Delagdo's Gelato & Other Autos Agogo

Hello. Welcome to my diary which was originally posted on UK420 and has been transcribed over to GrowDiaries.com This was my first time growing any of these strains. I also had a Dinafem White Widow Auto and a Mephisto Sour Stomper in the tent for this grow. I started with one of each, then added a second Sweet Gelato Auto during the first week when the first looked like it might be in trouble. The Sweet Gelato Auto and the Ice Cool Auto seeds are all large. The Sweet Trainwreck Auto seeds are smaller in comparison, but are about average compared to others in my collection. The Ice Cool Auto seeds had a slightly greener look that the others, but were nice and dark and did not look immature in any way. I put the seeds in tapwater and put them in the airing cupboard. After 24 hours I transferred the seeds into old Root Riot cubes I had rehydrated. I covered these with a plastic container and put these back in the airing cupboard, where it stays around 24-28°C. I tidied and cleaned the room where the grow was going to be. I gave my airpots a hose down in the shower and I unpacked my growing gear. I am using my Hydrolab 120SX tent, which fits nicely in the awkward L-shaped, sloped-ceiling room. The footprint is 120cm x 60cm and it's fairly short, 160cm. It will be lit with a Philips 315w CMH in a Maxibright Focus reflector. I have an old Chaysol 5 inch centrifugal fan with a big Mountain Air filter, SMS controller and Phonictrap ducting. I have a humidifer for the early stages, and a dehudifier for later on. I am using airpots for the three Sweet Seeds strains, with about 9 litres of coco (Canna Professional) in each. One of my other two non-SS seeds is in an airpot, the other is in a fabric pot since I don't have any more airpots and nor did the growshop. I have an oil filled radiator near the tent and I am keeping the temperature around 26°C in the tent. The humidifier is on and helping keep it around 50-60% on the readings. *** Day 1 The seedlings had sprouted so this is day 1. I put the seedings into their final pots and watered each one with a can full (around 600ml) of nutrient solution this morning. This was EC 0.7 (base 0.4), composed of 0.25ml/l GH FloraGro, Micro and Bloom, and 2.5ml/l Plant Magic Plus Stimulator, pH'd to 6.2. Sweet Gelato Auto 1, Day 1 - :( This seed germinated but unfortunately then sent its taproot straight up out of the Root Riot cube. I messed around with it and ended up turning it over and very likely killing it. I will be surprised if it survives but I can only hope. And also I have placed another Sweet Gelato Auto seed in water today. Ice Cool Auto, Day 1- I am not sure why the first true leaves don't look very nice with white tips. Perhaps it's because of the old Root Riot cubes, and I squeezed all the nutrients out rehydrating them, or it doesn't like the tapwater that went in? Or maybe it didn't like going straight from the dark cupboard to the bright tent? I am not sure but it was the right way up at least, so it could be worse! Sweet Trainwreck Auto, Day 1 - This is defying its name and is the best of the bunch! *** Day 2 I have good news with the Sweet Gelato Auto - it seems to have survived. The stem had elongated and the seed raised itself up out of the cube a few millimeters this morning. The shell looked a bit loose, so I helped it off this afternoon. It looks happy enough, but it does look like it might want to speak to Seymour. When I checked the other Sweet Gelato Auto seed in the airing cupboard I found it had cracked, 36 hours after I put it in the water. It's eager. I've got space for it just about. I ran six plants last time and it was a squeeze. I think (/hope) five would fill the tent, and I don't think I would get more yield with six, but I will keep it since it clearly does want to grow! I am very pleased to continue my 100% Sweet Seeds germination rate. I have just added up my Sweet Seeds personal record - 11 strains, a total of 20 seeds, all germinated, and so far 19 of them have sprouted, and now we are waiting for this final one which went in a Root Riot cube this evening. The Ice Cool Auto is looking fine. The tiny white tips seem less of an issue now some healthy green tissue has expanded a bit. The Sweet Trainwreck Auto is looking mighty fine too. *** Day 3 to Day 6 So, the second Sweet Gelato Auto popped up on day 4, seeming as though it wants to catch up with the rest. I put it in a 10 litre fabric pot and gave it a watering with about 600mls of the 0.6 EC solution. The original Sweet Gelato Auto is surviving still. The first true leaves have stayed very small and the stem is very stunted. I will give it a week or two and we'll see if it's just delayed a little, or if problems will persist, then decide what to do. I am hoping it's the former, the damage was caused by myself messing around with the seedling and I could have avoided it. I might need to consider the way I put seeds into the Root Riot cubes because I often get seeds coming up with their helmets on - maybe I could avoid this if I wait for them to crack first (as happened by chance with the extra Sweet Gelato Auto seed) and position them more carefully? The Ice Cool Auto and Sweet Trainwreck Auto are both looking great still. Temperatures have been steady between 24°C and 27°C, down to a low around 22°C at point with light off. The light goes off for 4 hours each afternoon and is on for the remaining 20 hours. The humidifier is only on when the lights are on, and the humidity is usually between 50% and 60% but occasionally has dropped down to 40%. I dribbled a few hundred mls of the 0.6 EC nutrient solution on each on day 2, and again on day 4. Today is day 6 and I have given a more thorough watering of bit more than a litre to each (except the second Sweet Gelato Auto), which was enough to get a tiny amount of runoff from some of them, but not quite enough for others. This was EC 0.8, which was 0.5ml/l Gro, 0.375ml/l Micro and 0.25ml/l Bloom, pH'd to 6.2

