The Big Cheese

Getting things started with some Dinafem Cheese XXL Auto! I'll be using an identical setup to my scrog grow, but without the scrog. I've inoculated the seed in URB Organic for 25 min and dropped into a jiffy pellet in my humidity/clone dome. Using URB is supposed to help produce a taproot in 24 hours. We shall see what happens. Looking forward to this grow. The strain has great reviews and will be my first attempt at growing an autoflower. Wish me luck! Day 1: we have liftoff! Took less than 3 days to sprout! Fastest I've seen yet. I'm about to make my soil/coco/perlite mix in preparation for planting. Day 2: up up and away! She will be planted tomorrow as soon as my new led arrives. I'm looking forward to this healthy looking sprout! Day 3: Root was coming out of the jiffy pellet and the LED arrived, so I put her in a 7 gallon fabric pot with 1/3 happy frog soil, 1/3 coco and 1/3 perlite. I inoculated the soil with 30ml URB when I mixed the soil last night. I did not water when planting since the soil was very moist. LED is hanging at 38" above the plants with VEG mode only. Day 4: Getting used to the new soil and LED and I expect a little slower growth for the next few days. I've never grown with coco in the soil, so while the surface is drying, I believe the soil beneath is moist enough for now. I overwatered my first photos and don't want to make the same mistake with the autos. I'll keep an eye on things. Day 5: Sprayed twice today with cal-mag foliar spray to wet the soil near the plant. She appears to be liking the LED light. I'll kick on the boost light in about a week and then the bloom light after 3-4 weeks of growth. Day 6: Sprayed with URB foliar in the morning and Cal-mag in the evening. Not wuite ready for a nute feeding. Maybe later in the week I will give a dose of water. I'm contemplating MammothP for the entire grow on this auto. Still on the fence on the nute regimen yet.

Day 8: fed nute week 1 and added mammothp to the mix. First real leaf set is forming. I may lower the light tomorrow and see how they respond. Day 9: added more dirt to support the stems and sprayed with URB foliar. Then wetted them again with cal-mag this evening. Also switched oscilating fans from the other tent since the new fan has more power and the scrog needs it. I raised the fan up on a box so the plants are getting air flow and lowered the light to 24". Day 10: Had to turn up the inline fan speed and open a flap a little to get more airflow in the tent. Humidity was way too high, but is back to normal now. URB foliar in the morning and letting them do their thing. Day 11: URB foliar in the morning and cal-mag foliar in the evening. Slow goings, but that's typical at this age from my previous experience. I turned on the XML boost light as well to try and get things going a bit faster. Day 12: fed week 1 nutes again since they were pretty dry. They seem to be coming along now. I'm hoping this mammoth p stuff just makes some monster difference along the way. Day 13: URB foliar in the morning and cal-mag foliar this evening. So far so good and they seem to be healthy. I am considering adding molasses next time, but might wait until a few more weeks of growth. I think I'll kick on the bloom switch at about 3-3.5 weeks. Day 14: URB foliar in the morning and cal-mag foliar this evening. The coco really seems to be holding moisture in the soil. I will likely feed again tomorrow.

Day 15: Fed week 1 nutes again lightly between the autos and clones (URB, Cal-Mag, MammothP). Clones are finally starting to grow new leaf and look green again. Cal-mag foliar tonight. Day 16: URB foliar in the morning and cal-mag foliar this evening. Day 17: URB foliar in the morning and cal-mag foliar this evening. Day 18: URB foliar and fed the rest of week 1 nutes I had mixed up. Things look just fine and growth continues to accelerate. Day 19: Urb foliar this morning and cal-mag foliar this evening. I'm think I'm going to try topping the autos and see what happens. If I stunt them, I'll just start another seed! Growth is underway and I think I'll need to feed tomorrow, which will be a good time to top. Day 20: I decided to top her. I used fiskars pruners, but I think I ended up fimming. Oh well, let's see what happens! Fed Urb, Cal-mag, Mammoth P today in a small dose. She's looking very healthy and that's why I took the chance to top her. Day 21: She's responding well to the topping and doesn't seem to be slowing down at all. Looking good! URB foliar this morning and Cal-mag foliar this evening.

Day 22: Growing strong! She keeps getting bigger and bigger every day. Rubbed the stalk and had a nice foul smell! Day 23: Getting huge compared to Moby Dick. I fed week 2 nutes this week (my chart week 2) with the first small dose of veg nutes and some molasses. Topping has not slowed her down one bit. Day 24: Cheese is getting so big, I had to bend her over to keep her low. I have a feeling she's going to me a monster! Day 25: Cheese is really responding well to the topping and LST. Urb foliar in the morning, cal-mag foliar in the evening. Day 26: Just watching them grow now. URB foliar in the morning, Cal-mag foliar in the evening. I raised the light slightly a couple of days ago to keep them at the 24" range and to grow up into the light a bit. Day 27: URB foliar in the morning, Cal-mag folair in the evening. Cheese is growing nicely now and smells reallly good now.

