Zkittlez Autoflower

Seeds were placed in a glass of dechlorinated water on Sunday, November 10th and planted Tuesday, November 12. The cotyledon leaves emerged Wednesday, November 13. The plant on the right is growing just a bit faster than the one on the left. I helped the left one out of its shell, carefully peeling it off so the cotyledons could open up. Both are looking healthy.

Growth has been steady since germination. They've both grown to be about 5 cm and are currently working on their 2nd set of true leaves. I've dubbed the plants Zkittlez 1 and Zkittlez 2 for identification purposes (in photos that show both 1 will always be on the left). Zkittlez 2 has been slightly more vigorous, though it shows some very slight browning on the tips of its 1st serrated leaves. I was worried this may be nutrient burn. Maybe my EC was too high, though Zkittles 1 doesn't show any brown tips and 2's symptoms haven't worsened in the past 3 days. I actually fed them slightly more Cocos A & B this time, though I brought the mS/cm down, so hopefully that helps prevent any issues.

Day 1 of Week 3: I'm amazed at the growth so far. These two are growing faster than my previous plant had. Most of the growth so far has been horizontal. The inter-nodal spacing of both plants is very tight and the lower leaves are already extending towards the edge of the pots. I left room in the pots incase they grew a little leggy I could add more coco, but now that seems to have made it so they are bushing out more than they are growing vertically. To help I have clipped the sides of the pots down with paper clips. I also started LST on both plants, attempting to bend the main stems towards the corners of the tent to expose more of the secondary growth points to light. I have begun to add Multi Zen to the mix of nutrients, using 7 ml. Last day of week 3: Small roots have started showing through the fabric pots, as well as some very small green leaf like growth. I’m unsure what this is. The LST on both plants is going well, though Zkittlez 2 seems to be generally faster growing. They still haven’t grown very tall, but have bushes put significantly. Some lower leaves were removed because they were constantly drooping down into the damp medium.

I noticed a small algae buildup under the drip lines as well as some algae growing on the sides of the fabric pots. To address this I reduced the time the fertigation pump runs for on each feeding from a minute to 30 seconds. I have also added an air pump and two air stones to the reservoir to provide it with oxygen and prevent stagnation. Both plants continue to get bushy with hardly any vertical growth. The nodes are very tight and with the scrolling the main stem is very difficult to see. Zkittlez 1 still lags behind Zkittlez 2 in growth and overall voracity. I switched from using the Mars Hydro Reflector 96 to the Mars Hydro TS 1000. It's technically a lower wattage light, but is full spectrum and gets much better reviews than the Reflector. It does however run warmer. Since installing it I have struggled to keep the temperature below 29º C.

Partway through last week I noticed that there was no runoff after feedings. I increased the time the fertigation pump runs to 2 mins twice a day. It seems like either the root system is drinking up more or the added aeration has changed how much runoff comes out. Plant 1 has fallen behind in growth. The inter-nodal spacing was so tight that the new growth was being strangled by the older fan leaves and other growth. I adjusted the LST to help and pruned a very small amount of leaves. It seems to be doing better, but is several inches shorter than Zkittlez 2 which has had some really explosive growth. I started the scrog today, bending many of Zkittlez 2’s branches down to fill out the tent. I bent a few branches on Zkittlez 1, but it’s still a little short. This week I upped the nutrients, almost doubling the Cocos A & B, Multizen and Cal Mag. I still tried to keep EC down though, only allowing it to rise by about 300mS/cm. This could actually be the first week of flower, but think I’ve started to spot some pistils, but I’m not sure. I can’t find the breeder’s info, but think it’s supposed to have a 4 week veg time and 10 week flowering period. Update: lots of pistils being thrown out especially from Zkittlez 2. It’s definitely the first week of flower. There has been a lot of growth since the start of the week. I continued to bend branches down and tuck them under the net, but now that buds are really starting to take shape I'm going to lay of any further stressing. I noticed that there was little runoff over the past couple days. Yesterday (Monday) I had to refill the reservoir and mix up new nutrients because there was only an inch of water left. These girls have gotten a lot thirstier over the past 2 weeks. I've upped the feeding times to 3 minutes twice a day.

It's incredible how quickly the flowering happened on these plants. The tent has filled out, though most of the coverage is from Zkittlez 2 on the right which has stretched far into the left side of the canopy. There are so many bud sites getting good light coverage. I have high hopes for this. I stopped running the humidifier over a week ago, but it's fully developed by the canopy now. I had to up feedings from 2 mins twice a day to 3 mins because there wasn't any runoff after feedings. I also increased the nutrients, almost doubling the dosage of Cocos A & B and other H&G supplements. I tried to keep the EC down though. At first it was very high, but after topping up the reservoir it landed on 1750 mS/cm. The plants have seemingly responded well, showing no signs of burn or stress.* On Dec 19 I pruned everything below the trellis. I tried to leave as many big fan leaves as possible, but a lot of the oldest weren't getting any light so they were removed. I also removed all the small bud sites that won't amount to anything. I also bent a few of the larger buds down under the trellis more as they were already getting several inches higher than the rest of the canopy. ------ It's now approaching the end of week 6. I've noticed that when I check on the plants in the evening (11 pm) they are slightly droopy. The coco isn't soaked, and given my schedule I doubt it's overwatering. To address this I've tried a few things, one being diluting the reservoir to bring the EC down further, and attempting to closely monitor VPD. The tent frequently runs in the 27º-29º range. There have been a few times when either the humidity has climbed to the high 60s or dropped down to the 40s. I'm trying to get the exhaust at just the right speed to keep it at about 55%. Other than the droopiness they are doing well. All the tops have stretched several inches and the tent really is full from side to side.