Day 7 to Day 9 My plants are continuing to grow nicely and are enjoying the bright, warm, damp environment in the tent - nothing's changed there since last time, it's all very steady in temperature and humidity. I am glad we don't have a cold winter at the moment. I gave them a spray with Epsom salts solution (1 teaspoon in 500ml tapwater) on day 8 because I my magnesium level is a little low in my tapwater. I put about 200ml of the 0.8 EC nutrient solution on each of them today just to keep to top from drying out, before I water them properly again in a couple of days or so. I know people say you can't overwater coco but I've found that's not exactly true, not when you are putting a tiny seedling straight into big final pots. The original Sweet Gelato Auto seems to have sped up its growth rate a little, the leaves are expanding at a more normal rate now, though the stem is still tiny. I think the roots must have started growing and at this point I am still holding on to a lot of hope for her. The second Sweet Gelato Auto seedling was started four days later, but I would guess it is very nearly the same leaf area at this point, and it's probably about three times as tall as its sister! I watered this one in with a litre of 0.8 EC on day 7, only one day after the others got it, but it seemed like it was ready. *** Day 10 to Day 13 I gave them a watering through on day 11 with nutrient solution which was 0.9 EC, made with 0.8ml/l Gro, 0.6ml/l Micro and 0.4ml/l Bloom, plus 5ml/l Plant Magic Plus Root Stimulator, pH'd to 6.2. The plants are looking slightly rough around the edges, I think it looks like a nutrient uptake deficiency. They are a little pale and there are a few patches on the leaves. I think this could be from being a little slow introducing the nutrients, or perhaps the pH being a little high, or maybe the plants didn't like the coco being soaked through after it had been dryer for a while? Or possibly a combination of factors. The original Sweet Gelato Auto remains a tiny-stemmed dwarf. The second one I started now has more leaf area, is taller and looks like is in an identical place developmentally, producing the third pair of true leaves right now.

Day 14 to Day 16 The plants are growing nicely now, the fresh growth is very nice lush lime green. I watered with EC 1.0 on day 14 (0.75ml/l Gro, 0.5ml/l Micro, 0.25ml/l Bloom, and 5ml/l Root Stimulator, pH 6.1). I sprayed them again with Epsom salts solution on day 15. They have started to grow quickly and I have noticed the increase in transpiration causing the humidity to rise. I have been adjusting the humidifier down to compensate and keep things in the ideal zone. It has typically been around 50-60% humidity, but it has been as high as 75% in the past few days, and a minimum of 35% was recorded at one hot dry point. The temperature is normally 26°C with the lights on, and reached a maximum of 29°C and minimum of 22°C with lights off. One interesting thing I noticed about the Ice Cool Auto, which I have not seen a plant do before, is that the second set of true leaves has five fingers. I think every other plant I've grown from seed has followed the same pattern - one finger on the first pair of leaves, three on the second pair, five on the third pair. This plant seems to have skipped a stage. The plants are starting to produce side shoots, so it won't be long now before the tent fills up. I do also have two other plants in the tent as well, but for the moment there is plenty of space. Here's the four Sweet Seeds plants today:

