Round 2, Grow! Hindu Kush auto (freebie)

Week 1 Day 2 (11/10) Well she's up and already throwing out more leaves. Since this is only my 2nd grow, I don't have much to base anything on. Though so far, she is starting off better than my last round. Last time the shell got stuck to a cotyledon and slowed her a little, this one came up running strong. Day 4 (11/12) I have been keeping her covered still with a dome to keep humidity up. With it being cold here and running the heat, the rh in the room is low (35-40%). I have a humidifier going in the room, but will likely try to fit it into the tent here in the next few days to get it humidified so I can take off the dome. I'll also try to finagle in a fan to give her a little breeze so she gets a strong stem for LST later. It's going to be tight in my 2'x2' tent. Day 7 (11/15) I was able to cram my humidifier into my tent. On full blast, with the exhaust fan off, it maintains right around 70% and a temp of 85-ish. Day 8 (11/16) More of the same. Letting her do her thing and staying hands off. I have been spraying around her daily when the soil looks dried a bit. I'm using just pH'd water with some Roots Excelurator mixed in. I'm loving this stage because it is cool to see how much she grows from day to day.

Week 2 Day 11 (11/19) Watered her pretty good this morning. She has a few small yellow spots on her leaves. Idk what it's from, but they showed up on the first leaves pretty much from day 1 of them being there. Hoping it's just a little bump she hit before she got down into the Ocean Forest. I switched her lighting from 24 to 18/6 and will run that the rest of the way. I have her lights out overnight, that way when it's cold she stays warm with the furnace running. The humidifier is in the tent running, keeping humidity around 70%. Day 13 (11/21) She's doing good and trucking along. I don't see any more of the yellow spotting that she has on her first few leaves, and none on any of the new growth. She does have 2 leaves that are kind of twisted a little.

Week 3 Day 16 (11/24) She's getting there Day 20 (11/28) First day of LST. Going to try to be more strategic about it this time around. Day 23 (12/1) Fed her today and tied down new side shoots. Gave her a half gallon and she had some runoff. Gave half strength nutes.

Week 4 (12/1-12/7) Day 25 (12/3) Man, I have this diary all messed up. With finals wrapping up and enjoying the start of my vacation, time has had no meaning. My days are messed up, but I promise I will be better about keeping up and posting more and in the right weeks 😅. She's still going good. I got my 4x4 tent setup and my drivers arrived yesterday. I have two HLG QB96s coming in today that I will use to run half of the 4x4. I eventually want another pair of QB96s for the other half of the tent, but that will come later. I'll need to get a few other things today/tomorrow, but hope to get the 4x4 going soon with a few plants. Will probably still finish off the Hindu kush in the 2x2, but we'll see. Might move her into the 4x4 so she gets that red light boost from the 96s. Day 27 (12/5) She's still keeping on. I adjust her ties daily and attempting a cleaner LST this time, really trying to spread out everything. Idk if I'm even doing this right, from what I've looked up this seems right-ish? Any tips, tricks, or advice (LST or anything really), I am all ears and extremely appreciative. This is only my second plant and I am always learning. Like an old eskimo once told me, "Learn from others mistakes, life's too short to make them all yourself". My new lights are here, two qb96s that I'm going to each on an HLG-185h-54B. I'm still waiting on a few parts to arrive, but should be pretty slick. I'm putting in a male/female plug connector between the driver/light so that I can easily disconnect if needed. I'll mount the drivers externally, thinking on a board, but will have spacers between the driver and the board to allow better heat dissipation. I'm keeping an eye out at thrift/junk stores for something that I can mount the drivers and have the dimmers attached. I'll also have some inline waterproof connectors so I don't have wires sticking out or groups of Wagos just hanging out Day 28 (12/6) Watered her down yesterday with about half a gallon of pH'd water and some Mammoth P Day 29 (12/7) She's still trucking on. Seems to be over an initial deficiency and on the right track. I think she started out low on magnesium, based on how some leaves had yellowed interveinal areas that progressed to yellow leaves. I think I'm getting a better hang on this LST stuff, at least that's what I'm hoping for lol

