Closet Grow #2A - Gorilla Glue Auto

Wicked_Tiki Location: Somewhere in the SE US, on the hot side of the house. 2x7 Closet. Set Up: Medium - Fox Farm Ocean Forest/Mother Earth Coco Perlite - 50/50 mix Container - 5 gal fabric Exhaust - 4" inline with carbon filter exhausted into attic Conditioning - small standup AC unit for 150sf, exhausted into attic. Small humidity units as well Strain: Gorilla Glue Auto Nutes: Fox Farms Trio, Dirty Dozen, Kelp Me, Wholly Mackerel, CalMag, Fox Farms foliar Water: Aquarium pump to de-chlorinate distilled water then ph adjusted Germination: I used the shot glass method, 24 hrs until seeds sink. Put in wet paper towel, inside sandwich bag, in a dark cabinet. Took about 12hrs until tap root was 1/2". Planted seed, tap root down, in medium under a Mars SP150 at 24" above soil. Moistened soil, covered with clear plastic bowl that I had drilled holes in the top for ventilation. At the end of the first week, she's about 3" tall with very large initial single leaves. Will try and mainline this one.

Wicked_Tiki She's growing like crazy. Leaves are crazy big, as is the main stem thickness. She's going to get main lined for sure. Been watering her as needed, and have incorporated CalMag and some Fox Farm additives (Boomerang and Kelp Me) as well. She's about to push her fifth node, and I'll top her and start the main line process.

Wicked_Tiki Started main lining her this week. I waited for her to get to the 5th node, then topped her just below the 4th node leaving as much stump above the thirds as I could. I trimmed all foliage below the third node fan leaves. After a couple of days, there was enough growth to tie her down. I use 12 gauge solid wire to do this, which is stronger than that gardening wire, being sure to cut a long enough piece to get pretty deep in the pot. She still pulled these tie downs up as she grew. On day 19, there was enough growth for a second topping just below the first node of the new growth. Again I waited another couple of days for the growth to get to a point where I could tie her down for a second time. I now have four main stems. Once I have enough growth and the second node is starting to grow, I'll top her for the final time giving me eight total main stems and will tie them down once grown. She's taking this really well and I'd like to have everything set before she enters week five. Dubxxl on YouTube has a great series on autoflower main lining, and @yellowsubmarine here in the diaries follows the same protocol. He is getting some amazing results.

Wicked_Tiki The beginning of this week really, really sucked. This is a closet grow and the tape measure I use to measure my plants is on the shelf above. When I grabbed the tape measure, it slipped out of my hand and landed right on one of the two main stems and snapped it completely in half, with the exception of a little bit of fiber along the bottom of the stem. I quickly taped it, but you can see in the first picture that one half of the plant is wilting. She was such a monster of a plant and I've never been so pissed. I couldn't decide if I should cut her back and top the other side one more time to get the same cola count, or cut her and treat the cutting as a clone and grow a mini plant, or just leave it and hope for the best. I decided to leave it and maybe still top her once more. Surprisingly, the tape job worked and she bounced back, although that side of the plant is clearly stunted. Other than that, whew!!!, she's doing well. I tied her third and final topping down and I can see signs of pre-flower. I won't be able to top her a fourth time. Earlier this week, she got her first light feed with 6 cups water, however, given the issues with my first NL grow, I have started watering her to runoff and measuring that. She got 1 gallon water with CalMag and the runoff measured 6.2ph with 1,000+ppm. When she's ready for water again, I'll up the ph more than 6.5 to offset the low ph on the runoff. I'm on a feed, water, water cycle so at this rate it'll be one water/feed per week. On to week 5!

Wicked_Tiki Big week. Continue to stretch our her mainlining, while she's going into flower. First time mainlining and I can't believe the thickness of the stems and branches. I hope that translates to the buds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She got 1 gal of water with some CalMag until runoff. Runoff was 6.24 and ppm was 870. Will need to adjust ph and feed her next watering, which is now about every six day. She started showing flower at day 30, so I wouldn't have been able to top her again. The half plant (broken stem) is not suffering too much. The outer buds are growing at the same pace as the other side of the plant. The inner two are a little stunted. She's a vigorous girl.... on to Week 6!

Wicked_Tiki This pheno sure doesn't mind the mainlining. She's a beast, already 23" and is going to have some large colas. I removed some of her lower fan leaves this week. I chased her runoff ph a little and decided not to be worried until I see some deficiencies. She got a full feeding, and I flushed her trying to get her runoff around 6.5, but it kept hovering around 6. I gave her 1 gal of 7ph water with CalMag yesterday and her runoff was 5.8. I did a slurry test and it was 6.35. I'll continue to give her 7ph water until I see the runoff go up. Normally I do two waterings before feeds, but her runoff yesterday was 1230ppm yesterday so she'll be getting a feed in about five days. On to week 7!

Wicked_Tiki She's 24" tall now. You can see how the colas are going to stack. There's not much separation. I continue to see low ph in the runoff around 5.8. I keep trying to slowly pull it up with higher ph water, but it's not really working.

Wicked_Tiki This was the week where the best grow turned into the worst grow. I had been commenting on the low ph in the runoff and this is the week that the full effects came to light. I started getting yellowing lower leaves, which I diagnosed as a nitrogen deficiency, but it kept getting worse even after I fed her. After a little research I realized the low ph had her locked out. I flushed her with six gallons of 7ph water and was able to get the runoff above 6. The Vivosun ph pen I was using was a complete piece of crap so a purchased a good pen and the readings were worse that I thought. Seeing damaged leaves everywhere. She has decent looking buds and there are apparent trichomes, but not nearly what they should be.

Wicked_Tiki After last week's flush, she looked like she started to stabilize. I had some personal issues and let her dry out this week and that just intensified the issues with her. Fed her and her runoff is in the good range both ph and EC. Thinking the ph issues during this grow damaged the root zone. Will do better next time. Her sister Tangerine Dream going through the same issues. So disappointing.

Wicked_Tiki What began as the best grow ever turned into the worst. The ph issue really ruined this grow. There was significant leaf and probably root damage. I should have tested the runoff before I planted. Would have probably mixed in lime to raise the ph initially. I've been watering her with 7ph water and that's keeping her just over 6 with runoff. The buds really haven't swelled at all. The trichomes are cloudy at this point, but no amber yet. Probably a week or two away from harvest.

Wicked_Tiki Watered her twice this week with CaMag. 7.0 ph in, 6.2 out. 215ppm in 925 out. She's gotten more frosty, but there's damaged leaves everywhere. In hindsight, when I realized the ph of the runoff was low, I should have mixed in some lime to stabilize the soil. I did this with another plant at week 5, who's runoff was below 6ph, and it immediately stabilized the ph. Next time.

Wicked_Tiki She's gotten a lot frostier, with only a few amber trichomes. Just water now, no nutes. It'll probably be next week when I chop her down. Look like an ok yield given the magnesium deficiencies due to ph lockout.

Wicked_Tiki Cut her down on Day 88. It took a full 14 days before the snap test. After trim, the yield was 2.5oz of semi-dense nugs, and 1.3oz of less than dense smokeable larf. Even while the curing process is going on, the smoke is very smooth. Earthy, piney with citrus. Effects are very relaxing, no anxiety and functional. Helps with the sleep for sure. Will grow this again.