1stGrow-Cheese & Super Lemon Haze Autos

Hey! First Grow here! This is something that has interested me for quite some time. Now that it's legal to grow in Canada, I decided it was time to get started. As mentioned, I'm growing 1 Cheese auto femme and 1 Super Lemon Haze auto femme from Canuk Seeds. The cheese was a freebie, but I've seen some journals of that particular strain and they seem to do quite well and Lemon Haze is one of my favourite strains, so I wanted to give it a go to start. Cheese - Genes: Skunk#1 X Afghani#1 Variety: Indica/Sativa Height: 80-100cm Flowering Time: 8 Weeks Super Lemon Haze - Genes - Lemon Haze X Ruderalis Variety: Indica/Sativa Height 80-100cm Flowering Time: 7-9 weeks Growing Medium I'm running these in Promix HP-M with no alterations. I went this route because it's nice and airy, but mainly for the PH adjuster. As a new grower, it's not something I wanted to have to fuss with too much, so this seemed like the way to go. Because these are autos, I went right to the 5 gallon pots. Didn't want to stress the babies out from transplanting a bunch of times, as I've read you don't want to do that with autos. Light - I'm using the new Phlizon PL-1000 Dimmable Full Spectrum Grow Lamp with Samsung LM301B. This light is unreal for the price. It's go solid light output, it's quiet, it doesn't get too hot and it's waterproof. Perfect for someone who doesn't have much experience as it takes a lot of the guesswork out of things. I'll be running on a 18hour light schedule straight until harvest. I'm starting it off at 80% power and will see how things look moving forward. Ventilation - I was trying no to break the bank too early, so I will be strategically maneuvering 2 usb fans until pre-flower and then I will get a ventilation system with a carbon filter going to help with the stink and the humidity. Nutrients - I'll be using the General Hydroponics Flora Series + Cali-mag on a reduced drain to waste schedule. It sounds like a pretty foolproof method, but I'll be honest when I say that this is the one thing that makes me the most nervous, so I hope it is! Training - Will be doing some LST. Tie down method and possibly scrogging depending on how everything goes. Not much to report about week 1 The cheese seed was rather vigorous and popped quick. The SLH was a little behind, but they both came in nicely in the first few days. The main hassle was temperature/light/humidity control. I put the pots on milk crates until they popped through the soil to keep them warm and then I dropped them down as the light seemed a little too strong for the seedlings. As I'm not using oscillating fans, it took some trial and error, to get the heat and humidity at a consistent level without having a fan blowing directly on the plants. After many tries, I found a way to place the fans and manipulate the vents in a way that bounces air off the walls, which keeps nice airflow, keeps the heat/humidity at a comfortable level and keeps a light-indirect breeze running across the pots. For watering, I used the mister that we spray our snake tank with to lightly wet the soil around the seedlings when they were looking dry and nothing more. I set my sleep schedule around the plants for week 1 to make sure my light timer was working properly every day. It was! To close off week 1 - there is a certain romance to the germination process. It was really just a really nice experience overall.

Week 2 was also really exciting. So much happens so quickly, that it is fun to peak in time to time and see what I've missed. First nutrients (I wasn't initially planning on using the cal-mag, but I got it down the road down the road, so it wont show up in the first few feedings) - Mixed 1/4tsp flora-micro, 1/8tsp flora-gro and 1/8 tsp flora-bloom to 1 gallon of tap water that I left out over night. PH after nutes added - 6.8 PPM - 159 Fed each 1 cup around the outside of the pots. They both handled the nutrients well. My stress was still there, but it was a relief that they didn't die. Start of the Week Cheese 2.75" - The leaves were looking a little wilty and it still had the bend, so I made sure not to overwater and gave a dry and airy atmosphere just in case. The bend started straightening out through the week. Super Lemon Haze 3.5" - Had a very bright neon green colour to the centre of the first set of leaves. Some growers I know assured me I was overthinking it. End of the Week - First true leaves were coming in and each had grown another inch. There was a random fall heat wave, so I spent one day just trying to figure out how to keep my house/tent from overheating, but all worked out in the end. Still had concerns about the colour of the lemon haze plant, and there was a mild deficiency on one of the cheese leaves, and although I'm not sure if it was the problem, I ordered cali magic just in case, as it would knock out some possibilities of certain issues. Alternatively, I raised the lights a bit and adjusted the fans to be more indirect, just to limit any possible stress to the new leaves. To close, my fear of breaking them or hurting them is starting to fade as time goes on and they both seem to be growing quite nicely without any real hassle.

