Banana Purple Punch Autoflower

March 1, 2024 Day 15 Lots to do today. I added nutrients, changed the watering schedule, increased the light intensity, adjusted the light power level and readjusted the height. I've also changed the environment slightly. Starting with watering and nutrients. As I said last week, I changed the watering schedule from 250 ml daily to 500 ml pHed to 6.0 every other day. It's the same amount of water, but a different application. It should help keep the soil moist from top to bottom slowly. 2 more of these 500 ml waterings should put the containers to runoff and then I stop and install the bottom feed systems. Moving on to nutrients. I've started them in their regimen for the veg stage. 2 ml/ gallon of each of the Advanced Nutrients 3 part base solution plus 2 ml/gal Advanced Nutrients Sensi Cal/Mag Xtra. That will be added every other watering. And the Recharge will be added at the start of every week. Next is the lighting changes. Increased light power from 30% to 40% Light height is now 28" DLI: 22.7 mol/m²/d PAR: 350 ppfd This in turn brings me to the last change of the environment. The temp will stay roughly the same between 76° and 77° for the whole of the veg stage with the RH hovering between 60% and 62%. I'm also going to try to increase the night temp to 70° and turn off the humidifier to keep the RH at 60% during lights out. That's all for today. Grow System Environment: Temp: 73.3° RH: 60.3% VPD: 1.09 kPa March 2, 2024 Today I'm having a debate with myself. The containers aren't heavy enough for the plants ages. So I'm thinking maybe 250 ml one day and 500 ml the next. And so on until the containers are moist enough. So 250 ml today at some point. And because they are starting to show signs of nitrogen deficiency now, I think I'll have to keep the nutrients in for the rest of the week. Next week, when the pots are full, I'll then switch to feed every other watering. Lighting is looking spot on. They are reaching slightly and look perfect. Next week, I think I'll increase the light power up to 60%. There should be plenty of foliage to capture all the light. I'll also be starting training by the end of this week and into next week. Whenever they get tall enough to touch the side of the containers, is when I'll start training. I have air circulation, but not blowing directly on the plants yet. Hopefully that keeps the stalk malleable so I can comfortably be d them down as needed. I may also top them. I have discovered that a topped plant for me means a huge harvest. Every plant I have ever accidentally topped or mangled has provided wonderful yields. I had a Zkittlez that gave me 6.5 oz, a 6 oz Skywalker and the best so far, a Gorilla Cookies that yielded 21.5 oz! That being said, I feel like it's in my best interest to top them and go from there. However, I won't be topping right away. I find that the breaks happen during training when there's a good amount of branches. It's accidental, but still works wonders. We shall see how things go over the next 2 weeks. That should be it for veg, 2 more weeks. Finally, the nutrient regimen. Because the plants are suffering a small amount of nitrogen deficiency, I may increase the dose to 3 ml/gal instead of the 2 ml/gal. I'm also thinking about doubling the dose of Cal/Mag. The deficiency isn't bad, but I'm not 💯 certain what the deficiency is. Nitrogen or Cal/Mag. One of the three or maybe an iron issue. That should be fixed with the nutrients. Update: I decided to water in 250 ml after all. I didn't water at the base though. I feel that is crucial in not overwatering the young plants. When I water the 500 ml tomorrow, I'll water the base. It seems to be working. Also, I am wondering if I should do a foliar spray with the nutrients just to help speed up the nitrogen intake. I'll have to research if I should or not. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.1° RH: 60.9% VPD: 1.10 kPa March 3, 2024 Both plants are now showing signs of nitrogen deficiency. I'm not surprised, but still, I need to fix it. So I increased the dose from 2 ml to 3 ml for the whole regimen except for the Recharge. That stayed the same. They got their 500 ml watering today as scheduled. The bases were also watered. Hopefully with the nitrogen coming in, they don't stunt. The soil moisture is about half way down the container. today's watering may bring it down to 75% of the container. I'll have to check later on after the soil has time to absorb. Technically it should drop in a few hours from the 43% it is now to about 35%. That's how I know the lower soil has absorbed the water. Tomorrow I'll do another 250 ml without watering at the base. This seems to be working quite well. I think I'll be good by the end of the week for watering. The basins will be installed next week I think. The plants should be big enough for the bottom feed system by then. Other than the nitrogen deficiency, they are beautiful and growing very nicely. I did notice that A is a tiny bit smaller than B and the leaves are a slightly different shape. Different phenome maybe? I'll find out. I had to raise the light up an inch as well. I'm trying to keep the DLI at 22.7 mol/m²/d for the next day or two. I will most likely increase the power to 50% tomorrow and mess with the distance. That way, when I transition to 60% next week and increase the DLI, it should go smoothly. The environment is spot on and has been for a couple of days now. Let's hope for less wonky weather for the next few weeks. The temp is hovering around 77° during the day and 70° during lights out. The RH is staying strong at 61% day and night. Very happy with that. I did increase it to 62% yesterday to keep the temp in check. Worked like a charm. Grow System Environment: Temp: 75.5° RH: 62.1% VPD: 1.11 kPa March 4, 2024 I have found my