Blue Dream Auto, Mexican Airlines Auto With Light Stress Training L.S.T.

[Listersmeghead]

Welcome.
Two more autos.
The mexican airlines will be making an appearance later, I'll be starting with the blue dream.

MONDAY 26th JULY.

Day : 1
Blue dream auto, aka bluedream'attic
Fast buds genetics.
Sativa : 75% Indica/ruderalis : 25%
THC : up to 22%
CBD : <1%
Flowering : 9-11 weeks
Flavours : cherry,berry,lemon,pine.

If you want to see how I prepared the 7 gallon pot
Post in thread 'Two autos' Two autos

How I germinate seeds
Post in thread 'Two autos' Two autos
That should bring you back here.

I like to plant into a pre-soaked pot charged with mychorhizea, this means the seedling will not require watering untill the pot dries out, this can take up to 14 days. I like to do as little as possible in the first 2 weeks of an autos life.
The seedling was put under a 2foot 4 bulb t5 florescent light. About 5" above the seedling for the first couple of days, then lowering it down to just 2" above the plant top, pretty much wearing the light like a hat. Raising the light as it grows.

Tent #1 (I'll put up a second tent in September time)
80cm×80×160
LIGHTS: starting with 96w t5 florescent unit. Will be using LED further along, selection of.
2× spider farmer sf1000 100w
Ts1000,ts600.

MONDAY 2nd August
Blue dream
Day : 7

Not alot happening, just raising the light as it grows keeping it just 2" above.
No water given yet.

SUNDAY 8th August.
Blue dream
Day : 13

The pot has dried out and is ready for it's first water/feeding.
I use city tap water that isn't great, it's hard water with a ppm(500) of ~250, 0.5 ec out of the tap . So that is already added to the final amount of feed.

I started with 6 litres of water that had been sitting out for 24hours.
Added:
1 teaspoon of mychorhizea dissolved into the water.
Silica : 0.25ml per litre.
Plant magic soil grow (hard water) : topped up to 500ppm , 1.0 ec.

Starting water 250ppm/0.5 ec
Feed total 500ppm/1.o ec
So I've added 250ppm/o.5 ec of food to the tap water.

Gave the plant 2 litres in total, in a circle just bigger than the plant diameter.
Starting L.S.T training in the next few days.

 

[Listersmeghead]

Tuesday 10th August.
Blue dream auto
Day : 15

L.S.T
Light stress training.
Having a small space to grow in I like to train the plants to spread them out, making the most of limited space. The main way of doing this is stopping the main stems apical dominance, then allowing lower shoots to accelerate growth. There's a few ways of doing this : topping, fimming and LST are the main ways.
I've topped and trained autos in the past and works brilliantly, But over the past year I've settled on lst. It feels to me as though you can keep the progression going smooth like a wave

With LST the apical dominance is broken by bending the main stem over, keeping it lower than the other lower shoots. The plant then sends out a chemical to the other shoots telling them there is no main stem and they should go for it, reach for the sky, become dominant. You then keep managing the plant so all branches try for this dominance without letting any fully achieve it. It's important however to always keep the original main stem lower than the rest.
I usually start LST when the 5th node has fully appeared and the plant is working on the sixth. The blue dreams stem was quite thick, so I started on the fourth node this time before the stem became to strong to bend.
I use plastic covered garden wire as pins.

I start with an M shape for the base pin to hold the stem upright at the soil level. This stops force being applied to the roots when you bend the plant over and trying to pull the plant from the ground, a brace.

Then I use a long pin to hold the bend.

I use a long pin to hold this first bend as if you use a short pin the plant can pull it from the ground, stand back up and laugh at you.

gently bend the plant over, I use my thumb and forefinger to suggest, pin it at a full showing node with a further node past the pin. This is to stop the top mode flicking/springing back out, standing back up and laughing at you.

Some people use straps to tie to the outside of the pot to achieve this, but I prefer pins in a large pot.
It will take a few days for the lower nodes to get going, until then it looks like a clump of leaves or a confused cabbage.

