2024 Fall Autos Grow

Tent has been at about a steady 85F and 60% humidity. This should be the last week with 90F temperatures outside, although keeping the tent in my garage helps manage that high temperature a bit. Also, I now have a portable A/C unit in my garage, although because it isn't insulated that A/C mostly just removes humidity rather than cooling it down significantly. Lights-off hours are at the 6 hottest times of the day to try to keep them all as cool as possible. The LED grow light is at 50% power. This is the second attempt at germinating Gelato Auto since the first attempt failed. Nothing yet after 3 days, although it took Apple Strudel 5-6 days so keeping my fingers crossed. Otherwise, this grow will just have to be 5 plants instead of 6 because I don't want them all more than 1 week apart in their grow cycles. So far so good with the others!

The second Gelato Auto seed failed to germinate, so seems I just got a bad batch, but because I purchased them over 3 months ago FastBuds won't replace them. Bummer. To get the other bad news out of the way, Strawberry Gorilla Auto is looking quite sick - spotty and shriveled. I checked the pH at the roots by checking runoff water and pH is 6.5, so it's not a pH or watering problem. So, it could be the leaves were burnt up from water on top, a nute deficiency, a bacterial problem, or an insect problem. So, I'm attempting to germinate 2 more seeds and if they're both successful I'll just toss this plant to make room in the tent for healthier plants since 6 will fit in the tent, and I'll start a new diary for the 2 that will be on a different weekly schedule. Both of the new seeds (also from FastBuds) looked paler in color than average, so hopefully they weren't over-handled. The good news is that 4 of the plants are still healthy. Apple Strudel Auto is a little smaller than the others, although it also germinated 2-3 days after the others so that may or may not be a contributing factor. I'm happy that the three others have at least 4 sets of leaves because that means I can probably safely top them during week 3 which starts tomorrow. Going to give them a couple more days in case I can get 5 sets of leaves out of them first, although if not I'll just top above the 4th sets before week 4 starts. Will probably also start nutes and LST next week.

Tossed Strawberry Gorilla Auto since it was sick and stunted, so I could make room in the tent for 2 more plants that hopefully end up healthy. The other plants are looking fantastic. Topped all of them this week above the 5th sets of leaves, and also added LST clips to the branches that were angled 45 degrees up or more, EXCEPT for the Zamnesia Runtz F1 Hybrid which is smaller and denser than the others. Also, there's some slight white coloring on some of the Runtz leaves, which I'm not sure what it is, although I moved it further from the oscillating fan in case it might be from the wind. This week I added veg nutes, every other day, at 1/8 recommended strength. This week was slightly less hot and slightly more humid than last week since it rained a lot outside. There is now a distinct smell inside the tent. Lemon Cherry Cookies Auto MAY be showing some signs of pre-flowering already. I thought I saw just a few tiny white hairs starting, so good thing I didn't wait till week 4 to top! Would make sense since it has a shorter expected grow cycle than the others. For week 4 I plan on bumping the LED up from 75% to 100% power.

Updating a day early because a hurricane is supposed to hit my area tomorrow, and I'm estimating to lose power for about 6 days. Not good for my plants, since they've been sheltered by my grow tent and fed by my LED light! My two choices until power comes back on are 1) putting these outside where they will get natural sun, but the humidity will be 100%, or 2) putting these by a window where they will get a little sun, although will be protected from the high humidity. When I lose power, I am expecting to do option #2, assuming that the roof of my house is OK after the hurricane, and hopefully the plants will survive the week with minimal sun. I've continued to use LST clips and tie down the shoots to try to keep the plants short and the canopy wide. For Gorilla Cookies Auto I accidentally snapped both of the very top shoots when I added LST clips, so I quickly took the clips off and wrapped them in painter's tape to try to save them. Runtz F1 Hybrid continues to be incredibly bushy, so it will almost certainly require defoliation in the coming weeks. The grow light is at 100% power so the tent temperature has been mostly about 85F, although I am at the mercy of the outdoor temperature, which has actually gotten over 90F on several days this week. There appears to be some minor insect damage on the bottom leaves of some of these plants and also some yellowing of the leaves, although not enough to be alarmed about. I ordered a mister in case the damage gets worse and I need to spray the plants with some insecticidal soap or neem oil. I am continuing to feed them veg nutes, although this week I increased it to 1/4 strength from 1/8 strength last week. For a while I was feeding them nutes with the water every day, although one of the plants started to show yellow tips, so I am scaling back to every other day. Also, I started bloom nutes since these are pre-flowering and CalMag since some of the lower leaves are yellowing in the middles.

