1st Grow Ever, Coco, 6 Autos, 6 Strains

Hello, this is my very first grow. It is for myself and a relative, and for medical purposes, even though we live in California and it is legal. 2 plants being grown could not be specified in the tags. They are Devil's Harvest: Auto Reek'n, and Victory Seeds: Auto Seemango. Also, Critico Rapido is now called Auto Critical Kush by the breeder, so that is what I am calling it. I have requested the admins to fix these seed strain issues. There are 3 Auto Speed buds for a total of 8 strains, all auto, and 10 plants. All dropped in water on July 1st, 2017. Then into a rapid rooter into the final huge pot. (it should be noted that in my excitement, I forgot that the TNT Kush was an auto, and the package didn't mention that either, unless I got the wrong package, otherwise, it would have been 9 strains and 10 plants with 2 speed buds) I'm Using 100 % Canna bagged coco in 7 gallon bags. I hand water to 20% runoff, I shoot for PH 5.8 but take variation of up to around 1.5. Grow area is a 8x4x6.5 tent with full 8 inch ventilation, ducting. and air filtering, leaving from the top of the tent and out the window of the house. Passive intake with a window mount AC near the openings as it gets quite hot where I live (we already had an incident where the grow area got into the 90's so I won't be surprised if the ladies end up a bit stunted because of it.) It takes around 15 gallons to water everything from reasonably dry to sufficient runoff. My water is reasonable hard ranging from about 150 to sometimes 200, so I use GH Hardwater Micro. Due to the extreme work of measuring out nutes for and PHing 15 individual gallons of water, I have ordered a 10 gallon tank with spout. Hopefully, that should make watering a bit easier, especially when I switch from the veg style "wet/dry cycle" type watering and begin to push the hydroponic advantage of coco later in flower with possibly multiple waters a day. This is why I am doing this run with autos instead of the expensive Durban Poison seeds, to get the workflow down. The coco was pretreated with 1/2 strength nutes and additives on a "drain to waste" schedule of all of the following: seedling strength GH Flora nutes, Roots Excellerator, Photosythesis Plus (smells yummy), SM-90, Drip Clean, and 1 gram per gallon epsom salts (epsom salts replaced by CalMagic after pretreatment). One large and tall humidifier/oscillating fan, one independent oscillating fan, and a small fan provide additional turbulence and circulation. All power is run through it's own GFI adapter. I also monitor my load, and all mentioned but the homes main central AC and the window AC draws a little over 1400 watts when running, served off a dedicated 20 amp circuit. Lights are 2 Meizhi Reflector series 1200 watt LED (568 REAL watts each). In retrospect, I might be more inclined to have gotten 4 600s for a couple bucks more for the flexibility in spacing, but so far so good for the price. I do use the bloom button for veg as someone somewhere noted "its not like the sun filters its colors, the plants may have a use for that spectrum we don't understand, so why not use the bloom button for veg too?" I have also set up a Raspberry Pi Zero with camera for time lapse. I run Raspian command line, and aside from stock lite, I have only added watchdog in case it hangs, fail2ban for intrusion prevention, htop for system monitoring, RPi cam for web based camera control, photos, & time lapse, and insync headless to upload my time lapse photos to my google drive. The Pi is on the same power as the lights. A cron job is set up to shutdown the Pi properly a few minutes before lights out. Since it is on the same power as the lights, it boots up automatically during lights on and resumes taking hi res time lapse photos, each 5 minutes apart, of 9 out of 10 of the plants. I can view the tent remotely, and have temps and humidity visible to me on camera. The Pi lives in a case and is taped to a tripod. This does cause some issues as I do not tape it down tight so as to leave ventilation so as not to overheat it. Seems stable so far. I also have 2 thermometers outside the tent with probes going in the tent for lights out monitoring, one at the top of the tent, the other at the bottom under the lights This is my first grow ever. My goal was to learn my garden, and learn how to care for a plant. I did a lot of preplanning, and spent a lot of money even if my gear isn't the best trying to get it right. Coco seemed far superior to most options for me, and autoflowers seemed to help take some guesswork out and allowed me to let the plant do it's thing and learn about both it and my environment for my next grow, which is the grow this whole tent is about. So this is my dry run before I do my run of Durban poison. In retrospect, autos may not be the best first plant because of stunting issues if you screw up. I say this because it is possible I screwed up by using 7 gallon pots and a wet/dry cycle on autos while in coco. Or because of the heat even when the tent got into the 90s (only lasted about 90 minutes before we were able to cool it again). Time will tell on my gamble, but I do feel much more prepared for the potential difficulties of Durban Poison or some of the other more advanced strains that I have acquired (I am looking at YOU Neville's Haze). I would like to practice LST with this crop as I am certain to need it with photo sativas, but they might not get tall enough. We shall see. 100% germination, so life has begun and we are off.

Not much to report, they are just trying to figure out what is going on. They seem stalled, which is either the tragic result of the heatwave, or they are putting all of their energy into roots and my gamble will pay off down the line for using a 7 gallon pot with an autoflower. Same Nute schedule as last week, beginning of 3rd week they move onto 1/2 early veg nute strength. Foliar feeding with distilled water since sprout. That will end after next big feeding. Auto speed bud number 3 has 3 first leaves instead of 2. I hear she might yield 1/3 more because of this mutation. She started the biggest, and had the smallest seed of the Speed Buds, followed closely by Speed bud #1, who had the largest seed of the 3. Sleepy Yoda lost one of its coats in a seed head, and had some odd looking first leaves, very dagobah-ish, but otherwise seems unharmed NLxBB is one to watch. This is obvious. I chose this place for my grow because of problems with other places I lurked. I would have preferred to use a forum so that I could get advice, but one place wouldn't allow me to post a journal because my lights weren't made by a sponsor of their site. Another wouldn't let me start a post and another had a broken captcha. I have already gotten comments here, which I didn't realize was possible, which is why I didn't try joining here in the first place. In other words, I would love critiques, advice, and experiences so I do not have to reinvent the wheel. I may not take your advice or even agree with you, but I thrive on information. If you have anything to add or ask, please do! I want to do a journal to give back. I know that so many other people made mistakes and then wrote them down so I wouldn't have to make those mistakes. They prepared me so well that so far there have been very few surprises and they will be partly responsible if I pull off a successful harvest, so i think I owe it to pay back those who helped my by paying it forward to those people who my experiences might help one day. Thanks for reading. I am writing this on July 19th, and a lot has happened in week 3. Stay tuned!

