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Started off with a White Widow Auto from Crop King Seeds, I also have a CBDiesel and a lambs breath auto on the go.
Plan is to start these girls off indoors and then move them out to the greenhouse, which i have just built.
My goals for this grow are:
-Harvest 1oz of dried bud - I am not much of a smoker myself, but will make great gifts for family and friends. I know that many people get a lot more, but keeping my expectations realistic for my first time.
-Learn a whole bunch about how this works
-Have fun - we love gardening in our house and this is another exciting plant to grow.
Looks like she is a little nutrient burnt. I have been doing some reading and looks like my first lesson is coming quick! Slow on the feeding for the little autos, and need to check my pH. Will I have ordered a ph meter, because I think my tap water is a bit alkaline. Hopefully it arrives soon!
Started some LST this week. I really have no idea of what I am doing, but learn a little more each day. Google, youtube and checking out others grow diaries are super helpful.
My soil is a mixture of compost, vermiculite, perlite, coco coir, worm castings. I am feeding them some organic tea, which I sometimes brew using compost, worm castings, seaweed fertilizer & crustacean fert. Other times they just get the seaweed and crust ferts and once a week just water. I am feeding every 3 days, so basically one feed and one pure water each week.
Seems to be working fine. I have noticed a thin layer of mold the morning after feeding the tea, but after some research have found that it is normal and not harmfull. My mixture was harmful to the cucumber seedlings though which killed them all within 18 hours. I think I may have forgotten to ph test the tea before feeding it, oops.
the tomatoes and peppers loved it though!
So what have i learnt so far.
-firstly, I seem to overwater (rookie mistake)
-I finally got the PH meter working and have got my PH back down to a better spot. Aiming around the 6.5 mark. Tap water ranges from 7.5 to 8
OK, Ok i know, I should have this in a bigger pot. It was supposed to move out to the greenhouse about 2 weeks ago, but wouldnt you know it - its started snowing again which is forcing me to keep them inside. Tossing up between keeping them in same pot and likely getting a bit of rootboundness or double transplanting.... either doesnt seem great, but nor does the foot of snow.
Anyways, finally got her out in her new home (I just built it this year) and she seems to like it. In a couple more days she should have loads of friends out there, including a Lambs breath Auto, CBDiesel and a bunch of tomatos, cucumbers, habaneros, chipoltles, Sweet peppers, squash .....
happy days!
Very happy to get these smelly little ones outside. And very glad that I spent the week with some methodical hardening off before leaving her out there overnight and then eventually planting her. She certainly had some testing evening temperatures this week, sometimes as low as 5 degrees in the greenhouse, but she seems to be doing fine.
The LST seems to be paying off. I must admit that I have messed with her too often and probably caused loads of undue stress. But learning loads and i know that on my next grow (and for the rest of this one) my patience will be a virtue.
The transplant to outside was certainly a test for her, but she seems to be doing fine. I think growth slowed some, but she seems happy otherwise.
LST is working great, and looking forward to flowers!
Been a crazy week thus far with thunderstorms, heat waves and then near freezing temperatures that required me to put the heater back into the greenhouse for 48 hours.
Everything seems good though, lots of stretchy growth spreading out about 4-5 nodes on each branch, with a dozen branches budding.
Hi @Pagus! Your plant looks healthy, maybe a little hot (leaves edges are slightly curling upward). Flowering at week 8 is normal for an autoflowering strain, you could even consider yourself lucky since your plant had more vegetative time than usual. Now you need to maximize your chances to get a nice healthy yield, this means no more special operations (no surgery, no scissor cut, and no more LST) until she managed to fatten up. You're going to need bloom (P+K) fertilizer in order to help her building up those buds. You can use a well known brand such as BioBizz, Canna, GreenBuzzLiquids...Or you can do it by yourself, using banana peels, coffee grounds, epsom salts ... If you're not confident about mixing your own just grab the smallest bottle you can find. Be careful now that she's into flowering stage, rain could ruin your crop, consider building a tomato-roof in case of a rainy week. Finally, you will need to take a daily closeup look at your buds, to make sure they're not getting mold, and to find the perfect harvest window. Hope this will help, keep us up-to-date and happy growing! 👊
Been a good week. Every branch has little buds growing all the way up - about 4 nodes on each. Fed with bloom this week and seems to be loving it, and the nice steady temperatures.
