Laezu Back again for my sixth grow with Apple Fritter. This is going to be my first dirt grow so I'm excited to see what happens and keep track of it to improve on future grows. That's really why I keep these diaries, just to learn from past mistakes and push forward. All of my previous grows have been DWC and as much as I enjoy that process of fine tuning the nutrients, there is ALWAYS 2-3 weeks throughout the grow where I'm just not able to spend the time, and it ends up affecting the end product.
That's why I decided on going dirt instead of coco or another medium. Dirt definitely has a more set it and forget it attitude, especially when paired with an autopot. I'm still going to be feeding from the autopot, but only to boost growth and combat deficiencies. I'm hoping this takes the best of both worlds :)
I'm excited to try out the autopot too. Hopefully it will help curb any fungus gnats that may be in the soil already since we'll be bottom watering this beauty. The only thing that's got me a bit worried is draining this thing each week. I went ahead and added on a drain tube that's going straight into a drain pipe not far from the tent, but the OD of this pipe is 1/4 in. It's going to take over an hour to drain a 12.4 gallon reservoir through this thing. Instead of doing that, I'm going to go with the tried and true battery operated water transfer pump. If you don't have one of these, I HIGHLY recommend getting one on amazon, they're -30 and worth every penny when you're dealing with any kind of hydroponics.
I'm also going to focus a bit more on lighting throughout this grow. The last few grows I worked on dialing in humidity inside the tent, but this time I'm going to keep track and focus on the lighting to get that dialed in. I do like the ACInfinity light that I have, but I also went ahead and bought some UV lights to help with the flowering. I'll be focusing a lot more on light penetration, PPFD, distance to the canopy, etc.
If any of that sounds interesting to you, feel free to follow along :)
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Used method
Paper Towel
Germination Method
1
Week 1. Vegetation
1mo ago
1/3
20.32 cm
Height
18 hrs
Light Schedule
24 °C
Day Air Temp
6.0
pH
No Smell
Smell
55 %
Air Humidity
21 °C
Night Air Temp
3.79 liters
Pot Size
55.88 cm
Lamp Distance
Nutrients 1
Calmag
0.264 mll
Laezu First week of veg and the seedling has bounced back nicely from the light change. I also had a bit of fun and decided to branch off my reverse osmosis system from upstairs and bring it to my basement grow room. Should make the upcoming water changes for the autopot a bit easier :) I'm not going to feed her any nutrients other than the calmag until she asks for it. I'd like to see her grow another 5-10 inches before I put her in her permanent home in the autopot. Next week I'll top her on her next node. Happy farmin!
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2
Week 2. Vegetation
1mo ago
1/5
22.86 cm
Height
18 hrs
Light Schedule
24 °C
Day Air Temp
6.0
pH
No Smell
Smell
55 %
Air Humidity
21 °C
Night Air Temp
3.79 liters
Pot Size
55.88 cm
Lamp Distance
Nutrients 1
Calmag
1.057 mll
Laezu Alright! She was topped a little earlier this week and then she went into her permanent home in the Autopot today. Using a blend of perlite #3 and Fox Farms Ocean Forest. I gave her a drink until it began to drip out into the bucket and let her sit in it until she stopped. She was also topped and showing off those new nodes already. I'll give her 14 days until I turn on the water for the Autopot, and another 14 days after that before I start the airstone. She's off to a good start but I am seeing early signs of calcium deficiency so I'm upping the dose. Happy farmin folks :)
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Used techniques
Topping
Technique
3
Week 3. Vegetation
22d ago
1/4
22.86 cm
Height
18 hrs
Light Schedule
24 °C
Day Air Temp
6.0
pH
No Smell
Smell
55 %
Air Humidity
21 °C
Night Air Temp
3.79 liters
Pot Size
55.88 cm
Lamp Distance
Nutrients 1
Calmag
1.321 mll
Laezu Very happy with how things are looking at week 3. The calmag deficiency is gone and I'm seeing fresh growth throughout the canopy. I did go ahead and cut off the lowest nodes since they were already having a very hard time competing for light. I'm taking my time with this veg cycle. I want to have one bushy plant come harvest time :) I started LST as well, but just to try and get the nodes to start stretching away from eachother. Next week I'll add in some hooks to the plastic container so I can expand on this.
Autopot should be starting next week as well but I'm not sure if I'm going to add anymore ferts aside the calmag suppliment yet. Happy farmin!
