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Started this week after anxiously waiting nearly 2 months for the Bruce Banner auto from monster seeds to arrive. I used that time to prepare my own organic soil mix and intend to keep my soil alive with my own worms, worm castings ,a few organic amendments and a cover crop of white clover it's been four years since my last grow and this is the first auto I've ever grown. I'm definitely excited I have always loved the grow! I do not expect a great deal of difficulty though I have been challenged by a new genetic before. So I will monitor the grow with detailed enthusiasm. I intend to keep a good detailed journal of my process and I welcome all questions aswell as critiques of my methods. I'm accustomed to heavily training my plants.This grow being an autoflower I'm not yet committed to a particular training regimen I will get a feel for the way they respond to some LST to start with. I may take a single early top maybe 3rd or 4th node in addition if all is going smoothly. Either way to anyone who made it to the end of this long winded intro thank you and Im looking forward to learning from eachother.
Week 1: I placed seeds in peat pots inside shot glasses hydrated with warm water and a single drop of super thrive kelp extract. I kept them in a tupperware container at room temp + for the first 24 hours to soften the shells after that I placed the pots into the already prepared containers of living soil. I put a generous amount of worm castings on and around the peat pots.Then i placed a clear plastic cup with air holes over just the seeds new home leaving the clover to continue in open air. I checked under the humidity domes about every 12 hours or so and made sure to give them another spritz of water each time before recovering. The first signs of life In about 48 hours and within 72 hours the cotyledons were out with the smallest hint of the first true leaves showing. I removed the humidity some to give the leaves more light and fresh air.
Ok guys week two went fast and easy on this Bruce banner auto from monster genetics. It's starting to show it's second set. I gave her her first dose of worm tea to the soil aswell as a foliar feed to prevent disease. Started incremental light increase this week this strain is very quick to respond to the light intensity it told me with her leaves very quickly right where she wanted that light and found her max without causing harm. Did have to back it down a hair though. Started pushing her around a little flexing her stem and giving light quick flicks as a result her stem is already gaining strength. She is all around healthy and happy and there are no early signs of deficiency. It's looking good and so far I'm really liking what I see. If you like auto grows or this strain in particular or if your interested in organic/living soil growing hit the follow button and watch her grow with me! Thank you for reading about my grow and all questions or comments are welcome happy growing
Welcome back for week 3 of the Bruce Banner auto from monster genetics. It's been a interesting week for this grow! I decided to run a little experiment! As I researched for this grow I found that in regards to topping autos there is alot of conflicting information out there. Some say top when healthy. some say only LST. Through my research and experience with photoperiod plants i have formed my own theory as follows. (1) I believe people run into trouble topping autos at times not because the plant can't handle it but because they simply don't have time to compensate for losing the standard 2 growth nodes to a top job. (2) if all we are after is to break the Apical dominance of the natural top inorder to produce two where there was once but one. Then why grow past the node to be topped at all ?I've practiced this to less extremes with photo plants regularly with no I'll effects the logic being why waste energy on leaves that will be cut off later. Instead cut them now while no energy has been invested in them and then that energy will be invested into the parts that stay and there's no lost time for an autoflower or a photoperiod. So to prove my theory I currently have 2 Bruce banner autos growing they were started at the same time and have received identical treatment from day one giving me the perfect control for the experiment. One plant I topped literally using a magnifying glass to see the tiniest peice of apical growth tip just after the first set of fingered leaves. The second plant will not be topped. They will both be LST 'd as I see fit to accomplish the same task of light efficiency. I will document both the plants growth week to week and we will compare the results at the end. I also am taking magnified pics of the plant I topped as well as a daily perspective pic for those who haven't seen such a small piece topped before. It was topped on just day 16 from pop!Either way we will learn something here. The girls were given there 2nd dose of worm tea this week and have now reached the veg lights max output. With the mover I rigged up they hit lux readings between 25,000 and 30,000 averaging 28,000 minute to minute when flower begins they will be put under a light that's at least twice as strong and I will be getting that lux up there for dense colas. As for the genetics themselves I am impressed they have all the vigor and look just as healthy as photoperiod plants I've grown I'm looking forward to working with them all the way through flower.