Woke up to an insane amount of humidity in the tent one morning, so I had to get some top vent action going. Didn't have anything to screen it off, so i fashioned an air filter out of a 3 gallon plant pot with the bottom cut out and i covered it with old pantyhose to keep out bugs etc. Week 3 Setup - There is one fan at canopy level that circulates air along the bottom of the tent. One of the fans is now pointed up and out of the chimney vent with the makeshift filter in it. That was also creating a bit of a smell, so I shoved some Bounce sheets in the chimney and it fixed it right up. The plant tips are 34" from the light at 80% power. (This has been the perfect spot and strength since very early on. I'm hesitant to change it any time soon unless they give me a reason to.) Side and back vents both open The plants have only been asking for water every 4 - 5 days. I'm also just nervous to overwater, so I let it stretch a bit. First feeding with cal-mag included this week. Per gallon I mixed in 1/2tsp Flora Micro 1/2 tsp Flora Gro 1/8tsp Flora Bloom and 1tsp Cali Magic and fed each plant one cup. Each were fed 2 cups of clean water at the end of the week as well. Both are growing quite nicely. A strange mutation started growing on the cheese plant. The light was running a bit hot, so it may have been mild light burn or maybe just something random, but it's never amounted to anything, so it is what it is. Stressed the hell out of me for a hot minute though. haha Otherwise, they're starting to really transform day by day and they've been very easy on me so far. Next week we start training!

Week 4 was a fun week. They've really started to grow! LST training, although stressful the first time, wasn't nearly as bad on the second go. This is a concept that is new to me when it comes to cannabis. I've seen it with bonsais and stuff, but this really gave me a new perspective on how to grow and maximize yield etc... It is also a really good intro into parts of the plant, because you get an idea of what parts of the plant are important and during which stages. Otherwise the week was simple. The tent has been maintaining temperature and humidity almost perfectly since I rearranged the grow setup, my only one worry is the small amount they are drinking. Comparatively, from other photos as this stage, they seem to be doing quite well, but they each only had 4 cups of water last week (2 with nutes and 2 without) As I've mentioned previously, I don't want to overwater, so I have been stretching it a bit, but is this weird?

Day 31 - Cheese is starting to flower. Tied it down a bit one more time, and Super lemon haze will get one more to straighten out the canopy. Spread out the bud sites and opened them up to get some air and heat to the pots. Still going well otherwise. Day 34 - Snapped the main stem on the SLH while performing LST. Threw some duct tape on the break and propped it up with a piece of bamboo. End of Week 5. Both plants are in flower. Even with the broken branch, the SLH plant is looking super healthy. Exhaust system showed up today. Installed an AC Infinity Cloudline S4, running through a iPower 4" Carbon filter. The space that the tent is in conveniently has a storage shelf, just higher than the tent, so everything is outside of the tent with a duct hose running out of the chimney. Will post some pics of the setup in week 6.

