Grow #2: Zkittlez Auto

[Costanza]

Chopped and washed the top left lady today. Top right should be finished by the end of the week and the 2 in the front need some more time hopefully at the end of next week they'll be ready.

 

[Buzzzxx]

Those look beautiful! Congrats on your harvest!!

 

[Costanza]

Those look beautiful! Congrats on your harvest!!

Thanks Buzz, still have 3 more to go. I might have been a slight bit early on this one, but I have no smoke left and I refuse to pay 60 bucks for 3.5 grams of flower at the dispensary.

 

[Costanza]

Number 2 was taken down today. This was the tallest of the 4 and should have the largest yield.

 

[Costanza]

Next time I'm due for a phone upgrade I'm gonna have to get one with a decent camera. This Samsung galaxy takes the worst pictures. Plants 1 and 2 currently drying. Trying out this 6 tiered drying rack since plant 3 and 4 are still in the 4x4 and need a few more weeks I needed to change up my drying method.

 

[Costanza]

Well I was wrong on the timetable for the last 2, so I took them down today. Been checking trichomes all week and all are cloudy with some amber so I think this is all she wrote for this grow. After washing and hanging the 3rd and 4th plants I think I was wrong about the yield estimate, the smaller plants had much closer nodes and much fatter buds and after hanging them they might be heavier than the 2 taller ones. Shooting for 6 ounces from this grow and I think I went a little over. Buds smelled fantastic and after washing them the buckets of water smelled like berries. Gonna resist the urge to dip into this one before its finished curing. I set aside about 7 grams that I am going to stick in the oven on 175 F later this week and then press that into rosin to test it out. Currently researching what strains I want to grow next, open for any suggestions but leaning towards GG4, Blue Dream, and MK Ultra since I found a decent mix pack for them.

 

[Costanza]

I consolidated the buds into the top 3 layers and just washed and hung the 3rd and 4th. It took me forever and it was only 2 plants last night, I cant imagine what some of the growers deal with that have multiple large plants I only grew autos and it took me 3 hours to get them all ready for the rack. I put the rack into the 4x4 and I have the room controlled at 60f 60rh. Gonna try to do this slowly and not rush greatness. Speed dried some buds last night and pressed some rosin for a test and it tasted like death but the effects were fantastic and I cant wait to try some of these buds after they cure.

 

[Buzzzxx]

Tastes like deaath.....but feeeeels fantastic its....

Death fantastic!!!

I hear a new strain name coming soon. Yeah, I have been sampling my zkittles og tonight. Thumbs up

 

[Costanza]

Tastes like deaath.....but feeeeels fantastic its....

Death fantastic!!!

I hear a new strain name coming soon. Yeah, I have been sampling my zkittles og tonight. Thumbs up

you might have just come up with a great new strain name. I am currently in the process of attempting to start a small commercial grow co with a few friends in the finger lake region in NY . I might just have to use that name, don't worry I will send you some for free as a royalty fee.

 

[Buzzzxx]

That would rock! Best of luck with your future endeavors!!!

 

[Costanza]

That would rock! Best of luck with your future endeavors!!!

Thanks I'll be sure to keep you posted

 

[Buzzzxx]

The strains i really want to cross is mob (mother of all berries) with Alaskan thunder fuck.
It will be a real mother fucker.

 

[Costanza]

The strains i really want to cross is mob (mother of all berries) with Alaskan thunder fuck.
It will be a real mother fucker.

I meant to ask before, hows the drying and curing process going for the last batch? Its day 7, 8, and 9 for me in drying since I harvested one on tuesday, 1 on wednesday and the last 2 last Thursday. Took some of the 9 day stuff that was small popcorn buds and put them in the bottom of a brown paper bag for a day and hopefully its will make some less death tasting rosin this weekend. Looking like it could be a death fantastic weekend

 

[Buzzzxx]

I am two weeks into the cure. My second plant yielded just over 4 oz and the buds are medium dense. The kush smell is giving way to a more fruity bouquet. The test buds i have sampled start with a strong head euphoria that settles into a nice body tingle of relaxation. So far I am pleased

 

[Costanza]

I am two weeks into the cure. My second plant yielded just over 4 oz and the buds are medium dense. The kush smell is giving way to a more fruity bouquet. The test buds i have sampled start with a strong head euphoria that settles into a nice body tingle of relaxation. So far I am pleased

Yeah the death tasting rosin last week had that same effect, good head buzz right away and then a little bit of couch lock

 

[Costanza]

@Jon here ya go. like I said it went great until it started flowering and then leaves all turned pale yellow and it just seemed off. My neighbor @Hazydayz1 is currently growing the same seeds and is doing a much better job than I did.

