Cream Mandarine XL Auto & Jack 47 Auto

delagdo I grew Jack 47 Auto and Cream Mandarine XL Auto. Original diary was at UK420. I will copy my photos and comments across to share with GrowDiaries. I chose these varieties as I wanted to grow Sweet Seeds autoflowers again. I have grown photoperiods from different breeders before, and I switched to autoflowers recently. I liked their shorter structure of autos which worked well for my limited headroom. The short time to complete a grow cycle also appeals since the site of the grow is otherwise used as a guest space, and must be out of action for the duration of a grow. I have tried several different autoflower breeders and Sweet Seeds have alway given great quality, consistent results. I chose Jack 47 Auto and Cream Mandarine XL Auto as I wanted to try something new, and was looking for more sativa type plants. These are varieties I have not grown before. I tend to like stronger varieties and Jack 47 Auto has a reputation for strength. I previously grew three Killer Kush Auto plants and one was an orange-tasting and delicious phenotype, and it was a photo from that grow which won the seeds for this diary, so that inspired my choice of Cream Mandarine XL Auto. This will be a comparison grow, with two different growing mediums. I will grow two of the plants in coco with Blumat drippers. My last two grows have used these and I am hoping to make this style of growing work a little better for me than it has done previously. When researching I do not find many examples of people using Blumats with autoflowering varieties so I wanted to see if and how it could be done. Previously I have suffered with salt build-up so I have taken a number of steps to try to improve this, including reducing the pot size. I am not sure whether it will work but I am willing to try. I will also grow two plants in compost. I am hoping to have a relatively easy, low stress and productive grow with these. They function as a kind of insurance and control for the coco experiment. I'm interested in differences in the growth of the plants and the end results between the mediums, but it's not a scientific comparison and it's not meant to draw any conclusions about coco, drippers, compost or handwatering, besides my own skills (or lack thereof!). Location, Equipment, Style of Grow: This is an indoor grow cited in a guest bedroom ensuite. There's a sloping ceiling in a narrow L-shaped room so I have selected the Hydrolab 120 SX which is narrow (120 cm x 60 cm) and short (160 cm) and fits perfectly in the space. This is my second time using this tent. My earlier grows were in a smaller tent (DR60) in a different location, or a smaller Ikea wardrobe before then. I am using my 315w CMH to light the space, which is also the second time I am using it. I had 150w and 250w HPS prior to this. I love this light and the plants seem to too. It is a Philips 3100K Agro bulb in a Maxibright Daylight reflector, with a remote Maxibright ballast. I am ventilating the tent with an extractor fan hung inside the tent. It's a very old Chaysol 125mm centrufgal fan. I have owned it for a full decade though I don't grow full time, and it was already well used when I got it. I keep it clean with an old toothbrush between grows. There's a short ducting run out of the top of the tent. The hole for the regular bathroom extractor fan provides a convenient place to run my new and very effective Phonic Trap ducting. The fan is controlled by my cheap SMS fan controller. It has a built in thermostat but I usually leave it outside the tent set on maximum temperature, so that it stays on the set rate and doesn't ever kick in up to 100%. The extractor fan pulls air through a large 125 x 600 Mountain Air filter hanging at the top of the tent. I also have a couple of small USB fans for air circulation in the tent, but just one is hung up to start with. I've set it pointing slightly downwards across the far side of the tent - the idea is that it can push the wet air from the humdifier down and circulate the moisture around the plants. This is everything set up at the top of the tent. Temperature is maintained with the house central heating, underfloor heating in the ensuite and a small oil-filled radiator next to one of the tent air intakes. A major problem last time was low humidity in the tent. I hope to solve this with my new Levoit humidifier, and work towards getting my VPD badge. I will grow four plants in total. I will grow one Cream Mandarine XL Auto in coco, and one in compost. I'll grow one Jack 47 Auto in each medium too. In both cases they are being started in 4 inch pots before being potted up to their final pots. The coco plants are grown in Canna Coco Professional, in 10 litre airpots (yellow base) with Blumat drippers. This is my third time using the Blumat drippers. I have suffered from salt buildup with previous efforts and I am trying to improve with this grow. This is an experiment to try and find some parameters that work for growing autoflowers in coco with Blumats, something I do not see very much of when researching online. This time I am going to raise the base of the airpot to about half way so I only use about 5 litres of coco in each pot. I have General Hydroponics Flora to feed with. The compost plants are grown in Westland Multipurpose with added John Innes. These will be in the 10 litre airports with the bases down low, with 10 litres of compost in each. For later on, when they need feeding I have a bottle of Biobizz Bio Bloom. I also have some Plant Magic Plus Root Stimulant to add to both the compost and coco grows at the start. Germination: The first thing to note is the difference in the seeds. The Cream Mandarine XL Auto seeds might well be the smallest seeds I have ever seen, and the Jack 47 Auto are among the largest. I put the seeds in Root Riot cubes in the airing cupboard, where the temperature was about 24°C. After 3 days the seeds had popped up, so the cubes were placed in their initial 4 inch pots. Two went in coco, and two went in a 50/50 mix of coco and compost. It was nice and sunny on the windowsill that evening (11 September, now known as Day 0). They were all watered in with tapwater with 2.5ml/l of Root Stimulator added. On Day 1 they went into the tent under the CMH with the humidifier running. The coco plants were not given any food until day 4 besides the seaweed-based root stim, which is why they are smaller. :doh: Eventually I gave them food and they started to grow. Hopefully they will just be delayed a little and not more permanently affected by the slow start. The coco plants were hand watered on days 4 and 7, EC 0.8. My base EC is 0.4, and I added 0.25ml/l of Gro, Micro and Bloom plus 2.5ml/l of Root Stimulator, and a little bit of phosphoric acid-based pH Down to give a pH reading of 6.2. The compost plants were watered on days 5 and 8, tapwater with 2.5ml/l of Root Stimulator.

