Rebounding Stressed Autos | NL Auto

Hello growers, Welcome to round 2 of grow your own smoke because the dispensaries are charging way too much (recreational prices: 20 $/g for decent stuff) in Michigan. Plus I'm really enjoying growing this plant and don't plan on stopping anytime soon. I started germination of 3 seeds (1x Amensia Auto and 2x Northern Lights Auto), but am only keeping this diary for the northern lights as my first grow I grew 2 amnesia autos and have a diary for those already. I germinated the seeds by placing the seeds into cups filled with water for 24 hours and then did the paper towel method until the tap roots were about half an inch in length. I placed the seeds into solo cups filled with Tupur Royal Gold and plan on transplanting into 3 gallon fabric pots at around week 3. They will be sharing space until the remaining amnesia auto from my very first grow is ready to harvest, which will probably be around 2 weeks into these younger ladies growth. Seedlings broke soil on September 19, 2020. Day 6 - Natalia is the best looking seedling I've had. Noemi is looking a little small but can't underestimate these ladies this early into growth. They are full of potential.

Day 9 - The ladies look healthy for their early growth stage. I plan on giving them their first feeding once I have transplanted them into their final 3 gallon fabric pots, which will happen as soon as the final amnesia from my first run is ready to harvest. Natalia measured in at 2.5 inches tall and Noemi at 1 inch tall. Day 13 - Temperatures are starting to drop with a max of 70F most days, hopefully I can keep my seedlings happy. Luckily these seedlings are still on the same light schedule as my first grow, where the lights turn on at night and are off during the day. So when it's the lowest temperature for the day, the lights will somewhat warm up the tent and seedlings. I had this light schedule to avoid keeping the lights on during the day when in summertime it's the hottest.

Day 14 - The ladies are looking good so far. Noemi is still much shorter than Natalia. Both are much smaller at this point in growth than my first grow. I'm thinking the temperature is stunting them a bit and it's only going to get colder. I should be able to keep the room at around 65F. Day 17 - I adjusted the light to get the ladies closer. Measured 74.7F and 52%RH near the ladies. I also let their top soil get dry before giving them their first feeding of only Cal-Mag (measured with a pH of 5.9). Hoping they begin to rebound in the next few days. Noticed some purple? spots on Noemi's leaves, looks like cold shock to me. Day 19 - Decided to call it on them. They are too far behind and aren't giving me much indication of rebounding. Even if so, they will likely be very small and not yield much. I'll keep them in the tent while my other lady from my first grow finishes, the light was adjusted back to focus on the lady finishing. Will try germinating and growing happier ladies soon once I get my hands on a controllable heated seedling pad and a way to keep the grow tent warmer (space heater or more inefficient lights that throw heat into the tent). I also need more seeds, thinking about trying different auto breeders next.

Day 27 - Looks like I was wrong as I left them alone for a few days and more nodes showed up on all ladies (they showed they can keep going). Decided it was time to harvest the lady taking up all the space in my tent and freed up room for Natalia and Noemi to properly flourish in 3 gallon fabric pots. Excited to see how these will rebound now. As I amended the soil I just transplanted them in, I only fed them with water amended with only Cal-Mag. I'll feed them some more nutrients next feeding. Their roots made it all the way to the bottom of the solo cups I had them in so I'm hoping they keep stretching.

Day 29 - Both ladies transplanted into 3 gallon pots look much happier and are starting to grow more. Even the amnesia in the smaller plastic pot is looking happy (not the focus of this diary). I should have waited to sprout these seeds and immediately placed them into their final pots instead of waiting almost 4 weeks while I waited to harvest another lady taking all the tent space. We'll see how big these end up getting with them being autos and being seriously held back for most of their supposed vegetation stage. Day 30 - Natalia is 4 inches tall and Noemi is 2 inches tall. Day 31 - Fed Natalia water amended per this week's diary. Day 32 - Fed Noemi water amended per this week's diary. Decided to start LST on the ladies today. First time growing I used some string and made holes on the sides of the fabric pots, this time thought I'd try some leftover small pieces of electrical wire. Working much better in my opinion so far. Really going to bend these ladies more while I'm training. Day 33 - I'm seeing pistils have popped on all ladies in the tent right now.

Day 35 - I'm a bit surprised at the rebound these ladies are having. I'm excited to see what these ladies will pack on. Day 37 - Will try and keep training up on these ladies, they look good for the situation they were previously in. Day 38 - They are really stacking nodes and stretching now.

Day 43 - Wow, all the ladies look very happy and are continuing to grow 10 days after popping their pistils. They'd be much bigger if I would have transplanted them into their final pot about 10 days after breaking soil instead of about 28 days after like I had to do due to waiting for tent space (previous grow). They looked very stunted but haven't missed a step since I've moved them. I think the training is going well, I have the main stem about horizontal with the topsoil and all the nodes are growing at a steady pace. Day 46 - Decided to defoliate Natalia's largest fan leaves that were in the way of other bud sites and left Noemi alone. Rearranged LST wire on all ladies.

