3 RQS Autos (First grow)

So this is day 14 of my first grow. I forgot to get pictures and make notes during germination, so here we are. Because it is currently cold as all hell at my home, I've had to put a small 55-watt tubular heater in the tent to keep things hovering about 19 degrees celsius. All 3 plants did a fair bit of stretching in the first week, due to me hanging the light too high at the same time as having it dimmed pretty much all the way. I lowered the light and upped the brightness a bit at the start of week 2. Northern light seems to be doing alright, I've noticed some reddish marks on the leaf stems and faintly on the main stem and some of the leaves are a bit of a wonky shape. Sweet skunk is a bit funky looking. It's growing at a slower rate than the other 2 plants and has quite dark and sort of brittle looking leaves. I'm assuming nitrogen toxicity, but none of the plants have been given any nutrients yet and were all germinated in the same soil mix (bio biz light mix). Bubble kush did a fair stretch to the side due to uneven lighting in week one, other than that it seems alright, lower leaves are a little bit dark, but seems alright.

This week has shown an alright amount of growth. I decided to start giving nutrient at 1/4 of the recommended dose from Biobizz. I think that the Sweet skunk is showing some signs of toxicity, so it will just be receiving pH 6.3 water for the next week. Due to the stretching in the seedling stage, I decided to start LST earlier than I had planned, in order to try and keep the plant heights a little more even, and because LST would become difficult later if I didn't start now. So far the week hasn't been all that eventful, but the plants seem like they are in good health.

Well, this week has shown great growth and even greater failure. My goofball attempt at LST on the Bubble Kush resulted in it being pretty much topped. I've taped the broken section in place, in the faint hope that it will magically survive being decapitated. Here's hoping anyway. All plants had minor defoliation of the lowest leaves, which got no light. Everything other than that is fine as far as I can tell. I've just been giving the plants pH adjusted water this week along with some great white.

This week has had a good amount of growth, especially the Northern Light plant. I've decided to forego any more BS attempts at LST and just let the plants do their thing for the remainder of their grow. The incident with the Bubble Kush from a few days ago hasn't seemed to slow anything down at all. The section where the main stem snapped and was taped is looking alright. I didn't manage to get a pic of the recovering break because I don't want to risk making the damage worse by trying to pry stems out of the way to get a pic :) The Northern Light is showing some early signs of flowering, same with the Bubble Kush. I've not seen any on the Sweet Skunk though. All plants are showing some nutrient issue or another. All of them, I think, show an excess of Nitrogen, I have not given any veg nutrient since that very small amount last time. I think I goofed though and gave them too much. I'm sure they will be alright though. Since then it's just been pH adjusted water and some great white. There is some copper discolouration on some of the lower leaves of all 3 of the plants, along with purple appearing on an increasing number of stems. The Northern Light, especially, is looking very dark green, almost blue. Phosphorous deficiency maybe? I'm going to start them all on bloom nutrients in the next few days. EDIT: All plants showing signs of flowering and have been moved onto bloom nutrients. Some last-minute defoliation and very minor LST was done for airflow reasons. I know that it isn't really advisable to defoliate an Auto at this point, but there was no choice. The kush and skunk were unmanageable without removing some of the fan leaves. It wasn't major defoliation though, so I am hoping that the recovery time required will be minimal.

All 3 of the plants are now definitely showing signs of bud development. The Northern light seems to be the furthest ahead, showing a fair amount of budding sites and has gained a fair amount of height compared to the other 2 plants. The bubble kush is doing better than I had thought it would after its near decapitation, although overall vertical growth of the main stem has definitely suffered. The main stem seems to have healed a fair amount, although I am still not trying to get a photo of it, as I would end up causing further damage by moving stems/foliage. I'll get a pic of the break/healing when it's time for harvest. The kush if showing a good amount of budding sites, although not as far ahead or tall as the Northern Light. The Sweet Skunk is the furthest behind. It is showing some budding sites and signs of flower, but it seems as though it's probably a week or so behind the other 2 plants. With all 3 of the plants, I was late to the game when starting on the bloom nutrients. I really should have started them on small amounts of bloom a bit more than a week ago. All 3 plants showed signs of phosphorous/some potassium deficiency, which resulted in some of the lower fan leafs turning copper. For the most part, these leaves were removed during defoliation last week. however, some were left in order to minimise the stress/recovery time for the plants when they were starting to flower. For the most part, things are looking pretty good.

