Skittles

They grow as fast as they could. I´ve never seen a plant grow so fast. The soil was mixed with coco in order to increase air levels in the root system. Also, fabric pots were used for the same reason, The germination rate was a 100%, 10/10. Seeds were planted directly in soil and they popped out 3 days afer being planted. I went very easy with the nutrients because I was afraid that being mineral I would burn the plants. I'm trying two different tipes of lights to compare. It would be better to compare them in separate grows so that they wouldn't be any interaction between the lights but this I did what I could with what I had. Two cheap LED full spectrum panels from amazon (125W each) are hanging on the sides and one TGL Star 60 cob (55W) is hanging from the middle. I can already tell that the cob gives out more light despite it has less than 50% of the power that the panels have.

So far I've only watered 3 times with no nutes yet and G.H. Roots used twice. It's is very important no to over water the plants during this period in order for them to develop a healthy root system. So fast they seem very healthy (I'm sorry that the LEDs make all of them look so purple). One of them seems to be expressing some kind of mutation in the leaves (taken that the rest are looking very healthy I discarded the possibility of a deficiency.

Not much new happened, the plants are still growing healthy and this week I'll be adding for the last time the root stimulator. I should have sarted adding nuts with the wattering but I thought the soil would hold a little bit longer. With how fast they are growing I'm scared that they will out grow the space they have (1.2 x 0.6 m).

White pistils have started showing so it's time for flowering! I sarted adding a flower enhacer (G.H. Bloom) that will be given along with the rest of the nutrients until the flushing. I waited to long to start giving them food since I thought the rich soil would last a little longer. Some signs of deficeincies started showing up. I satrted the feeding shedule by GHE but deficeincies in autos can cost you the whole grow. The major disadvantage of autoflowers is that if they suffer any type of stress they will waste energy on recovering, energy that they could be using to keep on growing, something that will for sure translate in lower plants and yields. Don't over feed but also don't wait too long as I did. The light experment is showing no results still, I expect big differences in flowering.

Little by little I'm increasing the amount of nutrients given to help them recover from the shock. I'm feeding once every two waterings and watering once every three days. You can really notice how good this tex pots work by how fast the soil dries out. No more yellowing seems to have shown up so I think the lack of nutrients issue is gone. New problem showing up, I will have to take out some plants or they wont get enough light in the lower sites. I could also have done a lollipoping and keep them all in the tent as a SOG grow too.

To allow for more space I took out 4 of the 6 plants and also set a little SCROG net to keep the colas from growing too high, LTS for even canopy should have been started way before (as soon as 3rd week of veg) but I thought the plants would't grow so tall so that it was not going to be needed. The plants are now being watered every two days and ferilized every two waterings. You can still see a bit of yellow in the lower leaves but again it seems to be from the previous issue with the nutrient deficiency, no new signs of eficiencies have appeared. For the next runs in this tent I'll be using slightly bigger pots and less plants since the genetics from fast buds seem to turn into monsters! I might even consider using HST techniques such as topping so as to have a more even and lower canopy in this tent since is only 1,6 m high (esasily outgrowed). So far for this strain I recomend heavy feeding, plenty of space and some LTS or HTS to control height of the main cola.

The plants stoped streching are starting to pile up pistils in their bud sites. Since they stopped growing the main sites no longer were trained under the SCROG net. The canopy is not as even as it could be since the lower branches were unable to reach the top. The plants did not strech as much as I thought they would probably due to the feeding issue they had during thwir first week of flower, all the time they took to recover placed them behind their growing schedule. I've rised the bloom fertilizer a little bit more for them to have enogh PK for the bud forming. PH is mantained at 6.8 for optimal NPK absorbance and microbial growth in the medium.

Let me tell you, the growth this week has been increible, within ten days the buds have gotten huge. The nugs are compact, full of trichomes and an amazing fruity strong smell has taken over the hole place. The amout of frost in this strain has nothing to envy to a photo plant. You can now really start telling the differences between both tipes of lighting. The plants under the TGL cob led are growing much more vigorous and the bud sizes are much higher. Also, the plants under the cheap board LEDs have matured way faster and my guess is that the high amount of red an uv light on them has made the plants finish earlier but with a much poorer quality. I already started flushing at the end of the week and within two waterings he plants were already yellowing which I think has to do with how little nutrients I've been giving them. I was scared of inorganic fertilizers because of how easy it is to burn your plants but I think I have taken it a bit too far and next time I'll have to give them more nuts because I think the plants were in a fine line of starvation during this grow. For the next run I will be following the GHE charts since they seem to be working very well for a lot of growers.

So finally last week! I've been flushing for the past ten days and the buds have kept on puting on some serious weight. The quality looks amazing, the buds are hard asrocks and frosty white. The smell is unbeliavabe sweet. Now that lots of leaves have gone down you can really see the size differences from the plants under the TGL cob. I highly recomend this lights, as you can see three plants have been covered by it (aprox) and with ca 1/3 of the cheap board LEDs it has achieved way higher yield and quality. I do have to say that I had to wait a couple days more to cut those under the TGL beacuse they matured a little bit slower due to their biger size. I can not tel you how good this FastBud genetic is, so far the best auto I've grown. Despite all the mistakes and changes throughout the grow the plants have grown strong and with very high yields for how little they are. I bet with the right grow conditions (which will be achived with all this learned) this plants can be monsters. Thanks FastBuds!

The overall yield is not very big but out of that yield ca 100 grams corresponded to the plants under the TGL Star 60 which gives their lights a ratio of 2g/w which is something I have never achieved. I wont be using the cheap LED boards again because they pull 250 W from the wall and have lower eficiency than normal HPL lights. I learnt meany things during this grow since it was my first time using mineral based nuts, first time growing this strain and also wanted to do the light experiments. Although many issues came along the way I think I still pulled out a decent yield :).