First Indoor CBD Auto Cheese

Day 0: Seeds went into water on 10/3 and spent 18 hours soaking. They're now being germinated using the moist paper towel method. Day 4: Seeds went into 3 gallon pots filled with Pro-Mix Premium Potting Mix amended with 250ml of Gro4 Organics Premium Earthworm Castings. Day 7: All seeds have germinated and popped their heads. Equipment/Supplies/Nutrients: Vivosun 32"x32"x62" Tent https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07PJ4VWF7/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ViparSpectra 600W LED - https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01G8GDV32/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 iPower Ventilation Kit - https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07Q323CHW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Vivosun 3 gallon fabric pots - https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00TF9E4UO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s03?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Vivosun 6 inch tent fan - https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07TJCVQ15/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s03?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Inkbird Humidistat - https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B017IJF2JE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s03?ie=UTF8&psc=1 PH Meter - https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07CPM8TY9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s03?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Digital Timer Outlet - https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07HCQKRRY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s04?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Vivosun Rope Hangers - https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B079DLF99K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s04?ie=UTF8&psc=1 PH UP/DOWN - https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07S1DFL3S/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s05?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Advanced Nutrients Grow, Micro, Bloom - https://www.amazon.ca/Advanced-Nutrients-Perfect-Fertilizer-1-Liter/dp/B07CQSBJ3K/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1B61CPZKI66WA&keywords=advanced+nutrients+ph+perfect&qid=1570743236&s=lawn-garden&sprefix=advanced+nutri%2Clawngarden%2C185&sr=1-3 Gro4 Organics Premium Earthworm Castings - https://www.amazon.ca/Gro4-Organics-Earthworm-Castings-Recloseable/dp/B06XDB1G8X/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Gro4+Organics+Premium+Earthworm+Castings&qid=1570743297&s=lawn-garden&sr=1-2

10/14 - Day 11: Seedlings appear to be enjoying the light at 36" with Veg only for ~22 hours/day. Watered yesterday with ~500 ml per pot, and have been misting daily in order to maintain ~70% RH. Tap water was left to stand for 48 hours to allow chlorine to evaporate, and PH'd down to 6.3. 10/16 - Day 13: Dropped the lights to 30" last night to see how the plants would respond, and found them all praying this morning. There appears to have been a bit of a growth spurt overnight and so I will keep the lights at this height but will adjust the on/off schedule to 20/4 to allow a bit more time for recovery. When the lights shut off this morning I foliar fed with a 5 ml/gal concentration of Cal-Mag Plus with a drop of dawn dish soap, and PH'd water to 6.6. 10/17 - Day 14: First feeding of Advanced Nutrients PH Perfect Micro, Grow, Bloom at a concentration of 1ml/l each. I'm assuming the PH perfect is designed for Hydroponic reservoirs because the PH of the solution dropped to 5.8, and so I added some PH UP in order to bring it back up to 6.6 since I'm growing in soil.

10/18 Day 15: Start of Week 3 and as you can see there is a significant variance between the largest and smallest seedlings. I will continue rotating their positions in the tent to ensure an equal distribution of light/airflow, but at this point Yeller appears to be the runt of the litter from a genetic/phenotype standpoint. They've all received nearly identical treatment and care, but my plan all along has been to grow only the 4 strongest plants past week 5. Will wait and see how they all do over the next 3 weeks. 10/24 Day 21: Fed the plants again with the Cal-Mag Plus & Advanced Nutrients solution. Administered the first foliar spray application of N - Force (https://nforcebiotech.com/).

