Mimosa Cake - First (Auto) Grow

Cheesehead_Grow Used cut up 2 liter bottles for humidity domes until ACI 4.5L humidifier came in. Used plain tap water to spritz soil and the dome. Used distilled water for the humidifier.

Cheesehead_Grow My 2 photos needed transplanting so I did the Mimosa Cake as well. Also regretted using the tin can, worried about transplanting if it got bigger, used 2 spoons to gently scoop it out and into the 5 gal. Watered as needed, still using plain un-adjusted tap water. Decided to use the vivosun self-watering bases, all are currently empty, waiting for the plants to get bigger. In retrospect, I should have been ph adjusting my water since the beginning, getting 8.3 from tap. I also think the FFOF was a little hot for the plant in early stages. Next run, will fill the bottom ~60% with FFOF and the top the rest with FFHF so that when it finally gets to the FFOF it should be a more mature plant and ready for those nutrients. Mimosa cake will always be the left pot. Don’t take/keep many pics early on, will have more in following entries.

Cheesehead_Grow She seemed to be a slow starter but as her first 5 finger fan leaves established and I dialed in environment, she did much better. I started ph-ing the water (incorrectly at first) and added homemade calmag every other feeding. Topped at 5th node at the end of the week. Giving it a day or two before I start LST. Also added in a tray of veggies starts to show my partner that yes, this is definitely a good investment lol

Cheesehead_Grow Growth seemed to explode at this point. I started LST, the bottom 2 nodes did well, top 2 nodes did well but straightened and went back up after I took the clips off after 4 days. I definitely lacked some info on LST and didn’t tie the top 2 nodes down to keep it short. Read a lot of contradictory stuff about auto care so it scared me off doing much more so I just let it ride once all the training clips came off. Started bottom feeding last week as the leaves extended past the edge of the pot. When filling the base, I’d save the last 25% to top feed as she spread roots and got used to bottom feeding.

Cheesehead_Grow Strong rapid growth, beginning to outgrow her photo tent mates. Only a few ties remain on bottom node limbs for width, all other training is off. Self feeder really working well. The base holds about 1.8 gal, initially she drank to dry in 7 days, then 5-6 days on subsequent refills. I always add homemade calmag, follow label for regular doses of grow big and big bloom. Made the mistake of adding the big bloom to the base, it settled and I cleaned it out before the next refill. For each refill, I save the last 1/4-1/2 gal then add the big bloom to the water and top feed. I try to give 12-24 hours for her to dry out a bit before refilling the base, so she’s not constantly soggy and so that the next top feed won’t oversaturate.

Cheesehead_Grow Really awesome consistent growth this week. She definitely was in pre flower last week and entered flowering this week. Gave one last grow big dose as it transitioned, then started to use tiger bloom per label instructions. She is very thirsty, drinks her full 1.8 gal base in 4 days now. Starting light gradual defoliation, 3-5 leaves per day, starting at the bottom. Just obvious old large leaves or stuff pointing inwards. Lots of tucking for the rest. There’s some decent offshoots from the first 2 main nodes that are at least mid plant or higher, so I’m letting most things just ride. It always amazes me how thick the trunk is getting. Never seen a cannabis plant in person before so this has been very rewarding so far. As the photo tent mates get thicker, I opted to get a second fan for under the canopy, medium low speed, no oscillation. It’s also this week I am starting to regret my greed (and lack of knowledge) of running photos and autos at the same time. The mimosa cake is getting real big, so I’m going to attempt to keep the photos as small as possible with more LST (they’ve been topped twice) so that ideally, when the mimosa is ready for harvest or close enough, then I can flip, otherwise I don’t think the tent has the space for all 3 to be in flower.

Cheesehead_Grow Seems like the stretch is mostly over, she measures 42 inches. I let her do her own thing since last week, she seemed to slow down drinking, second fan that I added definitely contributed to dryer soil on top. I removed her entirely from the tent at the end of the week to defoliate and to start adding bracing and supports. I was tilting my light to accommodate her height and attempt to maintain 500-600 ppfd for the photos, but I knew I’d have to change this eventually. I defoliated a little heavier this time since I haven’t touched it much this week and the photo canopies would quickly overshadow some of the really low stuff. Got free bamboo from a buddies yard, cut to 30-40 in. Added for outer limb support, didn’t want to stick anything near center and disturb roots. Used soft garden wire to tie the 2 main colas to each other in 2 different spots and tethered the top one to one of the stakes. 3rd node branches tethered to the main stalk. Pic 6 shows some leaves with likely potassium deficiency? Noticed these early in the week and they didn’t seem to worsen much. Maybe 6-8 affected leaves total that I could see, and seemed to be attached to either a 2nd node limb or 4th node limb, same side. This side likely was in the corner for a while, these leaves potentially pushed against the tent and not getting light. Either way, I fed plant heavily with tiger bloom per label, and it didn’t seem to spread or worsen. Did a quick defol for the photos while the auto was out and then stuck it in the middle for optimal light. Also I either forgot to clean out the watering base on the auto or maybe I only did it for the photos and misremembered but there was a lot of big bloom that settled and gunked up the wicking laces (maybe contributing to the slower drinking). Cleaned out the base again and top fed the first 1/2-3/4 gal then put the rest in the base. 18 hours later, water level is noticeably lower so I’m taking it as a good sign that it was needed. Going to give her 2-3 days before resuming light gradual defoliation.