Day 19 to Day 22 They are currently on a 48 hour watering cycle and were watered on days 19 and 21. Both times I gave them EC 1.1, a slight increase from day 17. This is 0.9ml/l Gro, 0.6ml/l Micro and 0.3ml/l Bloom, pH'd to 6.1. I also gave them a spray with Epsom salts solution on day 21. It's been a little colder outside recently but things have been more or less the same in the tent: 21-28°C, and humidity 45-70%. I think I've only filled up the humidifier once in these past four days, it's hardly doing any work now. All the plants have pistils now. I found it really hard to take any kind of satisfying picture of them, but I was quite pleased with the one above. I spotted pistils on the second Sweet Gelato Auto today, which would be her equivalent day 18, due to her later start. She's just like her little big sister! She probably has the most leaf area of the four plants, and it is this lovely rich deep green colour. I do think there might be something about fabric pots that helps plants get off to a better start than airpots. I had similar results last grow when I had a mix of pot types in the tent - those in fabric pots grew faster at the beginning. Perhaps because the fabric pots are not so harsh at root pruning? Perhaps I'm doing something wrong and I could improve my results with airpots? I'm not sure, but I am considering ditching the airpots for future grows based on these experiences. There are advantages to airpots too though, such as drainage, and training, so I haven't made a firm decision. On a photography sidenote, I downloaded the new version of Darktable yesterday to process my photos and I've been getting to grips with that. I've tried to improve this batch of pictures particularly in relation to colour. I had been leaving the camera to automatically get the white balance before now, and I had been fairly happy with the results, showing a warm glow from the Agro bulb. However this definitely gave a yellowish tinge to the leaf colour, and it the plants look ever so slightly pale in comparison to real life, so I have tried to fix it this time. I don't have a calibrated screen so it is difficult to know, I'm not totally sure I've got it right but I think it is an improvement and more accurately represents what they actually look like. *** Day 23 and Day 24 Some of the plants will be tied down very soon, they have some nice sidegrowth already. I didn't want to do it too soon, because it has made watering awkward in previous grows when there wasn't much space to get in under the plants, so I've waited until they are bigger this time. I gave another watering on day 23 with the same EC 1.1 solution. Soon it will be time to start switching the ratio over between Gro and Bloom for flowering, but not just yet. Temperature has been a little higher, typically about 27°C up to a maximum recorded 30°C, minimum 22°C, and humidity 45-68%, usually at the higher end. I won't be tying the first Sweet Gelato Auto down, at least not just yet. I just measured a height above the coco of only 10cm. I may as well keep it going. It is a lovely, healthy plant albeit very compact, and should still give a nice result, though just maybe not a lot of it. In comparison the Sweet Trainwreck Auto is tallest at 23cm, and the Ice Cool Auto is just a centimetre or two shorter. On the other hand, the younger Sweet Gelato Auto is growing tremendously well so far and has some huge leaves, bigger than the other plants. It is 19cm tall, and all around much larger than the first one. It was the right decision to start another. *** Day 25 to Day 27 I tied down the Ice Cool Auto and Sweet Trainwreck Auto on day 25 to begin LST. The Sweet Trainwreck Auto folded over sharply and it's almost supercropped - it has a nice knuckle. Sweet Trainwreck Auto has lots of sidebranching, and budsites starting. I watered on day 25 with EC 1.1 again. I bumped up the food slightly to EC 1.2 today keeping it on the veg ratio still (1.05ml/l Gro, 0.7ml/l Micro, 0.35ml/l Bloom, pH 6.5). Humidity has swung about a bit about the past few days, and has been between 45% up to a maximum recorded 78%. Temperature has been typically 27°C with the lights on, up to 29°C maximum and down to a lowest 20°C at times with lights off. Both Sweet Gelato Autos are not tied down, not yet. The first is too small and I might not tie it down at all, depending on how it grows. I should tie the second one down soon but I am not sure quite what to do yet since it's in a fabric pot without any handles. Maybe I should put a belt around it?

