Auto Grow #1 Cropking & MSG Mixed Lot

Dropped seeds in distilled water at noon Saturday, removed and put them in wet paper towel Sunday at 7 pm. Kept wet and planted 3 sprouted seeds in pots with cups over around 7 pm Monday. Running lights about 24" inches away running 18/6. My tent is running hot due to temp of air intake so I will be piping in cooler air within the next day or so as tent temps reading low 90s. This is my first grow and I am going for 3 strains. The third custom strain is MSG Banana Durban Auto. So plant identifiers are BD= Banana Durban BBD= Blueberry x Big Devil and WW= White Widow. I am using Fox Farm soil in 5 gallon fabric pots and have Fox Farm Trio and Cal Mag planned when needed.

What a difference a week means struggle wise. I went from battling high temps to being concerned about low temps and humidity. I ended up piping in air conditioned air and that lowered temp some. I added second intake fan to supply side to boost airflow throughout tent and then added a small humidifier to the mix to bump up humidity from low 40s to high 40s. I am running lights 20/4 rotation with 4 hours off being noon to 4 pm for heat purposes. I lowered the light from 24" down to 20" right now. Thinking if its gets too cold in tent with standard AC air being piped in, I might use space heater in AC space by intake to heat air instead of putting in tent itself but I am hoping that wouldn't be necessary. All 3 girls look fine. I think I caught myself starting to over water so I am cooling it with that and doing every other day sparsely at this point.

It was starting to seem too easy. I should have known lol I purposely was under watering worried about over watering too much which I read is a common issue. I also was only watering around the plants themselves and not the whole 5 gallon pot. Well yesterday I went in to water and found the Blueberry Big Devil looking pretty damned sad. I gave all three pots a thorough watering. Today she looks better but not as good as she did just a couple days ago. I am also torn on temperature. In the hottest hours of the day right now with the lights on (Off from noon to 6) I am still hovering in around the 85-86 degree mark. I really don't want to invest in a portable AC when the weather is due to cool off drastically any day now. I plan to attempt some LST this week. I am hoping the BBD will pep up some before that. Right now for this run I plan to try a different method on each of the 3 plants. I have some bend clips coming I plan on placing on 2nd and 3rd node of one, I plan to stake down nodes low using U clips to soil (pinning down branches) and I have some 3D printed spreaders to try out on 3rd plant. The Banana Durban looks like its more than ready for some training but I am going to give it a couple more days and do all at once. The start of next week (week 4) I will start using nutrients and have to do some reading up on that. Right now in hand I have the Fox Farm Trio of nutrients, Cal Mag, Bud Candy and Flawless finish. Thanks for reading and lets hope that my week 4 log is all smiles :)

Day 22 kicks off week 4 and I am excited. From the looks of it by my novice eye, these ladies will likely begin flowering this week if they haven't already. I have installed plant bends on the Banana Durban and Blueberry Big Devil but haven't down anything yet with the White Widow as its still a tad too small to get bends on without messing up fan leaves. I will check again later in week. I realize I haven't been watering right the whole time and tomorrow will be first time I water till run off. I plan to start using nutrients at the end of this week beginning of next. Right now they have been going off just Fox Farm soil. I have the Fox Farm Trio, Cal Mag, Bud Candy and Flawless Finish to play with and see how they do. The Banana Durban is significantly bigger than the other two and while likely genetics, I decided to switch the BBD and BD around. The only environmental difference is that the Banana Durban has been next to supply intake with cool air. So far so good!! Day 27 Last day of week 4 and all three are in pre-flower. I gave my first watering using nutrients and plan to now use every other watering. I used 2 tsp of Go Big, Tiger Bloom and 1 tsp of Bud Candy per gallon and watered 2.5 gallons total for the 3 plants. I didn't properly fill these pots with soil and after first full watering, plants were sitting down in fabric. I saw idea to fold down sides on Facebook group and followed suit. I actually went from using cool mist humidifier to raise humidity to running small dehumidifier and changing schedule back to 20/4 to combat high humidity from all the rain we've gotten with tons of moisture in the air. I installed plant bends on White Widow as its now grow enough in that 5 days update to get some on no problem. Relooking over plants, I uninstalled some plant bends on I put fan leaf stems LOL :p

