Amnesia Haze Auto 05/2020 (Grow 1)

Hello fellow growers. This is the first attempt of my hopefully long and prosperous growing career. I’ve already made some mistakes and expect to make a lot more, but for my first grow I’m hoping to get more knowledge than flower. But a great yield would make it even more satisfying. I know that there are a lot of growing styles and I want to find which ones I prefer, so I’m gonna have small variations between each plant. To make it easier to keep track, I gave the plants names: Annie, Aaliyah, and Alexis (all A’s to match the strain). Any advice on growing and journal keeping is appreciated. [Journal started at the end of week 3.] Germination started on 05/03 Placed three seeds in a cup of water. Seeds showed taproot on 05/04, so they were moved into a jiffy pellet using tweezers. I felt a small crack when transferring one of the seeds, so this might cause a problem. All seeds sprouted the morning of 05/06. I then transferred them into solo cups filled with coco. I started using my LED light, but felt it was overkill. I switched it for a small lamp with a CFL bulb.

Decent week. Annie and Aaliyah are getting bigger. Alexis is falling behind the other two. Aaliyah has roots coming out of the cup, so I moved her into her final pot. Plants given just enough plain water to keep the soil moist.

Overall decent week for Annie and Aaliyah. I’m convinced Alexis has stunted growth. It’s a lot of problems for Alexis, so hopefully she can hang in there. Started off the week giving water twice a day, every 12 hours. Gave enough water for a 15% runoff. Had steady EC inflow levels, but runoff EC was much lower for Annie and Aaliyah. Towards the end of week I realized the plants had some algae growing. I’ve been overwater, so now I’m going to let the plants dry out more before watering. Transferred all plants into their final pots. Annie and Aaliyah are in 5-gallon pots, and Alexis is in a 3-gallon. Kept the plants under vegetative (blue) light. Last few pics are under red to improve picture quality.

Started off the week with some watering issues. Annie and Aaliyah both had some yellow on leaves, but in different ways. I believe the yellowing in Annie was caused my magnesium deficiency, which was part of one of the watering issues I had and has been fixed. No new leaves with damage. Aaliyah has more yellowing than before, but now I realize that it was caused by direct contact with the water during fertigation. A few drops would land on the leaves when I was watering, and this caused the burns. Overall good week. Planning on amping up the LST next week.

Start: It seems as if all problems are fixed because all three plants are growing big and bushy. I’m constantly having to move bigger leaves out of the way to allow the rest of the plant to get light. I’m also currently trying the spiral technique by tying them down, leaving them a day or two, then retying them a few inches down and repeating the process. It appears to be working since there is constantly new growth. End: A lot of growth during this week. The spiraling technique didn’t really work out, but I have still been bending them down to get them extra light. I had switched to watering twice a day and they seemed to be taking it fine, but the algae is getting worse and I down want to cause any root problems, so I might bring it back to once a day.

