Banner Auto

Hello Grow Diaries! First journal so bare with me please. First off the seeds were bought here in the great white north from Niagara Seed bank. These are Niagaras Own Seeds and i thought i would try them out for a change of pace. I germinated the seeds using the paper towel/plastic bag method until i saw just the start of the tap root, then transferred the seeds to rock wool cubes ph’d to 5.5 and threw them in a humidity dome with heating pad. Three of the four seeds managed to sprout in the next 2 days but one seed had not. After 5 days I opened the rock wool to find that the seed had a tap root but no further progress, so I decided to pop another bean. It has been two days and you can see the beginning of life in the rock wool cube. On day seven I transplanted them into their final resting place and filled my reservoir with 6 gallons of Mega Crop with ppm of 300 and ph’d to 5.8. I ahve set the drip for 20mins on 20mins off and we will adjust accordingly. The grow begins and i am excited to share my grow journey with the great people in the Grow Diaries Community.

Well where do i start.....First off having major issues with ph for two weeks now...constantly adjusting PH. I will set it to 5.5 and over night 6.5, adjust back down and same thing all over again. I think the plants growth has a direct correlation to whats going on. Ive grown in dwc and undercurrent with huge success and i am frustrated that this top drip is not performing. I wish it was because i built a nice system and love the top drip concept. I thoroughly washed the hydroton and it seems that i may never get the PH to settle. Maybe its the sheer volume of hydroton that is the problem...tough to say but i will stick it out and see where this goes. I guess if it ends up failing then it will be a lesson learned and i should have stuck with what was working. In this hobby i often become obsessed with trying different grow styles to become a better grower. Maybe i need to focus on my previous success.

Well....week three in the bag and i do believe that these plants are trying to make a comeback. I have still been battling ph swings and i am adjusting twice a day. Ph drifts from 5.5 to 6.2. I also have switched nutrients as i was trying to figure out the ph swing....so now i am using Flora Nova Grow. I have also increased the size of the reservoir to 10 gallons. Plants have grown quite a bit but i believe that they are probably a week behind. Hopefully i can get some decent growth in the 4th week and make this start looking like an average grow. I do have some weird growth on the first fan leaves....but i think thats from ph problems and nutrient absorption. The intensity of the lights has also been turned up and if im guessing im pushing 200 watts over the four led panels. Oh yeah...plant in the corner is a runt and probably wont produce anything but its green and im running the pot on the drip regardless so ill leave it for shits and giggles! See you guys in a week!

Well all i can say is wow what a difference a week can make! Growth has picked up dramatically. The plants are green and displaying heavy indica traits with really broad fat leaves. I have kept the feed ppms at the 500 -530 mark. They are starting to drink and my reservoir is down a couple gallons over the last four days. I have gradually upped the light intensity as well as raised the lights to try and encourage a little more height as the plants are really squat looking! I have lots of branching and the one almost looks like it has been topped. I haven't seen any signs of pre flower yet which is good because of the slow start I'm hoping to get a little more height before the stretch in flower. I will bump up nutes to the 600ppm mark this week as they seem to be doing great at 530 ppms. Interesting week ahead!

Ok...week 5 in the books. I was able to lst two plants and top the plant on the front right. I topped the front right because she really wasnt tall enough to bend over. However i did lst the side branches on her as well as the others. Growth has been good although i did have to drop ppms due to the start of nitrogen toxicity. I brought them down to 350 poms and thing have been great. I am noticing that over the last day of this week ppms dropped considerably so i will be bringing them back up. I have also noticed the start of flower at 35 days. I will be going forward this week with a defoliation to increase light to needed areas. Oh yeah....the runt has made some progress.....no topping or lst lol. Thanks for looking.... See ya next week.

Week 6 is officially in the bag. I can not believe the growth this week! All plants have shown significant improvement and even the runt is looking like she will produce a bit! I have many many tops showing and once i feel things have slowed and budding increases.....i will need a massive defoliation! The plants are so bushy that there is not much room and leaves are mashing into each other competing for space! Not a bad problem to have....just have my work cut out for me. The plant in the back left corner is a friggin beast! I had upped the feeding from 350 area to 500 and the ate 150ppm overnight....upped to 630 and they have eaten 200ppm in a day and a half. I will try to up solution to 700 to see if it stabilizes a bit. Lst is pretty much done as the short bushy plants stocks are thick and rigid and i cant manipulate the large one in the back as it is now is eating up the other plants room! See you in a week!

