Early Miss (CKS) Auto Grow #1

@SmylinPupil, nice plants. Did you ever resolve the height issue? I know there's a window after its too late to LST, but not too late to super crop. I've never had to super crop, but its one of the HST methods I would use if the need arose. A common deficiency in soil is Cal/Mag or Fe and you might see any even if using a bloom nute as a lot of the big nute companies like to sell a separate Cal Mag product, so it may still be useful to add it at half strength for a couple feedings. I plan to do it and have begun doing it already: the Marphyl kelp I added today has enough Cal Mag in it (organically) that some who are using it every week are not needing to add any Cal Mag. Cal Mag has an NPK of 2-0-0 so its safe to add, so long as you don't over do it. up to maybe week 10 when they get very fussy about nitrogen. And I had really good results with Humbolt's Golden Tree. I began adding it just after I hit pre-flower stretch (on day 23) and the growth was explosive. Cannabis love kelp and its in a lot of rooting type nutes as the ones with NPK values near zero are usually safe, and intended, to be added as early as week 1 even in soil. If your soil has humus, which it likely does, then that breaks down to humic acid which combines very well with kelp. In week 7, Golden Tree is a good way to add it (try half strength first) and is cheap; Marphyl may be an alternative, though it doesn't have as much potassium in it which this plant loves in veg. Its meant to work with or without bloom nutes. Though less is more so unless you stall, you may be fine (potassium hunger can cause stalling during flower).

@Spyder7, thanks for all the help. I am on week 9 of my second grow, and now into flowering. I started getting pre flowers about 2 weeks ago. The first early Miss was 3.5 months start to finish. Good luck!

@SmylinPupil, are you on week 13 with the second grow, or just starting it? Also, what were you in growing in and what did you add? I noticed when I began researching this strain that you could divide the growers into two camps, perhaps from its newness and it being aimed at new growers. One group were inexperienced growers who started with it, seemed to go wrong by around week 5 (sometimes far earlier), and invariably treated it with nutrients. One included a grower who stunted it somehow, was using the main 3 parts from Advanced Nutrients, and didn't comment on why he only got about 3 grams from it. I noticed among AN growers who were inexperienced, the ph they were giving was too high and I suspect some weren't ph'ing their water or testing it but just giving it AN nutes and expecting it would handle ph for them (and some might have been using awful water). Another group included AN users as well as other brands, but they were more on top of the grow and mostly had some experience. Some of them pulled off amazing yields. They ph'd their water, didn't burn their plants up with nutes from over-feeding, and had humidity, temp and light dialed in. As time went on, and I got a hydrometer I trusted, and stopped messing with the light so much, I got the environment dialed in pretty well and Pro-mix was pretty high in veg nutes, and could put out enough phosphorous to feed the plant while it got enough potassium from the 0-0-2 additive I used that when I hit it with concentrated potash the week before flush, bud production went into overdrive. Though it did develop various deficiencies because the soil with a 0-0-2 additive, couldn't provide everything it needed. I hit a nitrogen deficiency during early flower. Its hard to see in the photos because I didn't recognize it for what it was in week 6, when I think it started. An N deficiency starts with yellow leaves on the oldest growth as the plant leaches chlorophyll for new growth higher up. I didn't know any of that, and mistook it for my light not penetrating my dense low canopy. I defoliated in week 6, thinking I was removing dead growth that light wasn't reaching, when it was an un-diagnosed nitrogen deficiency that defoliation made worse, while helping bring out others that hadn't shown up by week 6 but did soon after. Magnesium is one, but a deficiency there can take 4-6 weeks before it shows up and it showed up around week 9, along with calcium and iron deficiencies. My plant was so close to harvest, or I thought at all times at least, that I added nothing which at least didn't introduce new problems, beyond the single supplement I used weekly: Humbolt's Golden Tree. The week before flush my Cal Mag arrived though I opted not to use it at that point. Instead I substituted a potash freebie they sent me for Golden Tree, then flushed for 9 days. Things I'm doing differently based on lessons from that grow: I wanted to introduce a rooting type "nutrient" that had no nutrient value as I wanted to use it on day 7 for maximum benefit. Kelp worked well before and its often used in additives meant to be given early to provide it as potassium silicate, is silica hardens your plant from mildew etc and is also desirable as something to add early. I decided on Marphyl to do this though Armor Si and similar products do the same thing, though maybe a little differently. But Marphyl was cheap to try at $13 to be used on days 7 and 14. It also provides calcium and magnesium. I thought my plant would get enough through minerals in tap water, but that isn't the case and cal mag deficiencies are common even in soil. For added Phosphorous, I went with Budjuice Grow which is made for growing cannabis in soil (its a dry powder you add as dressing) which they recommend half strength for autos. Its added once when pre-flowering begins. For added potassium, they recommend providing two forms: one is the type you can get from kelp, and I'm using Budjuice Bloom in week 6 at half strength. Its another powder dressing for soil growers. The other type I used last grow I'll use in the final 3 weeks of flower before flush this grow: Fearless Gardner Brand Rock Hard I have cal mag for weeks where I'm already adding kelp but want to add more of that (half strength as needed), and that's the heart of my nute program. There are refinements in terms of I would add blackstrap molasses if I had it, for instance, though I don't plan to introduce those this grow. The big thing to keep in mind is less is more in soil: what you see recommended is often 2-4x what you need because its for hydroponics or photos. From experience, its easier to get through a deficiency then nute burn or lockout. I like to introduce nutes only one at a time, and starting in low doses. Good luck.