06/07: The plants have grown a lot since last week. At about midweek I started watering the them twice a day, but the algae is getting a bit worse, so I am going back to watering once a day in the morning. 06/09: As soon as I switched to one watering a day the EC levels shot up. It seems like they were preferring the two waterings per day. I'm going to have to switch back again. Luckily the plants have gotten big enough to keep light from reaching the algae, so it's beginning to die off. 06/10: Alexis’s EC levels are not dropping, so I flushed the coco with about 900mL of nutrient water at 900μS. The levels dropped from the previous days levels of about 2300μS to about 1600μS, which is still too high, but it’s getting better. 06/11: Alexis’s runoff levels are now at around 1350μS. I need to make sure I get them back to normal before she gets any nutrient burns. On a side note, I believe Annie is going to start flowering soon. Her smell is getting stronger. 06/12: After watering Alexis in the morning I noticed two small worms in the runoff. By the afternoon I found a gnat in the tent. Luckily I noticed it on the first plant, so I held off on watering the other two. I’m gonna pull back on the watering. The EC levels are definitely going up, but I can’t let the infestation worsen. 06/13: The hot temperatures are causing the coco to dry up pretty fast, so I decided to water again. I wanted to take care of the pest problem before it gets out of hand. I read on the Med-Tek Nutrients site that a wash of a spinosad is good for killing the larvae in coco and has very low toxicity to plants and humans. I initially wanted to avoid using any pesticides in my grow, but I wanted to take care of the problem as quick and easy as possible and since they’re still not producing any buds, I’m not too worried. They recommended Monterey Garden Insect Spray. Unfortunately I was unable to find some at my local hardware store, so I went with Bonide’s Insecticidal Soap which has a similar spinosad percentage, and as a plus, is supposed to be organic. I used a solution of 15mL to the gallon of water with a pH of 5.81 and with no nutrients. The soap also contains potassium as an active ingredient, but I’m not worried about an overload since it’s been some time since the last watering compared to what they’re used to. I skipped two watering for the 5-gallon pots and one for the 3-gallon, which was the last plant I watered and where I noticed the pests. 1500mL for Annie, 1800mL for Aaliyah (she’s closer to the fan, therefore dries up faster) and 900mL for Alexis (3-gallon). I found a few more larvae in the runoff of each plant, but it was only a total of about six or seven, so I think I may have caught the problem early. I’m sure there will be more in the next watering, but hopefully only dead ones. I found one dead fly in the tent, but no living ones. All I did was the wash, but I’ve decided to put up some yellowing sticky paper in the tent to help me keep an eye on things. I removed all ties used for bending to keep the plants as stress free as possible, increased the air flow in the tent, and tuned off the lights. Hopefully this will end the problem. End of Week: It’s the end of week six and I’m still struggling with watering. The main problem is that as the ladies are having a lot of growth, so as I try to adjust intake amount, they start taking in more making it difficult to pinpoint the exact amount they need. I noticed some pest problems on the 12th. I gave a wash with insecticidal soap containing spinosad. I caught the problem pretty early on, so hopefully this is the end of it. Plants are probably going to enter flowering this upcoming week.

06/15: The ladies have started pre-flowering. They’re also growing in size. Annie has a height of 13”, soil to top leaves. She has a diameter of about 22”, which means I probably can’t fit more than three five gallons in my grow tent. I lowered the light to 12” in hopes of keeping her from getting too tall. Gave water in the afternoon. It was a day and a half since last watering. The five-gallon girls took in over 2000mL. I spotted to one worm in Alexis’s runoff and two in Annie’s. None in Aaliyah’s. I did notice that the bugs have no brown/black heads and also have a clitellum, which are characteristics not found in fungus gnat larvae. The plants look great as of now, but I’m going to keep a close eye on them for any changes. 06/18: Gave the ladies another watering. I didn’t see any pests, so I think we’re in the clear. I’ve been sticking to about a day and half between watering with about 1000μS. The salt in the runoff is a little higher than I would like it, but it’s nothing too crazy. Annie has a leaf or two with burnt tips, so I’m going to keep an eye on her. Both Annie and Aaliyah are about 15” high, but Annie has more of a curve on her main stem and is bushier. Her main stem is the same height as the other ones. The LST allowed Aaliyah to get light on her sides, but her main stem quickly grew back up and surpassed the others. Since the plants are going into flowering I want to avoid training them any further and just let them be. I also switched on the red light, but kept them blue. I read somewhere that this will allow the plants to get enough red light to help with the flowering, but still keep them a bit short because of the blue. I have enough space in the tent to allow the plants to double in height, but not much more after that.

Start of Week 8 - Day 50 06/21: Its hard to get it down to the exact day, but I think it’s safe to say that Aaliyah is finally flowering! All three ladies are growing taller everyday. . Annie and Aaliyah are both about 18” tall, however Annie has a curve on her main cola so she would’ve need been higher. Alexis is not far behind at 16”. Given their height, there’s a slight chance that they might grow too big for my tent. 06/22: Alexis has gone into flowering. Alexis is probably a day behind. I had place Aaliyah directly under the light and she has grown about three inches in one day. With my current setup she is another three inches away from hitting the light. If I rehang the light I should be able to gain about half a foot. I really hope they don’t get taller than that. 06/23: Gave the plants water this morning. There is still some pests in the runoff, but none that are living. And now that the plants are bigger there is little light reaching the top of the coco, so the algae is almost gone as well. I’ve been watering every day and a half and Aaliyah and Alexis are doing great, but Annie has high EC levels in the runoff and is starting to show signs of nutrient burn on some of the tips. I’m going to switch her back to daily waterings and see how she does. Humidity levels have gone up to around 62%, which I believe is too high. I added a small rotating fan inside the tent to increase air flow, and this has brought down the humidity to around 45%. 06/25: Watered the ladies. Found one living worm in Annie’s runoff. I decided that I’m going to move her back to watering everyday and a half instead of daily. I wanted to avoid this because of the high EC levels in runoff and the nutrients burns on a few of the leaves, but I need to completely be done with these pests before the buds really start forming. Hopefully she can adjust, but I’ll probably lower the EC levels on Annie’s feeding water just to be safe. On a better note, Aaliyah and Alexis are getting tall! Aaliyah is now at 24” and Alexis is at 22”; six inches taller than she was at the start of the week! 06/26: Aaliyah has reached 29”!! There’s only about 3” of space to the light. I need to make sure she doesn’t get hurt by getting too close. Annie has not started stretching yet. She’s pretty rounded out, so I’m excited to see how many huge colas she gets from the light exposure.

