By continuing to use the website or clicking Accept you consent to our cookies and personal data policy and confirm that you are at least 18 year old. For details please see Privacy Policy and Terms
🍌🔥🍌🔥DP Auto Banana Blaze🍌🔥🍌🔥
This strain is budget priced but claims to be 26%+ THC. It’s actually a great deal considering the parent is Auto Mazar which is one of the best Autoflowering varieties out there!
To start the germination process I primed the seeds in a cup of aerated spring water with .25ml/L of Tribus Grow. I allowed the seeds to soak for 24hr, not enough time to pop the beans but help kick start the germination process. I then planted the 4 seeds directly into the medium and pots they will finish in.
Let's hope I get 100% germ rate! (Update: all seeds broke ground 08/11)
(Update: 12/11 One seed sadly passed away this morning due to heat stress. I kicked the fans off when the lights were off and forgot to turn the fan back on this morning. Two of the other seedlings also got slightly damaged but should recover just fine. I went ahead and planted another seed in it’s place!)
(Update: 16/11 The three seeds sprouted are growing nicely, two are still recovering from the heat stress they experienced. I believe I underestimated how light this mix really is and didn’t feed them quite enough, it’s so light to the point where I may have to follow the rules of coco for this grow, we will see but she has already experienced a small calcium def. which would be due to me not buffering the coco, which I thought I wouldn’t have to due to half of the mic being soil. I bumped up the ec and now the seedlings are starting to look much better. I gave them a small dose of grow nutrients and lumina to help with any macro/micro nutrient deficiencies and also boost amino acids.)
Medium:
• BioBizz Light Mix Blended with 50% Canna Coco Coir with added chunky perlite, ancient forest humus & 5% bio char. I chose this medium because I wanted to test the Impello Bio Line on its own to determine how it holds up against my other nutrients and microbial inoculants, eg. Advanced Nutrients, Roots Organics, Great White, etc. Prior to planting the seeds I watered the substrate with an actively aerated compost tea to help kickstart the microbes in the soil. I let the tea soak into the medium for about 4-5 days before planting. Each pot received around 1-1.5l of aact. The aact was made from Spring Water, Peaceful Valley Compost Tea Catalyst, Organic Worm Castings & Ancient Forest Humus Compost from General Organics.
Pots:
• Rain Science - 2 Gallon Grow Bag with LST Grommets.
Water:
• Aerated & Vortex Brewed - Local Spring Water, Volcanic Spring Water, Reverse Osmosis & Distilled. (Every batch of water will be “living” and never still, this process provides dissolved oxygen)
Nutrients:
• Impello Tribus Grow (inoculant)
• Impello Innate Grow (vegetative nutrient)
• Impello Lumina (amino acids) - This product is really exciting as it contains all amino acids and all micro and macro nutrients. What is most impressive is that they manage to do this keeping the NPK @ 0.5-0-0.5. That’s extremely light so for anybody dealing with deficiencies but needs something light this may be your answer!
• Impello Tribus Bloom (inoculant)
• Impello Innate Bloom (bloom nutrient)
Other Nutrients To Be Used:
• Agsil16h (potassium silicate “silica”)
• Compost Teas (actively aerated compost tea’s, made from bu’s biodynamic, ancient forest & earth worm castings)
Tent:
• StealthBox
Lights:
• StealthBox (100w Full Spectrum LED)
• Amazon USB Blue/Red LED Grow Light (10w)
• I use the low power Amazon grow light for a method I’m testing for autoflowers that I call “The Northern Lights Technique”
• The goal behind this technique is to mimic Alaska/Siberian day/night schedule which is something called Nautical & Civil Twilight. Usually during Civil Twilight the sun can be out for around 18-19hrs. During the last 5-6hrs the sun will set but not completely which is why some people say (Far north summers are 24hr sunlight) not true but close (polar days). While the sun is still peaking over the horizon plants are still receiving a faint amount of the light spectrum, which is why a 10w led is perfect for this faint light. The light is so underpowered that once the full spectrum lights kick off temperatures drop 5°-10°f which allows the plants to rest even though they are still receiving sunlight. The drop in temp also helps encourage anthocyanins.
The schedule I have in place is;
• Germ/Seedling (24hr blue light, 50% and below intensity) once sprouted kick on full spectrum.
• Veg (19hr full spectrum, 5hr blue led 10w dimmest setting)
• Pre/Flower (19hr full spec, 5hr blue/red 50%-100% intensity)
• Flower (19hr full spec, 5hr Red 100% intensity)
• Pre Harvest - Blue Therapy/Treatment (last two days before transferring to darkness - Blue Light ONLY 100% intensity)
The girls have officially entered week one of their vegetative cycle.
I started to higher the ppm/ec of nutrient solution as they were begging for food! So far the nutrients have been gentle and effective enough to help the heat damaged girls recover.
The plants are being fed once to twice daily in the morning and at night time. Usually I water more on days that are 30% humidity.