Fortunately, the hurricane missed us, so I didn't have to compromise the plants' lighting this week! Have been continuing to use LST, almost every day, to try to manage a flat canopy among all the plants. Gorilla Cookies really wants to stretch upward, so the branches of it are now stretched much wider than the pots. It seems to have less fan leaves than all the other plants. I am glad that it seems to have recovered from when I accidentally snapped both of the main top branches and then used painter's tape to mend the branches back together. I did start defoliating, removing lower fan leaves that turn yellow, and removing fan leaves that cover bud sites. Runtz F1 is probably getting most of the defoliation since it is the most bushy. Lemon Cherry Cookies and Runtz F1 are probably looking the best, with a combination of fattening buds and good vegetative density.

So far so good this week. Didn't do much LST this week since these are all now stretched beyond the circumference of their pots, although am continuing to defoliate and remove fan leaves that are either laying on other fan leaves, are turning yellow, or are at the bottom not getting any light. Lemon Cherry Cookies Auto is the first and the only one that has started to get some color, which is consistent with it having the shortest reported growth cycle. These grew about 5 inches vertically this week.

This week was much cooler and less humid than last week! Now taking photos of the buds since they are all starting to develop more. I am quite pleased with the way Lemon Cherry Cookies is developing! I've never grown a strain that has successfully gotten much noticeable purpling in color, and this one is getting it in both the leaves and the buds! Also, I'm quite impressed with how much the buds developed from last week. Last week the pistols were basically white like all the others still are, so I expect it is a couple weeks ahead of the others. Still white hairs and not a lot of curling in yet, so haven't even looked at the trichomes yet; it probably has at least another week or two until it's ready for harvest. Apple Strudel is still showing some signs of nute burn, so it can't seem to handle as much as the rest of these. I think these are finished growing in height, so I successfully trained them to stay under 2 feet, however Apple Strudel and Gorilla Cookies are both about 6" taller than Lemon Cherry Cookies and Runtz F1. I can't really train them anymore because the buds are already bumping into the buds of the other plants.

Lemon Cherry Cookies is looking beautiful with all the purpling! Still a good amount of white pistols, although probably 50% or less, and most people seem to be harvesting weeks 9-10 so I'll probably start flushing it soon. Gorilla Cookies and Runtz F1 Hybrid have amber pistols now, so these are approximately 11 days behind LCC in development. Apple Strudel is not showing any signs of darkening pistols yet, so it's at least 5 days behind GC and RF1. Also, Apple Strudel hates the bloom nutes! I scaled it back to 1/4 recommended dosage and leaves are still browning and curling, so suppose I'll scale it back to 1/8. Not much more LST nor defoliating to do with these. This week was hotter than last!

Most of the pistols on Lemon Cherry Cookies have darkened, so I started to flush and with 6.0 pH water last week (to hopefully increase purpling). Will likely pull it out of the tent to prepare for harvest soon. It fattened up nicely this past week. Some of the other plants started to show browning leaf tips, so I scaled the bloom nutes for all plants from 1/2 the recommended dose to 1/4. For future grows I'll probably stop at 1/4 and not give them any more than that. Apple Strudel FINALLY started to show some signs of darkening pistols. Buds of all plants have been fattening and maturing nicely this week. Still hot and humid outside, and I think there was actually a record high outdoor temperature last week, although the grow tent seems to be helping the plants from getting too stressed from it. Continuing to defoliate by removing leaves that are yellowing, covering bud sites, or that are low and covered and not getting any light. *** 11/3/24 UPDATE (3 days into week 10)*** Unfortunately I may have pulled LCC out of the grow tent too early. I checked the trichomes today (which was a long process, first using the USB camera to take video, then took screenshots of the frames where it wasn't blurry, see attached!) and only about half of them are white while the other half (maybe more than half) are clear. So this plant tricked me into thinking it was about harvest time, then out of nowhere started shooting white pistols out of all the top buds! That's why I checked the trichomes, to find out exactly what stage it was in. Why don't I just put it back in the tent? Because 3 days ago when I thought this was ready for harvest I started germinating another seed, and today it sprouted so I had to re-pot the rapid rooter into a fabric container of soil and make room for THAT in the grow tent. Since there's no more room for LCC in the grow tent, I put it next to a window so that it would at least get some light from the sun, and hopefully the trichomes mature more over the next couple days. Even though I've been flushing and giving it 6.0 pH water for over a week now, it doesn't seem to be stressed by it. Hopefully flushing early didn't stunt it. For future reference: ALWAYS check the trichomes BEFORE flushing and planning to harvest, because only going by the percentage of darkened pistols can be deceiving!