10/25 Day 22 6:00 AM : Start of Week 4. First day with Veg and Bloom switches of the Viparspectra 600W turned on. Today was the last day in the tent for Yeller. Clearly the least mature of the 5 plants, and will be able to maximize the light and positioning of the 4 strongest plants from here on out. Bleu continues to outpace the other plants and I will be looking to FIM her this week. Vert, Pinky, and Blanche are also candidates for some HST, but will wait and see how growth progresses under the full power of the light over the next 6 days. Planning one more feed with the current nutrient solution of 5 ml/G of Cal-Mag and 1 ml/l of Advanced Nutrients Micro, Grow, Bloom either tomorrow or the next day depending on how the moisture level of the soil responds with the Bloom switch activated. 10/25 Day 22 4:30 PM : WHOA! When I left for work this morning at 7:00 AM the lights were still off (6:00 am - 10:00 AM). When I got home at 4:00 PM they had been under the Veg & Bloom lights for 6 hours and they were STRESSED. It could be the Bloom switch being turned on, or I may have overfed them yesterday. Either way I'm going to try switching off the Bloom lights and lowering the humidity control from 60% to 50% to increase the amount of airflow (humidity is being controlled by my exhaust fan) to help the soil dry out a bit quicker. 10/26 Day 23 7:00 AM : They seem to be fine. A little droopy in the dark but thats been pretty normal in my limited experience. Will check in on them later today after the lights have come back on for a few hours. 10/28 DAY 25: Increased the RH back up to 55%. Fed with water only because I noticed two yellow spots/tips (1 on Bleu and 1 on Vert) and I want to avoid any further nutrient burn if thats what it is. I have some Recharge arriving today, and will give them each a small dose of bennies this evening to try and help with any buildup in the soil. I also FIM'd Bleu and Vert above the 4th nodes in the hopes of A.) increasing the number of flower sites, and B.) keeping them short since I don't have a ton of vertical space in my tent. It was my first time attempting the FIM technique and so I have no idea whether I took off too much or not enough. Will wait and see how the rest of the week goes. I grew two CBD auto cheese plants outside this summer and they both started to pre-flower at ~5 weeks. I wanted to attempt the FIM technique ahead of their transition into flower. I've heard HST on auto-flowers can slightly prolong the veg cycle, but not sure if there is any truth to that. Either way, excited for the next few days to see how things play out. 10/29 Day 26: FIM'd Pinky and Blanche as well. This time I pinched instead of cutting with scissors. I fed each plant with ~250ml of water mixed with 1/8 tsp of Recharge yesterday afternoon. No noticeable change in the last 16 hours, which isn't surprising in the least. I also decided the raise the lights back up to 28 inches above Vert (tallest at 8-9 inches) since she has started to stretch even after being FIM'd. 10/30 Day 27: 2 litres of water w/ Recharge for each plant, and another application of N-force plant wash. Now that I've applied a full dose of recharge I will dial it back to one application of Recharge each week. Still holding off on adding additional nutrients due to the fact that they're already in soil amended with worm castings, and getting recharge. Planning my next nutrient feed at half strength around day 34-35. They appear to be recovering from FIM well, and continue to fill out. 10/31 Day 28: I discovered that Vert was a male plant and removed him from the tent immediately. The nutrient burn symptoms that have started to appear on the leaves have me a bit concerned. Will post a question to the community outlining my mitigation plan and ask for guidance/feedback.

11/01 Day 29 - Nutrient burn symptoms have started to present on the tips of leaves. Around midnight I did some LST on Bleu. Bent the main stem over at 90 degrees and used pipe cleaners to begin spreading out the other growth tips. Interested to see how the plant responds overnight. 11/02 Day 30 - Nute burn symptoms haven't progressed since yesterday, and Bleu responded really well to the LST which leads me to believe the nutrient stress isn't severe. That said, the reason I haven't flushed yet is because the pots are still holding quite a bit of moisture from my last watering 3 days ago. Will reassess the burnt tips and moisture level tomorrow, and then make a decision on what to do. Also planning to train Pinky and Blanche tomorrow. However, if I've learned one thing from the more experienced growers here, it is better to listen to the plants than to impose my "plans" on them. I'm really excited about how quickly Bleu bounced back from the LST training. I've counted 11 bud sites so far and hope to give them as much light as possible by continuing to tuck the big fan leaves. She's so bushy that I may need to defoliate her at some point but for the time being I'm trying to minimize stress as much as I can. EDIT: after reading the comments of other growers I’ve raised my lights back up to 28-30 inches above the tops of the plants. 11/03 Day 31 - Bent and tied down Pinky and Blanche. Nute burn symptoms have stopped progressing, but plants continue to look stressed. Flushed the soil with water PH'd at 6.5. Let them sit in the bathtub until the excess had drained out. Raised the lights another 4 inches and so now 32-34 inches above the canopy. Seems like the best thing to do now is leave them alone for the next 4-5 days and hope they recover well. 10/04 Day 32 - Added another fan to direct airflow towards the bottom of the pots, and turned up the exhaust fan to keep the RH <50%. 10/06 Day 34 - Some minor LST and minor defoliation today and yesterday. Coming along.