Week 7. I adjusted the watering system so that instead of 3 minutes twice a day, it now turns on at 5 hour intervals during the lights on period. So the first watering occurs at 8 am when the lights come on, then again at 1pm, 6pm and 11pm.* This turned out to produce too much runoff after the first day. So I adjusted it down to 1 minute for each fertigation, still at the 5 hour intervals 4 times a day. I started seeing trichomes on some of the buds. They are still very early in their development, but I can see some sugar leaves starting to get frosty. The smell, which is sweet and green, has become more prominent when the tent is open, but not overwhelming by any means.

New week, new year and starting things off strong. Both plants, which are now indistinguishable from above the trellis net, are healthy and maturing very nicely. Buds are starting to stack and getting sticky with trichomes. The smell is becoming more potent when the tent is open.

Headed into week 9. Buds are stacking and fattening up. Lots more trichomes appearing. The flowers are a very pretty green with light green highlights and bright orange pistils that make it look very fruity. ----- Saturday / Sunday some burning on the tips appeared. This is likely due to having no run off for several waterings. The odour is getting stronger. It smells green like a fresh field but sweeter, with a sharp gassy undertone. When entering the condo you immediately notice the smell, though it doesn’t permeate out into the common area. The carbon filter is working, but the smell escapes when I open the tent and probably also through the passive intakes. I’m limiting how often I open the tent to keep the smell at bay. It’s strong but still manageable. I’ve chosen not to defoliate. I don’t buy into the idea that removing leaves encourages flower growth, that bro science as far as I’m concerned. That however means I need to be very conscious of the Rh and the potential for mold. I go in daily to remove yellow and dead leaves. I also check for pests and other problems. So far I haven’t had any issues. I haven’t even had any fungus gnats, which I thought could be an issue given the high frequency fertigation. My biggest concern right now is the burning of the tips. I’m lowering the EC of my nutrient solution and increasing watering times to ensure some runoff.

The buds are fattening up. There are probably 6 big colas. The smell is getting much stronger. Some of the top leaves have copper spots on them. I’ve been keeping an eye on this worried that it may either be a deficiency or septoria. I lowered the EC even more (by reducing the Cocoa A & B amounts) and upped the pH just a bit in case it’s a calcium deficiency seen as Cal uptake is optimal at 6.2 pH. Last week I noticed some burnt tips. This was likely due to a higher EC in the root zone as some watering did not produce any runoff. I’ve increased feeding times to hopefully resolve this and prevent more burning. I started adding a very small amount of House & Garden Shooting Powder to the reservoir. I've heard mixed results from it so I want to be cautious. I'm excited to harvest these two. The aroma they give off has definitely become stronger. It's green and somewhat earthy, with bright accents of fruit.It will be interesting to see how it matures after curing.

Week 11. Both plants are progressing well. The buds continue to develop and fatten up. There are several burned tips from a few weeks ago when I allowed the EC to get too high. I’ve been progressively lowering nutrients doses to lower EC. Next grow I’m going to get a larger reservoir so I can reduce EC by diluting the solution further. I may also need to start using RO water because my tap water has a high PPM.

Going into week 12 and it's almost time to harvest. I've started to flush using only Drip Clean in addition to water in the reservoir. It's interesting how each plant developed throughout this grow. During the veg plant 1 was growing slower though with tight nodes. Plant 2 was a vigorous seedling and continued to grow rapidly in veg. However now in late flower plant 1 has developed the largest colas. Plant 2 still seems to be maturing faster. It was the first to start showing pinkish calyxes and sugar leaves and its trichomes are developing quicker.

Overall the grow went very well. This was my first time growing Autoflowers, first time using high frequency fertigation, and the first time scrogging. I had some issues with EC partway through flower, but it didn't seem to have a huge effect on yield. The final yield tripled that of my previous grow and took half the time. Even before curing the buds smell / taste amazing and pungent and don't have any hay smell. After a week of curing it the smell is more identifiable as grapefruit. It is pungent, sweet and tart. It smokes well already, with just a bit of harshness that should smooth out over the course of the cure. The high is heady but not foggy. It makes for a good daytime smoke when you want to keep moving. I ended up with a lot of trimming to do and more popcorn buds than I would have hoped for. Next grow I'm going to be more aggressive with pruning lower bud sites to focus on the bigger colas.