Double Grape Auto Fem S1, day 52
Pistols starting to dry out, frost developing nicely.
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Going to be a hot week, upper 90s. The girls seem to have stopped stretching, now I am hoping the flowers will bulk up a bit. Still got 2-3 weeks till chop. Getting close to time to break out the microscope to take a look at Trich development.
Will continue to use 800ppm/6.0pH water whenever the pots dry out, which is not often as the afternoon thunderstorms provide a good bit of moisture.
Wondering if the girls can take more nutes, havent gotten tip-burn yet.
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This was a great thread! Thank you for the great read, I like how you do things. I never thought I’d do autos til the grow I’m on now, and now I’m hooked. There’s just something about the spontaneity of them that’s fascinating! Well done sir!
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The poor little guy filling pot #4 has had a hard way to go. It took 5 seed sproutings to get a plant to grow in this pot. First few got ate by slugs. then I accidentally knocked the pot over, spilling it the whole damn pot. Salvaged the seedling and she has been settling for a few days.
Some early morning dawn bud porn…
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Getting close, mostly cloudy, a few clear, and a few amber. Might be chopping 2 of the girls this weekend.
Will snip a sacrificial bud this evening and look it on the bench microscope.
Just bought an upgrade for my tent to help get a better dry cycle. Without this, it would be a flash dry in this heat.
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Well, the FIMM’d girl surprised me and ripened faster than the others. I see some amber, some clear, and mostly cloudy. I will probably chop her this weekend. The other 2 girls probably have another week to go.
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Big storm last night, shook the water off the girls at dawn. Worried about bud rot with 90+F/80%rH days and afternoon thunderstorms. So I shake off excess water after it rains.
This girl is going to get chopped tomorrow morning. Will configure tent for drying tonight and let it stabilize.
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OK, seems like I have 3 different girls.
The first one, the one that I Fimm’d, was showing amber trichs at 60 days. I harvested her yesterday. Yielded 240g gross (less rootball), probably about 1.3oz cured.
I had sniped 2 small popcorn buds to inspect under the microscope, I then speed dried them and sampled the smoke. Definitely works well in the headspace dept. Real curious if the quick ripening was influenced by the Fimm job, or if it was just a pheno expression, or a little of both.
Trying to dry her when its 95f/90%rH outside. Will document these challenges in another post.
The other 2 girls are probably a week(ish) from chop as no amber yet.
This one is getting a nice fade thing going on.
This one seems to be bulking up a bit, but no fade.
And look whats in the last pot! Will apply LST tonight.
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Currently ambient is 95f and 88%rH.
So I bought an AC unit to help me Dry during the heat of summer.
BUYER BEWARE, there are some physics here that should be considered!
This unit is 6500 BTU. It also has de-humidification capability,
My Tent is 72 sq ft, in drying mode there is no heat from lights.
It has a hose that vents the hot air and moisture outside.
I stuck it in the tent and let ride for a few hours.
It brought the temp down nicely but damn if it didnt increase the humidity!
Played with settings, checked that water was coming out of the drain line, etc.
After a perplexing afternoon I figured out whats going on. It was because I went too cheap on the AC unit.
There are 2 types of portable ACs. One has a single hose, and the other has 2 hoses. This one was about $300, where the 2 hose models are about double that.
The hose exhausts the hot humid air to outside, and exhausts cool air inside the tent. On a single hose model the air being exhausted creates a vacuum inside the tent. It pulls all of the air being exhausted TO THE OUTSIDE from inside the tent. You can see the tent sides go concave.
See this for a more technical explanation:
I underestimated this effect!
It pulled so much of a vacuum and was pulling in so much hot/humid ambient air,to compensate for the vacuum, that it overwhelmed the dehumidifcation ability of the AC. The AC was dehumidifying just fine, water pouring from drain hose, but the incoming moisture just overwhelmed it.
The 2 hose models dont create this vacuum because one of the hoses intakes the air from the outside that it must exhaust. This lets the tent pressure stay neutral.
I ended up having to put a large 50pint dehumidifier inside the tent and then I was able to get conditions I could work with. Not very energy efficient, but it will get me through this harvest anyway. The big blips you see are from tripping the circuit breaker, had to spread out the electrical load a bit.
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Well, last I checked the triches was Friday night, looks like undeniable amber when I checked last night. Chopped both girls and threw them in the tent to dry.
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Looks like I have good temp/rH in the tent for drying, but need too much airflow to accomplish it so it is still drying a little faster than I want. A lot better though than the 95f and 88%rH ambient I see in the afternoon.
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So @GCBudz was kind enough to help me out. I am grateful as now I am confident I will not run out of smoke any time soon.
For that, you have my sincere respect!
However, I do not feel I did the strain justice in my outdoor environment. At least the yields were weak at about 1.3 oz per plant.
So, I have one last girl to raise. I am attempting to coax her into a better yield.
Stay tuned, maybe I will be able to pull this off…
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Nice job, I didn’t do these autos justice either. I have another location to try them again next season. I haven’t given up on autos, i see real potential for good yields.
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Contortionist… but i bet you kill it this run.
My DG i put outside were victim of squirell’s… oh well price ya pay to live next to 65 acres of woodlands.
I need a greenhouse…
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I did the same thing, laying the girl sideways, to my first grow. It was a Zkittelz Auto and I got 4ozs off of it, despite my screwups.
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Sprayed some permethrin this morning as something has been munching on her.
Starting to curve the girl…
Side branches starting to form!
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The metal lawn staples were leaving marks so I changed to silicone coated tomato wire.
Once I get to the edge of the pot I will let the main cola row upright again.
My theory,is, with autos, this is a much less stressful method of training vs topping or fimming. Need to try a side by side test one day.
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