I suppose like many, I get enjoyment from growing things. A large cluster of chamomile popped up this spring from seed I’d forgotten I’d planted last summer. While planting strawberries, I found a potato I’d planted 2 years ago. Anyhow, I’ve amassed a handful of various autos in anticipation of seeing them grow for the first time. I’m going to start with 5 from the server fundraiser.
Fem Auto Mix 22, from a member here. Rector decided to get them started, 5/5 germinated, given a little worm dookie plug and stuck into pro mix that I added a bit too much perlite to. First week of march was pretty warm so I got a bit over eager. A bit early for outdoors as the weather predicted frost a couple days after they shed their helmets, so they got R. Kelly’d with the intention of only having them in for a week or so until I felt confident there’d be no more frost.
I’ve read to avoid transplanting or allowing root bind and a number of other things to avoid. I got these paper pots as a gift, ran it by a couple other folks and we all determined these should be safe just for a bit until I can put them in their final spots.
Structure wise, they’re all looking pretty good 14 days from sprout. At 14 days, I’m hoping to get them in transplanted and out within the week, but the cold weather prevented me. The one off by itself was a day behind the others popping its shell and has exhibited some goofy growth. Eventually settling on growing two tops, as shown at around 28 days from sprout. They’re starving though, and I know I need to be careful with this fancy new LED. ~2nd-3rd week in I dropped a few prills of osmocote as they were really looking poor. I realized I probably had the LED too close or turned up too high, moved it away from the plants quite a bit. Looking poor the weekend I’ve set to put them out.
All I need to really do is remember not to leave the closet door open… dun dun DUNNN.
Around the 3rd week, I popped two Double Grapes from a kind member. They’re into their second week. No fuckery with the light this time, it’s up high and on full powa. The missing plants got transplanted. The one remaining was my intended sacrifice, but the cat decided to nibble a few leaves of it, some tomatoes and peppers. I’ll still be sacrificing it, just a little worse for wear. I went ahead and up potted it, it’s a simple osmocote fed SIP, 1 gallon of medium and .25 gal res. Pealed most of the paper off all of them when I TPd, each time telling my self I’d be more careful than last time. They tore rather easily, the tap roots that is. I probably should’ve left the paper on there, but I didn’t.
Double grapes are looking good, approaching 3 weeks. It’s because I put a bunch of worm shit in there with them. They’re getting used to sun, holes awaiting.
Ah yes, the other ones. Here they are at around 28 days. I transplanted them directly on top of a handful of the worm bin (worms, shit and all), 5 gal promix with some Espoma Garden Tone and worm casts that’d been cooking for a good three weeks. The oddball that topped itself went into the ground, with similar amendments. I gave one away.
Well, well. Always nice to see positive results. The osmocote loves me and me, it. As does the plant my little kitty loves, apparently. The osmocote loves you, too. Quite the bounce back for 6 days, I think it’s around 35 days from being put into dirt from sprouted seed. The white balance is off a bit on the right photo, not quite as pale as it appears.
The ones I put outside went into full flower mode with zero stretch. You following along at home are probably saying “well, I could’ve told you that was going happen.” Well, ya didn’t, didja? It’s not like you could’ve, anyhow. Ah, the old hindsight. Couple girthy little gals. In real time, we should be around 55 days from sprout. I’ll add some more profile shots of them soon. I’d say they’re about 10" tall.
Here’s a pretty up to date shot of the ones under the 24 hour unintended closet. It’s about double the height of the ones outside and is just now really starting to flower.
I’ve resisted defoliating a bit. I’ve got all the lower branches trained to one side. Been watching the leaves yellow and have added a bit of epsom and calnit to the watering cycle. Those leaves are gonna be worm food by the weekend’s end. Maybe.
