Gelato Auto - First Grow Take Two

So I'm attempting to grow this baby again, after the unfortunate incident with my first try. This seed wasn't as vigorous as the first one, but it popped eventually. She'll be under 3500K white and blurple led cobs this time from the beginning, the fluorescent tubes took up way too much space. Handwatering her once a day. Seems to be growing a bit quicker and not stretching as much with the led-only setup. Also getting around 6hrs of sunlight per day on my balcony.

So after a slow start she's more than catching up, now she's around 2 days ahead of my first grow attempt. Transplanted her to a 2.5l growbag on day 9. First LST attempt on day 11, then continued on day 12 when there was a little more space between the nodes.

Okay this girl is getting way denser and bushier than my first attempt. The cheap aliexpress led cobs are doing a much better job at 90W than the fluorescent tubes at 110W. This grow is now a full 4 days ahead of the first one, while being twice as dense and compact. Starting LST early definitely helped the first side colas reaching the same level height-wise as the main one. Transplanted her to the final 12L container on day 18, applying some light defoliation due to very high density. I have to flush due to salt buildup twice a week, because the runoff EC is going up steep.

Still growing like a weed, no issues whatsoever. Fan leaves are much smaller than my first attempt, probably due to the lights used, they also look a touch more on the sativa side. Still hand watering her, monitoring the runoff EC carefully. So far a breeze to grow. Only removed a total of 3 fan leaves last week, light penetration seems quite even.

This structure seems more suitable for my HDPE drum that has a diameter of 49cm (19"). I'm doing my best to keep the canopy level and the distances between colas even. I thought it would require some Mr. Miyagi levels of LST skills but it seems pretty manageable. The fan leaves are only about a third of the size of my first attempt, not much defoliation was needed so far. Flushing once a week in this 12L bag, those runoff EC levels don't climb so steep as before for some reason. She's stretching at an incredible rate. All colas show signs of flowering.

Drastic defoliation on day 35, pretty much all the major fan leaves were cut off, as well as everything on the bottom quarter of the stems. LST was reset accordingly for optimum light penetration. Still in the early stage of flowering at the beginning of week 6. The nutrient solution is lighter now, 1 flush per week seems to do the job of taming the runoff PPM just fine. Still stretching around 5-6 cm per day as of day 36.

She's doing quite well, last week's drastic defoliation may have been a bit much for her, she didn't seem to take as much of the nutrients and was delegating her efforts to regrow foliage instead of buds. Things got back to normal in about 5 days and the buds are fattening more visibly now. Light defoliation on day 46. Unfortunately, she got slightly pollinated on my balcony, I probably shouldn't have kept her out there during sunny hours this late in the summer. I removed about 60 seeds, I guess I'll see the full damage in the coming weeks when the rest of the pollinated flowers swell up. I'll be keeping her strictly indoors from now on, hoping she'll still produce enough good buds.

She's now kept fully indoors, producing more buds hopefully. I removed nearly all seeds developing in the popcorn buds, avoiding damage to the colas as much as possible. Tested the little charas built up on my tweezers, pretty dang potent I have to say. Temperature and humidity is a bit high and I can't do much about that for the time being, she's doing fine regardless. She used to have more of a freshly brewed coffee smell to her in the past 2 weeks, now that has turned into the smell of an entire pastry shop with an italian espresso machine running. I've removed a tiny branch with some popcorn buds that wasn't going to grow into anything substantial anyway, it dried until now and I gave it a try. VERY potent already, tingling body sensations straight away, clear headed and gently uplifting high just a touch towards the indica side, but otherwise very balanced.

Humidity might be getting a little too high, I'm still building the extraction unit. Smell is getting much stronger so it might be time to finish the damn thing. I don't know how fast the colas should be fattening, they are definitely showing progress though. Another defoliation on day 61 in order to improve airflow and light penetration. Colas don't fatten too fast probably because of the 30º day temperatures and 50% RH, but it's the height of the summer and there isn't an awful lot I can do about that..

She's doing alright considering the circumstances, bods are fattening slowly. There are a couple of amber trichomes here and there, but a whole lot of new flowers as well. Had to increase her CalMag as she's started showing signs of what I think is calcium deficiency. Upped the Rhino skin as well, there seem to be signs that humidity is getting to her 😬

Most of her trichomes are milky, couple of amber ones here and there. Top colas probably got a bit too close to the light which burned their leaves a little. Started flush on day 73, harvesting at the end of the week hopefully. The big white crystals seen in the buds are silica gel cat litter. Moisture was getting to her despite my efforts to maximize airflow and hese crystals seem effective in controlling excessive condensation in the most vulnerable spots. They turn milky white as they fill up with moisture in about 3-4 days, then I swap them for fresh ones. Harvesting the 5 biggest buds on day 78 as they seem vulnerable to the high humidity.

Fast grower, this second attempt even more so. Her stretch was significant during the first week of flowering, but that can be due to the grow setup being tall and tubular with a diameter of 50 centimeters. This tubular thing could have contributed to the slight moulding at the end, perhaps more radical defoliation is needed with this setup.