StuG's 42 Fastbuds Zkittlez Autoflowers

Me, I'm a total newb and this is my first grow! Germination and transplanting) 30th May start: week one including germination. After 36 hours all seeds had germinated using the 'moist-kitchen-towel-in-a-zip-lock-bag' method, at 28C constant in an airing cupboard. 1 seed with 12mm root, the 2nd 10mm and the last, 8mm. Left for further 12 hours before transplanting into 3 9Ltr Air-pots filled with Biobizz AllMix. REAL start of week one - 2nd of May at 8pm: with germinated seeds transferred to their final pots I turned on the Mars Hydro TS1000 at 25% intensity and covered my Air-pots with clingfilm, leaving the light on for 24 hours. May 4th, 8am, after 36 hours in pots (light on constantly) all seedlings through; one seedling at 35mm, one at 25mm and the last at 15mm. I have been rotating the pots 1/4 turn every few hours. Also increased light intensity and venting passively through the tent vents (one up high and one opposite, low down. Will switch on fan in a day or two. 6th of May, girls seem to be happy. Minimal watering. Pot rotation every 5 or 6 hours by 1/4 turn. Lowered lights to 18". Temps around 26-28C, humidity between 55 and 65%, dependent on affectation by the watering schedule. RAM Air clip-on fan started and on 24/7, indirectly blowing (slight breeze). Added lighting timer and set up 20/4 schedule. 6th to 9th of May; slow and steady growth. Pictures are from day 5 from transplantation.

Week two, girls seem to be OK still, although I have little clue as to how big they should be! May 11th (day 9 since planting sprouted seeds into final pots), I think they are doing OK? Pictures are from May 11th. No nutes given although I did add 0.5ml to 1 litre water, in a sprayer, but have restrained myself from using it yet!! Watering has been using bottled spring water which I leave (5ltr bottles) in the grow tent so it's the same temp as air and substrate. I've pretty much let them dry out between watering. Raised light height a little as I have a small amount of curl on the leaf ends. I also made the fan a little less direct. I feel like I know this has to be light or fan related as the girls are not root-bound and all other parameters are fine. I could well be wrong of course, but I'm determined to learn what the girls want by changing the obvious parameters first before worrying about the big stuff. It's a very mild curl anyhow so I believe it'll be heat/light and fan related. Size-wise, the three are between 75 and 90mm tall and span in 95 to 110mm. If anyone has any thoughts I would love to hear/read them! May 12th I was really pleased to see the progress when I checked on them this morning. I have added a picture. The difference between yesterday and today is pretty clear. Things seem to be OK(?) but what do I know; this is my first grow following reading and learning a little. I've been spraying the leaves before lights out. Is this a good thing? I am aiming to LST the girls so, could anyone recommend when? How many nodes, how tall etc... It would really help me feel confident in the training. May 13th. Pretty amazed at how they're doing. Not that I particularly have anything to compare to experience-wise as these are my first grow. They're kinda praying a little so, doing some reading up on here, I have decided to raise the lights to 20" from 18". Maybe I should go higher? I'll see. Anyhow, temps went up over night as I had closed my grow room window so when I checked this morning they were sitting in 28.6C and 41% humidity. Now more stable at 25C and 47%. One thing I had not realised was how mercurial the temp and humidity would be and how quickly it changes so I need to be more mindful of this. I have added .5ml Biobizz Bio-Grow per 1ltr bottled spring water, although I am still using water only at this time, but in the next couple of days (start of week 3) I will start adding low dose nutes and then foliage spraying them just before lights out and see what that brings. I can always back it off I guess. It's all a bit of educated guesswork, currently, whilst I find my feet with this! May 14th. Decided to hold back on the nutes; Biobizz schedule is seemingly for cuttings and not seedlings so I think I've avoided a potential issue there, given that the Biobizz All-mix soilds have enough nutes to carry the seedlings through almost to flowering of the autos. So, I will remain on giving just bottled spring water until day 21, so, another 1.5 weeks. Then I think I'll add grow and bloom together at the suggested rates. I have some foliar spray mixed up with grow at 0.5ml/L which I think I will use for misting just before lights-out. No picture today... but I will post pics tomorrow instead. May 15th, day 13. Pictures uploaded. The girls are getting really broad, but height only 110mm. Should I raise my lights which are at 19" above top of canopy. They're certainly growing and seem healthy! Still watering (every two days, allowing for an almost dry substrate using the finger/knuckle test in the soil. May 16th, day 14. Started LST with bendy pipe cleaners. Honestly, it was nerve-wracking. I placed anchors at the base and did a simple bend to between 55 and 70 degrees across them. Only thing is, some of the canopy/lower leaves are almost touching the substrate so, should I trim them? I couldn't get up to the top to pull down either and had to go lower, as the plants are very young and squat, seemingly, so not a lot of spacing so I did what I could, anchoring under whatever was free in terms of space. Tomorrow - week 3 of veg starts!