........thank all of you who have taken the time to read about my grow and if you are a fan of monster genetics or the strain Bruce banner auto or if your interested in organic/ living soil growing click follow and let's watch her grow together!
What's going on everybody! We're back for week 4 veg in progress with monster genetics Bruce banner auto. I have been keeping up with the experiment I started last week. I have followed the topped plants growth day to day with a pictorial succession aswell as comparison photos of both the topped and uncut plant. There is definitely some interesting differences already. First I'll say both plants are healthy and doing well with one slight but notable negative. The topped plant has tipped the very edges of its leaves up and I backed the light off and increased air flow on the plants immediately I believe that will fix the issue and that I caught it before it caused any long lasting problem. This indicates to me that cutting it may have stressed it a bit. That having been said it responded exactly as I would expect it to. The base of the main stem is twice as thick as the control plant and the nodes at every branch interval already have developed 2 leaves and a stem that is just starting to reach up. The controll plant has the smallest beginning of node development almost none. as these new tops on the cut plant begin to compete with each other for apical dominance my goal will be to try and keep their progress equal by LST which I began aswell this week. Just a simple sideways bend while pulling the top down to encourage those little shoots to grow up. what I didn't expect is that when cutting such a small top growth I instead actually managed to fim this plant moreso than top it and as a result the real top has already recovered all though it did so with misformed foliage as a result of the damage I caused. which is kind of a interesting twist because I now seem to have gained 4 new tops and lost none so long as I continue LST to keep the recovered top down until the others catch up then I still have achieved all the benefits of a full topping. The controll plant was also started on LST to maintain the experiment validity.the main stem bend will undoubtedly cause node development this week but it is already behind the cut plants development. In conclusion so far the topped plant is further along in the journey to more colas than the uncut plant. While this isn't by any means a shocking development it is interesting to have definitive evidence of this in a controlled and documented experiment that can be looked at for answers like ,should I top my autoflower? and how will it effect my over all yields? And so the experiment will continue as these two plants grow towards the final harvest weight. I will continue to document and compare there progress throughout their life cycle.
FYI...... the pics with red letters are of the cut plants daily growth after cutting and are just to view the overall growth of the topped autoflower.
The pics with white letters are comparison photos of the cut plant marked as A aswell as the uncut plant marked as B the number next to the letter indicates the day change so one will be able to track the day to day changes and compare the results between the two plants. As always thank you for your interest in my grow and if you have any questions or suggestions feel free to post. If you are interested in any part of this grow as I am hit the follow button and let's watch them grow!
Welcome to another week with Bruce banner auto from monster genetics! Ok let's start by talking about LST. This plant seems to really dislike it which is not something ive experienced before. The harder I bend the worse it reacts. I've pulled the tie downs off and as soon as 24 hrs after they're off they return to happy healthy looking plants and thus I have decided to really limit the LST to just a little tug here and there to get some light exposure where needed. My first thought was this is a autoflower problem however I have another auto going now that absolutely is going crazy with the exact same treatment so it's got to be the strain any ways the experiment is still valid in that only one was topped and so we will still compare In the end. A is the cut plant b is uncut. I am disappointed with this week's growth and I attribute it to stress shock however we will ease up on these delicate ladies and recover to have a decent harvest or at least that is the goal. Stick around as we change strategy and fix this issue. If you are interested in anything your seeing hit the follow button and let's watch them grow!