Steady progress, but I am still undershooting the nutrients. Plenty of signs of phosphorous deficiency, not mega severe, but enough that I've bumped up the nutrients a bit. I got rid of one of the smaller autos from another grow in order to keep things a bit more sane in the grow tent, in terms of airflow and light penetration. The Sweet skunk and the bubble kush were both defoliated a bit (I know...but it had to happen) None of the 3 plants will be getting any more defoliation for the remainder of the grow.

This week has been good, all of the plants are starting to look great (Although the skunk is rather small) I've been upping the amount of bloom nutrient each time I feed the plants, but can't seem to stop purple stems from appearing, so bloom nutrient is now increased to 2ml/l I've run out of room to adjust the distance from the tallest plant (Northern Light Auto) to the grow light, hopefully, the plants vertical growth will slow down soon. The other 2 plants are shorter (a lot shorter for the skunk) so they are sitting on top of cardboard boxes inside the tent in order to give each of the plants equal light.

Growth has been pretty good this week. Starting to see trichomes appearing on the NL and Skunk. Not seeing them yet on the Kush though. I know I had said that I wouldn't be doing any more defoliation, but needs must. Airflow requirements and the worry of mold developing drove me to it. The purpling has got to such an extent that the upper main stem of the NL is fully purple. I'm assuming at this point that this is an issue with the root zone and not just that I'm not feeding the plants enough phosphorous. In order to try and address this, the plants have all been flushed with water and will resume normal feeding in the next couple of days. Other than that, the tent is definitely starting to smell stronger when I unzip it.

So this week was eventful. Decided to flush out the plants to address the *ahem* nutrient issues. It was only when running the last of the plants through with water that it dawned on me... The purpling... The purpling was caused by my nutrient solution being far too cold and causing anthocyanine to be produced by the plants. I had managed to keep all of the other environmental factors within a good range and hadn't even considered making sure my nutrients weren't too cold. Live and learn I guess. Now I'm more concerned about keeping an eye on when to chop these down lol So far the Sweet Skunk and the Northern Light both look the furthest along. The Bubble Kush is definitely taking longer than the other two, but it's growth looks good and healthy. All 3 of the plants are starting to smell incredible. My carbon filter seems to be doing its job though. I can't smell anything at all with the tent closed. I'm now keeping an eye on the buds more closely. As this is my first grow, I'm sort of unsure about when the buds are done and ready. I know that I should be checking the trichomes under magnification, but if I'm to switch the plants to just water a week before harvest, it's a bit like trying to predict the future lol I'd say the Skunk or NL will be done within the next week or 2 (guessing at this point though)

So I've been flushing the skunk and NL for the last week and it's looking like harvest is imminent. The pistils on both have mostly turned orange and the trichomes on the buds are about 60/70% cloudy, with the rest still being clear. I've taken them out of the grow tent in order to give them 48 hours of darkness before they get the chop. The bubble kush is still a little behind the others, so it has not been flushed and is still receiving nutrients. I intend to start flushing the kush next week. Nearly at the finish line.

This plant did well despite my many attempts on its life via chemical warfare. I'm treating this entire grow as a learning experience more than anything. It's good to know that even if you goof a lot of the nutritional/care aspects of growing these plants, you can still end up with a good result at the end of it.

This plant was stunted from the get-go. not really sure what caused this one to stay so small, but I'm still happy with the result regardless.

This strain was indestructible. All of the plants except this one have had some major drama that needs this or that done to get back on track. But not the Bubble Kush Auto. This plant has been decapitated, recapitated, frazzled with chemicals and it remained a fairly healthy colour with healthy development, pretty much, throughout the entire grow. In its final days the bubble kush buds started to turn a bubblegum pinkish colour, I wish that this colour stayed, but it was lost after drying.