Start of Week 9 - Day 57 06/28: The ladies are looking amazing! Aaliyah and Alexis have a lot of buds coming up. Annie is starting her stretch, so I’ve been moving around some of the leaves that are blocking the light to the cola branches. As of now she’s standing at 20” from the top of the coco. Alexis is now at 27” and Aaliyah has reached a height of 30” from the top of the coco. That height definitely caught me off guard! Still keeping waterings at every day and a half and EC and pH levels in runoff are good. A few of the lower leaves on the plants have yellowed and withered up, but I think it’s just the plants themselves getting rid of leaves that aren’t getting light. Overall the ladies are looking great! Can’t wait to see how much progress they make this week. 06/30: Checked in the gals and by my surprise they have all grown two inches. Aaliyah is now 32” tall and has pretty much grown into the light. Luckily I went with the LEDs so there’s not much heat. Hand up to the light is still cooler than the sun on some days. Her buds have started forming and are now covered with pistils. Annie is still creeping her way into flowering and is now at 22”. Hopefully she doesn’t get as tall as Aaliyah. Alexis is now at 29”. I have to admit, I was worried Alexis wasn’t going to do well. She didn’t look as healthy as the other two when she was a seedling. But that has changed. She looks extremely healthy and although she is in a 3-gallon pot and isn’t as big as Aaliyah, she still has a lot of buds sites coming up. I’m glad she made it. More for the yield. 07/02: Watered the ladies. EC levels in runoff are good. pH in Aaliyah’s runoff is a little low, so I’m going to keep an eye on her. She’s now at 34” tall, but I tied her down. It was either this, or no light. Hopefully she takes it okay. Her buds are really starting to grow. Annie is now at 24”. She is currently on her stretch. Hopefully she doesn’t get as tall as Aaliyah. Alexis is at 32” and looking great. As of now I’ve seen no pests inside the tent, or on the trap I put up. But I did see a few flies while watering that looked more like fruit flies than fungus gnats. Hopefully they are and the pest problem is solved. 07/04: The ladies keep growing! Aaliyah is now at 33” because of the new bending, Alexis is at 34” (I just bent her main cola down), and Annie is at 25 1/2”. With Alexis at 34” she has also passed my light. Since Aaliyah seems to be doing okay with the bending, I decided to bend Alexis down as well. Annie is going into her stretch. Found a dead fly in tray and a live one on the trap. I guess my problems continue. I gave the ladies a good amount of water (4500mL for Annie!) and am going to leave the next watering for two days now. Hopefully this can help. Happy Independence Day to all my growers in the USA! 🇺🇸 I know times are rough right now, but together we can make the world a better place. And a little weed doesn’t hurt anybody. Much love to everyone.