Start of week 6 - -things are looking great (I think anyways haha) -cheese is in solid flower mode and super lemon haze is slowly coming into it. I think the break last week may have slowed it down a bit, but they both look super healthy. -having the exhaust fan is such a huge change. The AC Infinity Cloudline is great. It's so nice to not have to constantly be checking temp and humidity levels. Day 36 - fed them both 4 cups of nutrient cocktail this morning. They're starting to drink faster. I let them go for 3 days and they were sad drooping when I checked in this morning, so the watering schedule will have to be adjusted moving forward. Day 40 - Feeding every other day now, so they each had another 4 cups of nutes. Based on their growth patterns, the super lemon haze is either stunted or it will have a longer grow time than the cheese. Hopefully the latter, but either way, they are both still growing fast. They have pretty much filled the perimeter of the tent at this point, so they can only grow up now. Day 41 - Exhaust Was having humidity issues, so the exhaust fan is now in the tent, pushing air out of the carbon filter, which is outside of the tent. I plan to bring the carbon filter into the tent at some point as well, when I get a chance, as I think pulling air through it before it hits the fan will be easier on the fan in the long run. Continuing on with humidity, I'm switching to a 24hr schedule with the exhaust fan to keep moisture levels down. The plants are filling all 4 sides of the tent, so I want to stay ahead of any problems that could come from too much moisture in the coming weeks. Light Some of the leaves looked like they may be stressing from the light a bit, so I moved it up an inch. Still some room to go up if I need to as they continue to grow. Super lemon haze stem break update She had a bit of a slow week, but it looks like the stem has healed, the stress period is over and I think I may have accidentally supercropped (lol whoops!). Excited to see how things develop. Fingers crossed.

Day 43 - Did some light defoliation. Nothing major. Just a few from the bottom and a few from the centre to open up the budsites and let in some air. My goal was to take as few leaves off as possible throughout the grow, so I'll continue tucking everything else, unless things get out of hand. Day 44 - They're both looking great! No issues or pests to report and every time I look in the tent they've gotten bigger. Here's hoping all of my care will result in a big reward! Day 49 - A few things here and there, but I'm still quite happy with my first grow. Developed some yellow tips last week. I believe this is due to light stress, so I've been watching the lights, as the SLH went into a good sativa-stretch and started getting close to the lights. Moved the lights up 2 inches and turned them down to 90% output. It got quite cold in Ottawa over the last few nights, and since the tent is in the basement, temps got hard to control yesterday. Moved the fans around and changed the exhaust setup a bit and it seems to be keeping a bit warmer in there now.

Day 52 - The last few days have been a big eye-opener. The babies were drinking alot, so I did what I said I wouldn't do and I gave them both way too big of a feeding. What happened? 1.humidity and temperature were the worst to keep track of, because cold we pots were sitting at the bottom of the tent. Not a huge deal, but annyoing. 2.Pretty sure I flushed a bunch of nutrients out of the medium, which opened up the plants to a burn. They were both a little too close to the light and it was turned up a bit high, so after moving it and turning it down, the burn doesn't seem to be getting worse, but I'm reminded of my failure by all of the little yellow leaf tips everywhere. 3.FUNGUS GNATS. I developed a nice little gathering of fungus gnats, but not just in my pot plants, but ALL OF MY HOUSE PLANTS! Again, it's fine now, as I put yellow sticky traps around every plant in my house and just to be sure I let them all dry out (pot plants included) and watered them with a 1:4 hydrogen peroxide/clean ph'd water mix. Probably wasn't necessary, but I didn't want to chance having gnats all over my house. I'm seeing less and less of them in the traps now, so I feel like the problem is starting to dissipate. In closing... everything seems okay now, but for anyone new to growing, listen to what everyone on here says and don't overwater! Waiting until the pots dry out is important and it keeps you on track, but less water in the pots per feeding is way less of a hassle than too much, so don't push it. On top of the peroxide bath, I also added some top dressing to each pot. Unrelated to the overwatering, as the soil had just compacted in the pots and some roots were showing. Day 53 - Now that all of the housekeeping is out of the way, the kids are looking great, and smelling great too! Although the SLH has a longer flower time, it's slowly got to some bud production now in week 8, so I think I definitely slowed her down with the LST Break in week five. Either way, I continue to be confident in my first grow and I think it's going to be a good harvest when the time comes! End of week 8 - Learning lots. By the looks of it, the burn the kids are experiencing is due to ph and nutrient lockout. There is also the possibility that there's some nitrogen excess, so for week 9 I will be lowering my ph values and dropping the gro formula from the nutrient mix. There's still nitrogen in the calmag, so it will still get it, just not as much. The nutrient schedule I've been using looks like it may be more set up for photos and not autos, so I will be skipping a week to increase my ppm values to suit the stage the plants are at. I realize this may be risky with the burn they are already experiencing, but I've been paying close attention and I think this is the best way to get to harvest. Time will tell. In the coming week I will be asking you all for assistance, as I think I'm close to flush time for the cheese plant, but I'm kind of unsure as to when I should start. Any input would be extremely helpful. On to week 9!