Start of week 3 (day 15) of my first grow; the autoflower Zkittles! Also, the day after I started an early LST regime which I'm still reeling from in terms of feeling bad for the girls after bending them over and playing with them! Make of that what you will! Temps are still around 26C, RH around 39-48% dependent on time of day and how long I leave the grow tent open for. Regarding airflow, I am passively cooling and venting (read atmospherically). I have both low vents open and 3 of the upper vents open too; I'm getting good cross-flow, and the RAM fan is moving it all around. I'm going to introduce a CO2 bag later this week. So, my tent is in my spare bedroom - it's an 80X80X180CM thing and, I'm glad I bought this model (GreenLab PRO) which seems to be an off-brand, but it's much like a Mars Hydro, but with some better features, from what I can tell. Anyhow, due to Covid-19 and shielding, I am also sleeping in that same spare room and I'm getting used to the fan noise, finally! I also wonder whether the natural CO2 produced by me is in some way helping in terms of air quality for the girls. Maybe not so much the snoring! I leave the bedroom window open so have good natural oxygenated breeze running through the room, ergo the tent vents, and the CO2 produce (by moi, natch!) is good for the girls I would assume? I do wonder whether it will be time to consider an exhaust fan and filter, to pull the temps down now we're a couple of weeks away from flowering, as passively I can't get it below 24C at best, but that said it's never higher than 28C once I've vented and moved the fan around the space. That of course fucks with the RH so, I end up spraying the inside of the tent fabric and outside of my Air-pots with natural water just to balance a bit of humidity when I'm trying to vent better to control temps. Basically, I can seemingly harmonise the balance as it stands currently so I am not worried yet. There will come a time to deal with this however, and given that I'd read for hours, bought what I thought was required at early stages, it would be almost at odds with my plan to leave full negative pressure venting for some time yet. But hey, I'm at least thinking about it! Checking my spring water (shop bought) it has a great cal/mag ratio of around 4:1 (~60mg/L calcium ~16mg/L magnesium) so I don't need to piss around with it, do I? My own tap water is similar, just that the chlorine levels are high obviously and certainly not what I put on my reg garden veggies, let alone anything else, so, I have been drawing 50L of tap water at a time into my beer brewing barrels (and off-gassing the chlorine naturally over 48 hours) so I have a stand-by in terms of hydration if I can't get the regular water I'm buying. It is not expensive with 5Ltr something like £1 in cost. Talking of bought water, the 5ltr bottles are so useful! I also bought a lab grade glass pipette and pipette pump (£16 on eBay) and have drawn my first nutes; 5ml Biobizz Grow and 5ml Biobizz Bloom, 10ml in total, or 1ml/L of each, went into the 5ltr bottle of spring water, so it's ready to go in the next few days. I keep all my water in the grow tent just so temps are assimilated across the feed, growth medium and air temps. I think that makes sense as cold-shocking is something that applies to many things, not just