Green Knight - Hydro CFL - Auto Bomb - First Grow Journal

[donpaul.p]

no worries, it could go a while before the trichs start turning, the buds will fill out more towards the end of flowering and fox tailing might happen, but this just means the buds get fatter and fatter, the plant will keep putting on weight to try and attract pollen, so it keeps on growing as long as it can just to try and re-produce

 

[Green Knight]

Is it me or are there not enough reps available for DP?

Yeah, I'm not allowed to give any more until I spread some around a bit. They should up the limits a bit I reckon. That or I'm going to have to just stop being so tight and tart myself out a bit more!

 

[Green Knight]

DP, it's part of the reason my lack of knowledge frustrates me, that I can't really help others very much. Thank you for being you.

Won't take long though mate; like dp says you learn a huge amount very fast with each grow, and this really is a great site, you pick up so much information, ideas and advice. And everyone's so helpful and friendly, no trolls. Very pleased I found it.

 

[Green Knight]

No sign of any amber yet so she's going to keep getting the nutes for the time being. Day 55 (10 days from seed company's recommendation - I think she'll take longer)

 

[donpaul.p]

looking great, id say just by looking at them that you have got at least 2 weeks or more before the flush, most of the pistils will turn brown and shrink back onto the buds, so id say your looking at around 2 weeks, they should put on more weight during this time as well as they fatten up quicker towards the end

 

[grogreen]

Damn GK, them girls are looking sexy! You should get a great harvest off them! + reps

 

[Green Knight]

looking great, id say just by looking at them that you have got at least 2 weeks or more before the flush, most of the pistils will turn brown and shrink back onto the buds, so id say your looking at around 2 weeks, they should put on more weight during this time as well as they fatten up quicker towards the end

Thanks mate, that's good to know. Looking at them closely the calyxes are just starting to swell and show through but there are a lot more still to swell so I think you're probably spot on with the timing - definitely a few weeks left. Which is good in some ways 'cos the buds will just get bigger, but also really annoying 'cos I want to smoke it!!

I think I probably added the pk13/14 a bit too early as I was working to day 65 (it says to add 3 weeks before harvest) but I think now might actually be the time to add it.

 

[Green Knight]

Damn GK, them girls are looking sexy! You should get a great harvest off them! + reps

Thanks Grogreen. I think I might get a bit more than I was expecting because they've still got a fair way to go it seems. I'm getting inpatient though!!

 

[Green Knight]

And thank you for the reps mate- always very much appreciated!

 

[grogreen]

updates!

 

[ajagunle]

The final run home begun Lovely young Ladies

 

[Green Knight]

updates!

Sorry, been a bit rubbish - mental busy with work (17h day today - boooo!) Just got home, just in time before lights switch off and checked on her. Buds are swelling nicely and starting to look really tasty, but still no sign of any amber so she's staying on nutes for the moment - will start the flush at first sign of amber trichs which looking at how the buds are progressing i'm thinking must be in the next week or so. I'll post some more photos tomorrow (or at the latest Friday!!)

 

[NotDeadYet]

Green Knight your Auto Bomb is looking awesome!!! I can only hope mine comes out as nice as yours.

I just ordered some auto bomb GHS from SoS and will be growing in an ebb & flow system with 2 105w CFLs. 1 65k 1 27k. This will be my first experience with autos. But I'm kind of iffy on trying them because I really don't want to kill one. I heard from a few people that autos don't like strong nutes and that I should use 1/4 strength didn't get an answer beyond that. Could I use the lucas formula (GH Flora) I've been using on other grows or should I use what it says on the bottle for cutting and seedlings? Any help would be awesome as I really would hate to fail on an auto when I know I can grow others strains perfectly.

ooo 1 more question. Is she putting off a strong smell?
Thanks in advance.

 

[donpaul.p]

hi, i have grown several autos and am experimenting with breeding autos to get a good auto that grows quick and yields loads, so ive been growing a few autos and crossing them with none autos,

ive also grown the auto bomb and it was some of the nicest tasting bud i have ever had, it had a really tangy taste, loved every bit of it, it was just a shame that it did not yield we at all, id say 20g dry.

some info on autos, you are right they do prefer weak nutes, how ever you can keep upping the dose till you get to full strength. so always start at 1/4 of what it says for seedling stage, all the autos ive grown so far start flowering at week 2 and they dont get much bigger after that, but im growing in soil so dwc or hydro would be quicker and possibly grow them a bit bigger, this is why im crossing autos with none autos that yield and grow well, so far its going ok and get some of the resulting seeds growing, problem is if you cross an auto with a none auto then only 1/4 of the seeds will turn out auto, so then i need to get the strongest male and female thats auto and cross them to get 100% auto seeds.

anyways back to the growth of autos, 1/4 strength nutes is a must, then up it slowly, i did this and managed to go full strength but im not sure if this was the best thing to do, an auto is a ruderalis cross with an indica, now the ruderalis grows in harsh climates, sometimes hot and sometimes freezing cold, so their pretty hardy, they also grow in crappy soil, so this is why they dont like nutes,
so weak nutes to start off with, use veg feed nutes till the plant shows sex, when it shows sex its starting to flower and will flower from that day onwards, i would not do any training as it stunts growth, the only thing id do is remove a few leaves towards the end of flowering to focus the growth on the buds.

i was told they prefer a moist soil which should not dry out to much, i have not tested this theory to much, but letting it dry out did stop growth, im also going to be testing the correct temps for these as ruderalis grows in cool climates as well as hot climates.
as their autos they dont flower due to light schedule, they flower due to age, so you can pretty much use any lighting schedule you like, i was told to go 24-0 as it would not start flowering till it got 1 night of dark, this was wrong info and even under 24-0 it still started to flower at week 2,

so start with 1/4 strength nutes and slowly work it up, use veg nutes till its starts to flower, i have grown autos under 24-0 and 20-4 and it made little difference in the results, but id say its best to give them some night time, so something like 20-4 or 18-6 would be the best option, id go with the 20-4 but its totally up to you as i have not tested enough plants and enough schedules to find out which works best.

