Early Miss (CKS) Auto Grow #1

My first grow and I made some beginner mistakes. My tent is only 16"x16"x48" and I wanted to located the filter inside, but its too small to mount it horizontally; therefore, I mounted it vertically which wasn't ideal for temperature control and just took up grow room space. Next grow I will be moving it outside and reversing the filter. Other big ones were mainly lighting, and not recognizing nutrient deficiencies until late in the grow, while mistakenly thinking (based on the advertised 7 week timeline) that I was too far into flower to correct it, since nutrients needed to be ordered, when really the plant was many weeks away from harvest though learning that was part of the experience. There were many lessons in this grow. This first week was mostly just watering and maintaining the plant and grow environment. Next grow, instead of 65% RRH I'll be going for 60% instead, and watering more carefully, but otherwise this week seems fine.

In hindsight, I should have kept the humidity closer to 55-60% this week but that's a lesson for the next grow; and I started LST a bit too soon (or tried to), which is another lesson, although neither error, in hindsight, is that significant and just part of the learning experience.

I began this week viewing LST as a "necessary evil" though after a few sessions it became my second favorite part of growing.

Various items I ordered for the grow arrived at the beginning of this week, including a second hydrometer, and it was only through that, that I realized the humidity in the tent was as high as it had been the weeks before. Prior to that, I'd thought my other hydrometer faulty and had been dismissing it as reading about 10 points too high since it disagreed with the hydrometer on by dehumidifier by as much as 10%. Once I realized how high the humidity really was, the first day of this week, I dialed it back from the 65% it was the weeks before to the 50% zone that was the target for week 4. Too keep initial setup costs down, I postponed buying nutes but did throw in a bottle of Golden Tree, which was billed as both an 0-0-2 additive and "plant food" and I didn't know enough about cannabis plants at this point to realize that an 0-0-2 cannabis additive would only be just that, and not "food" that could sustain it throughout the grow. But the additive is billed as "steroids for plants" and it seemed that way since it was my plant's first taste of nutrients and it responded well. It responded so well that, with this strain being billed as 7 weeks and my also not realizing that wasn't going to happen through the same inexperience as it just didn't click then that there was no way this plant would go through the entire flower stage on that timeline, but such is the way things are learned sometimes. I didn't expect the Golden Tree to do the impossible and reverse damage I'd already done, so I wasn't disappointed when it didn't but it did seem to help spur vegetative growth as promised. I don't regret buying it since it delivered as much or more than could be expected of what is basically a 0-0-2 kelp based potassium additive. There are many of them out there that do the same thing, and since some do it for cheaper, I'll use up the small 2 ounce bottle it comes in then switch to something more reasonably priced that comes in bigger bottles.

Some experimentation gone wrong with the LED, compounded maybe by temps being about a degree higher than where I think the sweet spot is in early veg for this plant: lowered it, briefly, to 9" before moving it up to 12" when observing some LED bleaching and heat stress. Plant is not quite ready for the amount of light this little LED puts out at 9". Living up to its dwarf strain, its been easy to keep low with just LST and its still only about 9" high at the end of week 5, though it is nowhere even close to being near harvest at the 7 week mark that CKS claims. In the journals I've since looked at, 12-14 weeks has been about the average for this strain with some a little earlier and a few outliers being later. There was so much new to me with this, my first time growing anything, that I didn't research other journals until it was so late it no longer mattered for this grow and - thanks to inexperience - thought this would somehow fast flower and be ready by 7 or 8 weeks (which seems silly now). Though that's the only real complaint I can make, and if you grow this strain with a more realistic 12 week timeline in mind (as I will be next time), I think it has a lot going for it and no real drawbacks (as I write this, I'm 3 days into flush so this is almost a post-mortem). A big lesson I was to learn was how important nutrients are to cannabis plants and that any skimping here, without using a super soil, will be punished by nutrient deficiencies that absolutely impact harvest. Going forward, I will be using more nutes both in veg and flower. Since I thought I was closer to harvest than I really was, and having not done enough homework until it really didn't make much difference for this grow..

