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For some reason grow diaries doesn't let you select multiple germination methods so I will explain it. I have 100% germination using this method. I take a half a cup of warm water, add about 4ml of hydrogen peroxide and let my seeds soak for 24 hours sealed and in a dark room that is room temperature. After 24 hours the seeds are usually sunk and sometimes showing a tap root. Next I will use the paper towel methods. Placing the seeds on a damp (not soaked) paper towel, folding the paper towel over on top of the seeds then placing them in a zip lock bag and into a dark warm area for 12-18 hours. After 12-18 hours you should have long tap roots ready to hit the dirt.
I am using Nectar For The Gods Nutrient line and Nectar For The Gods #4 Soil
For the first 4 days after the seeds are popped in the soil I will use humidity domes that are misted with water. I don't feel the need to buy actual humidity domes so I just cut water bottles in half and use the bottom half as the dome (works perfect). I will also use about a shot glass of water per plant on day 1 to soak the area where the seed is planted.
Day 5 I give the girls there first shot of nutes at half strength. A lot of growers strongly advise not to give nutes to autos for the first month but I have experimented around with about 35 different autoflower strains and have yet to see an issue in any of them besides the fact that my autos will normally double in size compared to autos that are fed for the first time after a month. I live by the saying "When in doubt, Flush it out." At Day 5 I also add my first shot of Photosynthesis Plus and SLF 100 to get the microbial life jumping.
Day 12- I am now into the veg stage. The girls have been fed twice in the last 12 days and given their first microbial tea today. Don't be afraid of teas. There are some difficult ones out there where you have to buy all sorts of amendments, put them in a screen bag, brew them with an aerator for 24 hours and whatever else they do. I read a lot of comments in some of the groups I am in on facebook and I kept seeing Cultured Biologix EZ Tea being brought up. I read into and its awesome and its simple. No mixing multiple amendments, its all mixed into one bag and you just add 1-2TBS to 1 gallon of water and you're good to go.
I am on a FEED, FEED, TEA Schedule. I never use just plain water. As of right now I am trying to figure out how often they will be fed. I normally run 5 gallon pots and every other day is a feed or tea day but this grow I am using 7 gallon pots and I am thinking it will be every 3 days. SLF 100 and Photosynthesis Plus will be fed once a week.
I do have one plant that is moving really slow. I debated on pulling it but I figured I'd give it a shot. Who knows, maybe she will turn out to be the biggest.
We are just short of week 3 of veg (day 17). The girls have been reacting well with the increased nutes. I am actually using the Roman Regimen through Nectar For the Gods and I am currently using full strength under Early Veg. Once again proving that you can use full nutes with Autos. I do start nutes right after the germination process at half strength only to build them up for full strength. Now I will start pushing my plants to the limits by increasing the nutes till my leaf tips burn. This is how I know that my plants are getting the maximum amount of nutrition. If you notice more than just the tips burning, flush the plant. Nute burn (if caught in time) is one of the easiest problems to solve (When in doubt, Flush it out).
As of right now my plants are getting fed once every 3 days. My current schedule is Feed (nutes), Feed (nutes), Tea (Cultured Biologix Ez Tea Veg), Repeat. SLF 100 & Photo Plus are both added to the feed right before Tea. I will never give my plants just straight water unless its germination or time to flush.
I forgot to mention. All plants were topped at day 14. I ended up yanking the Pina Runt. it looked like a small piece of broccoli so I tossed it.
This week I started doing some LST by pinning the branches horizontal. A few of my phenos are showing mutant growths which is awkward as hell. Pina is really showing a lot of mutations with stubby branches on one side of the cola and then a long branch on the opposite side of the cola along with uneven nodes.
I increased the nutes this week to see what the plants limits are. I normally increase the nutes till I see burnt tips then I will back off about 10% I am still on a Feed, Feed, Tea schedule every 3 days.
I really looked forward to running Ethos. I heard a lot of good and some bad but as of right now I am not impressed. Both of these strains are RBX2 and supposed to be stable. One of my buddies is having the same mutations with his Pina's.
This week was all about LST and thinning out the canopy. I wish I would have taken "before" pictures but it didn't even cross my mind. Next week I will. This morning my plants looked like big balls of lettuce. I had been tucking the fan leaves just to get light to all the bud sites and new tops but the leaves have taken over and I had to do some trimming. I will not trim unless its a feed or tea day, no real reason, its just the way I have always done it. I will only cut fan leaves that are connected to the main cola or if the branches have their own fan leaves I will cut the fan leaf that starts at the node. This opens up a ton of space for two necessities that are required for a successful grow: Light and Air Flow. The way I see it, if you don't have light penetrating your canopy and hitting your top soil then you're not doing enough LST or you don't have enough lighting. Same with Air flow. My 5x5 tent has a 6 inch exhaust fan that is vented outside and I have a 6 inch intake fan. During my entire grow I have 3-4 oscillating fans and clip fans inside my tent. 2 oscillating fans blow across the plants canopy and 1-2 fans are blowing towards the bottom/middle of my fabric pots. This will create tons of air flow for your root zone and will prevent root rot from water just sitting still. If I feel that my plants are taking too long to dry I will put each pot on little blocks of wood just so the pots are elevated off the ground an inch or two so that the fans are blowing air through the bottom of the pots as well.
