Topping Autos! Wedding Cake Experiments

A Barney's Farm Wedding Cake Auto in 3 gallons of living soil (my own creation, mostly worm castings, so much fucking worm casting). She will receive weekly compost teas and some top dressing when we hit flower. I didn't top dress on my last autos, I won't make that mistake again! Sprouted July 1st, true leaves July 3rd. We're calling July 3rd day 1. Went ahead and topped on Day 14. She had the 4th node developing with a 5th node far enough away that I felt comfortable cutting. We're also going to do a bit of defoliation once we see some stronger growth. We'll also be doing some light training. If she responds well to defoliation, we may full on mainline this fucker and do a second top! I'm cognizant of just how weak my lighting is. It will be interesting to see if we can get a small plant with a shitload of dense mains. I'm not looking for super high weight, I'm looking for some quality fucking bud.

Week 3 - I need a bigger tent... So, this little lady is exceeding my expectation so far, no stunting from the top or the defoliation of all but the 3rd and 4th node. So far the only thing she's had to eat is 2 compost teas, only about 2 cups of the 2L batch goes to her. The rest to the big tent. Check out day 20 vs day 21, she busted right out of my LST and I ended up having to switch methods, we're now going to gently guide our 4 nodes to the position I want with some thinner wire until this thing decides to stop going up! I ordered a jigsaw, I'm going to have to cut a hole in the bottom of the cabinet and the tent and give this plant another foot or so to grow up. I was worried about the light and it being low, now I'm worried about it busting out the top of my tent!

Day 28- Jigsaw is here, modding is done! Jigsaw gets here tomorrow, going to have to figure out how to keep the tent environment closed in while putting a hole in it. I'll probably put a 5 gallon bucket cut to size under it, then tape around the edge to create a seal. Just thinking, I'll take pictures one I do it! Week 4 - We're starting to see our mainline/manifold take shape, our 8 tops are beginning to grow out. I'll probably go pretty easy with defoliation at this point, just train. I wouldn't be surprised if we hit pre-flower hard this week. We're brewing a compost tea again this week, 2L of water, 2tbls of roots trinity, 3 generous handfuls of worm castings, biolive/kelp meal/alfalfa meal to taste. Bubble until it starts to smell like mushrooms, typically takes around 40-48 hours for me. 2L will feed this lady and the 3 ladies in the big tent.

Week 5 A full week after the mod on the cabinet, plant doesn't seem any worse for wear, being 11 inches more away from the light. Lots of great growth this week, again, nothing special from me beyond a bit more defoliation (4 more big fan leaves) and just position the plant to maintain where I want it's final form. I'm going to call next week full on flower, we could probably call this flower, but Imma call if pre-flower.

Week 5 We're in full flower folks, I gave her a few days off from pictures to make sure I wasn't stressing them with the weaker lights, and gave her a compost tea in the meantime. I brewed this compost tea with no bag, so this also amounts to a light top dressing.

Week 7 - Looks like we've reached our final high, I'm not defoliating or anything, I like the way it looks right now. I'm worried that the light is inadequate, but we'll certainly see. Another compost tea this week, and next week, and the week after, need to start focusing on fattening up those buds.

Week 8 - Very frosty, starting to see her bulk up in real time.. Started giving her SST, I think it's making a difference. Either way, she's getting fat! My SST Recipe: 1 Gallon of water 2-4 tablespoons of Gnarly Barley by Clackamas Coot (This is a pre-sprouted, dried, seed mix you can get either whole or milled. I got milled) 1 teaspoon of freeze-dried coconut water powder 1 Compost tea bag Put the Gnarley Barley in the tea bag, put the tea bag in the water. I bubbled it, pretty sure that's optional since I only soaked for a few hours, but I also figured the additional agitation from the bubbles couldn't hurt. After a few hours the water was very milky, I squeezed out the bag, added the teaspoon of coconut water powder, and fed directly to the plants in a drench on this one, and a foliar spray on the other tent.

Week 9: We're starting to see the buds fatten and develop now, still have at least another 4 weeks left, maybe 5, excited to see how big these gals will get. A little clover flower has been growing along with the girls. They seem to be keeping each other company, so I'm leaving her.