delagdo I had been moving them from the tent to the windowsill each day, but they will soon be left in the tent permanently once potted up. The environment in the tent seems really nice with the new humidifier. The black USB fan (top left) blows the cloud down and across, circulating the wet air around the bottom of the tent. I am keeping it with the mist level set at 2/3, and without heating the vapour, and my extraction on at 55%. The sensors measure around 24-26°C with humidity of 50-60% where they are placed (in front of the plants, shaded by the shoe box lid). Using heat level 1/3 makes the temperature more like 25-28°C, 50-60% RH. This is much better than last grow where temperature was 25°C and the meter stopped measuring humidity because it was too low. I had blasted the vapour directly out at the plants for the first few days, they seemed to like it, but I wasn't sure if it was too much. I was still getting similar readings on the sensors but there was obviously a lot more water in the air directly around the plants. On day 10 I potted up the compost seedlings, both into 100% Weslands Multipurpose with added John Innes. On Day 11, I potted up the seedlings in coco. The compost pots were watered through when I potted them up on day 10 which produced a very small amount of runoff. The coco pots were wet thoroughly, but not completely to the point of runoff, when potted up on day 11 (EC 0.9). I put the blumats in that day too but didn't set the drip until day 13, when I set the blumats to cling to a drop. By day 15 they'd both received a small amount, about or just under 100mls each from the drippers.

delagdo With the plants in their larger pots, they are left permanently in the tent. The light is on a timer set for 20 hours of light and 4 hours of darkness each day. The temperature is maintained between 20°C and 27°C and the humidity around 50-60%, sometimes slightly higher during lights off. The plants grew into their new pots and took to them well. The compost plants raced away in their new homes and leaves expanded rapidly. The coco plants grew healthily but slower. The Cream Mandarine XL Auto had paled a bit from the lack of food when it first germinated, and it slowly recovered its colour. A picture from day 18. Left to right is CMXL compost, J47 compost, CMXL coco, J47 coco. Thank you for looking at my diary!

