8/30/17 It's been an emotional week, sorry for the lack of updates. I finally had to admit that 4 of my plants, while fully pre-flowered, did not auto-flower under 20 hour lights. The decision was made to remove them from the tent. It was a tough decision made easier as Auto Speed Bud #3 reached over 130cm and was touching the light, blocking light from plants that WERE flowering. There was really no choice at that point. So I spent 2 days trying to find them a new home. Yes, I had grown attached. Yes I found them a home. They have been transferred to soil and will be going under 12/12. I don't really know the guy well who ended up with them (a friend of a friend), so I don't know if I will ever know how they did, but they were part of my first grow so I am glad they got adopted rather than me having to kill them. In other news, I have had to start adding stakes to keep buds from falling, notably on the Kush (my superstar and only LST plant) and the Mango Cream, which seems to have hollow stems. I was concerned about this until I read up on it and hollow stems are a sign of no lockout or deficiencies and good nute uptake. They certainly look beautiful, so this is good news. However, so far 3 stakes have been added to the Mango Cream, so I hope I didn't damage the roots too much. I am looking into an alternative to stakes for the next go round. I didn't expect buds that heavy, but I ain't complaining! Slight Changes in nutes: Current feeding FloraMicro 4ml gal FloraGrow 1.25ml gal FloraBloom 8ml gal SM-90 2.5ml gal Cannazym 2.5ml Gal Ful-Potential 2.5ml gal Liquid Koolbloom 2ml gal Floralicious Plus 1ml gal ArmorSI 1.5ml gal CaliMagic 3.75ml gal (still running it high, but after seeing water report, I might have been wrong to use GH hardwater micro) FloraNectar 5ml gal Drip Clean 0.4ml gal Flora blend is out this week, Grow is out next week. Switching from Ful-Potential to Ful-Power when I soon finish the bottle. Nothing wrong with Ful-Potential, I just keep hearing about how good the chelation in the Ful-Power is, so I am game to try it since I need more Humics/Fulvics anyway. It is worth noting that I am now running ALL the GH nutes at full strength with no hint of burn. I am tempted to push them, but being my first grow, I don't think I will. However, this is a solid foundation for me to tinker with formulas for my next grows. The medium and my setup has performed wonderfully so far, and if the harvest is a success, I will certainly be more confident to experiment further. I may, however, use full strength Ful-Power which recommends reducing nutes by 10-20%. Instead of increasing nutes, full strength Ful-Power may give me the boost I am looking for while minimizing burn potential. I love that coco helps buffer and flush things, by nature, that the plant isn't using. I am so stoked that I ended up choosing coco for my 1st grow, but that is another topic for another day! I have edited the diary to reflect the loss of 2 strains and the title to reflect the current reality. Perhaps I should have left them unchanged. I am not sure. However, the diary title and strains are correct at this point. So there it is. I am now attempting to feed all 6 plants every day. There will be some days that I miss, but so far my 10 gallon bucket produces enough runoff on 6 plants if watered daily and most people who end up adopting this late stage strategy often would double/quadruple it if they could spare the time and/or afford the nutes. Once a day seems a good enough way to take advantage of the benefits of the medium without diminishing returns. I wish that I had the type of life that allowed me to set up proper control groups to test this stufff. I have also permanently started emptying the dehumidifier into the nute bucket as it has a PH of around 5.3 (my tap is around 8) and a ppm of around 8 (my ppm varies from 150-200 since i have been monitoring), 1-2 gallons a day to help out. I am loving it as much as PH down with white vinegar. I also obtained a water quality report and found that although my agency adds chlorine, they do not add chloramine so airing the bucket out for 14-16 hours after filling from the tap and cutting it with dehumidifier water should remove any threat to the beneficial living things that I have added to my girlies, so this is good news. 8/31/17 Man, I wish I used stakes from day 1. Every additional stake I put in makes me cringe and more stakes are becoming necessary. I am just lucky they are so healthy.