Mephisto has their shit kicks ass. Starting to look yummy. I want to thank @GardenOfAutos for letting me know I am growing cheese strains. Which I do not normally like my fault. Lack of research.

Beginning of week 3. Great development good healthy color.

left the girls to settle into their new environment. Have been watering every 4 days or so, not much rain this week. Plants are looking good and showing some signs of leaf growth which means the roots have already branched out. Chitosal as a root drench is supposed to help with drought tolerance and salt stress, no salt stress here as we are organic. Next week things to do: 1) spread and re-stake plants. 2) create a top amendment feeding and watering bowl under each plant with some chicken wire.

I had an amazing stretch on the plants this week, do also some defo below the net. Otherwise, I’m keeping interventions to a minimum since everything is running smoothly. The one at the top left (GB) is growing more slowly, but it’s starting to catch up.

The harvest of my dear Stella was supposed to happen on August 4th, but didn’t begin actually until August 9th. I decided to allow her to dry out a bit before beginning the harvest, but I had some other difficulties which made her dry out a whole lot before I ever even got started. You can tell how dry by looking at the pics and video. Luckily, the dryness was limited to her larger leaves. She was already quite dry on the 9th when I started, and was more so by the 12th when I finished. Even after the advanced drying, her wet trimmed weight was still quite a bit. I’ll list the weights all together in a bit. It took 4 days to get the whole plant trimmed, weighed, and hung up for final drying. She was hung up from August 12th till Friday, August 19th. I got busy harvesting another plant while she was hanging up, and just let her be. On August 19th I took all of her branches down and removed the buds to get the true harvest weight of her buds alone. Let’s get to the weight of the whole thing. The overall wet-trimmed weight of the plant was 18.329 ounces with the buds and branches combined. I was a forgetful idiot and forgot to get the weight of the dry buds on the branches before removing the buds. So all we’re left with is the actual harvest weight of the dry buds alone. The overall dry bud weight, or actual “true” harvest weight of the smokable bud is: 7.317 ounces. That’s a wonderful amount of freshly harvested bud to cure. All of the buds were put into 8 quart sized jars filled roughly 3/4 full, and 1 pint sized jar, also 3/4 full. Each jar has a hygrometer as well as 58% bóveda packs to help aid the curing process. This is the 2nd DarkStar plant I’ve harvested, and both were very large plants. I used a scrog method the first time with a net that spread the whole plant out taking up the entire 4x4 area of the tent. This time I wanted to let her grow more naturally. She got so large that I had to bend almost all of her taller branches over using HST methods. I had to bend 3-5 branches over more than once. By doing that, once her buds began to fatten up she got too heavy and needed to be supported just to stand upright. Toward the end she had to literally be tied up to the side of the tent. Stella (DarkStar) was a wonder to grow, and she gave me a good amount of clones that will soon be harvested themselves. It has been a journey with Stella, and I’m happy that the journey is now complete. Happy growing everyone!

Día 26. Estamos en la 4ta semana. Por ahora mantengo la solución y la planta sigue creciendo pero ya está casi para cortar los esquejes. La semana que viene seguro estoy cortando, y ya tengo que preaparar todo para pasar al otro modulo del infoor. Decidi dejar de aplicar HST y apliqué una recnica con colgantes que bajan las ramas y las mantienen perpendiculares al piso. De esta forma las ramas laterales empiezan a subir. Está técnica me ha dado muy buenos resultados anteriormente. El crecimiento ha sido acelerado y las ramas estan bastante gruesas. Mañana voy a cambiar la solución. Vengo realmente contento con los resultados. Este experimento me va a permitir saber cuanto puedo llegar a sacar de este espacio y ver si me permite armar un ciclo para poder llegar a la próxima cosecha con remanente para poder ir guardando variedades diferentes. De paso ya tengo una referencia de cuantas semanas toma hasta poder cortar esquejes, y así saber en que momento poner la próxima semilla. Puse unas semillas bastardas que tenía, y las pienso mandar a la terraza a florecer directamente en el invierno. Otra experiencia que si bien no ha dado grandes resultados, ha sumado al stock. La semana pasada no llegué a subir mucho. Pero mañana hago un update de cómo se han movido las ramas bajas. En el último video se muestran bien las ramas que pretendo convertir en esquejes. Seguro saque varios, así que habrá para regalar si logramos que enraizen varios. De por cierto las manchas blancad que se ven, es tierra de distomeas que ha quedado desde la aplicación en 2da semana. Día 28. Termina la 4ta semana de crecimiento con un muy buen ritmo. Hoy cambié la solución y mantuve la formulación anterior (1g/L de feeding grow y 0,5g/L de green jungle bioestimulante de crecimiento). La planta está fuerte y ramificada. Sostengo que los esquejes se van a cortar un poco antes de lo previsto. Calculando que son 5 semanas de crecimiento y 1 semana de enraizamiento de esquejes, voy a tomar 6 semanas para preparar la próxima madre. Así que siendo esta variedad de unas 10/11 semanas de flora, voy a poner a crecer la nueva madre en la 4ta semana de floración. La planta tiene distancia internodal corta/media por lo que observo, así que es un detalle a tener en cuenta. Ya me empieza a dar la ansiedad de ver que todo va saliendo y quiero ya poder pasar a floración. Va a ser jna nueva experiencia hacer una planta desde semilla en hidroponía, ya que siempre hacía sólo esquejes y la madre la pasaba a tierra a florar en otro lado, debido a que por las raíces no podía sacarla del sistema que tengo ahora. Pero resolví eso y voy a ver por primera vez la potencia de la hidroponia en una planta desde semilla. Le hice corte apical a las dos ramas más largas esperando ver una mayor ramificación, ya que tengo un espacio de 1,2m x 0,55m por llenar y administrar. Espero que todo siga en marcha. Nos vemos en la 5ta semana desde mañana.