plants, so it made sense to me, and because I have space in the place, if you like, why not! Tomorrow I will post the first week three pictures, including the somewhat clumsy LST that I tried using furry pipe-cleaners. In other news, and somewhat buoyed by the previous two weeks, I have decided to try a photo-period grow using good old-fashioned nature! I got some free Bubba Kush (fem) seeds from Seedsman, and I am simply going to grow one outside, in a pot, alongside my regular vegetable grows of which I have beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes... loads more besides, all in a sunny spot and in containers, in my garden. It seemed a no-brainer, so the plan is simply this: germinate a seed in a 1ltr pot filled with Biobizz All-mix (I have already started this actually, today) and place it in my airing cupboard. Once nature has done its work (and I'm not fretting about this at all - it either works or doesn't, but why not?) I will place it in my tent for a week or so to establish it and then it will go straight to a deep 12ltr pot and sit amongst the tomato pots. Effectively, I want to just see what nature intends for it. I have nothing to lose but lots of info to gain, or learn. I'm going to start a new diary in the next day or two specifically for the new arrival! Things I am looking out for: germination success in a medium other that water/paper towels; too hot grow medium for a first step in terms of germinating and seedling stage; whether the plant is as robust as I suspect. That sort of thing; elementary plant growing by trial and error! Thanks for reading! :) Weds 20th of May (day 18 - the girls are 2 and a half weeks old!) The LST has been fun, although chaotic. I'm now on day 4 of the LST and so far all I have been doing is tightening and tucking and not anchored any more growth. I have on 2 plants rapid acceleration of side growth taking over the mantle of the main colas so it's working... I think! All at very low level too as the canopy is still only 120mm but much wider than that! The 3rd plant now has 3 equal size growths compared to the main colas. The other two have up to 7 (having trouble counting). Also, my Wife today commented that you can really smell them now too. I think it's weak, but that filter/extract system is going to have to go in in the next week to 10 days, before flowering is anticipated. Last pic uploaded is one of the three girls at day 18. I think, or hope I'm doing OK with this and the LST. I'd welcome any comments! Friday 22nd of May (day 20) I'd not done any more LST other than foliage tucking for a few days but thought the girls looked like they needed it as they were untidy in a lot of respects, so one by one they came out for a few minutes so I could get some more spread on their canopy. 2 of the girls are responding well but the 3rd is coming along less well. I just wonder whether it's more to do with the seed than anything I've done, because all 3 have been rotated and swapped places regularly so it's not environmental as much as I can tell. Maybe she'll catch up. Saturday 23rd of May (day 21) so we're at the end of week three. Today I gave my first feed (1ml/L Biobizz Grow). They took 250ml each but they hadn't been watered for a couple of days and were in need. I hope I haven't jumped too early on the nutes.