Week 3 stuff started happening. Following their first real feeding, growth was fairly explosive. Plants still seem short, no stretch, but 5 finger leaves are appearing on almost all of them on the 19th. Yesterday, the 18th, I opened the tent and was greeted by the faint, but definite smell of a light lemon scent. There was no mistaking it the next time I opened the tents; they are starting to smell. Coco still seems moist from sunday's feeding today on Wednesday, even the top, so wet dry cycle will continue. The plants got the full additive line as well (1/2 strength). In addition to the Photosynthesis Plus, Sm-90, Drip Clean, Roots Excelerator, and CalMagic, we have started using additives according to GH's "Expert Program" because I am an expert. 😇 I claim no such thing, I am lucky. If it is working, I am likely to keep doing so and maybe start to overclock it a bit, maximize potential. Actually, I originally was not going to use the expert stuff, but I kept reading people with colas the size of whiffle ball bats posting how the additives really took their grows to the next level, so I decided not to waste time and to jump right in the deep end. And deep it is, as after mixing 15 individual gallons of 13 different nutes & additives (if you count PH down as an additive, and I do although I may switch to white vinegar), I realized exactly how big an undertaking this is going to be. I do look forward to being able to tweak the recipe as I get experience; that seems like an amazing long term benefit. Anyway, we have added, at half strength, Floralicious Plus (perhaps why they started to smell 2 days later), Armor SI, and FloraBlend from GH. We have also added Xnutrients Ful-Potential at half strength. And honestly, I was expecting to have to triage a plant or 2 for Nute burn, but nope; they looked at me like they were daring me to give them more. I think I am going to give them a full schedule of early veg GH nutes next feeding, and potentially full strength additives too. I will likely keep additives on half if I go to full nutes to better diagnose bad reactions. If they eat the full nutes and beg for more, we will do full additives next feeding. If they love that, move onto late veg nutes maybe. I am not sure when to transition to late veg nute schedule, if anyone knows the correct indicators on autos, please comment and let me know. Thanks. One of the problems with my grow is that I stuffed the plants in the tent without any kind of symmetry, thinking they all wouldn't germ, or all be females, or not survive, backup plan hoping that the spread of the light would be sufficient. My Seemango does not like this plan, and as one of the plants off to a side, started to lean over quite a bit into a more central location. That did not work out so well for her. On monday, 1 day after the 1st big feeding, I came into the tent and my Seemango was laying down. Her leaves were still awesome looking, but she was totally laying down. I explained to her that she was an autoflower, and that she didn't have time to lay around, and that she needed to get up, and get back to work. I gently encouraged her by making a splint out of a twist tie and she seemed to appreciate it (and looked better by Wednesday morning). Now I am REALLY glad I decided to grab some Armor SI and I hope she uses some of it to make that stem a little thicker, not too thick too quick, because: It's time to start thinking about training, both mine and the plants, as far as LST! Not sure if they are tall enough. I raised the light about an inch and a half lTuesday night, they seemed to respond. might go up further and see if that helps Seemango too. I like this site. I looked at the feeding graphs after I plugged my own numbers in and duh, i SEE why they started GROWING after I gave them that feeding during week 3. Note to self, perhaps start FloraGro a week earlier next time. And to think, I almost didn't bother to plug my own numbers in. What a wonderful feature to include, graphing the nutes, and already proving this place superior to forums. Thanks growdiaries. So I think my sluggish growth is related to VPD There are some minor leaf twisting on a couple plant. I don't think it will damage them as there is no color issues and the time lapse clearly shows them growing, but unless I can figure out how to deal with this problem, it is going to limit my yields. I will post some specif pics shortly. I am going to sleep on this. I never even heard of VPD and I thought I was very well researched on potential problems. Since I live in a hot, DRY area, I specifically researched problems I might have and was preemptive with a humidifier. I thought that this would be a good thing eventually as it will prevent certain problems during flower, but this VPD issue threatens veg. I though 60% RH was great, but the VPD formula has broadsided me. I will take a couple pics to help others know what this looks like. In every other way the plants look great, so I know it won't kill my grow. But it has now become a limiting factor and time to veg might be running low. With an auto, its her decision to make when to put out, so there may not be much I CAN actually do due to the time constraints. Better the autos than the Durban, tho. Pics of leaf bending are up, but I may have been more dire than I needed to. It is fairly isolated on the plants. Summer looks to be much more mild aside from a couple challenging weeks, and the temps are measured via lasers on the underside of the leaf. when doing so (i am not sure why i actually had said laser besides it being cool when i bought it), the numbers were in a more realistic place. I likely will not be able to control vpd in the short term 24 hours a day, but i don't think it is as bad as i did last night I also noticed the stems were getting woody besides being short, so i just got over it and did an LST spike to bend the plants, well, all except the Seemango as she already tried to lay down. Seriously tho, she has recovered well and might be a candidate in a few days if she keeps up the pace. I will be monitoring the girls for stress today from the lst but they really feel healthy, so i am not too worried. time lapse will be effected for sure. i hope i did it right. pics later after they perk up a bit to close out week 3 as we celebrate their 3rd week birthday and the beginning of week 4. Well, about 8 hours after the LST the plants are sticking straight up again. I am not sure I got that auxin action happening, plus the anchor for the LST is the Coco which wont hold during watering. They arent ready for feeding yet (still heavy), so I might get a little benefit on long term a stem bend. I ordered some clips for the fabric bag to perhaps help. I am assuming since the internode spacing is so short, I might have to LST single branches for any effect. We shall see, it is a learning experience for sure. I did raise the lights last night before lights out to about 21 inches (suggested 18) to encourage some stretch, but I don't see it. I hope I didn't sabotagee myself moving the lights away. I also see some slight calcium deficiency in the Kush and Speed Bud #2. I will likely feed tomorrow even though the bags still feel somewhat weighty, but I am going to do a full or somewhat larger dose of CalMAgic. The 10 gallon mixing bucket has arrived, and even though the new measuring cup for the larger volume won't be in until the weekend, it should still be easier and more efficient feeding. I guess this wraps week 3 up. see you on week 4

7/21/17: They got their watering today. They drank as much as usual. It was MUCH easier feeding out of an 10 gallon container with a spigot. I kinda wish i got the 20 gallon one as that would mean only one mix, but the 10 is fine. I left everything sit after PHing to stabilize, and the runoff looked normal. Pix posted of potential calcium def on speed bud #2 and the kush. The kush looks somewhat different, but maybe I just caught it earlier. Used full Strength CalMagic with 1/2 nutes. I also PHed slightly higher in the 5.9 range to make sure the calcium was available. I didn't expect potential lockout at 5.7-5.8, but looking at the chart Calcium needs slightly higher PH so I hope this takes care of it. I tightened down the original LST in case watering the coco dislodged it, very little. I may start some leaf LST soon to provide the lower canopy more light. We shall see how they look at lights on and decide. Not sure how much further LST to do, because I believe we have our first sexing, as I noticed 2 fine hairs (i think) on NLxBB. Pic posted. Next feeding, any ladies showing their privates will get late stage veg feeding. I may even switch the runts to that feeding even if they haven't shown sex yet. I may even do full strength, as if anything, these plants are showing deficiencies with not even a trace of burn, and if I am going to get any volume out of the yield, I need to start pushing because they aren't that big right now. I have been told LST is not so good when the plants start to flower. I have also been told that autos will continue veg growth for about 2 weeks after sex before they actually start putting energy into flower, so if that is the case LST would still be appropriate during this late veg? Anyone with any experience on this matter? The smell is getting much stronger. During feeding this morning, i left all the tent doors open and went to preparing and other things. When I reentered the room, the smell was QUITE noticeable outside of the tent. I also got my new EC meter. it expresses EC in terms of like, 500, 1500, 2000, etc. It looks like PPM but it is not, it is a very detailed EC reading. So, in the previous example, it should be read as 0.5. 1.5.. and 2.0 EC. I had a TDS pen, but I got it free, unexpectedly, when I switched to a Pur water filter. I figured it as a novelty and they were just bragging. It ended up working reasonably well when I tested faucet vs distilled and nutes, so I have been using it, but since it was an unspecified PPM scale, it seemed wiser to be more accurate with no confusion EC. For the record, the TDS pen from Pur pretty much matched EXACTLY with my new fancy EC meter, which means the Pur water filter works as well as advertised and it took my 150-200 tap water to 0 every time. I certainly have been happy with it for my drinking water. 7/22/17 I am starting to think about more frequent feedings because man do they look perky today, after yesterday's feeding. I really want the advantage of massive root structure that wet/dry cycling provides, but these plants respond well to food. I continue to ponder. 7/23/17 : the good news, we are REALLY growing. I think I have the VPD managed. not under control, but managed. its going to cost me a fortune in AC bill, but I think I got it figured out 18 out of 24 hours of the day. the other 6 are completely out of my control and it is what it is. the bad news... the damage on the kush never did quite look like cal def (speed bud #2 DID look like cal def). i think i saw an aphid. aphid damage looks like what I saw. i crushed it instantly, then regretted crushing it before positively IDing it. either way, a trip to to the hardware store for a pressure sprayer cuz tonight before lights out, its a foliar spray of neem oil and sm-90, followed by a dusting of diatomaceous earth. gott a handle this before budding, and we already have at least 1 lady for sure showing her privates (NLxBB). So, far my 1st impressions for my 1st grow ever can be summed up by the phrase "I didn't know I would need to know how to juggle to get this job!" I'm actually having fun, but I am starting to get get cash fatigue throwing money at each new problem. Granted, I had the neem oil, diatomaceous earth, the DE duster, and the SM-90 already in reserve, but I had to go out AGAIN and grab a pressure sprayer and distilled water. it's not like its expensive, but it adds up. I know the payoff is coming. every time I open that tent and smell it, i can tell the payoff is coming. so much to learn, so many little obstacles to overcome. i am glad i enjoy it. i would hate to do this if i didnt actually enjoy it, like if it was a job. it fits neatly into a challange/recreation area, as far as growing. It's not too easy nor too hard. but it IS demanding. at what i make an hour, it is likely cheaper to buy it. but i truly am enjoying this. you can't buy that. this plant is teaching me a ton already. patience, being the major one i really am enjoying it. i wish i was better at it, but that will come with time... speaking of time, the time lapse is SICK the last 3 days. you are going to have to wait until the end of the week, but trust me, it is fascinating. i wish i could do that part better, more professional, but my focus is on the plant. the time lapse is just bonus and remember, it is VERY cheap to do time lapse. if you want to do it yourself, it will cost you $50 or so for the basics. you gotta do some computer work, but its not hard. i can help. it may be minor, but its something i can contribute. i am enthralled with the footage. i am SO glad i did that. plus i can monitor temps and humidity real time anywhere from my phone with proper port forwarding. since there has been 0% burn, i am VERY tempted to do a full early veg feeding (700pm) before i transition to 1/2 late veg feeding until flower. gonna sit on this, but i likely will push them just to see if they can be pushed, and if so, which strains... again, enjoyment =D a little more LST, main stem hopefully it will help with the bud cuz its gonna fuck with the time lapse 7/24/17 About a half hour before lights out I sprayed them with 1 part sm-90, 5 parts water, and 1 ml per gallon of need oil. This morning Speed Bub #1 had a brown mark on it. I am hoping these marks aren't pests at all, but light burns from draps of water. Only time will tell. I will spray them again tonight or tomorrow, but this time 10 minutes or so before lights out just in case. I have not dusted with diatomaceous earth yet, as I am not convinced I have an infestation yet. Does the brown spot in the new pics look like anything specific to anyone else? 7/26/17 Not much to report. They are growing steady. Still, most not sexed. I am starting to think the stall at the beginning wasn't stunting, but a root network taking hold. I am also starting to think this time limit of autoflowers lacks the urgency that some people speculate. For instance, the speed buds should have started flowering in the 3rd week. We are almost done with week 4 and they aren't even sexed yet, but growing fine, if not slightly small for this age. I suspect autoflowers DO have an internal timer, but that timer may not be as strict as some think; the timer may take into account environment and adjust itself. I don't know, but I haven't seen anyone using 7 gallon pots for autos, so this early stall and late sexing may be unique to this situation, and may support my theory that the week they apparently did not growing on the time lapse, that there were roots going nuts. That would spell out environmental factors, no? I was going to feed them today, but the bags are still so heavy and the tops arent even all dry yet, so I am going to wait a day and go into late veg feeding at lights up tomorrow. Not sure, but I think it's time, wet/dry cycle or not. I will of course, monitor them but they look beautiful. One mistake I made for sure that I won't make again is not fiilling the pots to the top. Not only did I create unnecessary shadows, but the leaves are now pushing and folding on the sides and I have to manually make sure they are straight and getting sufficient light. Practice makes perfect, I will do better next time. A few of the plants are getting some more spots. In my opinion, it is either damage from the neem treatment, or def because they are hungry. Still no evidence of bugs. I was looking for the plants to tell me they were hungry because they look so healthy and the bag is heavy, so I will take this as their message for sure and feed them at lights up tomorrow. Either way, the plants still look great and are growing like weeds. I did wait long to feed them, so this is expected. Later in the day tomorrow, when they perk after watering, we will do their portraits for the week and get this weeks time lapse uploaded. Yeah, I am pretty sure it's calcium. It's a bit worse than I thought, so will for sure get on lights on feeding. I either need to increase calcium in the feed, or feed them more often. I guess it's time to move to more aggressive feeding, at least that is what they seem to be telling me. Normal 1/2 strength feed given more often. 7/27/17 They were fed today, late veg nutes. Will provide details in week 5. I was going to take photos today, but spent almost 8 hours in the ER to be told that I was as healthy as a teeny bopper. That compliment is going to hurt a whole lot when that bill comes in. Of note, I have raised the LEDs 2 nights in a row and the smell is getting much thicker. Anyway, I am exhausted, and have to work tomorrow, so I will take their portraits a little late tomorrow and get the time lapse up before opening week 5.