I bought a jewelers loupe and have been checking out the trichomes, which are starting to frost up the buds and leaves quite well.
Loving the greenhouse, as it has saved the day from 2 hail storms this week and keeps temperature reasonably steady.
Been a chilly rainy week. Really it was just 2 days of sunshine all week, with decent temperatures, and the rest with heavy rain and thick cloud. She has weathered multiple days of between 5-10 degrees C, and is doing fine.
It seems that everything is kinda how I would expect from others diaries, but a few weeks later than others. Not a big deal I guess, as long as she finishes strong. I am looking forward to seeing how the next 2 weeks go - hopefully we get some nice weather to help her finish off strong!
I have started with some molassas each feed as well.
Did my last nutrient feed (Organic seaweed, CalMag and Organic Biothrive Bloom at the start of this week. I figure that I only have a couple to a few weeks left. Gone to just rainwater (ph is about 6.25-6.5) with a titch of molassas for the next week and then rainwater till harvest.
Really stoked with how this soil turned out and everthing in the greenhouse is loving it. Loads of worms have hatched from in the worm castings, and the soil has a great balance of water retention and capable drainage, Unfortunately the "wicking" part of the wicking bed is a little less great, as it seems we have sprung a leak in the liner.
Well, I thought it woudl be done this week but I think still a week or two to go. I gave another feed of the weekly fertilizer, along with some molassas. Buds are still getting fatter.
I thought trichomes were getting a cloudy - in fact a number seemed to disapper/go dull earlier in the week, but they have come back by the end of the week and have new pistels and fatter buds. I can see as a rookie grower how it is tempting to pull them now, as for a bit they seemed to be done, but sure enough they are still growing!
Oh no! Disaster strikes in the form of the neighbours cat! chased it out of the greenhouse as the door was left open and found a branch broken on the girl, looks like she had a good play with it, as was bits of leaf everywhere. I cut the branch off clean, as it was all broke and falling into the dirt. Oh well, I guess I will get an early sample. Hopefully the rest of the plant bounces back! I have trimmed this one while wet - but will likely do a mixture of dry/wet trimming to see which I like best. Looking forward to tasting it!
Day 6 this week and I have noticed that the tips of 3 of the buds have started turning brown and going crispy. my initial thought has been that we have had 3 crazy hot sunny days after a few weeks of crap weather, and that the tips might be getting a little burned. But after a quick search online I see that other possible problems are either bud rot (i don't expect its bud rot as it has started on the tips, and the rest of the bud looks great) or budworms and neither of those seemed very appetizing.
So I cut these tips off, about an inch below the lowest brown I could see and had a good examination. No sign of bugs/caterpillars and everything seems fine. I have removed and disposed of the brown bits and am drying out the rest. I am looking forward to how it looks as it dries, and how the rest of the plant responds. Any suggestions are appreciated.
Some brown and crispy tips to buds. I think burn from crazy hot sunny days after all the rain/clouds over last couple weeks. I have cut off affected part an inch below, and no sign of worms and doesnt look like rot. Any suggestions are appreciated.
@Pagus Hi mate I have a very close look at the buds as sometimes that can be an indication of bud rot (botrytis)
If you notice any mould growing I would consider an early harvest. I hope it isn't bud rot but does look very
similiar
Seemed to grow well, I had about 65% germination rate (i gave one seedling away and another one didn't germinate). I was impressed at how hardy she was, holding up to spiking temperatures.
Well, after a titch of (potential) bud rot starting last week, and me being out of town next week and not able to care for her, I decided to harvest. Trichomes were turning cloudy, but I think another week would have been great.
Harvest went well, got 45gms of manicured buds, and over an ounce of trim. Havent tasted yet, but since I am heading camping I will have to try it and update next week.
Thanks to all the helpers and people who commented.
UPDATE:
Great smoke, tastes great throught the vaporizer and smokes well rolled up. A little harsh, but seems to be softening while curing.
Strong effects comes on slow but then quite cerebral.
Thanks, Yep she is a bit slow. Still pretty happy that I have kept her alive and looking forward to seeing her finish up. I have started another plant today, and am excited to not make the same mistakes twice.
Thanks for the Calmag tip, we were gonna brew up a big batch of compost tea tomorrow for the rest of the garden, so I have some calmag in the shed, so will add that to the mix.
