Banana Purple Punch Autoflower

April 5, 2024 Day 50 This week is a major focus on Scrogging. The net has been installed and I've set it at 19" from the soil. Watering is also a thing as well. Lighting changed and will need a heavy focus as well. Plant differences are showing more now. Finally, the environment will be tweaked a bit. Banana Purple Punch A looks great! She had 4 tops that were over the net. They have been pulled down. She also got a few leaves cut off today. As the strain goes, keeping up is important. The majority of the tops are still below the net, but just barely. I'd say about 18" there. I'm expecting a good sized plant out of this one. Banana Purple Punch B on the other hand is shorter and slower. Don't get me wrong, she has the best bud structure of the two and has the thickest branches, but she is shorter. About 17" for the main canopy with a few tops reaching just 19". Nothing to be done currently. If she doesn't start to grow, I'll have to lift her up to keep her level with the rest of the canopy. Although, she still has some stretching to do. Maybe a few more inches? Who knows, she went into flower second, so she is a touch behind. When Banana Purple Punch A stops growing, hopefully Banana Purple Punch B will continue for a couple extra days. I will say that I have a feeling she will be the first to finish up. I will also add that she is covered in buds, top to bottom. There may be a couple popcorn buds along the way and I'll do my best to clear them out before she's done stretching. I'll do the same with Banana Purple Punch A, but she doesn't seem to have much, so it should be a quick snip. I'll check back tomorrow to see if there is any development. She got some leaves cut off. Maybe 10 total. Just ones that were squished against the tent walls and a couple that were overshadowing multiple bud sites. The nutrients are changing slightly. I'm taking out Big Bud and replacing it with 8 ml Overdrive for the next 2 weeks. I'm also increasing Bud Candy to 8 ml/gal per the schedule I'm following. Finally I'm removing the Sensizym as the schedule says. I'm leaving the Tasty Terpenes in for the rest of the grow until flush week. So next watering, I'll be making those changes. Banana Purple Punch A needed a top off today from the rest of the gallon I mixed up. She'll definitely need another top off tomorrow morning. Banana Purple Punch B should also need a top off tomorrow. We shall see. I might just top her off anyway and maybe she will catch up with the thirst. Lighting was also adjusted. After installing the SCroG net at 19", I needed to drop the light 1.5". That's a good sign. I have a couple extra inches to work with if they get too tall. I'm not seeing that happening though. I'm thinking 24" plants. With Banana Purple Punch B being slightly shorter at 22". That's my guess anyway. The DLI also adjusted back to 45 mol/m²/d. Of course, it should stay there while I SCroG the canopy for the next week. That should be all I need to get the canopy level again. So the light will stay there at 80% power until it needs to move again. Hell, I may have to drop the power down a bit if I run out of space. The environment is happy at 75° and 55% humidity today. The VPD is roughly 1.27 kPa. I'll be adjusting it a bit as well. The temp will stay the same around 77° with the humidity dropping down to 50%, if I can pull it off. I do struggle a bit with the environment in my grows. This most likely won't be any different. But the strain is pretty robust and the air flow is spectacular. I have 2 oscillating clip fans on opposite sides of the tent. So there's always airflow. Just a very light breeze. The dehumidifier is doing some of the work, but not a whole lot. The 4 plants in the tent with a full canopy of leaves makes for a lot of water vapor. Maybe after the stretch is done and I do a final defoliation, I can get the humidity down below 50%. Grow System Environment: Temp: 75.2° RH: 54.3% VPD: 1.32 kPa April 6, 2024 Watering day for both ladies. They were both at the same water level. Looks like I managed to level them out for now. I've also decided to switch back to last week's nutrient schedule. It's only week 2 of flower, so Overdrive is a bit early. I'll start it next week or the week after. Most likely next week. I'm not sure how long the flowering stage is for this strain. Should be 4 or 5 weeks, but in my experience, most autoflowers take about 6 weeks to finish up flowering. That being said, I need to deviate from the schedule I'm using a bit by a week or 2. From what I'm seeing in the schedule, it's based on 8 weeks. With 3 weeks of veg from what I understand. These ladies went through 5 weeks of veg and will need an extra week or 2 of flower. So adding the extra week of Big Bud instead of Overdrive makes the most sense. I did leave the Bud Candy at 8 ml/gal. And I'm also