Seedsman - Alaskan Purple Auto - LED

Hi everyone! Glad to have you join me for the start of this grow in a new tent with all new gear. Its been 4 years since I last did a grow and now its time to start again for medicinal reasons. I have tried many styles in the past (DWC, NFT, Soil, Coco) and for this grow I have gone quick and simple to start with using Biobizz Light Mix that I have modified with Perlite, Vermiculite and Worm Castings into 5g fabric pots. I have a variety of nutrients that I will list as and when I use them. The tent I am using is smaller than I am used to measuring in at 75x75x200 and I know I will be crowding this with 4 x plants, but lets see what happens. I started this grow by getting the seeds in warm water overnight to get them cosy then transferred them to a plate and paper towel until they are ready. Once the seeds cracked (I don't wait for tap root) I transferred them into some root riot in a propagator and placed them in the tent with the Telos 008 LED running at around 150-160cm away. Pretty much hands off this week just letting them do their thing and keeping the humidity high within the propagator getting them ready for week 2. At around Wednesday of this week (5 days from seeds) I transferred them into the big pots after making the choice of culling the girl (Dianna) who came out with only one cotyledon and watered them in with 6.2ph. Thanks. J

Slow week while the plants work on what's going on under the soil. I over-watered a little this week but everything is going well and on around day 13, the plants are now stretching out and putting some upwards growth efforts in. Light is still around 120cm from plants and I am a little unsure that lowering at this point will be of benefit so I will monitor the girls and adjust as required. I have been using the foliar spray "Plant Magic Evolution" for the first time during this run and so far, from seedling, have applied twice. Not really much more to report so I will see you next update. Peace J

Day 21 from seed and it was a slow start to the week with 2 plants doing well and growing fast and two plants growing slow and looking small. Not sure if this is just phenotype variation or something environmental but all is looking good so far. I have started some mild LST, nothing serious, and will continue this going into next week and beyond. I have been going slow on nutrients adding very little Old Timer Grow (around 0.5ml per litre) but will start to increase this going into the next week. I have also been using Plant Magic Evolution once a week as a foliar spray.

Another week past and as we near the end of this week (day 28) we are starting to flower. Removed some leaves for airflow, nothing major and tied some of the bigger girls down a little more to improve light penetration. Genetics of these are all over the place with at least 3 phenotypes being observed but I will wait for a while down the line before I comment officially on that. Two small squat plants and two larger ones so it will be interesting to see them as we flower over the coming weeks. End of this week I increased nutrients and gave a broader spectrum to get them off on the right foot for next week. I have still been using the Foliar spray and I'm not sure if it is helping but seems to be doing a good job so far.

A lot of stretch this week still and I've been hitting them hard with nutrients which all but one plant has loved (you can see one plant has very slight nute burnt tips). Trying to deal with the small space by trimming lower branches where I can and getting as much light penetration as possible. Looking at the plants there should be one more week of stretch and then the fun starts. Smell has increased... real fruity smell which is very nice. So far so good.

Merry Christmas all! Its been a busy week so I have not been able to give the girls the attention perhaps I should have. Watering religiously to a tight schedule but the other maintenance tasks like canopy control and defoliation have suffered as has my waistline! The plants have gone mad and all but one seem to be doing really well. I am still not sure if I should cull one of the plants to make some room for the others as looking at the runt plant, it is not looking like it will yield much... watch this space. Anyway - Enjoy the rest of the holiday season. QB

Happy new year people! OK so it's been a busy week meaning I have neglected to do some things that were required and because of this, the plants have gotten a little wild and thrown out loads of lower shoots. I've trimmed a lot of the lower shoots today so the girls can focus their energy towards the top of the canopy and hopefully I will keep them well groomed this week now we are back to normality. Because I have neglected them a little I have noticed a little light burn in a few areas, nothing major, so I've re-adjusted the height of the light. I have also been alternating the bloom nutrients between BioBizz and Plant Magic Bloom... why you ask? Why not!