Hi me again lol your week 9 pic shows some tan spots on a few leafs i believe it has a calcium deficiency pick up some cal mag for tomatoe plants and a few lower leafs are full yellow your old roots are struggling probably from transplanting . the yellow lower leafs only is a sighn of nitrogen deficiency giving it a shot or 2 of nitrogen rich nutrients wont hurt . it should pick up after that . my white widow auto sprouted with deficiencys i think its a common problem with this strain .
Hi @Pagus! Your plant looks healthy, maybe a little hot (leaves edges are slightly curling upward). Flowering at week 8 is normal for an autoflowering strain, you could even consider yourself lucky since your plant had more vegetative time than usual. Now you need to maximize your chances to get a nice healthy yield, this means no more special operations (no surgery, no scissor cut, and no more LST) until she managed to fatten up. You're going to need bloom (P+K) fertilizer in order to help her building up those buds. You can use a well known brand such as BioBizz, Canna, GreenBuzzLiquids...Or you can do it by yourself, using banana peels, coffee grounds, epsom salts ... If you're not confident about mixing your own just grab the smallest bottle you can find. Be careful now that she's into flowering stage, rain could ruin your crop, consider building a tomato-roof in case of a rainy week. Finally, you will need to take a daily closeup look at your buds, to make sure they're not getting mold, and to find the perfect harvest window. Hope this will help, keep us up-to-date and happy growing! 👊
Autos do not start to flower due their age, but their development stage. Growing outdoors is, most of the time, slower due a couple of factors: the amount of light hours which is much less than what you can give them indoors and the temperature, anything below 23°C (73°F) will sow down the grow rate, which is way your plant took so much to start flowering. According to your data, your plant is receiving is 15 hours and your day temperature is 18°C (64°F), which is why its taking so long. Try putting it indoors during the night, that will help some with the low night temperatures
Looks like theres been some transplanting there . its recommended to finish autoflowers in the pots or plots they are started in . most autoflowers show pre flowers with in the first 30 days . thats where you are now looks like pre flowers most autos will preflower for a week and a half to two weeks then transition to full flower mode and concentrate on flowering till they finish . hope this info helps . i believe your auto should be flowering already at week 9 tho . definately was held back it seems .
hey there hope I answered your question, looks like the root zone got compacted by over watering that's why... anything else you need just let me know 👊
Thanks for the feedbacks, great to get some fresh looks at the girl.
Its been a crazy few weeks of weather here, snow changing to +28 C temperatures within the week. Looks to be stabilizing a bit this next week or so and I think that greenhouse can likely be kept between 15 C and 30C - Its been a bit of a struggle managing the extremes till now.
The overwatering is likely due to sharing a large garden bed with other plants, and being really rootbound before transplanting after living inside (we got hit with a couple weeks of late snow which really pushed back my ability to move outside). I am certainly another statistic in what seems to be the rookie mistake of overwatering, although i know that i have improved much improved since early veg, but symptoms remain. I will work harder at watering other plants strategically to not end up watering the girls so often. And I will take a look at Humic Acid.
.
Thanks for the tip on checking for bud rot daily, I will be sure to do that! There is a fan in the greenhouse; which is thermostatically controlled to along with the vents help to keep the temperature from cooking the plants, it oscillates right past the plant so certainly gets some air flow which I am sure will help as well.
I started an organic flowering fertilizer a couple of weeks ago, and am feeding once a week, along with the seaweed meal and marine mix fertilizer. I have a pretty rich soil made of compost, worm castings, coco coir, perlite, vermiculite, blood and bone meal and I burned this one and another seedling I grew for my mother, in the early weeks.
Another learning has been how gentle to be with the plants, as I have likely messed with them a bit too much during LST. Although I was successful at getting multiple bud sites to get lots of light, I likely was too rough and stressed them too often rather than providing a few days recovery between training.
I am looking forward to applying this stuff on this girl and the Lambs Breath which I just started yesterday. The good thing about these short cycle autoflowers outdoor is staggering their start dates and getting some newbie lessons learnt to apply on the next
Thanks again for all the comments!
So for anyone that wants to know how to keep aphids off the cannabis when you find them in your greenhouse... just plant some habanero peppers next to it and they will eat that plant instead.
Now if anyone could tell me how to kill aphids on a pepper plant, I would be stoked!
Pagus
