Strawberry Gorilla Auto v1

Back for another round using a new seed bank, technique, growing medium, etc. Medium is 2.8 lbs. of coco coir mixed with 1.25 lbs. of vermiculite. Seeds were germinated for 3 days using a moist paper towel on a germination mat in a greenhouse. Once germinated, they were put into jiffy pots and left in the greenhouse for an additional 5 days. Before planting into the medium, the wrapper was carefully removed from the jiffy pot to ensure the roots could grow directly down. I am using an AC Infinity self-watering fabric pot base with a 5 gallon fabric pot. I’m hoping that with these changes I will avoid the nutrient lockout I experienced last time.

The first few days after transplant were touch and go but after some extensive nutrient loading she seems to be in much better shape. I will likely pull back a bit on the watering to try and encourage the roots to grow down and start pulling the water from the self-watering base.

Continuing to grow as normal with some yellowing showing up on older leaves. It has finally started to pull from the base so I don’t need to water from the top as much. I’ve done some light foliar feeding using a diluted solution of Big Bloom + Grow big.

Plants exploded in height so I raised the lights up to maintain a 20" distance. I also applied LST in an effort to bulk them out a bit. The smell is noticeably stronger though I’d still rank as normal. Not sure if it’s due to this crop’s growing conditions vs. my last attempt or the Fast Buds genetics but I’m really excited and encouraged by what I’m seeing so far.

It looks like the plants have probably stretched as far as they will coming in at nearly 2 ft. The smell has gotten noticeably stronger, so much so that I needed to replace the active charcoal filter on my tent. I switched up their nutrients and replaced Big Bloom with Tiger Bloom as part of Fox Farm’s recommended nutrient schedule. At this point in my last grow, everything had already gone to shit so I’m now a firm believer in the superiority of hydroponics vs. soil. I’ve never gotten plants this large before and am considering how or if I need to make my tent bigger. But I’ll also continue to keep a close eye on the leaves so as to catch any issues early on.

This plant just keeps going up, up and up. I moved the light up as far as I possibly can with the hope that she stops growing at 3’. The color is great. The pH is a little high which I will try to lower. Flowers are still white. I removed most of the LSTs from the lower branches while adding some to the upper ones. Smell seems to have pulled back some.

This lady continues to impress me every time I check on her. Her pH is creeping up again despite the flush I did last week so I will likely be using some more pH down when I refill her watering base. Despite that though her leaves are still a deep, dark green with no indication of nutrient lockout and other than a defoliation I did two days ago she’s pretty much on autopilot. The top of her main cola got so close to the lights that I had to LST the top but that barely slowed her down. Unfortunately I can’t take my lights up any further. The seed vendor noted this was an XXL-sized strain so I may opt to only grow these outside moving forward. Other options would be to engage in more aggressive topping earlier on or get a bigger tent.

This lady continues to impress me with her almost effortless development during her flowering phase. She ended up growing past the height of the where the lamps were situated so I needed to shift her over slightly so the top of her main cola wouldn’t run into it. She recently upped her drinking to nearly half a gallon per day. Buds are coming in nicely with the terpenes still looking pretty clear.

This lady got a full flush a few days ago when I noticed that she wasn’t taking up anymore water. She’s now back at a lower pH and she drank nearly a gallon of water in the span of just a few days. I’m starting to add nutrients back slowly. If I have any concerns it’s that her buds are starting to get really heavy and without a scrog I’m concerned some of her colas may tip over.

It’s been a few days since I caught the bud rot and while I have found some more fungus growing on the inside of the tent, nothing more on the buds. Still, I plan on checking every day while hoping that the new increased fan schedule keeps it at bay. Yet another lesson learned is that this tent is too small for both plants and that I wasn’t aggressive enough in training them to spread out their buds.

Just under 80 days from germination to harvest. This has been a hugely successful grow especially when compared to my last one. I learned a ton of lessons and am looking forward to my next grow being even bigger and better.