Current Feeding In addition to the above listed Micro, Grow, and Bloom, ML per gallon I add: 2.5 FloraMicro 2.5 FloraGrow 1.25 FloraBloom 2.5 CaliMagic (EDIT: Increased to full recommended dosage to avoid further Cal issues) 0.5 Armor SI 0.5 Floralicious 2.5 FloraBlend 2.5 SM-90 0.5 Roots Excelerator 0.5 Drip Clean 3 Photosynthesis Plus 2.5 Xnutrients Ful-Potential I have switched to white vinegar for PHing down. So far, so good. I will update the PPMs at next feeding as I forgot it from last time, lol. But they were in the safe range. I take them with just the Calimagic, Armor SI, and Micro, Grow, Bloom trio. I would prefer to get the PPM for just the trio, but GH advises to add the CaliMag and Armor SI prior to the trio. I also get the PPM with the additives, and was surprised at how little PPM they actually add. EDIT: ppms Base Tap Water ppm: 199 EC: 0.398 Trio Nutes, CaliMagic, and Armor SI ppm: 616 EC:1.232 Full Nute and Additive ppm: 740 EC: 1.48 Unadjusted PH 7.4 White vinegar adjusted to 5.81, approx 67ml for approx 8 gallons water. After an hour PH settled at 5.9 and I am ok with that. And there are the gory details of my late veg feeding. 7/28/17 All have been sexed, and it is good news (I assumed that ALL Autos would be females but wasn't sure). The stretch is on. The time lapse I posted last week includes up to today. You can see them really fill out the last 3 days. I had to raise the LEDs the last 3 nights. Considering feeding again tomorrow or Sunday. Most likely Sunday, but I am curious if I can push a little extra growth out of them before the real stuff starts. They are not as big as I would like, but the short internodes are very encouraging. My electric bill came in. Almost double last year. The AC doesn't shut off in this heat, nor does it reach the temperature that I set it at. It really can't. Fall photo crop will be much cheaper. Turned off the humidifier but I realized that the fabric pots and volume of wet coco makes it more humid than I realized. I might have to once again spend some money and grab a dehumidifier. The temps will be going up soon, according to the VPD chart, when they go into full flower, so it will not only be slightly cheaper on my power bill, but the humidity will naturally go down as the temps go up, making this a little early speculation. Still, I will need to find the sweet spot as far as temp and humidity to automate my settings. Right now , the in room AC by the tent is set to 68 and the houses central AC is set to 70. It doesn't get below 76 on a hot day in the main area. If you have watched the time lapse video, you have seem my thermometer. I can look at live video of the garden during lights on, at anytime, from anywhere. Today, I went to check it and I couldn't see it because of growth. It is on last weeks time lapse. You will notice it moves to the forefront. I like that kind of surprise! 7/29/17 I started to LST Speed Bud #2 and #3 with the intention of doing everything, but I chickened out after those 2. They are all just so happy, and I don't want to mess it up AND I want to see what it naturally looks like. I know my yield will further suffer, but this is school as far as I am concerned. The money I spent tuition. Right now I am pondering the following for my next grow, my photo grow. It will be a Sativa load. Anyone with any experience growing any of these strains, please offer me as much advice as you can stand to give. I know they can be hard to handle, so I want to go in with a sound strategy before sowing. 4 Durban Poison, 2 Amnesia Haze, and 2 Gypsy Haze I considered Neville's Haze, but if I can't LST an Autoflower, I don't think I am ready for something that takes like 4 months and must be controlled by 10 or 11 hours on light cycle for flower, flowering at 8 inches of height, and growing it in a dixie cup. Then it will only get 45 feet tall. Obviously I am exaggerating a bit, but read some grow diaries of people with good intentions, nice nice setups, and strong desire to grow this plant only to have the plant overcome them and run out of control at at which point most journals end with a final post from the OP saying something like "wow, this thing is growing fast" or "how much more can it grow?" The other sativas sound much more manageable for someone of my limited experience. Provided this current grow is successful, I will have plenty of Indica, so all sativa sounds reasonable since I am primarily growing period because of Durban Poison. Still a long way to go until this first grow is completed. I am definitely going to feed them tomorrow. Will likely hit them a bit harder with the CaliMagic. Minimum 20 ml per 8 gallons. I think I did myself a disservice getting the Hardwater Micro. At around 150-225 variance ppm, my water is not that hard. I need to ask my water district the calcium content of the water. Everything I read about calcium deficiency in coco tells me to go hard with CaliMagic. My 1st hand experience backs up the need. When it hit, it hit HARD. One of the perceived disadvantages of growing so many strains at the same time is the individual attention many strains need and differences in grow cycle. I might counter that my more sensitive strains (I am looking at you, KUSH), might be a REALLY good early indicator to protect the entire crop; a canary in the coal mine to conditions that would hurt the entire crop if left unchecked. We will of course wait for my yield to determine if my theory is correct, but it works for me right now. Let the facts guide 7/30/17 Doing feeding I decided instead of a water flush which I was apprehensive about, I would do a detailed ppm test in runoff. If its anywhere to about 900 ppm (200 or so higher than I put in) is fine, anything higher gets more feed until runoff is where expected. Of my first 5, runoff was normal in 3 of the 5 (Seemango, Auto Speed Bud #3, and NLxBB). Speed bud #2 was over 1000 ppm, so it got additional feed until 900's. Now here is where it gets odd. The first traces of runoff was in the 500s, BELOW what I was putting in, in Auto Speed Bud #1, the largest plant by far.. It ended up stable in the 900s as expected with a PH of 6.31, but how on earth could the ppm LOWER immediately? Coco is cool stuff. Mixing up the next 8 gallons of nutes for the other ladies. All the other plants runoff was normal. The Kush is my sensitive plant, shows me things before the rest do. She REALLY enjoyed todays feeding, She is sticking straight up. I have never seen joy from a plant before, but I think I just might have. Also, the humidity in my house and the tent spiked during feeding. 70% in my house and 81 in the tent. I am definitely going to need to get a dehumidifier and soon by the time the flowers show up. I didn't realize the added heat and humidity of a canopy. The old learning curve. Well, I added a fan to the far end of the tent for more breeze in a thick canopy from the other end and cooling and it will be seen on the time lapse from now on. It was too powerful even on slow speed to aim directly at the plants, so comically I have it oscillating off of walls and such for air turbulence. The plants LOVE the feeding. It is very obvious. The humidity is ridiculous tho. And it takes me over 2 hours to feed them, what with mixing, letting things stabilize after PHing, feeding, testing, and vacuuming runoff. I may adopt an every other day feeding schedule, and only do 5 at a time. I can only mix 8 gallons of nutes at a time, and with generous runoff, those 8 gallons are pretty much perfect for 5 plants. So, if I stagger and do 5 a day, it theoretically should help with the humidity and spread some of the labor out a bit and take advantage of the hydroponic benefit of coco. It should actually take less time than it would if I did all 10. I might skip a day and feed 5 of them on Tuesday and the other 5 wednesday and see how that goes. I love how this site randomly adjusts my nute levels to ridiculous amounts. If you see me adding 2400 ml of grow during flower, just know the site is continuing to randomly change my values. But don't worry people, I have strength of character. I will NOT lose my values, or let my values slide. On principle. Ok, this is getting as silly as some of the nutrient levels it says I am providing. I will long form my nutrients in the journal text per week from now on. The side of one of the fabric pots cleanly separated from a moist chunk of coco, so I took the opportunity to check if maybe i could see a root or 2 coming out of the coco. :D It looked like a white bristled brush. The roots are all over and air pruned to the walls of the 7 gallon pot. I guess between their reaction to feeding this morning and this newly discovered evidence of vigorous root growth (my gamble may have paid off), this mark the official end of wet/dry cycling these plants and the start of a more saturated future. 7/31/17 I have raised the lights up twice in the last 24 hours. i may try to push them and do a full strength feeding and see if i can push her a little, or i might chicken out. They eat at lights on tomorrow, well, 5 of them, to start the new feeding rotation of every other day. I have to think about this. I know I haven't come close to burning them and don't want to start now, but I don't want them to go hungry, either. Any thoughts on this? On the down side, I went outside and said to myself "hey, someone around here is growing weed." i went to my exhaust and could detect a smell. To make sure, I burned some sage in the tent, made sure not to smell it burning, sealed the tent, and went to the exhaust only to heavily smell sage. Lesson learned, don't buy a carbon filter off E-bay. so thats $100 I wasn't planning to spend. And if I need a dehumidifier... blah 8/1/17 There are a couple chunks missing from a couple leaves. Pic posted. Any ideas what might be eating my plant? I apparently can't post more on this week. Sorry. Limits

