BubbleKush: 1.Grow-A Study in Green-Ch.4

Hello fellowship of the weed. After being a long time lurker here it's finally time to put all the informations I gleaned from other diaries to use and start my own grow. So I build myself a growbox from a wardrobe, ordered 3 different autoflower strains from RQS (Royal Dwarf, Royal Bluematic & Bubble Kush Automatic) and got a 4th one (Royal Creamatic) for free. I settled for Autoflowers, because my growbox is a bit short and Autos tend to stay shorter ;-) As my growbox has exactly the space for four 11 liter (3 gal) pots I decided to give each strain a chance and lets see which ones are resilient enough to survive me. Each strain will be covered in its own Grow Diary, so this is Chapter 1 of my "Study in Green", The Dwarf... Setup ===== The wardrobe I turned into a growbox measures 50cm x 80cm x 165cm (20"x32"x65") on its inside The walls are lined with reflective sheets, the doors sealed for smell and light A 5" inline ventilator (220m³/h) with a fitting carbon scrubber Two passive intake holes covered with grills and filter padding against dust and pests Grow light is a Niello 300W (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y2YN7GV) with 60pcs 5Watt Bridgelux/Epileds (draws 133W for real), seems very similar to a Viparspectra 300W One 8" fan for internal air circulation This setup has cost me about €400,-. It is light and smell tight, looking innocent when closed, only the ventilation is a bit louder than I am comfortable with... Soil & Nutrients ================ I am using a 50:50 mix of BioBizz Light:All Mix, as I read the All Mix might be too "hot" for autos. I will be using the BioBizz nutes with the All Mix feeding schedule (the one with the lesser amounts as less is more with autos), in the hope the company knows what they are doing ;-) For better drainage I filled in one litre of clay pebbles at the ground of the pots The overall cost for seeds, soil, nutes and estimated energy cost for this grow is €140,- Plans & Goals ============= I plan to use LST and defoliation on my girls. I aim for a yield of 15 to 30 gram (1/2-1 oz) per plant, so 2-4oz in total. If I can harvest those 60 gram minimum yield I aim for, I would have invested the same money in the grow (including the growbox) than for the same amount of weed on the streets here, but now knowing it is 100% clean and biological. Everything above that would be a bonus. As this is my very first grow any comments, tips and suggestions are welcome. And so it begins... Germination =========== I have put the seed in a jiffy pot with soil & perlite, soaked with ph'ed water (tap water is around 8ph) with BioBizz RootJuice and a dose of mykhorriza. After 3 days the Kush bubbled up and broke the earth, marking my Day 1 of the study, 😛 I am so nerveous and exited, I hope all goes well...

The Bubble Kush is growing nice and good, no problems so far I put her in her final 11 l home and watered her with phed water and the nutes I put her a bit off center to have a bit room for the intended LST I have high hopes for this Lady, may she be strong

Day 18: The Bubble Kush stays in touch with her creamatic and bluematic sisters She looks gorgeous, but is 1 cm shorter then those 😍 She is developing side branches too and looks like she will be ready for LST on weekend like the others Her soil is still moist from the after transplant watering, so no water and no nutes so far ------- Day 21: The Bubble Kush stays in touch with her sisters, but looking a bit more delicate and slender It is such a pleasure to see her grow... In fact it has a very relaxing effect on me to open the growbox and just look at them plants... She got another cm height, and started to spread her wings... errr... fan leafs... So I started withh the LST. I use rubber coated gardening wire and I have made notches in the outer rim of the pot to give them hold. I don't know if I am doing this right, so if you have any tips or suggestions, they would be greatly appreciated. As a reward for the training and cause the soil was almost dry I gave her 250ml water with (very little) nutes, the first since the repotting a week ago Keep on growing, fellowship of the weed...

Day25: Desaster struck!!! 😳 OK, I am over dramatic... but my BubbleKush got an accidental defoliation.😟 Between the top pic of her and the side view pics I had to leave the room for a minute... Coming back I see my cat happily munching away on some fan leaves 😱 I could have strangled the lil bastard... ah well, you live and learn... Lucky me Loki mangled only some fan leaves and left the growth tips alone We will see how she will cope with it ------- Day28: She recovered ok (phewy) Took off the most mangled leaves and adjusted the LST Then fed her 1 liter of water with nutes

The poor Bubble Kush bounced back strong after my cat mangled her a bit last week😻 Had to leave my Ladies alone for a few days, was a bit nervous about it, but everything was okay when I came back. Only one group picture on the mid week though. On the weekend I found her growing white pistils, like her blue & creamatic sisters, so the flowering has started, YEAH! 😁 I adjusted the LST, opening her up to the light more and gave her 2 liters of water with nutes, she definitly gets more thirsty And she starts to smell so delicious...