LST and genetics kept the plant low and reasonably flat (not bad for my first grow I think), though I seriously underestimated how much time was left and thought I might be near flush: a jeweler's microscope was a recent addition and showed some clear, headless trichomes, and going by CKS's 7 week time frame, assumed (from inexperience) that I was nearing flush. In fact, I was nearing several nutrient deficiencies that potting soil with 0-0-2 kelp based extract couldn't handle, though I missed the symptoms until they became unmissable (and by then the plant really was ready to flush).

Despite breaking a cardinal rule by defoliating on the first grow, LST + defoliation has created a very nice flat canopy with many good bud sites. Though I made 3 mistakes, of varying degrees of severity: #1 Not paying close enough attention to the heat and thinking this strain was okay with temps of 27C that sometimes strayed up to 28C, which I don't think it is (I think it mostly prefers 22-25C, if it can get it), though I think in itself that isn't too big since 27 isn't too bad. #2 Not giving it enough light. I mistook the plant's not 'reaching' for the light as it receiving plenty of light, when really its too high for this stage of the plant's life and therefore slowing growth and photosynthesis (and therefore adding time to the grow). This contributed to a long time in flower, though even with the light perfectly placed the 7 week time frame for this strain is unrealistic. #3 Not providing it with any nutes, beyond what's in "premium" potting soil with Humbolt's Gold 0-0-2 potassium booster added in. Which isn't enough, though potassium was the one major nutrient the plant didn't later become deficient in (and the higher temps wouldn't have helped, though they didn't cause it either). A lot of lessons from this grow. It still promises to give up a yield worth the time invested, though the biggest lesson from it was on how important cannabis nutes are (and how suddenly a deficiency can show up).

There was very little to do this week except water the plant and feed it the one additive I've given it since veg. The LED is still higher than it needed to be, looking back, though hindsight is 20/20.

Several nutrient deficiencies are visible and the plant began shedding leaves early. Its still several weeks from harvest, though I thought I was close to flush so I postponed ordering nutes for it.

Getting close to the finish line now. Harvest ETA is Day 90.

There is very little to do except water it now and since the plant is trained and the leaves quite "wooden," I've let off most of the LST as its no longer needed to keep the plant low. The main stalk is bent completely over and has stayed flat, so the plant has stayed very short as its needed to since my tent is very small. This week I got caught up researching the plant nutrition that I had set aside at the beginning of the grow and diagnosed multiple nutrient deficiencies: nitrogen, calcium, magnesium and Iron are the major ones. Hindsight being 20/20, it doesn't surprise me now that a plant grown in "premium potting soil" with only a 0-0-2 weekly nutrient additive would at some point become so nutrient deficient. The plant's leaves look like its ready to harvest, but the buds are still barely formed and trichomes are still clear. Its too late for the nutrients I ordered to make a difference this grow, since I'll be close to flush when they arrive, so they are for next grow: Fearless Gardener Brand Cal Mag, which seems to be a staple and it has iron it as well, and Bud Juice Bloom (0-0-15) which looks similar to Humbolt's in that both are kelp based potassium additives, but Bud Juice has even more potassium and seems the better value - though I won't know until I test it. Those are just the initial additives; I'd look at complete formulas but Amazon's prices really yo-yo and this week none of the complete formulas I looked at were priced where they usually are, or were temporarily out of stock. Cal Mag is from a company that looks new but is Canadian and I'm willing to give them a shot as their stuff is cheaper this week than the better known alternatives (which Amazon has either priced higher or are temporarily out of stock), and Bud Juice's price hasn't moved since I began looking at additives (though I ordered it from Walmart instead where the price was slightly better and this is one of the few nutes they carry). By the time I need them for the next grow, I will have a more complete nutrient setup with Bud Juice Bloom acting as a bloom booster and the rest, aside from the Cal Mag, to be decided later. I've been looking through a lot of journals by others who've grown this strain and had good results to see what they are feeding it and when, at least to see the feed ratios since there are so many different options.