Day 29: Cal-mag foliar in the morning and URB foliar in the evening. (I had to mix more URB when I came home). Fed week 4 nutes today. I mistakenly fed my young clones the same feed. Hopefully, the don't get burned too bad! Day 30: URB foliar in the morning, cal-mag foliar in the evening. I noticed the first preflowers with pistils at a lower stem node, so I decided to kick on the BLOOM switch of the LED. All switches are on now, so we shall see. I had an onion growing out of control in my pantry, so I planted it in a 1 gal fabric pot and added it in the tent. Kind of smells like onion in there now. And catnip....and weed lol Day 31: URB foliar in the morning, cal-mag foliar in the evening. I used some paperclips inserted in the edge of the fabric pot to tie down the branches for more LST. This plant is growing so rubbery and lush, it's amazing. I wish MD was growing as strong. Day 32: URB foliar in the morning, cal-mag foliar in the evening. Did a bit more tying down on Cheese and fed week 5 nutes, which bumps up the grow nutes .5ml/gal. If the clones could take 1ml/gal in solo cups and not even blink, I think Cheese can handle the .5ml bump up. She's got more preflower pistils showing at the nodes now. I'll continue veg nutes for another week or so and maybe think about 1/2 veg/bloom nutes for the transition. Day 33: I stopped foliar feeding since I saw the pre-flower pistils. I will keep feeding veg nutes for a bit longer until I see the switch happening. I was adjusting my LST tie downs and I accidentally ripped a side branch almost clean off. I felt the fibers tear and it still haunts me. I gasped and thought quickly about what I'd read to fix a broken branch, so I grabbed my clonex and applied some to the wound and used some packing tape to wrap it up. I checked on it a bit later and it was wilting. Not good. Day 34: Wow, the clonex fix seems to really work! I think the torn branch is going to make it! One smaller fan leaf was dried up, so I cut it off, but the rest of the top seems to be reaching lightward. I hope that didn't stress her too much, this is an amazing plant growing right now. Fastest growth I've seen of all 4 plants growing right now. Day 35: I adjusted some more LST tie downs and added a few more. The broken branch is healing nicely and doesn't appear to have stressed her at all, from what I can tell.

Day 36: Did yet more LST adjustment tonight and fed week 6 nutes. She is really showing the preflowers now, but I'll continue veg nutes until I start to see pistils at the top. I might try a mix of some bloom as well, not sure yet. Day 37: Fed a little URB/cal-mag/mammothP today. Just letting her grow at the moment. Pistils are starting to show, so I'm thinking the stretch is nearing completion. Day 38: Pulled her out of the tent and did some additional LST since it was too awkward to get to the branches. I also mixed up week 7 nutes. PPMs seem a tad high compared to the same mixture from my other grow. I'll give a small dose tomorrow and see what happens. Smelling great! Day 39: Looking and smelling great! I had to kick up the inline fan speed cuz I could smell the plants. It was in the very low speed range, so I bumped it up to medium. Day 40: She is definitely in the pre-flower stretch, wow! Some of the smaller branches shot way up. I'll have to LST them tomorrow. Day 41: I had to do a bunch more LST tonight. I took the tape off the borken branch and in the process, snapped a leaf and a smaller branch that would have been a nugget. Oh well. She's going strong!

Day 42: I had to do yet a bunch more LST to keep the canopy even. Tomorrow is last veg nutes, then on to bloom nutes! Day 43: Fed the largest dose of veg nutes yet. Next watering will be URB/Cal-mag/Mammoth P, then on to bloom nutes since the pistils are under way now. Day 44: Cheese is getting huge and almost has a scrog canopy. I can't believe how big she is! Smelling great and bud sites are starting to form nicely. Day 45: I pulled Cheese from the tent to do a bit more LST for some of the branches that are getting too tall. I flattened it out the best I could and should be good to go for the rest of the grow. Day 46: I had to rearrange the tent today. Cheese is getting so big that it was dwarfing the clones in the back, so I put the autos toward the back of the tent and moved the clones up front for easier access. Cheese is just enormous, I can't believe how big of a canopy. When she gets full flower weight, I may have to use plant yo-yos to hold them up! Day 47: Fed the first dose of Bloom nutes. Flower development is insanely fast compared to my photoperiods in the other tent. I did my best to keep her low, but the tops on the ends have nowhere to go but up! I am going to have a stinky house come harvest time here in a few weeks!!