11/08 Day 36 - Start of week 6. The plants drank up all of the water from the flush I did 5 days ago. Watered again with ~4 l/plant at 6.2 PH. If they show enough vigor over the next 3-4 days I may re-introduce nutrients at half the strength of what I fed previously. Turned the Bloom lights back on as well. I've been able to achieve a decently flat canopy with all 3 plants ~10 inches in height which places them 30 inches from the light and hopefully primed for some stretch this week as they've transitioned into flower. I've counted ~35 viable bud sites that could potentially reach the canopy over the next few weeks. I think it is safe to say the FIM HST worked. Being very cautious with defoliation at the moment. Have only pinched off a few leaves that have either shown discolouration, or are so crowded they can't absorb any light. Excited for week 6 to unfold. 11/11 Day 39 - Each plant received some light defoliation (3-5 fan leaves beneath the main canopy.) All of the pipe cleaners were removed in preparation for feeding and re-training. Prior to administering the nutrient solution of cal-mag and micro/grow/bloom at a dosage of .75 ml/L as shown above (4L/Plant), each pot was top dressed will extra soil to provide additional support and moisture retention as these girls grow, stack on weight, and drink more water. I also dropped a support net down and tried to spread the bud sites out as evenly as possible by bending/tucking branches/stems where needed. 11/12 Day 40 - ~6 inches of stretch in the past 4 days. The canopy is now 16 inches tall, and 24 inches from the light. 11/14 Day 42 - Last day of week 6. Gave each plant 4 L of water (PH 6.3) with 1/2 teaspoon of Recharge. There must have been some moisture remaining in the 2 smaller plants (Pinky & Blanche) because both had a fair amount of runoff (~5%) while the big girl Bleu had hardly any (<1%). It has been really humid outside this past week and so I've had difficulty keeping the humidity down even with a small dehumidifier running in the tent and the exhaust fan running at full speed. If the weather persists, as I assume it will, I'll need to get a larger dehumidifier for the balance of the grow.

11/15 - Day 43 - I've changed the light schedule on the timer from 20/4 to 18/6. I will be heading out of town for 10 days on December 25th and so I'll need to harvest and hang to dry by the 24th at the latest. I've read in a few forums that decreasing the lights on/lights off ratio can speed flower maturation on auto-flowers. The other growers also mentioned that the decrease in light also reduces yields, but on such a tight timeline I'd trade total yield for more fully ripened buds any day of the week. Would certainly be interested if anybody has experience/knowledge that contradicts what I've read. Plants stretched another 2 inches in the last 24 hours putting them 22 inches from the light. I still have room to raise my light another 2 inches, but if these girls stretch more than 6 more inches they'll be < 18 inches from the light which I'm assuming would cause light burn based on the research i've done on this 600W ViparSpectra reflector series. Here's hoping they don't stretch more than 6 inches from here. 11/17 Day 45 - Haircut day. Left a few fan leaves on the shorter/lower shoots, but took almost everything else. Tallest tops had stretched another 4 inches in the past 48 hours, and were 18 inches from the light. I raised the light the final 2 inches I had available, which places it back to 20 inches from the tallest bud sites. Hopefully the haircut I gave the plants slows down the stretch, but either way it looks like I'll have to do a lot of retraining before I head out of town tomorrow for 5 days. 11/18 Day 46 - Fed nutes. Cal mag + advanced nutrients (micro, grow, bloom), and MKP. 4 Litres of water per plant. A lot of runoff in the saucers, but I'm out of town for the next 5 days so I'm leaving it to be absorbed throughout the week.