Day 59 - as explained in week 8, I made some changes to the feeding regime. -dropped ph -dropped gro formula -increased ppm Hopefully I can dial in on why the SLH plant is having leaf issues. Water going in - PH - 6 PPM - 602 Fed both plants to 20% runoff. Runoff: Cheese: PH - 6.2 PPM - 1480 Super Lemon Haze: PH - 6.2 PPM : 950 Based on runoff numbers, I believe the haze plant was just high in ph and low on nutrients, so I'll keep a watch as the days go on and see how they look. Day 61 - things aren't looking any worse. I do think the light may be too strong for the SLH at the height it's grown to. Left me with a problem though, because the cheese is short and further along in flower, so to lower the light intensity might mess up my yield. I decided to put the cheese plant on a milk crate and drop the lights down to 80% intensity (where it was for the first 6 weeks of growing). One thing I like is that the canopy goes straight across the tent now. Hoping this will set me up for a good finish. Day 64 - Gnats - gone Leaves - seem to reacted well from the little things I adjusted over the last week. SLH - New growth is coming in nicely. A couple sets of leaves show leftover signs of deficiencies still, but otherwise they're looking good. Buds are finally starting to move. Here's hoping they get fat! Cheese - Buds are starting to fill out. I think the cheese will be coming down in 10 days or so. Will give one feed with some bloom when the pot dries and then it will be just clean ph until chop. Good week!

Day 66 - Dropping my ph and adjusting the lights has definitely helped avoid big problems. They seemed to have bounced back from deficiencies over the last week. Hoping the cheese buds pick up speed and fatten up over the next couple weeks. Have started to flush, but I threw a shot of bloom in with the feed today for a little extra p and k to close off. Will be on clean ph from here on in. Super Lemon Haze was slow to start, and she's had her problems, but it's starting to look like I might get a nice harvest. Just going to continue keeping a close watch and make sure she stays as healthy as possible. Day 70 - Everything is on coast mode now. Making sure they both have enough to drink and keeping an eye on the cheese trichs. Although the SLH plant is still taking some damage to the leaves, the buds and new leaves seem to be coming in healthy since fixing ph and light issues. I'm sure that the light is probably a bit too close still, but it won't move any higher and I don't want to cause any negative effects to the harvest of the other plant, so I'm riding it out, but I'm confident now that they will both make it through to harvest with nice results. Cheese could be ready for harvest any day now. Will be keeping and eye and continuing to flush untill she's ready. Still fattening up every day though. I think it will be a surprising yeild for such a short plant. SLH still has some time to go. Just have to fatten her up. They both have some nice shades of purple coming in. Excited to see how they both turn out. End of Week 10.

Day 74 - Cheese - Been watering with only clean ph every 3-4 days and watching the trichomes. They're mostly cloudy with no amber. Just gonna keep watching and letting it swell. Super Lemon Haze - Buds are coming in nicely. Purple leaves coming in near the top. Gets cold in the basement at night, so I'm not surprised with a bit of colour change. The tip burn doesn't seem to be moving too fast on the leaves it effected and the rest of the growth is coming in nicely. I Think there should be only a few weeks left now, so probably one more nutrient feed and onto flush as well. End of week 11 - For my first grow, I've already made it far past my expectations. Love growing and love these plants. Stay tuned for cheese harvest!

