Banana Purple Punch Autoflower

April 12, 2024 Day 57 This week we will be focusing on defoliation. The last defoliation until flower to be exact. I don't plan on doing it all at once, but I'll be doing it throughout the week or when it's done. Whichever comes first. Banana Purple Punch A is about 22" in most spots with a few colas standing an inch or two higher. I believe she has for the most part finished her stretch. Not as tall as I had hoped, but there's tons of bud sites throughout, so it should be a pretty decent yield for her size. Banana Purple Punch B is slightly shorter at 21" tall with 2 colas being 23". Her buds are huge and fat. I'm expecting a really nice yield from her regardless of her size. I'm pretty sure her stretch has stopped now and this is the final size she will be. She may stretch another half inch or so in the next week, but that's it. Both ladies got a partial leaf cut today. Just cleaning up some clusters and larger overshadowing leaves. There's a couple more areas to work on, but I'll save those for the next trimming in 2 days. It honestly should only be about 6 days for the whole thing to be good. With Banana Purple Punch A having less to work on, she may be done next trimming session. Let's hope. It's really time to focus on bud production. The nutrients are going to change with the next watering. Banana Purple Punch A got a full reservoir refill, while Banana Purple Punch B needs another day. I'll top her off tomorrow. I'll be switching Big Bud with Overdrive and removing Sensizym. Tasty Terpenes will remain as well as B-52. I'll keep the new setup for about 2 weeks. Then I'll cut the dose in half for one watering before the flush. I'll be using Flawless Finish for the flushing cycle. I decided to increase the light power back up to 90%. It's the best place for the DLI. The center is about 50 mol/m²/d while the surrounding area is 45 mol/m²/d. The very edges are about 42 mol/m²/d. Overall it's a really nice position and I get to keep the 24" distance. I'm really enjoying this footprint. Also, depending on what happens over the next week, I may have to drop the power back down or lift the light up as high as it can go. I may lose an inch, but that's perfectly fine. The environment was a bit wonky for the last couple days, but now it's back to an acceptable range. Today it's at 76° with a humidity of 55%. The VPD is 1.33 kPa. Again, not the most ideal for this stage. It's fine though. The humidity will drop later this afternoon and the VPD will raise up to about 1.42 kPa. So everything is good there. April 13, 2024 Absolutely nothing to do today. No clipping of leaves, no watering, no light lifting, nothing. Just took some pictures, checked over the plants and that was it. I'll look for leaves to trim tomorrow. If I even decide to trim anymore leaves at all. I might just leave Banana Purple Punch A alone. She seems to be done stretching along with Banana Purple Punch B. So I guess from here on out, I should probably just leave them alone. So tomorrow with be the last day. As I said earlier, the lighting need not be changed. The ladies are praying. I think this is where the light will be for the rest of the grow. Updated Correction: I ended up cutting some leaves off today. Not a whole lot, but there were clusters I missed and a couple massive leaves that were overshadowing several bud sites. It's all about the angle of view. I only have one way I can look, so it makes trimming a bit of a pain. But that should be it from now on. Maybe a bit more tomorrow. We shall see. Grow System Environment: Temp: 73.5° RH: 52.0% VPD: 1.32 kPa April 14, 2024 As I said yesterday, today is the last day of defoliation. So I dug nice and deep. I didn't take off as much as I thought I would, but I'm sure I'll find more this afternoon. Anyway, I had the intention of doing a full defoliation, so I was looking for anything that could be done away with. Lots of power clusters from the younger foliage growing and spreading. I think I will end up removing the SCroG net today or tomorrow. I may do it this afternoon before I check for more leaves and pull each plant out and finish the defoliation then. I'll also clean up the outsides of each plant to help keep them more compact. Mostly leaves that are sticking out too far. Those that touch the walls and overlap each others bud sites. It's early afternoon and I have removed the SCroG net and did a nice defoliation. Both plants got a decent amount of leaves taken off. Nothing crazy, maybe 15% came off each plant. With the net off and the ladies trimmed up, there is plenty of deep light penetration and air flow. Banana Purple Punch A is actually filled in the center now. For the most part. After removing the net, the middle branches came in a