ILGM WW Auto Round:2

Very First Grow - 2nd try of ILGM White Widow. Again, I germinated one at a time sequentially in a glass of distilled water. Only this time, all three cracked open with a barely exposed root. Changing up the soil on 2 of them this time to Miracle Grow Potting Soil with extra Perlite and 1cup of Espoma Plant-Tone All Purpose Organic Food mixed into the 5ga fabric pots. #6 is in Espoma Organic Potting Soil again like the first failed grow, but with the 1cup of organic plant food and even more perlite mixed in. This soil is enriched with all kinds of good stuff like castings, kelp meal, root micro fungi, alfalfa meal, etc. Thank you for following! Wish me luck! Compared to last grow, so far they are growing taller with nice green stems and dark green leaves. End of week 1 from seeds.

#4 and #5 in Miracle Grow began developing a dusty covering on the topsoil. Come to find out, it is microscopic bugs and eggs. The little dust mite looking things are crawling up the plants' stem and onto the cotyledeons. I scraped off all infested soil that I can see, but I know this won't be the end of them. I'm not sure what they are or how dangerous the are. #6 is growing the slowest in the Espoma Organic Soil again. Although it is a few days younger than the others. There's just something about this soil that isn't ideal. The top dries of very quickly and even gets a little hard like and clumps together, while an inch down it's black and not dried out. End of Week 2

Good week for the new girls. #4 and #5 and doing great in the Miracle-Gro with organic plant food. There are some discolorations on #4 but it's always been that color and still growing beautifully. They are working on the first set of 5 blade leaves. #6 is about a week behind in the amended organic soil. I'm hoping in another week this one explodes in growth. I am watering with target pH 6.5 when common sense tells me the soil is dry enough. That may be with a dropper every day, or a little more every 2-3 days. I water around the circumference of the plant and less around the stem. The light is still the original height of 30" from top of pots, on 60% dim. #4 and #5 have grown a little closer to the 30". Looking to modify the height and turn power up soon. Thanks for following! End of week 3

And the girls are off to the races! Oh what a pretty sight. As usual, the best growth is coming from the #4 and #5 in Plant-Toned Miracle-Gro. #6 isn't growing as fast, but is catching up at its own pace in the Plant-Toned Organic Soil. I upped the light to from 60% to 75% dim this week as I thought the bigger ones were ready to handle it. Without ever moving the light height, #4 grew up to 26" from the light on her own. I'll give it another week for #6 and #7 (Bruce Banner Auto) to get a little bigger and then make adjustments. They are also handling more water. I'm making sure to soak the whole pot now instead of just dripping around the circumference. I'm giving them about 1 liters each every 2-3 days of about 6.2-6.5 pH dechlorinated tap water. I also just gave them a light Plant-Tone topdress with a handful of soil after the LST. #4 had 6 nodes and #5 had 5 nodes when I LST. You can see how #4 got nice and opened when bent over. #5 is a little smaller and is more tricky to make sure the tops are prioritizing light and trying to tuck the leaves. Both shown great response to the LST the next day, and they are reaching their tops up as I keep them tied down in place. They smell a little bit when touching them. #5 has some interesting metallic coloring on the edges of the leaves. End of week 4. So excited!

Great week of progress especially for #4 and #5 who have shown pistils. I continue to tuck leaves and expose tops but it's getting harder and harder. Their stems are getting nice and thick. #6 is about ready to be bent over. I am giving them a lot more water now until I see some runoff so I know the bottom of the pot is getting wet. The big ones are getting about 1.5 liters every 2-3 days. #6 got some little brown spots on the leaves but didn't get any worse. Maybe I got water droplets on it. I had a small bug infestation of white flies and gnats from an outdoor photoperiod that I brought inside. I hunted them multiple times daily for a few days with a tweezer and it looks like I won the war fairly easily without using pesticides. I increased the light to 100% and lowered it 24" from the big plants. They are taking it well. End of week 5 from seed

Good week of progress. #4 and #5 are continuing to flower and the tops are trying to grow. Tucking leaves and getting light penetration is becoming challenging. While adjusting #6's LST from last week and trying to pull the top down a little further, the main stem snapped pretty bad. I taped it and left it for a week. I removed the tape a week later to find the stem is healing itself. I bent it down just a little more to lower the main top site so the others will continue to grow and get light. #6 is just barely showing pistils now. I cleaned up the bottom skirts a little bit as leaves were getting in the way of watering. I'm trying not to defoliate too much right now until they really explode and start flowering more. The light is 100% at 24" now. #4 and #5 are getting about 2 liters of water each every 2-3 days in the MG soil. #6 in the organic soil I think has more drainage. I gave it 1 liter of water and there was a bit of runoff just from that. Overall, I think my mistake from my first grow attempt was UNDERWATERING. Growers in the comments suggested overwatering, so I basically starved them even further. These days I'm following my common sense instincts - if I think it's time for water, I water them. I try to use enough water to reach the middle and bottom of the soil so I basically water until I see runoff starting to come out of the bottom. The next few days they explode with color and growth. Water is always pHd to around 6.5. They are growing with organic granular nutrients in the soil from seed, and topdressed twice. I will refrain from giving anymore nutrients for a few weeks.

