RQS Northern Light Auto Ghetto SCROG

This is more of an experiment at this point, to show the sheer abuse that auto can/cannot take. This kind of auto crop took me by surprise, so I decided Week 4 to throw everything at it. I felt a had little choice. Basically, 4 RQS Northern Light auto seeds (same package, fresh) were planted giving 4 crazy different results. One grew over 3 feet in 3 weeks, one never grew past a seedling for 3 weeks, one grew normally (bushy, 12"), while the last was spindly and stretched too much. At this point, I've managed to keep all 4 but the varying heights make even lighting nearly impossible. I dont SCROG. Not because its bad, I just don't. I've done about 7 auto runs with this setup and I just let them go. The life cycle is so short, just letting them grow, tucking leaves seemed to yield an OZ plant (even with this strain). But after the monster in my tent grew, I had to tie her down. I did this all on a whim of sorts. First off, I topped them all in week 3. I've never topped an auto before but I figured to get an even canopy I had to start somewhere. Using my advanced tomato techniques(LOL), I began making a web of string in my tent to force the branches horizontal at week. Literally bending the monster in half. Spreading it all out in the ghetto SCROG. The other plants were still smaller but nearing the height of the largest plant. Over the next couple weeks I just did the best I could, bending emergent branches under and around my string mess. One plant (The stretchy gal), I even broke one of the tops clean off it, while screaming "what is this?! amatuer hour?!" The stunted seeding plant has now taken flight and looks like a weirdo, but healthy. All the while watching YouTube videos on these amazing SCROG nets people use (wtf). Their lives are easier, i'm sure..... They seem a bit behind. The monster is in full preflower and the others are just now in week 6 showing female characteristics (pistils, etc). I'm a bit worried that they are stunted from my overt abuses but they have never stopped growing. Never a bad leaf even; even on the little weirdo. So here we are, SCROGging, topping, LST/HST. All in the most haphazard way, seat-of-your-pants style growing. Hopefully, it turns out well and a strange flowering journey will unfold.....

Day 49. They stretched another 6-10". The monster is really close to the light now (10"), but she doesn't seem to care as its not directly under the ballast/lamp, thankfully. It looks like all plants are in flower now, but the big one is still ahead. Per advice of this sites awesome experts, I've stopped defoliating and stressing them so they can peacefully move along to their next phase of life. I've upped the nutes and feed the Monster a gallon of solution; the others get 1/2 gallon. I will likely run the Flower Fuel for a couple more weeks but suspect I am at least a month out from harvest. If I hadn't bent/topped the Monster in half week 4, it'd be well over 6 feet tall at this point. While my smallest (the stunted seedling), is just over 12". The other 2 are 18"-20". The Monster is about 30" and about 2' diameter (see photos, back right). The ghetto SCROGing is doing the trick but makes watering a pain in the ass........ 4 identical seeds. 4 completely different plants. While the plants are healthy, consistency in genes is clearly lacking here. Auto's NEVER do what the data sheets say but these RQS girls are all over the place. Fingers-crossed.....

Day 56. They are all in flower now but still haven't went full on bloom, except the Monster....who is ever hungry. The 3 others finished their stretching and are about a foot shorter than the Monster plant. This is presenting an issue of sorts. I got a bit of light burn on the big plant (40" tall) because it was about 10" away, so I've raised my light up about as far as it can go on 6ft. tent. So, the Monster is now about 14" away and the rest are about 24", quite a difference for flowering. The small plants may suffer a bit because of the distance away from appropriate PAR levels. They all seem healthy, the stunted one has caught up in stretching. Some nutrient tip burn, but the seem to want to be over-fed: saggy, furled between feedings. The Ghetto SCRoG is a success so far, I feel like I would've had to pull the large plant without doing it (insane!?!). A nice(ish) even canopy exists with the Monster ever looming in the back, right corner. This truly is a FULL "meter squared" of growing tops, per manufacturer yield standard. Its all trimmed up/lollipopped, so hopefully this is the downhill part. The day temps are a bit higher and I might open a window up to cool them off... @NewfieFarmer just harvested his RQS NLA at around 13 weeks, I suspect mine is the same schedule. Food for thought. Feeding these girls is a pain with the SCRoGing. Its difficult to get to the coco surface to water. When the buds come in full effect, this will be even more tedious. I have rigged up my one gallon can (see pic) with a 2ft. piece of 16/22 aquarium hose (I hope my coral don't mind). This allows me to pour while directing the stream. Sort of like taking a wizz...... Any suggestions on how to better water, SCRoG, grow is always welcome. Thanks for reading!

