OG Kush CBD Auto - First Grow!

For my first ever grow, I decided to go with Dinafem's OG Kush CBD and Amnesia CBD (separate diary) Autos. I have read so many positive things about Dinafem's genetics, so I am eager to see how these girls grow. Environment: 32"x32"x63" TopoGrow tent HLG 135W QB - Plan to add a second when needed AC Infinity Cloudline T6 Fan 5gal fabric pots 70/30 Canna coco and perlite, washed and primed with calmag Day 0 - Labor Day 2019 - seed was actually already open before being placed in water for germination. Hungry for life. Day 1 - Straight from water into coco as her tap root was about 3/4in already. Day 2 - Super healthy seedling already reaching for the stars. Light spritz of PH 6.0 on the coco around her stem. Day 3 - Spritz, spritz, spritz Day 4 - See above. Day 5 - First real watering with a shot glass of PH 5.8 water. Day 6 - Cruisin’. Same watering as above just to moisten the area around the roots. Day 7 - moderate watering with 2ml/gal calmag. Ready for first real feeding tomorrow!

Is it time to chop yet? Okay, I’ve realized daily updates are tedious. Going to switch to a weekly summary-style like a normal person from here on out. It’s week two, so I’m going to start sending nutes. I’ll be following growweedeasy.com’s Coco nutrient schedule as a guide. End of week update: Excellent growth this week. Noticed a bit of stretching going on so I lowered the light to 20” from 24”. Only fed nutes 3 times this week with 1 plain PH’d water drink in between.

Poor girls have been drowning because I don’t know what I’m doing. I backed way off the last few days of the week to let the pot dry out more. 5 gal pots take a long time to dry out! The good news is I think the deficiency that was showing last week is starting to clear up with the new growth. The plants are peeking up and responding well to the nutrients. Going to try my hand at LST next week.

The theme of this week is: Low stress training, high stress deficiency. Mid-week update: okay, I think I figured out the deficiency. Magnesium. My PH’s have been 6 or under thus far, so I’m assuming that’s what caused the issue. The past couple feedings I added 6ml/gal calmag at 6.5 ph, and the plant almost immediately started looking better. Darker green new growth with no signs of the spotty yellow between veins. I also think I may have been under-watering. Finding the balance is a lot trickier than I was anticipating! The OG was getting tall, so on day 23 I tried my hand at some LST. I’m sure I didn’t do it correctly, but we’ll see how the plant responds. End of week update: geez, this is not as easy as I thought it would be! OG responded well to LST, and now I’m just tucking big fan leaves around the new growth that is blowing up. Fed again on day 29 at 6.3 ph.

Tough week, but she’s flowering! Nitrogen toxicity on the OG and one of my amnesia plants. Cutting micro for a couple feedings to see if that helps. Humidity has also been a struggle because my grow tent is in the utility room in the basement. I went out and bought a dehumidifier, which is already making a big difference, keeping RH down in the 50-60 range instead of 70%+. I’ve learned about VPD this week and have been much more mindful of my temperatures and humidity as a result. Also bought another HLG 135w QB in 3000k to help work flowing. Okay. Week 5 in the books. Off the struggle bus and forward!

Over-watered? Under-watered? Who the hell knows. 6 weeks in and I am still struggling with when to feed these babes. I am following growweedeasy's advice for feel and color of the coco as well as the weight of the pots, but I still feel like something isn't right. The runoff PH of all my plants has hovered around 6.5 for a couple of weeks so I flushed twice this week with 5.5-5.8ph nutes a couple of times, which brought us down to 6.1. Also been giving only 1ml Micro per gallon for the last couple feedings due to the nitrogen toxicity, which I think is improving. The new growth doesn't have the hooked leaf tips like the older stuff does and the color is lightening up. A little more LST adjusting and a little more selective leaf tucking to keep the canopy even and growth sites exposed. This plant is staying quite bushy as a result, so it will be interesting to see how she stretches in the next few weeks. Fingers crossed I don't murder her.