leaving the Sensizym in for this week. Apparently it's supposed to only go through the first couple weeks of flower. So this week is week 2 of flower. Sensizym is still in play. Banana Purple Punch A needed a couple tops pulled down today. She's looking great! No need to defoliate... Yet anyway. Great internodal spacing and big buds coming up all over. There wasn't much in side branching with this lady. So there aren't tons of tops, but lots and lots of bud sites. I didn't check the roots today. They are all over the place. I'll check tomorrow just to make sure there's no root rot or anything slimy. Banana Purple Punch B grew one top last night that is now touching the net. The rest grew about a half inch. As I said, this plant is staying pretty short and compact like an indica does. It's still only the second week of flower, so she could definitely take off. I'm not expecting too much taller, but what she lacks in height she makes up in bud sites. They are everywhere. She also has more branches than her sister plant. At least that's what it looks like. But the buds... Oh the buds. Seriously looking good. Big chunky bud sites. Lots of pistils. I can definitely tell she's going to have some super dense buds and should cover the whole plant from top to bottom. I did check the roots today. She still isn't showing any signs or roots through the bottom of the container. I'm not sure what happened there. Maybe they will start showing more now that the reservoir is nearly over full. I just need some extra moisture on the bottom of the container. Hell, I might dip the whole container in the reservoir to soak up some of the water. That should spark the roots to grow more. Of course, I can't complain about this plant at all. Her trunk is massive and her branches are thick and sturdy. If there was a plant that didn't need a net, it's this one. I'll raise her up after the stretch, unless the other plants takes off even more. The main difference between the two is that this plant has a much more level canopy while her sister plant is a bit uneven. Definitely has some tops that need to grow more and catch up. They are just barely below the net which is pretty level with Banana Purple Punch B. The lighting need not be changed again today. The plants still haven't gone past the 19" net yet. Again, I'll change the light around when need be. Once the rest of the canopy catches up to the rest, I'll allow them to grow past the net then. The environment looks pretty good. The temp is spot on for where I want her just about 76° with the humidity being a tiny bit high at 56.5%. The VPD however is still within range near to perfection at 1.30 kPa. Update: I ended up snipping some leaves from both ladies. There were a few massive ones that were covering multiple bud sites. There were a few others in the lower part of the canopy that were blocking the lower bud sites. Now there's a good amount of leaf coverage. Grow System Environment: Temp: 76.3° RH: 54.6% VPD: 1.36 kPa April 7, 2024 Not much going on today. No watering needed and no branches to pull down under the net. Banana Purple Punch A has a couple tops climbing over the net again. Nothing tall enough to pull down, but getting there. She's looking great as well. Very healthy and strong branches. I do have one concern. There are a couple tops that have orange tipped pistils, like there's still pollen from the last grow in the tent. Either way, I'll have to keep a very close eye on those couple tops. One is covered in orange tipped pistils, with a couple having some just on one side. I'm wondering if it happens when accidentally touched. It's the only plant that has those, and I may have accidentally touched, or something, the buds. I really hope she doesn't get seeds. If so, they will be a different strain. Gorilla Cookies and Banana Purple Punch. Anyway, her watering seems to be the same as her sister plant now, so that's good. I am now a bit concerned with Banana Purple Punch B. It looks like she never got to stretch. So I need to lift her up to match the rest of the canopy. Not big deal, but I was hoping for a level canopy without having to do such things. Either way, she still looks fantastic. Super healthy and strong. I'm still expecting some great bud out of this lady. Again, I haven't touched the light. It's perfect where it is. The environment is now on point. The temp is 77° with the humidity being 55%. The DLI is a tiny bit high for this age. 1.41 kPa. It's within range, and actually will be close to perfect next week, but this week I still want it around 1.35 kPa. Update: As I had to yesterday, today I was further observing the plants and found more leaves covering bud sites. Mostly on Banana Purple Punch B. Due to her tight nodes and compact structure, her leaf coverage isn't quite as open as her sister plant. So there were more bud sites being covered by overlapping leaves. So I snipped away the over lapping leaves. There were more than I expected. I must have missed more than I thought yesterday and then of course some grew and needed to be cut. I also tucked a few of them so not to go overboard with the snipping. Banana Purple Punch A has a much more open canopy with excellent leaf coverage. But some were definitely overlapping and had to be removed. It was just a few though, so nothing to write home about... But important in a detailed diary. 