Day 63. The lower right plant has stopped flowering, it's stuck in this pre-flower stretch limbo in the 9th (!?) week. The rest are slowly filling bud sites. The light (315w CMH) is at its absolute max height and causing some issues with the Monster plant and heat damage. I just have to let it go, as I have little options of raising the light and lowering the intensity seems foolish. They all seem healthy, yet wildly unpredictable. This week seals the deal. No more RQS seeds. This is my 3rd grow with this breeder, and it's the same ol' story. Not having predicable genetics and some resemblance of similar phenos makes growing stressful. These plants are all over the place with nutrient demands, growth sizes, and half were stunted as seedlings. At this point, who really knows if this grow will finish properly as there are so many questions at this point. I planted 4 seeds of the same strain to make life easier, not second guess every grow week. Yes, it's a big plant. Yes, it "looks" like big yields. If the non-flowering plant doesn't go this week, I'm going to pull it. Maybe try putting it under 12/12 to see if its photoperiod (which I suspect). I'm looking at a 16 week + autoflower. A waste of time and energy, in my opinion. FastBuds or photos only , in my future...

Day 70. The monster plant now has obtuse competition. Plant in the front right is still in veg, stretching like it wants to go into flower. This is the 4th week of this nonsense. Its almost as tall as the Monster plant and is stealing light from the shorter plants now. This is why genetics matter: When one plant is 14" taller than the rest, the other plants suffer. When one plant decides to flower 2 weeks before the others, other plants suffer. When one plant doesn't want to go into flower for 10 weeks (?!), the other plants suffer. Crazy different plants, all the same seed pack from RQS. Now on to nutrients. I'm a light feeder, always have been. Its only because I grow in coco. If I was using soils I probably wouldn't even bother feeding autos. But these girls are different, like the 3 bears and Goldilocks. One plant (smallest) suffers if you give it any calmag now. Its leaves curl and wilt. The other plants used to love a FULL (16 ml/g AB) feeding but now they also act awry when feeding. The monster plant is the most resilient to this but I've taken it down to 10ml/g and stopped using flower fuel. The plant still in veg gets plain water only now, in some veiled attempt to slow its growth down. I asked the question "what should I do" with the perma-stretch plant to this awesome community. I got 4 great answers, all of which would likely work. In the mode of this grand experiment of abuse and seeing how far we can take them, I'm going to take this suggestion when the time comes: "hi Bezzy@, your plant should not be automatic, some phenotypes of some strains of automatic plants show stability problems and are not autos, they are feminized. you will have to change to 12h / 12h for it to start flowering. in order not to harm the other automatic plants wait until they have the best shaped and fattest buds and put on 12/12 the last 2-3 weeks. I already finished the last weeks of several automatic plants at 12h / 12h and I never felt harmed in the harvest for that. good luck mate 👍" @OGgrows It's like putting a car in neutral for the last part of the trip. Then we can try to train the vegging plant to get a bit of height off it. In the words of @rhodes68: "Take care of it, could be a Monster" lol, monsters aren't all they are cracked up to be.....