Start of week 12 - Forcing myself not to lose focus, as they haven't really required much attention. Been flushing the cheese. Has a couple amber trichomes, but not many, so I'm watching day by day. Will be chopping soon(just want to see if it will fatten up any more before I do it.) Can't wait! SLH has been a weird plant, but she's starting to blast off. Sure, there are some burnt tips and there have been some deficiencies (and I literally broke it in half😏), but she's just a beautiful plant and you can't tell me otherwise. Haha Continuing to maintain a good grow space, keep them watered and performing minor defoliation, but just the dead stuff at this point. Coming up on a cheese harvest and the SLH should be a week or two after Feel free to drop some comments below. Been really enjoying getting to know people with paralell interests. Day 82 - Cheese still not ready. Keeps getting a bit fatter every day. She can take as long as she wants😉 SLH starting to fill out. Thanks for stopping by!

Week 13! For my first grow, I'm still amazed to have such lovely plants this far in. To be honest, I wasn't expecting both plants to be in the tent at this point still either. I'd read various opinions on the flower times of these strains, so I wasn't really expecting to be right on that one anyways. In retrospect, I would have ran an extra week of nutes on the cheese, but it's a lesson learned and I think she will still have a nice harvest. Cheese harvest is day by day. Been feeding clean water every couple days and watching trichomes. This is probably the last week, but there is still bud growth, so I will keep going untill that changes or I get a few more amber trichs. This plant isn't the biggest, but the buds are gorgeous and they stink so good. SLH is definitely getting some heat/nute stress, but she's a few weeks off now and there's not much more I can do, so I'll keep a close eye and push her through to the end. The smell is starting to make its way through the tent now and it smells gooood. Ps.I think breaking her early on made for some nice tall towers😉. I'm excited to see how she finishes! End of week 13 - Things are still just mooooving along.

Week 15 - was by far the easiest week so far. Nothing happened but growth and I like it. Nothing to report other than I love these plants! Chopping the cheese plant tomorrow!

Day 99 - Finally got to chop a plant! Chopped the cheese, did a rough wet trim and hung it all in my diy drying chamber (see video above). I knew I was going to be chopping one before the other, so I threw together a cheap unit out of a garment box I bought from a moving company. -It came with a cross bar, so I cut the box and re-taped it the way I wanted it, to conceal everything proper. -Then, I drilled some holes in the sides for ventilation and taped some carbon filter from my air purifier overtop to keep pests and dust out. -Outside of the box, I've got a Coway air purifier pulling out the smell and adding a bit of air circulation (pulls air passively through the vents in the sides) . -For added flair 😉, I threw some velcro on the flaps and built a thermometer/hygrometer into the front to keep an easy watch. They will hang from some clip hangers I grabbed, for a week or so, or until they're ready. Then I'll do a dry trim and time to cure! Super Lemon Haze is still plugging along and getting dense. Smells great, and although the leaves show a past of issues, the buds are looking amazing. Can't wait 'till she's done! It's really nice to have the extra space in the tent now too. It was getting a little cramped. Day 105 - Cheese is doing well in the drying tent. Stems aren't snapping quite yet, so will need a day or two more. Drying chamber is working great. No smell whatsoever. Super Lemon Haze is STILL GOING and looking good. Done with nutes now and watching trichs everyday. Buds are beefing up. The leaves are starting to fade, but the look and colour of the flowers is wild. Can't wait for it to finish up. Should be sometime in the next week or so. Will post a final harvest for the cheese soon! Thanks for stopping by! 🥦

Final notes Canuk Cheese Autoflower Plant Seed to Flower: 99 days Height: 17" Grow Light: 100w LED - 18hrs/day Pots: 5 gallon Soil: Promix HP-M (no alterations) Training: LST and minor defoliation (only if dead, dying or interfering with the tent or plant growth.) Nutrients: GH Flora Series+Cali magic (drain to waste) Harvest Dry bud: 41g Loose trim: 9.6g Buds: Structure: nice notes of purple, tight, dense, break up big, and very sticky. Smell: strong and cheesy! Smoke: light, smooth High: strong, long lasting, fun and relaxed. Doesnt interfere with everyday life. Overall, this was a great experience! So happy with the beautiful plant I was blessed with and a solid little harvest. I'll leave a more detailed and all-encompassing entry with the final harvest for this grow, but what I will say is that I'm very happy with how this plant turned out. Other than some minor tip burn, the Canuk Cheese was a breeeeeze. As a first time grower, it was the perfect strain to be my first, so much so, that I grabbed another seed to grow down the road. It's just got a bit more time to cure and then we'll be on.... 😏wait for it...cheasy street!😂 Haha see what I did there? I also spun a little bit up to celebrate, so me and the lady are going to go relax and enjoy. Thanks for following along. Cheers! 🥦🔥

