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[UPDATE]: thanks to @NPKAllTheWay and @The_420 for the help; after having understood how to count weeks for the plants (I told you, I'm a total newbie! :) ) I have now decided to create a new diary so that each plant has its own one. So, Hindu Kush Auto is being tracked here: https://growdiaries.com/diaries/60535-sensi-seeds-hindu-kush-automatic-grow-journal-by-cuchillo
First time grower here: I have read many GrowDiaries in the past, and I'd first like to thank everyone sharing their pics and notes on this amazing website. I have used (and currently using) many of the diaries as reference for my first growing experience. I have also been doing a lot of research online to know what to expect next, hoping no major problems will show up-
So, let's start: I bought two different strains in packs of 3 seeds, Fat Banana Auto (directly from RQS) and Hindu Kush Auto (this time from a local grow shop). Planted them in Jiffys, and after 4 days Fat Banana arose from the soil; Hindu Kush on the other hand had some problems, and the first seed did not popped. Planted then another seed ,and this time it worked -I think that the problem is linked to how the seeds were stored by the local grow shop, and they sold me some "too old" seeds.. However I planted Hindu not too deep and had to manually (with a pair of very fine and disinfected tweezers) remove the seed shell and the membrane.
Anyway, they are now both in 9L vases (one each), and looking pretty good - at least, that's what I hope & think. The vases are filled with Biobizz Light Mix, which I watered with approx 1.5L and let "work their magic" for at least 24hrs before planting the seedlings. Only using tap water now (here it comes out at approx 7.3pH), which I boiled for 20 mins and let sit for at least 30 hrs. From what I gathered, Light Mix adjusts the pH "automagically" if it's slightly above or below the desired 6.5.
Temperatures here are good: 20/25° C during the day, with plenty of (direct) sunlight - approx 8/10hrs a day. During the night temperatures drop to 15°C, and I bring the plants inside my apartment. Days are quite windy and refreshing, and - as far as I understood - it's a great thing that allows the plants to grow even better. I haven't checked for humidity, but these days have been quite dry - compared to what is going to come in the next months.
A couple more details:
Fat Banana took 4 days to pop up, and has been in the vase for 8 days now.
Fingers crossed, and see you next week :)
A fairly general (and rather stupid) question: when does the week-count for plants begin? Does week 1 start from the germination, or from when the seed sprouts and is (in my case) put into the vase?
Week 1 starts when u see her break the soil for the first time. So after germinating the seed and putting it in your medium, and when u actually see her popping out, thats start of week 1. Good luck!
Well, this second week is now almost finished, and this lady looks beautiful and healthy (at least, that's what I think).
Gave them a little water only, and she seems to respond well: soil is quite dry at the top, but still humid approx 2cm below the top.
The second level of leaves has now appeared, and I can't wait to see her full potential.
From what I read, autoflowering should be given very little amounts of nutes; and - as a rule of thumb - I understood that:
- these should be approx. 1/4 the dosage suggested on the nutes bottles
- nutes feeding should start when the 4th layer of leaves pops up
is this correct?
Hi growmie! Hope your doing well, it depends on alot of factors to be honest.
You are growing in soil, a light mix which typically has enough nutes for about 2 weeks, i count that above 1 week of seedling stage so 3 in total. After that you can start dosing nutes, but although your pH will be corrected by the soil, you still need to measure ppm/ec of your feed water. So no 1/4 of the dose or 0.5 of this but in ppm or ec scale.
After week 2/3, look at your plant, is it lushly green or does it has symptoms of underfeeding( pale green etc etc ). If its al looking good feed plain water and measure the ppm/ec of that feed, and also feed enough to get a 20% runoff from the bottem, and measure that ppm/ec aswell.
On your next watering you add nutes, if the ppm reading was lower than the range you want to be in for that week, add some more nutes, like 100ppm more. Visa versa lower your nutes by 100ppm.
Just measure your feed in always and write it down, once a week measure the runoff aswell and adjust your feeding to it.
One more thing: measure your pH aswell, these buffering magic soils arent that magical imo. You better water at correct pH so it wont swing to much and your plant will love you.