Thursday 12th August
Blue dream
Day: 17

When you've pinned the main stem down it imediatley grows back up to the light, to regain dominance. I pin down each full node as it grows to stop this and carry on pining each node horizontally to the edge of the pot.
I find it easier to do each node as the new growth us pliable. If you leave it to grow more nodes then pin it the growth can get to rigid, form a swan neck shape causing a pressure point for a snap stem. So I pin each fully grown node.

 

[Listersmeghead]

My old amnesia auto skeleton for example.

One of the pins is missing but this shows being pinned on nodes 5,6,7 and 8 , to keep that main stem lower than the side shoots. All the way horizontally to the outside of the pot where it then can be tied.

(Old Orange sherbet skeleton )

 

[VetSmoke85]

Nice! I'm in mate

 

[Listersmeghead]

Nice! I'm in mate

Cheers vet, thanks for popping in.
Always a pleasure.

 

[Listersmeghead]

Friday 13th August
Day : 1
MEXICAN AIRLINES AUTO.

Fast buds genetics : Colombian x Mexican
Sativa : 65% indica/ ruderalis 35%
THC : up to 19%
CBD : <1%
Flowering : 10 weeks
Flavours : lemon,Pine,fruits,earthy.

With the arrival of the Mexican , it's all change in the tent.

The mexican airlines will now have the t5 florescent light. Couple of days at 5" , then dropped to 2".
The blue dream is now under a sf 1000 ,100w LED board.

 

[Listersmeghead]

Saturday 14th August
Blue dream
Day : 19

Second water/feed.
It's been 6 days since the last. It's still looking like a confused cabbage.

6 litres of tap water left to sit for 24 hours.
Added :
1 teaspoon of mychorhizea dissolved in the tap water.
Silica : 0.25ml per litre.
Plant magic soil grow (hard water) : topped up to 600ppm/ 1.2 ec.
Ph to 6.3
Given 4 litres in a circle just bigger than the plant diameter.

Also pinned the 6th node.

That's now the 4th,5th and sixth node pinned down.

 

[Rexer]

Love the training tips! Count me in

 

[Listersmeghead]

Love the training tips! Count me in

Hiya rexer, thanks buddy.
A joy to have you stop by.

 

[stinker]

Looks great. I'm in.

 

[Listersmeghead]

Looks great. I'm in.

Thanks stinker.
Great to see ya.

Would be cool to share a smoke of your banger with you,it looks awesome.

 

[stinker]

Thanks stinker.
Great to see ya.

Would be cool to share a smoke of your banger with you,it looks awesome.

 

[Nev]

You know I enjoy a good LST auto grow. I’ll keep an eye around here.

 

[stinker]

That would be cool.

 

[Nev]

Try some of this one.

 

[Listersmeghead]

Try some of this one.

Don't mind if I do Nev, thank you.
Great to have you here.

some amnesia in return.

 

[Roy Growin]

I don't do LST apart from the obviously necessary, so interesting to read your thinking behind it
Nice post Lister, I'll be following this with interest, cheers

 

[Listersmeghead]

I don't do LST apart from the obviously necessary, so interesting to read your thinking behind it
Nice post Lister, I'll be following this with interest, cheers

welcome along growings, I appreciate you taking the interest.
For many years i ran mother plants for clones, flowering them SOG in hydro. I've really taken to sculpting autos lately, it feels like a hobby again.
I got the fundamentals on lst from a great thread by @InTheShed.

Great to have you here bud.

 

[Chucklesmoke]

My old amnesia auto skeleton for example.

One of the pins is missing but this shows being pinned on nodes 5,6,7 and 8 , to keep that main stem lower than the side shoots. All the way horizontally to the outside of the pot where it then can be tied.

(Old Orange sherbet skeleton )

 

[Chucklesmoke]

In for sure! I've had great luck topping, but I love the LST! I had no clue you could start training so early! Keep it up!