delagdo The mix for the coco plants since day 16 has been tapwater with 0.67ml/l Gro, 0.5ml/l Micro and 0.33ml/l Bloom, with Drip Clean. This gives an EC of 1.1 which is then pH'd to around 6.2. On day 23 I noticed the first preflowers. I spotted them across all the plants on the same day. The compost plants were tied down for LST on day 23. The grow has provided another opportunity for me to learn something! I have been trying to get a good wet/dry cycle with the compost. I watered again on day 25, which is 6 days after the previous watering, but I got there a little too late. The plants were starting to wilt already. As a result both the plants in compost have yellowing and spots on a few of the lower down leaves. I picked up the plants the day before and I did notice they were getting lighter, but I still thought there was a bit of moisture in the pots from the weight. I wanted the roots to be reaching out and exploring the pots so I decided I would leave it a little longer. This is my first compost grow in the airpots, and I've now learned how heavy the pots are when filled with compost that needs watering. The compost doesn't seem to get quite as light as coco when it dries out, there was still quite a bit of weight to the pots. The plants perked up quickly when I watered them on day 25 but I kept an eye on them with my infrared thermometer. I could see the leaf temperatures remained high (ie, the same as the air temperatures) for the rest of the day, which showed me that transpiration took time to reboot and come back online fully. I've lost a bit of growth on these plants, but hopefully the impact won't be too big.

delagdo Humidity has risen naturally in the tent in the past few days so the humidifier is doing less work and using a bit less water. The odor has also increased. There was a very slight plant smell last week you'd have to strain to notice. There's now a nice green whiff you can't miss, every time I open the tent. Yesterday (day 30) on the Cream Mandarine XL Auto in coco, I noticed some spots on one of the largest leaves:Yesterday (day 30) on the Cream Mandarine XL Auto in coco, I noticed some spots on one of the largest leaves. I checked around the plant on the other side and found similar spots on the same node (4) which were a little worse. I am not sure what has caused this so I am keeping a very close eye on it and taking photos every day to monitor changes. I have turned the Blumat tap down slightly too in case it is a little overwatered, which I thought it might be. The Blumat had an accidental drip-through on day 22 where an extra litre of water went on the plant and fully saturated the coco, and I had to reset the dripper, so this could be a slightly delayed result. Today is day 33. The compost plants both look like they could do with some food adding to their next watering, so I will add some Biobizz Bio Bloom when I do that tomorrow. I've been monitoring the leaf spots on the Cream Mandarine XL Auto in coco. Those leaves haven't deteriorated, and the spots pictured look the same today, however a few more spots have developed on a couple of newer leaves in the past couple of days. One new patch that appeared today. The problem is developing little by little and doesn't seem severe, so I don't want to do anything drastic. In absence of any better ideas I have upped the EC in the nutrient mix for this plant to 1.2 while dialing back the tap to make the coco a tiny bit dryer. The Jack 47 Auto in coco is still on EC 1.1. For both coco plants I have changed the mix as they have started flowering, to a 1:1:1 Micro:Gro:Bloom ratio. The water quality report for 2017 for my area is available online. It states the calcium content was a mean of 44 mg Ca/l with a minimum of 32 and maximum of 36. The magnesium levels were an average of 7.2 mg Mg/l and ranged between 6.3 and 8.8. The water company describe the water as "slightly hard". I am not sure, but I take the numbers to mean I have a little bit of calcium and magnesium in the water but not lots. It might make sense that it needs supplementing. For the compost plants, I have added 0.5ml/l Magne-Cal + as well as 1ml/l Bio Bloom to the watering they have received today. To attempt to keep magnesium available, all plants have been treated today with a spray of epsom salts. Foliar feeding was suggested to me in my last diary by uk420 users and this is the first time I have tried it. I added about half a teaspoon of it to 300ml of water and sprayed it on this afternoon, then left the lights off for a couple of hours. I might repeat this again before the flowers get any further along.