Good week of progress, starting to fill up the tent and need spreading apart. #5 is the furthest into flower showing dense white hairs on the tops. #4 has been showing hairs for a couple weeks, but is stuck in pre-flower. Starting to show more white hairs now. #6 just started pre-flower is still growing up nicely from the LST. Nowhere near as big as #4 and #5 though. All the plants seem to be different WW phenos. #5 is dark green and flowering the quickest. #4 is a lighter green and stalling in flower. #6 is nowhere near as big, but has bigger leaves, and not as many tops. Although #6 did go through a broken stem repair the last couple of weeks. They are all continuing to grow their tops up and maturing the flower sites. This week I defoliated a few times removing a bunch of leaves blocking bud sites and the undergrowth that isn't going to produce. A slight lollipopping to make watering easier and so they don't waste energy in small growth. I lowered the light to 18" this week. Still watering every 2-3 days giving about 2-3 liters per plant. No added nutrients this week. Humidity is always a little high, especially after watering. I added a small De-humidifier and it is collecting water, but not quite enough. Thanks for following!

#4 and #5 are continuing to progress through flowering. They are stretching a little bit and have a lot of leaves. I am taking off leaves every day and tucking others. I think I may need to start taking off even more by I'm afraid of hurting photosynthesis too much. #5 has the thickest stalk and branches. #6's colas look like they are stacking up pretty nice. I removed more lower leaves and branch bud sites from the bottoms (lollipop). #6 has entered flower and stretching up to be a similar height as the others. It's getting a bit crammed in there especially for the rear ones. They are struggling to grow their back tops being against the back of the tent. I noticed after watering they really perk up and show growth the next days. So, I started increasing watering a little bit. I gave them a little more top dress of organic granular nutrients. Days later, every plant's bottom leaves started to get soft and yellow and easily plucked off. I'm not sure if this is from overwatering, overfeeding, or the soil's pH went out of range due to too much nutrients. Please leave a comment if you know why or if it's normal. Some leaves are showing signs of tip burn so I'm thinking too much nutrients. Will try to back off on watering and nutrients this week. Otherwise all plants seem healthy and progressing growth and flowering sites.

#4 and #5 are weeks into flower with their tops stacking up. Covered in white hairs and growing their buds. #4's leaf tips are showing a little nute burn I think. #6 put on her stretch and started to white hair up now. Still finding lower leaves dying and plucking off easily. I don't think they are getting any light down there anyway. The upper leaves are not doing this, but some are showing burned leaf tips. I'm suspecting nute burn. They are pretty loaded with organic granular nutrients. Taking off a handful of leaves every day. Dying ones and the occasional one blocking bud sites. I still think I need to take off more to expose lower bud sites to more light. I'm just cautious of taking off too many yet. Gave them a little less water this week. Instead of watering with 2 liters every 3 days, I tried 1 liter every 2 days. Watering until a little runoff so I know the water is reaching the bottom of the pot. No improvement on the lower leaves dying and plucking off, but they probably needed to come off anyway as they aren't getting light. Thanks for following! Leave any comments/suggestions down below!

#4 and #5's buds are thickening up. #6 is starting to grow buds. I lowered the light to 16" and set to 20/4 this week from the top colas. Hoping that the extra light would help the flowering growth. I didn't like how some of the plants responded so I raised it back up to 18". I ran into some powdery mildew (mold) on the leaves and other leaves on #5 showing yellow/brown spots. Most of it is on lower leaves, and others are in the crowded bushy sections where the colas were touching each other. This taught me how to defoliate properly. I removed all infected leaves and lollipopped further up. I hope it doesn't keep getting worse and create bud rot. I don't know how this happened. I have 4 fans and a dehumidifier. Two fans are in the top corners blowing down onto the plants, one blowing in between the colas and light, and another on ground level blowing between the pots. I adjusted some LST to lower high branches and spread branches apart. No feeding as I think they may be good until the end with all the organic granular nutrients I gave them already. I don't want to have to flush and I'm not sure how many more weeks they have. Thanks for following, leave any comments/ suggestions in the comments!