I’m still waiting on the fourth bean to pop. I can see that it’s opened up but has barely moved, I hope she is just being slow and isn’t dead. Right now It’s too early to dig in and find out. (Update: dug up the seed today after zero growth, I found that she had sprouted but the root was completely blunt and had 2 fungus gnat larvae feeding on it. Looks like I’m going to have to reinvest in some beneficial nematodes. So I decided to not germinate another Banana Blaze and will plant a freebie Roc Auto seed instead.)
So far I’ve been feeding with a nutrient solution at around 500ppm. I also will give them a compost tea throughout the week sometimes with nutrients added as well to bring the ppm up to 500. I also water throughout the week with oxygenated reverse osmosis water with added trace minerals @ 35ppm.
Thanks for stopping by! 😎🤙
Week 2 has been so far so good. The girls are growing vigorously and seem to be happy with their environment and custom light schedule.
So far it seems like tribus grow microbes make the roots explode! have had to top dress twice this week because huge white roots kept popping out of the soil. I top dressed with a blend of organic worm castings and ancient forest humus. Other than that I really haven’t fed the plants anything other than water and compost teas because their leaves were starting become nice and green. To the point where if I had given any more nutrients I believe she would have experienced a nitrogen toxicity. I will up the feeding to 700ppm when the leaves start to lighten up a bit and grow out more.
All three plants were growing at almost identical rates. They all matched each other’s height and girth. I decided to LST two of the three plants, I also did some selective leaf tucking where needed.
The girls were starting to look a little dark and then suddenly overnight they were starving for food/becoming slightly deficient. I was trying to be careful because DP recommends a light feed with this strain but definitely need to feed them more or else I risk losing out on growth. I upped the nutrients to 700ppm and they have perked up quite a bit. I’m already starting to see some pistils popping up which I was hoping would happen a little later but looks like flowering is coming soon! I definitely do think I am having some issues with VPD as my humidity is so low in the house. It’s been challenging getting RH above 39%. Going to order some larger humidifiers in the future but for now this girls will just have to ride it out!
I started some LST on all three, the largest is just getting branches pulled down and leaves tucked away. The other two are getting the around the pot treatment as long as they continue to stretch that is!
What a difference a week makes! These girls are getting taller and bushier by the day. Even with slight under feeding and some deficiencies they still seem to be moving into flower just fine. They developed a good amount of bud new sights from tying down select branches. The stalks also became very thick in such a small amount of time so I believe the microbes are making a notable difference! The root zone is exploding as the sides and bottoms of the pots are filled with new white roots almost every single day. The pots allow the plants to air prune and grow new ones so I have a feeling these girls are going to get fat deep into flower. So far I’m extremely happy with Impello Bio’s nutrients and microbes! These girls are also getting super potent smelling so I’m very excited to see how the terp profile develops over time 😬
I decided to give the girls one last shot of the Tribus Grow Microbes before flower. I brewed an actively aerated compost tea with ancient forest humus, bu’s bio dynamic compost, humid acids, kelp, sucrose, trace minerals, etc. The tea was around 400ppm. I’m going to give the girls a nice plain watering next with Tribus Bloom Microbes before I switch over to the bloom nutrients.
(Update: 12/16 the largest of the three phenotypes was not happy with her plain water feed, a day later she experienced a decent calcium deficiency along with a slight nitrogen deficiency. She’s growing much faster than the others so I think I may have to feed her more than the other two next time around. Clearly she’s starving for nutrients!)
I also mulched around a 1/2in of worm castings, humus and compost on the top layer of the pots. I did this for added food source, microbes and because the roots kept surfacing to the top. The roots are fat, white and fuzzy. Super healthy looking!
Now that the girls are in their first week of flower I switched the 10w LED from 100% Blue to Blue/Red. The Blue is around 40% while the red is around 60%. The full spectrum light runs for 19hours while the 10w runs 24/7.
Nothing too new with these girls. The largest of the three was growing like a weed and became deficient after being fed plain water right before bloom. She’s vigorous and much hungrier than the other two. She stretched about 7 inches in one week as I tied her main apical down and around the main stem to create a candy cane like shape. She should grow nicely but I honestly don’t even think the stretch is quite over yet. It also seems like I will have to keep her on a separate feeding schedule which requires slightly more nutrients than the other. The two that received around the pot LST are showing zero signs of deficiencies or excesses so I’m happy with their progress for now! I will update more as this week continues!
Two of the Bananas are really starting to pack on some weight while the third is barely kicking into flower. I guess I don’t mind because sometimes the plant that take longer yields more.
The plants are being fed the same nutrients but all three are reacting differently. The girl that is barely kicking into flower is looking healthy with no excesses or deficiencies. The girl that is tied around the pot is almost looking nitrogen excessive while the tallest looks healthy but is showing deficiencies in areas. They are all progressing and packing on weight regardless.
Pheno #1 is getting fatter and fatter by the day although she is starting to fade out a bit. It’s a shame I had to tie her down because I swear her main cola would have been a foot long 😂She is also sensitive to light and has received slight amounts of burn and bleaching. She is the largest of the three but she has the least amount of resin and terpenes which is a bit unfortunate... She smells earthy, no banana scent or fruit terps like pheno #2. I still have about another 4+ weeks to go so that could easily change but we will see. I will try to be optimistic!