delagdo I feel like the Epsom salt spraying really helped, so I did it again today 3 days later. It's really seemed to perk the plants up for the past couple of days. This time I added some Vitax seaweed extract too (1ml/100ml). I know it's getting late for doing this but I wanted to do it again so I thought this is the last chance to repeat it. Next grow I will start with this earlier. If I do compost again I will start the food earlier too. I realized 1ml/l Bio Bloom isn't much so on day 36 I watered the compost plants again. This time I added 2ml/l Bio Bloom and I also felt they definitely needed more nitrogen, so I added 0.25ml/l each of FloraGro and FloraMicro for a little bit extra. The watering was slightly early but I am quite surprised how quickly they've lost some of their colour and felt I needed to add more ASAP. The Cream Mandarine XL Auto in coco has been looking more healthy overall I would say, though the leaf spots have worsened on a few of the leaves. I've upped the feed to EC 1.4 on day 36, with a 1:1:1 ratio. It's the slowest developing and is growing the skinniest, most sativa-like leaves of all the plants. The Jack 47 Auto in coco is looking the healthiest of all the plants, but it has started to get a few leaf deformities here and there. I'm increasing the nutrient level to 1.3 for this plant today. The root mounds are developing well on both coco plants, biggest on the Jack 47 Auto.

delagdo The compost plants have only continued to yellow rapidly I'm sorry to report. On day 39 I watered with 2.5 ml/l Bio Bloom, 0.25 ml/l FloraMicro and 0.5 ml/l FloraGro. Today's day 42 and the yellowing has worsened in the past couple of days again, so I have increased to 3 ml/l Bio Bloom, 0.33 ml/l FloraMicro and 0.66 ml/l FloraGro. The coco plants are getting bigger and stretching out a bit more. Both faded a little from the bottom up, the EC went up to 1.5 on Sunday, still a 1:1:1 ratio of Flora Micro:Gro:Bloom. The compost plants were watered on day 46. I added 4ml/l Bio Bloom and also 0.66ml/l Flora Gro. They don't seem to have increased their water demands much now they are flowering, this was 4 days since the last watering, and they absorbed just a bit more than a litre each. The coco plants, on the other hand, have stepped it up in the past few days and can now take up to a full litre each per day. They still seem to be suffering symptoms of magnesium deficiency so I added a bit of Epsom salts to the nutrient feed for a batch on day 47. I dissolved some Epsom salts in a small amount of water to make a strong mix, which I then added gradually to my tapwater to raise the starting EC from 0.5, to 0.6. Then I added the rest of the nutrient mix. This time it was 3.5ml of Micro, 2ml of Gro and 5ml of Bloom, plus dripclean. The end result is EC 1.5. This time I pH'd to 5.9 - I have been adding less acid until now and following advice that the coco can buffer well so long as it's less than 6.5, so I had been going to around pH 6.2/6.3 each time. However I wonder if that applies less when the nutrient mix is dripping straight onto a thick rootmound under a Blumat, there isn't much coco left there any more.

delagdo I watered them on Day 50, 4 days afer their previous watering. I used 4ml/l Bio Bloom and also had added a small amount of pre-dissolved epsom salts, enough to just raise the base EC by 0.1. They are doing OK now, I think I've managed to save just enough green leaf to keep them going for the final few weeks. They aren't going to meet their full potential by any means but I should get a result of some kind. They still have their very distinct smells, the Cream Mandarine XL Auto is fresh like apples and grass, whereas the the Jack 47 Auto smells fruity too, but also cheesey and yeasty and still makes me think of champagne. The Cream Mandarine XL Auto seems to have coped a bit better over the past few days, but the Jack 47 Auto is not doing so great. The Jack 47 Auto main cola (uppermost part of the plant in the picture above) is dying back quite quickly, and water uptake reduced recently too. The plant did not react well to the additional Epsom salts and lowered pH. The root mound was looking literally brilliant a few days ago, but today you can start to notice it has lost its whiteness at the top and has started to rot a little. Both coco plants are now on nutrient feed without the magnesium at EC 1.5 and pH 6.2 again.

