1st auto grow: 2 FastBuds, GC & BD

All seeds would have germinated, five of each if I hadn’t knocked over a cup. They are taking off so quickly and I do love germination. Totally new to auto flowers and first mistake made: planting in small cups rather than final container. For that reason I’ll transplant them to their 1 gallon final home in about a week to go into a new tent I’m setting up. They’re under LED plant bulbs until then. There’s about a four day difference between GG/BD and LP planted afterwards once I decided to get the new larger tent. I’m looking forward to discovering how autoflowers grow knowing I’m already going to take a hit on productivity from transplanting. I’ve been reading up a lot. It’s thrilling to move into perpetual grow mode with two operations happening at once, the maturing and happy White Widows from the second grow and this new one. Curious to see what my final preference is, feminized or auto. Thanks for reading!

Second week complete and lemon pie auto added to the mix a few days after the others. They were just transplanted in 11L cloth pots and moved down to their new tent home in the basement. Solid pH adjusted watering after move to final pot with fresh BioBozz soil. They’ll have a couple of weeks now before seeing any kind of nutrients. Humidity runs high so something to monitor as they eventually flower. Temp staying about 28 st canopy and 30 at lamp level. For now I’m not running the extractor to see if it’s really necessary the whole time under LEDs as it was with HIDs because of heat. So exciting to move into this serious grow while some white widows finish up over the next three weeks. They all look happy and healthy for now and that’s a treat during this pandemic. Thanks for reading! Midweek update - will be focusing on 4 of these babies, three in the new larger tent and one in the older one once a current grow is harvested. A waste I know. Still learning about capacity and growing cycle optimization for a perpetual grow.

Three weeks since seed and all grew nicely. Following research and advice on spacing in tent and autoflowers (a first for me) it looks like we’ll end up keeping 4, 3 gorilla cookies in larger 4x and 1 blue dream in 2x2. They all look healthy and strong, pH adjusted watering and today a bit more soil added as was not as full as thought after watering. This means with this rich biobizz soil no nutrients still for another week. I’m really enjoying the new tent and LED light set up. By some miracle with the exhaust fan temp and humidity are staying on point in the basement. A total joy. Thanks for reading!

Good growing week under new LED set up. Getting used to it and neglected to adjust lamp distance which should have been closer to 50cm in this growing v 60 during seedling phase. As a consequence one of the GC was reaching. Going to want to keep an eye after such a drop closer. So curious to see the way autos develop and particularly two strains at the same time. Lucky me during the cursed pandemic to have this to do! Topping and LST to get them in solid shape with numerous strong branches before flower I imagine this next week or so. A few strategic fan leaves removed though it felt abusive since they’re still so young! It’s interesting to see the difference between the 3 Gorilla Cookies filling outward and the 2 Blue Dreams remaining rather squat and bushy. All growing more or less at same horizontal level. I suppose I’d put the trellis up once a clear sign of flower as they’re still way too short anyway. Grow nutrients, really modest dosing, once this week and pH adjusted watering in between. Temp around 28-29 and humidity stable having to keep the exhaust on to maintain mid 50s in that basement. Otherwise it’s 99! In short a great week of slow and steady growing into its flowering shape. Thanks for reading. Open to any and all feedback.

Well it’s been marvelous to see the five I decided to keep, three Gorilla Cookies and two Blue Dreams, start flowering at the end of last week and develop so quickly since then. I boosted up the pots of the two BD so their heights are similar enough for now though suspect that won’t remain the case for long. Worst case I can move the Blue Dreams into another tent if necessary. They had moderate LST to give them a good spread but they never really took to it then were all topped, bouncing back really quickly. Select defoliation but should be the last one. Tonight I added a ScroG net though not entirely sure it will remain. Putting up the trellis at least let me see what I was working with, 7 solid bud sites avg per plant, though I realize I probably could have kept another plant for full use of the space. More light for the others then! Temp around 25-26 and humidity has come down naturally with the exhaust fan to 45-50. They got pH adjusted watering and grow nutrients so far. Only one of the plants shows signs of discoloration at the tips. As the soil settled surprisingly low after watering I added a bit more of the BioBizz soil so will give a week before any additional then move to bloom nutrients. Finally light distance with these new LEDs seems fine at 40-42cms. I will experiment with closer to 35 to see if they can handle it and monitor carefully. In short, a wonderful week with no major issues. A lot of learning and care. Thank you for reading!

