Gorilla Cookies Auto

Plants are two weeks from sprout today. I transplanted to five gallon fabric pots yesterday, hoping they recover from the shock quickly and continue their quick growth.

Plants are 21 days from sprout. I'm liking the look of these ladies so far! One is a bit more bushy than the other but both appear healthy and are growing quickly. I'm having to grow these plants in an open tent due to the summer heat in my lung room but the plants don't seem to mind. I'm able to keep the humidity up with a humidifier placed just in front of the open tent. My plan with this grow (my 2nd) is to simply follow the directions on the fertilizer packages, which call for top dressing once a month. So far I've added no nutrients other than a few waterings with a tea made with worm castings.

Four weeks old today, with flowers showing up right on time! I've done essentially no training on these two, just pulled a few limbs away from the stalks and tucked a few leaves. These plants have been growing in 80+ degree heat as I'm having trouble keeping the temperature down in my grow room. But they don't seem to mind. RH is running in the low 50's.

Five weeks from sprout. Week five saw quite the stretch, with both plants growing more than 12 inches in one week, enough to get me to raise the light to the highest position in the tent and to install and start using my scrog net! I also did some defoliation down low. I top dressed with time release 444 nutrients at the end of week four, and I'm also feeding a compost tea once a week. The bushy plant on the right showed some signs of what I think is calcium deficiency so I started adding a CalMag solution to my water and that seems to have solved the issue. The rangy plant on the left is showing some nute burn at the tips of her leaves but she's growing so well that I'm not too concerned and sticking to my nute schedule unless I see her condition worsen. The young buds are looking very healthy!

Six weeks from sprout today. These girls are really filling out. They continued their growth spurt last week requiring quite a bit of tucking in the scrog screen. Hopefully their vertical growth is reaching an end because those buds are getting about as close to the light as I want. The bud development on the plant on the left appears to be a few days ahead of her sister. Both plants are showing a bit of nutrient burn on the leaf tips, but they both look so healthy otherwise that I'm not too concerned. I'm watering daily now as their need has increased. Still watering with a compost tea once per week.

Seven weeks from sprout, five to harvest! The ladies appear to have finished their stretch with the buds continuing to develop nicely. My guess from the looks of the bud sites is that the eventual yield is going to be considerable. Energy-wise, I'm keeping my light at about 45-50 DLI throughout flowering. Nutrient-wise, I'm using a soil composed of; coco coir, perlite, worm castings, azomite, 444 and 284 time release fertilizers. I'm top dressing the time release fertilizers monthly (so I more feeding next week), and I'm continuing to water with a compost tea each week. Gotta wait for the final harvest, but at this point I'm thinking that in future grows I'll continue growing in soil rather than with just coco and liquid nutes.

Eight weeks from sprout, four to harvest. This week the leaves started showing more signs of nutrient deficiencies so I top dressed with time release nutrients a few days earlier than planned, and also started supplementing with liquid nutrients in the water at the doses recommended for this time in the grow cycle. I hope I'm not overreacting as I understand it's normal for leaves to yellow and fall off during flowering, but I didn't experience this with my first grow so I'm erring on the side of supplying extra nutrients. The flowers are still looking quite healthy and filling out nicely.

Nine weeks from sprout, three to harvest. This week one of the plants started showing discoloration on sugar leaves which I diagnosed as light burn. Buds at the edges of the plant only show discoloration on the light side, and the spots don't appear to be getting worse since I lowered the light level so I'm pretty sure this wasn't a nutrient problem. Funny though that the other plants shows no signs of such stress. I had the LED set at too high a level for the distance the buds are from the light (less than 10 inches). I'm continuing to supplement my water with General Hydroponics liquid nutrients as per the schedule.

Ten weeks from sprout. The buds on these are plants are getting enormous and the trichomes are prolific. One plant has discolored sugar leaves which I previously diagnosed as light damage but which might be a nutrient deficiency. Whatever is wrong doesn't seem to be affecting the growth of the buds. The sugar leaves on the other plant remains deep green. I'm continuing to water with liquid nutrients (GH) at the recommended amounts.

Eleven weeks since sprout, one week to harvest? I've been continuing to water with liquid nutrients per the scheduled GH charts. I'm still planning to harvest next week but will let the trichomes tell me if it's time. The trichomes are prolific on the massive buds! Today, most are all still predominately clear with some cloudiness and only a hint of amber. The plant with light damaged leaves (I'm pretty certain that it's light stress) is hanging in there well. I've noticed nothing unusual about the flowers other than the spotted sugar leaves. Keeping my fingers crossed!

We're 84 days from sprout today. I plan to harvest tomorrow morning. Recapping my thoughts on this grow method: Most noticeably different from the first grow was that these two plants, including the buds, were much larger. In my first grow I used the "fertigation" technique, and while pleased with the results I decided to abandon that technique for this grow (mainly due to the time and hassle involved). For this grow I prepared a soil similar to that used by YT grower "Mr. Canuck"; a blend of coco, perlite, worm castings, azomite and time release fertilizer (444 and 284). Based on the size of these plants (and buds) I'll probably continue using this grow method, but have to see the harvest results first. Mistakes made during this grow: 1. After preparing the soil I let the mixture "cook" in the hot sun for a month or so. The soil was in a plastic container on my patio which flooded, soaking the soil a few days before I needed to use it. I ended up having to supplement with addition coco to dry it out enough to use. I'm not sure this mattered much in the end, though I did experience what appeared to be a Mag deficiency early on (which was easily corrected). Lesson learned: be more careful when preparing (and cooking) the soil. 2. Both the fan and sugar leaves on one of the plants are showing what I'm pretty sure is severe light/heat stress. It's been a miserably hot summer here so it's been difficult to control conditions in my FROG lung room where the daily temps are in the low 80's. I'm doing what I can (redirecting AC vents, etc...) to keep the temp down in the tent but most days it still approached 80 degrees. Also, as these plants moved into flower they stretched quite a bit, and quickly, which had me scrambling to put up the SCROG net sooner than expected. Even with the net the buds evidently got too close to the light, at least as far as one plant was concerned. The damaged leaves appeared quickly and didn't seem to get worse once I turned the light down (I did have the DLI two or three stops too high, not adjusting quickly enough for the growth spurt). Lesson learned - pay attention to the girls when they start to flower!

Harvested five days ago, plants dried quickly and already in jars. I’m quite happy with my first sample just a few minutes ago! The buds on these plants were far more airy than my first grow (Wedding Cake Autos), and the stalks were far thinner. How much of the difference was due to genetics vs growing methods? Lessons learned: First and foremost pay attention to light distance and intensity. These gals stretched quickly at the start of flowering and, despite the scrog net, grew too close to the light (where I had intensity set stupidly a couple of clicks too high). One plant powered through it while the other stressed out. The damaged plant only yielded a little over two ounces while her sister totaled nearly four. Though I did experience nutrient challenges during the grow I enjoyed growing in soil far more than with liquid nutrients. I plan to stick with this method for my next grow, which I’m already looking forward to!