Cheesehead_Grow Starting to get frosty this week! Noticed trichomes starting on sugar leaves at the beginning of the week then everywhere else a few days later. Starting to stink too, gotta turn off the oscillating fans when doing anything side the tent. Scent consists of some orange/citrus and some funky generic dankness that I can’t describe yet. Cleaning the watering base was the right move last week as she started chugging again afterwards. Moving her to the middle was the right move as well. Supports from last week still seem adequate. Resumed gradual defoliation even if it doesn’t look like it. Flowers are definitely getting thicker, can barely see the stem and gaps are closing up. Tent environment has been starting to vary a little too much for me. Apartment and lung room windows are pretty much always open and temps are usually low 70s inside but it’s been getting warmer and tent temps have been reaching close to 80. Starting to close window and run AC during peak outside temps. Humidity is peaking at like 63% and VPD is staying between 1.1-1.4 but with decent airflow, I’ll allow it for now and not opt for a dehumidifier. Started noticing more yellow/crispy tips and edges shown in the last few photos. It’s seems to be on higher leaves, maybe possible nute burn? I thought some of the spots I noticed were potassium deficiency last week but with these new and higher ones I’m thinking over fertilization. Next refill I’ll just feed ph adjusted water only and see what happens. Doesn’t seem too bad yet. Lastly, I think I need to finally flip the photos. I can’t keep them down any longer. I was hoping to give the mimosa as much 18/6 as I could so she could finish as fast as possible but at this rate I’ll definitely have to supercrop the photos after their stretch. Anyone have experience with changing lights from 18/6 to 12/12 for an auto this far into the grow? Will she just take longer to finish or will it not change much?

Cheesehead_Grow A lot happened this week but she seems to be recovering and not worsening. I fed plain ph’d water end of last week but got a little too cavalier with too much top feeding and adding stuff without adjusting ph. All the top feeding is how debris and runoff kept getting into the base and mucking it up. I was out of homemade calmag so I had a bottle coming in the mail. I ended up adding calmag to not a lot of water and not ph’ing it and top feeding/pouring rest into the watering base later in the day after adding plain ph’d water. Wrong move. She appeared to slow down drinking but I chalked it up to a full base and plenty of top feed. Topsoil dried out very fast but I let her sit assuming she would start drinking eventually. This continued for 3-4 days, and also was happening to one of the photos I did the same thing to. Starting smelling something rank around this time so I checked the bases and found what is in pics 9+10. Ph was 8.5 and had this brown chunky film all over!! Took out all 3 bases and scrubbed thoroughly with soap and water and rinsed with some vinegar. I was worried about how dry and hard the soil/roots must be but I also didn’t want to do a full flush so close to her finishing. I opted to put 1/2 strength tiger bloom/big bloom and full strength calmag into full 1.8 gal water can ph’d to 6.5 and top feed slowly over ~20 min so it didn’t just rinse everything out. About 20% runoff which tested at 5.8 which seemed a little low but not as terrible as I feared. Cleaned the base back out after no more runoff and refilled with normal strength tiger bloom and calmag, ph’d to 6.5. This seems to have been the right move, 60 hours after flushing/cleaning/refilling, she has drank 75% of the base and topsoil is also not dried out. But we’re not done!!! The 2 photos also got a clean base and proper refill. The next day I checked the bases and found some insects on top of the water in ALL 3 bases shown in the last 2 pics. Teeny white things that kinda jumped on top of the water and seemed to stay underneath the fill port to get some of the light coming through? Hard to identify but I think they might have been springtails and not something destructive. Either way I made a weak vinegar/water solution and sprayed them aggressively over 24 hours and they seemed to die and not return. Only saw them in the bases and not anywhere on the plant. A lot of the leaf tip curling and spots spread from last week but seems to be contained and not worsening at the time of writing this. It seems contained to the top ~30% of the fan leaves and minimally on sugar leaves. While her buds did grow and thicken, I’m sure this set her back a little. All in all she had the water ph imbalance, definitely some light stress, nute burn and a little potassium deficiency. Got a little cheap digital microscope as well, trichomes still maturing with at least 30% still clear, plenty of white pistils as well. Some purple coming in on sugar leaf tips. Smell is much stronger. Idk if this is indicative of the buds as well or the “right way” but if I remove any small fan leaves I swipe the stem between two fingers to smell the oils. Still giving a very strong funky citrus scent with an earthy finish. Flipped lights to 12/12 for the photos at the end of the week. I just couldn’t wait any longer with how big the photos are. It also didn’t help that when I adjusted the light for the mimosa and moved it to the middle, the photos were getting much less and resulted in them stretching a lot with too much internode spacing. Not the end of the world but supercropping is definitely in their future.