A Daily Dose

1. Week 1 finished off strongly. She cracked her shell overnight, sprouted a nice curly tail within 2 days and sprouted after 4. Today's photos are 8 days from dropping the seed in water. 2. I'm running a 480w QB w/red diodes. Plants are growing in 5 gallon smart sacks. I'm using ProMix Hp as my soil base. I did not add any ammendments. 3. Currently I'm foliar feeding every morning with a 25% strength solution of Sensei Grow and Cal-Mag. I'm also soil feeding/watering every 2-3 days with a 25% strength solution When I soil feed, I also add Recharge. Recharge is at full strength. 4. I'm still trying to dial in this new soil, and how to feed/water the plant. This grow is a bit of a change. I'm increasing the size of my pots to 5 gallon from 3 gallon, and I'm using a more inert medium. Prior to this grow, I'd put my autos in a 50/50 mixture of Fox Farm's Ocean Forest and Happy Frog.

1. GFK is starting to pick up steam. First set of true leaves are almost done forming and 2nd set is beginning to emerge. 2. Currently I am watering/feeding every 2nd day. GFK gets 2l of filtered water+25% strength veg. nutes solution. Every 3rd feeding GFK receives a full strength feeding of Recharge. 3. GFK is at feeding 2 of 3 at 25% strength. After the next feeding I will increase strength to 50% for 1 round of waterings/feedings. If she responds well, I will increase the strength to 100% until she has finished her stretch. 4. So far I see no reason to LST this grow.

1. Strong, robust growth this week. I've noticed a lot of secondary branching forming. It's encouraging to see that this early in the plant's development. 2. Based on the secondary growth and lack of any pre-flowering growth, I'm thinking of topping this plant at the 3rd node. I expect to get at least another 2 weeks of solid veg. growth. That is plenty of time for recovery and new growth. 3. I've increased feeding strength to 50% for this watering/feeding cycle.

1. I decided to top GFK last week at the 3rd node. She had all the characteristics of an auto that could be topped. She was strong and healthy so the stress of topping would be minimal. She was showing excellent secondary growth. Finally there was no signs of pre-flowering at the time the 3rd node was fully developed. The photos are from a week later. 2. GFK is receiving full strength Sensei Grow A+B and Sensei Cal-Mag Xtra every watering/feeding. She is also receiving a daily misting of 25% Sensei Grow/Cal Mag solution each morning, and a feeding of Recharge every 3rd feeding.

1. I topped GFK last week then let her grow out a bit. On Saturday I did a lot of LST to spread out the node branching. By Friday I had a really nice canopy going. 2. I've done some spot defoliating and a tiny bit of pruning of the lower branches. I'm not really seeing any signs of flowering yet. I expect that within the next week. I'll leave her alone until after she is fully flowering then I'll do a major defoliation and pruning. 3. She is receiving full strength veg. nutes and Recharge. I will continue using veg. nutes until she is done stretching. 4. So far this has been an excellent candidate for topping and LST. Of the 5 plants in the tent, this is the only one that had the characteristics I was looking for in a topping candidate.

1. GFK is having some issues. I noticed that all of her growth has been really dark green, so I've been feeding less, but she seems to have stalled. All indications point to over-watering so I've been trying to let her dry out as much as possible before I water again. 2. I switched smart pot size and growing medium for this grow, and I'm having trouble making adjustments. Hopefully letting the soil dry out and reducing the nutes will get her going again.

1. The good news is she is starting to grow again. The bad news is she will probably never recover properly. 2. I made a mess of this grow. It began by adding too much Nitrogen-based nutrients to the mix. I believe I fed to often and too much while she was in veg. Secondly I also had some issues with over-watering. I just switched to a new medium and larger pot size for this grow. I'm still learning how to determine nutrient strengths and watering frequencies. 3. My first solution was to suspend all nutes and let the plant dry out. This would help with the roots recover. Then I hit her with 2l and a Recharge supplement also to benefit the roots. Finally, I'm only giving her filtered water, and I'm closely monitoring the soil.

1. I think GFK has weathered my heavy handed use of water and nutrients. She shot up to an impressive 23 inches overnight. I don't think she will every have time to fully recover from my abuse, but she is getting better and growing. 2. I've only fed her with Recharge once since she went into the infirmary. Otherwise, its been only filtered water and only when she looks about ready to wilt. I'm trying to revitalize a water-logged root system and that doesn't happen overnight. 3. I will begin flowering nutes at 50% strength this next round of watering. After that I will do a feed-Recharge-feed schedule and see how that works.