Day 28 to Day 30 I tied the younger, Sweet Gelato Auto main stem down on day 28. I made a hole in the pot with a hole punch to hook the green tie onto. The side branches are really going for it and getting taller these past few days. Today is day 30 and I measured the height as a maximum of 39cm, which is the tallest sidebranch, but there are a few others not far behind. This is the biggest of the four plants despite being four days younger than the rest - the Sweet Trainwreck Auto is now 33cm at the tallest sidebranch, and the Ice Cool Auto is 29cm. In comparison the first Sweet Gelato Auto I started is less than half the size of her younger sister at 19cm - and that is the full height of the main stem, since she isn't tied. Still, she is a beautiful, compact plant and seems very healthy. Temperature has been the usual range of 29°C maximum and 21°C minimum. Humidity has had similar spikes, typically it is 60%-70% but I have recorded 79%. The low of 45% is when the lights are off and the humidifier is off. I am not too worried about the high levels, since when this is happening the plants look really happy and are raising their leaves in praise up towards the lamp, but very soon I will take the humidifier out. I went up with the nutrients again, to EC 1.3 on day 29 (1.2ml/l Gro, 0.8ml/l Micro, 0.4ml/l Bloom, pH 6.1). Then I watered again on day 30, moving from watering every 48 hours, to a daily cycle. I try to do it in the evening before the lights go on. *** Day 31 and Day 32 I put the nutrients back down to EC 1.2 on day 31 after seeing a few white tips across most of the plants. I am still feeding a 3-2-1 Gro-Micro-Bloom ratio for veg, since they are still growing mostly stem and leaves, though you can see them all establishing flowers too now. I took the humidifier out on day 31, and the environment has been nice without it for the past couple of days: typically 26°C and 60% RH, maximums of 28°C and 68% RH, minimums 21°C and 48% RH. It's good having the space in the tent back as the canopy fills out. I have evened up the height with stacks of old books.

