Third Go: Royal Gorilla Automatic by RQS

On February 8th, I harvested my first ever cannabis plant. Late January I began to plan out my third grow, aka this one. Those seeds arrived on February 7th. Impulsively, I prepped and potted those new seeds without hesitation. So here’s how it went down, I had 4 seven gallon pots with Barney’s Farm Purple Punch Auto. Three plants were about three weeks younger than my first harvest. So after dropping down to three pots, I could sense there would be enough room to start up my new seeds. Hindsight being what it is, I should have waited a week but writing this in April, I'm glad they got that extra week. So the half of a plan I concocted involved jiffy seed starter and peat starter pots. The plan included starting all the seeds straight into aforementioned peat starters filled with also previously mentioned seed starter mix. This would be a mistake, but that’s for later. All pots got put in a smallish box that could hold five. Three days later, six seedlings emerged under their clear plastic cup domes. The other four showed up within 24 hours so I officially declared the 11th Day Zero. All seedlings seemed to be in good shape and humming along. Minimal water. I placed the boxes on top of vertically standing cinder blacks so the seedlings were elevated to about the height of the smaller two remaining plants. By Valentine’s Day a problem emerged. The peat starters were getting moldy! I had some neem oil so I pulled all the peat starts and sprayed them down to buy some time to trouble shoot. The next day I went to a local garden supply store and got three bags of Foxfarm Ocean Forrest which I’d been planning on filling up new 3 gallon fabric pots with anyway. The first harvest had some solid left in the 7 gallon pot and I had another unused. I mixed what was left in the one pot with OF and filled the other with only OF. All the moldy growth was dead but they couldn’t stay out of dirt, so they all got put in two 7 gallon pots late after midnight on February 16th. So the half concocted plan ended up with 5 seven gallon pots in my tent. There they would stay until... Grow notes: No nutrients, just light water. Domes came off by day 3. Seed starter was great for germination as 10 of 10 grew. Initial transplant had taproots growing out of the bottom hole of most plants, all kept intact on first transplant. Temps and humidity of tent rarely checked as hygrometer broke but tent stayed consistently in the 72-76 range all of January with RH varying from 40 to 60.

Week 2 was a breeze! Two of the three other plants were getting close, but I knew from my first harvest I preferred a later harvest. Accordingly, week 2 was fine because the small starter pots did fine in other soil. It prevented the mold growth on the outside of the peat pots. They'd all been resprayed with neem oil before the initial transplant. They look soaked in each picture because each pot got about .5L a day. The soils were bone dry so I wanted to make sure the roots were able to get water under the peat pots. It makes sense in my head, but they weren't getting water the days between. At this point they need to be transplanted again, but I don't have the room in the tent. Tentatively planning on pulling the two closest to harvest out Maybe Thurs 2/27 and give them 48 hours darkness in a closet to open room up for the 3 gallon pots. By this point, I'd had some pretty intense pH issues with my first two grows, so I've been checking that on all water fed to plants - keeping things around 6.5 using filtered water, FoxFarm nutrients (when/if necessary) and General Hydroponics pH Up & Down.