Scrog

First day went as expected. I put the paper towel in a small see-thru plastic container and put it on the table. With a bit of water and the seeds in side, the germination has now started! Day 2 no progression, moved the tray into my furnace room (pitch black and warm) Day 3 major progression. I got them out and started to prep the jiffy pellets. Shortly after I transferred the roughly half inch tarp roots with seeds into the jiffy pellets, root down, seed up, slightly covered with dirt. I soaked them in water (like a beginner i overwatered heavily knowing what I know now). I placed them back in the tray and put them at a window for light. (Note) the plan was to do outdoor so no light or tent was ordered at this point. Day 4-7 not much progression seeing as the clouds and rain showed up...

Welcome to Week 3 of the Sweet Seeds Gorilla Girl XL Auto’s grow. It’s been extremely cold here in Canada this last few weeks and these plants are doing their best to survive- not thrive. Although they are healthy and happy, they are just not thriving like my previous Sweet Seeds grow from the fall of 2021. The temperatures are only a few degrees cooler than spring, summer and fall but the humidity is extremely low at this particular time of year- 20-25% at best. Without adding additional humidity via a humidifier, my plants are at the mercy of the dry Canadian winters. Week 3 did not bring the expected growth spurt experienced by the plants in my previous Sweet Seeds grow (the Cream Mandarine XL autos). I have included a side by side comparison photo above to show the massive difference in size between the two SS grows. It’s because of the slow growth that I have decided not to top these plants 👎🏼 I increased the water early in Week 3 to 2.1 litres per plant every 4th day (0.52 of a litre per plant per day). Hopefully these ladies pick up a little over week 4. Mom’s Tip for Week #3- To Top or Not to Top?… Topping is an simple technique used by growers to split the main stalk/stem into two separate stalks/stems. This allows for height control when growing XL strains, encourages lower branch growth creating a more equal canopy height and of course- creates two beautiful, big colas instead of one! But topping Autoflowers has long been the source of great debate so I’m here to clarify Mom’s Do’s & Don’ts when topping autos. Do top your plants if they are healthy, thriving and on track (growth wise) with other growers and any info the breeder’s might provide. Don’t top your plants if they appear unhealthy, simply surviving and behind/slow (growth wise) compared to other growers growing the same strain. Do top your Autoflowers between 3-5 weeks from seed or when your plants have grown as many sets of branches as you desire (usually 4-6 sets of branches or nodes). Don’t top your auto’s beyond the 5th-6th week as they are most likely going into full flower. Do top, prior to or very early on in the pre-flower stretch and don’t top too late in pre-flower or once budding has begun- it’s too late and you’ve missed your opportunity for this grow. Do top your plants if you know what you’re doing and you’ve got the right tools. Believe it or not, I use a sterilized set of nail clippers (dedicated to this job alone) as they deliver a clean, controlled, perfect cut every time. Don’t top your plants if you haven’t done your homework or you haven’t got the right tools. Many people use their fingers but I find they are too large and awkward for such a precise job. More than once I have missed (FIM’d) or taken one of the two baby branches that are supposed to be left behind or simply injured those tiny developing branch sites by accident. Do top your autoflowers if you are growing a large/XL strain in a small/short space. This allows the grower to influence/control the overall height of the plants and creates a more equal/level canopy of foliage and eventually bud. Don’t top your auto’s if you are growing a short, fast flowering strain as this can sometimes stall/stunt them a tiny bit. Some Autoflowers run such a tight seed to harvest schedule that they legitimately cannot afford any interruptions in their growing cycle so check the breeder’s info before you chop. Do have fun with growing your Cannabis and don’t be afraid to try something new. Don’t top your Auto’s expecting to triple your yield though. I have learned that it will change the shape and height of your plants and you’ll end up with less low level, larfy bud but your yields will be almost identical whether you top or not. ✂️✂️✂️

Day 3: 2358 grams net weight

I'm anxiously waiting for it to dry, good colors and smell

Growing for FastBuds420 has truly been an honor their genetics are truly Best in the world in my book strange our name beautifully mimicking the smells and appearances of their names. Pineapple express is one . They nailed the name right on the head. This plant truly smells just like a pineapple and almost looks like a pineapple once the fade starts one of the biggest autos I’ve ever grown truly thankful for the opportunity to grow this plant FastBuds420. 4 Life 🌿💨💯

Flowering Day 28 So far, everything looks good, and the buds are stacking well. Today was hopefully the last time I had to supercrop. In a few days, they'll be getting compost tea again.

Very good strain! I really recommend it! Didn’t expect too much but was really surprised!

I’m so proud of the transition. I gave them a defoliation during and it didn’t slow them down! They’ve shot their worst pistols now so I’m so glad to be officially in bloom!