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Welcome back fellow growers! New grow. New strain. Let's GO!
>> SEEDS <<
FastBuds - Lemon Pie Auto
I chose to grow these judging them pretty much entirely from the FastBuds official blurb:
"An Indica-dominant hybrid that’s incredibly easy to grow and very resilient, suited for new and experienced growers who, with not much effort, will be rewarded with impressive 24% THC packed colorful buds with red and pink highlights, accompanied with light orange and white pistils that stand out from afar. Provides a powerful yet not overwhelming high that comes hand in hand with a unique extremely delicious sweet and doughy citrus pine-sol smell. Lemon Pie Auto performs exceptionally well indoors and outdoors, where it’s recommended to grow in bigger pots to let her show her full potential; being able to yield up to 550 gr/m2 in around 8 weeks. The extremely dense and chunky buds will leave you amazed by the excessive resin production that makes it look like they are completely buried in it, perfect for people looking for potency and great taste while having a balanced cerebral and body effect that will please even the more experienced growers. Also recommended for extractors looking for terpenes that will captivate your taste buds."
I liked the sound of them being a balanced head/body stone, their stocky max height, speed (take it with a pinch of salt, but FastBuds site claims 56-63 days) and hey, I liked the colours of the promo shots. I also want to experience the scent, which is apparently skunk, citrus and sweet pie. I love lemon cakes, so if they get near that, I'm going to LOVE these girls.
>> EQUIPMENT <<
I keep things pretty Lo-Fi:
3 Gallon Felt pots
Bio-Bizz Light Mix
Bio-Bizz Grow
Bio-Bizz Bloom
Bio-Bizz Alg-A-Mic
Fecida CR600 125w LED
I grow in the Space Cupboard, a broom cupboard in my kitchen with the walls wrapped in survival blankets. It's small, but it's stealthy and convenient. I dialled in my light distance using a PAR meter on my phone and a IR thermometer to check Leaf Surface Temperature. I tend to let that stick around the 25C/77F mark once they hit flower.
>> GERMINATION TIMELINE <<
22/11 - Germinated 2 seeds in between cotton pads soaked in a little water and closed up in a jiffy, then placed between two plates and put on the floor of my grow space to keep them warm.
23/11 - Small tap root cracked out, so I potted up in Bio-Bizz Light Mix, pre-watered around the seed location with a shot glass full of water and placed cloches on top. No nutes and nothing fancy.
24/11 - Misted gently a couple times a day just to keep the surface of the soil slightly damp and they popped this evening. 100% germination rate. Nice one Fastbuds! HERE WE GO!
Welcome back to the Lemons!
It's just the first week so not a lot going on, sadly. Such is the way with growing. Both plants have popped up and are growing healthily. They did start to stretch a little at first, so I put the pots on some boxes to get them a little closer to the light and they seem to have chilled out at a nice height now. I misted them for the first couple of days and have now started watering them with just a dash of plain tap water about an inch to 2 inches around the stem. Not a lot to do for now but watch them grow, but there's definitely worse things to do with life.
Onwards to next week, when things will hopefully start to kick off a little more. Thanks for stopping by!
Welcome back everyone, the Lemon Ladies are inching into week 2 and a little bit of good growth is beginning!
Day 11 - Height: LP#1 @ 5" / LP#2 @ 3.5"
This pair are 11 days from seed and they are pretty stable now. I always feel like those first days as a seedling are so slow and feel dangerous, it's much too easy to mess stuff up, but by the third node or so things calm down and ease up a bit in my mind. Both plants are growing really nicely, but LP#2 is showing some clear headway over #1, which will be interesting to see how that continues or if they'll both be roughly the same at the end. No nutrients as yet, I'll probably introduce that either towards the end fo this week or the start of next week.
Day 14 - Height: LP#1 @ 6" / LP#2 @ 4.5"
2 weeks from seed and these girls are going great. Both are looking healthy, and staying nice and compact. They both show some slight cupping on the leaves late on in the day, so I'm considering taking their lighting hours down to an 18/6 cycle, but the problem with that is the temperature drop with lights off. I'd rather they have a couple hours of cupping than dropping them into 4+ hours of cool temps that may go a bit too low for my liking, making a bit too much of a swing. Not sure, I'll think on that over the coming days. I've also got to make a decision pretty soon on wether or not to do any LST. I was planning on it originally, but thinking on it more, I'm limited by horizontal space rather than vertical and it seems LST will likely take up more of my horizontal space that I may not be able to afford. If I decide not to, I'll just let them grow as they like. I'll decide sometime next week.
Welcome back! It's the start of week 3 from seed with my Lemons. I'm introducing Bio-Bizz Grow from this week, starting out at 1ml/L and moving up to 2ml next week so that by the time we hit flower they'll be on full strength. This pretty much follows the Bio-Bizz feeding schedule on their site, except introducing a little slower. Mostly I decided to do it this way since last time I went in full strength earlier and my leaf tips burnt pretty quick, so I'll just introduce a touch slower this time.