Week 3 is an interesting one for sure. Early in the week I knew there was going to be changes soon. What I didn't expect was a notice on my door of a safety inspection. I'm growing in a city that is cool with cannabis for the most part, but the rest of the state is pretty not...yet. So I knew I couldn't make any drastic changes the night of 2/25. The next morning before work, I figured out what to do. I took down the whole tent. Everything went back in its original packaging except the tent itself which got rolled as small as possible and shoved in a storage bin. All five 7 gallon fabric pots, with 10 immature and 3 mature plants went into my storage closet connected to the patio for the 12 hours I'd be gone for work. At worst, I imagined maintenance would be in my place for 15 minutes tops. I was probably overshooting that by 10 minutes. The notice said they check smoke detectors, pipes, and look for water damage and they have 300+ units to inspect. 5 minutes for my place which was otherwise pretty immaculate (cluttered, but very tidy) probably wouldn't give anyone a moment's pause even if it smelled a bit weedy. Everything seemed fine when I got home, and they survived 12 hours in a cool, but not cold storage room. I reconfigured the apartment as I put the tent back together that night. Since I rarely have company, I figured I'd just set everything back up in the living space of the 1 bedroom apartment. I reclaimed my closet that night and left all 7 gallon pots to have some light before I messed with everything...again. After the first two pictures on 2/27, I pulled the two plants that were ready for harvest to open the space. Laboriously, I pulled and repotted all 10 peat starters, saving as much root under as I could. It was hard to tell how much damage I caused, but I made a crucial mistake here that has affected the rest of the grow. The peat starter pots are designed to degrade slowly allowing your plants to thrive. Well, they don't biodegrade over the short span of an autoflower, so they basically are just blocking roots. I did not pull the plants out of the peat pots but put those straight into the 3 gallon pots filled with Ocean Forrest. Slowly over the course of weeks, with adorable zen garden tools, I've picked and ripped away most of the top portions and successfully integrated the soils. But if I'd pulled the pots off now, oh so much trouble saved. They were triumphantly, all 10 when I'd hoped for 8, back in the tent, with room to spread. Well, sort of. Since I'd been planning on some time with one of the 7 gallon pots for sure with all the Gorillas (he said GO-rilla, not GUE-rilla. GOrilla. GUErilla. HUGE DIFFERENCE!!), making all 10 fit took some Tetris skill. I brought back one of the cinderblocks, put two plants on that near the height of the last Barney's Farm Purple Punch Auto. One got squeezed between the cinderblock on the tent wall, but fit. No, it didn't really, but the tent shut. Much like March would do, week 3 wasn't done delivering setbacks. This one intentional. On day 20, based on perceived success with topping PPA3 from my second grow, I decided to top all 10 to control height. My LST on the first two plants of the second grow were not done with a light enough touch for an auto, so I for sure topped 5 and tried to FIM 5. One of the FIMmed plants went triceratops, but all others responded well. The group shot on 3/2/20 has a little bit of debrided plant material on top of more peat I consistently pulled from the larger pots. Perhaps week 4 will bring some normalcy. By the end of week three, several plants were clearly smaller, and one was showing various unknown issues while the squeezed pot probably had roots affected. Even if two of them were to die, I'll still have my original goal of 8 healthy plants. Time will tell. Grow notes: multiple issues described above, light water every other day, no added nutrients.

Lots of pictures this week, but finally a mostly boring week for the plants. As of 3/9, PPA3 from my second grow is out of the tent. All 10 are on the tent floor and I ordered plant stands because I noticed a familiar problem: mold. Since the plants were pretty well mushed together, and since my second small fan was in the closet helping dry other plants, there had been nearly zero air flow. Mold resurfaced on several of the pots. Every plant was pulled and checked and sprayed with neem oil if there was anything visible on the exterior. I ordered two new fans. However, once all 10 were on the ground, there was actually about an inch between the pots when carefully arranged. Along with the neem oil and space and more air flow, the problem hopefully won't return. I should have taken pictures of this. As for the plants themselves, they seemed to take to the topping and FIMing well. A couple started to streeeetch, a couple seemed to take their sweet ass time recovering, one looked like garbage but had the strongest stalk. With the one exception, I think most of the plants were quite healthy other than some stress. Nutrient note, I think they got about 5-10 ML of Fox Farm Grow Big about 4 days after the topping. A few showed some tip burns, but most took them okay I think. It may have been unnecessary. Letting the fresh soil the roots keep finding provide most of the nutrients. Haven't bothered to research what is causing the malnourished plant (yet it confounds me because it is otherwise the fittest stem and size wise). Not going to mess with it yet. A couple other GrowDiaries suggest that Gorilla Auto by RQS tends to need CalMag, so maybe that will be in at least one plant's future. Maybe getting about .5 L of pH 6.5 water every two days now. I kept track more by the moisture in the soil than time. By the end of week 4, I had sufficient airflow restored, several plants about to dry, and the world was about to change.

