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Got some seeds from a friend so figured I'd give it a go. I was also curious about high CBD strains so I went shopping at Seedsman and ordered the Candida seed, of course they threw in a bunch of extras that I was not anticipating. I figured what the hell, lets try some of the Seedsman freebies and planted a Seedsman White Widow, Royal Queen Seeds Critical and then 3 or so weeks in to the grow figured I'd try a Female Seeds Auto Speed Bud to satisfy my curiosity about autos.
Lights: Started with a Galaxy Hydro 300w LED and once I realized that wasnt going to cut it , I added a Roleadro 400w COB to the mix.
Medium: Started with Fox Farms Ocean forest in smart pots and realized it was kicking the ass of the Candida. When I transplanted it, I found the nutrient barren stuff I could find - I think it was Black Gold Organic
Schedule: The weekly progress is relative to the planting of the Seedsman seeds, the unknown seeds were planted 2 weeks earlier and the Auto Speed 3 weeks after.
After cloning one of the unknowns and waiting a while, it revealed itself as a male! Yuck! You can see the ensuing treatment for yourself. The White Widow and Critical are cruising along very healthy and bushy at about the same rate with the White Widow a little bigger and the Candida is much more gangly with almost sickly looking leaves. The remaining unknown strain is really starting to take off and in need of a bit of training to direct its growth toward the end of the tub.
After reading that cloning autos is useless, I had to give it a whirl. So I took 2 cuttings from the Auto Speed and also pinched the top to see what that effect has on it.
Decided to start measuring these things.
I vegged for so long because after killing off the male, I thought I needed to grow them out a bit more to fill up some of the empty room left over. I also kind of messed up my light timer and wound up on 18/6 for an extra week when I intended 12/12 . Oh well, bigger yield maybe?
I wanted to experiment with the Auto Speed and see what effect trimming autos really has. At this point , 7 weeks in, however, there was no sign of flowering (this thing is supposed to be lightning fast) and I really question wether or not its an actual auto.
In to the 3rd week of flowering can see that the auto speed is getting much taller than the widow or critical and the Candida is staying true to its scraggly form but really filling out with buds. The auto speed and critical buds are developing faster than the widow.
The Widow and Critical are so freaking dense , I am debating defoliating
Coming along!
Decided to add a few nutrients because why not. Got some Fox Farms Beastie Bloomz and Green Planet Nutrients Massive. I hope its ok to use them together - maybe thats why the Auto Speed has some brownish tips? Also got some free Mammoth P so decided to add that too.
White Widow - The slowest growing buds and least smelly of the bunch at this point although the bushiest.
Critical - Almost as bushy and big as the Widow but much more bud growth and stickiness.
Auto Speed - In its 11th week btw ... About tied with the Critical for bud maturity but not nearly as many - maybe because I've been abusing it or maybe it really is an auto. Its the most pungent of the bunch at the moment. One issue is that its got the brown tips. Too many nutrients in the mix?
Candida - More smell than the Widow but not really as crystally (is that a word? ) as the rest - the buds are growing gangly and less dense than the rest of the group but seem to be coming along.
The PH of all of them (except the Auto Speed) is very orange. I don't have a meter yet so guessing thats a slight bit over 5. I've been trying to adjust it for weeks with ph up in the water and lime added to the soil. I even flushed them a couple of weeks back and no real response - other than the Auto Speed. I can’t for the life of me get it to budge. They seem happy though so perhaps its not an issue. I just think maybe they'd be doing better if it was a bit higher??
5th week in to flowering and a bit of activity happening
As I mentioned last week, these things - well the White Widow and Critical - are very bushy. Not much light was getting past about 4 inches or so and everything below that was a light lime green in color - you can really notice this color difference in some of the downward looking shots, especially on the White Widow. So, as much as I wasn't planning on it I grabbed the scissors and did the deed. I've read pros and cons on defoliating and I'm hoping the pros are right!! As you can see, I played it conservatively and didn't take too much off.
The Auto Speed is getting some ill looking leaves, from what i've googled, seems could be calcium deficiency perhaps due to the ph? Funny thing, its the only plant that I get about a 6.5 according to my test kit - the rest as usual come up deep orange which I am guessing is in the low 5s or worse! Hmm, a digital ph meter is on order! Maybe it aint taking too well to the nutrient elixir - I'm gonna give it a good flush and see how she does. Its always been much more sensitive than the rest.