Welcome everybody to week 6 of Bruce Banner automatic from monster genetics. We have pistils forming and we are in flower! I have switched to my more powerful light for flower and started using some diatomaceous earth as I had a bit of a fungus gnat issue starting. Last week I was notably irritated with the the ladies sensitive nature towards LST. I have since found that if I very gradually moved the limbs over the course of a few days they didn't react as negatively. I'm unsure if this is a normal auto trait or just this strain imo probably a little of both. However things are infact looking better now that we have some stretching going on and a bit of an understanding between us on how they would like to be treated ;). This week the differences between the topped plant or (A) and the non topped control plant (B) are inarguably increasing. Plant (A) has a fairly even canopy that's taking up about twice what the control plants canopy is taking at first glance it would seem to me that topping has helped this plant gain advantage over just LST'ing. As for plant (B) it is just as healthy as (A) and the LST is beginning to get more tops to develop but they are by no means going to be equal to the main top who's packing on pistils faster and is noticably bulkier than the other secondary tops. I have performed necessary defoliation on both plants with the main goal of getting light exposure on growth nodes I wish to encourage and to clean off areas near the base that will never develop anyway helping the plant to concentrate it's efforts on the tops. So far I'd have to say the untopped main cola of plant (b) is probably ahead of all tops on both plants as far as development is concerned. It is possible it may be the largest cola of both plants. Weather or not the over all yield of the topped plant will be greater then the control remains to be proven. We will find out in the coming weeks. Thank you for taking the time to check out my grow! Hit the follow button so you can keep watching these ladies grow!
Welcome back to week 7 of this Bruce banner auto from monster genetics! It's been a awesome week we are stretching and starting to fill in nicely! Both plants input experiment the topped and LST'd plant(A) aswell as the non topped but also LST'd plant (B) are pretty close to each other in canopy size and overall height. The main cola on the in cut plant (b) is still slightly more advanced than plant (A)s colas but all the other secondary colas are roughly equal I would still bet on the topped plants yield at this point but the untopped plant seems to be making a come back so it we be interesting how things shape up as the buds start to develope. All and all both plants are happy and healthy and I believe I have my flower light dialed now and the plants are responding well to the intensity boost! I will be giving another potent worm/bone meal tea brew soon. Make sure to check out the photos on how the two are stacking up. The results of this test will likely be the determining factor for how I treat autos from here on. Thanks for your interest in my grow! Hit Like and follow along so we can keep watching these ladies grow!
Welcome back for week 8 with Bruce banner auto from monster Genetics. Starting to get some decent bud production this week from both plants. I added incredible bulk bloom booster to the watering regimen. And I went ahead and defoliated both plants. Plant (A) which is the topped plant does seem to be slightly behind plant(B) the uncut plant in overall bud formation however it may just be because of the spread out of tops. I will keep watching to see the fill in it's possible it could catch up and pass the uncut plant as the buds grow. Both plants are healthy the did catch a bit of light burn with their reach I had to back the light up some. It was a slight case of some yellowing on the upper tops. As far as everything else the pics are up above labeled for proper comparison also got some shots after defoliation! Thanks for checking out my grow. Hit the follow button so you can she the girls progress.
Strong plant with thick stems and dense buds. Out of the two auto strains I've grown this was the best. I do prefer photos and have a ton of experience with them. I will be growing this strains photoperiod variety soon.
Being that this grow was a auto strain it was overall a good experience. The plants did well in the time frame they had based on there genetics I look forward to growing bruce banner genetics without the time constraints caused by the auto genetics
Hey there. Liking your grow philosophy. I'm trying something similar, but noticed my run off pH about 7.5 . Have heard pH is more self regulating in composted soil, but then people say get it lower, so I've been adjusting water to about 6.5 Now my plant looks possibly worse. Are you actively maintaining yours, is the soil already low or is it just doing what it likes?
@yinandyang, high bud so here's the deal if the plants are healthy and your growing totally organically never mess with the pH if there is a problem adjust the pH if you must but do so with organic measures lemon juice/ vinegar pH down lime for pH up also the most important part of organic growing is the soil if you having problems at all change the mix you started with I use a custom peat compost mix and I recommend sticking with peat moss because it helps to keep soil acidic when you add lime to this they try to balance each other in the middle somewhere. But the most important factor here is the microbial life in your soil if they are healthy and happy they regulate your ph for you there won't be a nutrient lockout because they will be directly feeding your plant what it needs. Feel free to pm me for more info or show me some photos and maybe I can be more specific. Either way don't give up cause this is definitely the best way and the easiest I'm the end I assure you.
kingmcdaid