Started to notice some brown and curling tips near the tops of several of the plants so I moved the grow light up from 18 inches from the top of the tallest to 24 inches from the top. Glad I topped the plants in their vegetative stage, otherwise I can't imagine how tall they would be, and I would have no room to raise the grow light to still be above them. LCC is back in the grow tent now and also back to being watered, after I discovered last week by looking at the trichomes that it isn't ready for harvest yet. Even though I started flushing it almost 2 weeks ago, I started giving it bloom nutes again too since it is continuing to grow. Still too many clear trichomes for me to feel comfortable harvesting it. Not a fan of that "racy" or paranoid feeling AT ALL that can happen from harvesting too early. And I'm glad I didn't harvest it when I expected to because the buds have really fattened up and a lot of new white pistols have emerged these past 2 weeks. I also took video and then screenshots of the trichomes of GC and RF1 (video was mostly blurry so had to screenshot the fractions of seconds where it wasn't!) since they will probably be ready to harvest the same time or shortly after LCC, and they don't appear to be ready to harvest either; still a lot of clear trichomes despite many of the pistols having darkened and curled in. Weather outside has been hot and humid, so definitely not ideal for the late flowering stage, although there is nothing I can do about that other than to keep the fans blowing and the dehumidifier running. Average humidity was about 60% with fluctuations up to almost 80%, and temperature was mostly between 80F and 85F. Continuing to remove leaves as they begin to die, cover bud sites, or interfere with bud sites of nearby plants. Some of the Apple Strudel branches really started to bunch up together this week, so I adjusted the plant ties to pull them apart more to give them better airflow and not grow into each other.

Checked trichomes of all plants (see photos) and both LCC and GC seem ready for harvest based on almost all trichomes being milky/cloudy, so I pulled those for 3 days of darkness + no water and plan to harvest in 3 days. AS and RF1 probably have another week to go, so I'm continuing to flush those. The tallest buds of the tallest plants are still showing signs of clawing which I'm assuming to be light stress, so I mvoed the grow light as high as it will go in my tent, about 26 inches above the tallest buds of the tallest plants. Finally the temperature is starting to cool down, although outdoor humidity has still been high.

Lemon Cherry Cookies Auto was a fantastic grow, and it had no shortage of challenges. From germination, it started out growing upside down in the rooter with the taproot sticking straight up, and I was able to use tweezers turn it right-side-up and stick it back in the rooter and save it. Then, during LST, I accidentally snapped a branch by trying to put an LST clip on it, and was able to save the branch using painter's tape. When I thought it was ready for harvest, I pulled it out of the tent and gave it no light or water for a couple days, only to realize that I pulled it immaturely, and then put it back in the tent to rejuvenate it. Finally, the past couple weeks have been incredibly hot and humid, yet despite all this, growing in only a 3-gallon pot and sharing the tent with 5 other plants I was able to finally harvest 96.6 g of wet-trimmed bud, and it smells and looks incredible! I love the purple hues, and it even has some pink hues in some of the buds closest to the stems. It was a very sticky harvest, and the fat buds made it easy and relatively quick to trim. Throughout the grow, most of the leaves stayed green, even during late flowering, whereas with all the other plants in the grow tent the leaves started to turn yellow. Also, almost all the other plants showed signs of light stress, whereas this one didn't! Although to be fair this one was also shorter than all the others, probably due to it being heavier of an indica than the others.. It handled topping during week 3 no problem. Harvesting at week 8 as advertised would have been a huge mistake, as for me the size increased tremendously between weeks 8 and 12, and it also took that long for the trichomes to mature. Dry weight is 21.7 grams. Measured THC % is about 20% (see photos). For the smoke report, the flavor was most like black cherries, although I tasted some citrus too. The strain is named perfectly for what it tastes like. Its effects remind me a lot of Girl Scout Cookies in that it makes me feel relaxed, happy, and hungry. After smoking it, I was good just watching what was on TV and then got the brilliant idea to pour a shot of butterscotch schnapps on some chocolate mint ice cream. Definitely an indica lean with that nice "lightheadedness" feel, but I wasn't couch locked at all and was still able to do things around the house.