Day 17 - Height: LP#1 @ 7" / LP#2 @ 6"
These two girls both look really healthy still, they're so bushy and staying really low and stocky. I'm interested to see how tall they grow when they hit the stretch or if they will just stay low and bushy throughout. I've sorted out my vertical limitations after last grow, so I'm not too fussed if they shoot up, but if they stay low and stocky, that will still make life easier in my space for sure.
Day 20 - Height: LP#1 @ 9" / LP#2 @ 6"
Exciting times! Both plants are showing sex and pre-flowers. The pre-flowers are pretty cool to see come out so fast. It's really interesting to me how LP#1 was behind #2 for a while, but is now stretching well ahead and is a much larger plant already. I'm really interested to see where that goes over the grow. Otherwise all looks healthy!
Stay safe, grow well!
Welcome back Growdiaries freinds! The Lemons have launched into flower already, which is really rapid. It's been a fun week for growing!
Day 24 - Height: LP#1 @ 21" / LP#2 @ 15"
Plants have gone into flower and had a really fast, but brief stretch. Last week they shot up with LP#1 almost tripling in size in the space of 4 days. LP#2 has fallen some way behind in terms of vertical height, so I've got her sat on a pot to keep her canopy at the same height as LP#1. She's shorter, but I love how small and bushy she is, it's almost like LST, except not, so although its cool that all her bud sites are tall with the canopy, I haven't broken apical dominance or anything, so I doubt it will have any effect that she has stayed so stocky. We'll see though. Both plants have slowed vertical growth almost as fast as they hit it.
All I've done so far is a little bit of leaf tucking, but I might do some light defoliation later this week. Right now just going to feed them alternating between nutrients and plain water and see how they go.
Day 28 - Height: LP#1 @ 31" / LP#2 @ 24"
I pruned off the bottom two side stems on both plants, as they were all not growing high enough to amount to anything.
Both plants are showing signs of leaves curling upwards. This is a bit tricky, but probably I think it's due to heat stress. Opinion online ranges from people saying it's natural in some strains, to signs of heat stress, low humidity and even wind burn from fans. Looking at my room, I think it probably is heat combined with the fan blowing directly on the leaves, causing the air to be a bit too dry, as the humidity is low to start with. For now I've turned the fan to face the light in an attempt to cool that down as well as removing the wind being so direct on the plants. They both still look healthy in all other respects, however, so I'm just going to watch them and see if they improve over the next few days and spend some time trying to figure out some sort of venting system that might help keep temps down also.
Thanks for stopping by, stay healthy x
Welcome back! New Week, new product to try out. There's always time to tinker!
Day 31 - Height: LP#1 @ 34" / LP#2 @ 28"
It's Day 31 from seed and by now the vertical stretch seems to be mostly over, they're both still creeping up but only a little at a time and I think they're pretty much at their final height now. I've introduced BioBizz Alg-A-Mic to their feed from this week. It's new to me, although I used Maxicrop Kelp feed before. Supposedly it can help combat heat stress, which my plants always seem to suffer from at the tops of the canopy with a little leaf curling, so maybe it will help that. Otherwise the plants are looking really healthy and doing well, no deficiencies or problems that I can see as yet. I feel like Lemon Pie as a strain can definitely get pretty hungry.
Day 37 - Height: LP#1 @ 36" / LP#2 @ 31"
Vertical height has more or less stopped so they're not stretching anymore, though LP#2 has made up a few inches back from the size difference. Buds have started filling out a little more now, I guess from here to end we will start to see the buds fattening up. I've noticed that Lemon Pie can definitely eat up a lot of nutrients, but uptakes less water in general. I'm not sure if that's down to the strain or the fact that temps have been 1-3C less than usual in my space since the weather has got much colder. I'm watering about every 2-3 days max at the moment, 2L each water. When I grew OG Kush, at the same point, she was drinking 2L every day. Just an interesting difference I noted. Otherwise both plants are looking lovely and healthy. I started using alg-a-mic earlier this week and honestly I've not noticed any massive difference yet, some people reported getting really dark green, leathery leaves. Mine look the same, but either way its not unhealthy so I'm happy!
Happy growing, see you soon!
Welcome back to week 6 of the Lemons!
Day 39 - Height: LP#1 @ 36" / LP#2 @ 32"
Growth for these two has completely switched over to buds now which are starting to fatten up. They've also started really stinking. So far I've noticed around this time in their life, Cannabis plants stink like sweaty feet to me! It seems to last about 2 weeks and then they go more traditionally skunk-y. When you touch these girls buds though, your fingers come off absolutely stinking like sweet lemon curd and its beautiful! I've upped Bloom nutrients to pretty much full strength from this week, so we'll see how they respond. They seem to eat everything up easily though, so I think they'll love it and I might still pop them up to 4ml/l before I start to drop them for their last week or so.
LP#2 is going to be the victor in terms of weight at the end, I reckon. She stayed bushier and shorter, but her side colas are already looking strong. Time will tell!