Week 5 and I am still struggling to understand watering lol. I am only watering every 3 days right now and I can feel how pots are much lighter but if I use my soil moisture meter and go deep it says moist still. I have been watering regardless and while it doesn't seem to effect my Banana Durban at all, my White Widow and Blueberry Big Bud don't like it and their leaves never point up. Tomorrow is day 3 and watering day, I may not water the WW and BBD and let them dry out another day and see what that does for me. Heat is no longer an issue as outside temps have me hovering in a good range at all times now and while I now have a cool air mister and dehumidifier on standby, I don't think I will need either. I had to get rid of factory MARS clips for light to go with 4 straight ratchets so I could continue to raise light as Banana Durban getting big and stretching. Nutrients this week were same as last only I added the 3rd Fox Farm blooming nutrient. I think once I go through all my liquid nutrients I am switching to dry amendments as shown on Mr. Chunuks Grow. I like the idea of water only for most part. I did get a bottle of Fish Shit and next watering I will incorporate. I know its controversial with autos but I stripped off at least 20 fan leaves blocking bud sights and did a slight lollipoping to all 3 for extreme undergrowth. I installed a couple new plant bends and tied down a branch on White Widow to get more exposure and spread out. Next grow going with a trellis. I have them now but there is such a difference in heights of these 3 and now that they are in flower, I am just going to ride it out as is. Update: Went in Wednesday and all three had leaves pointing up for first time. I used moisture meter and still moist down deep. Let them go another day and plan to water tomorrow with just PHed water and Fish Shit

Week 6 / Week 2 of flower went well overall. Still having some hot days. I have thermal insulation in transit to seal off and insulate space. If that does not do trick alone, a portable AC will be purchased. I have a cool air evaporator that drops it a few degrees and helps with adding humidity but days like today where its hot and humid, this adds to humidity problem and doesn't drop heat enough to make it worth it. Feed wise, I am still doing every 3 days. So this week they got one feeding of just water and fish shit. Their second feeding on Tuesday had full dose of all three nutrients in Fox Farm Trio, as well as full dose of Bud Candy and Cal Mag. Next feeding I will drop back to half dose. I have continued to defoliate as needed and just don't know what to do about the Blueberry Big Devil. it has long droopy leaves and I don't want to take off too many and stress plant but it needs some more sun to get through its crazy mop. I have had to add a riser under the Blueberry Big Devil and I had to tie the top colas from the BD and WW together to bring them down and away from the light. It seems to have worked in getting more light down lower to other bud sights so while not ideal, its working out.

Week 7: Well after accidentally super cropping the White Widow, splitting a branch then taping up on the Blueberry Big Devil and then mass defoliation, the ladies have coped well. I feel like I have watering dialed in now with a combination of using a soil moisture meter and picking up the pots, I have faith I am close to right with timing. The last feeding in week 6 I used full strength nutrients. This resulted in some nutrient burn with some tips of leaves changing colors. I feed just water the next go around and yesterday feed again with 1/2 strength nutrients. I will stick with that until flush. I am going to switch to dry amendments for my next grow and try that out. Temperatures are coming down into 60s at night and topping out in low 80s. Humidity has been hovering between 45-50 without any need for equipment to run. I did some lollipoping and cut lose all the secondary popcorn buds that weren't seeing the light of day. I can't think of anything I could have done physically to stress them beyond this point than I have, so from this point on out I am just going to water and feed. No more LST, adjustments, etc.. I have already been way too active in flower from my understand of autos anyway.