Day 110 - Diary of a Super Long Super Lemon Haze Auto continues! It's getting beefy. Still checking trichs every day. Leaves are starting to fade pretty hard, but overjoyed with it's size and beauty. Might hit 17 weeks, but either way, the next post will be when I chop her, along with a harvest post for the cheese plant, which has now been curing for a few days. My fiancé and I have been smoking little bits of it here and there😉 and it's just a wonderful smoke. We're in love. Won't give anything else away until the harvest post though. Excited that my first grow is coming to an end. What a wild ride. Thanks again for stopping by! 🥦

Day 119 - I know I said I was going to chop it, but the buds keep swelling and there's still only a couple of amber trichs, so I gave her one more flush today. The runoff ppm is down to regular tap water amounts, so I suspect it will fade right out and I'll chop when the pot dries out in a few days. Looks like such a beast. So pumped! See you in week 18 when this plant gets chopped and this grow comes to an end! Thanks for stopping by! 🥦

Well! It made it into it's 18th week! Probably could have went a little longer, but it was at risk of getting torched and I didn't want to push it. This was about a month ago now. The bud has now been harvested and been curing for some time. Took forever to chop this thing, but it was so satisfying. Most of the stalks were as long as my forearm and they never seemed to end. It was actually pretty simple to trim wet, as the leaves were spaced apart nicely and I'd been trimming little bits off for the few days previous, so I did most of the work on chop day with the plan to clean them up a bit after drying. The wet weight was 411 G's! I left big stems, so that number will drop, but either way, I was so psyched! They went right back into the tent to dry for about 8 days. Now for the harvest! 🥦

My first harvest is in the books and I'm psyched! The Super Lemon haze auto was a challenge at times. I broke her early, and repaired her. Then there were the gnats...and the burn and the fact that it took 18 weeks. Haha I honestly don't think I could have picked a better plant for my first grow. In the end, I was awarded with alot of really tasty weed, that is now just about 6 weeks cured and smoking wonderfully. As I already posted a harvest for the cheese plant a few weeks ago, I'm going to wrap everything up right here. My goals for my first grow were simple: 1.Create a grow space that was -compact -energy efficient -cost effective -and most importantly, something that would sustain my needs year round. 2. Document and create a plan/schedule to use as a potential guide for future grows. 3. Grow a quality product, but one that doesn't require excess amounts of supplies, nutrients, setup, space or work. 4. Harvest enough to cover the cost of setup, seeds, etc.. I think I really did all of these things. With proper planning, this grow cost me a about 600bucks in total (tent, seeds, pots, nutes, toys, dirt etc., everything) Some things I went a little high for longevity/quality sake and some things I bought for future storage. In the end, between the two plants I harvested a total of 152 G's. Even at 5 bucks a gram, I have easily covered my costs, I've grown enough to get me well past the next harvest and I have enough supplies in storage to cover many grows to come. Overall, the grow required more trips to the tent than I would have preferred, but I think I know where to make adjustments to fix that in the future as well as increase then yield and quality of my next crop. I also made some changes during this grow that will carry over for added convenience. Dry weight: Nice nugs - 87.14 g Shake and popcorn - 15.2 g Total - 102.34 Height: 29" Seed to harvest: 121 days The quality of the bud is amazing. Knowing I grew it myself makes it that much better too! This has been a great experience. Thanks again to those who followed along, commented and answered questions. It would have been hell without the help. Cheers! Thanks for stopping by! 🥦