Crystal Candy XL Auto : Sweet Seeds

Thank you Sweet Seeds for the opportunity to grow this strain. Overall, pleased so far with the development for the first week.

I will say that I like how much growth I'm seeing so far considering we are just starting week 2. Node 3 is already starting, so I'm curious to see how many nodes will pop before week 2 ends. I think I'll be starting LST this week, as I have a new plan of attack. I'll wait for the nodes to get a little more developed. I've noticed that the first node branches struggle the most, this is likely due to only having single finger leaves. They can produce a viable flower, but they struggle to develop comparatively speaking. If I can get them exposed sooner, they may respond better. The temperature has been killer outside lately, really pressing in on the building, which is leading to really warm room temps, but so far it hasn't appeared to be too adverse on the development. I'm keeping up on checking the soil for moisture and making sure to water accordingly. Looking at the direction of the LST, I may not have chosen the best initial direction, but I plan to work the plant around the pot. We'll see how that works.

The LST is coming along. Going to attempt to keep the stalk at a "90" degree bend so all the tops have the "same" starting point as they develop. There will also be some leaf tucking to try and get as much light as possible to the lowest starting branches first as they had the fewest leaves to start soaking up light. So now that another node has developed itself enough I've been able to adjust the LST tie down so I can keep that "90" bend. There will now be two laterals that are sticking straight up. This was a big week of growth and development on the form and structure. Next week will probably see the last adjustments on pulling the main cola around to give as many branches as possible to be their own top. So far, this is turning out fantastic. So excited to see where things go from here.

Week 4 is off to a good start. We are in the last week of veg. No pisitls yet. Maybe by week's end. She has been really easy to train so far and has responded accordingly to all the training. I have a couple of laterals that are going to "fall" behind, but they aren't going to negatively impact the final design or top count. She is starting to finally show the signs of flowering. Pisitls are forming at the nodes and this will be the overall final shape. I currently count 11 potential tops that are mostly on par with each other. There are 3 to 4 in the middle of the plant that are equal to each other and slightly higher than the outer ring. Trying to go for the "dome" look as much as possible. Next watering will be a flush. Then when she is ready for her first nutrient feed off the flush I'll defoliate her. Then everyone can see the crazy LST that I've kept mostly hidden.

We have finally made it to week 5 and have performed defoliated the plant. I have left all the main fan leaves for each stalk that are still green and able to soak up the light. Compared to last week I see that I have more potential tops, 15 compared to 11. I was able to do some more training to level her canopy off a little more and hopefully give each branch a decent amount of room. I didn't take a picture of how she looked 12 hours later, but she has nice up angled leaves across the board, even the lowest fan leaves are trying to raise up to the light. She also took 3/4 of a gallon to feed before getting a decent amount of runoff. She is recovering nicely from her defoliation. 😃

Well, I'm impressed and please with what is happening here. She has five branches that are fighting for domiance, but the main stalk will is still pulling ahead of the other four. She may or may not get a second defoliation depending on how the fan leaves behave. I'm tucking and layering as much as possible to allow flowers to get light. She lost about three leaves so far this week that were in the way/problematic. As you see on the one photo, the branch started to crack open like an overcooked sausage. No appearant negative results though so I'll just say they are growing pains. And, I knew there would be a flower that I couldn't get to with how the branches overlapped and I have the stake position. Oh well. because everything else is fantastic.

Week seven is here and we are still growing. There is a subtle smell coming from here but not enough for me to say what kind of smell, just a smell. After this week, she will get one more defolation to help expose some of that growth in the middle that is covered up. I'll also remove some more flower sites that won't be worth it in the end. Let's go. She did get some last-minute/final defolation on her. I couldn't wait until after the flush. That woudl be time I'm losing on flower development. I don't plan on any more defolation unless it is heavly blocking a flower. There won't be too many more new leaves after this week, so I need as many photosynthesizers as possible collecting light. And my 13 potential tops have turned into what I would say are 7 official tops. Still good and proud to have accomplished.

For week 8 I've decided to do one last pull down to help open her up. She was doing well and just fine how she was prior to the pull down, but I'm trying to increase the yield as much as possible. More light to more flowers equals a larger harvest. I did some minor defoliation was as well, I guess I should say that I did targeted defoliation specifically. The only potential concern I have is will the branches stand up to the weight when she gets bigger. I don't know yet so we will have to wait and see. I've definitely learned a lot over all my grows and I think she is showing that in her structure. I'm trying to crack the 3.5oz mark with this light because I know it can, it's just about technique. I'm also going for a 15 inch distance to see how it stresses the plant as I don't know how close she can get before doing real harm.

Week 9 is here, she is getting larger without changing her height. It's a good thing to see. I've already analyzed some of what happened to the plant and I think I could have taken off a few more flower sites to get even larger colas. It's all good though, as she looks good. I apologize to anyone who feels like they have seen this diary entry already. I didn't realize when I first made week 9 it was labeled as "veg." I've redone the week to make it say flower.

Week 10 and we are almost done with the grow. She will no longer get nutrients and is now being flushed with straight PH water only. I've noticed a 2-2.5 swing in the water from pour to run off. One of the largest swings I've personally come across throughtout a grow season. It doesn't seem to have a negative impact on the plant as It's been drifting slowly as the plant grew larger over the last few weeks. The tips are normal and so is the discoloration starting to show in the fan leaves. She is pulling out all those reserve nutrients and getting a little bigger each day. She might be harvested on Week 11, or it could be week 12. Once the fade sets in more I'll start checking the trichomes and determine from there.

This is going to be the final week of life for the Crystal Candy XL Auto. At some point in week 12 she is coming down. The fade is picking up on the fan leaves as pulls out all the nutrients she can to increase the frost production. Definitely happy with how she has turned out, from the training to the overall development. I think that she could have been a real beast if I had more light and trained a little better. But definitely pleased either way and can't wait to harvest and try her out.

Well, she isn't getting chopped this week like I was hoping (don't tell her). So we are going to go for one more week, possibly. The decision was based on how her trichomes are looking. She is currently at "max THC" with full cloudly. You can see some amber trying to come in on some of those close up shots. We want to see some more amber before we chop her. She is packing on weight though because her branche are starting to sag. The second heaviest top was only half an inch shorter than the main, now it's about 2 inches lower from it's weight. The lesson I'm taking away is I need to allow for more vertical growth to minimize how far out she has her weight. The branches don't seem to be at risk of snapping so I'm not too concerned about that but will be keeping a close eye on things. I could secure some of them to each other but I want to let her do her own thing until the end. Currently she has a pine/citrus smell with some skunk undertones. I like it, the misses says it smells like a weird man cologne. Her fade has been nice even across the fan leaves and progressing at a good rate. If I were to use the fade as an indicator for harvest she would probably have two weeks to go at her current pace. Not mad though, she is getting frostier each day!

This was a good run, and it was about typical of the length of time I've experienced with Autoflowers. I'm happy that I didn't chop her early, because then she wouldn't have been as large or smelled nearly as nice. As you can see from my root photos she didn't push as hard as she could have in the pot. Yes, the roots made their way around, but I not as much as I would have liked. I don't know if it was because of the feeding schedule, nutrient ratio, or what. It's something that makes me question what could be done, but I'll figure it out in good time.