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So, this us week 1. I had this diary for another plant, that then got destroyed by my cat. So here we are with a Dark Devil Auto.
Seed planted direct in the Freedom Farm medium on 27.05.2020 and he stuck his head out on 31.05.2020 - So that is day 1 for me.
So far growth has been pretty good. Updates to follow as the week progresses
Day 4 (3.06.2020) - This guy is growing strong. 4cm in height now. Getting ph'd water. No nutrients yet. Second node/set of leaves is already starting to show. Plan is to start lightly training once we have around the 4th node and nice and strong and bushy.
Day 5 (4.06.2020) - Pic update. Size is also up to 5cm.
Day 6 (5.06.2020) - Pic update - growing nicely.
New week and things are looking good. Plant is growing nicely and the 2nd set of real leaves are definitely coming out.
Day 9 - 8.06.2020 - Pic update. Height now at 7cm. I am watering with a spray bottle still, little but at a time and then waiting for the soil to dry enough to water again. Probably every other day, but the watering is minimal as is expected at this time. More pics to come as the week progresses.
Day 10 - 9.06.2020 - Pic updates.
Day 12 - 11.06.2020 - Pic updates. Growing strong. Still feeding with plain PHd water to around 6.1. Depending on the plant growth I will start with nutes on week 3 or 4.
Day 13 - 12.06.2020 - Pic updates.
Day 14 - 13.06.2020 - Pic updates.
Day 16 - 15.06.2020 - Pic updates. She is growing nice and strong. I started with some nutes this week. Was a very light feeding and have since fed some plain PHd water. I will feed her every time I feed the others this week and use plain water in between.
Day 17 - 16.06.2020 - Pic updates. 4th node is starting to show. Once she is a little stronger and bushier I will beging LST. So probably in week 4 or later in this week.
Day 19 - 18.06.2020 - Pic updates. We have had a lot colder weather pull through this week, so temps are down a bit, but still looking good.
Day 22 - 21.06.2020 - Pic Updates - Growing Strong
Day 24 - 23.06.2020 - Pic Updates - Have started with LST. With the auto I am only bending it over to get more light penetration to the lower nodes in order to promote growth there. Will see how she handles it as she has only just grown her 4th node and is starting on the 5th.
Day 25 - 24.06.2020 - Pic Updates.
Day 31 - 30.06.2020 - Pic updates. I also started with LST this week by bending her over more. She is starting to grow a bit faster and also drink more which is great. As of today she started showing her pre-flowers/pistols. So I would say from week 6 we will be in flower. Total period for this plant is 8.5 weeks. But based on the colder weather and maybe lack of light I reckon I still have a fair amount of time to go.
I will start feeding some bloom nutrients from the next feeding and I will also start the bloom light to get her going. If my other 2 plants go crazy, then I might just flip them to flower. But ideally I would want this one to finish first.
Day 36 - 5.06.2020 - Pic updates. I have started feeding her with BioBizz Bloom now too. She is starting to look good but still has not grown as much as I would have liked her too. I will need to turn on the bloom light now also. I am still continuing with LST training for now to try and get those bottom nodes to shoot up some more.
Day 37 - 6.06.2020 - Pic updates.
Day 39 - 8.06.2020 - Pic updates.
Day 40 - 9.06.2020 - Pic updates. I have now turned on the bloom switch on the light and turned off the grow switch. It is slightly stronger, so I raised the light a bit. I will put the grow switch back on again in a few weeks to basically ramp up the lighting as we progress.
Day 42 - 11.06.2020 - Pic updates. She is growing a little more now, but looking good. Definitely have some leaves that are half brown down the length. Not really sure what it is. The lower nodes are starting to grow nicely and reach up a bit more. Not sure if it is too little too late, but we will see. Some more LST and also just bending and tucking some leaves under others to expose more light to the lower nodes.
I have some leaves that have gone a bit brown down one half, but along the length. See them in Day 40 pics (I have added a extra comment there). Does anyone know what that is? I was thinking maybe it is just the bits that have been sitting under other leaves, but I am not so sure
Hello,
I think the one leaf that has the odd split is just a random deformed leaf. Pluck it. The leaf below it that has the sorta whitish lines and squiggles going down the one finger can sometimes look a bit like leaf miners, but it may just be a light starved part of the plant which often yellows and dies off, you could pluck it also, then watch for any other leaves getting any symptoms. Sometimes over treating can be worse than waiting and watching.
*the only photo that makes me wonder, is the 5th to the end, the coloring between the veins...that i usually associate with magnesium. Biobizz did recently put out a calmag and i do recommend making it part of your weekly diet, calmag really helped my leaves look much healthier. 👍
Day 44 - 13.06.2020 - Pic updates. She is looking good. Slight smell developing and I have started feeding with some molasses also. She is not as big as what I had hoped, but I think the cold affected her. Lets see, maybe she still shoots a bit. I continue to train her as I go, pulling down the tallest branches. I am thinking of just letting her run free now, but at the same time it has been helping me to get light to the bud sites.
Day 45 - 14.06.2020 - Pic updates.
Day 48 - 17.06.2020 - Pic updates.
Day 51 - 20.06.2020 - Pic updates. Smell is starting to come now. Ph for each watering is still being varied. Hoping she still stretches more, because she is tiny. As mentioned before, I think the cold got to her, but lets see.
Day 52 - 21.06.2020 - Pic updates.
Day 54 - 23.06.2020 - Pic updates.
