Auto Lemon AK

Strain: Lemon AK Breeder: Fastbuds Started from Seed Feminized Autoflower Seed Count: 5 Week 1 10/27/2018 ... Saturday ... 11/02/2018 Day1 Prepared germinating solution ...1gal RO water with 1/8 tsp Superthrive and 1/4tsp Botanicare Liquid Karma PH'd to 6.0. Scarified the seeds and put them in a cup of the solution. Day 2 All seeds sank and were transferred to Rapid Rooters saturated with the germinating solution (above) and covered with a humidity dome to begin germination. The Rapid Rooters are a new addition to my process. I've had some seeds recently that were too deeply buried and didn't germinate well. With the Rapid Rooters I can see that the roots are developing and that the shoot is able to escape the growing medium. Day 3 All seeds have germinated and root development is underway. Assuming there are no issues with using the Rapid Rooters, I think this will be my standard method. Day 4 All 5 seedlings have sprouted nicely and are shedding the seed husks. They should go into their 4 gal buckets tomorrow Day 5 Prepped the buckets with Botanicare Ready Grow Moisture Mix and River Rocks and saturated them with a 50% solution of the Jack's 3-2-1 that will be the standard nutrient mix. As a precaution, I always add Cal Mag to the initial nutrient charge since it's a coco base. Transplanted all 5 to the hempy buckets and put them into the veg tent under the 315w 4200K CMH fixture. They're getting 265μmols. Depending on how they grow, I may lower the light to keep them from stretching too much. Day 6 Nice development on all 5. Lightly hand watered with a 50% nutrient solution. Day 7 #1 is lagging a bit but all 5 have good color and look healthy

Strain: Lemon AK Breeder: Fastbuds Started from Seed Feminized Autoflower Seed Count: 5 Week 2 11/03/2018 - 11/09/2018 Day 9 Still hand watering with a 50% Jack's 321 + Cal Mag mix. All 5 seedlings are looking good. Turned the 6” fans to blow directly on them to help strengthen the stems. #1 is showing new signs of vigor and should catch up with her sisters. Temperature is a bit higher than I would like during the “day” (82 – 86) but there's not much I can do at this point besides opening the tent … and that will lower the reflected light levels. Day 10 Continued the hand watering but saturated the entire surface of all buckets to help boost the humidity. All 5 are looking healthy and I'm no longer concerned about #1 catching up. At this rate I may have to add the drip rings and put them on the irrigation system before week 3. Turned up the filter fan and the tent is holding stead at 82°F during the day. Day 11 Continued the same regimen – all plants are developing nicely Day 12 Ditto Day 13 Added Botanicare Silica Blast today to help strengthen the stems Day 14 Went to a 75% solution of the nutrient mix. All plants showing good color and leaf development. Seedling range from 2¾” to 3½” tall.

Strain: Lemon AK Breeder: Fastbuds Started from Seed Feminized Autoflower Seed Count: 5 Week 3 11/10/2018 - 11/16/2018 Nutrients are now at 100% strength and plants are all growing nicely and showing good color. Plant #2 had a curving stem issue so I've added a small bamboo stake to straighten her out. After 3 days it seems to be working. Also, I brought the light down to 24” now that the seedlings are well established and used to the spectrum. Speaking of stems … the Fastbuds description mentioned weakness in the first few weeks and the need for support. I've had 2 6” fans creating “windy” conditions since the seeds were planted and I've added some silica to the nutrients to strengthen the plant structure. So far it seems to be working because all of the plants (even the one with "scoliosis") seems to have good support and thickness in the stems. The plants have doubled in size this week and now range from 4” - 7”.

