Auto Duck® from the Netherlands

Welcome to my grow diary, I'm a simple guy from Holland and I'm growing now for the second time in my life. I started with growing because of the high prices and varying quality at the coffeeshop, but I later discovered that I actually really enjoyed growing the plants and I got a really high yield which gave me a supply of almost a year of smokes. This year I bought some Auto Duck®️ from Dutch Passion and planted one seed from them. The soil I use is a mix of Canna Terra Professional and a local soil from the greenhouse. I do this because the Canna soil is really heavily fertilised soil and it's better to start growing with lesser soil, but I don't wanna transplant the Auto Duck®️ because of the stress it causes. So the bottom half is Canna and the top half is local soil. When the roots reach the heavily fertilised soil I expect the Duck®️ to be old enough to handle it without stress and burns.

It's still really small and because of the weather in Holland I build a support against the wind and rain. A few weaks ago I lost a youngling because of the heavy rain and wind, and I can't take it inside the house for shelter.

The weather is oké, it's clouded but the sun also shines a few hours. The Duck®️ is doing good but still very small and young.

The weather is really bad the past few days. Lots of rain with flooded streets and heavy wind. The Duck®️ took a heavy hit from the weather, a few damages on the old and new leafs but nothing bad. Let's see if the rain is going to be a problem for the roots.

The weather turned around and the sun is shining again. So the plant got a huge boost and has grown fast in a week. I gotta say, this strain is really strong. It took a good beating from the rain and wind but it didn't bother him much at all. The new leafs coming out have no more damages and they look healthy. It feels soft between your fingers and they have a really nice colour, can't wait till it grows bigger to see how they develop further. I also think that the roots are in the second layer of soil right now (remember? First a layer of greenhouse soil and then Canna Terra Professional soil). So I expect to see more growth because this soil will act like steroids for the plant. There is no sign of flowering yet.

Sorry for the delay on week 6, Had a friend staying here for a few days so I didn't had much time to do a update. The weather was not good this week. A lot of rain and heavy winds in Holland, on the other days a lot of clouds and barely any sunshine.

Good news today from Holland, the auto Duck®️ started with flowering! I saw it today (Thursday 20/7/2017). The weather has been good this few days with a lot of sun and no clouds. Only Wednesday night a big storm, thunder and wind that was blowing strong, I need to secure the plants with some rope because the wind is blowing the Duck®️ crooked. The next two days is going to be good. On Sunday the weather is expected to be bad for the whole week. Update: Today I tied up the main stem with rope, I'm first going to get the stem straight but I couldn't do this without a light tension on the rope. After that, I wil use the rope to prevent it from going crooked again. I don't mind doing this because it's a low stress training.

The Duck®️ is doing good, is growing strong and green. I almost forget about the second layer of soil but there is no damages on the leafs from nutrition burns, guess I can go heavier with the soil next year. There are damages on the leafs if you look at the pictures, look through that. Growing outside always gives damages on the leafs because of the wind, rain, rubbing and insects. There is nothing I can do about that, but the plants grows as good with or without the damages. Can't complain about anything expect the weather, that is complete and utter shit.

Another update guys! The buds are growing but it still needs to grow bigger and fatter. But that all depends on the weather and that has been bad almost he whole growing circle. I'm also thinking about defoliation Auto Duck®️ in the last 2/3 weeks before harvest. But I still need time to think about it.

Hello Guys, this week I did some excessive leaf removal, it's also called defoliation. I have done some research on it and experimented on another plant where it turned out great, so I'm positive about the outcome and did this on the Duck®️. I have to say that I don't like the looks, with the big leafs they simply look better and they also hide or cover the buds so it's less suspicious. But this is really something I wanna try out with the Duck®️ considering the size and the expected small harvest I will get. But let's wait out the results first, and then I can say it works or not.

I wanna show you guys the result of the defoliation. More leafs and bigger leaf growth, the buds also are developing nicely and I also feel the sticky on my fingers.