Start of Week 10 - Day 64 07/05: We’re at week 10 and the ladies are still going strong! Both Aaliyah and Alexis have overgrown my setup with their height, so I have tied their main colas down. This probably means that if the buds get too big in the future I’m probably gonna have to hold them up. But for big buds it’s worth it. Aaliyah is at 34” with the bend and Alexis is at 32” with the bend. Annie is now at 27”, but she’s getting taller each day. I’ve kept the waterings at a day and a half, but pH levels in runoff were dropping, so I’ve raised the it to 6.00pH. Aaliyah’s runoff had high levels of salt, so I’m planning on also lowering her feedings to 900μS. I still have full light on them for about 20 hours a day and as of the last watering, there are no pests, dead or alive. Let’s hope the ladies have an awesome week. 07/06: I noticed Annie has some leaves with small burnt tips that I thought were caused by nutrient burns, but her last few EC readings in the runoff were good. I just realized that since she is directly under the light she is getting blasted with rays. I think the tips are signs of light burn. Another mistake in my grow, but I’m learning so it’s not for nothing. I made a “solution” to my light distance problem using garden twine and a carabiner. It’ll do for now. 07/10: The ladies are still looking good. Aaliyah’s and Alexis’s buds are getting bigger. All three plants have not grown in height for the last few days, so I think the stretch is coming to an end. I switched off the blue vegetative light and left only the red flowering light. I’m curious to see if this will cause any change in bud growth. I also found a fly in one of the plant trays and also one on the trap. The fight continues.

Start of Week 11 - Day 71 07/12: It seems as if Annie’s stretch is slowing down. She’s now at about 30” tall and she has a lot of colas poking out from her base. Aaliyah and Alexis have stopped their height at 34”. Alexis’s buds are starting to get bigger. The buds in Aaliyah’s main cola are starting to connect and are also getting bigger. Aaliyah’s bigger buds are also getting coated in trichomes. The smell is still pretty minimal. Based on the visual changes it appears that Alexis is about a week behind Aaliyah and Annie is about three weeks behind Aaliyah. Since this is my first grow I’m not too sure on harvesting time, but I’d say Aaliyah will be ready first and she still has a few weeks left in her. They are losing some leaves closer to the base, but they are looking amazing overall. It’s hard to believe it’s been 70 days since I put the seeds in water. Time really flies. 07/16: Playing the waiting game and it isn’t easy, but it will be worth it. The ladies are at different stages of flowering, so I’ve decided that next week I’m going to start giving them different doses of nutrients.

Start of Week 12 - Day 78 07/19: During week 12 the feeding schedule I’m using says to move up to “late bloom” doses. I’m moving up for Aaliyah, but I’m going to keep Annie and Alexis on the “mid bloom doses.” They still need more time. Aaliyah’s buds are getting really thick. With Annie’s main colas as big as they are now, I’m pretty sure they’re going to be huge by the time they’re ready. Alexis is started to bulk up as well. Since I’m nearing the end I have started germinating my next set of seeds for my next grow. This one will have more of a variety, so follow my diaries if you’re interested. 07/21: We are getting close to the end. I purchased a cheap digital microscope and have been checking trichomes on Aaliyah for the last couple of days. I’m still struggling to get clear pictures, but they still appear to be clear. 07/24: Noticed some burns on Annie’s main colas. Based on the height, angle and timing, I believe it was caused by a fan whose speed I had recently turned up.

Start Week 13 - Day 85 07/27: The ladies are looking good. I believe Aaliyah has a few for weeks before she’s ready. Alexis is about a week behind and Annie is about two weeks behind. I had a few problems last week that I’m hoping don’t mess everything up. Annie took a bit of wind damage. Aaliyah has a herbal/earthy smell on her and it’s increasing, but is still pretty minimal. 07/29: Did some measuring and noticed that the ladies’s main colas all measure at about a foot long. There’s going to be a good amount of bud coming out. The burns on Annie have worsened. Now I’m thinking it might be the light, but there isn’t anything I can do about it at this point. Hopefully she pushed through.

Week 14 - Day 92 08/02: The ladies are looking good overall. A lot of the lower growth is dying off due to lack of light. Annie has a few colas aside from the two main ones that are starting to poke out of the canopy. One of the colas between the two main is starting to also get some burns, so now I’m pretty sure it’s the lighting that’s causing it. Aaliyah has about two weeks left, so after that I’ll have some space to move Annie a little further from the light. Alexis is really starting to fatten up. 08/05: Another watering this morning. I keep finding the occasional fly on the trap, so I’ve been watering every other day. EC levels and ph have been a bit off which I believe is being caused by the hot temperatures of summer. Some of the lower growth on the ladies have been damaged. Due to spacing issues I need to take the plants out of the tent to water them. The plants got so big that they brush against each other, and they take some damage every time I pull them out. It’s clear that I can’t comfortably fit more than two 5-gallon sativa plants in my tent.