Damn! I'm into week 4 and haven't updated for a while, what with work, gardening and such, so... yeah, apologies for the lack of updates these last 3 days. Where are we then... well... great question (OK so no-one asked but whatever) 25th of May: day 23 or 24, the girls are doing OK. What I've done these last few days: Started Biobizz Grow at the recommended rate, and because I've signs of pre-flowering I've started on Biobizz Bloom too, but just 0.5ml/L. So far so good. In terms of watering, I was in the less is more camp and watering every couple or three days, so I did a feed grow yesterday (as above) and today at the same time, the girls were thirsty still so I did the same again. I read that it's hard to fuck up using Biobizz in terms of too much nutes but that said I'm being crazy careful and had underestimated how thirsty they would be all of a sudden. That said I will still skip tomorrow and leave watering. Should I skip the nutes on the next watering? I've uploaded pics. I've also been fiddling with more LST so, when do I stop that? I assume when into flowering proper?? Anyhow, 2 of the girls love it and one isn't reacting the same. Also, the one not reacting the same has broader fan leaves so, I'll post pics and throw a question out there as to why she's looking different, because light, rotation, placement and feeds/water are all the same. Day 26: things are going OK I think? Just posted pictures.

So, we're at day 29, or the beginning of the 5th week. Adding nutes for the last 3 days but wondering whether to scale back as the girls are auto's? Nothing much to add other than to say that I now have extraction/filtration in place (RVK and Rhino Pro) and have good negative pressure and no leaks. Temps down by 2C and RH down by 10-15% dependent upon how close to watering I take measurements. Day 29 pictures added. Girls look sad, but that's an hour or two after watering. They have picked up now and are praying! Really would welcome any comments regarding the grow, and flowering! I will say that rubbing the stems imparts a wonderful aroma on my fingers!! Day 30 picture added - had to take the middle sized of the three out of the tent for a bit of tidying. Picture looks shocking but suffice to say she's the same lovely green colour all over, and flowering away happily. She'd stretched quite a bit these last few days, or as soon as flowering started, and I think the LST has paid off a little?

Crikey, I've been so lax in updating. So, 11th of June. The girls are now almost 6 weeks old, or will be come the 13th and I'll be starting week 7! Not much to report really, they're well into flowering. I'm leaf tucking like crazy. Should I remove some fan leaves? Seems to be a divisive subject for autos. Pictures added today (12th of June). I'd really welcome any comments regarding whether I should leave the fan leaves on or remove some of them? I know it's divisive but I've seem some lollipopped autos, admittedly SCROG'd for the most part, but as I can't LST much more in the space, and because the branches are a lot less pliable now, and the 3 girls have spread well, I can't help feeling I could get more light in.

Just a quick update for week 7. Nothing to report really - buds are coming along well. The runty plant of the 3 has less dense nugs but that's expected. Will still get a few G off of her. Still can't help thinking that mine are ahead of the curve and not necessarily in a good way, in terms of the flowering. I'll post week 8 shortly and you'll see what I mean. Lots of milky trichomes and curling, darkening pistils! She has been a fun grow, and for a first grow, interesting to observe and learn from too.

27th of June = Week 8, or.... day 57! Not much to update since the week 7 flowering update, really - they're just getting on with it still. They smell amazing! Can someone confirm whether they feel that these are almost ready to harvest? I do have a little microscope that is 60X zoom however taking pictures through it is a bit of an issue. I really should invest in a good macro lens. Anyhow, lots of milky trichomes and browning pistils. Buds are pretty dense and firm. Maybe I should post this as a Q rather than ask on the diary page? Anyhow, my plan is to wind the feeds back and feed spring water only, now, or is it too soon? I just can't see these needing to go 70 days which is what the genetics are rated at.

I had to harvest earlier than anticipated. This is because I have to go away for 8 days and could not leave them unattended. It was a last-minute holiday booking, and I had two weeks notice in order to get my run to go as long as possible but leave time for a flush and drying before I go so I bought harvest forward by a week or so. Not ideal, but unavoidable, so it is what it is. *03/06/20 edited due to getting my weights wrong - I said 130g but it was less. Actual weights as follows* From the three Zkittlez autos I got 122g dry weight in total made up of the following: 114g of bud. Of that, 40g was of good sized stuff with the heaviest bud, dry at 4.5g with many more around 3g. They went into the 'Zittlez A' Jar Then lots of 1 to 1.5g buds which went into the 'Zkittlez B' jars. Finally, I got 8g of teeny bits of bud of .5g and less and some sugar leaves which I will dry and freeze and make bubble hash with once I've added another lot of the same from future runs. I didn't get wet weight (forgot) but guessed it at 300g which is most likely way off, but as I say, I totally forgot added to which I dried the plants whole so would have been hard to work out with the whole stem and stalks attached. As this was my first grow, I'm pretty pleased with how it went overall. I felt like a noob at the beginning, and feel less so, now, but have so much to learn. The next grow is already underway... in the garden... in pots. And when I get back from my break I will have the choice of 2 Bubba Kush to put into the tent to flip into flowering. They will have been in veg for 5 weeks by then and are already 18" tall and have been topped. Bring on diary no2!