11/23 - Day 51 - Back from out of town and as you can see the plants have re-foliated quite a bit since their haircut 6 days ago. They've also stretched 4 more inches and the light is now only 16' away from the plants with no noticeable signs of light burn. The soil is bone dry but only a few leaves are showing signs of thirst. The leaf stems are still pointing upwards, and only the tips of the fan leaves are are drooping. Pinky and Blanche are both developing buds with many white pistils. It appears Bleu (the biggest of the three plants) is at least a week behind the others. Feeding 4 L of water per plant with a slightly higher dosage of nutrients. 1 ml/L of cal-mag, micro, grow, and Bloom. 1/2 tsp of MKP added to all 12 L of nutrient solution. 1/2 tsp of Recharge per plant (4L). 11/26 - Day 54 - 4L of water per plant with 1 tbsp of molasses and 1/2 tsp of recharge. Considering there was no runoff it appears they're drinking more and drying out fast enough to take water every 3 days at this point. 11/27 - Day 55 - Bleu is still stretching and two of the tops had reached within 12 inches of the light. I was concerned about light burn so I bent and tied them down. 11/28 - Day 56 - Last day of week 8 and it's really interesting to observe the differences between Big Bleu and the smaller plants (Pinky & Blanche). Looking at the pictures from previous weeks Bleu appears to be ~14-15 days behind in her maturation process. The soil in Bleu's pot is almost ready for some more water, while the other two pots are still quite moist. I will feed all 3 tomorrow, but I may need to split Bleu's feed-water schedule because of how much more water she is drinking. Really looking forward to what unfolds next week!

11/29 - Day 57 - Start of week 9. Fed the plants today with cal mag, base nutrient trio (micro, grow, bloom), and MKP. The plants appear to be very happy and healthy. Flowers are developing nicely on Blanche and Pinky, but Bleu is still showing only a few pistils at the bud sites. I'm wondering whether I should adjust the light schedule from 18/6 to 16/8, 14/10, or even 12/12. Will reassess at the end of this week. 12/02 - Day 60 - Fed nutes ppm=700 PH=6.5 w/ recharge and molasses. 12/05 - Day 63 - Fed nutes ppm=825 PH=6.5. Pinky and Blanche are starting to fatten up. Bleu looks as though she's just starting to kick into another gear, but will probably finish at least 2 weeks after the other two. Excited to see the eventual yield considering she will get the entire tent to herself during the final few weeks, is significantly larger than the other two plants, and is drinking/eating more.

12/06 Day 64 - Start of week 10 - Bleu continues to stretch. The budding flower that is directly under the light is only 8 inches away. I'm starting to notice signs of stress which I'm assuming is early stage light burn. Because of the way I have my filter setup, I can't raise the light any higher. I have an idea about a potential re-configuration of the tent that I'll think through more tomorrow morning. Fortunately, the only burn that the other two plants are experiencing is frost burn! When i walked into the house tonight after being out for 13 hours, I could distinctly smell a danky musk, even through the massive carbon filter I'm running. I popped open the tent to take a look and had to quickly turn off the fan because the smell was so strong, and the fan was blowing it everywhere. Apparently, the terpene production has kicked into high gear on Blanche and Pinky. Very cool burst of trichome production as well. I might pick up a Loupe to capture some better images of the trichomes. 12/07 - Day 65 - Got the light 4 inches higher with the new configuration. A seasoned veteran at the hydro store suggested milk crates for the two shorter plants to keep them from stretching and I thought that makes a ton of sense, so i'll find 2 tomorrow. There were visible salt crystals on top of the soil today when I watered with Recharge & Molasses. The plants are all increasing their water consumption and are growing vigorously. No sign of nutrient burn even with the more concentrated feeding a few days ago. Will need to monitor whether the new configuration (with the carbon filter sucking from the bottom of the tent) dries the pots out faster than before. 12/09 Day 67 - Each plant was given ~2.5-3L of plain water PH=6.5. The pots definitely dried out faster after their last watering 48 hours earlier. Probably a combination of the plants drinking a bit more and the exhaust fan pulling air from the bottom of the tent. Will feed with the nutrient solution once they dry out again. 12/11 Day 69 - Thirsty girls. The pots were dry as a bone at 5:30 AM this morning. Each plant got 5 L of water with calmag, base nutes & MKP at 825 PPM and PH = 6.2.

