Fastbuds Gelato auto

So I have been looking forward to getting these in the dirt for a while now, have wanted to try this strian for ages so feeling a bit giddy about this one, I started them on the 18th of December and this morning just about 3 had surfaced, one is just emerging through the soil, and the last looks like it's going to make an appearance at any point today so will add another picture when she comes through but hoping to have 5 out of 5 by the end of the day, but all in all they have taken around 3 and a half days to come through, I have started them in roughly 0.5l pots and will be getting them transplanted to 20l pots when they are a week old. They are currently in biobizz lightmix which I will be using from start to finish along with biobizz nutrients, and have been saturated with root juice to help them start off, I will be putting them under a 250w hps today just for the first week and then will be putting them under a 400w once they are transplanted.. then will be switching to 660w for flower, I also have a secret ingredient that I'm going to give a try this run too which I will be adding to the soil during the transplant so I'm looking forward to seeing how that works out! I am going to be low stress training these but I am also considering trying to top autos for my first time so I may just try it on a couple of them and just train the rest.. either way I cant wait to see how they do 😁

Pics are from day 7, a couple of them got a bit leggy last week so they had to be supported and then I have buried the stems a little to help them out during the transplant, I have started adding alg-a-mic now as both a base feed and foliar spray, and I spray once daily until they flower, and I will be starting the grow on their next feed.they have been under a 250w hps for the first week and today i will also be turning it up to let them veg under 400w! I wanted to try something different this grow with out spending tonnes on new gear ect.. so I did a bit of research on good soils, and was trying to find something quite rich in minerals to try to see if they would help improve a few things with the biobizz range.. anyway after doing some digging I was intrigued by the sound of volcanic rock dust, basalts are made up of around 50%silica and the rest is other necessary minerals to aid in plant/fruit growth, so I got my hands on a bag and decided to give it a try.. I'm not sure how well it will work but I'm used to seeing similar results from consistently using biobizz, and seem to encounter similar deficiencies regardless of what I do so I'm hoping this helps to stop that and encourages quite vigorous growth, so will try and make updates quite regular so people can see any progress it makes Update:d14, have started to do some lst now, and they are now being fed bio grow at quarter strength, couple of them are looking a little sorry for themselves but hoping they are ok soon, will start my updates at the end of each week now

Update:d20 Growth this last week has come along nicely.. one of them has been a bit over watered so has been feeling sorry for herself but is starting to perk up again now, the rest seem to have been doing ok.. I decided against topping these but am going to continue training them at least so hoping to see some nice results. I'm also considering putting my light up to 600w at the end of this week so hopefully all goes well!

Update:d27 Pics are in no particular order so for that I apologise as I had to drop a few before the update.. I have 4 that are being trained, and 1 that isn't.. the 1 that isn't seems to also be the runt of the litter and is also a little flimsy so think i am going to have to add supports for her at some point.. the other 4 how ever seem to be thriving, I'm actually quite impressed with their progress to be fair and growth has been pretty vigorous, and I think the volcanic dust is certainly helping! they have all started showing hairs this week so going to start expecting them to stretch now.. everything is fairly even so far so hoping to keep it that way until the stretching stops. To be fair these are starting to stink a bit now too, the smell is really sweet though, like mouth watering sweet, my girlfriend thinks they smell like strawberry candy canes.. I'm pretty geeked to see how they are going to progress from here though and

Having a few issues with a few things this week.. think partually it's due to the humidity being so low but not sure.. they are still growing well though and the smell keeps o getting stronger so I'm really looking forward to seeing these fill out..

Update D42: so this week they have continued growing pretty well, my biggest is 36 inches tall at the moment and the smallest is around 26.. the smell from these gets stronger every time I open the tent, they are actually stinking to be honest and Its only going to get worse so I cant wait to see what this is like when they are finished.. starting to get a bit frosty now and I believe the stretch is coming to an end so they should hopefully start filling out nicely now too.. there seems to be a lot of bud sights in there so I'm looking forward to seeing these end results! Not long after they started showing sex, on one of the plants I found two branches at the bottom that were covered in sacks.. I cut off the two branches immediately as soon as i noticed and it didn't look as if anything was mature enough to drop pollen so fingers crossed i got it in time.. however.. i didn't chop the plant.. and she went straight into the flowering stretch and has started budding along with the rest of the plants.. it's actually the tallest one in there so I'm not sure exactly how that is going to turn out but fingers crossed she keeps growing buds and doesn't fuck everything else up! I am monitoring them daily and so far so good so only time will tell I guess! To be honest since adding the volcanic rock dust to my soil this run i have noticed the plants look a lot sturdier.. the smell has increased an the growth is really vigorous.. they had an issue from me watering a bit late on one occasion which made the feed a bit hot for the soil but the issue has soon been corrected and they seem to be going strong.. they also seem to be hardier then I gave them credit for so I think this is something I will be continuing to invest in from now on. Thanks for checking in

Update D49: so this week I think the flowering stretch has come to an end, the tallest stands at 40", the smallest being around 10" shorter.. I have come across some issues on the leaves so I have added a pk boost and some calmag to try and sort it out so will keep an eye on how it goes. Buds are starting to fill out now and are getting pretty frosty too.. the smell coming from these is beautiful.. cant say I have had nicer smelling plants then these! The one that wasnt trained also seems to be one of, if not the thickest so I'm looking forward to seeing how that ends up turning out!

Update D55: on my last update I had mentioned an issue I came across, it would appear that I have been pretty silly this grow, I amended the soil with volcanic rock dust before I started, and in doing so I forgot to take into account that what I normally add in a feed.. is already amended into the soil, so I have been thinking that I had a p or k deficiency which led to calmag problems.. only to realise that it's likely that I have over done the p and/or k by adding them in a feed by sticking with my normal schedule, ontop of it being available in the soil.. so I believe I have nutrient lockout. I am a little disappointed in myself to be honest, I am a bit far in to flush it properly to correct now, so I have increased the amount of water I am giving and cut the nutes right down..I am still seeing noticable bud growth at the moment and they just keep getting frostier but I'm sure it's going to effect my final yield.. the smell from these though is overwhelming I must say, you live and learn though I guess.. fingers crossed they dont get worse though now but all in all they haven't stopped growing so cant be all bad I suppose..

Update day 63: so I have come to the conclusion, that I have made several rookie mistakes on this run, and seems that the majority of my problems have come from lockout in the soil, after monitoring the soil ph briefly I realised it was too high so everything has just built up in the soil, I have stopped giving nutrients and am giving plain ph'd water which is helping bring the soil ph down and the buds seem to still be fattening up and getting denser so I'm not really to concerned but I have learned my lesson and hopefully my next run will be alot smother. Still though I cant really complain at how these have turned out, I know the issues have slowed down bud growth somewhat but at the same time they still seem to have grown pretty nicely, I cant say I have had a grow that has beat these interms of resin production, to be honest it's its impressive, and the smell coming from them is insane! I only have a couple of weeks to go now so will probably continue to leave the nutes out and just let them finish with ph'd water and the aid of the soil amendments.