Amateur Autoflower Attempt (First grow!)

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Hey everyone! Trying my hand at growing for the first time and thought I'd make a thread to document how things go. I ended up picking some autoflower seeds as I need to grow outdoors and don't really have a good way of ensuring photos can get their needed dark time during flowering. I joined this forum midway through my grow so I'll add posts below with my weekly updates. All day counts shown are from seedling sprout.

Ended up planting the following seeds:
2x The Beast - Butterbean Bird Seeds
2x Grapefruit Haze - Next Generation Seed Company
2x Orange Diesel - Mephisto Genetics

Thanks for checking out my diary! Any tips are welcome and appreciated

 

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Week 1

Germinated the two Orange Diesels (Mephisto) using paper towel method. One seed showed a taproot after 1-2 days, the other did not. Planted both in case the runt makes it, both pots were filled with Pro-Mix Premium Potting Mix. Started out using a shitty "20W" amazon light and quickly upgraded to a 70W Viparspectra panel as it was looking very leggy. Seedling stopped growing vertically since new light was introduced. Planted both in jiffy/peat cups, in retrospect this was definitely a mistake but I didn't have any solo cups at the time and was too excited to wait! Bigger seedling is day 7 since sprout and smaller one is day 4.

Growing in my closet with no accurate climate controls until I can harden these off and move everything outside.

 

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Week 2

Day 14 for the bigger seedling, it didn't look very promising with lots of drooping and yellowing. I honestly couldn't tell if I was underwatering or overwatering at this point. One thing I learned is that the peat pot soaks up a TON of water making it hard to accurately gauge how much the roots were actually able to absorb. The smaller seedling wasn't seeing much progress after day 11, I probably stunted her somehow.

 

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Week 3

I lost a bit of hope in my Orange Diesels after the first two weeks so I decided to germinate a few more! 2x The Beast from Butterbean Bird Seed and 2x Grapefruit Haze from Next Generation Seed Company. I "procured" some solo cups from the work office and planted these new girls in straight Pro-Mix HP. I also started pH testing my tap water from this point forward and using pH down to get around 6-6.5 using the liquid test drop stuff. Behold, my amateur closet setup:


Orange Diesel (OD) #1 Day 21 - This girl bounced back quite well from last weeks update. I originally thought I was overwatering but I think it was actually underwatering. I started giving it more water than before and she bounced back surprisingly. On about Day 19, I noticed that the roots were beginning to extend out the bottom of the jiffy pot so I quickly transplanted into her final 5 gallon pot. This pot is filled with a mix of Pro-Mix HP and Sea Soil Container Complete. I would've moved her outside but the weather is cold and rainy for the next few days.

 

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Week 4
Lots going on this week! Hardened off both of the Orange Diesels (OD) so they will be living outside from now on . The 70W panel is doing its best when they all are indoors.



OD #1 started showing pistils (stigma?), its been cool to see the explosive growth. Going to begin gradually hardening them off so they can survive the outdoors. I decided to transplant OD #2 into a smaller pot as I didn't have enough 5 gallon fabric pots for all the seedlings.

Transplanted both Grapefruit haze seedlings into their final home. All the 5 gallon fabric pots except for OD #1 were filled with Pro-Mix HP and amended with 1 cup Gaia Green All Purpose and 0.5 worm castings approximately 2 weeks ago before transplant.


Transplanted one of The Beast seedlings into its 5 gal pot on Day 8. The other seems a little slow but its getting there! Forgot to take a pic of TB #2 this week.

 

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Week 5

Awesome progress this week, super fun to watch these girls grow. Planning on top feeding some Gaia Green All Purpose/Power Bloom and worm castings in 1-2 weeks for the Grapefruit Haze and The Beast plants.

Orange Diesel #1 - Day 35: Doing ok outside so far. I think growth may have slowed down a bit due to consistent night temps hovering around 10-12C and lots of rainy days. Noticing some leaf tips starting to claw, might not be handling the pre-amended mix well?

Orange Diesel #2 - Day 28: Not much happening compared to OD#1, definitely stunted somewhere along the way. No pistils showing yet.

Grapefruit Haze #1/#2 - Day 17: Amazing growth from these two in just a week! Starting to slowly harden them off, going to wait until night temps are a bit warmer until I leave them outside full time. Thinking about trying to LST one of these two as a test. It's my first grow so it'll be a fun experiment I think. Also noticing some leaf tip clawing on these, similar to OD #1.


The Beast #1 - Day 16: Also some insane growth since last week. Noticed a 3 stem node, rare???



The Beast #2 - Day 14: Chugging along, a bit slower than #1 but still looking healthy.

