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This is my first grow and on GROWDIARIES!
As a cannabis enthousiast I am researching the latest genetics for medicinal purposes in small-scale home growing conditions.
I chose autoflowering genetics since I have always been curious/slightly sceptical if autoflowers can compare to photoperiod strains (next diary!). Also autoflowers are easy to grow on a small smale just to provide for personal medicinal use. Since I mostly self-medicate before sleep I started looking for a bedtime strain from modern US genetics. I decided to grow Gorilla Grow Auto by FastBuds. By looking at their portfolio of strains it was clear to me that Fastbuds has taken autoflowers to the next level with the most impressive genetics available!
Setup:
- Darkstreet DS60 R4
- Mastergrow 600W DUAL LED (100W Power draw)
- 250m3 Fan + 255m3 carbon filter on Cli-Mate Fan Controller
- Romberg Hortiswitch with heating mat, 16w MonkeyFan, Garden High Pro Thermo/Hygro meter,
- 12.5L Air-Pot, Blumat Tensiometer, BIOCANNA soil and nutrients,
- Fastbuds Gorilla Glue Auto Seed!
First 3 days seedling will get 24/0 hours light regime and then switch to 20/4 with vegetative switch only (320W).
Day 1:
Day 1 counted from the moment the seed breach out of the ground. 12.5L airpot fully watered. Only watering if necessary to minimize stretching, promote root development and short internodes.
Day 2:
Seedling looking very healthy, slight edges of the first leaves deformed.
Day 5:
First set of leaves is developing nicely with a healthy green color. Forgot to switch from 24/0 to 20/4 on the morning of the 4th day so switched to 20/4 after day 5.
Day 6:
Switched to 20/4.
Day 7:
My baby Gorilla Glue auto is 1 week! Second set of leaves is growing tightly against cotyledons. First week of promoting a stocky fat indica achieved.
Day 8:
She's growing fine! Second set of leaves is growing rapidly.
Day 9:
First set of leaves develops a bit more chlorophyl under the vegatative blue led lights.
Day 12:
Seedling took formation and shape to enter the vegative phase. Every day leaves get bigger.
Day 14:
After the first 2 weeks, compared to Turbuneon lights, the vegative lamp mode defintely promotes stocky growth, the way I like it!
Second week was a blast. A little purple at the petioles but only feeding rooting stimulator. Second set of leaves shows 2 duckfooted fingers, hope seed genetics is fully healthy.
Day 16:
Love the way the plant looks! Growing fast and healthy green leaves.
Day 17:
Branches start forming from de 2nd node and the development of new sets of leaves continues.
Day 21:
Petioles still look very purple, decided to give vegative feeding at 1/8 strength.
Day 24:
Branches develop very well and with a very short length the plant takes shape. Petioles stil purple. Nice subtle smell from the plant.
Day 26:
Given the plant Vita Race foliar spray to see of purple petioles decrease. First pre-flowers showing pistils! Started LST at the end of the day and spreading of the branches.
Day 28:
Plant starts to adjust very well to the LST and growing very fast. Petioles seem a bit greener and given the 2nd feed at a 1/4 strenght.
Day 30:
Main shoot growing fast and tightning the main LST a bit every day.
Day 34:
On the morning of day 34 I noticed the main top got really sturdy and snapt from the LST. Tried to repair with tape but damage was beyond repair and water pressure was not able to maintain for recovery. Cut of the main shoot. Felt so stupid....
Day 35:
Plant reacting very good for losing her main shoot and shoots next in line taking their place. Given a 3rd feeding at a 1/4 strength. No sign of actual flowering yet. Still on vegative light and flowering might have been delayed by topping?
Day 38:
Still no sign of flowering. Will keep her vegging as long as possible!
Day 42:
Branches developing into a very bushy plant, started defoliation and inner pruning to shape the plant for even canopy.
Day 43:
Her canopy is beautifull and dark green under a bit of natural light! Still growing very fast, every day I do light defoliation and branch management if necessary. Petioles still very purple. Turned on flowering leds (with vegging leds now at full 600W) and given flowering nutrients at 3/4 strength to promote flowering.
Day 45:
After defoliation the canopy quickly fills up again! Theres preflower but no real sign of flowering.
Day 47:
Pre-flowers visible as seen from day 26. No strechting or signs of flowering.