This past week was another learning experience. I decided to let soil dry before watering to allow for roots to stretch. It took 5 days and the White Widow showed some signs on leaves of needing water. Using just phed water I thoroughly watered all 3. The following day the Banana Durban had signs of many deficiencies pop up overnight. Having let it dry out and just using water, it went without nutrients for over a week and it showed in the biggest of the three. Since I just watered, I couldn't feed until today, 3 days later. So I hope that will help give the girls the boost they needed. The tent is starting to smell dank and luscious. I am hoping for the buds on all 3, particularly the White Widow to bulk up. Having injured the WW and BBD with physical branch damage during flower without a doubt diverted energy I wish went to the buds. We will see what the weeks hold. Thanks for following along.

Week 9: How to go from deficiencies to nutrient burn again by a newbie if it needed a title. They take turns. Now the leaves on the Blueberry X Big Devil are giving signs of distress. Light on pictures this week as I am not motivated to take any when they are not at the best but I will get a new group photo next chance I get. Its getting cold where I am and temps dip down to close to 60 in tent and that's running the lights and turning off at heat of day. So I broke down and got a Inkbird Wifi temp controller and will rig up a small space heater to automate temp. I will eventually do one for Humidity too but it hasn't been a struggle yet. I started looking at trichomes through loop and starting to be mostly cloudy. I think I will feed them one more time which would be this Sunday most likely as they got water today. After that, I may just run flawless finish. Banana Durban looks like she will be first even though she had the longest day suggestion from breeder with 80 days. I did likely stunt other two with inadvertent HST during early flower. So well just ride it out and see how it goes. I will need to start using gloves as they are sticky and smelly. Added some more photos taken day after week ended but closer to this week than next.

Week 9 was pretty smooth. Starting to check the trichomes and have more cloudy than clear on all three but no amber. Still going to stop feeding at this point. Going to just use Flawless Finish this next watering and then straight water till the end from there. Today is day 70, the only breeder recommendation I had was for the Banana Durban and that was 80 days. Since its a Sativa I am less concerned about Amber with that one and want more of a energetic head high. I am thinking another week or two and then some darkness before the chop. I don't want to pull the trigger too fast as much as I want these hanging up. I took out the Blueberry x Big Devil out and got inside the branches and did some last minute defoliating and for first time since mid flower, I feel good about airflow it has through it and light penetration. I will run this strain again and do so much better next time on them. The buds themselves look so good.

Week 11: Today, day 77 I watered with just PHed water. Last watering was just flawless finish on Saturday and just water from here on out. I took out and cared for plants one at a time today. The White Widow is going to need more time which makes cutting lights and figuring out harvest more challenging but I am going to give her all the time she needs. My Banana Durban today was just flopped in every direction with branches unable to hold buds. Thankfully, I just got some 3' bamboo stakes, so I used stakes and zip ties to bind her up. And in tradition newbie mistake fashion, I took some snipping from lower bud sites that I should have lollipoped. It allowed me to use magnified gizmo alittle better and I am going to dry these out as my first sample buds. Starting to see amber and these are the bottom popcorn buds so I imagine higher colas even further along. If it wasn't for the White Widow, I would cut lights Christmas morning to be symbolic lol but now I am just going to play it by ear but harvest is near for the Banana Durban and Blueberry X Big Devil.

Today is last day of week 12, day 84. While I am a novice and fear a early harvest, these three have ran a full course by any auto standards. There is amber.. 50%? Probably not and I still see a few clear here and there but these plants seem to be telling me there ready. Fall colors came in hard due to the flush and leaves are pretty much disintegrating by the day. This is another lesson. I am sure I brought on current state due to flush and probably should have feed for another week or two. But I am happy with where these are and how its going. I was going to let White Widow go some more but she came along fast in last week. I just killed the lights now and plan to harvest and hang to dry on Christmas morning. I will update this with harvest pictures and final weights in a couple weeks after dried and trimmed up. Even though I read a lot before I started, I over watered, I under watered, I gave nutrient burn using full strength even knowing everyone says half, I didn't lollipop when I should have and did HST in flower lol I also manipulated the light schedule often to combat heat, humidity or my watering abilities. I am so grateful I didn't have one herm or die out on me. All three are awesome plants. The Banana Durban was the least picky of all and was very hardy. Just its performance had me secure the entire MSG menu. The BBD was a perfect indoor indica. Short, squaty and with fat buds this plant didn't like the heat as much initially. This specific phenotype needed a lot of defoliation and I failed in that regard. Next run of this one and I will stay on top of leaves which are plentiful. The White Widow was the runt of the litter but when she got going, she shot up and had to be super cropped in flower just to keep from not being 6 ft tall lol. She raised from the dead from that supercrop and continued to chug along. Leaves turned a beautiful dark color late in flower and the buds while small in nature are dense and magical looking. I can't wait to see what I yield., I have no frame of reference. My goal was 2 ounces per plant, we shall see. Just the sample buds I took as a form of late lollipop / taste test filled a 32 ounce mason jar so I really don't know what to expect. Thanks for following along and I will be sure to close this out with final results.

