Auto Daikiri Lime - First indoor grow

Brocolis_Grow_Br Right after germination, I think I overdid it with the lighting and it got stunted. (I put the 150W LED about 30/40 cm away and set it to the lowest intensity, but even so, I think it was too focused and burned it.) The first pair of leaves burned along with the cotyledons. The second pair only started to show up on 02/28, like in the photo above. High temperatures here, low humidity too, so I've been putting frozen pieces to help with that, but it’s a hassle. I also used a plastic cup over the seedling to increase humidity in the first few days when it was still stunted. It's a bit wobbly, so I've been propping it up with sticks. I noticed several little gnats in the soil, they were bothering me. Instead of applying Neem, I decided to do a mulch with leaves I have at home (even with the risk of bringing some pathogen into the grow, I didn't want to invest in something like rice hulls, maybe next time). The mulch worked and they practically disappeared. One thing I'm struggling with is knowing the amount of water. The evaporation inside the grow is completely different from outdoors. Outside, I could always just glance and check other plants around, so I always had a rough idea of how the soil moisture would be. Here, not at all. I still have zero idea how I'm going to keep track of that, especially with it being so fragile, so I can barely touch the soil nearby.

Brocolis_Grow_Br After reducing the intensity of the LED and also increasing the distance, it unlocked and started to adjust. It's looking good, but the leaves are still showing light green spots. I suspect it's due to overwatering, I'm experimenting and seeing how it progresses.

Brocolis_Grow_Br She's doing well. I lowered the LED a bit to see if it would burn and nothing happened. She must be getting around 600 µmol for now, I think. I started some LST, but I'm having a bit of difficulty. Both because she's still small and dense, and because I'm keeping her too low, sometimes touching the soil. I put a wooden spoon in to give her a bit of height. I also ended up trimming some branches that were going down or casting too much shade on the rest. I don't really like removing leaves like that, but it was too crowded. She reacted well. The truth is, now I don't know how to train her to distribute the plant a bit better. I think I'm going to start bending her and wrapping her around the pot.

Brocolis_Grow_Br It was a terrible idea to start LST so early. She turned into a fat bush. She hasn't gained much height so far, but she's branched out a lot, really a lot. Since the stem is bent, it's much harder to work with her. I can barely find space to put my hand in and see how the plant is doing. She's entered the first week of flowering and started to stretch, throwing out pistils. I couldn't count at the time, but I think I have about 8 to 10 branches with buds at a pretty good height. I decided to start some cleaning on the bottom, mostly because it's so low that it's touching the soil. I took the opportunity to clean the lowest nodes of all of them, to let in a bit more air. The plant is shaped like a lying S, with almost all the branches coming out sideways from the main one. I only kept one that was a bit out of the norm. I should have pruned it, but I kept it as a backup because another one had broken a bit during LST. It ended up healing, and I kept both. Now I feel bad about cutting. I thought about letting her grow freely or keeping LST and trying to open her up more and more. I decided to stick with LST. In the photos, you can see a before, the cleaning, and then with LST reapplied (I still don't know if I'm doing more harm than good for her).

Brocolis_Grow_Br It started to grow quickly. The shape got weird, I really don't know how to handle LST. I even managed to stretch the lower branches and make them fuller, but it's very hard to hold the main apex down. I decided to tie it down right after these photos. It will make her even denser and more branched, but at least give her a break in height. She's growing fast, every day I need to move the LED back a bit. The smell started to come out and it's really nice. I think soon I need to boost the fertilizer with something rich in phosphorus and potassium.

Brocolis_Grow_Br She's doing well. She stopped growing in height and ended up quite compact due to all the LST I applied early on, but she turned out more evenly shaped than I expected. The last tie-down I added (and the only one on the main stem) helped a lot. The weaker side was the one I branched out from the base right at the beginning. I’ll try a different approach next time. I removed two lower leaves that were older and starting to yellow and burn. I think it’s natural, but I’ll keep an eye on it. Right now, my main concern is phosphorus and potassium, because I feel those were limiting factors in previous outdoor grows—especially with the last Daikiri Lime I harvested. I haven’t decided what to use yet; I didn’t want to invest anything else in this grow, but I’ll probably try a molasses tea, wood ash, or something along those lines. As for watering, I’m doing it every 3 days, depending on the weather, letting the soil dry out well between waterings. The buds won’t be huge, but I believe they’re on track to be dense—which is something I struggled with in outdoor grows due to limited sunlight. One thing that has been amazing so far is the total lack of pests. Since I was used to growing outdoors alongside my other plants, it was a constant battle—this one’s 100% clean. So far, this is my best grow yet, even with all the difficulties at the beginning.

Brocolis_Grow_Br She was doing well, but I started noticing yellowing on the older leaves, which I considered normal at first. After removing some leaves, though, I feel like it’s happening too quickly to be natural. All the yellowing leaves are in the center of the plant. A few days later, I noticed that the other leaves also started to yellow a bit (which could be natural), but I still think it’s a bit early in her cycle for this to be happening so intensely. The last time I harvested this strain (outdoor), it took 100 days; right now, I’m only at day 63, so I don’t think the yellowing should be this advanced yet. Other than that, she looks good, asking for more and more water, maybe around 1.5 liters every 3 days (temperatures here are between 20–25°C). Her smell has changed a little in a way I didn’t like much (not sure if it’s her or the younger plant I germinated next to her). It's now more of a strong grassy, chlorophyll smell. I’m planning to add some bone meal today to see how she reacts and I’m also trying to get some wood ash to add afterward. I thought about trying a compost tea made with my homemade compost, but I got worried it might add even more nitrogen at a time when it’s not ideal (since I added blood meal about 30 days ago).

Brocolis_Grow_Br I ended up neglecting her a bit over the past few weeks, and that was a mistake. She's almost completely stalled due to a lack of nutrients. You can see that the yellowing has accelerated a lot — leaves are turning purple, drying out, and becoming crispy. I believe it's a severe phosphorus and potassium deficiency. I'm not sure if the tea I made had any effect. At this point, I don’t think it’s worth adding much more. I’ll just try some cane molasses (just regular store-bought) and maybe some banana peel tea. The way things are going, I think there are about 10 to 15 days left, because if it takes any longer, she might start molding or the buds might die. The smell is nice and the buds look good. Most of the trichomes are still clear, with some milky ones. Practically no amber yet.

Brocolis_Grow_Br I added banana peel tea, but it's still drying out — both due to a lack of nutrients and because it's close to harvest. It's almost ready. Some amber trichomes have already started to appear, and there are almost no white pistils left. I'm going to start monitoring it daily now, because the harvest will probably happen later this week.

Brocolis_Grow_Br It's a pity I couldn't fix her deficiencies during flowering, but I was still satisfied with the flowers she produced. I harvested 345g, and after drying I was left with 68g. As always, the drying was poorly done — the branches still had moisture, but the outer part of the flowers was dry. Now I have to rehydrate them as needed. The pistils turned very dark, but they didn't curl inward as I expected, so they ended up sticking out a bit, which slightly affects the appearance of the flower. It turned out super frosty and has a nice smell.