bit, offering ample light penetration for the tops that were behind the middles. I've also noticed that the internodal spacing is pretty long on her. Very spread out. But all the buds are big and fat and covered in trichomes. Not quite super frosty yet, but getting there. Banana Purple Punch B opened up quite nicely with her defoliation. Not much changed in branch placement with the net off, but the defoliation opened up a ton of space for ultimate light penetration and air flow. She is also covered in trichomes. Also not frosty yet, but definitely getting there. I checked the DLI today. It looks great at 43 mol/m²/d. Not the 45 I was expecting, but the center of the tent still hits 51 mol/m²/d. Not to mention that the two Tropicana Cookies I have sharing the tent several taller tops than these ladies by about 3 inches. That leads me to have a slight issue. I would prefer the light be at 45 mol/m²/d for these ladies, but if I lower it, the intensity will be too much for the other plants and their taller tops. Lifting the plants up may be the only option. However, it's tops that are taller. The canopy is still just over the net. And that's for all of the plants in the tent. So I'm just trying to figure out what to do. I'll decide this afternoon, after the net is removed and the plants are all trimmed up. I can also get a better idea of what the canopies look like and the amount of tops that are taller. Honestly, the best canopy is from Banana Purple Punch B. She's the smallest, but has the best structure. The canopy is nearly perfect compared to Banana Purple Punch A who is more spread out with tops in a range of heights. Not so level. My training may have been a bit off for her. Still nice and open though. She definitely didn't grow as I expected either. Inner branches didn't stretch as much as I would have expected. So this plant would have benefited a wider canopy. To help get those center auxiliary branches could keep up with the outers. Nothing to be done now. But for future reference. The environment is doing pretty good today with a temp of 77° and the humidity just over 54%. The DLI is looking really good as well at 1.44 kPa. Perfect for this stage. I would prefer to lower both the heat and the humidity. The heat should be around 75° with the humidity under 50%. The DLI would stay the same though. And that's the goal. 1.44 kPa and a temp of 75°. I'll match the humidity to the temp for the DLI. Grow System Environment: Temp: 75.5° RH: 52.2% VPD: 1.39 kPa April 15, 2024 Not as wordy as yesterday. It's watering day! Except for Banana Purple Punch B. She is nearly full still. I soaked the bottom of her container to kick start the wick system. This kind of happened with my last run. One plant just wouldn't take water in as much as the rest. It was also the smallest of the plants. It's interesting that for some reason she started slowing down her water intake at the flowering stage. It's still way too early to do that. Anyway, with the net gone, I finally got to clean the basins out. Well, I cleaned the one for Banana Purple Punch A. It was empty. For Banana Purple Punch B, I mixed the solution and cleaned the wicks. They were definitely clogged. I changed the nutrients to 8 ml of Overdrive and removed the Big Bud. I was supposed to remove the Sensizym as well, but forgot to. I'll remove it next watering. This will be the final regimen for the rest of the grow. I am a bit concerned with the 8 ml dose of Overdrive. It may be too much to start. I should have started with 4 ml. Oh well, I'll be able to fix it pretty quickly if there are any issues. All that being said, everything looks great! The plants definitely look much better without the net. As well as being much more even around the canopy. The lighting was not changed yet again. I'll double check the light tomorrow. I may do it later this afternoon. I'll see how I feel. However, I don't think it will need any movement. The environment looks really good today. 75° and 50% humidity. Looking great! Pretty stable as well. I will say the night temps are a bit high. It's about 71° to 73°. I'd much rather see the temp at 66° to 68°. Especially during the flowering stage. Update: I lifted the light an inch and left the power alone. It's a bit all over the place with the canopy definitely not being level. Like it should be, but now it's at least in the 40's and not in the mid 50's. Grow System Environment: Temp: 75.3° RH: 50.2% VPD: 1.45 kPa April 16, 2024 Not much going on today. Banana Purple Punch A looks great. She may need watering tomorrow. I'll double check this afternoon. Banana Purple Punch B on the other hand need water today. The dip in the basin worked wonders and kick-started the wick system. She's definitely drinking now. She may slow down a bit