When you measure you know, and its nice to know what your doing if you want to max out your yields, i learned it the hard way, check out my purple lemonade diary and check out the differences.
Happy growing and if you have any question, be my guest growmie😁👊
Not much to say, beside thanks to all the people who answered my questions :) Still have to understand the whole ppm/EC thing, will take some time to study it.
In the meantime this lady seems to be getting bigger and bigger by the hour, can't wait to see her full potential.
This week will probably start with a light use of nutes, once I got my head around the technical details of feeding nutes - I have bought the Canna kit, containing Vega and Flores.
[UPDATE day 20]: gave her the first nutes 4 days ago - and no more watering since - and she seems to respond perfectly. My other plant (Hindu Kush Auto) is 1 week younger and has already started to have a very very weak smell; this however is still odourless. Also, I'm starting to fear that she's not growing that much, but we'll see. Fingers crossed 😋
[UPDATE day 21]: last day of this 3rd week, still waiting to give her more water & nutes. She looks healthy to me, and has now started to have a very subtle (and amazing) smell. I have also now bought a pH and TDS meter (thanks @Growlecule for the suggestion), so that I can have a better understanding of what's going on - and will be able to provide more info in my diaries.
See you in week 4!! 😉
Hello.. Hope you are well.. Yes u can start lst on her know.. Usually wait until she has a few sets of leaves n nodes then start bending her around.. B gentle tho as she's delicate.. New growth is always easier to bend without breaking stems.. Stay safe n gud luck with her.. 👍🍀
Beginning of a new week, the plant still looks healthy to me; I received today the TDS/ppm meter, and did some fiddling around with the tap water I have been using: the ppm seems to be incorrect (too low). Will do some more testing - newbie here, so I need some time to understand the whole ppm thing- and report back to the diary once I have the ppm-thing set up.
[UPDATE day 23] Been doing some research after getting my pH & TDS/ppm/EC meters, and here's how I went about the whole thing.
I have used plain tap water (pH: 7.6; ppm: 280) and added (filtered) lemon juice to bring the pH to 6.25. Then added 1ml of Canna Vega, resulting in a ppm of 395. Gave 1L to the plant, and measured the run-off, which reads as follows: pH 5.41; ppm 925; EC 1850 micro-s/cm.
I'm still unsure as to how I should fill the diary details: should I insert pH and ppm from the run-off, or from the water before I gave it to the plant? I'll find out :)
[UPDATE day 27]: She is definitely getting taller <3 Still I'm not sure whether her size is below average... Anyway, I'm very happy with how she looks and smells, and it's almost beginning of week 5! Keep you updated!
[UPDATE day 28]: last day of the 4th week, and I think she's preflowering - see the related pics. I have also tried my first LST, the idea is to get the sun to reach the lower branches AND the "pistils" (is this what they are called?) that I take as a sign of preflowering. Haven't watered her ever since day 23 (see log update above), she looks healthy and the soil is still wet.
See you in the 5th week!
Beginning of week 5, the weather has been mostly cloudy, so not a lot of growing for her. She responded very well to my first very-light LST (the same day I applied LST, she readjusted the top part!), and I'm hoping for some proper sun to give her a boost. Might feed her today (after 7 days of diet) with water and some veg nutes.
[UPDATE day 30]: fed her with 1lt of water + 1ml of Canna Terra Vega | pH: 6.9; ppm: 372; EC 734 µs/cm. The run-off read as follows: pH: 5.7; ppm: 800; EC 1,640 µs/cm.
From the suggestions gathered from other users (special thanks to @growlecule), the soil I'm using (Biobizz Light Mix) still contains a good dosage of nutes (which should have only lasted for 2/3 weeks), probably because I haven't watered the plant that much. This is her 7th watering, and the 3rd one with 1lt (the previous ones were approx 200ml each); so I suppose that many of the nutes originally in the soil haven't yet been washed away.