12/13 - Day 71 - Watered with Recharge and Molasses. The girls have started to show signs of light burn. I'll find something shorter to put the smaller two plants on. The big girl is going to have to keep burning until I chop the other two down. Once she's alone in the tent I'll be able to pull the branches down and out in order to create more space between the tops and the light. 12/18 - Day 76 - Got a bigger tent so the ladies could stretch their legs. I fed a slightly stronger dose of nutrients yesterday and its pretty evident it was too much for the plants because slight nutrient burn symptoms have returned. Fan leaf discoloration and a few tips clawing. Will back off for the next few waterings and watch them closely. Flowers are all developing nicely.

12/20 - Day 78 - The two smaller plants looked slightly overfed with nutrients so I gave them each 2 litres of water with 2ml/L of flawless finish. Bleu's pot was dry and she got 4 L of water with 1 Tbs of Molasses. 12/22 - Day 80 - Watered each plant to runoff with ~5 L of water. PH = 6.7 and 2.5 ml/l of flawless finish. I suspect some salt buildup is causing the nutrient burn and so 1 more flush in 2 days, and then will potentially reintroduce nutrients at that point depending how they respond.

I went out of town for the holidays and had a friend check in on my plants every 3 days. 12/27 - Day 85 - Watered all 3 plants with 2 ml/l of flawless finish. The largest plant was completely dry and took 5 L. The other two were still damp and took about ~3L 12/30 - Day 88 - Plain water for all 3 plants. PH 6.2. Largest plant took 5L and the smaller two a little less than 4L. 1/02 - Day 91 - Large plant got 5L w/ Recharge. Front 2 got 3.5-4.0L w/ Flawless finish. Flowers on the front two were so heavy they were falling over so she used some pipe cleaners to support them. Some fan leaves had started yellowing.