Day 33 to Day 36 They are bigger, bushier, and more developed, and a darker tone of green, as the increased feed levels set in with the latest leaf growth. It's great watching the plants get bigger and more developed every day, and smelling them too now. I've had a cold for the past three weeks, but even so I get a nice strong whiff of everything when I open the tent lately. Hopefully I'll see the end of this bug soon and get my senses back fully at just the right time. It's been cold outside with the storm over the weekend, and then we've had a bit of snow and hail since. I've cranked the heating up slightly but it's still been a little cooler in the tent, mostly 25-26°C, maximum 27°C and minimum 20°C. Humidity has been between 55% and 76% but I am finding it is often over 70%, so it will be time to set the dehumidifier up shortly, very soon after the humidifier was taken out. On day 33 I switched the nutrients over from the veg ratio, to an intermediate ratio before full flowering. This is 0.75ml/l each of Gro, Micro and Bloom, to give an EC of 1.2, which I pH to 6.1 or 6.2 every day when I make each batch. I am right at the upper limit here, I think. I like their current dark green colour and thought they were a little pale earlier, but maybe I should bring it down a fraction now they aren't as light. I think the plants are looking nice and healthy overall though a small number of the early leaves are dying off, as in the above image, at the bottom. I don't mind this so much at this stage. The lower levels are very shaded now the canopy is full so these leaves aren't doing much work absorbing light. The old leaves are a store of mobile nutrients, and as the plant grows upwards it can reabsorb these and use them in new growth. This happens and they start looking like the above, I give them a gentle tug to see if they are ready to come off - the plant will naturally release them through the process of abscission and they come off easily. If they don't come of easily I just leave them and try again tomorrow. I tried the obvious one in the picture above (lowest leaf bottom right) but it's not ready, another day or two maybe. *** Day 36 contd. Unfortunately I have a further update today as I have just noticed something in my tent, as I was taking a break from draining the runoff to gaze at my plants. I spotted male flowers :-( That is a shame as it was doing so well! However I could do with the extra room in my tent for the remaining five plants, so I have no worries about putting it on the compost heap. I originally started with five and I only put this extra one in as insurance after trouble with the original Sweet Gelato Auto seedling. The tent should still be full by the end anyway. I pulled off about ten male flowers I could see dotted about the lower parts. None appeared to be mature and shedding pollen yet. Oh well! This is my first ever hermie plant, so I can tick another first off the list lol I am not sure what might have triggered it. I have a few ideas: - Supercropping? I've done it many times before without problems but maybe it caused stress? - High feed level? I went up to EC 1.3 for a few days and am at 1.2 now. I've gone higher before but perhaps it's too much for this plant? - Just one of those things? I've been lucky in the past, I have grown photoperiods of several strains from different seedbanks years ago, and more recently multiple auto strains by Sweet Seeds plus a few from other breeders. The only other time I have ever seen male flowers was my first ever grow in 2008 - I grew three Mandala Hash Plants for six weeks from seed. I flipped them, then went away for a long weekend. When I got back I opened the wardrobe and found I had raised three boys and no girls, that felt much worse. :doh: I made a couple of grams of headache-inducing hash, and since then I always bought feminized seeds. But I knew exactly what to look for - it's always a learning experience. I've been thinking a lot about this possibility since I started this year's grow. One of the non-Sweet Seeds plants in the tent is quite a freak which I've been thinking of culling almost since day 1. I've been keeping a real close eye on that one, paranoid that she would grow balls, but I really didn't expect the Gelato to! I'd been thinking, I've never seen a hermie yet, but surely it's inevitable if I keep growing, and rolling the dice this many times? I think hermies are a natural occurrence - not the norm, but not abnormal either - like for example with human pregnancy and twins. Most pregnancies are of a single child but a repeated fraction of them are twins or more, and human treatments (ie fertility treatment in the case of pregnancy) can make it more likely to happen. With plants, some have male flowers, some have female, and sometimes they have both. I thought, I must see it sooner or later so I was keeping a close eye out for this, especially with a mutant plant lurking in the corner. I don't want to stop supercropping since it has worked well for other plants, and I don't plan to make any major changes to my auto feed schedule. Maybe it was something I did, but moving forward it seems more attractive to blame random chance than anything else, and just keep watching the others with care. *** Day 37 to Day 40 I am pleased to say I have not found any hermaphrodite flowers on any of my remaining plants, at least yet/as far as I can see. My original Sweet Gelato Auto is looking fantastic and full of female-only flowers. I set the humidifier up outside the tent on day 37 to see what difference it would make. Not much - the air going in from the house is already fairly dry, and humidity was staying around 71% most of the time which is too high. Having five plants again now, as I originally planned, I have been able to move the dehumidifier into the tent and did this on day 39. Drying the warm wet air from the tent is having a great impact. It has a built in digital humidistat which can be set at 40%, 50%, 60% (or you can run it constantly). Running at 60% is making the air pretty much exactly that at the top of the tent, and slightly dryer (eg 55%) at root level. It drops down when the tent is opened and quickly returns to those constant levels soon after. The dehumidifier raises the temperature a couple of degrees, so I have adjusted the heating to compensate. It's typically 28°C but I had a maximum of 30°C when I first set it up inside, and the minimum the past few days has been 20°C with lights off. I decided to cut the food slightly on day 37, to 0.7ml each of Gro, Micro and Bloom, which is EC 1.1. I am not sure if feed levels contributed to the hermie but I think it's possible. The Ice Cool Auto is growing well, but I have noticed the top of the buds are starting to look a bit leafy and don't have so many white pistils. There's still plenty on the lower bits. The other plants aren't doing this, and it wasn't any closer to the lamp so I don't think it's heat/light. Hopefully it's just part of its normal development (I have had similar looking plants before) but I thought it could be a sign of being a little overfed.

