Royal Dwarf Auto

9th June. Day 1: Seed was placed into a glass of regular tap water and covered with a piece of tissue paper. Day 2: Today I gently tapped the seed and it sunk to the bottom of the glass so I knew it was time to move to the wet tissue paper 'sandwich'. I also placed the seed in a slightly warmer place than the night before. There are 2 seeds in the picture because I am gifting a friend with one so that wont be included in the diary. Day 3: Today there is a nice long tap root poking out from the seed so I am going to place it about 1 centimetre deep in already watered soil and place it back into the slightly warm place. Day 5: Today she is just poking through the surface of the soil, managed to get quite a nice picture. Day 7: She has been wrestling with her shell for the past few days and I think she might finally be nearly there, quite a nice photo again.

Day 10: The LED I ordered should have been here a few days ago and I still don't have it which means for the past few days she has been sitting on the windowsill trying to find the source of light while growing really tall and spindly. Sad times! Day 13: Today I have been out and bought a nice big 6 litre pot for her to spend the rest of her life in. I have transplanted her in and she seems pretty happy. Day 14: Today my LED light finally arrived in the post! I feel like time has been wasted now but I've still re-potted her into a 6 litre pot filled with already watered soil and put her in my wardrobe until my tent turns up.

Day 18: She is absolutely loving the LED. Over the past few days she's been pushing out some new leaves. I gave her the first big water of her life today with 3 cups of regular tap water. Day 20: The leaves she's pushing out are becoming nice and wide, I personally really like the shape of them. I'm so happy to finally have a decent light and grow space!

Day 23: Today it is clear to see the second pair of leaves coming through at the top. The first pair of leaves are still growing nicely and I've noticed an enormous difference in colour since she's been under the light. While growing with sunlight the leaves were a very pale green but since she's been under the light they have become very dark. Day 28: This morning I opened the wardrobe to check on her and she was looking right at me so I grabbed a really nice picture. The top of the soil also seemed very dry so i watered with 1 1/2 cups of regular tap water.

Day 29: I've had great fun watching the steady growth this week. She's looking really healthy and is putting out some lovely wide leaves. The first 5 point leaves are just coming through on the top. I also noticed a couple of days ago that there are tiny leaves just poking through on the stem. Day 31: Woken up today to find what I'm pretty sure are pistils coming through on a couple of nodes. It's not easy to get a picture as they're so small but you can just make them out. I wasn't expecting them yet as the plant is still very small in size but we'll just have to go with it. Flowering here we come!

Day 35: Today I have decided to start LST. I know it's probably not a great idea to start so late in the plants life and even worse as she's now flowering but I want more light to reach the bottom nodes in the hope they'll grow to the same height as the main cola. A few days back my grow tent arrived so she's now living in a 60x60x140 tent. I found it difficult to keep temperatures up for the first few days as I was still getting used to where I needed to put fans for intake and outtake but I seem to have grasped it now. She's adjusted massively to the LST I gave her this morning and is reaching back up towards the light. Day 38: The soil is extremely dry today and I feel like giving her a bit of extra help so I have added 30 grams of Miracle Grow slow release food pellets to the top of the soil and then watered on top with 3 cups of regular tap water. Day 40: Starting to see a nice bit of growth from the lower branches of the plant which is what I hoped for after I pinned her down. There are quite a lot of new pistils starting to shoot through which is great to see. She's really starting to form a nice overall shape and the late LST doesn't seem to have done any harm. Day 41: There seems to have been quite a bit of growth since yesterday, I think it's noticeable in the pictures. I have decided to add more LST just below the top node in the hope the branches forming below will grow to the same height as the rest and hopefully level out the canopy a bit over time.

Day 45: Today I've decided to pin the very bottom branches out away from the rest of the plant to give the flowering sites underneath them better light. I took the pictures about an hour after doing this and you can see they are already pointing back up towards the light. I also watered today with 1 cup of regular tap water. Day 48: Today I have pinned another one of the extending branches out so it can get better light and so that the flowering sites underneath can as well.

Day 51: This morning I watered with 3 cups of regular tap water. I have also applied some more LST to the very bottom branches. I'm trying to angle them as far away from the rest of the plant as possible to give them the best available light. While doing this I also clipped off two large fan leaves and two smaller leaves that were sitting directly over flowering sites. I have put one into a clip frame to keep as a memento of my first ever grow. I decided to take photos before and after I did all of this to show what I have done. Day 53: She has really been developing well over the past few days. Pistils are shooting out left, right and centre and I'm starting to be able to see some trichomes forming on the leaves hidden within them. I have also pinned another branch on the middle left of the plant to the side to give it more light and to stop it covering light to the flowering sites beneath it. Day 56: Nothing to report today really, just grabbed a couple of photos.

Day 58: I have noticed a splatter type burn appearing on a few of the leaves that sit closest to the soil. I think it may be from when I watered previously and splashed some water on the leaves without realising and it has created an almost magnification bubble through which the LED has burnt them. I wanted to defoliate a little anyway today and luckily one of the leaves I cut off is one with the burn so I took a few pictures. Day 60: A few days ago I raised her 6 centimetres closer to the LED as I wasn't sure if she was receiving enough light to properly produce what she is capable of during flower. I have had to quickly lower her back to her usual height today however as I'm sure the pistils on the very top are getting burnt by the light. It's visible in the pictures that a few of the pistils have turned an amber/brown colour. This may of course be normal but I feel as it has suddenly happened since raising her up slightly it may be light burn, which of course isn't good. The last picture of today is a little edit I posted to my Instagram.

Day 63: I got a couple nice photos in the natural light today. The ones where I've used flash it is really visible that trichomes are starting to develop. The smell is definitely become more pungent each day I open the tent. I would say it smells slightly like lemons. I watered today with 3 cups of regular tap water. Day 69: Over the past few days I have really noticed a lot of the pistils on the main cola turning an amber/brown colour. The smell has also been developing more and becoming a lot stronger. Trichomes are now shooting out all over the place, she's really starting to look frosty under light. The flowers under the main cola are really stretching out and growing upwards, hopefully they'll all joint together and form one big bud. I have noticed the soil is a little dry today so have given her 2 cups of regular tap water. Day 70: I'm not sure whether it's my eyes or the light but she looks much more frosty today than she did yesterday! I've uploaded quite a few pictures as I couldn't decide on my favourites, they're all so beautiful. It's crazy to think today marks ten weeks from germination, how time flies when you're having fun!

Day 72: Woke up this morning and grabbed a quick picture of her under the light. I can never seem to get perfect focus under the light but she does always still look beautiful.