First Gorilla Grow (autos)

Hi all and thanks for visiting. This is my first grow using auto flowering plants. This is also my first grow outdoors. I have several years of indoor experience to help me along and it will be fun to see how much of that will translate into this new adventure. I'm starting these three auto strains that I acquired from Seedsman seeds in 4" pots filled with fox farm ocean forest soil. I have them placed in a standard 1020 tray with humidity dome on a heated seed mat until full germination. The heat mat is set to 80 degrees F. I did begin germination in a wet paper towel but because I'm starting so many varieties and they are germinating at different rates I have chosen to go straight to soil with these seeds after two days. I'm wondering how long I'll be able to pass these off as "peppers" to my roommate as I highly doubt she would approve of this endeavor. We do a large vegetable garden so sprouting lots seeds is not uncommon for us. I'll do my best to keep this diary updated with as much detail as possible. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments to my grow. I would love to learn as much as I can through this whole process. Not a lot to see yet but I promise I'll update the photos when there is more to show!

Welcome back. It's been a busy week but the girls are looking mostly healthy. I have added identifiers to the plants so that I can keep track. 1= Zkittlez, 2 = Orange Sherbert, and 3 = Glueberry O.G. I am sad to report that one of the zkittlez did not germinate. Based on my overall germination between this journal and my parallel photo journal, 14/16 seeds germinated, I think it is likely that this was just a case of nature not working. I have only watered these girls lightly 2x this week. Once I added the Roots Excelurator and the second watering I added the Mega Crop to the same solution as the Roots Excelurator. I pH each solution to 5.9 The plants are kept outside during the day and inside at night at ambient room temperature. I'm no longer using the heat mat or humidity dome. The plants are supplemented with 3-4 additional hours of light when I bring them inside, usually around 6:30 pm, to provide an average of 15 hours of light per day. Right now my goal is to encourage as much root growth as possible and to provide as much outdoors time as possible each day. I will maintain this routine for another week or so or until I decide they are ready for the permanent transition outdoors. I would also like to run a few trials with LST on these girls to see if there is any benefit to the technique on auto varieties. That's about it for now. Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions that may improve my grow! Thanks for stopping by.

Hi everyone and welcome back. Lots of growth to report this week as to be expected since we have had absolutely beautiful weather lately. Every time I go too check these girls they amaze me by how quickly they are growing. They are all outside full time now, including on this rainy day as you can tell from the pics. I've been pretty hands off this week except to water and fertilize every day. Same concentration of nutrients as last week, same amount of watering as well. I'm watering in the evenings to allow the plants to mostly dry up every day. I'm hoping this will encourage additional root growth. I'm thinking they are nearing being ready to pot up to their permanent homes in 4 gallon containers. I will likely do this in the next day or two as I have time. Once they have adjusted from the transplant I will begin FIMing and LST trials. Just a reminder the numbers correlate to the following plants: 1 - Zkittlez 2 - Orange Sherbert 3 - Glueberry O.G. I will update the tags to include the names for my next post to make things a bit easier. Now that the plants are outside I don't have to worry about my roommate asking about the fun names on my "Peppers". One thing I have noted is a slight spotting on one of the Orange Sherbert plants. Looks similar to a calcium deficiency however none of the other plants are showing any signs of this. Any help from you folks out there would be greatly appreciated. That's all for now. Thanks again for stopping by!

It's a good thing these are weeds and not orchids. Between work and the farm I haven't had much time at all for these ladies this week. I did manage to pot most of them up to 4 gallon containers. The medium is composed of about 3/4 peat based potting mix and the rest fox farm ocean forest. It's a nice and light mixture that drains well in my plastic pots. I wish I had 4 or 5 gallon grow bags but this is all I had on hand. All the ladies seem to be doing nice. Weather has been mostly sunny and hot in the 90's. We had some pretty heavy rain the last two days and the girls are feeling pretty moist. I would like to fertilize again in the next day or so but would prefer to not over water. Maybe a folier feeding could work out? What do you think? I did fertilize and water just around the new mix when I transplanted. I haven't yet implemented any techniques with these plants as of yet and I may just let them do their thing all the way through. We will have to wait and see. I expect to see signs of flowering soon, but nothing yet. They are starting to smell a bit though. I didn't get a chance to update the labels so here is the breakdown again: 1 - Zkittlez 2 - Orange Sherbert 3 - Glueberry O.G.

Sorry everyone for missing last weeks episode. I've been working a lot lately and haven't had a chance to get you some pics. This is the first week the ladies are in their permanent homes now. They get a decent amount of light during the day and are 7.5/10 in a safe place. As long as I'm careful with my visits, I shouldn't have t worry much about theft. I have a food safe drum that I have converted to store water in to minimize my trips back and forth. Should I worry about bacterial buildup in the water if I don't use it within a period of time? I have increased the amount of Mega Crop according to the feeding calculator on the Greenleaf website. The plants really do like this stuff. The amount of Roots Excelurator I use has not changed per the supplier recommendations. I decided not to use and techniques with the autos for my first run just t see how they preform straight. I'll defoliate when the time comes. Since these shouldn't grow too much taller I'll start to think of what I might be able to use to cover them to protect the ladies from rain as they begin to set buds and become more vulnerable to mold and disease. I was a bit nervous when I first moved the plants because we have a lot of deer in the area. The deer must not be interested in the plants once they become established. I'm glad I don't need to install fencing. That's about it for now. We have been having a lot of rain lately and I'm hoping that we get a few really nice days for the ladies to dry up and I can feed them again. Let me Know if you have any questions. Thanks for stopping by.