Day 41 and Day 42 I moved to a 1:2:3 ratio of Gro:Micro:Bloom for flowering on day 41, at EC 1.1, and the usual pH target of 6.1-6.2. It's been between 20°C and 29°C, and humidity beween 49% and 72%. It's usually about 27°C and 60% unless it's lights off or I have the tent open. I have some leaf damage on the Sweet Trainwreck Auto in a couple of patches. I am not sure what this is but I would suppose some problem with nutrient uptake, possibly calcium? My other plants don't have this, at least not yet, though they do all have at least some red stems. I am sure that must indicate something about my environment or nutrients. *** Day 43 to Day 45 I have rearranged the three USB fans I have for air circulation - before they were all above the canopy, pointing at the walls. Now one is underneath by the dehumidifier, and one is above, pointing in the middle of the tent, as well as one at the top still. I have also turned up the extraction, from 85% to full. I think the changes have helped. The leaf damage seems to have stopped, or significantly slowed, and the Sweet Trainwreck Auto seems happier. I also swapped her to a corner spot the past couple of days, instead of directly under the lamp. The readings were higher for temperature when I moved everything around, settling at around 29°C. I came to realize this was because the sensor was cited at the top of the tent which normally gives a good air temperature reading, but with the light as high as possible the heat was pooling up there. Still on EC 1.1, they usually have a daily watering before lights on. Today I managed to give them an extra watering in the morning, when they were about 12 hours into the light cycle, since I noticed they were fairly light and dry the night before. I am not sure I can keep that up every day, but I am going to do it when I can. I need to get in there and empty the dehumidifier anyway, it is filling (2.4 litres capacity) after about 16 to 18 hours if I leave it at the moment, which will only get quicker. I have moved the sensor to a corner of the tent under a bit of leaf shade, where it settles around 25°C -26°C now. I suspect it's a slightly warmer than that in parts of the canopy but it works OK there. Humidity is kept around 60% by the dehumidifier all the time the tent is shut and drops when I open it. I'm really excited by all three of these plants. They are all growing nicely and there are some good smells coming from the tent now when I open it. They look great and I've spent ages looking for more hermie signs, thankfully without spotting any. The tent is full with the two other plants in it, I don't mind losing the other Sweet Gelato Auto, and my plants have made use of the space. It looks like I have a great plant in the original Sweet Gelato Auto seed I started, despite it's wobbly upside-down birth.

Day 46 to Day 49 The Sweet Gelato Auto really is a beautiful plant. It is untrained and has a great main cola, and several really nice sidebranches. We had an !Environmental Incident! overnight on day 47. I checked on everything and emptied the dehumidifier before I went to bed, and all was fine. When I woke up 8 hours later, the tent was at 30°C and 40% humidity, as the dehumidifier seemed to be working flat out. The built in digital humidistat was set at 60%, and was reading 60%, but both other hygrometers in the tent read around 40%. The thermometers revealed it had reached a maximum of 32°C at canopy level before leveling off. I am not sure what caused this, or even what really happened, but I think the dust filter being full won't have helped. I had left it a long time since the last clean, and now it is clear the dehumidifier has been working fine again. Either that or it was some sort of electronic glitch solved by switching it off and on again. Other than this, each day recently we have had a maximum of 27°C or 28°C, minimum of between 20°C and 22°C, and a typical reading of 25°C at 60% humidity. The dehumidifier keeps things fairly stable when it doesn't go haywire. The Sweet Trainwreck Auto looks great. The biggest, tallest parts are the sidebranches. The main stem was trained down low and never caught up with them. I've been busy outside the tent these past few days, but I have managed to keep up with watering in the morning and the evening, every 12 hours, which the plants seem to love. The Ice Cool Auto is the smallest in stature, however I think it is not to be underestimated. It has the darkest tone of the three, and so is absorbing lots of energy, and is showing the super trichome production I was hoping to see. The calyxes are looking huge as they swell. It's looking the most mature of the three. *** Day 49 to Day 52 The current routine has run smoothly in the tent for the past few days. I've watered every 12 hours with the same EC 1.1 solution, temperatures have been a maximum of 28°C and minimum of 20°C. The plants have continued to flower. *** Day 53 to Day 57 The plants are moving into their final stage. There has been no increase in height at all. New leaf production has slowed, and has been counterbalanced by a bit of leaf loss from the lowest sections. I set the dehumidifier to 50%, the next lowest setting, on day 53. I really want to avoid the situation I had in my most recent grow last year, where I caused budrot and lost a portion of my crop :ouch: That was my first time using the dehumidifier. I did not have space for it in the tent, so I put it outside next to a vent. When I harvested the first plant I turned it off, which was the big mistake, so the drying plants did not dry to quickly and spoil. Seeing most of a Crystal Candy Auto plant go straight on the compost heap was a tough lesson but I was very relieved/lucky that the majority of the harvest was not affected. That will not happen this time! The dehumidifier works so much better inside the tent where it is able to suck in the warm damp air. Set at 50% it is working a lot harder than 60%, I can hear the compressor on a lot more, and it is generating quite a bit more heat. I have reduced the external heating again to compensate. The hygrometers are usually reading anywhere between 50%-60%, and the temperature is usually around 27°C, up to a maximum of 29°C. the minimum has been 21°C, though with the dehumidifier now working harder it is usually 23°C-25°C with the lights off if I don't open the tent. We are at 8 weeks from germination, which is when these strains can be harvested according to the catalogue (Ice Cool Auto says 8-9 weeks). Could they be harvested now? I think yes they could, however I think there's more to be gained by leaving them a bit longer. The calyxes are swelling but are not fully there, so they can get a bit fatter yet. Some of the trichomes are showing a nice milky glow, and in some parts are even dying off amber or brown, I'd say the majority are still ripening for my preference.