How about a little look at whats going on inside these buckets with the hose pipe built in. “Anything can be a SIP if you try hard enough.” -unknown
1.6 gallon trash cans from general dollar, foam meat tray cut to shape and… you guessed it, a bit of old hose cut to length. I pre-chopped this one years ago with a lawnmower, not required or even recommended. Don’t forget to poke a hole in for the overflow. Nice little ~1 quart reservoirs is the idea. The majority of the osmocote is distributed through the wicking section and a nice handful of worm shit for the transplant to sit directly atop of.
For the training, I’ve been developing a scissor technique. It doesn’t require scissors, i just happened to have them in my hand when I was thinking about bending the plant over, noticed I had string tied to them and viola. Works pretty well to get all the branches on one side. I did trim a few of the larger leaves that were directly blocking bud sites up top on the “big” FAM22 and quite a few of the smaller ones on the lowers.
Oh yea, I realized those double grapes weren’t going to appreciate the change in photoperiod if I put them outside, so in the closet they’ll live. I might have something resembling an even canopy soon.
Here’s a shot of the ones outside to give an idea of scale. They’re some smelly little gals and stout too, would probably flip over a powerwheel. Little plants, big lessons. Those are allegedly 5 gallon fabric pots. I bought them off a roadside wizard who was selling them as “shopping bags” 2fer $1 amongst a bunch of other pallet liquidation wares. Must not have been a big seller as he let me get ~40 of them for 15 bucks. There were a couple alleged 10 gallon ones in there as well.
Anyhow, looks like I’m getting upgraded from a fat joint harvest to philly titan.Looks like trichomes are starting to cloud. Some more than others, but sooon. I’ve not ammended or done anything to these since I put them in the ground/pots. The Espoma garden tone is a 3-4-4 that reeks of chicken shit. I planned on giving a bit of Alaska Fish fertilizer in the early days but holy hell that stuff stinks. I’m not sure if a neighbors dog or one of the various hard and soft shell opossum species lurking about did it, but the bottle was dragged out in the yard. Figured I’d save the plants from the possible attack. Watered au natural from the heavens and straight out of the 7.0 tap. Leafy little things, hopefully they’re housing the aphids, not the calyxs.
These little ladies stink. One has a pretty distinct tire/rubber smoke smell. One is a sweet rotting flesh and the other is puppy shit. All in a good way, of course
The indoor ones are in various states of wtf. I’ll get some pics of them soon. I passed out several of those FAM22 beans to friends and am starting to hear back with happy reports. It’s also time to start thinking about photo beans and which to pick from of the massive pile I’ve been blessed with by OG co-ops.
The above yielded a bit over 3 gallons despite my ignorance and neglect. Most of my issues stemmed from too high pH and a couple of forgotten waterings. With the outdoor stuff, the biggest mistake was not getting them out of the small containers in time. I also figure the change in photoperiod being moved outside didn’t much help with the immediate flowering. Poor lil things were getting attacked by all kinds of bugs too. Anyhow.
Another tale of two autos. Crosses of Reiko’s GLo from ‘22.
Figured I’d give another shot at the autos, I found one of the plants’ structure interesting so I figured I’d share some progress.
DWC with Masterblend, calnit and epsom, 2,2,1 250ppm. 1 week from sprout above. 24/0 lights on. Fingers crossed I’ve not done something to stunt them in the transfer from a cup of water to the rockwool and netcups. Seedlings in the trays are just there to provide moral support for the GLos.
3 weeks from sprout. The longest root of the one on the right disappeared at some point for reasons unknown to me. I’ve done no training, the multiple tops were their idea.
4 weeks. 400ppm still 2,2,1. Pistils are showing, the one on the left is getting wacky with all the branching. I considered tossing the one on the right in the worm bin after the root disappearance. Empty threats, the rest of the roots reached the res but it’s definitely stunted.
Week 5. Before and after of a little bit of leaf and lower branch pruning of the one on the left. Bit over a foot tall, but if you were to add up all the tops it’d be, what, 69 feet? Pretty neat structure, really thick branches all the way to top. Still stretching. Trichomes are starting to be produced. Doubtful the one on the right will catch up with the left, but what do I know. One mild concern, both are throwing large three finger and single leaves similar to how I’ve seen a plant in reveg do. Several even numbered leaves, too. Maybe I should throw a timer on the light. Next batch of masterblend will be mixed 3,2,1 for flower.