Week 15 - August 09, 2020 -Day 99 08/09: We’re almost at the end. I gave Aaliyah her first watering with plain water. I’m planning on chopping the top colas off of her in a week. Hopefully I can get something out of the lower growth that isn’t getting any light right now. Alexis is coming down in two and Annie in three. Annie has some damage due to the light, but she is hanging in there. Alexis looks the healthiest overall. She stayed pretty compact, so light is still able to reach her lower parts. I think I could’ve had a better grow overall if I would have stuck with using only 3-gallon pots. [General notes: The nutrients on the diary are based off what I’m giving Aaliyah. Alexis is on the previous weeks schedule and Annie in the schedule from two weeks ago.]

Week 16 - Day 103 08/16: Harvested Aaliyah on 08/15, Day 102 from soil and Day of flowering. After one week of pure water for Aaliyah, some of the trichomes have turned amber. I decided to harvest about 3/4 of the plant. Some of the lower buds didn’t receive enough light during the grow, so I’m hoping they can grow a little more before I bring the whole plant down. I also removed some of the dead and very young growth that was coming up. I didn’t have another spot to hang the buds because of the smell, so I tied them over the other plants. Now that she is mostly harvested, the smell has increased. I now have Annie on the side so she is getting less direct light. She already took some bleaching on her main colas. Alexis still has about a week left. I’ll check her trichomes before the next watering to see if I should start flushing. 08/18: Aaliyah’s harvested buds were getting close to being dry, so I decided to start cleaning up some of the sugar leaves. The smaller, less developed buds got chopped up and set aside for some dry ice hash. Since she was on the left side of the tent, a lot of her colas did not receive enough direct light. I hung up a few of the nicer looking ones that I’m keeping as flower to finish drying. [General notes: I still don’t have a scale to take note of the exact wet weight, but I’ll make sure to have one for the dry weight. And since all three plants are of the same strain, I’m going to wait till the last one is chopped up before posting the full harvesting results.]

Week 18 - Day 120 08/30: I’ve been busy lately, so I haven’t had a chance to update my journal. A lot has happened since the last post. Aaliyah is fully harvested, but now I’m realizing that I may have harvested her too soon. But it’s too late now. I kept about 18 grams as bud (15g now; I’ve been sampling) and it is currently curing. Started off week, but strength seems to be improving as curing progresses. It has a very distinct smell that I can’t quite describe. But I’ve already received compliments, so all is good. The rest of the buds got chopped up with the sugar leaves and will be used for hash and edibles. I have about an ounce of trimmings, but I also kept some of the bigger leaves that had trichomes. The overall weight of buds should be a lot less. Annie’s main cola got too heavy and snapped off. One of my biggest mistakes so far. Hung it to dry and trimmed it up. Harvested about 17g off the main cola and some branches that were also attached. Ended up with some long buds. The smell is similar to Aaliyah’s but slightly different. A little harsher, since she is behind in curing. And although I’m upset about the early harvesting, I was lucky enough to brake its dominance with LST, so she had two main colas. The second is still growing and was the same size as the first when it was still attached, but now it has plumped up nicely and is noticeably bigger. But flushing for about a week now. Still planning on leaving it for a few days. Alexis’s buds were pretty fat and trichomes were all cloudy, so I decided it was time for harvest. Cut about half down. She is current drying. I didn’t weigh the other ladies while the buds were still wet, so I skipped this one too. I’ll make sure to weigh all of the dry buds at the end. 09/02: Cut the rest of Alexis up. Annie is ready, so I might chop her up in a day or two. Excited to see how much she has left.

Man! I am definitely hooked on my new hobby. Harvested 96 grams of smokable bud and 93 grams of bud/leaves that I will be using to make dry ice hash. Took a third of that second weight (31 grams) to account for pure bud (which is more on the low end) and added to my 96 grams of good flower to get the 127 grams total. Made plenty of mistakes that I’m sure dropped my yield, the biggest being the lighting situation. Plants grew right into my light and even got bleached. The height of the plants made the outer colas grow past the high light areas, which made the buds very airy. But overall it was an amazing experience. I learned a lot of things, some that I have already incorporated on my second grow. And even with my drop in yield, I still ended up with more than enough flower to last me to my next harvest, so this was a great grow for me. Thanks to everyone who followed, liked, and commented. Your words were helpful and meaningful.