Firs time growing this strain, and had no problems at all with it! Harvest was similar to Girl Scout Cookies Auto, which I've grown and harvested in the past. Buds were not huge, lots of vegetation to chop away, and not particularly sticky. Less yield than Lemon Cherry Cookies Auto, as expected. Sticky enough to collect a ton of red hairs though, as you can see from the photo. Looks like I got in a fight with a fox! The smell was earthy and herbal rather than like cookies or gas, although maybe the smell will change after curing. Some of the sugar leaves had a nice purple color to them. My average wet weight yield growing Girl Scout Cookies auto and Gorilla Glue auto in 2-3 gallon pots while sharing a grow tent with other plants is about 51g, and this harvest is more than that, so I'm satisfied. Dry weight is 14.1 grams. Measured THC % is about 15%. Smoke report: Upon lighting up in my desktop vaporizer, the first thing I smelled was ammonia, which obviously isn't good, although hopefully goes away as it continues to cure. The taste, however, was fine. Earthy, herbal, and pine, and on the exhale mint. I would estimate the effects to be 75% indica, 25% sativa. Definitely indica-dominant. Main effect is relaxation, with slight happiness and wonder also. Gets the "stone" from gorilla glue and the "happy" from girl scout cookies. Even at only 15% THC, this hits nicely. I'm still able to function after only smoking one bowl, although prefer not to. I prefer both the effects and taste of the girl scout cookies strain, although those looking for more of a stone and who don't care as much about flavor will appreciate this; no wonder it is one of the breeder's best-selling. I suggest waiting till the evening to smoke this, as it will put you in a long-lasting relaxed state.

Harvesting this plant was an absolute pleasure. It may be the stickiest plant I've ever harvested, and I contemplated cleaning the stickiness off my trimming shears mid-way into harvest. Because it is clearly sativa-dominant, it took longer to harvest than indica-dominant strains and the buds are smaller, but I can't wait to try them! They smelled of sweet citrus the whole time, and there were some nice purple hues in the fan leaves and sugar leaves. The wet weight was less than my average, and I'm only expecting about 10g dry, although when I decided to grow this plant my goal was QUALITY, not quantity. Measured THC % about 20%. Smoke report: Don't know if it's because I already know the name of the strain, although it seemed to taste predominantly like apples and secondly like citrus. It made me feel happy and creative. Felt the usual buzz from it being weed, but not enough to make me sleepy. A great daytime strain!

This was a great grow, no problems at all. Breeder doesn't specify the indica/sativa proportions, although at harvest it was more like an indica. Very frosty buds, all the way down to the small popcorn buds at the bottom. I probably could have stopped harvesting at 40-50 grams, although the small buds near the bottom were so frosty that I had to harvest them too! The plant handled topping during week 3 no problem. It stayed short and had such an even canopy that it didn't even need any training beyond that. It smelled pleasantly sweet while harvesting. Measured THC about 20%. The buds smell like sweet fruit. The first smoke was like caramel or butterscotch (my first thoughts were vanilla or cream), and second smoke was herbal. I estimate it is about 30/70 indica/sativa, since I was able to either relax or do tasks around the house after smoking it, although I estimate a sativa lean since I was more motivated to do things. I could have just sat there and observed, but both times I felt energized to do more.