End of week 6 vs end of week 7. 3,2,1 at 800ppm. They’re consuming close to a gallon per day. In an unexpected turn of events, the one on the right is now taller than the one on the left. Quite the growth spurt in 8 days. I prune a few leaves almost daily. I’m just gonna go in there and start chopping leaves until I can’t see anything except bud. Maybe not that much.
Side note on the plants in the bottom right peeking in the frame. They’ve not been enjoying the low ph nutes. Life will get better for them soon.
Wouldn’t hurt to try and spread it out. The branches are really stout, not much give to them and I’ve been procrastinating on what to do. When they were sprouted, once they dropped the seed husk, the cotyledons were stuck together by a bit of the membrane for a couple days before I physically seperated them. I wonder if that little struggle had some influence on the structure.
~60 days. 3,2,1 800ppm, with the occasional sneaky pinch of epsom between res top ups. Lights 20/4 for the last week with the idea of maybe retarding some of the leaf growth. The last round was 24/0 all the way and didn’t have the large leaf growth, but also wasn’t harnessing the power of DWC.
The one on the right appears to have stopped vertical growth and is now covered in bud sites from head to toe. Seems it has the potential to be the big yielder of the two.
The one on the left has been producing a bit of trichomes.
I’ve let it become essentially a giant leafy bud ball. Of note, most of the trichomes have a bit of cloudiness to them. Maybe by the time it’s ready to chop, I’ll have most of the leaves removed.
Not to be outdone by the one on the left, the branching is a bit wild on the right side. It’s much more flexible, I guess from all that late game stretching it did. I shouldn’t have any trouble spreading it out a bit.
Week 10ish from sprout. The right one almost dwarfs the left one with regard to volume of plant mass. And to think I considered pulling it. I’m eager to pull the one on the left to make room for the one on the right to spread out a bit. They’re under a 20" square 300 watt panel with about a 5" gap for most of the tops. I think lefty wants more calcium and righty is starting to show signs, too. It could be phosphorus, the ph tends to drift upwards of 6.0 between top offs. I’m using MB at 3,2,1 which gives me ~800 ppm, could just be hunger since they’re technically ~45 days flower.
Going to run 3.5, 2, 1 for the next batch of nutes.
Trichomes out on the edges are showing a bit amber on the left one. The second pic is a low effort macro stack from lefty. Still some clear near the main stems. Strong, pleasant generic fruity smell. Probably give it at least another week. @ReikoX I’d welcome your opinion maybe even some speculation if you’re up for it.
I don’t know what’s going on with the leaf tips on the right one. It may have gone a day or so with the airline blocked off but I doubt much if any harm came from it. I mix 12 gallons at a time and adjust down to 5.5 with sulfuric acid, within a couple days it’ll be above 6.
Lefty has clouded up. Smell has a hint of kerosene heater exhaust with a bit of melon fruit sweetness. It isn’t consuming as much, only topped up once with plain tap compared to the righty taking 3 during the same period.
Went to trim off a leaf and accidentally chopped off 4 of the biggest tops on the left one. The effects of the scissor hash are immediate and strong. Big time eyeballs in a hot tub feeling. I’ll let the lowers go another week since it’ll be their first exposure to direct light. Pair of Walkensteins on the light, if you were curious.
Day 84 from sprout. Lefty has been in jars for a week or so and yielded around 3.5 quarts. I reckon righty will yield about 1.5x more. Righty has been doing that dog clit thing with the buds, fox clitting, I think it’s called. I’m leaning towards the ppms being a bit too high for its liking in regard to the discoloration on the leaves.
Here’s a shot of some of the harvest above about to gum up my grinder again of the FAM 22’s from @ReikoX . Ended up with almost 8 full quarts from the 2 plants. Frosty.
