Ruth is 13 days old today. She is growing in 5 gallons of Fox Farm Ocean Forest medium because it was less expensive then Pro-Mix when I was buying medium last. Several months ago I purchased a bag of #3 perlite which is the large coarse variety and I believe it makes a difference with autos and I’m sure it would with photos also. More aeration, better moisture retention both help grow better plants. Ruth is on a diet right now of 3 grams of Mega Crop 1 part granular nutrients per gallon of water with a 2ml sip of Cal-Mag in said gallon of water. I water in a ring a couple inches wider then the footprint of the plant. A key thing I have learned about autos is that it’s better to give them a little bit too little water/nutrients then it is to feed them too much. As this plant grows I will be doing a modest amount of low stress training on her to help keep her opened up more then would naturally occur.
The goal with Ruth is to keep her healthy and use STS to reverse one of her lower branches, collect pollen from her and use that pollen to dust buds on a couple lower branches to make feminized S1 seeds. What I will be looking for is the side branching to start on the first node. I will select the healthiest of those two branches to treat with the STS. I would expect / hope this to begin around day 25 or so.
Please feel free to ask any questions about anything that we’ve talked about thus far if you didn’t understand something.