Zkittlez Auto - Organic Outdoor

My third plant this season is another Fast Buds strain, something I've been super keen to try out, ZKittlez Auto! Thanks for these Fast Buds! I'm mostly trying to stock up on sativa this run, but I also want some tasty indica as well, because I need some variety :) One of my wedding cheesecake seeds didn't sprout, so this is the replacement. I soaked the seed for 24 hours in dechlorinated water, then transferred to paper towel method and in 24 hours further I had a healthy tap root. After soaking a jiffy pellet in water, I squeezed it out and mixed up some trichoderma (beneficial fungus) with some water and soaked the jiffy pellet in that before placing the seed inside. The trichoderma should innoculate the soil and roots against pathogens and hopefully assist in building disease tolerance. This also helps prevent damping off issues with seedlings. I'm trying out using kelp early on since it's an organic natural growth hormone. I'll use it in early veg and again in flowering. Spring is here, but there's still some cold snaps now and then that could easily stunt autos, so I'm keeping her inside for now under 24 hour CFL lighting and will harden it off slowly. Soil I'll be using is re-used Freedom Farms Organic Classic living soil. I used this soil last year but have nurtured it since then. This week I added some rock phosphate and some Biodyne Environoc 401 Microbes. Before starting the grow, I also added worm castings to the soil. Day 1 was 15/10/2020

Moved her into her final pot this week. I transplanted and gave a treatment of trichoderma to help innoculate the soil in the final pot and to create some good beneficial fungi. I also added mycorrhizae (about 5-10ml in plant hole). Lets hope these 2 species (which do different things) don't kill each other. Play nice, fungi! A little early for the first feed, but this girl is about 5 days behind her sisters, started her later but I only want to be feeding my plants on the same day She seems to have taken well to the transplant with no visible stress. Added alfala mulch I'm trying a silicon product for the first time, part of my mission to proactively fight powdery mildew, which I get almost every grow. According to hydroponics.co.za where I bought it: "Silicon Plus is a soluble silica liquid, fortified with potassium, enhances plant resistance to a biotic stresses such as drought, heat and cold and biotic stresses such as resistance to pests and diseases. Can help with Penicillium digitatum (green mold), Sclerotinia stem rot, Rust, Fusarium wilt, Powdery mildew, Red spider mite, Root knot nematod"

Bit of a sad week. A scorcher of a day crept up on me and all my girls got heat damaged. Fortunately the week before I gave a dose of silicon, which might help with that. Gentle rain for the next few days was a bit of relief while I fed kelp to nurse them, but unfortunately the shock did stop veg in its tracks - and they were all so far ahead of where I expected them to be! With autos, this kind of stress can greatly affect end size and yield, so hoping for a quick recovery and some miracle veg before flowering. The clock is ticking and I only have so long before flowering starts. I've noticed all kinds of mold growing on the alfala mulch. While it could be beneficial (and possibly introduced from the trichoderma), there is a variety of mold types and what is worrying is the black mold. I'm not taking a chance here, so I removed all the mulch and will consider something else for the rest of the grow. Toward the end of the week, the zkittlez started to veg again nicely and picking up progressively, so hoping that bit of stress didn't affect her too much. Come to think of it, all of my other plants which are about a week ahead, took much worse damage at the same time, so perhaps the silicon helped, or perhaps this strain has got some heat tolerance. Overall stoked. Peace, fellows!

It's been a rainy week. Kind of welcome after the hard hitting heat, but these girls clearly need some sun. The leaf colouring on all the girls is like a mix of deep and light greens. I don't think there's a deficiency here, there's plenty nutes in the soil. Other than sun - they definitely need that. It seems that the heat stress previously didn't completely stunt her, thank goodness! While I've lost out on some veg time and potential size/yield, I'm happy to say that this plant (and her sisters) have all resumed vegging and are about to flower. I wanted them to be taller and bushier by this point, but I'm happy to just have alive plants right now. Catch you next week ;)

First signs of pistils this week, seems a bit early - I think the heat stress a few weeks back freaked her out. Looked like the lack of sun earlier this week caused some weird leaf issues but once the sun came out, things came right very quickly. Starting to bush out big time! Peace, fellow growers ✌️

This week was good - no drama, just a lot of rain. There's a lot of explosive growth happening as flowering kicks off. Started to introduce blooming nutrients, and covered the surface of the soil with diatomaceous earth to prevent ant colonies from starting. Height is good, at 60cm - she's going to be bigger than I expected! I lost some time in veg previously but she's making up for it and showing that this strain outdoors has potential, rolling with the punches and charging forward. Looking forward to enjoying this plant :)

Impressed by the vertical height, now heading towards 80cm. I've had some really short autos before and so far all the plants I've been working on this season have been good. She'll be over 1m for sure. Great genetics from Fast Buds, looking forward to this!

This girl is getting tall! 99cm tall by the end of the week, stoked that she'll reach 1m + next week! Gave another feed of silicon - as I approach mid to late flower I get nervous about powdery mildew, budrot, heat stress and I believe silicon may help with that. Had a bit more sun this week which is a bonus. Stay safe, fellers. Catch you next week 😺

So far I'm loving this plant, it's breached 1m and shooting for the stars 🌟 It's smelling great and the buds are looking happy. Weather has been extremely humid, raining for days on end and when the sun is out it's like way over 30 degrees C. Bud rot is inevitable, with all the wet and not enough time for the buds to dry out properly. I've had this with every single plant this season. It's not so bad on the Zkittlez, but I have started to notice some affected buds - so an early harvest is on the cards. Peace, fellow growers!

The buds are starting to look and smell delicious! This plant has done well and doesn't seem as susceptible to rot as the other strains I'm growing. Timing wise, I'm going to have to harvest next week. It's a bit early but I'm going away on holiday and don't think I want to return home to rotten plants! Chop time is approaching! See you next week fellows :)

This week showed similar weather patterns that plagued my grow - either non-stop rain or extremely high temps with humidity you could cut with a knife. I had a holiday in the mountains booked for the first week of the year, and I don't wish to return to dead or rotting plants, so she got the chop at the end of the week. Trichomes were cloudy enough - not too much amber, which is how I like it anyway. This Zkittlez smells amazing and I can't wait to try it out! See you at harvest week 👍

I had some troubles this season, firstly with a very sudden hot day while in veg. It caught me off guard and the plant definitely got heat stressed. In spite of losing 5-7 days of veg - which, for an auto is devastational, this plant prevailed and also survived through a very hot, humid and rain filled season which would usually cause powdery mildew without a doubt, but I never experienced it with this strain. I did get a small amount of bud rot, but so did all 5 of my other plants - so that's negligible. A pleasure to grow outdoors, with a good yield considering what the plant went through. Next time I will try to push beyond 100g. It's a fantastic smoke with a unique aroma and high. I wish I grew more! These seeds were received as a prize for my Glueberry OG diary previously. Thank you Fastbuds for these!