's great! Neither plant needed watering today. They both drank about a third of a gallon last night. So I expect to have to refill the reservoir in a couple days. I'd like to note that the new nutrient schedule i found didn't have Tasty Terpenes in it, so I will be adding that at 4 ml and Big Bud as well at 4 ml for the next refill. Oh and I'll also be adding the Sensizym next watering. I believe it calls for 4 ml. Basically this nutrient schedule runs at half dose. So it's pretty easy to work with. There are a few things missing, like bud ignitor and bud factor x, but everything else seems to be roughly the same as what I was using before. The major difference is the schedule itself. The old schedule was based on a photoperiod grow and that meant it was way too far extended than that of an autoflower. This new schedule takes out the guess work and makes for a really good starting point. I'm sure over time I'll change a few other things, like adding the rest of the nutrients and tweaking the amounts here and there. I'm definitely not that good yet, so I'll be learning along the way. It'll be slow going with my small setup, but I should be able to figure out the precise dosage of each nutrient based on the plant. Someday. One last thing. I increased the Cal/Mag back up to 8 ml/gal. This schedule calls for it. Grow System Environment: Temp: 75.9° RH: 54.5% VPD: 1.35 kPa March 31, 2024 These two are identical. They even have the same single top slightly taller than the rest. It's wild! They are looking great in every way now. Beautiful color green. Nice growth, they aren't quite as tall I had hoped by now, it maybe they are just low to take off. Afterall, they really just started to flower. Still kind of in pre-flower. Anyway, these two should start to take off anytime. If they don't, bummer but I'll still get some quality bud. I think it has mostly to do with the medium. It's reused and probably drained of all its original nutrients. That being said, I missed a few nutrients for the veg stage, and that could be the issue with the lack of vigor these plants are supposed to have. These ladies will be needing a reservoir top off today. Later this afternoon. They aren't quite empty enough yet, but will be in a couple of hours. Then I can refill the reservoirs. Unfortunately I still don't have the Sensizym yet, so I'm watering without again. But, I do have the bud Candy, B- 52 and Big Bud. So that's good. Oh and the Tasty Terpenes too. All at half dose of course. This should at least pump some crazy goodness in the bud development. I didn't change the light at all. No need. Both plants are happy as can be. They are reaching slightly and look great. This should also help with the stretch. I've also decided to put the SCroG net at 18". That should give me enough time to let the rest of the ant catch up but also tall enough to take care of any renegade tops from overshadowing the rest of the plants. Also, the plants are only 14.5" tall so far, so the light need not be moved. The environment is quite happy as well. It's hovering between 76° and 79°. The humidity is great! Hanging out just at 55.5%. The VPD is also in a great place around 1.35 kPa. Grow System Environment: Temp: 77.4° RH: 54.6% VPD: 1.43 kPa April 1, 2024 Not much today. I made 1 adjustment to Tropicana Cookies. One branch was starting to take off from the others and happily it was closer to the center of the plant so I pulled it out and tied it down to be just under the rest of the canopy. Neither plant needs watering today. They may not need it for a couple more days. The bottoms of the containers are nice and moist, but they aren't taking in a lot of water. Tropicana Cookies has tons of roots and still isn't taking more in than her sister plant. It's strange. Tropicana C has only a few roots popping out of the bottom sides. This could mean a root ball building up and soon will grow roots downward. At least, that's what is supposed to happen. They both grew a couple inches last night as well. Now they are 16" and climbing. I also raised the light today. I raised it nearly 2" To make up for the canopy. The DLI was kind of high at near 50 mol/m²/d on the outer parts of the tent and was over 58 mol/m²/d on the inside. Now it's back down to 45 mol/m²/d in the outside of the footprint and 53 mol/m²/d on the inside. The plants aren't in the center for this exact reason. So there is a small open space dead cell center where my dehumidifier is. Near perfect coverage. I just need a bar style light