8/4/17 Calling this Flower but still feeding late veg nutes until stretch is over. Feeding every other day is indeed a labor savor, just over 30 minutes to water and vacuum as long as everything is pre PHed and prepared. I bought a pressure sprayer to more evenly water, but it won't work as it took about 20 minutes to water 1 plant with 1.5 gallon.s Not efficient enough, sadly. Lights are moving up once or twice a day. The time lapse camera will have to be adjusted as the tent is becoming overgrown. We have pre flowers everywhere, and Kush is 1st to flower. A couple other flowers forming, but oddly not any on the auto speed buds. I bought a dehumidifier to deal with lights out and post watering humidity spikes, and it said it had a pump so I could pump the water into a bucket outside the tent, but it apparently is just gravity. Between all my gear and the newly expanding canopy, it is starting to get crowded in the tent. I may have to return it, but I really don't want to as the size has it fit right where I need it. I think I found out what was eating my plant leaves. It was me. I accidently hit a leaf on Reek'N today with the shop vac while I was cleaning the runoff and it tore the end off a leaf and looked identical to the damage seen last week. On 1 hand, this is good news as we are still pest free (knock on wood), but on the other hand, I was careless with my girls. Shame on me. I will be much more careful in the future. I( am noticing what might be nute burn on some leaf tips on a few plants. I have not increased the PPMs since going to an every other day feeding, and am getting consistently more runoff than I was getting, PPMs of runoff are mostly around under 200 more than I am putting in, so the frequency must be burning them. I may back off one day and see what that does and adjust the schedule as needed. I could use the break, too ;) As long as they are stretching, they get Veg nutes, then a feeding or 2 of transition, then start flower nutes. Getting nute burn prior to changing PPMs was probably a good thing to alert me to back off the frequency of the feeding a bit, since they liked this PPM before with no complaints when feedings were spaced further apart. 8/5/17 They did not feed today as I am still monitoring the minor nute burn. I am starting to think, since I did not raise my nutes, that this nute burn is the result of me slowly lowering humidity to reach flowering VPD, in which case, the lower RH is causing the plants to transpire more and take up more nutes, hence the very minor nute burn I am seeing. I didn't consider the humidity to be a variable until a few minutes ago, but that would likely explain the issue. If so, I am pleased I got so close to optimal nutes that a variation of 5-10% less RH would cause this and concerned with recalibrating feed to this. It's a learning experience, tho, fo sho. They are still happily growing tho, I have had to raise my lights twice in the last 24 hours and anticipate moving them up once more today, so I guess I am still mostly giving them what they want. The Kush is the tallest at just over 22 inches. The Mango Cream, the shortest at just over 14 inches. I may have to destroy time lapse continuity to better match heights with lights as in full flower, they move to around 12 inches (they have been at 18 inches through veg). I likely won't be too aggressive on light placement both for spread and to avoid light burn in flower. We shall see. 8/6/17 LMFAO I am starting to look for a home for 2 of the Auto Speed Buds. Nothing against them in particular, but I may need to make room and I have 3 of them and only 1 of every other strain. Things are going a bit bonkers in the tent and unless I want to see them fight to the death, I may have to make room. I will monitor things and decide. What I thought was burn might actually be a def. I have consulted on a forum and have been persuaded to up my ppm at the same ratios. It makes more sense than burn, tbh, so I am going to go for it, new measurements to come, first feeding with new ppm tomorrow. Going to go 50% stronger in late stage veg and see how they respond, and perhaps will pick up the every other day feeding again. 8/7/17 New feeding based on slight def, full strength GH base nutes, EC 1.6, PH with white vinegar to 5.7 FloraMicro 5 ML gal FloraGro 5 ML gal FloraBloom 2.5 ML gal CalMagic 2.5 ML Gal Armor SI 1 ML gal Roots Excelerator 0.5 ML Gal Drip Clean .5 ML Gal Photosynthesis Plus 3 ML gal SM-90 2.5 ML gal Ful-Potential 2.5 ML gal FloraBlend 2.5 ML gal Floralicious 1ML gal 1.79 EC after nutes and additives cross your fingers that it is not too hot Soon move to transition nutes, drop Roots Excelerator and add FloraNectar So the plants were drier than I anticipated and the PPMs coming out were LESS than going in! I think the bump in nutrients was a good idea. We will see how these five handle it. 8/8/17 Just fed the other 5 full nutes, no trace of burn on yesterday's group. Light still going up twice a day. I am finding it very difficult to water and handle the Auto Speed Bud #1 in the center. The canopy is QUITE thick. The Kush is now over 10 cm taller than the breeder estimated for an indoor at over 70 cm. I am going to continue to feed every other day until they force me to feed every day. I am also going to continue with Veg nutes next feeding. 8/9/17 still growing, keeping the new full dose feeding. Will likely start upping the GH additives too. Kush is now over 80 cm. 8/10/17 As we wrap up week 6, Kush is getting close to 90cm, 50% taller than expected. 2 of the SPeed Buds are still in preflower, oddly. Everyone is healthy and getting huge. Having issues watering the plants in the middle because of the thickness of the canopy. Last night my Raspberry Pi got into a boot loop. Since I run the time lapse with that, I have to do an emergency new setup to get the time lapse rolling again. I am putting together a tutorial to make one yourself and will have info when it is completed. There will be some disruption to the time lapse from thi missing time period, but honestly, I have been having to move the camera up so often because of the growth it will likely not matter much. The plants are so big, I may push the next feeding past GH recommendations. Most people advise not to go anywhere near that, but the plants are so big and thriving so well and already got a bit of a def, I want to see if I can push them a little more by late flower. I have given full strength nutes and GH additives today to 5 of them, so will monitor and likely increase base trio ppms if all goes well.

8/14/17 Sorry for lack of updates. Been feeding the new flowering schedule. It will modify slightly every week, most likely. FloraMicro 4ml gal FloraGrow 1.25ml gal FloraBloom 8ml gal SM-90 2.5ml gal Cannazym 2.5ml Gal Ful-Potential 2.5ml gal Liquid Koolbloom 2ml gal Floralicious Plus 1ml gal ArmorSI 1.5ml gal Florablend 2.5ml gal CaliMagic 3.75ml gal (1 plant started showing def again) FloraNectar 2.5ml gal Drip Clean 0.4ml gal A few things were added, the Photosynthesis Plus and roots excelerator have been removed, Florablend is out next week. It sure is crowded in that tent. Humidity is now being lowered to 45% during lights out as it was spiking during that time. Dehumidifier is on it's own timer and runs during lights out taking a liter or so water out a night. With the canopy that thick for a couple feet vertically and all the way horizontally, i do not want to take any chances with either stagnant or damp air now that most of the girls are actively flowering. They missed a transition week, but they were suffering deficiencies so I had to quickly get them on flowering nutes. All seems good so far except for the very crowded workspace when I do anything in there. I think I am going to drop grow. I REALLY didn't expect them to pass 3 feet but the danger is real. I have just over a foot of space to move my light up, so now seems like a good time to drop FloraGrow

I started losing healthy leaves on the lower end of the canopy, so I am giving grow again in case it is a nitrogen Def. I suspect it may be because the canopy is so thick and the lower leaves arent getting light. But just in case, FloraGrow is back at 1.25 ml gal. Current feeding FloraMicro 4ml gal FloraGrow 1.25ml gal FloraBloom 8ml gal SM-90 2.5ml gal Cannazym 2.5ml Gal Ful-Potential 2.5ml gal Liquid Koolbloom 2ml gal Floralicious Plus 1ml gal ArmorSI 1.5ml gal Florablend 2.5ml gal CaliMagic 3.75ml gal (1 plant started showing def again) FloraNectar 2.5ml gal Drip Clean 0.4ml gal 8/21/17 famed bagseed sellers, ILGM aka i love growing marijauna forums has banned me twice for no reason. the first time it was funny. the second, well, i looked into them and that is when i realized they were selling bagseed, if one got their order at all i never ordered from them, so i didnt know, but there is a reason grow diaries doesnt recognize these so called "breeders" dont even think of mentioning anything or any other website outside of theirs. i linked my mulchworlds.com blog in thier entry for blogs and they banned me. what a scam site. i joined it thinking, wow, what a nice place, no controversies... until i realized they actually moulded conversqtion to only praise their bagseed, or you get banned and your posts get pruned, meaning, no one ever knows what has been said in this "public" forum that they have. they are an absolute joke. please do your research if you are even entertaining buying swag bagseed from them. there is a reason that this site and others, like leafly, dont acknowledge this scam of an operation i started with grow diaries, and am happy with grow diaries. i got seduced by the scam sites censorship i hope you guys dont complete scam. they only allow posts from shills/stupid people/naive/trusting people. only people who are in on it, dont understand, or are too generous of human spirit to believe that people would ever scam them are allowed to post there without getting scrubbed bad juju EDIT: wow, i just realized they banned the guy that i told to check my profile for my blog link for looking at my blog link they had a field in their profile for blogs! sorry budbuddy, you were collateral damage in the war of the bagseed, i guess. the entire thing was stupid. or ridiculous. i am really not sure which. all i know is that they are unsafe. corrupt scam bagseed sellers not only that, but they dont even use basic SSL security on their site. how many people are they putting at risk for arrest for their cheap, careless, sloppy website? 8/22/17 On a lark, I just tested my water retrieved from my dehumidifier. ph = 5.33 and ppm around 13 i may start adding this as a feed water. fantastic properties! 8/24/17 I think, my next crop, which will be photos... well, i planned on 8. Now I am thinking 6 may be too much. This is ridiculous, they keep growing. 4 have been teetering on the cusp of flowering for a few weeks, and now they are getting even bigger. They already stretched, now they are just inching They told me autos stayed small! 130cm!