Pheno #2 is a frost monster. She is completely covered in resin and trichromes. Her smell is out of this world, definitely has that banana fruity type smell. I don’t think I have smelt another strain quite like this so I’m very excited to see how she continues develop.
Pheno #3 is a bit funky. She is stretching and getting bushier but she is extremely slow to flower. She has tons of shoots and bud sites. Almost every popcorn type branch at the very bottom raced to the top of the canopy. I feel like she hasn’t changed in the past couple weeks but maybe that’s just me being impatient. She is developing some interesting deficiencies but only on a couple leaves here and there. She is also somewhat lackluster compared to the other two. In my opinion she is a little dull looking...
It’s odd to see how all three pheno’s are expressing different traits regardless of being grown in identical substrates with identical feeding schedules. It’s hard to say if it’s the genetics, substrate or the nutrients but I have a strong feeling it has more to do with the medium not being properly balanced. I normally would never grow with such a light substrate but DP grew theirs in a similar medium so I thought for the first time around I’d try to grow similar to their style. Next round I’m definitely going to switch it up and use the NFG or a custom soil blend I’ve been developing for auto flowers. It should be nice to see how a commercial soil compares to a homemade organic soil tailored for auto flowers. I’ll most likely run that experiment within a month or so once I get my new grow space setup.
This week I’m going to lay off the nutrients and feed with some compost teas and microbes instead. In the video you can see my smaller brewing bucket. This is a mini-Microbulator along with an air stone. This allows for maximum dissolved oxygen saturation and also helps with preventing anaerobic spots in the brew.
Set up a new space for future grows. Will top out the max I can grow in MI at 12 plants within the next couple months! Thanks to @MarsHydroLED
• 2 X MARS TS1000 LED
• 2x4 MARS HYDRO TENT
This week has gone by pretty smoothly for the girls.
Pheno #1 Is steadily packing on weight but still no trichome and terpene development. I swear she smells earthier/grassier than the soil she is being grown in... I’m really hoping that she packs the frost on later but I’m starting to lose hope for her.. I could honestly care less about big buds and yields, I’d rather have a small but potent yield full of terpenes and frost!
Pheno #2 Is getting fatter and frostier by the day. I would say that she is the healthiest pheno out of the three. Her smell is getting more pungent by the day and I can really tell she is going to be winning phenotype out of this group.
Pheno #3 Is starting to come around even though she is suffering a pretty decent calcium defeciency. She is starting to bush out and build a nice layer of frost. She could end up being my largest yielding pheno out of the three but we’ll see! I hope that her smell is similar to pheno #1 because I’m drooling over that scent!
Still growing all three in the StealthBox but taking pictures of some in the Mars tent because I get better shots 😉
Well it seems like at least one of these pheno’s will finish close to the estimated time DP claims.
Pheno #1 just looks mature... she’s starting to fade pretty bad even though she has developed zero trichomes and zero scent. As I said in a previous post this pheno doesn’t even smell like cannabis. This pheno smells like straight up dirt. I don’t know how much longer she can go without turning to complete shit...
Pheno #2 is starting to fade and smell extremely ripe. Her trichomes are still mainly clear and cloudy so we will see how they transition during this week! The smell is amazing, Dutch Passion got it right with this one.. Smells like banana runts mixed with a bowl of fresh, ripe fruit 🍉 🍎 🍌
Pheno #3 is finally starting to mature into a promising looking plant! She’s still suffering a CalMag deficiency but is still progressing and packing on weight. She is starting to smell very similar to Pheno #2 so I’m very happy with her compared to the dinosaur “pheno #1”
Still growing all three in the stealth box and using the new tent for better photos!
Things are coming to an end for pheno #3! She’s starting to fade out nicely and her smell is ripe. I’m thinking another week or two weeks max before she gets chopped!
I’m currently feeding with plain water and microbes to let this girl finish out nicely 👌
Pheno #2 was dense and full of top shelf terpenes. She smelt just like banana which I really did not expect to be that spot on. She retained most of her scent and flavor by the end of cure and had a very smooth smoke. Pheno #3 was just as great as pheno #2 even though she produced slightly less trichomes. What she lacked in frost she made up in weight though. Pheno #3 took much longer to veg which helped boosst her yield over 70 grams. This pheno also had a strong banana scent profile but it had more of a diesel type smell mixed with the fruit. Her smoke was a little spicier but still well rounded and flavourful. I didnt even bother to smoke pheno #1, there was zero trichomes and she smelt awful the entire way through flower so I kept the buds and leaves dried and ground them up for worm food.
Overall I would highly recommend this strain, the price point is competitive and if you purchase a decent amount you should be able to pheno hunt some killer phenos from this strain… Maybe my photos from the first few weeks could help weed out the good and the bad who knows.
FreshCoastOrganics