Week 5 (12/8-12/14) Day 31 (12/9) Fed her today. Bumped her up to about 75% strength (50% last go around), in half a gallon of RO water, then pH'd 6.5 . Day 33 (12/11) I got rid of some of her yellowed leaves. Other than that, just trying to keep the canopy even and letting her do her thing. Day 35 (12/13) I'm starting to worry about some spotting on her leaves. When she sprouted, her first two leaves had light tan spots, I thought it was just a thing. Now some of the big old fan leaves have the spots and they are seeming to grow. Looking online, it seems like a pH fluctuation issue. My only thought is that maybe I went too heavy on the dolomite lime when mixing up the soil to pot. Maybe when I give her nutes, it brings down the pH but the lime brings it back up, causing the fluctuation? Honestly, I have no idea. I was going to water her today (day 4 since last one), but her pot is still pretty heavy and I worry about overwatering. That and she is pretty small compared to my last plant, my only other grow, so she is probably not taking in nearly as much. I know it's a crapshoot, but I will try and test the runoff pH when I do water her. I'll water like normal, let her sit an hour or so, then give a little more and collect the runoff to test. Day 36 (12/14) I did the runoff pH test today. I know it's not really reliable but I gave it a try and followed a guide I found autoflower.net. I gave her RO water pH'd at 7 and gave her about 1/2 a gallon. I waited an hour until there was just a little runoff. I then placed a bowl under the pot and added another 1/8 gallon of water. I collected the runoff and tested it with the drops I have (no meter) and it came out the same as it went in. So idk. She's doing okay and the spots are really getting any worse so...

Week 6 Day 39 (12/17) I gave her nutrients today and added some molasses. I feel that her growth has stalled, but I honestly don't know. My last (first) plant was much bigger than this one. Idk. Still waiting on some stuff for my new lights 😐 Day 41 (12/19) Just letting her do her thing. I pop in and check her temp/humidity from time to time. I've been tucking any leaves that may be blocking light. Other than that, just keeping an eye on her. Day 42 (12/20) Gave her a good watering today. Plain water, pH'd to about 6.5. Gave her 1/2 gallon.

Week 7 Day 44 (12/22) She will be ready to feed today or tomorrow. I'm worrying about the yellowing I am seeing. It seemed to start low but now is heading towards newer growth. Seems like a nitrogen deficiency, but this far into flower, IDK. I think I will bump up her nutrients to full strength, I've been at 75% the past two feedings and she seems to take that fine. I will start "Flower week 4" on the House & Garden schedule. I'll probably add in some Cal-Mag as well, in case the yellowing is from a deficiency there. I'm thinking it may be low (also?) because of the yellowing but also some small brown spots have started to appear on a couple leaves. Day 46 (12/24) After feeding her the other day, she has become pale and yellowing all over! Idk what happened, but it happened pretty quick. I may do a small flush today, let her sit, and refeed her at 1/2 strength. Day 48 (12/26) I didn't do the flush, at least not yet. The yellowing seems to have stopped progressing. I'm thinking it was a magnesium deficiency, as the yellowing had started quite a while back looking like it needed mag. I think it just took it awhile to get past it and stabilize. I am watering her today, may go ahead and run like 3 gallons through her to give her a little flush to try and clear out any residues.

Week 8 Day 51 (12/29) I fed her today. I used the full strength "Flower Week 5" on the schedule, but with the addition of the Top Booster, I went with 75% strength. I gave it to her in a 1/2 gallon of pH'd RO water, with some Cal-Mag added. I finally got the last pieces to my project, so I will spend the rest of the day switching over from the 2x2 to the 4x4. Day 52 (12/30) Officially in the 4x4 now. Everything is setup and maintaining good temps and humidity. She seems to be loving the new setup. I'm getting 4 more pots ready to pop some more seeds, but have to go get more perlite tomorrow first. Day 54 (1/1) Happy New Year! This lady is still going strong and doing well with the new lights. I spent yesterday prepping more pots and getting soil mixed up. I'm hoping to get 4 seeds in the ground today and will start germinating in my 2x2. I'll start a new journal for those. I'm thinking of going with Gorilla Glue (Linda Seeds), White Widow (Linda Seeds), Dos Si Dos (Barney Farm), and one of the "Roc's auto mix" seeds (Roc Bud Inc) Day 55 (1/2) Gave her water this morning, RO pH'd at around 6.5. I slowly gave her 1/4 gallon, let her sit 15 min, then gave another 1/4 gallon. Day 57 (1/4) Last day of week 8. I checked the soil moisture and she's okay. Will probably feed tomorrow or the next day.