After a super helpful comment from u/B4RNS on my other diary, I backed off the feeding for a few days. This was probably a bit too long, but the OG perked right back up and looks way healthier now. Watering every other day or so now. The OG is sharing the tent with my two Amnesia CBDs, and doesn't seem to be taking nitrogen as well as that strain. I plan to mix two different feeds from now on so I can better accommodate the OG's sensitivity. Otherwise, week 7 was uneventful aside from the explosion of tops. I released most of the LST and am just doing some tucking here and there to keep the bud sites exposed. Can't wait for these next few weeks of flower!

Week 8 was nuts at work, so other than a quick feeding every other day, the girls didn’t get a ton of attention. The buds are really exploding now, though!

Week 9, feelin fine. Early on in the week, I noticed some fading to lime green on the tops of the plants. The lights were way too close so I raised them up to around 18 inches and at the end of week 9 the color is looking more uniform again. Feeding the gals every other day seems to be going well at this age. The buds are stacking up and fattening nicely. The LST really paid off as the tent is packed full but the plants have so many tops. I have been doing light defoliation every few days because these things are so damn bushy. I know it’s not advised with autos but due to my lack of space, I feel some is necessary for airflow if nothing else.

Not much to say this week except damn I wish I had gotten a bigger tent. I am nervous about airflow/budrot but I’m doing all I can to prevent it. Still think this plant has at least two more weeks. Maybe three. Thoughts?

Midweek update to add photos of the trichomes. Starting to cloud up, but definitely still have a while to go, I’d say! :( How long would you guess? End of the week update: The impatience has set in. The buds are fattening up nicely, but this week I noticed they’re starting to foxtail a bit. The fan leaves are also showing signs of light stress so I moved the lights up as high as they can go. I think another week of sending nutes, then I’ll start flushing. Thinking it’ll be harvest time around turkey day.

Midweek trichome update: the OG is ripening the fastest out of my three plants. Starting to see mostly cloudy trichomes with some amber starting to appear. Getting close! End of week 12 update: Not much change since the last update. I am checking trichomes under the microscope daily now, but I have not seen more amber appear. The OG is foxtailing hard, but I am not terribly concerned about it since it is my first grow. The light stress has become apparent on all of the plants with the leaves taco-ing upward. I decided to give them a few more inches by removing my stacked watering tray system. It will be more work to water them now, but hopefully they will be ready to chop soon! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Thank you for stopping by.

Beginning of week 13 trichome update: here we goooo! Just since yesterday I am noticing a lot more amber. I’ve read both sides of the “flushing” debate, and I’m choosing to water for about a week with plain PH’d water before chopping. Hopefully I don’t fuck this all up now after months of hard work! Wish me luck, buds! 😎

Chopped on day 88! The smell on this plant is incredible. Heavy citrus with sort of a diesel twinge. I’m just dumping chop day photos now. I will come back in a few weeks to update my strain review and give more details on the bud itself after she’s dried and cured. 1 month post-harvest update: bad news. :( The OG lost all of its beautiful aroma during the curing process. Smells like hay, big time. I’m not sure what I did wrong because when I trimmed this plant the smell was incredible. Almost nauseating. Seriously, I had to take breaks to get fresh air halfway through trimming. I had such high hopes, but in the end it will still get used for edibles. :) Oh, there’s more bad news: she hermied. :(( As a result, her yield was much, much lower than the highest producing plant in my tent (nearly 3 oz). The foxtailing was obvious, but I thought that might have just been genetic. I am thinking the light stress I noticed late in flower was the cause, but I still have some research to do. 2-month post-harvest update: good news! After burping daily for the first couple of weeks then leaving the OG closed up for a few weeks with humidipaks, I am happy to announce her delicious smell has returned. Not as pungent as when I chopped her, but very nice nonetheless. This was my first time growing, and I’m still just so happy with the results. Smoking/eating something I grew from seed is so incredibly rewarding and all of the lessons I’ve learned from this grow will certainly help me going forward. :)