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Starting this pineapple auto grow inside under a light for 24 hours a day in a budget double wardrobe setup. Light is 600 watts basic Amazon grow light. Will move outdoor when plant goes into flower phase. Doing this as I want to see how big I can get the plant before it flowers. In my Canadian climate I want to give the plant the best head start possible. If it was photoperiod I would have just started it outside.
Saw some good growth from week 2. Week 2 ends tomorrow officially as it marks two weeks from the day I started germination. The first two pineapple Express seeds germinated wonderfully with no issues and have been growing steadily but the third had issues from the start. It's seed case didn't want to open and was hampering it from popping up from the soil. I had to gently brush the soil off and find the seed which had roots and was trying to free itself from the seed case. I eventually helped it by removing it but it was looking all mangled and deformed and wouldn't grow as fast as the others. I decided to downgrade it to a tiny pot as to not waste energy on it. I didn't have the heart to destroy it either...yet. Instead I started two more seeds from growers choice. Haze xl autos. They have yet to pop up from the soil. Not including them in this diary but you may see them in pics from time to time.
I'm going to give the plants their first feeding tomorrow probably at 1/2 or. 1/4 strength. The first two plants, Spongebob and Patrick are now about four inches tall and have popped their second set of seraded leaves
I originally had the light too high and at around day 7 dropped it down to approx 24 inches.
At the end of last week I gave the plants their first nites at half strength. I'm using advanced nutrients sensi bloom a+b and advanced nutrients cal-mag Xtra. Yesterday I gave them their first feeding at just under full strength. They seem to be doing well. Now silly me hasn't been PHing the water. Advanced nutrients does that but not in between feedings so I have got ph testers and ph down and starting that at the next watering, probably tomorrow
In my last week I said I was downgrading the third plant as it didn't appear to be doing well. I couldn't bare to toss her out so I just downgraded her to a tiny pot. Well she is doing way better. Lesson learned. Be patient and allow the plant to catch up. I wait a few more days and try and transfer her back to a slightly bigger pot but probably not back into a 5 gallon one.
Lots of pretty new growth since a week ago so I'm pretty happy so far into my first grow. Update on my other seeds though. I germinated two haze xl autos from breeders choice and one was strong and healthy and yet another one had issues escaping it's seed pod and is stunted. I'm really excited to try a new breeder to see if I have less issues next time. I order some lsd-25 autos from fast buds, a kush'n'cheese auto from dinafem and some blow dream autos victory seeds.
Alright today is the end of the 4th week and as I said in week 1, these babies were being moved outdoors. They are officially outside as of this morning and look so beautiful in that natural sunlight. I wanted to wait until my unpredictable Canadian summer weather was more stable.
Started low stress training the plants as well. I gotta say as a first time grower its way too cool bending the plant and seeing it bend itself back up towards the light
The plants are reacting well to their full feedings and overall I'd say it's all going well. A couple things I've realized through the learning process tho:
- the "600w" Amazon light only really puts out 108 true watts and tbh it would be nicer to grow with something more powerful
- I had the lights way too far from the plants until this week. I learned that guestimating those distances probably slowed down growth significantly.
Week five was a little nerve-racking for a few reasons.
- as an experiment I wanted to fim one of these three to see if an auto could handle it. I did it to Spongebob. Great success, and four new tops have shown themselves
- I noticed some leaves on the bottom of the three plants were showing some sort of deficiency and seemed to be stunted in their growth. After much research online I realized it was a calcium and magnesium deficiency. I thought it was weird as I've been using cal mag BUT I realized I was ph'ing my water too low so the plants couldn't intake the nutrients properly. This has since been flushed and fixed and the plants have recovered well.
Technically as I write this it's the beginning of week six and I have now seen pre-flowers. I'm very excited. Also I realized that I started this diary too early by about a week. I was counting the first week from germination and seedling stage. It seems not many people here do it like that.
First week of flower. All is going well. Fed one last feeding of veg nutes to help with stretch and next feeding will be bloom nutes and I'll also add molasses to their feedings.