One more interesting thing about the Auto Speed, as you may have noticed its in its 12th week and it is still not done! Well, so much for the 'Speed' ... And about that 'Auto' ... a clone I made from it a few weeks back is growing just fine after a shaky start - I was not expecting that because I read that Autos don't really clone well. Something fishy is going on with this plant. Hmmm.
Not too much to report this week, seems like a rather boring time in the grow - they are not getting taller and its tough to tell if the buds are getting bigger.
One thing to note - they did recover from the trimming/defoliation. The leaves that were once lime green are as healthy as the rest. Now of course I wonder if they were even worth keeping around since the resulting buds just aint all that big.
I'm assuming I should start paying attention to the Auto Speed since its way behind its advertised flowering time. The buds have about 85% white hair and I am having one hell of a time distinguishing a cloudy trichrome from a clear one! I'm kinda nervous I'm gonna F up the whole crop because of this.
Also - I am just totally unhappy with my phone's pictures of these things, anyone have any good tips or tricks? Or do I need to break down and get a fancier camera?
I dusted off a forgotten digital camera that has not seen much daylight due to the awesomeness of my phone’s camera. But - It seems to be doing better on these bud shots, sorry if I got carried away but I’m experimenting. Hopefully you can get a sense of where these things are at.
Update:
Candida: As floppy and gangly as ever of course, hanging all over the place with not so dense buds. But, they are gaining some mass and are forming a tons of crystals and the plant is very pungent and sticky. I think I’m going to need some kind of support system.
Critical:
This thing smells like I opened box of Fruit Loops! Its developmentally ahead of the White Widow and smellier. RQS claims this is a 7 week flower plant, I am thinking about giving it one more feeding then flushing for a week or 2 - I am having a hell of a time determine harvest readiness from the size, percentage of white hairs and from the trichomes.
Auto Speed:
Its in about 6 days of flush - you can see what it looks like and I really cannot determine what the cause is but its getting worse. Perhaps just normal end of life traits? Its starting to spread in to the buds so I think I’m gonna chop this thing down in the coming days. Hopefully its ready! As I mentioned, I am having a hard time judging these things. It has some cloudy trichomes but also has a ton of clear ones!! Hopefully the THC gods are forgiving! Ah yes, it also has a clone - its interesting that the clone is starting to flower now and I am guessing that its going to produce more bud than if I would have left it on the main plant! But of course, may weeks later.
White Widow:
Still keeps chugging along - a bit behind the rest but as healthy as ever. Not even thinking about harvesting this one for a while. So far, this one is the least picky of the bunch, taking about everything I can throw at it with no signs of unhappiness.
I have a hard time rating this thing because I haven't smoked it yet and I didn't treat it so well - I topped it, defoliated it, had it in a 1 gallon pot and flowered it in a 12/12 cycle. While most of this may affect the yield for an auto, I don' t know that these factors contributed to its longer than expected time to harvest. I wouldn't even mention the time it took if it wasn't called Auto SPEED Bud! I feel bad giving this only an average rating , but the breeder is making these claims and it just wasn't my experience. Maybe I'll update the rating after I do a smoke test and also see how the clone performs.
After about a week of just water and nothing but cloudy trichomes, I chopped her down! I don''''''''t have a scale yet so I''''''''m unsure of the wet weight - and I''''''''m not sure I even care honestly, I''''''''ll wait until its dry to weigh. One thing I gotta say ... Trimming Aint Easy! Took me an hour and a half for this modest size plant! She''''''''s drying now in a box in an effort to keep the light off because the Internet told me light was bad for drying. I keep it open a bit for some air flow so its not complete darkness - I hope the Internet approves. So far just smells like the bottom side of a lawn mower but I guess thats why they call it grass! Stay tuned for more updates!000
Getting a little carried away honing my bud porn skills - better than too few pics I suppose.
The buds are getting fatter on all of them and they have been getting nothing but water.
The White Widow is starting to catch up to the critical on bud fatness and smell but still a bit behind. Although the Critical buds are in fact fatter than the WW's at this point, they are closer in size than the pics lead you to believe - the WW grew more leaves back after the last defoliation and is much bushier so the buds are not as prominent. The trichomes look to be about 70% cloudy on both the Critical and White Widow - I say 70% but thats a very very rough guess - but at this point a rough guess is all I have! Maybe another week or 2 on both of them? I'll keep my eyes out for the amber trichomes.
As for the Candida ... she's a special beast. Floppy as hell and the buds are nowhere near as thick as the other 2. I am not sure if this is the is the nature of the strain or its because it spent the majority of its life under the weaker light? Hmmm... But, she's as pungent as ever and crazy sticky. I am not looking forward to trimming this thing at harvest time!