Day 58 to Day 62 My plants have carried on flowering, but I think they have been suffering a little from turning up the power on the dehumidifier, and I have been slowly cooking them. The machine puts out a lot more heat set to 50% versus 60%, and the tent has often been at 28°C, with a maximum of 30°C a couple of times. I've checked the plants with a laser and found the tops at 28°C or 29°C too, when I'd like them to be a couple of degrees cooler than the air, which they should be if they're transpiring properly. As a result I have lots of leaves curling at the edges with the hot dry air, and in some spots they are locking out and going dry and crispy. But they are still looking pretty good, and getting nearer and nearer to harvest time! The Ice Cool Auto has a strong odour. It's citrussy, with a strange chemical/plastic edge. I guess that is the 'diesel' though it doesn't exactly smell like fuel to me, though perhaps after a cure I could see it going that way. It is very close to done, though it could go a little bit longer since I can still see a fair number of clear trichomes about in places, as well as many milky and the odd few red. The Sweet Trainwreck Auto also smells strongly, but this one is straight up citrus, oranges and lemons. It smells really lovely and fruity and should be very tasty I hope. It's looking virtually ripe now too, with lots of milky trichomes and quite a few red ones. The Sweet Gelato Auto smells less than the other two. It also doesn't smell of citrus, at least in comparison, and has more of a delicate, sweet floral odour with earthy undertones. It smells very pleasant and I am looking forward to seeing how this translates into taste. I would say it is very almost there. There are still lots of white pistils, but the calyxes underneath look like they are doing their final swell, and are covered in mostly mature, milky trichomes. Maybe in another week there will be more orange hairs and I will cut them down? It would be good to keep it within ten weeks, and I am also quite keen to get them down given their declining condition, but I will keep watching how they develop and decide in a few days. I will give them a plain water flush for the final few days, but for now I am continuing to feed with EC 1.1 twice a day.

Day 63 to Day 66 Nearly there! This weekend will begin the harvest festival. The Sweet Trainwreck Auto has been called first by the executioner, and will face her fate on day 67, tomorrow. She's looking the most mature of the three, and also the leaves are really starting to look an unhealthy tone. I don't want to crowd her in with the others any more so tonight I've actually taken her out of the tent, in preparation. The buds are really fat and very dense. The calyxes are very swollen. Trichomes look lovely, that cloudy appearance makes me think they must be full of good stuff. The Ice Cool Auto also has really fat, dense flowers. Very big calyxes stacking up. It's just covered in trichomes. This is next in the queue for the chop, it is still in the tent under the lamp tonight. I might cut it down tomorrow with the Sweet Trainwreck Auto, or allow it a further day. All three plants have been on plain water (EC 0.4 pH'd to 6.2) since day 65 to flush. Also I put the dehumidifier back to 60% on day 64 because I couldn't stand to see the damage being done set at 50%, which I hope wasn't a mistake. The star of the show is my beautiful Sweet Gelato Auto. The main cola is a real tower. There are some thick sidebraches too. Besides the odd few leaves, the general tone of the foliage has not declined like the others - she still seems healthy and transpiring, so she's facing the scissors the last of the three. Possibly on Sunday, or maybe the following day on day 69. Nice. No more than that, she's done really despite the many white pistils, and I don't want to leave her any longer with those buds in any case for risking rot.

Very very happy with the results from this beautiful, easy to grow plant, which I would be very glad to grow again.

A very tasty relaxing easy growing plant which I would love to grow again.

Overall I'm really happy with all of the plants, they give me a good variety of tastes and effects and have yielded well. All three strains are strains I would consider running again, especially Ice Cool Auto. To be honest, if it were a photoperiod I'd probably consider re-vegging that plant because I am so happy with the results, I think this would be a keeper, but that is not a possibility.