One bad thing... I broke one of the main bottom bud bearing branches off of plant one (Spongebob) by accident. It's a good thing the fimming worked so I have plenty of tops to work with 🙏
Interesting week. Good plant growth. Decent bud growth. Found an issue on some leaves with leaf miners and had to cut a bunch of fan leaves, which is probably good anyways. Also added some sticky traps for bugs near the soil. Not really wanting to use sprays or pesticides.
For the most part the pest problem slowed down in the last week. Also I was noticing deficiencies so I started giving them a little extra nitrogen. 2 of the plants have great bud development, and are getting big. One took longer to enter flower as I had fimmed it and it probably set it behind the others by about 5 days, but I can already tell it's going to be my biggest producer. I have added Remo nutrient astroflower to my nutrient regime to boost the p & k the plants are getting. I'm loving Remo nutrients so far after having gone through veg with advanced nutrients.
Overall uneventful week. That's a good thing though. The big beautiful buds are getting even bigger and more beautiful.
I honestly cant stress how therapeutic and relaxing, growing has been for me. What an amazing experience.
The plants are really starting to develop quite lovely smells of pine and ripe pineapple/fruit.
Great week. They smell lovely. I think I made a mistake trusting the flowering times the breeders put out though. One plant seems done (the smallest) and one Plant looks like it's almost done so I need to start flushing asap. The last plant seems it will still be a couple weeks. Also I lost the main cola on the small plant to bud rot
This was a sad week. My smallest little plant developed bud rot in its top cola and I had to cut it off. Very sad but I'm sure it happens to all of us. Otherwise these guys are looking great and they are getting frosty af.
Week started off great until we got like 3 very stormy days and the plants got caught out in heavy rain followed by a couple humid moist days. Needless to say I found a slight bit of bud rot on one bud. Also during this storm 2 side branches snapped off of one plant. Aaargh!
I have also started to flush the plants as well they got their last feeding a few days ago. Probably harvesting at the end of this week
Today is these gals last day. Today I harvest. The last week has been good. Just been giving water straight from the hose. In a week or so I'll post all the harvest info. So excited folks.
Over all this was a fantastic first grow. They got quite big for what I was expecting from autos. The strain overall was a nice chill high. Each of the 3 plants seems vastly different in terms of smell though. Patrick more of a sweet earthy smell with a hint of almonds and walnuts. Sponge bob a fruitier muted smell and squidward was more citrusy and pineapple like. Over from all 3 plants I got 10.45 ounces. The runt gave me 40.69 grams dried and the other two both have me between 4-5 ounces each. I was honestly shocked. The buds were more airy than I think I'd like as well though. The high was definetely chill and heavy but overall for my personal preference lacks any real wow factor. So far everyone that's tried it though def liked it and all of their eyes ended up red and pretty squinty so I'll take that as a win.
At the end of the day it was a successful first grow. Learned a lot and honestly with the end product I view this as a huge success. The strain is good. Wish the buds were a little more dense. Wish all 3 plants were more consistent in smell. All 3 were very different. got some seeds outta one. Not many but I think the bees have been contaminating my girls with pollen from a neighbor somewhere. I had no males and no plants hermied. 2 plants have me over 4 ounces each, on was almost 5 and the runt was over 40g. I'd call it a success 😁
@Puffer_Bill, yeah I can tell. This place is a great resource. Reading all the comments I can tell how helpful people are, especially you 👍😎! This is my first ever grow obviously.
@Puffer_Bill,
No I havnt but that's bloody Brilliant. I've got the perfect nug in mind. I don't have a PC but I'm sure I can find something to speed it along.
@GreenBaron,
Have you fast dried some and tested. Apparently if you put a bit in front of a PC fan it will be okay. I'm talking just about a growers sample taster bud, not the whole lot.
How are you drying and curing?
@Puffer_Bill,
All their names are from that kids show sponge Bob Square pants. I was stoned and remember that Spongebob lives in a pineapple under the Sea. As it's pineapple express I thought my name's were brilliant... At the time lol.