😉. Second Update: I decided to lift Banana Purple Punch B to be level with the canopy. It looks great now! Nice and level throughout the whole tent. Wall to wall with a sea of buds. And more coming in. Grow System Environment: Temp: 76.1° RH: 54.4% VPD: 1.36 kPa April 8, 2024 Not much going on today. I took a couple leaves off that were mixing and overlapping with other leaves. Both plants were also pressing up against each other, so I maneuvered Banana Purple Punch B to a better position. Also, lifting Banana Purple Punch B up the 2 inches worked absolute wonders. Perfectly level with the rest of the canopy and climbing just as well too. Nearly all of Banana Purple Punch A tops are above the net. Everything looks fantastic. Watering need not be done today. They still have about 2/3 left to go. So maybe another 2 days? Tomorrow maybe for Banana Purple Punch A. We shall see. With the plants breaking past the net I raised the light today and had to drop the intensity down to 80%. For some reason the DLI was pretty high at 50 mol/m²/d even with the light at 24" it was too bright. So I lifted it a bit more and dropped that power down. Now everything is back to normal at 45 mol/m²/d. That should help a little bit with the final stretch. I like to see the plants reaching slightly. It tells me the light is right where it needs to be. The environment is still doing great! It's been around 76° for the last 7 hours and the humidity is bouncing between 54% and 56%. So that's great! The VPD is great as well. Around 1.33 kPa. The daily average is great as well! See below. Update: The light is perfect. The plants are reaching ever so slightly. Just wonderful. I also found some clusters of dense foliage, so I cleaned it up a bit. Just got rid of a couple of the middle leaves. The lowers don't need to be clipped. They are still getting enough light to absorb. Grow System Environment: Temp: 76.5° RH: 53.9% VPD: 1.42 kPa April 9, 2024 Nothing to do today except watering. Both ladies got a full reservoir refill with Banana Purple Punch B almost overflowing. However, they are very close in intake now. Banana Purple Punch A continues to stretch with vibrant color and beautiful leaves. She's definitely going to produce some quality bud, that's for sure. As long as no issues arise, everything should turn out wonderfully. Banana Purple Punch B has a couple tops reaching pretty high. The issue here is how stiff and thick the branches are. There's still a lot of tops that are under the net. But just barely. It honestly looks like she is just about done with the stretch. Happily, I have her at the same height as the rest of the tent and she will get all the light she needs for the next 3 weeks or so. Regardless of height, she is super healthy and happy. Trichomes are starting to really show and the aroma is amazing. Not super strong yet, but I'll be expecting it to get stronger as the buds fatten up and trichomes really start showing. I also snipped a couple more leaves off. 2 from a cluster and 3 from some overlapping leaves. That's for both plants. Barely anything, but I feel it's important to keep the tops clear and open from any unnecessary foliage. The leaves are still growing so I expect clusters in other areas as well as overlapping in different spots. Definitely gonna have to keep up with it. So far it's going quite well. I didn't look at the light today. There are a few tops over the net, but not high enough to justify raising the light for now. I have about 4" left of space between the light and the exhaust fan and filter. I may have to remove the fan and install it on top of the tent like I ended up doing from my last grow. The environment is looking great as always. It's a beautiful day out and it's definitely showing in the tent. The temp is around 75° with the humidity hovering around 51%. It's perfect and the VPD could stand to be a bit higher now. Just around 1.40 kPa. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.7° RH: 50.3% VPD: 1.42 kPa April 10, 2024 Not much today. A couple leaves, raised the light. That's about it. So there were a couple really big leaves on the tallest cola of Banana Purple Punch B. They were practically overshadowing half the plant and some of another plant in the tent. Those had to go. I think I took off one more, but I don't remember. Lol. Anywho, I completely left Banana Purple Punch A alone. Nothing to snip and no overshadowing leaves. I might check them out later to see what I missed. I always find something later in the day. Banana Purple Punch A looks great. Her structure is kind of like a donut. There aren't any tops in the center of the plant. It has to be the way I ended up training this plant. I always pull the branches out away from the center. This time around, I'm not sure there was a whole bunch of auxiliary branches. Just strong thick branches with heavy buds on them from top to bottom. She's in great shape! Plus the center missing colas, it gives much more light in the bottom of the canopy without having to cut more leaves off. I'm very interested to see the outcome of this one. Her tops are a little mixed. All of them are at the net, but there's a few that are starting to tower over the others. Even with the net in place, I can't bend these ones down without potentially snapping the thick branches. They aren't more than 2" taller, but they are still quite tall for the size of the plant. Banana Purple Punch B on the other hand has plenty of central colas and outer colas. Her training was different due to her compact size and super thick branches. I should mention that she has almost all of her tops reaching over the net now. I knew she would start to push more. Let's hope for a couple more inches. She has tons of bud sites all up and down her branches. So I'm not too worried about the yield. It should be pretty good. I raised the light an inch today maintaining the DLI of 45 mol/m²/d and keeping the footprint the same as always. I'm wondering now if I should let the footprint shrink a bit to concentrate the intensity further in the canopy. Shouldn't be an issue with their height. I'd also like to mention I haven't removed any branches or auxiliary branches from either plant. So the more light I get deeper, the more quality bud I'll end up with. I may drop the light down to 22" when the stretch is over. I'll also check to see if the net would be necessary anymore. Most likely, but still would be nice to pull each plant for inspection and maintenance. Let's hope I can do it. I may find places with too many leaves that I can't see from the canopy. The environment is way off today. The humidity is pretty high at 58 to 59% with the temps being too low at 74°. The VPD is suffering as well at 1.14 kPa. Much too low for the flowering stage. I'll have to see what I can do to fix it. If I can get the humidity down to 55% and the temp up to 77°, I'll be fine. I'd really much rather the humidity be at 50% or 52% ideally, but something is off today. Grow System Environment: Temp: 77.5° RH: 52.5% VPD: 1.49 kPa April 11, 2024 A nice and easy day. The light power may need to be turned up, but I'll look into that tomorrow. I removed a few leaves here and there to open up a bit more space, as well as leaves that were crushed against the tent walls. They don't need water today, but Banana Purple Punch A will need a watering tomorrow. Banana Purple Punch B hasn't taken much water in but I expect her to need water in a couple days. The bottom of the container is nice and moist, but the plant doesn't seem to need much water. It's very interesting. I always end up with one plant that sucks down all the water and another that takes next to nothing. Very interesting. I wonder what I'm doing to cause this or is it just that much difference between the two? Now that they have been cleaned up... Again... They looks stunning. Both ladies are covered in trichomes now and are super sticky and smell absolutely wonderful. Banana Purple Punch A could stand to have a few more leaves removed, but I've taken enough for today. I'll give it a other two days before I trim again, then I'm leaving it alone for the rest of the stretch with next week being the last for the flowering stretch. At least, it should be. I'd say there's another 2 to 3 weeks left of nutrients before flushing. Probably another month left for both ladies. Maybe slightly less. Banana Purple Punch B is still super compact, but the way I've trimmed her up, she still has plenty of space for light penetration as well as airflow. Perfect. I'll keep an eye on her though. I did manage to remove most all of the leaves crushing against the wall and a few that were infringing on another plant in the tent. Those leaves went as well. The environment is a tough cookie today. It's not bad by any stretch, but the exhaust fan is running at full blast to compensate and I'm not a fan of that. I'd much prefer the fan run at 50%. Or lower. But it's raining today, so I'm not expecting it to be perfect. The temp is hanging out around 75° with the humidity bouncing between 53% and 56%. The VPD is a tiny bit low at 1.33 kPa. It should be above 1.40 kPa at this stage. Grow System Environment: Temp: 75.6° RH: 53.9% VPD: 1.36 kPa