8/30/17 It's been an emotional week, sorry for the lack of updates. I finally had to admit that 4 of my plants, while fully pre-flowered, did not auto-flower under 20 hour lights. The decision was made to remove them from the tent. It was a tough decision made easier as Auto Speed Bud #3 reached over 130cm and was touching the light, blocking light from plants that WERE flowering. There was really no choice at that point. So I spent 2 days trying to find them a new home. Yes, I had grown attached. Yes I found them a home. They have been transferred to soil and will be going under 12/12. I don't really know the guy well who ended up with them (a friend of a friend), so I don't know if I will ever know how they did, but they were part of my first grow so I am glad they got adopted rather than me having to kill them. In other news, I have had to start adding stakes to keep buds from falling, notably on the Kush (my superstar and only LST plant) and the Mango Cream, which seems to have hollow stems. I was concerned about this until I read up on it and hollow stems are a sign of no lockout or deficiencies and good nute uptake. They certainly look beautiful, so this is good news. However, so far 3 stakes have been added to the Mango Cream, so I hope I didn't damage the roots too much. I am looking into an alternative to stakes for the next go round. I didn't expect buds that heavy, but I ain't complaining! Slight Changes in nutes: Current feeding FloraMicro 4ml gal FloraGrow 1.25ml gal FloraBloom 8ml gal SM-90 2.5ml gal Cannazym 2.5ml Gal Ful-Potential 2.5ml gal Liquid Koolbloom 2ml gal Floralicious Plus 1ml gal ArmorSI 1.5ml gal CaliMagic 3.75ml gal (still running it high, but after seeing water report, I might have been wrong to use GH hardwater micro) FloraNectar 5ml gal Drip Clean 0.4ml gal Flora blend is out this week, Grow is out next week. Switching from Ful-Potential to Ful-Power when I soon finish the bottle. Nothing wrong with Ful-Potential, I just keep hearing about how good the chelation in the Ful-Power is, so I am game to try it since I need more Humics/Fulvics anyway. It is worth noting that I am now running ALL the GH nutes at full strength with no hint of burn. I am tempted to push them, but being my first grow, I don't think I will. However, this is a solid foundation for me to tinker with formulas for my next grows. The medium and my setup has performed wonderfully so far, and if the harvest is a success, I will certainly be more confident to experiment further. I may, however, use full strength Ful-Power which recommends reducing nutes by 10-20%. Instead of increasing nutes, full strength Ful-Power may give me the boost I am looking for while minimizing burn potential. I love that coco helps buffer and flush things, by nature, that the plant isn't using. I am so stoked that I ended up choosing coco for my 1st grow, but that is another topic for another day! I have edited the diary to reflect the loss of 2 strains and the title to reflect the current reality. Perhaps I should have left them unchanged. I am not sure. However, the diary title and strains are correct at this point. So there it is. I am now attempting to feed all 6 plants every day. There will be some days that I miss, but so far my 10 gallon bucket produces enough runoff on 6 plants if watered daily and most people who end up adopting this late stage strategy often would double/quadruple it if they could spare the time and/or afford the nutes. Once a day seems a good enough way to take advantage of the benefits of the medium without diminishing returns. I wish that I had the type of life that allowed me to set up proper control groups to test this stufff. I have also permanently started emptying the dehumidifier into the nute bucket as it has a PH of around 5.3 (my tap is around 8) and a ppm of around 8 (my ppm varies from 150-200 since i have been monitoring), 1-2 gallons a day to help out. I am loving it as much as PH down with white vinegar. I also obtained a water quality report and found that although my agency adds chlorine, they do not add chloramine so airing the bucket out for 14-16 hours after filling from the tap and cutting it with dehumidifier water should remove any threat to the beneficial living things that I have added to my girlies, so this is good news. 8/31/17 Man, I wish I used stakes from day 1. Every additional stake I put in makes me cringe and more stakes are becoming necessary. I am just lucky they are so healthy.

Slight Changes in nutes: Current feeding FloraMicro 4ml gal FloraBloom 8ml gal SM-90 2.5ml gal Cannazym 2.5ml Gal Ful-Potential 2.5ml gal Liquid Koolbloom 2.5ml gal Floralicious Plus 1ml gal ArmorSI 1ml gal CaliMagic 2.5ml gal FloraNectar 5ml gal Drip Clean 0.4ml gal 9/6/17 A couple VERY LARGE buds tipped over and i didn't notice immediately. I found them and i think i staked them back to health in time, no noticeable damage, more blindsided while realizing the volume and coming to grips with the next step. the reality of the bounty of my garden is dawning on me, and i am a bit intimidated. by the dry, as i am in low RH. by the cure, as i have never done one before. by killing my girls, as they are lovely to ease my anxiety, i ordered 20 hydrometers and increased my jar count from 36 quart jars by adding a dozen 1/2 gallon jars. it is obvious some of the buds need bigger jars to stay intact during the cure. i skipped the boveda packs for now. they are amazon prime away in an emergency, but i figure my attentiveness will be enough, at least this first grow; plenty of people did it right before me without the boveda packs, and when i can pay less per hydrometer than boveda pack... it becomes an interesting decision. i choose old school... for now (mind subject to change) end game is WAY more intimidating than dropping that seed into that cup of water. no one told me it would be this stressful! i hope i do them well during this next phase and these next few weeks. they certainly appear to have done me well 9/7/17 I have a confession to make. When I thought the plants got stunted by the heat, I considered pulling the plants and starting over. Boy an I glad that I didn't. I didn't know what I didn't know. What stopped me was reading a forum post somewhere and a guy was frustrated with his grow and was thinking of pulling it (i think he only had 1 plant). Someone responded to him with very prolific questions. "And then what? Plant another and make the same mistake again? Why don't you finish her out so on your next grow you know better what not to do?" Bingo. He wasn't even talking to me, but he was speaking directly at my situation (or so I thought). I decided to finish them, even if they were stunted dwarfs (SPOILER ALERT: They aren't, I was wrong, they were anything BUT stunted) I am really glad I found that advice because who knows if I would have went through with it if this gentleman hadn't given me a moment of clarity. So if you are frustrated by your first grow, I would advise to finish the grow no matter what (unless, obviously, its a male or moldy or something that DEMANDS the plant be culled) and learn what to do better for next time. I thought mine were gonna be bonzai plants. Not even considering the money wasted and the time wasted, I would have missed out on what the plants have taught me and a tent full of superstars. Now, as I am approaching the end, I need some advice. Aside from trics, is there any other way to determine approx how long left in the grow? I need to change my nutes to end stage stuff (adding dry koolbloom, phasing out unneeded nutes, and finally the flush. ) I am super worried about getting the timing right. Besides trics, are there any other clear signals that we are rounding the corner to the final stretch? Thanks in advance. Also, I live in a dry environment. A desert, actually. For real. It seems like dry trimming will be very important for me if I do not want it to smell like alfalfa after the cure. Any thoughts on dry trimming? I know it is more work, but the results seem better. My plan, so far, is to hang the entire plant upside down in 1 piece to dry. The only question is, how many of the large fan leaves to leave on. Some leave all, some leave only the small ones in the buds. Any thoughts will help me decide along with my other research. Thanks!

