Purples!

This is my second grow, first one using grow diaries and first time trying autos. The details: Tent: 27x27x63 inches (footprint about 5sq ft.) Pots: 4x 5gal smart Seeds: 3x purple auto (Pyramid seeds), 1xdark purple auto (delicious seeds) all fem Lights: 2x75w Cree CXB3590 COB LED Medium: Pro mix soil with perlite and sheep manure 2019.09.11: soaked seeds for 12h in a shot glass of water 2019.09.12: put seeds in soaked jiffy pods, covered on the window sill. 2019.09.15: heads appear on 2 purple autos. Inspected and found taproots on all three. Nothing showing on the dark purple yet. 2009.09.16: the 2 purple autos go into their smart pots. Covered with a little dusting of soil. Lights on a 20 and 4 cycle. A little water just around the sprouts. Will plant the others when they poke out of the jiffy pods.

This was the first week in their permanent home. Pretty standard. Plant them in dirt add water, leave them alone keep the RH high until the roots have established. I added a small fan to russle the leaves so they grow up strong. Had a pretty substantial fungus gnat infestation the middle of week 2. Attacked it with sticky paper and nematodes. Seems to be under control but will keep an eye out. Sadly the dark purple didn't sprout. I left it an extra week just in case but it's a no go. Probably for the best as 4 plants is a bit much for my little tent.

This week saw some great growth on Plant #1. The leaves are broad, the stalks are thick and the nodes are tightly spaced and evenly paired. It's shaping up to be a sturdy, stocky plant. The main stalk is leaning but I planted is off to the side of the pot a little with the intent to draw it into the center with some LST. Plant #2 (the middle child) is not as symmetrical or pretty. One side of the first pair did not develop properly but it seems to be catching up. Should even out before too long. Plant #3 remains a mutant and its not doing well. It's only developing on one side of the stalk and the growth is really slow. I'm not super optimistic about this one. We'll see. In general I think things are going ok. First run of autos so it's a bit of an experiment. My last run of photos I topped to even out the canopy and removed the lowers before the stretch. Not sure how that works with autos particularly when there is uneven growth like I'm getting with plants 2 and 3. The fungus gnats have come back in the last three days and I found a good sized spider in one of the pots and left it to see what will happen. The soil I used had been stored outside over the summer. I guess some critters got in. Think I'll hit 2 and 3 with some nutes in week 4 and see what happens.

Week 4 saw more good growth particularly with the teachers pet. She was starting to shoot up past the others so I pulled her down with some plastic coated wire and adjusted throughout the week to keep things even. Tucked in some of the broad fans to get light to the bud sites. The middle child didn't fill out as nicely, a bit spindly but shot up near the end of the week so I tied that on down too. The mutant is faring better than expected. No need to tie down because it's a little stunted sbut it thickened up and has filled in quite nicely. Because of the slower growth on plants 2 and 3 I added a little GH flora grow to their water this week. I didn't touch plant 1 because why mess with a good thing? Sure enough plants 2 and 3 are showing some yellow on the tips of the new leaves. Too much of a good thing I guess. Should have known better. I'll keep an eye on them and be sure the next watering session is heavy and chemical free.

Major mess up this week! Real bad! I planned on letting the plants dry out a little, I watered pretty heavily at the end of last week. I was away the night i planned to water and figured no big deal all was well it can go another day. I came back to find that plant #1 a.k.a. teacher's pet, a.k.a. the star so far WILTED with some CRISPY leaves. I freaked out and soaked it. I clipped some of the really crispy ones but the stopped and figured I'll see what it looks like if it comes back. I've seen pictures of plants that have come back from worse but this being my first auto run I have no idea if this will rebound in time to produce. There are early flowers showing but they are now all limp and rubbery. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. If anyone actually reads this, tune in on Sunday (October 27) for an update to see what happened with this mess. Oddly enough plants 2 and 3 were exactly what I expected and are doing great. Plant #2 a.k.a.the middle child is in early flower stage and I think she's actually starting her stretch. I had to raised the light up a bit and gave it a good soak. Still has the yellow burn on the leaf tips that showed up after I fed nutes. I don't imagine they will go away but other than that it's healthy. As I said last week it's not a thick plant, the fans never got broad or bushy so there is good light penetration and air flow. Did some very light lst early on and from here out I'm just going to leave it alone as much as possible. Plant #3 isn't showing any flower but has bushed out with some really broad fan leaves, a thick stalk and healthy colour. I did no lst on this plant at all because it had a slow,mutated start. First time I've let a plant go 100% untrained. Looks like it's about a week behind the others but I have high hopes for a nice classic main cola. Back to plant#1 I dont know why that one went dry when the other 2 didn't. Same conditions, same watering... I did do some pretty heavy LST on this one early on, and it had a lot of nice bud sites well exposed to form multiple colas, maybe it just got thirstier faster? I'll keep a close eye on them all and up the water. These autos develop so friggin fast. I can't believe they are already in early flower. Forgot to measure the plants earlier. Will update height at the end of the next week.

Plan#1 recovered quickly from last week's debacle. Plant #2 is excelling. Plant three is a late bloomer. Literally. About 2 weeks behind the others. I did some trimming of the lower leaves and a few bud sites that were never going to get light after i took the shots above. Also gave a light run of nutrients using the Lucas method. Things seem to be back on track.

Solid week. Starting to see the buds fill in on plants 1 and 2. And at long last there are some pistols and small flowers starting to show on plant #3. I did removed some lower growth on 1 and 2 that wasnt getting any light. I can do with out the popcorn buds at trim time. I also defoliated plant 3 more than the others. It's a pretty dense plant and without any training it needed some opening up. I did some reading that suggested a little stress might force it to flower. So far so good. Well see what happens next week but I'm sure the others will finish a good two or three weeks ahead of the mutant at this point.

Things are going well. Trying to just leave them alone as much as possible. - Plant 1 is good. low and bushy - Plant 2 is great. looking like it will yield the most. - Plant 3 is finally flowering and even got a bit taller last week. Cleaned out some leaves to get the light down into it. The smell is fresh, sweet and berry like. No purple colours showing but we're got a ways to go yet.

Like last week I'm just letting these babies do their thing, keep growing and get fat. Nice trichome formation and things are getting stinky. Will need a new filter after this run I think. Looks like Plant #2 will yield the most. I did the most training on this plant. The added time to do the work was next to nothing but the results could not be clearer. Plant #3 had no training at all and just a little defoliation to open it up. It was worth the experiment just to convince myself that lst is the way to go. Side note; anyone know when these "purple autos" actually turn purple? Was hoping for a little colour...

Late update this week but there's not much happening, just the last bit of fattening up and waiting for the trichomes to turn cloudy/amber. Week 10 is when the breeder says harvest time but I'm waiting this one out until it's just right and there at least 10 days left on plants 1 and 2, probably more. Plant 3 was a good two weeks plus behind for some reason so I expect it to finish at least that late as well. No more nutrients for these girls either. Just gonna let it ride to the end. For this week enjoy some crappy cell phone camera close ups of the trichomes from plants 1 and 2 :-)

Pretty sure this will be the last week and I'll chop them on the weekend. Some amber richomes starting on plants 1 and 2 and they are cloudy on plant 3. They have slowed their water intake and I'm having trouble keeping the humidity up. Not worried too much about that at this point. Hopefully this time next week I'll be posting pictures of the harvest. Have a great week.