as for the nutes your using i cant help with, ive not used them, but if the lucas formula gives different amounts for different stages of growth then go by what it says and just use a 1/4 of what it tells you to use, then you can see how the plant reacts to it, i dont think you will have nute burn at 1/4 strength, i have not had nute burn and start at 1/4 strength then i slowly up the dose and they can then take full strength, the problem is are we slowing growth by giving them to much nutes, their hardy plants and survive on very little in the wild, so im not sure whats best at this stage, till i have grown more autos and done more testing it would be to hard to say what is right and wrong

 

[iSmokes]

Green Knight your Auto Bomb is looking awesome!!! I can only hope mine comes out as nice as yours.

I just ordered some auto bomb GHS from SoS and will be growing in an ebb & flow system with 2 105w CFLs. 1 65k 1 27k. This will be my first experience with autos. But I'm kind of iffy on trying them because I really don't want to kill one. I heard from a few people that autos don't like strong nutes and that I should use 1/4 strength didn't get an answer beyond that. Could I use the lucas formula (GH Flora) I've been using on other grows or should I use what it says on the bottle for cutting and seedlings? Any help would be awesome as I really would hate to fail on an auto when I know I can grow others strains perfectly.

ooo 1 more question. Is she putting off a strong smell?
Thanks in advance.

Just take it easy with the nutes and work your way up. If you've grown regular strains then I'm sure you'll notice the under/over feeding signs on a plant. Autos are not shy, they'll let you know if they're not happy within hours.

 

[Green Knight]

Werlcome NotDead; cheers for the compliments mate.

I'm not familiar with the lucas formula (I'll have to look it up and have a read!) but all I would say is that yes, they are sensitive to nutes! My Auto Bomb is from Bomb Seeds so may be a little different genetically to yours, but what I've found is that she doesn't really like a high EC at all. I banged it up a bit quick when she was a seedling (to 1.5) and it was too much (even whilst the recommended alevel on the Canna "Light" feed schedule, not even the "Normal"!).
Whilst she's small I based on my experience I wouldn't recommend going above an EC of 1 - 1.1 (I was running at 1.3 for a bit and retrospectively I think even this was a bit high). As she's got bigger I've gone to 1.2 and basically held it there. I've very much judged it by how quickly the ECD rises after a nute change, based on something I read on another thread:

If the EC drops, plant using nutes more than water, increase the nutes.
If EC rises, plant using water more than nutes, lower the nutes.
If EC stays the same, plant using nutes and water at the same rate.

I've found with an EC of 1.2 the EC does increase slowly (about 0.1 over 2-3 days) but nothing drastic, and the plant seems healthy and happy so I've basically held it there, just topping the res up with pH balanced water ever few days to bring it back down to 1.2. The exception was a couple of weeks ago when I added the PK13/14, set the EC to 1.2 and then on adding the PK it went to 1.5, where I held it for a week, without any noticeable adverse effects.

I could possibly have pushed her a bit harder when she got bigger, but I don't think it makes a huge difference, unlike it would with a regular photo - I think autos just do what they do and need a certain amount of nutes to allow them to do their thing, but they don't respond to forcing; too much is just too much, they don't adapt well.

Regarding the smell, she smells lovely but nothing ridiculous or overwhelming. If I'm honest she seems to smell a bit less now than she did four or so weeks ago, but that might just be my imagination, and my extraction is quite a lot for the cupboard size so the air doesn't get much chance to hang around before going through the carbon filter.

 

[Green Knight]

Day 60 Update (5 days off seed co's recommendation... I'm thinking she'll go 70-75). No amber, but the majority of trichs are now cloudy and the pistils are starting to turn orange faster than new white ones appear so not long now I'm sure. The calyxes are starting to swell and the buds look a lot more...well, buddy.

Some extra photos for grogreen's benefit, after nagging me to get my arse in gear after being a bit slack on the updates!!

 

[Green Knight]

Can't wait til the next one though and when I can strip the shit out of her.... too many leaves on this, but I've been very restrained because she's an auto!

 

[NotDeadYet]

Thanks for the info guy! I will keep all that in mind. I have a few other autos coming with my order 1 Auto NL, 1 Auto Jack and 1 Auto THC Bomb. So I'm going to start with the auto bomb because I ordered 10 of those. I figure I have some room to learn before I try with the others. As for the Lucas formula it's...

G-M-B (Flora Grow-Flora Micro-Flora Bloom)
0-5-10 - For Vegetative cycle (18/6)
0-8-16 - For Flowering cycle (12/12)

Calculated EC/TDS levels:

EC microsiemen:
0-4-8: 946 µS
0-5-10: 1184 µS
0-8-16: 1894 µS

TDS @ 0.5 conversion:
0-4-8 = 473 ppm
0-5-10 = 592 ppm
0-8-16 = 947 ppm

TDS @ 0.7 conversion:
0-4-8 = 663 ppm
0-5-10 = 829 ppm
0-8-16 = 1326 ppm

I pulled that from the Lucas formula website. But that is mainly what I use on my ladies and they have all seemed to love it. I've had some nice yields (under cfls) with this system. But on the other hand I've never grown in soil, always in hydro. So I'm not to sure this would work with a soil grow.

As soon as I get my beans and start them I'll open a journal to give you guys/gals a look at my setup. It's not the best but it's cheap, stable and it gets the job done right everytime.

Can wait to see how Your Auto bomb turns out.

 

[iSmokes]

Looks delicious GK!