Current feeding FloraMicro 2.5ml gal FloraBloom 8ml gal SM-90 2.5ml gal Cannazym 2.5ml Gal Ful-Potential 2.5ml gal Liquid Koolbloom 2.5ml gal Floralicious Plus 1ml gal ArmorSI 0.5ml gal CaliMagic 3.75ml gal FloraNectar 5ml gal Drip Clean 0.4ml gal Started getting cal def on the kush at 2.5 ml gal so I bumped back up to 3.75 as it caused some ugliness on some sugar leaves. I am supposed to switch from liquid Koolbloom for the next week to dry koolbloom. My trics all still appear clear so I am hoping it is not too early. ANy experience will help if you can offer a suggestion. I posed this advice query last week as an update but I don't think it was read and was not responded to, so I will repeat my questions to more experienced growers "Now, as I am approaching the end, I need some advice. Aside from trics, is there any other way to determine approx how long left in the grow? I need to change my nutes to end stage stuff (adding dry koolbloom, phasing out unneeded nutes, and finally the flush. ) I am super worried about getting the timing right. Besides trics, are there any other clear signals that we are rounding the corner to the final stretch? Thanks in advance. Also, I live in a dry environment. A desert, actually. For real. It seems like dry trimming will be very important for me if I do not want it to smell like alfalfa after the cure. Any thoughts on dry trimming? I know it is more work, but the results seem better. My plan, so far, is to hang the entire plant upside down in 1 piece to dry. The only question is, how many of the large fan leaves to leave on. Some leave all, some leave only the small ones in the buds. Any thoughts will help me decide along with my other research. Thanks!" The time lapse just doesn't seem that interesting during later flower. I made a mistake with the server and am debating phasing it out. I will decide soon. But please. Calling all experienced growers! I have done a really good job of my 1st grow so far, and i am surprised and delighted by it exceeding my higher expectations. But now variables come into play that are overwhelming for a first timer as far as end stage quality, during the final part of flowering and ripening and curing. I have been blessed with big, beautiful frosty buds. I really want to ensure I finish, ripen, cure, and dry them correctly. I have been blessed so far, but right now is make or break time for my late flowering. I need experience that I dont have. If you can offer advice based on your own real world experiences as far as these timings, please do. I may not take it exactly, but everyone elses experiences can help me gauge my next move. Thank you all in advance for advice, and for supporting, following, commenting, and such on my first grow. I really love this place. Thanks to the devs for giving us this space. I am watering daily in coco, so i can adjust very quickly if conditions change rapidly, if that point is not obvious. And once again, i am grateful you all have commented on my grows in the past. My inexperience is coming into play in a major way as far as timing for end stage nutes and flushing and how far in advance to do this and drying/trimming in desert like very low RH conditions. If you can assist me with your own experiences in any of these areas, i would be oh so grateful. Thanks again, in advance, to all my fellow gardeners.

Everything went way too smoothly up until this point. Adding the dehumidifier was needed, but I did not realize how hot the vent would make the tent, which is one reason I decided to start the dry koolbloom, so that I could try to induce finish before the heat causes damage to the plants. It is ironic, the heat stayed the same even though it is not as ambient hot outside. I still prefer the results to bud rot or mold of any kind, so it is a "pick your poison" situation. I started the new feeding on friday, 9/15 I followed GH instructions, but as per before, I kept the Cal-Magic higher for 3 days. It wasn't enough. Aborted Feed FloraMicro 2.5ml gal FloraBloom 8ml gal SM-90 2.5ml gal Cannazym 2.5ml Gal Ful-Potential 2.5ml gal Dry Koolbloom 0.25 tsp gal Floralicious Plus 1ml gal CaliMagic 2.5ml gal FloraNectar 5ml gal Drip Clean 0.4ml gal The burnt tips were expected. The insane tye dye Cal def on the buds was NOT expected. Leaves started turning all sorts of different colors, Now we are starting to foxtail as well and plants are too close the the lights for my comfort. so I lowered the Dry Koolbloom to half and increased cal magic and micro back up to "coco with LED" levels. The new feeding on Monday 9/18/17 was: FloraMicro 4ml gal FloraBloom 8ml gal SM-90 2.5ml gal Cannazym 2.5ml Gal Ful-Potential 2.5ml gal Dry Koolbloom 0.125 tsp gal Floralicious Plus 1ml gal CaliMagic 3.75ml gal FloraNectar 5ml gal Drip Clean 0.4ml gal Examining the plants, and seeing Cal def, possible P def, and possible N def, I grew concerned over lockout. PH out was very close to what was put in, slightly higher as expected but the best of the grow by far. EC of runof, however,f was higher than expected. If it's a nutrient and not PH lockout, then i need to coco flush (50% nutes), which I did today, 9/19/17., with half strength nutes and full strength Cal-Magic. The runoff was still pretty high in EC for some plants, but interestingly not for the plants with the more visible signs. I may do half strength again tomorrow and go back to the full amended feeding if they improve, or at least don't degrade further. The frustrating part, is the Kush, my ridiculously huge yielder, still has a majority of white hair and is foxtailing on top of formed buds. Trics still say "not yet" for all plants. Even the couple that look like they could come out of a bag right now. Everything went so smooth before, I was due to have my struggles due to inexperience. Here it is. Obviously, I am planning for next garden and I will vent the dehumidifiers exhaust to the main exhaust so the heat gets expelled from the tent. Actually, that won't work as that would bypass the carbon filter. I can't expel it out to the room because that is the air that goes back into the tent. Back to the drawing board. Also, the bottom of the tent is a very cool 22 while the top of the tent is 28, so there is quite a variance of temp at different heights. That may be exploitable. These problems are pretty much where inexperience came in during grow design. When they say beginners will only yield a fraction of a gram that experienced gardeners will, it is because of simple mistakes like this that I will have learned by the end of the grow, but may effect my yield. I am no longer worried about yield, I want it to smoke and taste good and have degood potency. WARNING: If you run coco and LEDs and don't use coco specific nutes, you are going to need to add a lot of calmag. You will likely need to supplement even if using coco nutes, imho. Way more than you think. This is like my 4th bout of it, and everytime I try to drop it, I get it again. I hope it wont effect the taste running calmag for so long 9/20/17 I think it is light burn, along with the cal def and nute burn. Nothing more. I am going to 50% coco flush for another day as a couple plants didnt seem to lower in ec even with 2 days of 50% feeding. Unexpected, but the plants still seem to want to get closer to that light, despite the harm it may be causing them. I have no where else for my lights to go. Super cropping is the only real solution at this point and i REALLY dont want to do that on my 1st grow when so many buds need support vertically as it is. Anyway, I am going to do no Humic/Fulvic besides floralicious, tomorrow, as I just ran out of Ful-Potential and it is being replaced by Ful-Power so I figured, why not give them a day between the 2? Besides, the people who are into Ful-Power are almost cult like in their alleigence to the product, much like those who use coco, or sm-90, or Roots Excelerator. Then I think, I am not in many clubs, and the people who are that determined also show pics of whiffle ball bat sized buds. So, I decided being in a cult is not the worst thing as long as no one is harmed and there are whiffle ball bat sized buds involved I am learning a ton, and while I knew more nutes wasnt always better, I am seeing why bigger isnt better all the time either.