Day 77. The Monster plant is swelling up nicely and has a lot of glitter now. The others are catching up in flower, but all have different needs. Basically, the 2 on the left are getting half feedings (10ml/gal A/B) and the ones on the right are just getting RO water. The monster is fading from the bottom up now and the other plants are following. This auto grow is really pushing the edge of the autoflower life cycle. Im optimistic that they will finish up though. So strange.... The monster plant has what appears to be tip burn, only it hasn't been fed in 9 days, just water. I suspect its starting its end of life fade but in a strange way. I've removed about 2 handfuls of yellow leaved from the bottom of the plants. The back left corner is slowing down flowering and fading without a lot of bud production. Super leafy and small. Now on to the new problem child in the tent. So, one of these plant is now the biggest (over 40") and still vegging. I know it a photo but I'm trying to allow it to share space for a week or two more. Then I'll flip it to flower. Hopefully after I harvest the monster plant. I defoliated it hardcore and lollipopped it again, just to try to stunt it a bit. Still only feeding it water. The size will be a problem, but I'm optimistic about training it once I have some room in my tent. I'll start another diary for the photo auto when time permits. I'm going to take some clones of it to, assuming that RQS used their own Northern Light Photo when crossbreeding their autos. Maybe flower the clones and keep this big one as a mother. I don't know much about this process but any advice would be much appreciated!

Day 77. Slow going still. The monster plants pistils are starting to go amber and the other 2 seems to be catching up. I suspect I'm still a couple weeks out and likely more on at least one plant (back left corner). The pistils on that plant are 3x thicker than the other 2 flowering. They have a blue hue to them and the bud sites are super leafy. All trichomes are still clear. The photo-auto is now 43" tall. I got some root powder and will take clones next week to put under a old T5 aquarium light. I think I'll veg those out and flower the "mother". If it turns out to be a good plant, the clones should be ready to flower when the mother is done. This will work in perfect world, but I suspect this process will be sketchy and completely unreliable. This kind of sucks still. I should be into my dry and cure. The crispy leaves worry me too, making for a harsh smoke. RQS claims this strain is "perfect for beginners" and "ideal for indoors". In this batch of seeds, this is simply false. You'll need a tent/area over 6ft tall and I can't imagine 4 plants (same strain) that require vastly different care is good for anybody, let alone a beginner. Fingers still crossed....

This RQS auto was all over the place. Crazy height differences, nutrient requirements, and finish times. One plant never flowered and is being cloned out and trained in the tent for RQS NLA v2. In the end, a pretty good yield (still waiting on another 30+ grams from the last auto plant) and a pretty plant. Just a pain in my ass! Keep looking for the trained photo-auto monster, I'll keep this dairy going.

Day 101. I just put the last of this auto crop in 2 days of dark. Then a week long dry out, I'll post the wet/dry weight in the next entry, along with the re-vegging of the stubborn monster plant. Stay tuned!

Retrained (like the RACK!) this stubborn monster to try and get my budz worth. I basically tied loops around the 4 corners of my tent and spread the pant out from its center; opening up new nodes to the light. I fed it. In a couple days I'll clone it. In about a week I'll flip it to 12-12, keeping the clones for yet another chapter in the RQS NLA saga....

The week after the LSTing, it bounced back well. The light is max height and the temps are good. Started to do A/C in the room too. This auto is definitively photo, so I'm keeping this journal alive as proof of this. Auto's sometimes don't pass the ruderalis genes, making it a straight up photo. This has vegged for about 3 months or more. It's a monster now, filling up the 3x3.

Finally flipping this auto/photo after 16 weeks! Can't wait to see if this actually produces. Another 8 weeks or so to go. It even stretched a bit, to almost 50". THe light is on zip ties, as high up as possible. I feed it some "shooting" powder Flower Fuel and decreased my N feedings.

They are now full on flower! No smell really but definitely packing on the weight. I did remove some leaves from bud sites for more light, and I did notice that the lower stalks are turning purple. I suspect this is from stress of being auto vegged for 3 months, relentlessly defoliated, HST/LST, taken out from the tent lights, stretched to twice its diameter and then lollipopped (again). The base of the plant is easily 3" diameter now and it NEEDS nutrients. Some yellowing and drooping if I miss a feed or water light. She is a monster, just like her Auto cousins.

Still no heavy smell but filling in nicely. Some tric formation but definitely firm buds. Some amber pistil but probably has a few more weeks more more to go. Last week of heavy feedings and I'll try to start to bring the temps down at night to bring out her colors. The lower stems are purple and the change is near. This thing is massive.....