Week 5 began on March 11th, 2020. On the evening of March 11th, 2020, the NBA postponed their season. My profession had me abreast of the exploding epidemic, but I hadn't quite anticipated it happening so quickly. The next few days I reassured people at work to be ready for life to significantly change. Not sure how many people took me seriously, but after leaving for home on March 13th, I haven't been back to work. I do however still have a job and am working from home as best I can. Accordingly, the journal will suffer a bit from here. Grow wise, there has been damn near nothing to do this week. They get water every two to three days. Like my previous grows, I'm likely underwatering a bit, but I don't especially want to overwater and make a mess in the tent. With ten plants, pulling each pot out to feed individually seems too time consuming (although it seems like I'll have plenty of time to do that If I want as well). With the weirdness and uncertainty of the world these days, I keep not taking pictures even though it is my intention. The small box fan on the left is too bulky to be inside, so I moved it after this picture to outside the vent and pulled the vent cover over. The air flows in pretty well and not much violet light seeps out. After a couple plants clawed a bit from one light feed, I haven't done any other nutrients. Ocean Forrest seems to be supplying most all the nutrition they need. I'm officially off work all this week and I doubt I return next week, but there's no official word yet. As of March 17th, I don't expect to return to work anytime soon. China has basically been on lockdown since late January to try to control this virus, so we'll see what happens here (USA).

Week 6 honestly went by in a bit of a haze. I was off work, basically just enjoying the fruits of my first two grows. I snapped one picture but otherwise was on autopilot as far as really keeping track for this diary. Each plant got just about a half gallon of pH 6.5 water (which I only check every two or three waterings now because my methods yield stable outcomes) every two or three days. There was a definite underwater where I think they went 3 full days without water. No major effects noticed after getting fed. Due to rising local temperatures and a shitty apartment AC unit, I switched to 18/6 sometime this week to get two few hours with warm air circulated in my place. It helps. i don't know if there'll be any impact on yield that my novice growing skills would even notice. Pistils started shooting out for about 5-6 of the plants this week. I think those are a similar phenotype and the others that seem to be flowering much slower and are physically taller plants feel like a second phenotype from the RQS Royal Gorilla. The smell isn't too noticeable yet, but its there. As of 3/24/20, I know I'll be working from home for the time being. The 'official' return date is April 6th, but that feels like a long way away with what I worry is coming our way. We'll be number one in worldwide confirmed cases of Covid-19 in days as testing ramps up here. My last harvested plant is in jars--looks and smells fucking amazing! So I got that going for me...which is nice.

Week 7 hummed along. A couple plants got a few ml of CaliMagic (GH I think) one day and they all got 5 ml/gal of Tiger Bloom once. Otherwise staying right on a every other day water schedule. 18/6 light schedule seems to have made no noticeable impact but my apartment is definitely noticeably cooler. As for the phenotypes, I'm currently writing up this week on 4/3/20 and the other discernible trait is the leaves for the taller, slower plant are far less green despite near identical water and nutrient regimens. I'm not going to add any nitrogen this late for anything, but worth noting for any future RQS Gorilla Auto grows. Life is not normal, but this grow is helping me stay sane. I also have legit flowers and veggies growing on my patio now that its both sunny and warm enough for outdoor containers. All my old 7 gallon pots are in use!

Week 8 so far has nothing exciting to report. Since the larger plants seem to be a bit more yellow, I gave them a half dose of Tiger Bloom while the rest just got regular water all week. Fresh Ocean Forrest is pretty outstanding for an autoflower run! Harvest is coming up quick but still plenty of time to plan. Trimming and hanging one or two plants at a time is easy. 10 plants, planning to stagger harvests, might leave me in awkward stages of growth, but I think that is what I'd like to do. Likely no colas are harvest before 4/21 (day 70), but will need much more hanger space and capacity as well as storage so yeah. Diatribe over. The poster tube keeps the suction from compressing the plants too much btw. I don't think there will be a flush or anything with these plants, just planning on harvesting colas as they are ready and trimming to hang on the spot. Just rolling with fresh 6.5 pH water. I meant to include this over the last few week comments, but I have this small zen gardening tool set that I use to till each plant before I water so it more evenly distributes and doesn't run right out the fucking side! Flashback to week 3 as I was transplanting into their final homes, I realized the peat pots would be an issue. For at least the last half I was ripping them down the side and trying to work in the vermiculite based seed starter mix with the ocean forrest WITHOUT damaging roots. Who knows if that had more to do with how the plants expressed than anything else, but I think the genetics were showing before any the second transplant. Ohh, yeah, I kind of lost it there for a second...anyway... As I'd realized while finishing the transplants, I needed to shred the peat pots in the soil, so I've been chopping with the mini zen garden rake. The plan to reintegrate the soil so the heart of the root isn't always dead on in the moisture retaining seed starter mix. It took weeks, but overall it worked. I've been pulling out various size chunks of peat pot from most of the pots every tilling. As my other grows have always stipulated from the start, this is always more about the learning than the final product, but since I know I can make a pretty good final product with minimal effort... Basically dog days here for this grow while the world burns. Cheers! Smoke 'em if you got 'em!