1. I have some sort of mutant on my hands. She has grown 6 inches since last week! 2. Buds are forming, slowly, along the long bud stalks. She appears to have XL genetics because she seems to be taking her sweet time. Most autos I grow are racing to harvest. She might also be showing Sativa characteristics. They tend to take longer to finish and grow on the longer, more slender bud stalks. We shall see. 3. Currently she is being watered about every 3rd day. The pot is really light a day earlier, but the soil just feels to damp when I check. I just finished a round of 3 feedings@50% strength. I'll kick it up to 100% this next round and keep it that way until its time to taper off.

1. She is just cruising along. Buds are starting to fill out a bit, but everything seems to be going really slow. I really think this is a XL strain that is Sativa dominate. When I looked up the lineage I found some Sativa in its history, but who knows. She has even grown a few inches this last week! 2. I'm feeding 3l of nutrient rich water every 2-3 days. I can push it to 3 days, but she isn't very happy when I check on her in the morning. 3. I'm expecting at least another 4-6 weeks for this grow.

1. GFK is still cruising along. I think I'm past the early flowering stage finally. She is starting to pack on bud size. I can see the stalks disappearing over time. Buds are also getting fatter. She just needed more time to get going. 2. I've upped her water quantity to 1g every 3 days. She was starting to droop a bit with only 3l. I've been adding Recharge to help out with the root system. She was getting pretty heavy doses of flowering nutes and I thought Recharge would be a nice change of pace. 3. I still think I'm at least 3 weeks out before it's time to think about flushing and finishing this grow off. This is the biggest and longest growing auto I've ever grown. I can't hardly wait.

1. She keeps on growing stronger! This is week 12, which is usually harvest time for most autos. I'm thinking another 3-4 weeks. Buds are still stacking on the stalks, and pistils are still white and extended. Trichomes are still in early stages of maturity. I think that these buds might produce some color for me! I know my nighttime temperatures are low enough. That would be nice. 2. I started tapering flowering nutes this last week. I'm watering 1 gallon at 75% strength. I will give GFK her final Recharge feeding early next week then I'll switch to late flowering nutes. 3. I'll keep nute strength at 75%, but I'll stop using Cal-Mag Xtra and Big Bud. I'll add Overdrive to the mix at 100% strength. I'll run 1-2 watering cycles then evaluate to see if she is ready for the last stage of flowering nutes.

1. I think there might be an end to this madness. Bud Stalks are really starting to fill out. I see frost developing on the sugar leaves, and trichomes are developing nicely. I'm thinking another 3-4 weeks. 2. I've eliminated Big Bud and Cal-Mag from the grow. I've also reduced other flowering nutes to 75% strength. Finally, I've added Overdrive for the next 2 watering cycles. I'll water/feed at this rate for 1 watering cycle (3x) then reduce flowering nutes to 50% strength. However, I'll keep Overdrive at 100%. After that it's just filtered water until harvest.

1. She is really coming on strong lately. Buds are swelling and maturing pretty quickly. I might have to support some of the longer bud stalks. 2. She is currently receiving 1 gallon of filtered water every 3 days. I'm feeding her flowering nutes at 50% rate. I've stopped using Cal-Mag and Big Bud. I'm using Overdrive at full strength. I'll discontinue Recharge next week. 3. I'm looking at harvesting in about 3 weeks. I'll stop using nutes late next week and use only water for the duration of the grow.

1. Grapefruit Kush is wrapping it up finally. This has been a really long auto grow. I expect 17 weeks total to harvest. However, I won't be complaining much when I harvest those giant bud stalks! 2. Plain water is on the menu for the rest of this grow. This will last a little under 2 weeks. 3. Trichomes are looking milking and a nice smattering of amber.

1. This is it for Grapefruit Kush. She has been getting only water for the last two weeks. I'm using that as my version of flushing. She received her final watering yesterday. Harvest day is Tuesday. 2. Normally I would put my plants in a dark place for 48hrs. prior to harvest, but I don't have a space for such a large plant, so I'm going to forgo the dark period. I've read so many articles for and against dark periods. I guess I should see for myself it there is any difference. 3. She is really a beast! I've had to turn her so the primary budstalks are getting some support from the side of the tent. They were leaning badly the other day. I have a feeling she is going to fill up my HerbsDryer and my drying box.

This was a monster plant from the very beginning. I chose to top and do a mainline form of LST because she was so vigorous. She stalled midway through stretch. I probably watered and fed her too much considering the dark, dark green leaves and the clawing throughout plant. Recharge saved the day! I stopped feeding and started to water when I saw the leaves drooping. She picked right up and grew into a 3ft+ plant. She is my largest auto harvest to date. I don't know what they put in those PPP genetics, but they are strong, strong genetics. Cheers!