My Cal Mag arrived as did 2 sample sized bonus nutrients from the same company, I guess since the manufacturer fulfilled the order and they're new: "Rocket Fuel" (3.19-1.2-1.4) which is an originally formulated complete 5 part N-P-K-Ca-Mg formula that can be used by itself as the main nutrient, in strengths from 10-20 ml/week, or as an additive to an existing nutrient formula with it then used in smaller amounts: 1-5 ml/week except for the last week before flush (according to their feed guide). This week the plant is in the harvest window with trichomes at 40-50% cloudy. Day 82 was the day it was due to be fed, and its close enough to harvest that I decided to skip the other nutes and just give it Rock Hard (0-0-62), which is a pot ash based high potassium supplement that came in a 50 mg bag and which should go pretty far since its only used during the last 3 weeks and in small amounts: 0.1 g/L 3 weeks before harvest, then 0.2 g/L, and 0.5 g/L the week before. I fed it just the 0.5 g/L (less than half a teaspoon for 2 gallons of soil) of Rock Hard since this is a prime opportunity to sample this stuff and see if it produces a difference I can actually notice (which Golden Tree did do, though I would buy a cheaper kelp alternative before buying it again, though I'll still use it next grow as an additive). My reasoning behind skipping the Cal Mag is that, after feeding on day 83, I started the flush count and any loss of leaves or discoloration now is just part of entering the flush cycle before harvest, while the Golden Tree is redundant this week with Rock Hard so together they're possibly too much of a good thing, while the manufacturer's feed guide for Rocket Fuel excludes it the week before flush. And Rock Hard left a difference that, 2 days after feeding, is noticeable even in the photos: the buds are bigger and denser. What can't be seen is that the day after using it, when I opened the tent the smell was much more potent than it had been so it maybe played a role in creating more terpene production. Though in any case, it was the kind of bonus that raised my expectations on the rest of their products and I'll be using at least the 3 I now have in my next grow, as well as Bud Juice Bloom and Humbolt's Golden Tree - though I haven't fully worked out the feed schedule yet and I'm still researching that to see if I can build a decent, and complete, nutrient program with the 60 ml of Rocket Fuel sample, the Rock Hard, Golden Tree, Bud Juice Bloom, and Cal Mag. I also moved the light down to 6" and the plant handles the light fine, though Spring is here and warmer indoor day temps plus the LED being close to the plant, can push temps near the leaves up to 27C during the day, which is warmer than the plant seems to like in flowering (leaves cup at about 26-27C this far in flower) so I switched to 18/6 for the final weeks of the grow and started the flush count from the Rock Hard feeding on day 83; so if 1 week of flush is long enough for the trichomes to mature the rest of the way to where I want them to (from 50% to 70-90%), then it'll be ready to chop on Day 90 (May 2nd). An upshot of switching to 18/6 is that the dark period, in introducing a 'rest phase,' may have helped with the nutrient deficiencies as the premature yellowing and leaf shedding has slowed. None of the yellowing has affected the buds or their flowers, so once its trimmed after harvest there'll be no sign there was ever a deficiency beyond the yield being lower than that what it would have been otherwise; though as this looks like it will yield more than its used in soil and nute costs (electricity costs are negligible since the LED only pulls 63 watts from the wall). I don't think I'll get an ounce out of it, which will remain a goal for my next grow, though half an ounce looks possible and I'd be content with that from my first grow and the many things learned from it that will go toward future grows.