Right now the plants look ugly as hell but I am setting them up to bush out during flower. I will keep 98% of the branches pinned down horizontal till flower begins. Once flower begins then I stop pinning them down and let them grow upwards.
I have been continuing to increase a few of the nutes with NPK. I am over the recommended dose and still have not seen burnt leaf tips. Once I see burnt tips I will back off 3-5ml on nutes. This lets me know the maximum amount of nutes my plants can handle.
Not many changes this week, just growth. 4 of the 5 are showing sex and one is showing signs of preflower. I am hoping they all hold off another two weeks before going into flower. This week I will replace a tea day with a flush just to get all the used up nutes out of the pots.
This week has been nuts with defoliation. I skipped one day of lst and it bit me in the ass. Seems like whenever I take a leaf off, 5 more pop up in its place. All 5 are now in flower, three are further into flower than the other two. Like I have said in previous weeks I push my nutes to the max until I see burnt tips. This week I finally accomplished that so I backed off 5ml of each. If anyone is familiar with Herculean Harvest, you know that it will create a "Herculean Crust" on your top layer of soil. SLF 100 works great with keeping that to the minimum but you do have to include slf 100 in every feeding or tea. Even with the slf 100 you will still have a thin layer of crust that will slow down the feeding process. The best way to get rid of it is to take a fork and scratch the top layer of your soil. If you let that crust build up, you will have solid concrete as a top layer of soil and your liquids will not be able to seep into the soil correctly.
These next few weeks will be all about keeping the bud sites separate while it goes through the flower stretch. I have a really good feeling that these buds will be frosty as hell. Preflower and the sugar leaves are already caking with trichomes.
This week has been pretty boring growing wise. Girls are starting their flower stretch. I did have one plant start to show a phosphorus deficiency which was odd. I did an extra tea day to correct the phosphorus. Also did a slurry test on all the girls. They all averaged between 6.2-6.4 ph which is great. PPM was slightly high between 725-800 but I expected that with the high doses of nutes that I been feeding. I did a flush 6 days ago to get rid of any unused nutes that have been sitting in the pots. Slurry test was done prior to the flush. I checked the run off during the flush and it brought the ppm down to 615-675, ph around 6.3.
Trichome production has been ridiculous! This is one of the reasons I have been wanting to give Ethos a shot growing. The smell is extremely strong. 2 weeks into flower and my entire house smells of weed even outside. I have a good vent system with new scrubbers but I may need to add extra scrubbers before the neighbors get pissed lol.
This has been a hectic week. I started noticing more yellowing and the girls have been sluggish with growing. Did a slurry test, spot on with ph and ppm. I started back tracking all of my feeds and doses and then it dawned on me... SLF 100. Great product especially with nectar for the gods. It breaks up the Herculean crust on the top soil caused by Herculean Harvest, its liquid bone meal but it hardens like concrete. SLF is also great at stripping salt/magnesium out of your soil. SLF is only supposed to be fed once a week at 5ml per gallon. I was feeding with slf 2-3 times a week at 10ml per gallon. I stripped all the magnesium away from my plants. Lesson learned. I ended up doing 2 tea feeds this week along with a magnesium feed. The girls seem to be bouncing back.
I also took advantage of the Cyber Monday deals and added a new Mars Hydro ts3000 to my tent. This is temporary till I set up my 2nd tent some time next month.
Girls are starting to bounce back from the magnesium deficiency. 4 days ago I noticed that I wasn't getting any new white pistols popping on three of my plants. I checked the trichomes and had a few cloudy and amber trichs. Today before I started feeding I noticed all new white pistols popping on the plants and some new growth. Thank God! Word of advice, if you plan on growing autos and using Nectar for the gods nutrients, get the autoflower feeding chart from Nectar. They will email it to you. It is completely different than the Spartan, Greek and Roman regiment. Also, if you use SLF 100, DO NOT exceed the recommended dose. More is not better. SLF will strip all the magnesium from your roots and soil if you over use it. I have been adding 2.5ml per gallon of magnesium (House & Gardens Magnesium Boost) every feed. This magnesium deficiency probably cost me half of my harvest and I hate giving magnesium during flower.
This week I started to flush my two Pinas. They are both showing about 70% cloudy in the trichomes and 10% amber. When using Nectar products the flush is different than a regular flush. Most flushes consist of two weeks of straight water to force the plant to use up the stored nutrients. Nectar really isn't a "flush," it's a ripening. You flush with 30ml of Herculean and 15ml of Aphrodites Extraction.
The magnesium deficiency really hurt my harvest weight wise but the quality seems to be there. I will be giving Ethos another shot now that I have a good understanding how the nectar products work.
Budz815