once the soil saturation rate levels out. Neither plant needs any maintenance today. I didn't bother pulling them out. I don't think it's necessary to pull them out daily if I can avoid it. I'd rather leave them to grow those buds as much as possible without any disturbances. I will pull them out tomorrow though. Just Incase they need anything done. It'll also give me a better idea of what I'm looking at when they are in the tent. It's a tight fit with 4 plants in there, and it's really hard to tell them apart where they meet up. They are all touching each wall, but definitely not as bad as it could be. Looks like a perfect fit to be honest. Their buds are huge. And haven't really started swelling quite yet. Lots of trichomes. I'll start posting trichomes pics next week as well as individual plant pics. They are too big to really tell apart in the tent, so I'll do the solo pics instead. The lighting didn't need to be changed. I believe this is where I'm keeping it for the rest of the grow. At least until the last week. I'll drop it down a bit for the first half of the week and a bit more for the last half before harvest. For now, the light stays at 45 mol/m²/d and 24" canopy distance. The environment looks great today. I finally got the temp down to 66° last night. It has climbed up to 76° today. The humidity has been stable at 51% for most of the time. It climbed a little bit yesterday, but hasn't showed signs of climbing at all today. Grow System Environment: Temp: 73.5° RH: 52.3% VPD: 1.32 kPa April 17, 2024 A little to do today. Both ladies got a reservoir refill and Banana Purple Punch B needed a whole branch pulled out of the way of other tops. Looking good now. I will say this strain has some super strong branches and stalk. I didn't pull Banana Purple Punch A out today. No need. I can see through and around her. Looking good as well. I still haven't changed the light. No need at this stage. Another week or 2 before I drop the light power down to 70%. In theory, if I'm right, that should bring the DLI down to about 38 mol/m²/d. The final week will have the light power at 60%. That will be roughly 35 mol/m²/d. And that's the final light schedule. The environment is back on track with the night temp being around 67° with day temps climbing back up to around 76°. The humidity is still really stable at 51%. I'm not sure I'll be able to drop it below 50%, but I'm going to try my damnedest. 45% is where it should be now. It's just tough to get there. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.0° RH: 50.0% VPD: 1.40 kPa April 18, 2024 Not much going on today. No water needed and no sense in changing the light. Instead, I lifted Banana Purple Punch B up one more riser. Now she is perfectly level with the whole canopy. Should have done that in the first place, but you never know. I've come to the conclusion that this run isn't the best I could have had. The plants aren't up to where I would have liked them. I've been monitoring container size for a while now and I can tell you 3 gallon containers. Don't generally produce large plants. I prefer large plants to shorter ones. Even though larger is not always better, but I have learned from my mistakes and I find that 5 gallon containers are the best bet for a larger plant. I mean, I could just be doing it wrong and got lucky with a few larger plants, but I feel like I generally get better plants with the 5 gallon containers. I'll do a side by side at some point. For the next run, it's a contest, so I'm keeping all the plants in 3 gallon containers. If I have enough soil, I'll do 5 gallon containers. Anyway, Banana Purple Punch A has some taller colas, but the internodal spacing is pretty long, so the branches aren't covered in buds, but the buds that are there are getting really fat. Banana Purple Punch B has more bud development, but is significantly shorter. They have the same amount of branches, but they just grew differently. She also kept up with the wick system, so the bottom of the container is nice and moist with roots showing throughout the bottom. A little too late for that, but still good for strong bud development. As I said earlier, I didn't mess with the light, but lifted Banana Purple Punch B up to canopy height again. The light is seemingly a bit too bright in some areas, where the super tall tops are. I may decrease the power back down to 80% in a week. Then down to 70% and then 60% and maybe even 50% if need be. The DLI for these two is now finally 45 mol/m²/d. The environment is a little wonky today. Well, at least for the morning it has been. It should fix itself later today. The temp is around 75° and the humidity is a bit high at 55%. The VPD is low at 1.33 kPa. Grow System Environment: Temp: 74.2° RH: 53.3% VPD: 1.33 kPa