Lambs Breath Autoflower

Here we are at about week 3 or 4 from seeding. The seed was dropped straight into the soil of a 2" pot with potting mix and compost. Sprayed daily with a spray bottle and it germinated in about a week. It stayed in the 2" pot for about 2 weeks and then was transplanted to a 7 gal pot. During transplant the growing point was removed leaving only the first set of true leaves. Some consideration was given to topping later on, but transplant shock and topping shock were allowed to occur together. It worked out ok.

The plant is starting to blow up as more leaf surface accrues. There is almost a hint of smell but nothing much. Dry amendments were surface applied at a rate of 0.4 , 1.6, and 0.5 tsp/gal media of % N,P,K respectively. These figures were calculated as weighted averages from advertised NPK from specific amendments. Down To Earth organic Langbenite (0,0,22), Seabird Guano (0,11,0), and Blood Meal (12,0,0) products were used. Will begin low stress training next week or so.

Started low stress training last week, pulling growing points out and trying to keep them even across the canopy. Plant seems happy. The hose coming into the pot is a janky automatic watering system. There is a 5 gal bucket hung from a large screw on some exposed framing in the mechanical room of this house. I drilled a hole in the bottom of the bucket and attached a bulkhead (home depot $14) and a barbed and screw style elbow fitting to screw into it. This attaches to a bit of hose, a water timer, then another bit of hose. It is set to water for 30 minutes every 3 days, and the resultant flow is a slow steady drip, probably a bit less than 1 gal/hour flow. Since dry amendments are being surface applied, the plant must either be rotated for water to bring the nutrients into the root zone, or hand watered a few times with a shower head to ensure nutrients are moistened and brought into the root zone.

More fussing with LST this week. Trying to put growing points into optimum position to keep an even canopy. Smell is getting stronger and spilling into the adjacent room. Plan to do another surface amendment of nutrients in 2 weeks or so, once flowering is in full swing. Switched auto water to 45 min of drip every 3 days. A small amount of water comes through the pot, but not much. Most is staying in the lower portion of the pot.

The plant is really popping up now. It got about 9" from the light as a few days went by without checking on it. They were raised back to about 18". Moved the low stress training wires up a little on the stems to pull the growing points out a bit more and even them up. Plan to top dress with dry amendments, with a similar mix to week 4, within the next two weeks.

The plant is stretching and clearly flowering at this point, I think? Not sure the official indicator of change from veg to flower. I watered heavily with a shower head to bring last months top dressing all they way down into the root zone and plan to top dress again for the final time this week. The mix will be almost the same as week 4 but with a bit more phosphorus (1.9 tsp/gal media with seabird guano [0,11,0] vs 1.6 tsp/gal media in week 4) and a bit less nitrogen to promote flower production. Home made drip time has been increased as leaf surface area in increasing rapidly. Hope to calibrate to water with about 1/2 gallon of drip water every 2 days. Water is municipal source from tap and is naturally at pH 6.9ish and has not be adjusted.

The plant is continuing to stretch and getting closer to the light. The light is almost at the maximum height so hopefully the plant will begin to fatten up the flowers. I thoroughly watered the top of the plant with a shower-head breaker to bring down the last top dressing of nutrients and then another top dressing of Langbenite, Blood Meal, and Seabird Guano was done for a final feeding during the flowering phase. I also trimmed up a few of the lower fan leaves that were dying off to prevent disease and promote airflow through the plant.

The plant seems to be doing well but is continuing to stretch... I may need to rearrange the grow setup if it keeps stretching, but I am hoping to see it fatten up soon. I only low stress trained once then had to leave the plant on its own for a few weeks and it lost the even canopy shape but it still looks happy. As the colas fatten (hopefully) I may drive a few stakes into the pot to hold up long and heavy branches. Will be top watering later in the week with a shower head to ensure the final nutrient application is being utilized.

The plant seems to have stopped stretching and is now about 32 inches tall from the top of the media to tallest flower. The light is now hung quite high and the canopy is uneven but the flowers still seem to be growing well. I trimmed up some of the inside fan leaves and lower leaves that were dying off. Gave it a good top watering and then refilled the drip bucket. It seemed to eat about 3 gallons of water last week and was not overly saturated, so I increased the drip time a little bit.

The plant is really starting to fatten its flowers now! Some of the lower fan leaves are wilting down and dying off. Also a few fan leaves in the canopy are beginning to fade and lose the vibrant green color. I suspect this is because of the attention the plant is giving to growing flowers. It has now been about 5 weeks since the last top-dress feeding. I don't plan to feed it any more at this point, aside from maybe a bit of fish emulsion in some water.

Steady as she goes this week with flowers fattening up a bit and automatic water increased to flow about 1.5 gal every other day. Expecting to do a partial harvest since the stretch got so stretchy.

This plant is now in the 13th week from seed emergence. I had considered doing a partial harvest since the 4 main colas are closer to the light than the remaining smaller buds within the plant, but it seems they are maturing along at about the same rate. I inspected the trichomes with a jewlers loupe and all of them still appear to be clear. The flowers have really added some girth over the last 14 days, so I'm hoping for more of the same over the next week or two as the plant matures completely. Still just watering with tap water at a natural pH of 6.9 and not adding any more nutrients to the soil.

Just harvested at week 15 and after hanging for 7 days in a dark room with dehumidifier set at 55% rh, the plants were trimmed and yielded 53 grams of fruity smelling buds. They are curing in quart jars with 62% rh boveda packs. The plant was never really pruned and there were lots of smaller buds on the interior/lower parts of the plant which added to overall yield but were a pain to trim. Overall very pleased!