Speaking of smelly ... i HAD to do something about it ... the carbon filter in the pic works freaking miracles, I am shocked at how good of a job it does.
Also ... got a few seed going for the next grow .. already looking forward
Another week of taking too many pictures .. oh well. I find it very interesting how the crystals reflect the light in the shots where I am using the flash so thats why there are 2 versions of some of the shots - 1 with flash and 1 without.
Not a whole lot going on with these things this week other than just drinking lots of water and doing some bud fattening. Looks like the White Widow is catching up to the Critical! I guess the scale will tell. I’ve been checking the trichomes and the Critical looks like its ready for harvest any day now and going to leave the Widow and Candida for the following week.
Obviously the Candida is the least photogenic of the bunch. I suppose I should have used some kind of support like a net or something for the poor thing.
Rather simple and fun to grow, just give her some nutrients and watch her go! Not too fussy at all - although slightly more fragile than the White Widow (that thing is a freaking tank!). Seems the guys at RQS know what they are talking about because it was pretty damn close to the marketing material with buds developing faster and fatter than my other strains - this is my first grow so take that for what its worth. You can see for yourself in the pics how it outpaced its only real completion in this grow - the White Widow. Of course neither has been weighed or smoked yet. I'm giving it an 10 for the moment because I have no reason not to - could get some demerits if the smoke is crap - but I have confidence in this one!
Just cut it down and its hanging to dry -- wow, what a freaking chore!! I can't believe how long this takes! Not a whole lot to say yet as I haven't smoked any yet and it will be a few days before it jar it up and get a sense of the final weight.
Not really sure how to rate this strain yet - its bizarre - you don't get high, but thats how its suppose to work! The marketing claims less than 1% THC and 11%-20% CBD - I can confirm the THC number but not really sure how to judge the CBD. I haven't explored what else other than smoking can be done with this -- but I will! Thats why I got it! I'm very curious.
Just an FYI on the grams/watt calculations. I had 2 lights over 4 plants pulling a total of 315 watts from the wall. So i just divided up that total by 4 to estimate what each plant got (78.75 watts) .. should be at least somewhat accurate
Yeah, I realize these are plants and not something manufactured in a factory so I understand there will be variances. I just think its interesting that like you said, they are still being stabilized and somewhat unpredictable. For example, I'm really interested to see how the Auto Speed clone comes along, so far its growing by its own timeline, not the Parent's. I thought it would follow the Parent's.
The 2 plants you have harvested look amazing mate I'm really impressed they look stunning and I expect no less from your last plants to harvest a 10/10 job I hope you were happy with your harvest happy growing dude
@Teamdirtbag2, More photogenic for sure - I wonder if its the Widow's extra bushiness that gets in the way of great bud porn. Also .. the Critical is much more pungent
John ... ??? You don't let your plant to breakdown her nutrients and her chlorophyll ???
Drying in the dark helps to breakdown the few amounts of chlorophyll left after the flush, that same chlorophyll who gives that awful taste and bad smell in the first days of drying. Drying process must be slow, 10-14 days, then comes the curing process in jars ...
@JUNGLE_B4RNS, I have it in that box with flaps just a wee bit open so its rather dark but I am sure an ever so slight bit of light can sneak in. I didn't want to seal the box entirely, but I do have a temp/humidity sensor in there so I could seal it and just try make sure it stays as certain levels -- just not sure what those levels need to be .... advice??
The box is the best idea I have at the moment as I don't have an option of doing anything outside of the grow room - so its going to have to deal with the 12 hours of light while the other plants finish.
@JohnCH, very interesting... I find this to be very interesting. I want to see more. I was always led to believe they'd be the same age as the parent. Please make a diary with it.👊👊👊👊👊👊👊👊
@Teamdirtbag2, I think you are right, it would be interesting so see what happens to an auto clone. Looks like I clipped it at week 8 so its 10 weeks old now - assuming you start its age from when it was cut. Stay tuned!
@tbiz99, Yep these are the freebies. Good choice to grow together as they are both rather easy and very similar in size, structure, growth rate (except at flowering), nutrient/light requirements and responses and such. That Candida on the other hand ....
Hey John you should probably check your roof because it looks like it snowed in your grow room there's got to be a hole in your roof. Man that critical is looking awesome. Nice job keep up the good work.👊
I've just learned recently that Auto's are still on the way to be stabilized, you shall probably tell Auto Speed Bud that you needed twice the time than it's supposed to take to grow a plant with the seed they have send you. They would probably send you a more stable version.
JohnCH
