Stonecrusher's Garage: Gorilla Cookies Auto And Purple Banana Punch Auto

[Stonecrusher]

For anyone here reading this, thanks for checking in on my first grow diary. After long deliberation I decided to make this an autoflower run. It should finish up just in time to sprout my outdoor seeds. I chose 2 Gorilla Cookies Autos from Fastbuds and they included a Banana Purple Punch Auto for the bonus seed. I was super happy to see the Banana purple punch since I had great luck with Banana Kush Autos last year.

Here are the details:
Strain/s: Fastbuds Gorilla Cookies Auto and Banana Purple Punch
Genetic Makeup: G.C. are 55% indica, B.P.P. are 75% indica
Pot/Bucket Size: 5 Gal fabric pots
Tent Size: 2'x4'
Grow Space: Cold 2 car garage in winter
How Many Plants: 3
Environment: Indoor
Stage: Full grow
Medium: Build A Soil Light with grow dots, possibly added coco (still in Solo cups) will update
Lights: Vipar Spectra LS 2500 200wat
Nutrients: Grow Dots
Room/Tent Temperature: 70-80°
Relative Humidity: 65%
Media/Res PH: NA
Pests: None
Watering: As needed, will update

 

[ThirdUncle]

Welcome to the 420 family , & good luck with your garden , great start ,nice seedlings , peace & take care

 

[OGpapa]

Nice garden @Stonecrusher

 

[Stonecrusher]

Hi
I wanted to show this because about half the time I start seeds they stretch like this. Any ideas how I can get them to grow just the right amount?
For background I planted seeds directly in soil, covered with humidity dome, and set my LED at about 200 PPFD under the dome. This is day 3 from germination.

 

[g-one-three]

Mind if I follow along? I'm currently in mid flower of my first grow journal and I am thinking of doing an auto grow next.

 

[Mayne]

bump them to 400 par

 

[Mayne]

cool, im at day 4 also. Banana punch auto/fastbuds.. JUST finished transplanting into bigger pots. we look exact the same, and my stems were just as long. I buried them 1 inch from the leafs.
400 par now. 24/7 light, (4500K cob)

Going to sit in if cool!
and good luck Bud

 

[Stonecrusher]

Mind if I follow along? I'm currently in mid flower of my first grow journal and I am thinking of doing an auto grow next.

Be my guest. Id appreciate any feedback g-one-three!

 

[Stonecrusher]

cool, im at day 4 also. Banana punch auto/fastbuds.. JUST finished transplanting into bigger pots. we look exact the same, and my stems were just as long. I buried them 1 inch from the leafs.
400 par now. 24/7 light, (4500K cob)

Going to sit in if cool!
and good luck Bud

I bumped it up to 300 PAR overnight and the leaves seem to be getting bigger. Any reason you uppotted day 4? I was planning to wait until day 10-14. I will take your advice and crank the light to 400 par today. It seems logical that they are stretching because they are looking for more light.

 

[Stonecrusher]

Nice garden @Stonecrusher

Thanks OGpapa
I just read the article in your links about how to water by Emylia Green. That alone was worth joining up here.
Thanks!

 

[Mayne]

I bumped it up to 300 PAR overnight and the leaves seem to be getting bigger. Any reason you uppotted day 4? I was planning to wait until day 10-14. I will take your advice and crank the light to 400 par today. It seems logical that they are stretching because they are looking for more light.

Hey bro.
I do this because i like the stem stretch because those tiny hairs are actually roots. So now, those tiny hairs are buried before they mature and harden.

 

[Stonecrusher]

Day 17 for the Gorilla Cookies and Purple Banana Punch autos from Fastbuds.
It is finally the weekend and I have some time to review the week in the tent and tell you about it.
Things that happened to my grow this week:
-At day 8-10 the seedlings definitely had some transplant shock, I got lots of advice from friends here, thanks! They had some leaf curl and yellowing as you can see form last weeks post.
-The issues I focused on were 1)light intensity, 2) moisture level, 3) Ph of the water.
-The seedlings are now adjusted and looking happy in their 5 Gal pots with Build A Soil Light formula.
-I used resources from this website to research how to use my LUX meter and convert it to PAR and now have the seedlings in early veg under 400 PAR.
-Many of the friends here were concerned about my water Ph which is about 7-7.5 out of my tap.
-Im working on getting the water to ~6-6.5 range but damn every time I get close I seem to overshoot the dosage of PHdown or Up and im getting impatient! I still dont have Ideal Ph so Ill probably research more about best way to adjust.
-My plan for the next week is to gradually increase to 500 par
-I plan to LST at end of week when the plant has 4-5 good nodes. Ill use the bend the stalk over and pin it down method with some leaf tucking to expose the new branches.
Thanks to everyone who interacted on my questions and offered advice. This is really helping me work out my system!

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• Stonecrusher
• Feb 17, 2024

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• Stonecrusher
• Feb 17, 2024

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• Stonecrusher
• Feb 17, 2024

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• Stonecrusher
• Feb 17, 2024

 

[Mayne]

lookin good man..

 

[Stonecrusher]

Here are a few more shots of the setup and the seedlings starting to veg. Im using a moisture meter to check pots and find they are still very wet at about 6-7" below the soil. So I am only watering lightly at the surface with water mixed with Root Wise to encourage roots to surface. They seem to be loving it and have really great color and turgor.

PXL_20240219_043643422.jpg

• Stonecrusher
• Feb 19, 2024
• viparspectra xs 2500

Viparspectra XS-2500 pro over 5 gal cloth pots

PXL_20240219_043619698.jpg

• Stonecrusher
• Feb 19, 2024

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• Stonecrusher
• Feb 19, 2024

My little 2x4 setup.

