First Indoor Grow, WW & NL Autos

[TalentedTen]

Since I'm 1-2 days away from NL Wendy harvest, I'm finishing up my "What Did I Do Wrong In This Grow" journal, which I'll post later this week. Most, if not ALL of my mistakes, I've included in my day-by-day grow progress. That said, I'll distill it out in my "What Did I Do Wrong In This Grow" journal.

 

[TalentedTen]

August 28: Day 85. I was hoping today or tomorrow would be the harvest day. No such luck. Still a way to go. Lights at 17”, still 24/7.

August 29: Day 86. Trichomes are looking better than ever. Watered with 1.25 gallons of pH 6.6.

August 30: Day 87. Plugging along... endlessly it seems.

August 31: Day 88. Can't believe Wendy's hasn't finished yet – this is a long, long grow for an auto-flower.

September 1: Day 89. Watered w/1.5 gallon pH 6.7. Wendy's just about there.

September 2: Day 90. Harvest tomorrow.

September 3: Northern Lights Wendy is finally finished. It was worth the wait. She kept shooting out more new pistils and her trichomes weren't where they needed to be for harvest, until now.

Wendy produced substantially more bud than White Widow Tessa did – not surprising as she was 3-4” taller and much, much bushier than Tessa. In a 3' X 3' X 6' tent, using Crop King Seeds, and my ViparSpectra PAR 700 LED (which is a great light), two White Widow auto-flowers would have sufficient space with out over-crowding each other. In that same 3' X 3' X 6' tent, two Crop King Seeds Northern Lights plants just don't have the required space without over-crowding each other – CKS NL auto-flowers just grow too tall and bushy for that size tent.

Below is a pretty representative, "all over" picture of Wendy that made it clear that today was the day to harvest... and further on are the pix of her drying. By Sunday, I should have the dry weight which I expect to be approximately 4.0 - 4.5 ounces.

Wendy - when she was finally ready.

Front side of dry rack.

Back side of dry rack.

Didn't bother photographing the popcorn buds. I'd guess their dry weight at >0.5 oz but <0.75 oz.

Total dry weight coming soon... likely Sunday.

White Widow Tessa, while still curing since she was placed in jars on August 25th, is a smooth and powerful smoke. Can't wait to try NL Wendy in a few weeks. I think she was harvested at just the right time.

 

[Pennywise]

Congrats on a great harvest, that should keep you in meds for awhile!

 

[Poparo]

Wow can't wait to see the wieght nl gives you great grow Journal and great job on the ladies. What are you planning on using next grow?

 

[Poparo]

Damn impressive cola's

 

[TalentedTen]

Congrats on a great harvest, that should keep you in meds for awhile!

Thanks Pennywise... not just for this post but your support. Appreciated! Stay tuned... dry weight is coming late this weekend. All in all, I might have a half pound in the jars when all is dried and curing... from two auto-flowers. Not the greatest yield, but not bad.

 

[TalentedTen]

Wow can't wait to see the wieght nl gives you great grow Journal and great job on the ladies. What are you planning on using next grow?

I won't know for a while Poparo. Crop King Seeds auto White Widow is a really nice, powerful smoke and she grows small. CKS Northern Lights auto takes longer, but produces a significantly larger yield. I'm leaning toward a single Crop King Seeds Northern Lights grow but can't say for sure until I "sample" her smoke.

 

[Pennywise]

1/4 pound per auto isn't shabby, good job.

 

[TalentedTen]

1/4 pound per auto isn't shabby, good job.

I like autos. They're fast, simple (if you regulate the plant within known auto-flower parameters) and produce as nice an effect as a photo-period plant. If grown under ultimate situations, an auto-flower yield can be spectacular... 9 ounces in one auto-flower I'm aware of.

 

[Pennywise]

I find you just have to get them off to a good start for them to produce big.

 

[TalentedTen]

I find you just have to get them off to a good start for them to produce big.

I think you're right. I made a lot of mistakes, but still was able to gain what I think will be ~ 4.5 ounces from this grow alone. Done properly, using my equipment, I think I could have obtained 5.0 - 5.5 ounces from CKS Northern Lights.

 

[TalentedTen]

Smaller buds were sufficiently dry for being placed in jars for curing. Total weight was 54.2 grams... so just short of two ounces. Added to this are those buds that were harvested initially - weight of 10.7 gm. Total: 64.9 gm. These buds are already curing in jars.