She looks fine and happy (see pics from day 31, 1 day after the last feeding), so fingers crossed :)
[update day 34]: almost the end of week 5, and she's stretching quite a lot - at least, that's what it seems to me. Weather has been quite miserable in the past 3/4 days, but today the sun's back and I applied some new LST. Overall she seems healthy, and I hope she'll bring a lot of flowers 😋
Start of a new week (a day ago now), and she still looks healthy! Judging from the pistils (or better, what I think are pistils!) I'd say that she's now in her flowering stage.
I might start using some flowering nutes this week (Canna Terra Flores is what I have), but considering how little water I have been giving her I'm not sure that will make a huge difference.
As a rule of thumb, I've been watering my plants when the first 2-3cm of soil are dry - at least that's what I found online.
Fingers crossed, and if you have any comment/suggestions, please leave them here :)
[UPDATE day 38]: on day 37 she - apparently - went in full blooming. And started showing some spots on the lower leaves - I suspect a magnesium deficiency, judging from the info I found online. Once this is confirmed (I have opened a question) I'll look into it, and maybe apply some Epsom Salt. As for the rest, she looks fairly strong and still stretching.
[UPDATE day 41]: next-to-last day of this 6th week, and found out - through a visit to my local grow shop - that those tiny spots are signs of thrips! 😵 Bought some "Protect Killer" (80% Neem oil, 20% Citric Acid) and applied thoroughly on this and the other plant. Tomorrow they're staying indoor, in front of the window, protected by the mosquito net. The plant looks clean now, but I'd rather have them inside for 3/4 days and check that no more thrips lay their lurid eggs than have them outside sunbathing with those thrips going around. Today it was also feeding day, and I have started using blooming nutes + some CalMag. Fingers crossed, even though I'm a bit scared by the infestation 😣
Total newbie, so my question is: is she in flowering stage? From what I understood, and judging from the white pistils, she should be, but before feeding her with flowering nutes I'd prefer to have the word of someone more knowledgeable than me.
Hey there 👋
It’s up to you. If you’d like harvest sooner you can start with bloom nutrients now, but you can alway wait until the end of her stretch if you want to maximize your yield.
Either way, start slow. 50/50 bloom and veg nutrients- eventually phasing out the veg.
Happy Growing 🌱
Is this a sign of magnesium deficiency (my other plant has similar spots)? If so, I've read online (on the Canna nutes website) that I should spray the leaves with Epsom Salt (2% solution): is this correct? Any other suggestions? Thanks in advance
With the help of my local growshop, I found out that the spots are signs of thrips infestation!! 😵
Bought Protect Killer (80% Neem extract, 20% Citric extract), and used it to thoroughly spray my plants. They're staying indoor (in front of the window) for the next 3/4 days for more control...fingers crossed!😟
Day 46, and thrips are still thriving 😩
Applied Protect Killer (80% Neem oil, 20% Citric acid) twice, very thoroughly, and have kept all the plants indoor - on the windowsill, with the mosquito net - for the past 5 days, and obviously they haven't been getting a proper sunbath. While I guess that no new eggs have been laid during the past 5 days, there still are tiny little thrip-bugs on all the plants; I have also removed some leaves - a few of which had clear signs of eggs - but I'm honestly getting quite desperate.
My local growshop has suggested using Mighty Wash, which I should get tomorrow.
Leaving aside all concerns regarding the buds' taste - I have read that using Neem oil on flowers almost certainly leaves a bad taste - these thrips are driving me crazy, and have thought more than once of dumping all of my plants.
If anyone has any suggestion on how to save my plants - and therefore my future crop -, it'd be more than welcome.
End of week 8, and the plant is looking great despite some scars from the previous thrips infestation - which seems to have stopped almost 10 days ago now.
The smell is now very strong and very fruity, and it's driving me mad: I'd like to smoke her now, she smells amazing :)
Weather has been fairly miserable, but yesterday's full sun made her sticky and superbeautiful.
Today or tomorrow is feeding time, and I might give her some extra flowering-nutes so that those amazing flowers get bigger.
New week, and some feeding (after 11 days where, due to miserable weather, the soil was always a bit moist).
Going great, amazing smell, now it should only start to develop some bigger buds - fingers crossed! :)
cuchillo