1/05 - Day 94 - The two smaller plants are still damp so will leave them alone today and watch check the trichomes daily. Probably going to harvest in 5 days. May or may not give them one more dose of flawless finish. The big girl is showing some deficiency so I'm going to feed her later today. I will also post some additional pictures of the fan leaves to go along with my question to the community on diagnosing and treating the issue(s). 1/06 - Day 95 - I raised the oscillating fan so that it wasn't blowing directly on Bleu in the hope that it might reduce stress on her. I may have discovered the "root" of the issue. I've been using PH Up to raise the PH (6.2-6.8) every time I feed nutrients because I'm growing in soil and the Advanced Nutrients PH perfect line drops the PH to 5.8 every time like clockwork. My hypothesis is that the PH perfect buffering agent is dropping the PH of my soil down to 5.8 after I feed the plants. This would explain Cal-Mag deficiency that I already suspect, and fit with what also appears to be a phosphorus deficiency. Any other Growers out there have issues with PH perfect base nutes in soil? 1/07 - Day 96 -I picked up some Micronized lime at the hydro store. Top dressed 1 tsp per pot and watered it in lightly. 1/08 - Day 97 - Fed nutes to all 3 plants PH'd to 6.9. Runoff PH immediately after watering was 6.6. I'm not sure if thats a good or bad sign to be honest. I hope it means the soil PH is 6.6 and not that the 3 point drop in the waters PH from 6.9-6.6 in the time it took to drain through the soil means the Soil PH is much lower. Discovered tiny white bugs with long skinny bodies in the runoff water. Not a ton but enough that it was obvious. Then I noticed they floated up to the top of the water when it pooled on top of the soil during watering. I poked around online and I couldn't figure out what they are with any certainty. Hoping soil lice or springtails but who knows. I would have take a picture but they're so small I would have had to use my jewellers loup to get them in focus. Might apply some peroxide just in case. Will monitor for a few more days first. 1/09 - Day 98 - Not quite ripe. Maybe 1% amber trichomes. Looks like they all could keep going a while longer. They're getting quite chubby and the ratio of anxiety:excitement that I'm feeling is trending in a positive direction. Not much longer and it looks like I'll have more flowers than I know what to do with 😍. My tents reeks so much when I open it I can't tell if there are any differences in smells between any of the 3 plants, but it smells glorious. The double ended carbon filter has completely scrubbed any smell from my basement when the tent is closed though. If anyone else is looking to keep a stealthy indoor grow i highly recommend. The dual benefit is that it also significantly reduces the noise of the fans.

1/13 - Day 102 - Blanche went from 5% amber on Sunday night to 30% amber on Monday night. Gave her the chop and hung her up. Forgot to grab some pictures of the trichomes unfortunately. 1/16 - Day 105 - Pinky and Bleu are still going strong. Pinky looks like 2 or 3 more days. Flushed her with Flawless Finish last night. After seeing how quickly the amber developed on Blanche, I'll keep a close eye on her. Bleu is filling out and a few pistils have started turning orange. No idea how much longer she will be because she's so different than the other two girls.

1/21 - Day 110 - After 8 days of drying I trimmed Blanche. 39.4 g of bud worth curing. 72.5 g of larf and sugar leaves for extraction/edibles. I noticed the # of amber trichomes on Pinky had tripled over the past 24 hours so I chopped her down and hung her to dry. Didn't let her get as amber as Blanche. She looks like she will yield 1.5x-2x of what Blanche produced. Dropped a scrog net over top of Bleu because her colas are getting so heavy all the branches were flopping over. She's looking like she'll yield significantly more than the other two combined. 1/22 - Day 111 - Gave Bleu some recharge and molasses with 3.5 L of water. Her Colas are swelling up nicely. After 24 hours in the jars the RH was showing 54%. Seems as though I over dried by at least a day maybe 2. Will be keeping a closer eye on Pinky as she dries. Popped some Boveda 62 % humidipaks into the jars.

January 31st - Day 120 from seed. I flushed twice with flawless finish over the past 8 days, and harvest day finally arrived for this freak show CBD Cheese Pheno. When I started this grow I had no idea a phenotype from an auto-flower strain could take 120 days from start to finish. That said I'm not complaining about the extra time because she turned out beautifully. Massive, dense, sticky, and aromatic flowers. Thanks for following along. I will update final details once dried. Stay tuned!

After 7 days of drying I trimmed and jarred the last of the 3 plants. Here are the final numbers: Blanche = 39.4 g of buds & 72.5 g of larf Pinky = 43.7 g of buds & 58.1 g of larf Bleu = 65.6 g of buds & 49.1 g of larf Total = 148.7 g of buds & 179.7 g of larf = 328.4 g Thank you to anyone who has been following along, and thank you to all of the more experienced growers who helped out whenever I posted questions. My first "grow" was outside last summer, but I had to cut the plants down at least a month early due to bud rot. This first full grow indoors was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life and I definitely want to pursue the hobby further. I've learned more about horticulture in the past 6 months than I had my entire life up to that point. There is something extremely gratifying about growing your own medicine from seed and if you're interested in giving it a try, I hope you track and post your experience here on grow diaries so I can follow along.