Week seven is done....plants are very lush with lots of bud sites. Plant in the back left is a beast and has started to crowd the other plants grow space. I am going to have to pull her canopy in a bit to make sure other plants get the space they need. I defoliated at the beginning of this week and seven days later it looks like i haven’t touched them at all. I have just defoliated for the second time and i think i will be good for a bit after that. Plants are drinking lots of water and nutrients. I am at 850ppm at the moment and let nutrient and water levels drop over the course of the week and then re add as needed. So far i am adding twice a week. Ph is pretty stable now hovering around the 5.9 mark. Plants are doing well. No more lst but i did super-crop a couple branches to re fill the space that the bully plant had taken from one of the other plants. See you at the week 8 mark and happy growing!

Well grow diaries....week 8 in the bag and the tent has been filled. The runt in the back is no more.....she is taller than the front two that dwarfed her for the last 7 weeks. The girl in the back left is the biggest and the furthest along with nice long colas, they should develop nicely into long fat buds. Front left plant has finally begun to flower. The front right plant is showing signs of flowering but hasn't fully committed . Weird considering 56 days have past.....I think I will be pushing past the twelve week period for the grow....but what can you do really. Plants are eating 1150 ppms and are loving it. They are drinking 5 gallons every 1 1/2 to 2 days. My 480 watt quantum board has been pegged and i have had to super crop a couple branches to lower the light intensity from the lights hot spot. The intensity of my light has also been jacked to still provide proper intensity to the lower plants. Time will tell. Enjoy the pics and we will see you at week nine!

Week 9 done....plants are continuously making strides. I have dripped the ppms to 1000 this week as i have encountered a deficiency. I believe it is a phosphorus deficiency as it is showing all the signs. I believe it is a direct result from the intensity of my leds as well. I have kept the leds at a high intensity to give the lower plants plenty of light for flowering.....but in the process the big girl was getting blasted with really high lux. The leaves have taken a bit of a beating but i hope that with a bud booster supplement, things will start to get back on track. I have brought the intensity of the lights down today and hopefully will also help. Quite frankly i believe that i am overpowering my tent with leds. I am pushing 480 watts and i should be around 320 for a 3x3. Buds are forming nice and should see some good growth this week. I did a defoliation 3 days ago and it has given the colas some space to absorb light. I hope the deficiency subsides and i can put on some weight this week.....fingers crossed. See you in seven days....and happy growing all.

Week 10 done and the tent continues to surprise me. This bruce banner strain has orovrn to be a late bloomer but everything is in full swing now. Buds are forming nice bow and are fattening by the day. The back left plant was hit hard by the phosphorus calcium deficiency. Im hoping that the buds continue to swell, but the leaves are definitely damaged. The rest of the girls seem fine. Ok am feeding at 1000ppm and ph to 5.9 , 6.0. I also have been defoliating on a weekly basis to try and keep light penetration to a max for bud formation. Take care and we will see you in 7 days.

Week 11 done....plants are doing ok.....i have raised the two front pots to level the canopy. I should have don’t this weeks ago.....hindsight is a bitch. I created two small tables to even everything out. The plant in the far left had taken a beating from the intensity of the lights prior to levelling the canopy. The leaves are rusted and all but gone. Thats what i get for running 1200 to 1400 par over it without co2. Lesson learned on that. The other plants are doing well and fattening up nicely. Things are way more frosty. I believe that these plants are all going to finish at different times. I have checked trichomes on the back left plant and things are cloudy with a few clear....i think one more week for that plant to show some amber trichomes before i cut her down. The other three have a little while to go. I am staying the course for now and will see you guys in a week.

Hey guys....another week down....nothing really to add but the buds are developing more... pit the plant in the back left on straight water....and the front left will be doing the same soon. Far back right is developing bice and buds are getting frostier as days go on. The front right is starting to put weight on her buds. Aroma is good in the tent and if i pinch any leaves off i have a pungent aroma emanating ng from my fingers. Trichs are cloudy mostly and i have seen the odd amber trich on the most mature plant. Looking forward to the finale of this one....its been a loooong autoflower grow but...sometimes it doesnt always go as one would expect. Until next week.....happy growing.

This is the last week till harvest all bids seem to be mature for the picking! Nice to see that my buds have turned into some nice colours. Tent temps with lights off sitting at 65-67 degrees which im sure has helped. Grow has been a long one but im positive that harvest should be decent! Plants are receiving straight water for last week.

—