Hello guys, this week I cannot complain about the weather. The whole week the sun is shining and I have been wearing shorts 😊. The Auto Duck®️ is growing good, buds are forming nicely and getting bigger and thicker. The frost on the leafs is also expending, so I'm happy how the growing is going. The smell is good, you have to go really close (like nose sticking in buds close) to smell it. But when you stand or squat next to the Duck®️ you cannot smell anything, so I can say this strain is for stealth growing. The harvest time is next week, Dutch Passion says 85 or 90 days of growing. Day 85 is on 29 August (3 more days) and day 90 is on 5 September. But I don't harvest on these exact dates because I'm busy at work and the harvest will be to small for me to take a day off. But I'm also thinking about giving it 1 or 2 weeks extra, the weather prediction is decent and I think it will benefit the yield and quality if I wait a little bit longer. I still have to check the trichomes under the scope to make a final conclusion. But looking at the leafs signs, no yellowing yet and still dark green and healthy. The last 2 photo's are from a part I drawn and 3D printed. The black part is a Hygrometer and Thermometer gauge from banggood,com, the white part is from the printer. My intentions was to made a holder for inside the lid of the jar. But the jar is not accurate, so my plan didn't work (try and error method). But there are new ideas on the drawing board that I'm going to try, maybe that will succeed.

Hello weedlovers, so it's official, the Auto Duck®️ is 87 days old (12 weeks). Today I made some picture's and looked at the trichomes, looking at the trichomes you can clearly see it's not done yet. Just a few that are milky or white, but mostly are clear. So it's going to take another week (at least) before I look again to see it's harvest time. Looking at the buds development, they are going to take advantage of the extra week and grow bigger. And also a side note, the smell is getting stronger. Nothings serious but when I squat next to the Duck®️ I smell it. I personally like the smell and it's not an extravagant smell. But this is a good thing, it's means the harvest time is getting closer.

About the buds! The buds are compact but fluffy also, considering I have a decent box full of weed ,on the scale the mass is not great. I have to admit that this is my biggest disappointment, because when you hold it in your hand it looks great but no density. But still I think that the buds are looking good, most of the tops are completely covering the stem, and the trichomes are looking good, there is a nice layer of crisp trichomes covering the whole buds. Feels high man! The high is good, it's a good and strong high that I really like. I honestly don''t like the weed so much from the coffeeshop, because they dried the weed wrong (to dry) and mostly a harsh taste when smoking. Also the high is inconstant narrowing the list of just a few weeds that are good/decent and I wanna spend my money on smoking it. With my outdoor growth I always get high, and the taste and smoking is smooth taking big hits/puffs without coughing (and no chemicals on my weed). The taste! Well, for now I would narrow the taste down to woody and earthy. But I have a vaporiser (herbalAire H3) and in my opinion that is the proper way of tasting weed, I haven''t tried that yet but I will update the page when I do. Update 13/12/2017 Today I tried the Duck with the HerbalAire H3, I know it's been a long time but I still hope you enjoy the read. The taste is good with the vaporizer, it's a earthy taste but delicate. You inhale and you get a bit of sweetness, but with the exhale you get the earth taste that dominates. But the earth is not heavy, it's smooth on the tong. But I have to tell you, I stashed it in a weck jar with some 62% Boveda bags inside so that would influences the taste (in a positive way :)). What I notice with this vape that is worth to mention, the smell is stronger then normal and it's really smells sweet but with a big tough of weed. I actually like the smell. The high with the vaporizer is good. I didn't smoke for three days and I hit it now with 174 celcius and is a good strong high in my head. But I'm still focused and clear in my mind Resume Well people, I hope you enjoyed my growing diary and my story''s. Giving you a bit of guide and indication to grow your own strain or choose this strain. After this growth I consider the Auto Duck®️ as a good side growth that is easy to grow and don''t need much attention. With discretion as his main advertising it does it job proper.