Day 55 - 24.06.2020 - Pic updates. She is starting to fatten a little. Got some nice shots in.
Day 56 - 25.06.2020 - Pic updates.
Day 58 - 27.06.2020 - Pic updates.
Day 61 - 30.06.2020 - Pic updates. I have dropped the PH for my watering to 5.6 as per the recommended guidelines for my soil. I have also now increased the bloom nutes to 2ml per 1litre, every watering. She is looking good. Starting to fatten slightly, but still not too much. I am curious to see if she still turns into anything bigger and actually yields some half decent bud. At this point I am considering putting her outside, which will give me the tent to start flowering my other plants which are doing better. But I will still re-assess this. She is also starting to get a nice sweet smell to her buds.
Day 65 - 3.08.2020 - Pic updates. Still going on, but not fattening too much. I checked the trichomes today, still nice and clear. So hoping she still fattens a lot more.
Day 66 - 4.08.2020 - Pic updates. Still going strong. I took some nice pics with the magnifying glass while checking the trichomes. They are still quite clear and are looking good. Her flowers are definitely showing darker tones now.
Day 69 - 7.08.2020 - Pic updates. Starting to smell quite sweet.
Day 71 - 9.08.2020 - Pic updates. I looked at her trichomes again as some of the pistils are starting to brown. So I believe she is starting towards the end, but am going to keep an eye. I gave a stronger feeding by doubling up on the molasses and adding another 1ml of Bloom. I think this will be her last feeding and I will start the 2 week flush now, but I will still check as the next few days go on. She definitely didn't grow big, but she is quite frosty.
Day 75 - 13.08.2020 - Pic updates. Another look at the trichomes and the pistils. Another 20% of the pistils have started to turn brown and the trichomes are starting to turn a bit opaque. So she is definitely finishing. I am going to be changing the lighting to 12-12 soon to get my other plants kicking off into flower. Hopefully that will start pushing the Dark Devil to produce more too. From now on I will be feeding plain PH'd water. So I imagine in 2 weeks or less I should be able to harvest.
Day 76 - 14.08.2020 - Pic updates. Yeah, quite a few pics :P I was trying to get some nice shots. Definitely not much bud, but very pretty bud. Nice dark purply kind of colours!
Day 77 - 15.08.2020 - Pic updates.
Day 81 - 19.08.2020 - Pic updates. Plain PH'd water is all she is getting now. She is starting to smell nice and sweet I must say. Bud colour is really great too.
Day 83 - 21.08.2020 - Pic updates.
Day 86 - 24.08.2020 - Pic updates.
Day 87 - 25.08.2020 - Pic updates. She has started to fatten up some more, but is by no means dense. Some buds are quite dense, but she could still pack on a lot. Having looked at the trichomes I would estimate that around 80% are opaque. So I reckon she will maybe make it to the end of week 14 and then be done. But I will see what happens. A lot of the leaves are changing to a nice dark purple colour just like the bud. She smells quite sweet and is also very sticky. I tried to get some good shots with the magnifying glass.
Day 88 - 26.08.2020 - Pic updates.
Day 90 - 28.08.2020 - Pic updates. I checked the trichomes and we are still on around 80% opaque.
Day 92 - 30.08.2020 - Pic updates. Start of week 14. She definitely did not produce loads, but she is pretty and most of the buds are looking nice and dense.
Day 95 - 2.09.2020 - Pic updates. I checked the trichomes and they are all almost 100% opaque. So I am now just waiting for a few amber ones to appear. I think by the end of this week she will be done, else maybe slightly into the next week. But lets see. She received a nice big watering from me today so that should help her flush also. Again, just feeding plain PHd water until she finishes. I think it may have already been the last watering, but we will see what happens in the next few days.
Day 103 - 10.09.2020 - Pic updates. Some pistils have started to absorb the colour of the purple leaf it seems. A few others are starting amber, so as of now I am putting her in 48 hours of darkness. After which I will cut her down to continue the drying process. She is looking good and smelling very fruity and nice. Can't wait to see what the end yield will be from this tiny, but pretty plant.
So...this was the first auto I grew. So I think a lot of the 'lack of yield' came down to environment and my skills. Although I do feel this was a very small auto. Other than that she was easy to grow and produces some ridiculous colours which was really nice. Even grinding her up you get some nice dark spotted kief in the tray at the bottom.
I didn't weigh her wet as I chopped the whole bush and left her in the dark for 3 days. She was super sweet smelling before the chop and became quite gassy after. She has been curing for just over a week now and the terps are improving again. I have tried a small amount and she produces a nice strong head high with body one to follow. I feel nice and uplifted.
She did produce a lot of trichomes as you can see in the pics. So she is nice and frosty :) I also noticed some 'sap' type stuff on some of the buds which I found pretty cool. Only got 11 grams out of it, but as mentioned, environment and learning curves :)
@WitheredEye, yup. 100% agree. I think if I was running the auto on its own, I would be pushing the full extent of the light. But to run it just on veg has been too little. The light only pulls 70w on veg I think. So a bit small for 3 plants. And then on veg plus bloom it does around 170w. I think in the next week I will power up the extra switch and give it the full 170w.
@WitheredEye, I am running 18/6 and using the '900w' version of this one: https://hydroherbafrica.co.za/product/2-in-1-led-grow-light/
Still running on only veg lights for now. Might turn on the bloom switch once the auto starts flowering. I got excited and also wanted to try 3 plants in a tent. They would have been closer in time had my cat not ripped out the first auto. So will see what I end up doing.
live_canna