Week 8 (1/5-11) Day 58 (1/5) Gave her her nutrients this morning. Today is the day I started the Shooting Powder, which I gave 75% strength. As I type, I realized I messed up the Shooting Powder. It is supposed to be a packet/25 gallons of water. 65g pack/ 25 gal. = 2.6g/gal. 75% strength is about 2g/gal. I should have only given her 1g of powder mixed into the half gallon of water, but I gave her the 2g. Well shit, I hope I don't do too much damage. Next week the schedule doubles the amount of powder until the end of the grow, so I don't think it will be too detrimental. She got it all in a half gallon of pH 6.5 RO water. She looks awesome, I have never seen a purple plant in person. It's hard to not just sit and stare at her. Her smell has changed some, originally would get hints of berries when I would brush up on her calyxes. Now she smells kind of like grapes? That's the first thing that pops into my head. She definitely smells sweet and like fuel. I only really get much smell if I touch her or get in close, she's not stanking up the tent or anything....yet. Day 60 (1/7) Her pot is pretty light this morning, so I'll give her a drink a little later. I'll also pull out my little clip-on phone microscope and check out some trichomes, just to get an idea of where she's at. Day 62 (1/9) I think she is getting close, maybe another week or two? From what I could tell on the scope, she's got some cloudy trichs but not a lot of amber, and some still clear. Being a kush, I'm going to let her amber up more than I did my last plant (impatient) so that she is a heavy hitter. Pot was fairly light today, but may hold off until tomorrow to feed. Since her last feeding, her odor has kicked up a few notches. She's become pretty fragrant and smells delicious. EDIT: I decided to feed her. Her pot was fairly light and she felt pretty dry later in the day. I'm hoping the color changes are from her fading out due to age?

Week 10 (1/12-18) Day 65 (1/12) She's getting closer and closer. When I scope her, she's mostly cloudy, with just a few ambers scattered in. I'll check her again later in the week. Her pot was still fairly heavy this morning, so she's set for the day. Day 66 (1/13) She was ready for a drink today. I watered her with some molasses and Mammoth P added in, pH'd to ~6.5. When she's ready again, I'll feed her one last time then it will be water only (maybe some molasses) until I chop her. Day 68 (1/15) Well I put the little clip on microscope on my phone and checked her trichomes. To my surprise, there seems to be a good amount of amber now. I think I'm going to call it. I'll cut her lights today and give her 48 hours in the dark, so will chop her down on Sunday (day 70). I'll give her a big drink of cold water and put some ice around her stem when I shut her down. I dry in paper bags and my last plant dried pretty quickly, as I didn't give her any water for awhile before chopping. I'd rather have a longer drying period, so I will water her up before she goes into the dark. Her last feeding was day 62 (1/9), so I'm hoping it has been long enough to work the nutes out by the time she's done.

All in all, I'm happy with this harvest. I wish she was bigger, but it is what it is. First plant I've ever seen in person with purple buds, and boy is she pretty. Only issue I encountered was some magnesium deficiency (?) fairly early on, but it was easily corrected and didn't seem to slow her down much. She is pretty small, but she packed on some buds. For a freebie, I'm really happy with how she turned out. A taste tester bud quick dried at harvest was really smooth and fairly potent. I'm looking forward to getting a real taste of her after she dries and cures. 1/23 Well she's all dried and trimmed, and now jarred for curing. I did the brown paper bag method for drying. It worked out great, but I'm having a hard time nailing down when it's dry enough to jar. I did the stem snap test, and it never *snapped* but bent. Ended up drying too much, when I first put it in the jar it only got up to 54% rh. This was also my first attempt at dry trimming. Honestly, liked it better than wet trimming. I saved the trim and it's in the freezer. Really disappointed in the yield, as the taster I had was very enjoyable. Can't really complain though, it was a freebie seed after all. Buds smell really sweet and fruity, but I can't nail down exactly what like. I'm excited to let her cure for a good bit, as I won't really have to time to try her out until I get a little break from school in about a month.