What can I say other than I love this game?!
So, we had spider mites that must have come in on an ornamental plant early into the fall and just waited. I managed to get them under control, in flower, without issue (fingers crossed, always crossed lmaooo) using a rotation of rosemary oil and water (to start), SNS-217 (spray, not concentrate), and Lost Coast Plant Therapy (concentrate). I had also purchased Azamax, but after reading much more on mites during flower I decided against using any sort of neem oil on the bud... but it actually worked great on my Dracenia, Alocasia, Abasynian Banana, and Milk Tree! I've actually started to use it as a soil drench too! The Internet has tons on both sides of this argument (internet, amirite?). Anyway, the mites brought me into the defoliation conversation on autos and I honestly have to say that the bro science and reg science just kinda confuse the hell out of me. 1. Sun leaves, photosynthesis, etc. got it. 2. Defoliation stresses the plant and makes it focus its energy elsewhere and gives ya bigger buds... okok, but I needed to remove these eggs and mite houses to save the garden overall so I opted to defoliate. And you know something-- I'm honestly not upset about it.... While the plants are showing healthy and late in flower, I figure the small leaves still photosynthesize and I am not a farmer, so super large buds are not quite what I am after. So I just went with it and once the mites were under control just let the plants do their thing for a while. When they showed no negative signs, I did a bit more and a bit more... All seems well!
So for the record-- this grow was 3 strains and all of them reacted not bad to topping, defoliation, LST, drought, and this is my first grow with a Qboard.. so all that and LEDs and only a second grow. One thing I have learned this round is that the lengths of time to harvest on a website are super dependent on the ecosystem the plants are in... that makes perfect sense yea? Welp, for a generalized newbie- I was like, OK- they bred this seed to grow and flower and harvest in exactly 8 weeks. Maybe it's my background in tech that wants instant gratification, but I understand there are TONS of factors that go into the beauty that makes this plant so much fun to care for and grow!
Also, the buds on the Kush are super airy but pretty well covered in trichs. Thinking about getting a Ju1cebox to make small amounts of rosin out of these sticky bois. Since I am not sure about getting a bigger one just yet, that guy seems to have pretty good reviews, although I see that it's for small amounts and super manual... if I dig the rosin game too, maybe ill get a bigger one in a world where there's a bit more money to spare on infrequently used tools.
@Ezzjaybruh, there's 2 cheese autos, a banana kush auto, and Gelato autos going in the tent. So the whole shebang is autos. The cheese are def super bushy in comparison but they started out as deformed seedlings so I just wanted to let em run and see how they grow (at this point, all experience is educational)!