Alright, going for some reproduction. Saw an auto on GLG listed with Sannie’s Jack crossed to Blue Dream and impulse purchased it along with some others. Dunked them around the 8th of Feb, first cracked in 24h, second within 48. Place in rockwool with a bit of worm doodoo. Best shot so far of not stunting them.
Let them grow their roots out for a few days to help with the stretch to the res. Here’s up to around day 18. The left one is the more Jack leaning one. I’d not been keeping an eye on the ph of the buckets and figured I was facing a calcium def. Finally checking the res, I noticed the ph was >6.5 in both of them. The right one didn’t seem to mind and I’m blaming it for not showing any signs and not my laziness.
Inspired by @LoveDaAutos , I chose a bottom branch on the Jack leaning one and brushed on some STS I mixed up following the directions he’d posted. Left one began flowering around 24 days. Right had preflowers near the main stalk but nothing on the tips until about day 34.
You can see the cotton left behind on the stalk from where I brushed on the STS with a cotton swab. The other parts of the plant that weren’t brushed with the sts aren’t showing any signs of male flowers. First treatment on the 5th of March, I brushed it on the leaves and stems. Second treatment on the 10th I noticed what I suspected to be male parts forming only brushed on the stems of the branch. On the 15th, I found myself on the highway to hermie town.
Here’s today, day ~38. Left is untreated and right is from the treated branch. Crazy how effective this shit is, I may have used 3ml between both treatments. I expect to see the male flowers to dump any day now. Not sure wtf I’m gonna do about controlling it, probably not.
I remember how excited I was the first time I reversed a plant and if I thought that was excitement wait till you start seeing the white pistils shrivel up and turn brown within a few hours of when you pollinate.
What is your plan for the pollen? You looking to try to make some unseeded flower and some seeds? Maybe just make S1s from the plant you reversed and let the other plant make flower for you?
Main plan is to increase the seeds for tossing about. Try to keep some unseeded bud from the reversed plant and pollinate the other shorter Jack’s Dream.
I feel like I may have underestimated treating the whole branch as it looks like I’m about to be covered. I may chop off several of the smaller reversed branches. I do want to save some pollen for later use, I’ve got a few more sativa leaning autos in the stash. I would like to have some sensi or as close to possible to judge from the two. But It won’t hurt my feelings if it gets everything, I’ve still got one original seed for sensi and potentially a shit ton of s1s.
So long as it don’t get these. Which would require a huge fuck up on my part but don’t underestimate my ability to do just that.
I suppose the right thing to do would be grow out a couple of the s1s before using the pollen on future stuff to see if it’s worth keeping. No idea really. Not even sure the correct terminology. The seeds from the reversed plant will be S1s? The seeds on the non reversed plant will be S1s as well? Then to be more specific I’d say JDa x JDa for the selfed and JDb x JDa for the non?
You know I honestly don’t know what you would call the progeny of the cross of the two auto plants. I would be thinking F1s? Yeah, you’ll find it is best to grow out and sample a strain before deciding if it’s worthwhile to reproduce. Now if you have growers/friends and you trust their judgement that’s another story and sure if they say it’s good then go for it and make a bunch of S1 seeds and crosses.
Man, that’s a beautiful tent full of buddage you’ve got there. Be real careful with that yellow dust it gets everywhere. If you’re collecting pollen and dusting by hand be sure to have all air movement shut off and walk slowly.
If it works out, I hope to get a few of these outside before the end of summer.
Thanks buddy. They made their first appearance in this thread many months ago as seedlings, lurking about in the last auto run. Up front are a pair of Sour Taxi Fems from @Budderton and in the back are a couple of Walkensteins (Skywalker x Frankenstein Fem) from @JohnnyPotseed. I’ll probably photo dump those at some point. Both have been easy going plants to grow despite my negligent veg. They’re about 45 days from flip after a 2 month veg.