 

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Week 6

I recently discovered this forum and Shaded's Gaia Green method which I plan on following from this point forward. Both Grapefruit Haze and The Beast plants have been inside the past 4-5 days. About 1 week ago I upgraded from the 70W panel to a Viparspectra 150W to help the plants while they're indoors. Today (June 23) I was finally able to give the girls some outside time. I ended up feeding Orange Diesel #1 and The Beast #1/2 as they felt light enough for a watering. Before today though, the plants have only been getting water and whatever is left in the pre-amended Pro-Mix. Will wait 1-2 more days to feed the Grapefruit Hazes as they look a bit overwatered based on the wrinkly leaves (thanks for the help @Zen_seeker!!! )

Orange Diesel #1 Day 42 - Buds are starting to come in, fed 5 tbsp each of Gaia Green All purpose and Power Bloom today along with 1 cup of EWC. Went a bit lighter than recommended (7.5 tbsp) due to the clawing/yellowing tips that have been appearing. New growth looks pretty thin/skinny, maybe that's normal once flowering starts? No clue


Orange Diesel #2 Day 35 - Finally showing pistils around day 33, we'll see what happens.


The Beast #1 - Some decent growth since last week. Fed 5 tbsp each of Gaia Green All purpose and Power Bloom today along with 1 cup of EWC. Not sure why but the new growth is twisting a bit, any ideas? Also showing some yellowing tips.


The Beast #2 - Definitely a runt but sticking with it. Fed 2.5 tbsp each of Gaia Green All purpose and Power Bloom today along with 0.5 cup of EWC. The leaves are a very dark green, I think it's having a hard time with the pre-amended mix.


Grapefruit Haze #1/#2 - Tried out some novice LST on #2, will be fun to compare the difference between the non-LST plant. The leaves look a bit wrinkly on both, decided not to water/feed today to let them dry out a bit more. Should I defoliate #2 more??

 

[Zen_seeker]

Hey everyone! Trying my hand at growing for the first time and thought I'd make a thread to document how things go. I ended up picking some autoflower seeds as I need to grow outdoors and don't really have a good way of ensuring photos can get their needed dark time during flowering. I joined this forum midway through my grow so I'll add posts below with my weekly updates. All day counts shown are from seedling sprout.

Ended up planting the following seeds:
2x The Beast - Butterbean Bird Seeds
2x Grapefruit Haze - Next Generation Seed Company
2x Orange Diesel - Mephisto Genetics

Thanks for checking out my diary! Any tips are welcome and appreciated

Welcome, nice start!

 

[Zen_seeker]

Week 6

I recently discovered this forum and Shaded's Gaia Green method which I plan on following from this point forward. Both Grapefruit Haze and The Beast plants have been inside the past 4-5 days. About 1 week ago I upgraded from the 70W panel to a Viparspectra 150W to help the plants while they're indoors. Today (June 23) I was finally able to give the girls some outside time. I ended up feeding Orange Diesel #1 and The Beast #1/2 as they felt light enough for a watering. Before today though, the plants have only been getting water and whatever is left in the pre-amended Pro-Mix. Will wait 1-2 more days to feed the Grapefruit Hazes as they look a bit overwatered based on the wrinkly leaves (thanks for the help @Zen_seeker!!! )

Orange Diesel #1 Day 42 - Buds are starting to come in, fed 5 tbsp each of Gaia Green All purpose and Power Bloom today along with 1 cup of EWC. Went a bit lighter than recommended (7.5 tbsp) due to the clawing/yellowing tips that have been appearing. New growth looks pretty thin/skinny, maybe that's normal once flowering starts? No clue
View attachment 131625View attachment 131626

Orange Diesel #2 Day 35 - Finally showing pistils around day 33, we'll see what happens.
View attachment 131627

The Beast #1 - Some decent growth since last week. Fed 5 tbsp each of Gaia Green All purpose and Power Bloom today along with 1 cup of EWC. Not sure why but the new growth is twisting a bit, any ideas? Also showing some yellowing tips.
View attachment 131628View attachment 131629

The Beast #2 - Definitely a runt but sticking with it. Fed 2.5 tbsp each of Gaia Green All purpose and Power Bloom today along with 0.5 cup of EWC. The leaves are a very dark green, I think it's having a hard time with the pre-amended mix.
View attachment 131630

Grapefruit Haze #1/#2 - Tried out some novice LST on #2, will be fun to compare the difference between the non-LST plant. The leaves look a bit wrinkly on both, decided not to water/feed today to let them dry out a bit more. Should I defoliate #2 more??
View attachment 131631View attachment 131632View attachment 131633View attachment 131634

Looking good. Earlier pics where you thought the seedlings were slow showed wet soil so maybe overwatering was happening a while.

The darker green just seems to be the lower leaves so I think your fine now. As long as new growth looks good and has no deficiencies your back on track.