Day 49:
One branch seems to thicken its shoot. Might Gorilla Girl show me magic flowers? Since day 49 (last day of week 7) looks as flowering the whole week 7 has been marked as flowering (as with photosensitive strains).
Day 50:
Lovely canopy, shoots start to thicken up all over the plant.
Day 55:
First flowering pistils obviously showing! Feeding on 1/2 strength every other watering. Somehow my Hanna pH is behaving a bit strange and feel like I cant fully trust my pH meter.
Day 57:
Over the last week my Gorilla Glue auto has been stretching a lot and flowers are popping up everywhere! Canopy beautifully filled out the growing space.
Week 9 general remark:
Hanna pHep seemed off and was not able to calibrate her properly with a new set of buffers. Dont trust the meter and bought a new Hanna Groline! Really happy with new meter.
Day 63:
Plant is showing purple petioles, purple nerves in the leaves and purple stems. Looks like a phosphor shortage. Since I have been feeding on the low side and BioCanna is hard to overfeed since organic according the manufacturer I fed more flowering nutes on full strength.
Still leaves are looking healthy and flowers are looking good! After aproximately 2 weeks flowering I performed inner canopy pruning and removed lower shoots and branches.
Day 64:
Used my brain and fed pH'ed water to check runoff. Runoff showed pH 7.4 and over 3000 ppm (500 scale). pH meter was problably off during the my grow with not properly pH'ing water all along. I assume this caused a high pH in the soil, saltbuildup and phosphor lockout. Should have fed less, had more water runoff and steadily check runoff.
Valuable lesson! Always check what goes in and out!
Due to a busy week quickly flushed with 10L of water pH6.0 and when runnof dropped to 900ppm added 4L 1/2 strenght feed pH 6.0. Runoff still pH 7.4
Day 65:
Given pH'ed water with rhyzotonic and bioboost at pH 6.0 for the rest of the week. Once with 0.5 mL pk13/14 to compensate for the phosphor lockout.
Day 69:
Since the whole week runoff was still pH 7.4 while giving pH 6.0 waterings I went for a proper flush on saterday morning. Flushed with about 35L plain water at pH 6.0. At the end runoff was 330ppm (same as pH'ed water with rhyzotonic and biobooster). Immediately leaf stance improved and she seems to liked the flush.
Day 70:
Soil dried up enough from flushing and gave a feed pH 6.0 full strenght including rhizotonic, biobooster, bio flores and pK13/14 (840ppm).
Plant still shows early stage of phophor lockout but the buds slightly thicken, show new flowers and resin production is kicking in. Next week would be week 4 to 5 off flowering and will be feeding at pH 6.0 with 1 week of pk13/14 checking runoff pH and ppm to promote healthy balanced soil and flower production. Oh and she smells like a beast!
Day 103:
Harvested full plant. After removing fan leaves plant was hung upside down at 22 degrees Celsius and 55% humidity. At time of harvest most trichomes were cloudy and about 5% of the trichomes turned amber.
Check the trichomes on my Stereo zoomscope. Beautifull mess of sticky resin! Unfortunately I dont have a camera in my stereoscope to take pictures.
Day 109:
After 7 days of drying the dried flowers were trimmed and the nugs were placed in a 2L CVault. CVault was used with 62% boveda pack and boveda butler for humidity monitoring. First 7 days of curing the cvault was opened for approximately 10 minutes every morning and evening.
Day 115:
2nd week of curing. Only opening the CVault every other day. Finally posted pictures of the original Seedpackage bought from the Zamnesia store.
3rd week of curing till 6th week:
Opened up the CVault a few times a week checking humidity with the boveda pack. Humity was fairly consistent.
Gorilla Glue Auto product is chunky, loaded with resin and the texture after drying is perfect. Curing for 6 weeks definately was worth it.
After loading up my Santa Cruz Shredder medium the chamber of the ground cannabis gives an amazing terpene rich sweet smell with a hint of pine and diesel. Trimmings from dried trimming were kept in a Hash Maker and after 6 weeks put in the freezer for 2 nights. After shaking the pollen my house was filled with a very pungent sweet terpy scent, simply amazing!
The goal to make my acquaintance with modern day US autoflower genetics was a very positive experience! Thanks goes out to all fellow growers supporting my diary, growdiaries for re-posting my pictures on instagram and the amazing sponsored seeds I received for future diaries.
My research will be continued!
BlackVeined