Week 4 Strain: Lemon AK Breeder: Fastbuds Feminized Autoflower from Seed Seed Count: 5 Week Start: Saturday 11/17/2018 - 11/23/2018 Sunday Gave all the buckets a thorough drenching for the first time until there was runoff. By the end of the week they'll move to the flower LED 5x5 flower tent and connected to the irrigation system but for now, they're growing fast so the extra nutes are appropriate and the extra moisture helps keep the humidity in the 40s. It gets really dry here during heating season. #5 grew an inch since yesterday afternoon. Lowered the light again to 18” so they won't get too leggy before they start to stretch. Depending on plant height, they're getting 490 – 700 μmols. This is going to be another great example of the variation in phenotypes out of a seed pack. Right now it looks like 3 distinct phenos … the same as the Fastbuds GSC grow I just finished … 1 giant, 1 dwarf, and 3 mid range plants. Wednesday This strain is amazing. Plants #3 and #4 have almost overtaken Plant #5 in the last 2 days. They're at 13 and 14” respectively. Even though they're nearly as tall as #5, theleagf structure is visibly different so my guess at 3 phenos still seems valid. I'm glad I have almost the full 80” height in the flower tent !!! Starting to see the first pre-flower activity. I'm definitely going to move them either Friday or Saturday. Friday Moved all the plants to the flower tent. #1 is still the runt at 8” with #2 a close second at 9”. #3 is 15”, #4 is 14”, and #5 is 16” … more than double what they were last week. To give them all equal access to light, I've raised #1, #2, and #4 to create a more even canopy. Adjuster the COB fixture so the canopy is getting 700-800 μmols depending on position. Hopefully they'll all adjust well and I can start LST Sunday or Monday.

Strain: Lemon AK Breeder: Fastbuds Feminized Autoflower from Seed Seed Count: 5 Week Start: Saturday Week 5 This is really a transition week of pre-flower to flower 11/24/2018 - 11/30/2018 Tuesday Started LST on 1,2,3 and 4. Pipe cleaners and safety pins are my method of choice. Starting to see the first true flowers on #3. For some reason, #3 looks like it's being over watered, which is add because I've never had that issue with this coco bucket system. I've checked for pests in the leaves and in the coco medium and found nothing. Thursday Skipped feeding #3 to see if somehow it was over saturated. Friday #3 looked a little better so I gave it a full feed along with her sisters. A Mean Well driver for 6 of my cobs died so I moved plants 1 and 2 into the photo flower tent under a 3100K CHM fixture until the replacement driver I ordered gets here Monday. Fortunately there's no grow in there at the moment so I could set the light for 18/6. Started some light defoliation on the lower branches to promote light penetration, air flow, and top growth. Just took the last pictures for the week and plant 3 is way beyond what over watering would be. Its got nitrogen toxicity – serious bear claw. Going to do a plain 6.0ph water flush. Odd that only 1 plant shows any ill effect. Final measurements for the week Plant #1 – 14” , plant #2 – 19” , plant #3 27” , plant #4 – 21” , plant #5 - 29”

Week 6 Strain: Lemon AK Breeder: Fastbuds Feminized Autoflower from Seed Seed Count: 5 Week Start: Saturday 12/01/2018 - 12/07/2018 Monday One of my Meanwell LED drivers died Friday, so I had to shuffle things around to keep all the girls supplied with adequate light. I moved #1 and #2 to the big flower tent (which is empty at the moment leaving #3, #4, and #5 in the 5x5. Got my replacement driver today and wired it in, so the 5x5 is back to full coverage. Only problem is that now that LST has spread everything out, I really only have room for 4 plants in there. Moved the biggest plant, #5, to the other tent under CMH, and now plants 1-4 have plenty of room to spread out in the 5x5. Thursday The girls are lovin' life and growing like crazy. The 5x5 with plants #1 - #4 has filled in nicely so each plant has plenty of air and light and they're loaded with buds. The LST has definitely helped bud production. Plant #5 in the photo tent is growing right up to the CMH fixture so I'm going to take a risk and supercrop her. Haven't tried that with autos yet but I don't really have a choice. We'll see what tomorrow brings. Friday #5 has perked right up and is lookin' great. Added a bamboo stake to help support the horizontal portion of the main stem since it looks like the buds will be heavy. Back in the 5x5, I've had to raise the lights 3 times this week. Plant #3 is stretching the most so based on how well #5 reacted to supercropping I did the same with #3 including the extra support. Interesting side note The structure of these plants is almost reed like. Supercropping requires almost no effort … the stems are soft and hollow like wetlands plants. I'm guessing the early silica application helped the firm up the stems. A gentle pinch and the stem bends easily. Final measurements for the week before supercropping Plant #1 – 31” , plant #2 – 32” , plant #3 – 39” , plant #4 – 31” , plant #5 – 40”