differences between the the plants. BPP A is slower to grow and has thinner leaves. I feel like this may be a sativa leaning phenome. It makes sense. Sativa's take longer and they have thinner leaves. But because this strain is a hybrid, the leaves aren't as thin. She only has one set of leaves and the first node hasn't opened up yet. Could be stunted or as I'm thinking, but it's still slower. Either way, I'm going to keep an eye on this one. If it's a stunt or a dwarf, I'm not keeping it. I'll toss it and make room for the other plants in the tent. BPP B is further along with fatter leaves and already on its second node. I can already see the branches popping out. So things are moving along nicely. However, I feel like she isn't growing as fast as she can and that's definitely my fault for not adding nitrogen a bit earlier than I did. She still has beautiful green leaves. And looks super healthy. Beautiful stalk. Nice and thick. They got their 250 ml watering today without watering the base. I guess I could just say that the 250 ml never gets watered on the base. Anyway, they still need more water. If the 500 ml doesn't do it tomorrow, I'll do another 500 ml the next day. And the day after as well. I really want a bit of runoff before I install the basins. Both plants are slightly leaning in toward the center of the light. That tells me I need to either rotate or raise the light and increase the power. But I think I'll have to increase the footprint so the outside of the plants get the light they need. Also, when the basins gets installed, the plants will spread out to their own quadrant. Frankly, I'd really like the bar style light from AC Infinity. The board style is too concentrated in the center. Anyway, I'll hold off on the installation for next week. I may rotate later today to get the plants to stand straight up. I may increase the Grow base for tomorrow's watering. I'd like to get more nitrogen in the plants earlier rather than later. Plus I'm pretty sure I won't be able to poison them with any toxicities. They are definitely low on everything. It should fix soon, but I need growth now. So I may do the additional grow base afterall. One thing I would happily like to mention is the environment. This is the first grow I've ever done that has had a super level environment. Very little variation from day and a from night. RH stays basically the same from day to night at around 61% and 62%. The day and night temps are also spot on. Day time temp is around 77° and 78° with night temp being around 69° and 70°. It's perfect. I increased the light intensity to 450 ppfd today. I increased the light power up to 50% and moved the light up a bit to compensate. As mentioned before, this should help fix the lean the plants have. I may also turn my supplemental lighting on and bring it to the top of the canopy. I might be able to decrease the power level on the main light and save some money on the electric bill. DLI: 27.2 mol/m²/d PAR: 420 ppfd (completely on purpose 🤣) Power: 50% That's all for now. A bit to do today Grow System Environment: Temp: 76.0° RH: 61.7% VPD: 1.15 kPa March 5, 2024 Both plants are looking really nice. However, I'm still a bit concerned with Banana PP A. She's still not opening her second set of leaves. On the other hand, Banana PP B is looking great. They are both getting close to the edge of their containers. Right on que. In 2 days, they should be big enough to install the basins. Hopefully the roots will be close to the bottom where the wicks can work their magic. I watered in 500 ml today. I decided that I needed to increase the nutrients as we are coming to the end of week 2. So now I have all nutrients at 4 ml/gal except the Recharge of course. I may increase that for next week. I'm not sure that I've caught up to the nitrogen issue. I had to move the light up a half inch today. Not much, but I'm keeping the PAR at 420 ppfd until next week. The environment is spot on for the week so far. 78° and 60.5% humidity for the day so far. As for last night, temp at 70.7° and 62.5% humidity. Grow System Environment: Temp: 76.1° RH: 61.9% VPD: 1.14 kPa March 6, 2024 Good day today. Saw some major movements today. Lots of growth overnight and beautiful looking plants. They each got 450 ml of water today. I watered at the base anyway as I need the soil to be moist ASAP. I didn't mess with the lighting today. I'll check tomorrow to see if it needs to be lifted. As always, the environment looks great. Nearly spot on. Today is a bit warmer out and the temp is around 78° in the tent. Nothing I can't fix in a snap. Grow System Environment: Temp: 75.9° RH: 61.7% VPD: 1.15 kPa March 21, 2024 Both ladies got their watering today. I increased the base grow nutrient to 8 ml for this watering. I also spaced out the waterings. I did 250 ml then waited an hour and added the other 250 ml. I also increased the Recharge to half a teaspoon from a quarter a teaspoon. Lighting is still fine. I'll be increasing the power and intensity tomorrow. So each plant is showing slight signs of nitrogen deficiency. It didn't get too far along, but still has a slight deficiency. The colors are nice and green still. I'd also like to note that Banana PPA is still a little bit behind. Not much, but still a bit. She's still the same height as the other one, so that's good. Environment is looks great as usual. No issues and definitely staying in my range. Tomorrow I'll be dropping the RH down to 58% but keeping the temp around 77° for the week. I'd also like to note that both plants have been rotating all on their own. It's intriguing how they are doing that. I'll have to start rotating in a couple weeks when they get bigger. Unless I have to run a net, then no rotation obviously. Still super interesting. Grow System Environment: Temp: 75.5° RH: 61.5% VPD: 1.13 kPa