Original Auto Sour Diesel Solo Cup

For this grow, I'm running NINE different strains from FastBuds new 'Original Autoflower' lineup, all in SOLO CUPS! It will be my first try at a "Sea-of-Green" (SoG) style grow and I'm really excited about it. These will all be grown from seed to harvest in standard Solo cups of Michigan Made Mix (M3) organic soil, with the occasional addition of some GreenLeaf Nutrients MegaCrop added to my water to help offset the expected root bind. I've grown several of these solo cup autos now. In my opinion, they are great way to see the natural shape and traits of a strain without investing too much into space and other resources, I view them as samplers! If I find a strain I really like, I add it to a list of things I would like to grow "full size" one day. For now, I'm just trying to expand my experiences and try lots of strains to find the best medicine for me.

Not much to report so far, but they are all doing well. They've received nothing but water up to this point. I refer to this as the goofy-looking seedling stage, but things should get more interesting soon enough. I'll be sure to update!

We're finally starting to see some differences in these 9 solo cup original auto strains! Still in vegetative mode, they should begin to switch to flower pretty soon. This strain was about a day behind the rest, but seemed to be doing okay until recently. I only just noticed this morning, that the leaves of the second node haven't actually separated and allowed the new growth upward. Instead, the new growth has been forced out of the side of the node. I've not seen this before, but I plan to let the plant grow as normal, just to see what will happen. I am genuinely curious how this will affect it from here on. This will be one to keep an eye on, for sure.

This week, everyone got pistils! Hooray! Still off to a great start for them all, I think. This week, they start getting a minimal dose of Megacrop to help offset the eventual depletion of nutrients in the 1/8 gallon of soil; oh, and root bind due to such a small container. It becomes a careful balancing act to try to keep them fed, but not overdo it and burn them. I've been practicing a while though and seem to have it figured out for the most part. The strange mutation causing the fused second node fan leaves seems to have just been a fluke. The new growth that sprouted from the side of the stem seems to be normal, just sideways and a little elongated. It may make the plant a little lopsided, but I don;t really foresee any issues other than that. Either way, stay tuned for more updates.

The tent smells amaze-ballz, you guys!!! All 9 of the "Sampler Platter" solo cup autoflowers are doing great! This week, they've gone back to plain tap water, so I don't overdo it with the Megacrop. Other than that, it's just watering once a day or every other day. Nothin to it! This "butterfly plant" with the silly mutated second node is still trying its best. I'm going to let her finish, but this is kind of silly at this point. I'll have to try this one again. No biggie, just a fluke.

We got buds for days! Things are really starting to heat up here in week 6. Scents are difficult to identify with so many strains in such a small space, but wow is it enjoyable. I'm crazy excited to see how these turn out. This week has shown a few lower fan leaves starting to die off, so I'm thinking they'll get another shot of Megacrop next week just to give em a boost to get to the end. ONWARD!!!

This week, I've added some Megacrop to the water again as some of the plants are showing some minor deficiencies. Other than that, they seem to be doing very well. Still no training on any of them, just letting them grow naturally to see how they perform. I'm really excited to try all these flavors though, it's getting close now!

The deficiencies are slowly clearing up, but some damage was already done. Many of the plants have lost lower leaves, I believe due to a magnesium deficiency, but the MegaCrop should bring them back in line soon. We're getting close now, so starting to see differences in bud structure and shape and density. I have to admit, I'm not super excited about some of the plants at this point, and very excited about others. Another few weeks and it'll finally be time to make a valid decision. This little derp had a weird mutation at the second node that forced the main stem off to one side, resulting in the silly little plant you see above. I decided to let her go, as I'll still get a taste test of the strain, but I'm reserving proper judgement on this one until I can get another attempt.

Everyone is still doing great as we get close to wrapping up. Still a bit of magnesium deficiency, probably due to the led light. but a little squirt of calMag in their water should clear it right up. I'm starting to get concerned about how I will identify them all during drying and curing. I'm going to have to come up with something, I suppose. Either way, I'm thrilled to finally get to try all these new strains. When you open the tent, you get a wave of floral and fruit and dank smells that just put a smile on your face. It's awesome!!!

After further review and inspection with a jeweler's loupe, the Sampler Platter grow looks like it needs another week. I fully expected at least a couple of the strains to be finished at the 10 week mark, but not this time. No worries though, that gives us all a bit more time to admire the variety and beauty among these 9 solo cup cannabis grows. Onward to infinity! Also, I tried to get a good guess at the scent profile of each strain. It is really tough with so many strains right next to each other, but I did my best. I would describe this plant as a sharp, stinky, sour smell. It's a bit harsh, but not crazy strong. I won't get an awful lot from this little stunted mutant, but at least I get to taste the strain, and that was the goal all along.

They're all coming down this week! I've been watching trichomes for amber heads to be sure I chop them all around the ideal harvest time. Since I've never grown any of these strains before, I like to aim for around 5-10% amber before I cut, but sometimes I get a little impatient. The tent smells absolutely incredible right now. It has flowers, and pine trees, and citrus peel, and skunky dankness all rolled into one sweet and utterly amazing scent. I'm really looking forward to tasting so many different strains. This entire run has turned out really well imo. My goal was to see several autoflower strains in their natural shapes and sizes, given the same conditions. I'd say I succeeded. Trouble is, I am having a really hard time not just liking all of them. I was really expecting to find two or three that jumped out at me, but they are literally all good in their own ways. Thank you FastBuds for giving us so many great options!!

I'm still a bit bummed my little Sour Diesel got mutated. It occured early, right as the second node was forming, I noticed that the leaves were not split apart, as usual. Uh oh! I waited it out, and eventually the stem just kind of shot off to the side and kept on going. I decided to let her do her thing and we ended up with a tiny little 5.6 gram harvest. Oh well. My aim was to sample these strains and find my favorites. I still got enough from this one to decide that I would certainly try again.