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Used techniques
LST
Technique
Defoliation
Technique
4
Week 4. Vegetation
14d ago
1/5
22.86 cm
Height
18 hrs
Light Schedule
24 °C
Day Air Temp
6.0
pH
No Smell
Smell
55 %
Air Humidity
21 °C
Night Air Temp
3.79 liters
Pot Size
55.88 cm
Lamp Distance
Nutrients 1
Calmag
0.793 mll
Laezu Week 4 is in the books and shes really started to take off. I still havent turned the autopot on, but that will happen this week. Checking on her every day to get some LST adjustments in. I want a big bushy girl so I'm shooting for a 16-18 week.
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Used techniques
LST
Technique
5
Week 5. Vegetation
9d ago
1/5
30.48 cm
Height
18 hrs
Light Schedule
24 °C
Day Air Temp
6.2
pH
Normal
Smell
55 %
Air Humidity
21 °C
Night Air Temp
3.79 liters
Pot Size
55.88 cm
Lamp Distance
Nutrients 3
Calmag
1.057 mll
Big Bloom
2.113 mll
Grow Big
0.66 mll
Laezu This grow is really starting off strong, my main stem is almost already an inch thick she seems to be thriving. I'm definitely still combating the RO/Calmag and I keep increasing it each week while cutting off old fan leaves. I'm gonna find that sweet spot damn it. There's also some pretty bright lime green in my new leaves, but that should be due to the increase in light intensity. I was at around 250 and I've bumped it to 400. 400 is where she'll stay at until i switch to flower. I'm not going to switch to flower for at least 2more weeks. My goal is a big bushy girl and I'm not in any rush.
Autopot has been switched on for about 5-6 days now and the top soil has dried out significantly, but she isn't showing any signs of thirst so I'm calling that a successful switch to the reservoir.
I've also added a small 90GPH pump to the autopot reservoir and have it mixing the nutrients once a day for about 10 minutes to try and keep the sediment down.
Dosing has also changed and the new screenshot has my upgraded plan. This will probably keep changing but yea, we'll see where we get :)
I've cut about 24 fan leaves this week between two cutting sessions. Trying to keep some good lights on the bud sites. Increasing the LST to try and cover as much area as possible. I want a nice thick top :)
Thanks for reading and happy farmin :D
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Used techniques
LST
Technique
Defoliation
Technique
6
Week 6. Vegetation
3d ago
1/5
30.48 cm
Height
18 hrs
Light Schedule
24 °C
Day Air Temp
6.2
pH
Normal
Smell
55 %
Air Humidity
21 °C
Night Air Temp
3.79 liters
Pot Size
55.88 cm
Lamp Distance
Nutrients 3
Calmag
1.057 mll
Big Bloom
2.642 mll
Grow Big
0.66 mll
Laezu Alright I'm starting to feel happy with how much she has spread out so now I'm going to let her grow upward. I'm going to give her at least one more week of veg and then I'm going to flip and let the good times role. No real changes this week other than some light LST adjustments, getting rid of fan leaves that were covering nodes, and a slight increase in the big bloom. I also wasn't getting enough mixing going on in my autopot reservoir. There was too much sediment from the Big Bloom fert so I switched out the tiny 90gph for a wave maker. I run it for 10 minutes a day.
Also filled the reservoir for the first time today with the new RO setup and it took about 14 min to fill 6 gallons. That is a HELL of a lot better than waiting around for hours for the RO water tank to refill. Happy farmin folks :)
Hi, I'm currently working on the same strain from the same seed bank. I'm new to LST and I'm seeing more and more of those little clips for LST. I'd like to know your opinion on this product and who sells it.
@ADjahrasta
, Awesome man, good lucky with your grow :) LST is pretty straightforward, but you do want to be a little careful to not snap off a branch. You want to use the clips when the branches are pretty young because they are far easier to shape. I like to do it when there's about 2-3 inches of length between the freshest node and the previous one. Once you have it in the direction/shape you want you can just leave it alone and the plant will take care of the rest. I do take mine off after about 4 weeks because the stem has hardened to the shape and if you keep them on too long the stem can burst from being restricted.
Since the top node will immediately start growing upward toward the light when it's able, I also use the green plant ties as a secondary with the goal of giving some more spacing between the stems so the fan leaves don't block out the light from bud sites.
Overall I like the clips for stretching out the stems from the main branch, but I do feel like I get better results in later growth from the plant ties. Links to both -
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KSL7BN4?th=1
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079Y718HQ?th=1