Day 49 - Defoliated all larger fan leaves covering other budsites and fan leaves underneath any canopy. Also lollipopped all the small budsites underneath any canopy. LST is going great, the ladies are looking much more like what I was trying to do on my first grow (except for the part where I stunted the early vegetation stage on these ladies lol). Day 53 - Keep messing with LST wires and removing fan leaves that are in the way. Haven't stopped feeding with amendments every watering since I started watering with amendments after transplanting into their final pots at around day 28. So far the leaf tips aren't burned and the plants are responding well. Unless obvious symptoms of too much nutrients appear, I won't stop feeding amended water and do a super flush about a week before harvest.

Day 61 - They perked right back up a few hours after watering lol

Day 64 - They are looking great, the colder temperatures don't seem to be effecting them as much as I would have thought. Might see some purple colors with them getting to 60F at night, they are pretty much just getting a cold shock every night. I am continually defoliating all the large fan leaves blocking bud sites on all ladies.

Day 75 - Both ladies looking great, starting to produce trichomes and buds are just starting to fatten. Starting to smell nice. Natalia is 15.5 inches tall and Noemi is 9.5 inches tall. I'm happy with how the LST went for these ladies.

Day 82 - Buds are getting fatter and frostier everyday now. I'm seeing some purple tips starting to form on Noemi. Ladies have been responding favorably to getting full nutrients every watering. Haven't noticed many burnt leaf tips. I plan on flushing these plants well towards the end of their growth to confirm flushing plants improve the bud's smoke harshness.

Day 91 - Natalia and Noemi both look great and are only experiencing slight nutrient burn (leaf tips). The amnesia in the smaller plant was showing some burnt spots in the middle of the leaves, so I decided to give all theladies their first only Cal-Mag feeding and measured run-off pH. Run off for all measured low (around 5.5) so I'll be feeding at a higher pH and measure run-off until I read around 6.3. So far the small amnesia has been watered again since the initial only Cal-Mag watering and I have managed to get its run-off to 5.9. Noemi's buds seem to be about a week ahead of Natalia's in terms of growth and trichomes. The trichomes on Noemi are still mostly all clear with no signs of amber yet. The bud tips are starting to purple on all the ladies buds.

Day 100 - All ladies looking good at this point in the grow. Noemi's pistil hairs have mostly all curled up and turned amber in color. Also her trichomes are starting to appear amber in color. Will flush her pot with about 5 gallons of pH'd water soon. Natalia's pistils are about half curled up/amber and half white. Her buds still appear to be packing on trichomes and weight.

Day 106 - I have thoroughly flushed Noemi as she is nearing the harvest window with about 50/50 clear/cloudy trichomes on her top buds. I hope to see her start fading soon. Natalia is still fattening buds and hasn't been flushed yet; her trichomes still look mostly clear.

Day 113 - Starting seeing some nutrient burn on Natalia's leaf tips and decided to flush her, but will keep giving smaller doses of nutrients every watering. Noemi has now been flushed twice and has not been receiving anymore nutrients. I'd like to see Noemi start to fade before I harvest. Day 116 - Decided I am going to harvest both ladies in the tent at the same time in order to successfully give the plants an extended period of darkness (about 72 hours) before harvest and to hang dry in the tent with whatever I can come up with to keep humidity at around 50% during drying. I'm thinking I'll chop them close to the base and leave as much of the stems as I can so the buds dry slower. Last I checked Noemi is already starting to show amber trichomes and Natalia is yet to really show any amber trichomes. I won't be watering anymore and let them dry out. Day 118 - Started their extended period of darkness today and will last until day 120 (about 48 hours) where I will finally harvest her and start hang drying in the tent. Natalia is wilting pretty drastically right before I decided to start the darkness, Noemi is still uneffected by not being watered. My next grow will be with RQS and their White Widow photoperiod seeds. I've been wanting to mainline some plants and figured I'd try that on photos instead of autos.

Harvested on January 16, 2021 (Day 119, F86) 2 plants under a 100W grow light. Plant 1 aka Natalia: 44.9 grams dry Plant 2 aka Noemi: 33.3 grams dry These plants went through a rough start due to not having the space in my tent to allow them to properly flourish for the first 4 weeks. After making room for them and placing them in their final pots directly below my light, they didn't miss a step and went through dramatic growth spurt. With this in mind, the plants were on the smaller side and didn't produce the fatter buds I experienced with my first grow. Still happy I grew them to harvest. These buds smell much more than my previous harvest did after a couple weeks in jars. Both are similar smelling. The smoke so far has been cleaner than my previous harvest, but seems to burn just as well.