The "large buds" are still not ready to go into jars quite yet. Likely tomorrow afternoon or Sunday.

Saturday (9/9/2018) will be two weeks into the curing process for White Widow Tessa yield.

I'll post the total weight / yield of this two plant Crop King Seeds auto-flower of White Widow and Northern Lights grow on Sunday. If I don't hit the half pound mark for these two plants, I'll be surprised... yet not disappointed. Having smoked a few partially cured White Widow Tessa buds, her yield has been great for my cervical and lumbar degenerative disk disease problems.

 

[TalentedTen]

Larger Wendy buds are dry. Dry weight was 78.6 grams and is added to her 64.9 grams of smaller buds which finished drying two days ago for a total of 143.5 grams.

Northern Lights Wendy was 5.06 ounces. I thought she could go as much as 4.5 ounces but was really surprised to see her tip the scale at just over 5 ounces.

White Widow Tessa was 3.25 ounces.

Total yield from both: 8.31 ounces.

Tessa is on the left, Wendy on the right.

I still have five Crop King Seeds auto Northern Lights and five CKS auto White Widow from my initial seed purchase. Using the same equipment, but adding a serious CO2 setup, I think I could increase another single auto Northern Lights grow by 30% to 6.5 ounces, even more with dedicated LST use, or a White Widow auto grow to 4+ ounces. I'll have to wait until both are cured and tested. WW Tessa is a really nice, powerful smoke, gotta say. A NL auto grow will be a single plant (as it grew so bushy) but given my tent size and lights, an auto White Widow could be a two plant grow. The post cure "smoke test" will decide which comes first.

Anyway, its been a fun grow and a great learning experience for my first time growing auto flowers indoors.

Happy growing people.

 

[Poparo]

Wow really great job very impressed, and thanks for explaining everything you have done and what your looking forward to doing, helped me out my tent is 2x4x6 so I was looking at growing NL or WW, after watching your grow and learning from you and others Journals I am thinking 2 WW, then 1 NL grow so it can use the whole tent.

 

[Poparo]

Larger Wendy buds are dry. Dry weight was 78.6 grams and is added to her 64.9 grams of smaller buds which finished drying two days ago for a total of 143.5 grams.

Northern Lights Wendy was 5.06 ounces. I thought she could go as much as 4.5 ounces but was really surprised to see her tip the scale at just over 5 ounces.

White Widow Tessa was 3.25 ounces.

Total yield from both: 8.31 ounces.

Tessa is on the left, Wendy on the right.

I still have five Crop King Seeds auto Northern Lights and five CKS auto White Widow from my initial seed purchase. Using the same equipment, but adding a serious CO2 setup, I think I could increase another single auto Northern Lights grow by 30% to 6.5 ounces, even more with dedicated LST use, or a White Widow auto grow to 4+ ounces. I'll have to wait until both are cured and tested. WW Tessa is a really nice, powerful smoke, gotta say. A NL auto grow will be a single plant (as it grew so bushy) but given my tent size and lights, an auto White Widow could be a two plant grow. The post cure "smoke test" will decide which comes first.

Anyway, its been a fun grow and a great learning experience for my first time growing auto flowers indoors.

Happy growing people.

but adding a serious CO2 setup, I think I could increase another single auto Northern Lights grow by 30% to 6.5 ounces, why do you think that, just wondering did I miss something? When you say serious co2 what did you use before and what are you looking to get?

 

[TalentedTen]

Wow really great job very impressed, and thanks for explaining everything you have done and what your looking forward to doing, helped me out my tent is 2x4x6 so I was looking at growing NL or WW, after watching your grow and learning from you and others Journals I am thinking 2 WW, then 1 NL grow so it can use the whole tent.

Thanks for the kind words Poparo. This was really a fun grow and a great learning experience for my first indoor grow and first auto-flower. I'm pleased with the Crop King Seeds WW yield but really happy with the yield from CKS NL. I thought 4, or even 4.5 ounces, were possible... but I was shocked when she went 5 ounces. I think CKS auto WW will reliably produce 3+ ounces in 78-85 days but to maximize yield it really needs to be LST'ed throughout the grow. CKS auto WW is STRONG herb, so maximize it's yield.

As far as your planned grow is concerned, I think your plan is right on the money... in tents of our similar size, two WW would be perfect in one grow, or a single NL. My CKS NL just really grew so bushy that in tents of our size, two NLs would be fighting for light while one would be perfect in your 48 square foot tent.

