first time grow/balcony/northernlights (1xfem, 2x auto)

I assumed that I had photoperiod plants, but the plants started to show the first signs of flowering from what I, as a complete newbie, could tell. So, I took some pictures to show to a friend for clarification on whether that should be happening. What happened so far? I repotted from the container in which I got them into 5 L pots the weekend before I left for a week (around the first week of May). During that week, the plants were unsupervised. Sadly, that was the only week of decent weather so far. At least they seemed healthy when I came home, and they grew a lot during that week. Aside from that, it was cloudy and/or rainy most of the time. So all in all, not the best starting conditions for autoflowers, but I am happy that they seem healthy. Pictures were taken between 18.3 and 22.3. Yes, I know I have to clean my balcony to reduce the risk of cross-contamination from unwanted organisms.

I replanted into 25 L pots. This will be the final size for all plants. It was rainy all week. The autoflower plants seem to show weird signs of growth (twisted leaves/canoeing). I think those were signs of overwatering/nutrient lockout, as the soil didn't get the chance to properly dry during the constant rain. The photoperiod plant seems to be fine. I looked into the pH of my tap water and it turned out it's at 8. I half-heartedly flushed with water at a pH of 6, but I was scared of completely overwatering the plant as it was raining all the time. From now on, I will pH adjust the water before watering (it is still raining a lot though). I also topped the photoperiod plant to see what will happen (I thought I would rather start gaining experience now than later). My friend (who only grows indoors) told me to consider defoliating, but after some research, I decided to just remove a few leaves to see how the plant will react. I didn't feed because that would mean introducing more water and I replanted using pre-fertilized soil, so there should be enough nutrients to at least maintain its growth rate (currently very slow).

The weather is still bad and i am getting concerned with root rot so i took the plant inside while it rained. the soil is still too wet for somfort tho, so i didnt feed again. i would like to feed some blooming nutrients at least once before its too late (since i dont know the germination dates it makes it harder to know when to stop feeding) the plants seem to be doing better. after topping the plant seemed to be stunted in growth but that might also be because of the watering issue. Now the top started growing again. visible trichome produktion is starting on the smaller plant with the nicer looking buds. the bigger autoflower has more budsites but the buds dont look as nice/are less dense and they dont seem to be as developed as the buds on the smaller plant. I feel like both autoflowers are still gaining a little bit of height but sinze i didnt measure them, i cant accurately track that. the bigger one is about 2,5 din a4 pages in height so around 70 cm. the smaller roughly at 60cm. i feel like both grw about 5-10 cm in the last 2 weeks.

his was a very eventful week. I put in the tag "defoliation" but it was forced upon me rather than my decision. In the beginning, I thought I would try some LST (low-stress training) to maximize the sun on branches with buds, but I realized that I didn't know what I was doing and that it works a bit differently than expected. So, I stopped the experiment the day after. In the process, I broke off a small branch which I couldn't save with tape, but this is a run to make mistakes with anyway. In the middle of the week, I realized that I had a pest problem (from looking it up, it seemed to be aphids). Luckily, the worst plant was the regular plant, and I removed almost all the leaves I could see bugs on (on all plants), even if there were just 1-2 bugs I could see. I would rather do the damage to the plants myself rather than let pests do it. The tallest plant was affected the least, and I think I took more leaves off the smaller autoflower than I should have. After removing the leaves, I learned that I could also just squish the bugs myself, so this is what I did the next couple of days until I saw nothing left (I will monitor strictly in the future). On the bright side, the weather was a lot better this week and the soil was able to dry properly for the first time in a long time. The autoflower with the nicer looking bud is smelling really nice but not super strong. I gave the plants a light amount of Plagron Alga Bloom but not very much as they don’t show signs of deficiency as far as I can tell. (In the beginning of week 9, I saw some signs of most likely either nutrient burn or potassium deficiency on the tips of two leaves. I transplanted using Plagron's Royal Mix, so there are at least some nutrients in there still). I gave some Alga Grow to the regular plant and i feel like the leave took a nice dark green color and other than then the pests/ defoliating i did it seems to react well. But i will still be carefull with feeding.

bad start to the week: i woke up to very strong winds and the bigger plant was in a 45 degree angle in the soil instead of 90 degree but the stem wasnt bent/didnt brake. Lesson learned: putting a plant up hing unprotected against wind might give it stats like direkt sun +5 but windresistance -20 (at least on my balcony) Bad start to the week: I woke up to very strong winds, and the bigger plant was at a 45-degree angle in the soil instead of 90 degrees. However, the stem wasn't bent or broken. Lesson learned: placing a plant high and unprotected against wind might give it stats like direct sun +5 but wind resistance -20 (at least on my balcony). I see some light signs of either nutrient burn or potassium deficiency (in my uneducated opinion), and since it's easier to fix underfeeding than overfeeding, I just gave plain water. I wonder if those two auto plants are actually both NL since they look very different (20 cm height difference) and one seems to be much further into the flowering process. But it might also be just a different phenotype. I just hope they will be ready for harvest by the end of June. It is still cold enough at night to make at least one plant turn a little bit purple. I hope removing that many leaves last week doesn't stunt the small autoflower too much and that both autoflowers start fattening up those buds. I hope to harvest around 30g from both plants combined. I will try to build a foil greenhouse on my balcony at somepoint in the future so I won't run into problems of overwatering and wind again. It's still early in the week, and I will continue to update.

towards the end of the week there finally was some real sun which the plant really liked. the bigger auto grew to 110 cm and the other fattened up its buds nicely(compared to any other 2 day span). i finally build a small foil greenhouse for my balcony to protect them from rain (which was my biggest issue so far). my construction seems to work so far. my friend (who gave me the plants) told me that the purple one probably isnt an northern light, but he didnt tell me what it is (told me "wait and see") and will tell me once its done. So the plant turning purple might be more due to genetics(tho the temperatures the last couple of weeks might have helped). i like the size and look of the bigger plant (the northern light), and it has many bud sides, but they are still very small imo. but now i am actually getting exited for the amount i might harvest as i think my earlier estimates might be a bit low. the next week is supposed to be best week weather wise, so i am exited to see the coming change The photo plant seems to grow well, but there isnt too much change