The trichomes on day 90 reached the 70-90% cloudy, with some amber, that I was aiming for so at lights out I decided to extend that for 36 hours as that will also be 48 hours since the last watering, giving it time to drink the soil pretty close to dry while the extra darkness at the end is supposed to help boost terpene content. I've been steadily lowering the humidity (a little to quickly where I thought it would be ready much sooner) and its produced buds that look dense and are very frosty, so what it lacks in bulk it may make up to a degree in quality. I'm harvesting early tomorrow morning, then doing a standard 4-7 day dry and then looking to cure for about 30 days before smoking (except for a sample hit once its dried), so when I update in another week, I should have pics of dry, jarred and curing bud; I don't have a scale to measure the exact dry weight, but I can estimate to within a few grams. Total flush time will be 9 days since it was last fed anything other than plain de-chlorinated tap water. Its been an enjoyable grow and I'm already prepping for the next. All of the nutes I'll be using are bought/ordered and I have a couple freebies to try (one I got to try in the last week before flush). Even with Amazon's slow shipping, since I won't be providing anything for at least the first week and will still need my tent for drying before germinating the seed for my next grow, I should have the last three nutrient additions that are still in the mail, before I need them. The exact nutrient schedule is a work in progress still, but the nutes are: Marphyl Marine Phytoplankton which is a BC produced soil conditioner/enhancer/fertilizer. It was only $13 Cdn for half a liter, which is deceptively cheap because, since it comes in a half liter bottle, but it isn't concentrated and the recommended dosing, at 50 ml/L per week, every week, could get expensive if used as per instructions. But I think half is plenty for most of the weeks it would be used in, which will mostly be veg and in early flower (at low dose) and I don't think its needed past week 5 if you're using other nutes since at about 4-0-1 (when given at full strength), it seems a bit high in nitrogen to use past week 5. Bud Juice Grow (2-15-0) and Bloom (0-0-15) are two other Canadian produced nutes I bought, for different weeks in veg: Grow is used in week 4 and Bloom in week 6. All three of these are organics and are the "backbone" of my nutes program for next grow, with some supplements. Fearless Gardener Brand Cal Mag, though it arrived too late to use imo, will be useful at half strength in some weeks of flower where Marphyl isn't used (Marphyl is already high in both plus has iron and some nitrogen just like Cal Mag, so both aren't needed in the same week). Fearless Gardener Brand Rocket Fuel was the other 60 ml bonus I got with Cal Mag, besides Rock Hard. Rocket Fuel is a "complete 5 part nutrient" that can be used as a base nute or as supplement. I I'll be trying it at supplement strength for some extra everything (its 3-1-1) in all weeks except the week before flush. m Fearless Gardener Brand Rock Hard arrived the day before the plant was due to be fed for the last time, as a free bonus with Cal Mag, and its used in the last three weeks. I used it at full recommended strength by itself during the last feeding and it produced noticeable results: the buds began to visibly bulk up a lot within 24 hours of feeding just this stuff. I got 50 g as a bonus, and it uses so little that'll go pretty pretty far. The final one, which I'll be using most weeks, was the one nute I used most weeks for this grow: Humbolt's Secret Golden Tree. Edit: It should be noted that these will not be used every week, and in fact some will only be used one time during the entire grow. And even though there's a few that could be used every week, individually or in the right schedule, there's none that will be used every week; the closest thing to an "every week" nute is Rocket Fuel, which has the ratio as a base nute for any week though this soil doesn't need anything the first week and in their own grow schedule, the maker excludes it from the week before flush. The phytoplankton stuff is high enough in nitrogen to serve as a base nute for veg, though it doesn't have much else except it does have (and in close to the same amounts) the calcium, magnesium, and iron as Cal Mag has, so I won't be using these in the same week or even too close together. And with this stuff being so high in nitrogen, I'm going to skip it for flower since I can get enough nitrogen from other nutes for bloom and it might be a bit too high. Budjuice Grow and Bloom are each only added once (one in week 4 and the other in week 6). Rockhard is used only in the last 3 weeks, and most of the dose is given in the final week before flush. Cal Mag I probably won't need too much of, so I'm not going to be using it often or at all in veg where it won't be needed because of the phytoplankton additive. Humbolt's I had pretty good results with, for what it is, and I will again be using it in most weeks (though not in veg as the phytoplankton makes it unnecessary there as well). That's a rough outline as to how the feed program is looking, though it may make more sense when I have it refined enough to show it next week.

I ran into a few small problems of my own creation (light not at the optimal height, too little nutes) during this grow, but I was happy with the yield in spite of them and I look forward to the seed I have in the soil now, sprouting soon I hope. A few tweaks I made to the second grow after this one: - I pulled the air filter and moved it to the outside of the tent, with the airflow reversed and pre-filter removed, and this is much better than the only way alternative: mounting it vertically inside, as I tried last grow. - I choose a 2 gallon pot based on sizing recommendations of 1 gallon per month of grow time, thinking Earlyy Miss a 7 week strain as advertised by CKS. Next grow, I went with a 3 gallon instead as 12 weeks is a more realistic timeline. - I had no regrets with Pro-Mix (I have to order Fox Farms online, and its not worth the premium to me to buy it online in Canada) and the only real thing I thought could be improved was drainage, which adding an extra 15% of pure perlite and mixing it in with whatever's there already, solved. With the extra nutes I have now, I have high hopes for next grow.