 

[TalentedTen]

but adding a serious CO2 setup, I think I could increase another single auto Northern Lights grow by 30% to 6.5 ounces, why do you think that, just wondering did I miss something? When you say serious co2 what did you use before and what are you looking to get?

Just gonna answer point by point <I hate it when a poster question isn't answered.>

I used CO2 mats... and I think I gave them more props than their use warranted. Late in my grow, I bought a CO2 monitor and after running a test, I found the mats didn't add much CO2 to the tent.

Adding CO2 provides an enhanced amount of "food source" for the plant... CO2. It also allows the plant to handle significantly higher temperatures, 85-95 degrees F, which might allow for the use of HPS lights, producing higher yields. That said, I'm not going to use HPS lights... I don't want the heat or the jacked up electricity bills. I'm actually very pleased with my LED set-up, simple and basic as it is.

Plants can only utilize CO2 when under light, great if you use auto-flowering strains, which can be under light 24/7. I personally like auto-flowers and I'm sticking with them for all future grows. I've smoked weed from dispensary photo-period plants and from auto-flowers and I just don't find any significant difference between the two.

The down side of CO2 is that it limits your fan set-up. My carbon filter, for a lot of reasons, was set up outside my tent. I was pulling air-conditioned room air into, and through, the tent, and out to the carbon scrubber.... so adding CO2 to the tent, only to have it sucked out moments later, is pointless.

As far as enhanced growth due to the addition of CO2, I read a detailed study that claimed a 30% increase in yield with the use of CO2 but can't find that link to support my claim... so... I included a link to Nebula Haze's experience with CO2. She administers the GrowWeedEasy website (which is a great educational site and was my "Bible" in my grow) and she reports a 20% increase in plant growth by increasing CO2 to 1250-1500 ppm. How to Use CO2 to Increase Cannabis Yields! | Grow Weed Easy

As far as the CO2 system I'd use in future... still researching. It would be a computer regulated, large cylinder tank type system but this is pretty spendy... possibly more than I'm willing to pay.

Hope this helps Poparo.

 

[Poparo]

Just gonna answer point by point <I hate it when a poster question isn't answered.>

I used CO2 mats... and I think I gave them more props than their use warranted. Late in my grow, I bought a CO2 monitor and after running a test, I found the mats didn't add much CO2 to the tent.

Adding CO2 provides an enhanced amount of "food source" for the plant... CO2. It also allows the plant to handle significantly higher temperatures, 85-95 degrees F, which might allow for the use of HPS lights, producing higher yields. That said, I'm not going to use HPS lights... I don't want the heat or the jacked up electricity bills. I'm actually very pleased with my LED set-up, simple and basic as it is.

Plants can only utilize CO2 when under light, great if you use auto-flowering strains, which can be under light 24/7. I personally like auto-flowers and I'm sticking with them for all future grows. I've smoked weed from dispensary photo-period plants and from auto-flowers and I just don't find any significant difference between the two.

The down side of CO2 is that it limits your fan set-up. My carbon filter, for a lot of reasons, was set up outside my tent. I was pulling air-conditioned room air into, and through, the tent, and out to the carbon scrubber.... so adding CO2 to the tent, only to have it sucked out moments later, is pointless.

As far as enhanced growth due to the addition of CO2, I read a detailed study that claimed a 30% increase in yield with the use of CO2 but can't find that link to support my claim... so... I included a link to Nebula Haze's experience with CO2. She administers the GrowWeedEasy website (which is a great educational site and was my "Bible" in my grow) and she reports a 20% increase in plant growth by increasing CO2 to 1250-1500 ppm. How to Use CO2 to Increase Cannabis Yields! | Grow Weed Easy

As far as the CO2 system I'd use in future... still researching. It would be a computer regulated, large cylinder tank type system but this is pretty spendy... possibly more than I'm will to pay.

Hope this helps Poparo.

Yes thank you for the update and information and I use that website all the time thank you again.

 

[TalentedTen]

GrowWeedEasy is a great source of information.

 

[TalentedTen]

White Widow Tessa buds have been in the curing process since the end of August. They will continue to be cured, as I believe in long-term curing, for months to come, but over the course of the day, I gave her a serious "test".

Very smooth and very strong. The curing will continue for three months more, but I'll "sample her" from time to time.

My best description of the buzz is that two to three hits are similar to two percocet tablets, but without the "sleepiness" and "fogginess of fact" that say, Percocet, provides. You victims of Degenerative Disc Disease know what I mean.