Current Feeding: FloraMicro 4ml gal FloraBloom 8ml gal SM-90 2.5ml gal Cannazym 2.5ml Gal Ful-Power 5ml gal Dry Koolbloom 0.125 tsp gal Floralicious Plus 1ml gal CaliMagic 3.75ml gal FloraNectar 5ml gal Drip Clean 0.4ml gal I occasionally catch a single amber trich in my periphery while examining, but when i try to locate it again, it is gone. Many look as though they might be ready, but still milky trichs. So I am just waiting. 9/26/17 Still waiting. In the meantime, after some improvements to the garden, I am planning my next grow. So far, it looks like 4 Durban Poison, 2 Gypsy Haze, and 2 Amnesia Haze. I expect to cull at least 2 at some point. In a fever dream type moment, I started thinking about exchanging 2 durbans for 2 nevilles haze seeds I have. i know nevilles requires a very experienced grower, and takes awhile, but i am an expert now, right? Then I watched this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D32dJ4jDFvY I think I will stick to my plan and may consider those 2 nevilles seeds to be 1 long grow of 2 plants. perhaps next summer, when an 11/13 or 10/14 schedule with a plant that likes heat under a scrog, I can attempt the nevilles haze. seeing that video is a hardcore reality check. every single problem that i have had (or am having) appears likely with that plant. Not to mention, I simply do NOT have the space for such vertical growth. Only with a scrog, and only with 2 plants, would i attempt this. VERY big pots, tho 😈 big roots = big fruits 9/28/17 Last night when I got home it smelled like weed a block away. I have already replaced my filter once this grow with a different brand. stanky! There is a part of the tent that is hard to get to and hard to see. Examining the area today, I found 2 huge critical kush buds tipped over. I mean , it was heavy, felt like ounces between the 2 when i was staking them. It is getting out of control in there, but still no sign of amber. I really wish they would finish. Not because I am desperate for smoke, but because dealing with 9 or so gallons of feed a day is rough and i need a break. A vacation. I will most likely do it again, almost the same way, but folks, I was expecting a break a couple weeks ago... Another problem is the more weight they put on, the more they tip over and I have to stand them up and arrange them amongst the other buds that are trying to fall over... it is like a constant reminder to every single mistake i made this grow. the large pots for an auto, not using netting or staking during veg, of huge ass plants that i fear losing because i didn't understand the infrastructure that they would require to support. I kid you not, one of the stakes was so overloaded, i tied it to another stake to support it, but the weight has now dislodged the 2nd stake, so they are both tilting. I literally have a bud over a foot long leaning on the tripod of the time lapse cam for support(see photo above), and it is involved in this double stake lunacy. This is all first grow issues, and as i try to finish them, every single mistake is compounded in the final leg of flower. Rubbing my nose in it 1st world problem, for sure. "My grow was too successful!" I feel like a total jackass complaining because i have very beautiful buds, but waiting to see amber ever day for weeks, and never getting it is wearing on me. I am on wits end right now because i am scared shitless of anything messing with them and ruining the crop. All of my mistakes are being put in my face 360 and it is nerve racking. Even the yellowing due to lack of N, which i freaking expected, was stressful when it happened to my beautiful, perfect, girls. I still love the grow, don't get me wrong by my ranting, but the finish is giving me huge anxiety... caused because i used too big of pots and too efficient medium/nutes/lights for my own experience level. With humidity dropping to 8% this week as i prepare to dry (whole plant dry, fans included, dry trim to try to help with ambient RO during the dry, which is even more work), it makes even finishing now seem stressful. I need some freaking Zen, damnit! Add to this i had kind of timed this grow to end right when i was starting work again... now i am working a lot (my base day is 10 hours paid for when i arrive) and this is really stressful. Not to mention, after 10 hours (minimum) I still have to come home and tend garden for 1 hour a day, no exceptions. Sorry for whining. I just needed to vent. Sure, i look forward to and would love to smoke my own grows, that why i did this is the first place, but i need them to finish so i can move ahead with everything else in my life that needs my attention, and , of course, time. I know they are so close to ripening properly, that this moment will seem like nothing compared to how much of a pleasure the rest has been. I havent been afraid of the time or hard work to get to this point and rather enjoyted it. This portion is different; i didnt quite expect/understand the stress that comes at the end. That got me and is currently getting me. Arrrrggg. Again, total first world problem. Compounded with new grower syndrome. Thank you for letting me vent. Now, back to farming! On the other hand, they don't seem burned anymore by the half strength dry koolbloom. The runoff started reading very weird this last week, plant to plant, no consistency AT ALL plant to plant between PH and EC. Most of them were rising in EC, however, but that would be expected with dry koolbloom. I did half strength coco flush today, of half of almost all nutes and full additives. I will likely do that for another 2 days or more ( i wont know until i see how they react), but i will try to increase the dry koolbloom to full strength without burn, 25% a day. If that is successful, I may continue and only raise bloom and micro, and leave calmag low. 1 move at a time, this time, tho. I got hosed by too many variables last time and what seems to be the normal yellowing of nitrogen deficiency now was vexing compounded by the reactions of my other simultaneous changes last time. The odd runoff seems more signs that they are all finishing in some way (shame on me for STILL reading coco runoff, i know, and while it may not be conclusive, it does give me some information, even if it is confusing). The sooner i can get them to final flush, the better for me, and if using a coco flush will help, not only do i have the opportunity with coco and once a day feedings to try something and correct as necessary, Coco with once a day feedings allows me to make minor mistakes and correct them quickly if need be, and as much work as it is, i actually love it and dont understand how the other successful grow methods would suit my lifestyle the same. If i do autos again, i may use a 7 gallon pot of coco again, but i will CERTAINLY top and stress the fuck out of them. If they were just a % smaller, almost everything would be easier. And aside from the possibility of herm bananas, judging from this single grow, autos can take a hell of a lot more abuse than i put them through. They coasted with no stress, and they are WAY bigger than i expected or was prepared to deal with. Some stress might be perfect to keep their size in check if no bananas occur. I live in a place with very dry, unbearable summertime heat. Our winter is around 70 degrees. Running 20 hours of light and trying to get AC 30-40 degrees below outside has been EXPENSIVE (and completely stupid when i am sitting inside with a blanket and it is 100+ outside). The power company is killing me. In my location, autos should be run in winter, photos in summer to deal with the heat. I appear to be going backwards. For my next grow, I have been determined to grow my sativa photos, including my beloved, Durban Poison. It seems to me my energy usage would be backwards and I would be fighting momentum, in a manner of speaking. In a perfect world, i should do 1 or maybe 2 crops of autos and save the sativas for the summer, leveraging ambient temps and cheaper electric bills. This will suck because i will still BUY durban poison even tho i am sitting on 10 fem DP seeds and presumably, a grip of indica from this first grow. (obtaining Durban is non negotiable. I will either grow it or buy it. i GOTTA have it, its my medicine!) I REALLY want the fruits of a successful sativa grow, but my eyes may be bigger than my stomach, metaphorically. Maybe it would be best both for my wallet and experience to do another run or 2 of autos (i have a ton of very good indica auto seeds as well of an assortment of fem photo sativas), take what I have learned and apply it to them for a more successful grow, and save the Sativa Tent for summer. Any thoughts on my conundrum?

Current Feeding: FloraMicro 2ml gal FloraBloom 4ml gal SM-90 2.5ml gal Cannazym 11.1ml Gal Ful-Power 5ml gal Dry Koolbloom 0.125 tsp gal Floralicious Plus 1ml gal CaliMagic 1.6ml gal FloraNectar 5ml gal Drip Clean 0.4ml gal Bumped up cannazyme substantially per label to prepare for reuse of media. Started to see PPMs of runoff rising, started to flush. PPMs still very high and ph dropping. Plants seem to be drinking less. The calyxes are VERY noticeably swollen on a couple plants. I think these are signs so I am likely going to stick to this reduced ppm feeding and perhaps even lowering it preparing for final flush, unless I see a reason not to. I may try stopping the Cali-Magic and likely Ful-Power very soon. Still no amber, but the size of the buds is getting impressive. She is showing me the all the signs except amber trichs. Still waiting. I just realized the main stems are so fat and woody, I have no idea what kind of tool I will need to chop it. I intend to cut and dry the plant whole. Anyone have any advice, I could use it? Ok, I am ordering an 8 inch pruning saw. That should do it. 10/5/17 I don't know what to do. They are are WAY older than the breeder suggests. Tons of cloudy trichs, but not an amber to be seen, anywhere. Even after 2 weeks of Dry Koolbloom. So I am starting to decrease light by 30 mins a day, and I will be feeding the last feed tonight, then I will flush for a week and chop. I really don't see any other way. I was hoping for a bit of couchlock ans my patient prefers that, but this crop needs to be harvested. Hopefully I will see some amber by the end of flush week so I don't always wonder it I chopped too soon... I had planned to harvest them 1 aqt a time as they ripened, but that doesn't seem like it is going to happen. The good news with doing them all at once is that I can use the tent to dry them in and have a bit more control over the environment, AND I can give them 48 hours of dark if I want to. I got about a week to decide. Wish me luck, folks. Thanks Also, I keep finding HUGE buds i didn't notice bent over on the thinner stems (the huge bugs on the thicker stems are fine aside from serious lean, as noted before). This is a new one, bent right at the base of the good sized cola. Its pretty much only auto speed bud at this point, which no longer seems to be feeding. And the wild part is , with each bent bud I thought it was part of another plant altogether. I think my decision to to move into final flush is a good one, if not a bit late. I was relying on the trichs like EVERYONE online said. but this is a long time with no trace of amber, and they look bag ready. i am just confused. it is probably a beginner like me with unpredictable autoflowers. photos next time (not that i regret the autos, i just dont understand why my results are so wildly different from others) As I close out this week, and go into flush, I want to quote breeder guidelines. Not to call out the breeders, but to illustrate wildly different results under different conditions. See the comment section for more information on breeder standards (something like 1000W HPS in soil in 5 gallon pots as being the standard or something, i am not sure at all). Please compare with my results in coco under LED in 7 gallon fabric pots. 1) AUTO SPEED BUD: "These seeds are ready to harvest in 35 days in 8 - 10 weeks from germination to harvest." "FLOWERING TIME 35 days" "Auto Speed Bud is a small/medium-sized plant that grows to between 40 - 80 cm. tall " 2) AUTO CRITICAL KUSH: "Additionally it can be expected to grow into a Short plant reaching 70cm - 90cm." " Its flowering stage is a little slow to kick in but it will still be ready to harvest between 8 - 10 weeks from germination." "PLANT HEIGHT 70cm - 90cm" "FLOWERING TIME 70 - 80 days from germination" 3) AUTO SEEMANGO "FLOWERING TIME Indoors: 6-8 weeks" "Seemango Automatic is a real must for the collector looking for a connoisseur strain in just 65 days from seed." 4) AUTO KUSH: " These seeds are ready to harvest in 7-9 Weeks in 2.5 Months from Seed." "This combination of a squat Indica and a classic auto strain means that Auto Kush will stay quite short, usually not exceeding around 60cm in height." "FLOWERING TIME 7-9 Weeks" "HARVEST MONTH 2.5 Months from Seed" 5) AUTO NORTHERN LIGHTS x BIG BUD: "These seeds are ready to harvest in 45 - 55 days in 65 -- 70 days from germination." "It is ready to harvest in 65 - 70 days from germination to full maturity." "FLOWERING TIME 45 - 55 days" 6) AUTO MANGO CREAM: " It grow well indoors and outdoors, being ready to harvest in 9 weeks from its germination. "FLOWERING TIME 9 weeks" 100% percent of the above information is false... under my growing conditions. I think it is very important for the grower to understand this, and not blame the breeders, even IF they fudge the numbers by a week or 2 occasionally. I think it is quite impossible to say for certainty, the finish time unless done in exactly the same conditions, and i do mean EXACTLY. I am still trying to learn and discover, but I wanted to document the reality versus the marketing, nonetheless. Again, I am certainly not claiming the breederes did anything wrong, I just think living things have a lot of variables that make them live, and my grow seems to illustrate that fact to my own satisfaction. 👌