The BubbleKush looks great She develops really nice, despite the cat attack she suffered from... She gets more bushy, but not as bushy as some of her sisters, but instead she is the tallest Lady in the box 😝 All in all it gets a bit crowded in the box now, maybe it was a bit over ambitious to put 4 plants in a growbox with an area of 0.4 m² We will see how it all works out... I adjusted the LST again and put some sticks in the earth to give the stems a guidance. As this is a very busy time of the year no midweek pics again😱

My Bubble Kush is developing quite nicely 😻 Had to be away for some days for family affairs, so she ran a bit dry...😨 She is not the bushiest of my study but tries to be the tallest! She was 43 cm, before I tied her down to 35cm again Had to take off a few fan leafes as they dried from lack of water and tie her down again, three of the stems now nearly horizontal! She shows a LOT of bud sites now! I am so happy with that and with her overall appearance. 😻 Merry Xmas and a happy new year of growing I wish to all of us!

Winter Is Coming! Outside it's snowing, inside the sugar leafs get frosty 😍 My blue Lady got really bushy and developed a LOT of bud sites. Got so bushy I can't take pics of her on the white background board I use, its always showing some of the floor 😜 Even after the LST and defoliation it is still very bushy All that is needed now is the bud sites getting bigger and fatter and more frosty 😂 Had to tie her down again, but no matter what I do, it seems I can not get an even canopy... I guess thats a matter of practice... Defoliated her a bit and even took off some small buds in places not getting any light... And she got thirstier, gave her a liter every 2nd day I am very excited about how my Bubble Kush develops and she smells yummie

She develops good, lots of bud sites are growing and these buds get really frosty now. I tried to capture that with my smartphone, but that proofed difficult, so excuse the poor quality of those pics... The trichomes look a lot clearer through a magnifier than on the pics, I guess the flash makes them look more cloudy than they are Her height growth almost stopped, so no more LST, I think I let her be as she is, so she can develop her buds now. The first pistils got brown, she is now getting closer to finish... Took some lower leafs and those shadowing buds off and bud growth that will never see the light, so she can concentrate on the bigger buds 😜 I noticed some leaf yellowing, purple stems and even brown spots on her and in lesser degree on my other Ladies, so I looked up my local water quality on the internet, something I should have done in the beginning. As I already knew I have high ph (around 8) and it is "soft water", having low amounts of calcium and magnesia. So I added Canna CalMag Agent to my nutes mix, I hope 1 ml/l will be enough. I water roughly every 2nd to 3rd day a liter now, every 2nd watering with nutrients. Keep on growing folks 👍

This Lady looks delicious 😍 She doesn't has to hide, lots of frosty buds and her smell is strong and nice... No more height growth, so no more LST needed, and buds getting fatter and more frosty. I think she is getting close to harvest, she has less thirst, watered her 2 times a liter, one with nutes one just water. I guess one more week with feeding, then flush and only plain water for another week and then its harvest time... 😎 But we will see, the trichs will show us ...

The delicious looking Bubble Kush 😻 We are coming closer to the finishing line. Her buds get fat and covered in trichomes. She developed a tiny bit of nute burn in the very tips of her leafs, so I cut back on her last feeding at the start of the week. From now on she will get only ph'ed water. The first trichomes are turning amber, about 1% so far. About 30% are now cloudy, the rest is still clear, so she needs at least 1 more week. OMG, I am so excited, it's hard to wait, but I will until most trichs are cloudy or amber. Folks, what do you think?

I was in hope to take her down this week, but as most of the trichomes are still clear I have to wait at least one more week 😰 The waiting kills me, but I have not tended to this bubbleKush for 12 weeks to take her down too early. Well over 50% are still clear, about 5% turned amber, the rest is clowdy But ok, one more week to get her buds even bigger. As I grew organically so far (apart from the CalMag) I decided to not really flush her. I give her only phed water for ten days now, every 3 days about a liter, every other time with FloraKleen to get rid of the nutrient residue. I hope that works as advertised... I am so excited and can't wait for the harvest and tasting her ...

The final day of this fine Lady has come... 😁 Her trichomes are about 10-15% amber, about 15% still clear, but the rest is cloudy... So I took her down and trimmed her to dry her in a drying rack. She was a bitch to trim, took me much longer than expected as she had lots of small leafs in her buds No real main cola, but lots of rock hard and sticky golf ball sized buds. Wet weight including stems is 123.6 gr That should give about 20-25 gr of dry pure bud I guess. So far I am on the upper end of the yield I aimed for 😸 As soon as all is dried I will give the final harvest report. I cant wait to try those delicious trichome encrusted weed for the first time...