Still fighting the powdery mildew mold. I added and adjusted fan locations and speeds to increase air flow. It is still taking hold on the leaves mostly. I don't see a whole lot on the buds but it's hard to distinguish from the trichomes. #7 (ILGM Bruce Banner Auto) has been stretching for the last couple weeks and outgrew the rest in height. It got too close to the light and started to show signs of light burn. I raised #4, 5, and 6 to be even with the #7 BB and raised the light back up to 16-18" from the tops. Watering every day now as they seem to be drinking and soil getting dry more often. Giving them about 1.5 liters each every day, sometimes a little more until I see runoff starting to drip out. A few issues are showing with the leaves. This has been happening sparingly for a few weeks now. I'm not sure if it's the light or nutrients. It doesn't look too serious though so I haven't really worried about it too much. Some leaves are getting yellow spots and sections, others feel dry and brittle but still green. #5 looks like it doesn't have too much longer to go. Most of the hairs are orange, trichomes cloudy, and buds fattening up. Looking for those amber trichomes daily. A few of the tops are turning purple. I'm estimating 1-2 more weeks, but this is my first grow so that is just a guess. #4 is next behind, still with white hairs and growing buds. They are fattening up and getting more trichomes. It has the thickest stalk and branches of all of them. #6 is in 3rd, and budding up. I think it's a bit squished in the back and needs to be opened up more. Buds are growing but doesn't look like they'll get as big as the others. Stalk and branches are a bit thin. This one suffered a main stem snap and repair during its first LST. #7 Bruce Banner has stretched the tallest and has huge leaves - Sativa dominant. The leaves are getting bad with the mildew spots. I've pruned most of the mildew leaves off, but it just keeps getting worse to more leaves. The sites appear to be stacking close together with their white hairs. I think it is a bit squished in the back too and needs to be opened up more. This one doesn't scream "thick", but it does have more height. It looks a little imbalanced as some sites are still underdeveloped. Could be that it's on the edge of the light footprint. Smell has gotten stronger as #5 and #4 grow bigger buds and more trichomes. Thank you for following! Leave any comments/ suggestions below.

The powdery mildew has gotten very bad. Pretty much every leaf and sugar leaf is coated in it. However, I don't see it on the buds. I have fungicide stuff coming but it says it takes weeks of treatment to get it to go away. Supposed to be safe on buds and after harvest. Really should of taken aggressive action against this as soon as I noticed it. #5 starting putting out more white hairs and continued to develop the already good looking buds. It has to be close to finishing as it's reaching week 13 now. Checking the trichomes daily. More and more buds are turning purple, mostly on the very tips. Very pretty, didn't think white widow would turn purple. #5 is also showing some deficiencies and yellowing. The leaves are also a bit brittle and crispy. I'm not sure if this is from the light, or the mold, or both. I raised the light a few inches. How much hairs are usually still white when the trichomes are turning amber? Do the white hairs turn orange/brown after the harvest too? #4 is catching up thickening it's buds and hairs turning from white to orange. Thanks for following! Leave any Comments/Suggestions below!

I sprayed them with organic fungicide to kill the powdery mildew and it worked. Pretty much all leaves are free of it now. There is still some lurking in on the lower sugar leaves in the denser foliage. It also turned all white hairs brown. I was afraid I killed them, but new white hairs are appearing slowly. I may have stunted the flowering growth of the ones not done yet. But I had to kill the mildew or lose the whole harvest so we'll see. #5 is done. Checking daily for amber trichomes - i began to see one or two one day, then a few more the next day. Now they are about 5-10% amber. They are actually quite hard to see the color of them in my jewelers loupe; taking pictures and zooming in really helped see the amber ones. I still don't recognize most of the trichomes as "white and milky". Some still look clearish to me and my untrained first timer eyes. Most of the fan leaves have faded to yellow and started falling off. I am pulling #5 on 12/30 and will give it up to 48 hours of uninterrupted dark time before it is harvested. I will probably try to hang the plant whole with the leaves still on to get a longer dry time. We'll see how it goes. Most of the top buds are about the size of a fist, maybe a soda can. #5 has also turned more of the bud tips purple. There is a bit of light green underdeveloped buds below the top colas. I'm not going to bother trying to let them mature as I have more plants going that could use the extra room. #4's buds are continuing to thicken, but not as many as #5. Although it does have a thicker stalk. #6 buds are a bit skinnier but it's going and thickening up. She is a couple weeks of progress behind, and now all the white hairs turned brown from the spray. Thanks for following!

#5 has been harvested. It has lost all of its leaves. The mold is tied into the sugar leaves but not so much on the buds themselves. I pruned most of the mold out and will see what I can salvage. #4 and #6 are just about done too. They have bigger trichomes. They still have their leaves, but have dying buds on the bottoms and mold throughout the colas. Not feeling good about these. Thanks mold :-/