Day 42 - Height: LP#1 @ 36" / LP#2 @ 32"
The side colas on LP#2 are really pulling away from the ones on LP#1 now, she's definitely going to yield more, despite the main cola of #1 being slightly larger. These girls continue to feed really well. The Alg-A-Mic seems to have helped with the high heat of my grow space, as I see less canoeing of leaves now, either that or they've just toughened up naturally as they've got larger. I'll need to experiment more with it in future grows to be sure if it's the supplement or not There is a fair bit of light bleaching on the tips and on some of the side leaves where they are pressed up close against the reflective walls, but it's not the end of the world. Aside from that little bit of bleaching, they look really healthy. Lemon Pie seems to be a really leafy strain actually, I'll probably start to prune the early leaves off the bottom as they begin to yellow and die off over the next couple of weeks.
Thanks for coming by, take it easy x
Back with the Lemons, Thanks for coming by!
Day 44 - Height: LP#1 @ 36" / LP#2 @ 33"
The Lemons move into week 7. They have a fantastic smell now! The scent in the room is a sugary, sweet citrus backed up by a spicy black pepper. I pruned off the lower leaves that were turning yellow, many of them were squashed and bent from the walls anyway and some were actually hanging off where they've been pushed about a bit in the space, but it's all good. The buds on LP#2 are really tightening up now, but they're really making the buds on LP#1 look a bit leggy, especially the buds on the side stems. In terms of issues, there is some pretty serious light bleaching going on in the tips of the leaves, but what's done is done, so I'll have to keep an eye out for that in future grows. Otherwise plants look healthy. Leaf Surface Temperature at the canopy is 25c, which is about 2-3c lower than the ambient temps in the space, so I think thats all good, despite the light bleaching they shouldn't be suffering from heat stress too much really. Hopefully going to see the buds fatten up real nice over the next couple of weeks before harvest!
Day 48 - Height: LP#1 @ 36" / LP#2 @ 33"
Day 48 and the Lemon Twins are really starting to get sticky and pack on the weight now. LP#2 can't hold herself up at all anymore, so I've had to string a whole bunch of wires up to keep the side stems vertical. It's nice though because it condenses the footprint in my tent. I did the same with my Kush from last grow and it actually makes my space a bit easier to deal with. I think they must be approaching harvest window in a week or so, but I'm going to let them run a couple more weeks at least before I start checking trichomes seriously. All healthy and nothing bad to report though!
One thing I'm not really sure about and keep trying to research is the effect of light bleaching on plants. Mine always suffer from quite severe light bleaching or nutrient burn on the tips by this point in their lifecycle which actually comes mostly from the heat and light coming back off the reflective walls I think, as it burns the leaves next to the walls the most. My plants seem to grow well and look healthy in all other respects though and they yield well enough, so I don't really know if it's a problem. I need to read a lot more about this.
Thanks for reading, happy growing and take it easy!
Welcome back! I realised I haven't really shown my grow space so far in any of my diaries, so since the Lemons didn't need watering tonight, I took some photos in situ. You should be able to tell why I can't really LST when you see how tight it gets with 4 plants in there!
Day 50 - Height: LP#1 @ 36" / LP#2 @ 33"
These girls are coasting to the finish now. Starting this week I'll begin dropping nutrients, which they'll probably appreciate given the burnt tips anyway, but I'll work them down over the next few days so they can get just plain water for the last few feeds, since I'm pretty sure they're not going to go another 2 weeks. All trichomes are cloudy, one or two ambers here and there. Both of these have been rocket-fast from the start, so I'm not super surprised they're approaching harvest bang on the 9 week dot.
One funny thing I noticed was that I took some photos on my cellphone with the flash this week which made the buds look really frosty and white where the light from the flash reflected on the trichomes. So that's how people get those photos where their buds look frosty as hell, use a crap camera! Sneaky! haha.
Day 55 - Height: LP#1 @ 36" / LP#2 @ 33"
CRISIS! I took LP#2 out of the grow space today to check if she needed water and the main stem snapped in half under the weight of the bud! I managed to make a makeshift splint out of a chopstick and some masking tape, so hopefully she'll be fine! When she's this close to harvest I'm not too concerned anyway, she's not really growing anymore and at the very worst case, I'll just harvest her a little earlier than I planned. Aside from that little emergency, all going well! Some of the large fan leaves are fading and being cannibalised now, I think one or one and a half more weeks to go max and these girls will be finished! Very excited to get these down, dried and cured because they smell gorgeous!
Thanks for reading, take care, grow well x
Welcome back to the conclusion of the Lemons! Day 56 from seed on the dot and these two girls came down, which is crazy fast! I had originally planned to let these girls run for another week, but the stem snapping on LP#2 put an end to that as she wasn't recovering well by the next day and I thought better to harvest now. The trichomes are in a good spot anyway, so I don't feel like I've lost out at all. The wet weight is good, but massively inflated due to the stems, so I expect to lose at least 75% of that, but I still think these girls yielded reasonably well.
I like to dry in 2 stages in order to slow down that initial dry as the humidity is naturally quite low here. By leaving the stems and most of the leaves until Stage 2 I can control my dry time a little better. I leave the buds on the stems until they go into jars. There's no hard rule to how long I leave between stage 1 and 2, it depends entirely on how a particular dry is going and I judge it as it goes.
Dry took 6 days total, trimmed large leaves at day 3, the rest at day 6.
scotch_egg