and all my lighting issues will be solved. The environment is a bit of today, but not too far off. The temp is a little low at 74.7° with the humidity being closer to 58%. It should adjust in a few hours and all will be good. Side note, I really can't tell the plants apart in the pictures. Just clues of other things in the pics. Still hard to tell. So they may be off for a bit until I can figure out what is what. Grow System Environment: Temp: 75.4° RH: 55.2% VPD: 1.31 kPa April 2, 2024 A bit of a to do today. Both ladies got a small haircut. It's been a few days now and they both kind of needed it. Mostly to keep them compact and not to overtake any other plants. Both plants have reached 19" and climbing. If I'm correct, I think the math shows 3 ft plants. It took a couple days for them to start taking off, but they were 16" yesterday and are now 19" today. That's 3" of growth over 24 hours. The stretch should take another week or 2. At this rate, 36" is quite possible. Tropicana Cookies needed a bit more trimming than her sister plant. Just a bit more, but still. Tropicana C didn't need as much trimming. Her leaves are full and beautiful. She just hasn't filled out quite as much yet. Well, now they are the same anyway, so we should see each of them grow back the same way. That's the goal anyway. I may not need a SCroG net afterall. Maybe it will be needed at 24" or maybe 30". Either way, I don't currently need it. If I had a bigger tent, it may benefit a tiny bit, but that's if I had a bigger tent. The light needed to be lifted again today. Another inch. I may have to do 2" instead. The light is roughly 23.5", but the DLI is roughly at 45 mol/m²/d. So that should be good, but it is a bit high in the center at 52 mol/m²/d. Not a problem for now, but the plants are starting to fill in the center, so I need to be careful with the light intensity. It shouldn't be an issue. The plants get rotated almost daily to help fit in the tent better. The environment is pretty good today with the temp at 76° and the humidity around 55% but can reach 58%. So it's a bit bouncy today. But the temp is pretty stable. The DLI is pretty good as well at 1.30 kPa. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.2° RH: 58.2% VPD: 1.18 kPa April 3, 2024 Watering day today. Both ladies got a full gallon top off. All nutrients are finally in the mix. It's looking good. The plants are super happy. It looks like a gallon every 3 days is where we are for now. They are both stretching pretty hard now. Already at 21" from yesterday's 19". I may have to install the SCroG net tomorrow. Nothing is really shooting up much, but the canopy is a bit off. It's about half and half. Some branches are tall with some still being a bit stubby and short. The short ones look just as good as the taller ones, with nice bud production, but still short. If it continues, I'll need the SCroG net. I'd like to note that the internodal spacing is really nice. The bud sites are looking fantastic with plenty of space to grow some super fat nugs without clumping on top of each other. The leaf coverage is perfect now. I don't think I'll need to defoliate again for the rest of the grow. I may remove a leaf here and there, but that's it. The light needed to be raised a couple inches. The DLI was over 50 mol/m²/d. Now it's back to normal. The light is just over 24" from the canopy. The DLI is back down to 45 mol/m²/d and the footprint is looking great! The environment is a bit skewed today with rain outside. The humidity is up to 59% and the temp is a little lower at 75°. Even with the dehumidifier on. I may have to turn on the main dehumidifier in my room and see what happens. It should adjust itself this afternoon. Grow System Environment: Temp: 75.6° RH: 56.2% VPD: 1.29 kPa April 4, 2024 Not much going on today. I got my side bars in so I installed those and the SCroG net to about an inch over the canopy. Some of the tops are starting to take off and need to be pulled back down. I didn't bother checking the water today. It's definitely not ready and tomorrow is the start of a new week. I may not even be able to water for another day or so. It should be fine though. The light was also left alone. No need to move it until the ladies catch up. The environment is also looking pretty good today. The temp is at a nice 76° with the humidity at 55%. The VPD looks great at 1.33 kPa. Everything looking great. What a great end to a productive week. Grow System Environment: Temp: 75.5° RH: 54.8% VPD: 1.33 kPa