delagdo I have finally taken the humidifier out of the tent as I want to avoid rotting my buds. It was not doing much lately anyway, the inbuilt humidistat was keeping it switched off most of the time and the tank only needed refilling about once in the past week. The humidity in the tent without it was up around 50% most of the time today. With that gone, I've taken the opportunity to rearrange the plants and bring the light down as close as I dare for the last bit. The packets say 9 weeks, which we are nearing. I do think I will be cutting down three of these next week, but perhaps the Cream Mandarine XL Auto growing in coco might go for another week after that. The smells are amazing, very strong and sweet. The Jack 47 Auto in compost in particular is my favourite, very fruity. Things have continued without changes to what I do; the compost plants have been watered every four days and the coco plants continue to receive the same food.

delagdo They could possibly have gone a bit longer. There were an odd few amber/brown trichomes here and there, I haven't snapped many in pictures before but a couple are visible in the images above. I certainly do have a lot of clear trichomes as well as cloudy but I do want to try to preserve psychoactivity, especially since they are sativas. I still have quite a bit of Killer Kush left from my last grow, and I think I left that quite long so I am hoping for something that is a bit of a contrast this time. There wasn't much point continuing with the compost plants, there was no leaf tissue left to capture the light by the end of it, and the Jack 47 Auto in coco wasn't much healthier either, so I have now cut these down. I decided it was time to cut the compost plants. They both had not got hardly any leaf tissue to capture light so there didn't seem to be any point leaving them longer, in any case. I skipped the last watering that was due on day 66, their last watering was day 62. I also decided to cut the Jack 47 Auto, it was not looking very much healthier but it had a bit of green still on it, however I thought it looked about done. I didn't give it any flush, I just allowed the reservoir to run dry on day 66.

delagdo The Cream Mandarine XL Auto growing in coco is the only plant remaining in the tent. It seems to have stabilized a bit, and has even taken a step up in water consumption the past few days. It'll have just under 2 litres each day now. This has surprised me especially since I have dropped the temperature for the drying plants, but I am happy since it's a good sign the plant is growing healthily. Looking further at the trichomes, my summary is that we currently have some cloudy trichomes, and many that are still quite clear, perhaps more than half. Red amber light is just starting to shine from the end of the tunnel. To finish, I think I will go another week, maybe 10 days. I think that will add to the yield but I'm not sure it'll be worth it to go much further beyond that.

delagdo There's plenty of clear trichomes on the the plant still. There's lots of pistils and fresh growth, so while I was thinking of harvesting this weekend (day 81/82) I am reassessing, and might go slightly further than that.

delagdo On day 85 I trimmed the leaves from my final plant. Once I'd trimmed the plant I put it back in the tent under the light. This was partly convenience (it was late when I finished trimming), but I also thought it wouldn't harm anything for the lower parts to get a bit of direct light before the chop. It has achieved a much higher density than the other plants. I'm also really pleased with all the stuff in the middle of the plant, smaller nuggets which aren't on the larger colas but still look great. The other plants just didn't produce like this one fortunately did, the weighing is still to come but I am quite confident that this plant has yielded more than the other three put together. This plant have moved this grow from (barely) satisfactory, to something much more satisfying.

delagdo This one is a favourite of mine, very strong and powerful, great to grow and certainly one to repeat.

delagdo I enjoyed growing and consuming this one but I probably wouldn't grow it again. I realise now this is personal preference and I just don't like Jack Herer-type things as much as other cannabis, so I would revise the score up a notch to 8/10 since it was a tasty strain with a good effect.