Current Feeding Florakleen 10 ML per gallon Canna Cannazyme 100 ML per 9 gallons Friday 10/6/17, she was put on the final flush. Light has been reduced by 30 minutes per day and will continue until friday, 10/13/17. It started before final flush. As of 10/7/17, she has been reduced to 18 hours of light a day vs her 20 during their lives. On 10/13/17, each plant will most likely get a drywall screw drilled into its base in preparation for harvest full plant hang, dry trim. Each plant will most likely get fed PHed ice water, and go into approx 48 hour darkness. They will be harvested on sunday, 10/15/17, if no problems erupt until then. I am not sure about any of this, but if there is no amber at each step, the next stress will be added. I need to finish for a few reasons. My frustration is odd. I over prepared for any problems before this grow. I was pretty much ready for any problem in my medium that would hurt yield, and focused on that. What I missed was what happens when there are no problems? What happens if my overprepredness found me using amazing root hormones, bennies for the roots and medium, 7 gallon self pruning fabric pots with pure coco, watered once a day during heavy flower, with an aggressive lighting schedule and near perfect conditions for the plants happiness. Yup. Overwhelmed with my own success. Add the confusing time frames provided by the breeders (what type of light and wattage, nutes, VPD, and medium?????) . Add into my work season getting going right at heaviest feedings when I thought they would be long done by then. I was prepared for every problem except the one I actually got... overflowing bounty and inability to deal with such success. I was prepared to fail. I started with 10 plants, and the final 6 has been a "challenge". i figured, even in 9 died, i would at least not have to buy some medicine. The 4 that left the garden never flowered, but were otherwise extraordinarily healthy, lush, and vigorous (sadly, I got word a couple weeks ago that they did not survive the move to their new homes). The rest have hardly been failures But success brings on its own problems. Unexpected environmental changes, FAR more limbs then you are prepared to deal with that can't hold their own weight, plants encroaching each other to the point when its confusing which giant bud comes from which plant, and then the fade and end stress. I like the concept of Dry Koolbloom, but in execution, it took my healthy plants and made them look unhealthy. I even found a gnat stuck to a bud. I have had no pests until I stressed them. I even noted prior to stressing them that I was nervous about them going from healthy to not so much. Yes it is fall colors, yes it is inline with the fade, but I still don't have amber trichs. All I did was take a healthy plant and make it susceptible to problems, which caused me stress because it had worked out so well prior to me adding the koolbloom. Philosophically, I am torn. Metaphorically, it is like, some people talk to their plants. Give them names. I don't want to get an emotional attachment to them.Because I know the end result and it will be by my hand. And then I think of annuals, they are going to die anyway, and if i didn't plant that seed, they never would have lived at all. And I gave them the best conditions to live life while they were doing their thing during their time on this orb, in comfort. So should I feel guilty when it is by my hand when their day is due? And is Dry Koolbloom a good thing to do to a happy plant? For instance, an argument about adopting my dog from the shelter was that one day, I might have to put him down. But then I remember, I gave him a home, his place in the world, and a very happy, comfortable life. I may one day have to put him down, but we both got to live together and share this life. It is part of my agreement to be responsible to him and for him that I may one day have to do what I want to do least to my bestest friend. But I wouldnt trade our time together for anything, and I want him to be happy and comfortable until the day we shed this mortal coil Would I give my dog Dry Koolbloom at the end of his life to increase my yield? Not a chance. I obviously need to test the final cured herb, but I am not sure that I would use it again at this point. I may have used it too early, totally possible, but still... it seems karmically wrong; i dont know how else to describe it By the way, I got some organic outdoor northern cali blue cheese from emerald family farms, and man, it is very nice. It brings peace and offers multiple paths forward. Good strain, excellent grow. It is helping me find peace with this grow and plot a path forward. OBVIOUSLY there are things that I will be changing, but my own deficiencies in understanding may take a couple weeks to digest once the cure is underway. I think there will be a pause before the next grow as I decide how to improve not only the veg, but late flower and have the patience and understanding to follow her lead instead of trying to force her down my path. I also have to make some hard decisions about strains, veg time, and topping/training. Once I am at a stable 62% in jars, I can pause and plot the next course. Until then, I am totally on edge and consumed with finishing this crop despite possible self sabotage. Hopefully, the next crop will start quicker next time. This time, I am still learning and I feel a new garden before this one is cured will be a distraction at this time Thanks all for your comments. There will likely be a brief post next week with pics of the final plant outside the tent, the rootballs, and the hang. Then it will be a month or so for final report, assuming nothing major happens this week for me to amend this post. I will still be lurking and watching everyone elses grows and learning what you guys did right. This site is addicting and the growers make it possible. Thanks for all the support and may all of your grows overwhelm you , in the right way! BREEDER GROW GUIDELINES: 1) AUTO SPEED BUD: "These seeds are ready to harvest in 35 days in 8 - 10 weeks from germination to harvest." "FLOWERING TIME 35 days" "Auto Speed Bud is a small/medium-sized plant that grows to between 40 - 80 cm. tall " 2) AUTO CRITICAL KUSH: "Additionally it can be expected to grow into a Short plant reaching 70cm - 90cm." " Its flowering stage is a little slow to kick in but it will still be ready to harvest between 8 - 10 weeks from germination." "PLANT HEIGHT 70cm - 90cm" "FLOWERING TIME 70 - 80 days from germination" 3) AUTO SEEMANGO "FLOWERING TIME Indoors: 6-8 weeks" "Seemango Automatic is a real must for the collector looking for a connoisseur strain in just 65 days from seed." 4) AUTO KUSH: " These seeds are ready to harvest in 7-9 Weeks in 2.5 Months from Seed." "This combination of a squat Indica and a classic auto strain means that Auto Kush will stay quite short, usually not exceeding around 60cm in height." "FLOWERING TIME 7-9 Weeks" "HARVEST MONTH 2.5 Months from Seed" 5) AUTO NORTHERN LIGHTS x BIG BUD: "These seeds are ready to harvest in 45 - 55 days in 65 -- 70 days from germination." "It is ready to harvest in 65 - 70 days from germination to full maturity." "FLOWERING TIME 45 - 55 days" 6) AUTO MANGO CREAM: " It grow well indoors and outdoors, being ready to harvest in 9 weeks from its germination. "FLOWERING TIME 9 weeks"

Put this in flower although it is clearly harvest. Nails were drilled into their base, and they were cut with a pruning saw on 10/15/17. They were hung whole, with fan leaves, upside down, in the tent they were grown in. Using humidifier outside the tent to try to maintain 50-55 or so RH inside the tent for the dry. One of the best things about today was finding a few extremely large buds that I did not even know existed. I think I should have cut awhile ago, but I haven't sampled them and don't know yet. It will be much more predictable now when i find out how I did. Hopefully that will make future grows more predictable. Anyway, here are pics of the slaughter BREEDER GROW GUIDELINES: 1) AUTO SPEED BUD: "These seeds are ready to harvest in 35 days in 8 - 10 weeks from germination to harvest." "FLOWERING TIME 35 days" "Auto Speed Bud is a small/medium-sized plant that grows to between 40 - 80 cm. tall " 2) AUTO CRITICAL KUSH: "Additionally it can be expected to grow into a Short plant reaching 70cm - 90cm." " Its flowering stage is a little slow to kick in but it will still be ready to harvest between 8 - 10 weeks from germination." "PLANT HEIGHT 70cm - 90cm" "FLOWERING TIME 70 - 80 days from germination" 3) AUTO SEEMANGO "FLOWERING TIME Indoors: 6-8 weeks" "Seemango Automatic is a real must for the collector looking for a connoisseur strain in just 65 days from seed." 4) AUTO KUSH: " These seeds are ready to harvest in 7-9 Weeks in 2.5 Months from Seed." "This combination of a squat Indica and a classic auto strain means that Auto Kush will stay quite short, usually not exceeding around 60cm in height." "FLOWERING TIME 7-9 Weeks" "HARVEST MONTH 2.5 Months from Seed" 5) AUTO NORTHERN LIGHTS x BIG BUD: "These seeds are ready to harvest in 45 - 55 days in 65 -- 70 days from germination." "It is ready to harvest in 65 - 70 days from germination to full maturity." "FLOWERING TIME 45 - 55 days" 6) AUTO MANGO CREAM: " It grow well indoors and outdoors, being ready to harvest in 9 weeks from its germination. "FLOWERING TIME 9 weeks"

Ok Ok, it took awhile, but life happened. All plants were harvested and all but 1 have been trimmed. All but 1 of those has been weighed. I had never trimmed before, and I spent almost a full week dry trimming, including 2 20+ hour days. I was exhausted. I apologize to those following. Hopefully my next grow will be more timely. I will finish what I can of this grow. Check out my new grow which hasn't started out as well as my first. But I still have tons left, so I am fine with that.

Sadly, it got too tall and I light burned and the 2 top colas (including the football sized one) were not tasty enough to smoke. However, it made some DAMN potent coconut oil. This plant was easy to care for, was sugar coated like a donut, and produced almost 10 ounces of bud (including popcorn). For an autoflower,, that is off the charts as far as I can tell. This is the only plant I took leaf trim from (so frosty) and I got about an ounce of that (which went into some not to shabby butter).

This strain was very low profile. Plant kept small, did not grow into the lights, but produced a decent amount of bud. This will likely be a staple in my indica auto grows as it is that good. I liked it a lot.

This plant was a joy to grow. One large specific fan leaf toward the bottom seemed to tell me whatever the plant needed through it's entire grow. Odd, but very cool. Low maintenance and nice high. Good fruity flavor, however, I don't notice the cream.

Not much to say about this plant, stable, decent yield, easy to grow. The blue color in the photos, unfortunately, are not visible to the naked eye. 2 of them sprouted for this years grow.

Gets larger than expected. Responds well to favorable conditions. Lush thick growth. Looks nice, bright green. The smoke is smooth, but nothing noteworthy. I recommend it for new growers as it is strong and healthy growing, but not really anyone else unless looking for a low thc high and decent cbd profile.