StuG's 42 Fastbuds Zkittlez Autoflowers

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.