Gorilla Cookies 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 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. This plant took to LST better than its neighbor and so has bushed out a bit more. 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 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 now 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 one has been real fussy lately. As you can see vs. the previous week, a lot of the leaves have gotten lighter, especially when compared to her tent mate. Also saw what looked like the beginnings of nutrient lockout in some of her leaves. In an effort to avoid complete disaster, I started a complete flush which is still ongoing to both lower pH and remove any potential salt build up in the growing material. She actually looks better vs. a few days ago but I’m still concerned since her flowers are already starting to turn amber and I get the oh so faint whiff of grass which is not a good sign only two weeks into flowering. I will hopefully complete my flush today since her pH is back down to a reasonable 7 and possibly try to start feeding her again.

The flush last week seems to have done the trick with her pH at a much more respectable level and the grass smell I encountered last week completely gone. Nothing but terpenes and dank whenever I open up the grow tent. I’ve also returned her to her regular feeding schedule to align with her tent mate. I’ll continue to keep a close eye on her but otherwise she’s on ”auto”-pilot from here on out (hah). Despite the scare last week I am impressed with how quickly she was able to recover and I attribute that to my use of a neutral grow medium and my basic hydroponic wick system. I doubt I will ever use living soil again for an indoor grow.

This one continues to give me trouble. She barely had any water uptake this past week especially when compared to her tent mate. Looking at her leaves it appears to be a phosphorous deficiency so I added some PK to see if that will alleviate it. But the buds appear to be ok and the trichomes are still mostly clear. I’m doing everything I can to take her to a great finish.

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. I’m less concerned about her coloration after seeing some other growers experiencing the same thing in the final few weeks.

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.