The fabulous five got some shaping during this week’s stretch from defoliation/lollipopping and LST using the trellis for best light exposure throughout. The net will probably come down mid week having served its purpose. Tent conditions seem adequate with temp at 26 or so and humidity lower 50s. I’m not sure I’ll be able to grow in the basement over the winter without some heating support. The (new) Mars TS3000 light distance seems best at 40-42cm to ensure they all get good exposure. If I had less plants I would perhaps bring it a couple cms closer. I noted an odd discoloration on one of the higher leaves so maybe not either. I’ll stick to 40cms from highest tips. Early flower nutrients—GHE trio—once per week. As pots are small, they need pH adjusted watering 2-3 times between nutrients. They seem to be handling the dose well. Open question on letting small branches low in the plant mature or cut them down now to focus on main colas. I’m concerned about stressing these autos too much. The early topping and trellis use seems to have given a pretty even horizontal spread but from here TLC only. As to the difference in growth between the Blue Dream and Gorilla Cookies, there’s surprisingly little. The BDs are noticeably bushier and GCs, stalkier as you might see in the pictures. I’m impressed how all of the seeds germinated and the five are holding up nicely. I’m eager to see how they develop over the third week of flowering, quite determinate as we know. Thank you for stopping by!

The big event is taking down the trellis used for light LST to have colas open more widely. The blue dreams are still rather dense and branches closer in, the Cookies more spread. But alas I’m really concerned about the fabulous five. While they’re definitely in stretch mode and flowers are developing, the leaves have turned yellow. I’ve been meticulous about pH, avoiding overwatering and keeping to the nutrient schedule with a once a week feeding and watering in between it’s not clear whether these five will make it to the end of the leaves all drop off. This is a new tent with new LED Mars TS3000 for 450w. Humidity is staying high in the basement at around 55 and temps at lower range. The heat from the HID kept temps higher on my last grow. Gorilla Cookies are in worst shape with fan leaves completely yellow and falling off only newer growth still green. Blue Dreams have held up better with some fan leaves still very green. I moved them around to see if light was an issue and was particularly careful not to overwater. Perhaps the pot is just too small—11L—for these autos to have a healthy root growth and develop as other grows I’ve had. I’m going to do only pH adjusted watering from here as I’m thinking too many nutrients are involved as careful as I was to keep low. I also am waiting for a dehumidifier as temp humidity is way too high at 58-60. Sure it’s all learning but I’d sure like to know where I went wrong precisely. Worst case I’ll manage to recover the Blue Dreams and grow them in another tent without basement, colder and more humid, conditions. Thank you for reading!

As you can see the yellowing of last week hardly got any better. I was happy to see some new green growth even on the barest GCs, much worse off than the BDs. I had given them a modest nutrient wash at the beginning of the week and topped up the pots with a little soil to give the roots some space. The conditions of the leaves is pretty shocking as I was careful in every step. It’s a first time with autos so wondering how much is typical. I remain convinced the pots are too small and constraining for these strains. I’m now going to approach it with only pH adjusted watering from now on letting them really dry out between watering (that’s the case here in these pictures this morning). I got a dehumidifier as it would not come down below 60 for the last two weeks. Now it’s at 40 and staying there. Temp is 25-26 day/19-20 night but an early cold snap just hit so something to monitor. All that to say I don’t know what’s going to restore the green of these fabulous five. I feel like do thing in the new tent set up/LEDs is off. I haven’t found a good setting on the exhaust fan. Nonetheless the flowers are developing at lightening speed despite it all and that’s really remarkable to watch. The smell is so strong and sweet. The GC and BD are sufficiently different to be really interesting to observe and compare. Let’s hope they make it through colder temps for a couple of days with fewer fan leaves and a bit too much yellow for my comfort. Thank you for reading after this fourth week of flower!

End week 5 of flower as two of the three Gorilla Cookies look really wretched with hardly a green leaf, the third one a wee bit better. The Blue Dreams, while yellowing, have held up much better. I believe it was due to root lock in these small pots at one moment and then they just all turned this way pretty quickly a couple of weeks back. For all of this the flowers are getting denser now done with any kind of stretching. How will those Gorilla Cookies hold up for the next four weeks? We’ll l just have to see. They got only pH adjusted watering this last week, smaller amounts about every other day. Temp lowering to a low of 19 so definitely bottom limit so may add a heating mat today. Lamp distance remains at 42cm as no indication this leaf damage is coming from the light. So overall not the most satisfying grow to see them in such condition. I’ll try to get the best yield out of it still. More to come. Thanks for reading!

Quite an experience growing these fastbud autos just after photo WWs the month before. I was expecting to be growing for another two weeks when they suddenly were ready. Impressive. The effects from my early sampling of both the Gorilla Cookie (3 plants) and Blue Dream (2) are really nice, energetic and nicely high without any sense of paranoia. I did end up on the floor listening to music last night before bed but still got the laundry done. I totally messed up on something possibly too much nitrogen between rich soil and nutrients, the GCs really taking the worst hit. They still managed to fatten up and turn amber giving me a couple of ounces from three plants. Anyway a learning experience about growing autos and I will surely try again possibly next time with no nutrients unless deficient. I like having grown first photos then autos consecutively but now it’d be hard to know which I want to grow next. Suggestions? Thank you for reading!