Day 49: Urb/Cal-mag/MammothP day. Things are moving a long nicely and Cheese is just HUGE! Takes up half the tent now and is starting to overlap MD. Day 50: Not much to report today. No trichomes visible yet, but nice bud sites forming all over. I'll be surprsied if she is done in 80 days. Then again, I'm surprised at her overall growth considering I topped and broke a branch and that didn't slower her down one bit! Day 51: Fed week 9 nutes again today. Might have had a bit too much Bud-candy from a mishap. Day 52: Looking a little sad with leaves pointing downward today. Maybe too much water last feed or too much bud candy? Day 53: Looking much better and leaves are all popped up again. I'll go for a light watering later today. Day 54: Looking good and seeing trichomes forming on the leaves of MD. Cheese is starting to smell a bit more now and the tent is smelling piney. Day 55: Fed week 10 nutes today. Plants look healthy and buds are forming nicely. Not too much scent yet.

Day 56: Looking great! I got out the good camera for some bud detail photos. MD has way more trichomes, but real thick pistils compared to Cheese XXL. Cheese has much larger bud formations, but I'm excited for both! Day 57: URB/Cal-mag/Mammoth P day. I'm starting to get a slight smell from the buds when I stick my nose right up to them. MD has some nice sugar forming already compared to hardly any on Cheese. Day 58: Lots of nice bud development. I think I will have some nice sized colas from this plant by the end! Day 59: Fed week 10 nutes again today. Buds are thickening up, but not much smell. At least not what I'm used to from my other tent. Day 60: Things are progressing nicely. They seem to be on auto pilot and I believe my feed/water schedule seems to be working. They are happy and healthy. I'm anxious to try out the fruits of my labor! Day 61: URB/Cal-mag/Mammoth P day today. I see some trichomes forming here and there on Cheese, but not the frost I see on MD. MD has some strangely small buds, but they are intersting in appearance. A light fragrant odor when I get closeup to Cheese. More of a piney scent from MD. Day 62: Looking good, not much to report today other than continued flower development.

Day 63: This is a really good sized plant! I should have some nice colas and a pretty decent yield from what I can tell. I bumped a bud and it has a real nice fresh fruit smell. I fed week 11 nutes today which bumps up bloom nutes and Mammoth P. Day 64: Everything is progressing nicely. Cheese has some tall buds that are starting to slowly fill in. MD has amazing crystals. Day 65: URB/Cal-mag/Mammoth P day today. I don't know if the nutrient concoction I'm using is working, but there haven't been any deficiencies and barely any tip burn, so I'll keep up with the current regimen. Day 66: I had to rearrange the tent today. The two clones preparing for the scrog were getting out of control, so I had to pull them out and tie them back down and also make room for two more 5 gal pots with my next two autos. I don't know that I'll do a grow journal for them. It's hard enough to keep up with two! Day 67: Today is week 11 feeding. I think these are going to go longer than the 80 days. I am guessing they will be at 85-100 days, if not more. Then again, maybe I'll be surprised.

Day 70: Cheese looks like she's going to be a bit longer than 80 days. Maybe closer to 90? Day 71: Fed week 12 nutes today and swapped out Bud Candy for Sour D, per my nute sheet. Cheese is starting to get some trichomes and is filling out nicely. Day 72: I'l excited to see how fast autos grow. It really makes a huge difference not vegging for 2 months and flowering for 2 more. Only 11 weeks and I'm almost nearing harvest. Day 73: I think I need to start flushing. I believe the trichomes are mostly cloudy on MD and Cheese has cloudy trichs (very tiny) that are pretty cloudy. I see the pistils changing color and beginning to shrivel, so I think these autos finish very quickly. If I flush in the next day or so, I think Cheese will be ready to go in two weeks and MD in a week, maybe less. Day 75: Flushed 21 gallons of pH'd water and lowered ppm in the runoff from 680 to 250ish. I was using well water for the flush and the ppm going in was 130, so I believe I have it lowered to 150ish ppm of remaining nutes.

Day 77: Things are going to be wrapping up soon. I think I can get away with another 4-6 days and then it's harvest time! I think she is going to finish a bit slower than Moby Dick XXL. All in a all, a very fast plant. She grew from seed to almost harvest in as long as my scrog took to flower from the switch to 12/12.

This plant grew beyond my wildest expectations. Even after breaking a branch, it healed and grew almost bigger than my scrog plants. I was shocked at how many large buds developed and how it overtook most of the grow tent. The stone is fantastic and has an amazing smell. I will definitely grow again!