@BipolarHellas, that sums it up. The first time around there was really a lot to take in. A big advantage this time is that I'm using the same soil, tent, light, and the couple of nutes I tried (plus new ones later) last grow. So some of the mistakes I'm not likely to make again, and I made a bunch of small ones even early on. I kept a pretty detailed offline journal throughout, plus photos almost every day, so I can avoid making some of them again. Actually this grow I think I have the environment dialed in pretty well: I moved the filter to the outside, reversed the fan flow, and removed the pre-filter. I'm still getting good negative pressure and air flow, and the ducting is concealed while there's more space in the tent now and I'm taking advantage of that already by moving to a 3 gallon from a 2, which almost fills the tent (there's enough room left for a small humidifier I need in the tent for the first few days at least).

@Spyder7,the first grows are so exciting!!!All this research,the agony,the mistakes,the impatience...I love it!!!

@BipolarHellas, Thanks, I enjoyed them early. :) It was a good strain for a first grow: very forgiving of rookie mistakes, but yielded a smoke worth growing. Its also really, really easy to train low: I got it as low as 17" my first try and I'm going to try and train it even lower this time. I don't know if I'm going to mix in any HST or not as I didn't need it last grow. This was a "proof of concept" grow: around December I discovered space buckets, and this setup came from that research as this tent is close to a space bucket in size, very discreet (hides in a closet), and I think with training I could probably grow some other indica heavy strains in the same space later (like White Widow which I really like just as a smoke). Northern Lights and a new strain called "Lamb's Breath" are others I'm looking at too for a future grow. My second grow has had two good days so far and at the end of the week, I'm going to start the journal with the pics I have starting from when it broke soil. One discovery was that the lens curve of my Vivosun green light shades allow for pictures without the Mars landscape effect. They're surprisingly clear for pictures shot through a sun glass lens, and in the pictures it just looks like they are growing under a full spectrum light instead of a blurple (that does have some full spectrum). I have some Martian landscape type photos for comparison too. Its good to be growing again. My least favorite part is the period from mid flower (when you can no longer LST) until the stage of the next growth when you have a newly popped seed again (except for harvest). The other half of the cycle there isn't much to do - a lot of waiting. One enshrinement I might make late this grow is setting up another grow space just for germination and the first couple weeks of veg where even less space can be used, like a cabinet, with no need for a filter. That would basically shorten grow time by 2-3 weeks for the price of a small LED or a couple CFLs, plus a fan (one fan would probably be enough for a single seedling). This would avoid the downtime where I can't use my tent for anything except drying because the smell is too potent.

@Leonard_Lunte, thanks its my first grow and its been drying off a coat hanger in the tent for about 36 hours now. The buds look and smell amazing. When its dry I'll see how close I came to my goal for the grow, which is 1/2 gram per watt drawn from the wall (63 watts): roughly 32 grams, which I might have fell a little shy of though I got a good harvest for my first grow. I took a lot out of it for my second, which will be same strain, soil, tent, and light but I think I have the light and environment more dialed in from what I learned from this grow, and I have the nutes covered which I didn't for this grow. I'm just waiting for this one to finish drying, and once it is, I'm going to disinfect the tent with hydrogen peroxide for the next grow, but move the filter out and upgrade to a 3 gallon fabric pot I already have, along with soil, some extra perlite, seed, and the nutes. I'm just killing time now as its too strong, and distinctly cannabis 'grow' smelling, to dry outside with the tent without the carbon filter scrubbing the odor out. But I'm already looking forward to my next grow. This week feels a bit odd now that there's no plant to water or check on and its too soon to start germinating the seed. Hopefully it dries in 4-days so I can get the next grow started.