Week 7 Strain: Lemon AK Breeder: Fastbuds Feminized Autoflower from Seed Seed Count: 5 Week Start: Saturday 12/08/2018 - 12/14/2018 General Notes Defoliation is continuing on a daily basis. Most of the largest fan leaves are already gone, but there's still enough greenery to provide ample sugar production for the flowers. Either I've discovered a magic growth formula (which I doubt) or FastBuds has to up the height max from 100cm/40” for these. I don't think I'm finished with stretch yet and even the “runt” of the litter is over 91cm/36” with the tallest pushing 121cm/48”. It's a good thing these girls are tolerant of supercropping or I'd be having real issues with some of the lighting. There's a little PM showing up here and there but trimming the leaves and spraying 3% H₂O₂ is keeping things pretty clear. I was having some humidity issues a couple of weeks ago but now it seems stable around 50% in both tents. I don't top autos the first time I run a strain but if this turns out to be something I want to regrow, I'm going to try topping the girls to do something about the height. Starting to get a real lemony scent in the tents. Bud development is progressing nicely - although it seems that the LED tent is ripening faster than the CMH tent. Go figure.

Week 8 Strain: Lemon AK Breeder: Fastbuds Feminized Autoflower from Seed Seed Count: 5 Week Start: Saturday 12/15/2018 - 12/21/2018 Defoliation continues on a daily basis. PM has raised it's ugly head so it's been 2 consecutive days of H₂O₂ showers in both tents. Looks like a major disinfection effort between grows. Stretch in the 5x5 seems to have stopped and buds are ripening nicely. At this point I'm guessing about 2 weeks to harvest. The lone plant (#5) in the 5x9 is a different story. Had to to more supercropping to keep it out of the light. But hopefully that will be the end of it. Don't know if it's the pheno or the different spectrum under the CMH but it's ripening more slowly. I'm guessing it will take at least an extra week to fully ripen. Even the small fan leaves I'm removing are getting super sticky on all of the plants and it's smelling very lemony. Trichomes are still clear but there are lots of them … a good thing. Hopefully the PM is beaten down and these last couple of weeks will be normal maintenance.

Week 9 Strain: Lemon AK Breeder: Fastbuds Feminized Autoflower from Seed Seed Count: 5 Week Start: Saturday 12/22/2018 - 12/28/2018 Looks like the last week of flower. The plants had started scavenging the lower leaves on their own and trichomes are starting to show milky with an occasional hint of amber. Had to do 2 consecutive days of H₂O₂ again to make sure the PM was gone … this time with a finer misting nozzle on the sprayer. There is some discoloration on the leaves but they're free of visible PM. Other than that, not really much to talk about. Wish all of you a Happy, Healthy, Trichome covered New Year!!

Strain: Lemon AK Breeder: Fastbuds Feminized Autoflower from Seed Seed Count: 5 Week Start: Saturday 12/29/2018 - 01/04/2019 Not much new to report this week. Just waiting for things to finish ripening. One thing I've been noticing is that the tallest plant #5 that had to be moved to the larger flower tent has a very different flower structure that the other 4 plants. On all of the others, the buds much fuller and the trichome development is noticeably better. The only real difference is the the others are under my DIY 800w LED fixture while #5 is under a 315w CMH fixture. The μmols the plants are receiving are roughly the same, as are the spectra so I can't see that as being the issue. I'm going to keep the harvest from #5 separate to see if there's and actual difference in the yield or the effect. Looks like a phenotype variance more than anything else. Friday Started a 3 day flush. Harvest should start Monday of week 11

Good strain to grow with good yield ... lemon smell is very noticeable ... I will definitely grow this again but next time they'll be topped for sure. The smoke is tasty and mild even with limited cure. I find it to be a Sativa leaning hybrid with a relaxed finish but no couch lock.