 

[Stonecrusher]

Last night I set up the Vivosun auto watering kit. It was pretty easy, in fact the hardest part is setting the timer (yea I struggle with those things). It has 2 lines from the pump with 4 LPH emitters so it should deliver ~2 Gals per hour. My calculations and best estimate for plants right now are to let it drip for 8 mins in the morning and 8 mins in the evening for ~1/2 gallon per day over 3 plants. I really hope this works since my wife and I are heading up skiing for thru Tuesday. It would have been nice to have this in place for a few days to make sure I have the bugs worked out.

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• Stonecrusher
• Feb 23, 2024

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• Stonecrusher
• Feb 23, 2024

Gorilla Cookies AF day 22 LST

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• Stonecrusher
• Feb 23, 2024

Vivosun auto watering

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• Stonecrusher
• Feb 23, 2024

Vivosun auto watering setup

 

[Stonecrusher]

Today is day 27 since sprouting the Gorilla Cookies and Purple Banana Punch AF from Fastbuds. They were plugging along pretty well in week 3 but not taking off. I went away for 4 days and they really took off! The growth has reached the perimeter of my 5 gal pots. I decided to LST the plants by bending them over and doing some leaf tucking. You can see the before and after photos in the gallery.
I experimented with an automatic watering system from Vivosun and it looks promising, although, I was glad to have a back up plan after I over estimated the run time for the emitters. It was caught early by my chore boy and he unplugged the pump for me. It has 2-4gpm emitters meaning it can put out 8 gals per hour. My plants need about 7 mins per day for full watering right now and I accidentally set the timer to 5am AND 5pm. Now corrected and ill give it a couple of days to dry down before i fire the pump back up.
I also wanted to give everyone a look at my beloved 2x4 tent in the cold garage. I cover it with blankets and it stays toasty even during sub zero cold snaps. I feel like the plants get a little pissed off when I open the tent on really cold days so I keep the plant tending to a minimum. Does anyone have any theory about if this affects anything?

PXL_20240228_002032903.jpg

• Stonecrusher
• Feb 27, 2024

Gorilla Cookies before LST

PXL_20240228_002039259.jpg

• Stonecrusher
• Feb 27, 2024

Started LST 4 days ago on the Gorilla Cookies AF

PXL_20240228_002514070.jpg

• Stonecrusher
• Feb 27, 2024

Banana Purple Punch day 27 after LST

PXL_20240228_003452192.jpg

• Stonecrusher
• Feb 27, 2024

Day 27 after LST. I think they are ready to take off!

PXL_20240228_003458007.jpg

• Stonecrusher
• Feb 27, 2024

PXL_20240228_003500504.jpg

• Stonecrusher
• Feb 27, 2024

So far this has been a good start. I can't wait to see how the plants take off. Everything seems ready for a good grow.

 

[Stonecrusher]

@g-one-three @ThirdUncle @Mayne @OGpapa @Greenbushscrogger
Good evening friends,
I did an update to my journal last night and realized I forgot to tag anyone, so Im hanging out here all alone. I figured the best way to fix that was to tag a few of you. Please look over my progress with the autoflowers. They seem to be shaping up nicely.

 

[Greenbushscrogger]

Today is day 27 since sprouting the Gorilla Cookies and Purple Banana Punch AF from Fastbuds. They were plugging along pretty well in week 3 but not taking off. I went away for 4 days and they really took off! The growth has reached the perimeter of my 5 gal pots. I decided to LST the plants by bending them over and doing some leaf tucking. You can see the before and after photos in the gallery.
I experimented with an automatic watering system from Vivosun and it looks promising, although, I was glad to have a back up plan after I over estimated the run time for the emitters. It was caught early by my chore boy and he unplugged the pump for me. It has 2-4gpm emitters meaning it can put out 8 gals per hour. My plants need about 7 mins per day for full watering right now and I accidentally set the timer to 5am AND 5pm. Now corrected and ill give it a couple of days to dry down before i fire the pump back up.
I also wanted to give everyone a look at my beloved 2x4 tent in the cold garage. I cover it with blankets and it stays toasty even during sub zero cold snaps. I feel like the plants get a little pissed off when I open the tent on really cold days so I keep the plant tending to a minimum. Does anyone have any theory about if this affects anything?

PXL_20240228_002032903.jpg

• Stonecrusher
• Feb 27, 2024

Gorilla Cookies before LST

PXL_20240228_002039259.jpg

• Stonecrusher
• Feb 27, 2024

Started LST 4 days ago on the Gorilla Cookies AF

PXL_20240228_002514070.jpg

• Stonecrusher
• Feb 27, 2024

Banana Purple Punch day 27 after LST

PXL_20240228_003452192.jpg

• Stonecrusher
• Feb 27, 2024

Day 27 after LST. I think they are ready to take off!

PXL_20240228_003458007.jpg

• Stonecrusher
• Feb 27, 2024

PXL_20240228_003500504.jpg

• Stonecrusher
• Feb 27, 2024

So far this has been a good start. I can't wait to see how the plants take off. Everything seems ready for a good grow.

Thanks for the invite. I'm pretty interested to see how you like the watering system.

 

[Mayne]

@g-one-three @ThirdUncle @Mayne @OGpapa @Greenbushscrogger
Good evening friends,
I did an update to my journal last night and realized I forgot to tag anyone, so Im hanging out here all alone. I figured the best way to fix that was to tag a few of you. Please look over my progress with the autoflowers. They seem to be shaping up nicely.

Lookin good Stonecrusher, Im impressed by those bottom branches on the Gorilla plant. My banana punch looks about the same pace as yours. My mystery FB seed started to flower today!

 

[OGpapa]

Hey bud! Healthy looking ladies! I'm doing some torture training aswell

She devil