First AutoPot grow | Gorilla Cookies & Strawberry Gorilla

Day 1 Checked in on the tent and all seeds were sprouted 4/12. Removed Humidity domes Light Intensity; 25% 76F 58% RH Timer has been setup for 18hrs on. Day 7 end of week 1 update Things are moving along, added humidifier to room to maintain around 55% humidity. Side Note: I have been growing for 9+ years but this is my first grow I have done in a couple of years. I am new to AutoPots and BuildASoil so I'm excited to see how much simpler this is in terms of maintenance. I am hoping for a true water only seed to harvest, however I know things happen and so I have backup plans for any deficiencies or issues that come along the way. I will be using filtered tap water only in the reservoir. No PH adjusting. I set up a 4x4 "ish" space in the middle of my 4x8 tent because I plan to LST the plants and this setup allows me to reach all around the plants. I am a combat veteran with a really bad back, so a setup where I can sit in the tent with the plants was an absolute must.

Day 10: Really starting to pick up the pace now, they seem to be happy now that I have somewhat stabilized the grow room. Humidity has been been up and down between 50-60%. Had an issue with my reservoir water getting cloudy but I think it was because it was zipped up and no air could get in but I'm not sure. I washed and sanitized the res and kept on trucking. Day11: For the first set of true leaves that have come in, I decided to foliar spray the ladies with some Aloe Vera water Day 12: Started LST training, ripped a tiny leaf off on one but no other issues, they were nice and soft and very trainable. I plan to put up a net once they are a bit bigger and are trained a bit more. Day 14: End of Week 2 LST is going great. These strains are responding really fast to the training. The strawberry Gorilla had most of its leaves turned and facing the light after only a few hours after the training. I don't like to defoliate this early on so I tuck away any leaves that is blocking the light to the lower nodes. Important side note:⚠️ I have noticed that despite both strains being about the same height, the Gorilla Cookies is ahead in growth by a set or two of leaves where as the Strawberry Gorilla seems to be focused on fatter and bigger leaf structure. The Gorilla Cookies had its first set of true leaves and second set starting to open up while the Strawberry Gorilla was working on its first set of true leaves. I wished I took a pic before the LST to show that, how ever I will update later on that. (Day 14: You can see by the last couple of pics that the Strawberry Gorilla has massive sized leaves compared to gorilla cookies) Since I am growing two of each strain, it is cool to see that each strain is growing identical to each other, like both Cookies are identical to each other etc; Can't wait to update soon!!!!!

Day 21 End of Week 3 So far so good. I had a few mishaps doing LST. One stem was snapped and a couple of others slightly torn, but still attached! I've been doing LST daily and tucking in leaves as best I can. I don't like defoliating cause of bad experiences in the past with stunting plants so I just tuck away as best I can. Day 20 AC Infinity UV I added the AC Infinity UV light bars x4. Setup was pretty straight forward. I used some metal plates and screws and duct tape to mount them to my FC 4800. It was Stoner Engineering at its best lol. For the timer/controller I used a cycle on/off timer instead of the one that comes with the lights. I didn't even bother connecting it to my AC Infinity Controller Pro and here's why: The timer I chose is stupid simple to setup. It has a light sensor so it turns on when your light comes on. It's setup to run for 5 minutes at a time every 3 hours. This gives me 30min daily of UV. Next week will be 10min every 3 hrs for 60 min total During flower I plan to eventually get it to 20min per 3 hrs for 120min total run time daily The way it looks on the timer is: On : 5 min Off: 2hrs 55min And the cycle just repeats during lights on at your set interval. Day 21 Pistils!!!! I noticed that the Strawberry Gorilla is already showing pistils!!!! Daily LST continues. The plants have responded well to the UV. By that I mean that the plants seem to be happy and pointing up and no negative drooping or burning of the leaves by the UV. CannaFogger: This thing is a great tool to have for foliar. It saves so much on nutrient solution. The plants really love aloe vera foliar spray by buildasoil that stuff is great.

Day 28 End of week 4 Update: So I had a wild accident on Day 22, I "accidentally" topped one of the Gorilla Cookies... As you can see by the last pic, too much weight was put on the tip during LST-. Despite that snafoo, she hasn't skipped a beat, no stress signs or pause in growth Day 26 was when I went ahead and installed the trellis net. I figured it was the best time right before the stretch starts to get wild. 🤞 (I think the Gorilla Cookies started the stretch, not sure really but she's definitely taller than the Strawberry Gorilla) Day 28 they are very close to the net now (as I type this in day 30, a few nodes have gone thru the net) . Growing seems to be doing great with and light has been steadily moved up at least an inch everyday. About the Autopots: So I didn't really listen to the instructions and I have been running the autopots reservoir AND the AirDome since I put the soil in.... However I have been running the reservoir in manual mode. I have been filling up when I pick up the pot itself and it feels lighter. Since Day 27 I "open" the reservoir twice a day now and plan to let run "automatically" next week. I say "Automatic" but I plan to do a few drybacks along the way, not too dry for the living soil though! Happy Growing Y'all can't wait tilo update next week!!!

Day 35 End of Week 5 Update: Had a bad week worrying about humidity. My dehumidifier broke so I was stuck until payday and humidity was out of control, night time into the the high 70's and mid 60s during the day. But despite that, thankfully there was no issues that came about like PM or funky mold or anything. New Dehumidifier is in and all is looking good Gorilla Cookies is definitely stretching out more than Strawberry G. The Strawberry Gorilla has more of a bushy tendency. I'm hoping she's just a late stretcher so we'll see 🤞 I started light defoliating and so far so good. I don't take out much and with the little I have trimmed there has been no sign of growth pause or stunting at all, they seem to be going strong so far. Happy Growing y'all!

End of week 6; Day 42 So far so good, Frost is setting in on the strawberry Gorilla. The cookies is stretching beyond belief and is about 55in tall from the floor up. The strawberry has stayed shorter and bushier than the cookies. Smell is also coming pretty strong. Happy Growing y'all