And at harvest, the mistakes didn't stop. I made custom 3D printed plant signs and took great care to keep identified. At harvest, all 3 plants looked so different, I just cut them all down together. Once dried, it added an additional pain in the ass step to separate. I will be lucky if I got 85% correctly sorted. This blueberry big devil grew like you would hope for a indoor indica grow. She was short stout and yielded! I am not familiar with all the different phenotypes of this strain, but particular plant had some major leaves lol. As a newbie, I did a poor job defoliating and didn't remove any leaves before drying. Because of this, the trim was daunting. Trimming sucks!! I got a Trim bag and it did a near final job on other two strains but this one it just needed a lot of getting in there. I decided to trim all the large buds and the rest is going towards edibles. I will grow this strain again and when I do, if same phenotype, I will keep on top of leaves and also wet trim some before hanging to dry. My goal going into this was 6 ounces total. 2 per plant. I am walking away with over 14 oz, a big bag of trim and a hefty pile of keif. True taste, smell and smoke report to come in form of edit later. I have all in jars now and plan to cure for at least 3 weeks till I evaluate the final product. Thanks for looking and following along. Final Edit: Here in April of 21 and BBD is about gone. I may have an 1/8 to 1/4 ounce left. After final cure it tastes great and unique and was very potent. The edibles I made were incredible. I made a double strength batch of infused coconut oil. I used alittle over 2 ounces to made 3 sticks of oil and with that made gummies, brownies and cookies with it. It was very potent and helped tremendously with some back pain I had going at the time. Couldn't be more happy and can't wait to grow again knowing what I know now!

And at harvest, the mistakes didn't stop. I made custom 3D printed plant signs and took great care to keep identified. At harvest, all 3 plants looked so different, I just cut them all down together. Once dried, it added an additional pain in the ass step to separate. I will be lucky if I got 85% correctly sorted. This White Widow ended up producing some small gorgeous buds and I am happy with the +2 oz yield I got from it. The trim bag took these buds from snipped off the stem to jars with no middle man. Buds were dense, compact and easiest to identify of the 3 strains due to some darker colors in the buds and hardness. You can really see it stick fresh cut in trim bin. My goal going into this was 6 ounces total. 2 per plant. I am walking away with over 14 oz, a big bag of trim and a hefty pile of keif. True taste, smell and smoke report to come in form of edit later. I have all in jars now and plan to cure for at least 3 weeks till I evaluate the final product. Thanks for looking and following along.

And at harvest, the mistakes didn't stop. I made custom 3D printed plant signs and took great care to keep identified. At harvest, all 3 plants looked so different, I just cut them all down together. Once dried, it added an additional pain in the ass step to separate. I will be lucky if I got 85% correctly sorted. The Banana Durban was amazing, that 5.67 oz is excluding the main large cola. It was last of the 3 rounds of harvest from dry tent and had mold in center and I had to toss :o True taste, smell and smoke report to come in form of edit later. I have all in jars now and plan to cure for at least 3 weeks till I evaluate the final product. My goal going into this was 6 ounces total. 2 per plant. I am walking away with over 14 oz, a big bag of trim and a hefty pile of keif. Thanks for looking and following along.