At Week 16 (9 since flip), the first two plants to be chopped (Mystery Bean and then Pound Cake) have been hanging to dry. Mystery Bean is thoroughly dry, and Pound Cake is close enough. So they get trimmed and put into Mason jars for curing.
Mystery Bean grew to 4 feet tall with a bunch of golfball-sized buds. She smells like a combination of cedar/pine, and something more chemical that’s hard to describe. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take her as far as she may have wanted to grow. If she had stayed healthy and green, and faded more naturally, she probably would have benefited from another week, at least. She’s got plenty of frost, but no amber trichomes. I suspect she’ll be a bit racy. Here’s her contribution:
Pound Cake was the little darling of the bunch. Her scent is suprisingly garlic-like. With a name like Pound Cake, I was expecting something sweeter. She’s got sticky, dense buds and enough frosting on her sugar leaves that I opted to trim her sparingly. The buds aren’t huge, and there aren’t oodles of them. But, considering how easy she was to grow, and how readily she went into flower without any prompting, I’m satisfied with her output. Her contribution got added to MysteryBud’s for this photo.
Together, they filled up two Mason jars a little fuller than I’d normally fill jars for curing. But the Mystery Bud is over-dry, and the Pound Cake is just dry enough. So I want them to work together to balance out each other’s low/high humidity. The plan, eventually, is to put most of this batch into tincture. I’ll save very little of each for smoking. Here’s a photo of the combination:
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At Week 17 (10 since flip), the two Bessie Cakes got chopped and hung to dry. All of these plants dried more quickly than any of the batches I’ve grown during my “normal” grow season, which has the plants getting harvested during winter. These were subjected to more heat, and to humidity that I did not attempt to manipulate. I’ve been able to maintain 60 degrees and 60% humidity when drying in my grow closet. But these were hung in a different closet since the grow closet was busy. The only buds that seem to have suffered from that difference were the MysteryBud. …Always the odd girl out, she was like the red-headed stepchild of this grow.
BessieCake #1 ended up about half-way, in size, between PoundCake and BessieCake#2. Her soil was fortified with a layer of fish emulsion that Bessie #2 did not get. Also, her 3-gallon pot had air holes melted into its side. So I’m a little surprised she was not the larger of the two Bessie Cakes. Nonetheless, she appeared to be perfectly content with her grow environment.
Imagine my surprise, then, to discover that – while her top half was generating very sticky buds – her lower extremes were turned into a seed factory!
I hadn’t done any training on any of these auto-flower plants, aside from removing a few fan leaves periodically, to open the lower branches up to more light. But it was definitely tight quarters in my grow closet, with MysteryBean and BessieCake #2 both stretching to the point where their side branches wanted support. I guess BessieCake #1 felt slighted, and decided she’d better “switch teams” on her lower extremes!
After picking through all the buds to remove seeds, I ended up with a full jar of very sticky, fragrant but not very photogenic and seriously gender-confused bud from Bessie Cake #1.
…Which leaves the best for last. Bessie Cake #2 decided she wanted to compete with MysteryBud in the contest for space. She ended up needing support because she got a bit awkward during her growth spurt. She was a late bloomer, or reluctant to auto-flower, anyway. She didn’t start to flower until after I changed to a 12:12 light schedule. But like the ugly duckling, she grew into her frame. Her buds are on a par with those from Pound Cake in terms of fragrance and stickiness. But there are more of them.
So, my first experience growing auto-flowers was a mixed bag. They were generally easy to grow, and seemed happy with the soil and amendments I used. There were a few factors working against them, such as the extraordinary late spring heat and humidity that Virginia has summoned this year. That, and the competition from a photo-period interloper in the form of MysteryBean taking up light and space in their environment.
I figured the auto-flowers would finish up quickly enough that I could sneak in a grow during the off season. These ended up taking just as long as photo-periods. (“Your mileage may vary.”) But, over all, it was a worthwhile attempt. (Maybe I should wait until all this weed has cured, and I have a smoke report…?)
My preference for growing photo period plants may stem from the fact that each of my photo-period grows have been done from late-summer through early-winter, which affords a better opportunity to control the environment. It’s definitely easier to ~add~ heat to a grow space than it is to take it away!