At this point, I wasn't really feeding right so there were some cal-mag issues that started to show around this week. Most were looking well on their way, but a couple of the taller, lighter plants were very slow to flower. If I had been feeding on a schedule and not when it seemed right, this would have been preventable. April wasn't a much easier month than March, so I wasn't really paying the right kind of attention to these plants even though I was right there. Stay tuned for the harvest update to see how maybe the feeding didn't really even matter!!

By now, I'd been neglecting the plants pretty good, all kinds of issues were happening. I flushed a couple around this week and did what I could with trying to get nutrient balances back. Again, I wasn't following a schedule, so I think the plants needed to eat more than I gave and they suffered as a result. Again, caveat to the harvest update because the root cause was likely something else.

Alright, so, I got myself in gear a little bit at least enough to start to harvest. One plant was chopped on day 71 (4.21.20) and the main colas from four more plants got chopped and hung to dry on day 73 (4.23.20). For the most part, the plants just got water from here on. There were two smaller, green as hell plants that got nutrients another time or two, but otherwise water for the remainder. I was looking with a 30x magnification jeweler's loupe so I think I took the plants about when they were ready. Maybe a bit early on the first plant, but not by much. Gauging and finishing the harvest got much more difficult hereafter.

So I staggered the harvest over the course of almost a month. The first plant went down on day 71 and the last plants finally got whatever was left on day 96. The last plants in the tent were mostly harvested, so those were always going to be used for edibles/butter, not smoking so the final weights are probably a smidge higher than if I was only counting the best smokeable buds. Early on I harvested one full plant, then another on day 73 along with 3 other plants main colas. So at that point two plants were fully out of the tent and 4 had yet to be cut at all. Day 79 saw most of the remaining plants get harvested. Something like 210 wet grams that night. There was one other harvest night that I don't specifically remember which day and I have no photos, but about another 180 wet grams was harvested then. The final four plants that had some growth were chopped at the base and hung whole. All told, I trimmed about 70 grams off to make edibles. They stayed in the tent pretty late so there's some really strong sedative effects with my cheap edibles (decarbed plant in gel caps). Ultimately, about 90-95 grams usable for edibles, about 190-200 grams of solid smokeable bud. I also have a paper grocery bag full of trim that I dried with a fan, but I might not do much with this time (time and availability of grain alcohol so yeah). All said and done, about 290 grams of varying quality from 10 plants. It sounds like not much, but consider the roots... So the root cause of many issues is going to be the fact that I had to transplant these twice. I was so excited to plant them back in February that I didn't have a good enough plan. So when they ended up in their final pots, I didn't take them out of the peat starters. They do not biodegrade fast enough to allow for autoflowers to really thrive. Accordingly, I had just embarrassingly small taproots in several pots. The taller plants were wobbly as hell due to the fact that none of the plants grew solid lateral roots. Pulling the roots out of the dried soil and seeing how badly the taproots bent at the base of the peat pot and how little burst through the lateral walls made me sad. I realized this was an issue early on after the final transplant, but couldn't do much besides try to rip apart the peat pot without destroying too much of the roots. Lose-lose situation. Finally, who the fuck puts 10 plants in that space. I'll say this, I'm learning as a gardener (I have many other plants/projects), that space really is important and room to flourish is as important as light, water, and nutrients.