This week I want to talk about potassium and the deficiency that exhibited during the tail end of last week and through this week but first lets talk about the Telos. The real winner here is the Telos LED light! This thing is amazing with really low heat output and great canopy penetration. Moving from HPS/MH to this has been a real eye opener as I never thought I would see the day LED were in the same league... I have been proven wrong that's for sure! Anyway, not paying attention over the Christmas period meant I was not on top of the plants nutrient requirements and that has now led to a K deficiency which you can see in a few pictures. I have added PK 13/14 which is my go to booster and also started adding some Big Bud by AN. I should have been using the Big Bud sooner than I have but I started it at the end of the week and now will not be adding any further, just the PK 13/14. As this is my first indoor Autoflower run I didn't account for the speed in to flower and elevated requirements so this is a lesson learnt. Another thing this week was the mass defoliation that I did to keep the grow area breathable and trim down the bottom shots even further. The smell is very potent now with a powerful citrus smell with sour overtones. I can tell this will be amazing once cured. Peace... J

We are now coming to the end of the road with a few weeks left. The plants are now looking a little worse for wear and these next weeks are very important as these cheeky ladies do their utmost to get pollinated and make the final push to the finish line. There is a lot of variation with these girls... some big, some short, some sticky, some not enjoying a heavy feed and some needing a heavy feed! The genetics are far from stable but being an auto flower I expect this as they haven't had the work that a regular/feminised strain would have had. All this aside, these are easy plants to grow as long as you read them and give them what they need when they need it, unlike what I did a few weeks back and let a deficiency go untreated over Christmas. A few of the girls are starting to show a nice purple hue and hopefully this will come out more in the next few weeks. I am looking forward to trying this strain because the speed they have grown from seed is absolutely astonishing. LED lights! Damn they have come on a long way from when I started growing... I reserve my final judgement until the end but damn! So far so good! Peace QB

Another Friday update! We are probably around 7-14 days away from cut down now and the girls are looking real beat up! So the main reason I did a journal was to have a way of looking back to see what went right and what went wrong. This is my first time growing an autoflower indoors so I wanted to track every aspect as best I could without being to scientific. I know this grow hasn't been anywhere near my best and looking back I know what the issue is. Not paying attention over Christmas and missing a deficiency and not reacting quick enough meant that when I did react, I overcompensated and hit them too hard with boosters and nutrients. This has resulted in some burn and I have learnt from this mistake so that is a positive to take away. These grow so fast that you really need to be keeping them trim and keep on top of your game as there isn't time to react or recover from stresses so bear this in mind. Overnight temperatures have dropped and a lovely purple hue is starting to come over the plants! Peace!

The grow is coming to a close now and I'm just checking trichomes every other day to get the signal to chop. Looking at the plants and close ups I would say I am 7-10 days away which puts these on a 12 week from seed finish. Not bad! I have a couple of different phenotypes that will be interesting to test in the final product. Some massive dense nugs on all but one of the plants. As this grow comes to the end behind the scenes I am getting stock in ready for the next grow :) Peace!

Day 81 and after 36 hours in the dark, I’ve chopped them down and hung them up to dry. I remember when I harvested my first grow, being so excited about it! Now I hate trimming! The bad back, the headache inducing smell, the hours and hours spent and also having to part with something you grew. These plants stink!!! Bubblegum, fruit punch and citrus tones all assaulting my nostrils! I don’t weigh wet plants so I will be back when they are in jars curing with a weight summary. So far I’m a little disappointed with this grow as I know I can do better so for the next grow, things will be changed up quite a bit and nothing will be done the same. Peace! QB **EDIT** I got round to making some ice hash last night and have added the pictures so you can see the output. It was a rushed job and I didn't have a 90 micron bag which is what I usually use so what you see is a 160, 120, 73, and 25 micron bag run. I've also added a picture of some scissor hash from the crop. I always suggest you maximise what you are left with after a crop by making bubble hash and using all the resin from scissors :)

I really enjoyed this grow! After a break from growing for about 6 years, it was great getting back in to it. Exploring the current LED technology and using the Telos 8 was a real eye opener too and I am looking forward to getting the most out if. After trying some dry, un-cured product I am very happy with it so after a month of curing this will be fire :) I am now loading the tent for the next round :)