 

[Jon]

I fed them 5 days early and that was last Monday and I havent really seen much improvement. I think the big mistake I made was flushing at the flower transition, it may have washed all the nutrients out of the soil. This is my first organic grow and until that flush everything was watered a good amount but with no runoff. Just makes me mad because everything was going so well, but now I know what not to do on the next one. Growing pains lol

Hey @Costanza - so based on your comment in the other thread I was checking out the Zkittlez journal and got this far. I thought this was the appropriate spot to share one nugget I have learned about growing organic in soil....

I never flush organic.
I rarely water to more than a 1/4 inch of runoff

Exactly for the reason you're musing on here. There's not enough window time with autos to wash all the microbes out and start over. Not that you can really wash all the microbes out, but you see what I mean. I don't take the chance on "diluting my soil of nutrients" by flushing. Unlike liquid nutes like Fox Farms, when you reapply a new feeding after a flush of the microbe rich nutes, they still take a few days to multiply and inhabit the entire pot, and begin to work as they're supposed to. So with photos - fine. Not autos. The only reason to flush, ever, with soil is to eliminate salt buildup. That's it. With organic, at least I have found, there isn't any. I have worked my Sohum soil plants (all autos so far except the Slurricane in the photoperiod tent journal), as well as the photos in flower that live outdoors but are getting @GeoFlora Nutrients, basically anything organic, in the same way and following those two "maxims." I might make one exception if I had been using a ton of molasses in flower for weeks on a plant, which I do sometimes, and do a one time 7 or 8 gallon flush for a five - like a pot and half's worth of water. But I would only do that if the plant started showing me signs of a problem, and a ton of molasses, in my experience at least, can sometimes give you that. If you flush at the very end one time it wouldn't affect anything, and I suppose another exception would be if you're crazy like me and are doing things like adding chemical nutes in flower to boost otherwise organic plants. If you do that stuff, as I do, then you might consider a flush at the end. Just my two cents on this.

Here's a couple other things I do relative to using Geo nutes for you to toss around your brain if you like that might help you with Geo nutes. As you know the prescribed schedule is to feed one cup (for a ten gallon container) every two weeks. I adjusted the schedule in two very small ways, and have taken to doing a few other thing that seem to work really well.

1. I feed every 13 days, not 14. Small upwards adjustment.
2. I'm in 7s, so I should be giving 70% of a cup with each feeding. I give 3/4, ie 75%. Small upwards adjustment.
3. I add to the Geo nutes a "bud boost" I kinda made up in the first couple weeks after they begin to show actual buds. My current Raspberry Parfait got this treatment the other day with her second Bloom nute application - it's outlined in my outdoor journal if you wanna check it out. I haven't had an issue on a single plant with this extra nute bump yet. I also have yet to see a blemish at any point on any plant that got this treatment.
4. I consistently give the plants sugar in bud. Once they have formed actual buds, maybe three-four weeks into flower, I start with a tbsp. of Terpinator and a tbsp. of molasses per gallon of water with each nute feeding. Generally I don't have to water this plant, nature does, but I do when I feed cuz duh, you just top dressed/amended, right?

All of this post are things I do that seem to be keeping me from developing the (what looks to me like) yellowing and stunted growth from underfeeding that could have been what happened here. Consistently yellow leaves like that often mean the plant is out of nutes and has begun to feed on itself, drawing the nutes out of the lower leaves first. It could have been underfed for a while. It also appears that affected your density, as I'm sure you expected and should have denser buds, yes? Or am I wrong?

I did to my first try at Pineapple Express exactly what you did to these plants. The exact same thing happened. i put them outside to finish for the last three weeks, and kept them watered and upped the nutes, and they recovered a bit and still produced decent buds. With autos you can get away with that crap, so there's one idea if you can do it outdoors where you are to try and "save" an auto a little bit. The sun seems to have a rejuvenating effect on any auto I started in LED and moved outside for whatever reason.

Anyway, I ain't got much, but there's a little of what I do have you may find helpful.