Indoor Army of Dankness - Bruce's Blueberries

[Bruce Campbell]

Bad News: I was in a rush finishing the final setup before heading to the airport (read: high as a mf-er) and messed up configuring the timers for the smart outlets. So, I kinda ended up dumping all 10 gal from my drip system into the tent on the first day.

Good News: I didn't start an electrical fire and didn't trip my GFCI, so the light kept working the entire time. I lowered the light timer to only give 8-10 hrs of light/day to keep them from using too much water.

Better News: Gorilla gives you a little foldable "drip tray" insert with their tents made out of the same canvas material as the tent...turns out that is actually water tight and held all 10 gallons, so I didn't flood my apartment. My tower fan even kept working...

Best News: They sucked every last drop of water out of the bag saucer trays, but they're alive! They're even looking surprisingly green and healthy for having almost no light and water for a week:

 

[Bruce Campbell]

- Day 63 - #1 came out of the flood a few inches shorter than #2 and droopy, for whatever reason. I had to tie the colas together to keep them from falling over, which I don't like doing. We'll see if they recover after a few regular waterings and a milk crate for some extra light. #2 is doing great.

- Maturity-wise, they look to be similar to where my last grow was around this time, so they'll probably go ~90 days.

- Switched them over to my bloom formula this week. Here's how it compares to the veg formula:

	Part A (g / gal)	Part B (g / gal)	Sweet Candy (g / gal)	Epsom Salts (g / gal)
Veg	3.9	2.5	0	0
Flower	2.0	1.7	1.6	0

	N	P	K	Ca	Mg	S	Cu	Fe	Mo	Zn	B	Mn	Si
	mg/L	mg/L	mg/L	mg/L	mg/L	mg/L	mg/L	mg/L	mg/L	mg/L	mg/L	mg/L	mg/L
Veg	153.90	53.96	222.40	125.50	64.91	75.22	0.31	3.09	0.10	1.03	0.31	0.62	0.72
Flower	96.04	77.48	208.80	85.34	37.52	51.25	0.16	1.59	0.05	0.53	0.16	0.32	0.37

Note: Numbers above do not include extra Si or K from pH adjustment (typically ~4-6 mL/gal of Silica Boost as needed).

 

[Bruce Campbell]

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- Day 74 - Getting droopier, but hanging in there.

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- Close-up of cola on #1. Should probably start scoping trichs next week.

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- Canopy view. Starting to have some yellowing on #2. Could just be due to me reducing N. Regardless, probably won't do anything about it and just let it go.

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- #1 As-Supported - #1 started drooping earlier, but both are now drooping. I now have a 4-ft stake in each bag to tie together the top of the plants. Ran into same problem last grow, so not sure if it's something I'm doing wrong, if I'm just growing them bigger than the genotype is used to, something I can fix, or just something I'll have to deal with in my set-up, etc...

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[Bruce Campbell]

- Big thanks to @Green Hornet for his input on this strain! He grew some Blueberry autos recently, and didn't see much amber on them either. He also had some drooping / support issues same as me. So, I'm gonna call these done. The pistils are pretty much all brown, and I think this is about as amber as they'll get.

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- Chopped #1 today. Will chop #2 next weekend. Had some withered leaves by the end, and the yellowing was starting to get into the buds/sugar leaves a little bit. Not sure how much was due to cutting N, and how much was due to me getting lazy and skipping a watering or two.

- Was going to take a picture with it all splayed out after untying...but as soon as I untied it, the entire container just fell over to one side. So, I just chopped it all at once and hung it for trimming.

- Overall, it trimmed up pretty well. So far, seems a bit less aromatic than last grow, but definitely more 'blueberry-ish" - full of swole purple bracts.

- Weight-wise, seems on par with last grow, but I'll post final dry weights next weekend. It'll hang at ~65-70F / 60-65% RH for 4-5 days, then into grove bags.

 

[Bruce Campbell]

- Chopped #2 today - 95 days.

- #1 is dried and bagged. Final weight = 180g (dry) buds / 90g (wet) larf. Not a huge fan of the aroma for this grow - very heavy diesel for some reason without the normal berry / citrus. Hoping it will round out a bit during cure.

- Next batch is on its way - about 10 days old so far.

 

[Bruce Campbell]

After disappearing from the forums for a few years, I now have about 6 grows / 13 plants on this regimen and am ready to switch strains. So, I figure I owe y'all an epilogue of final results and conclusions.

To recap, these grows were using a Blueberry Autoflower strain from a random seedbank in a peat / mineral salt regimen at set elemental ppm levels. I used target nutrient levels from research performed by the Israeli Institute of Health, University of British Columbia, and others that determined optimal levels for photoperiod cannabis. I wanted to verify whether these would also work for autoflowers or needed adjustment. I also wanted to see how much variance yields had over multiple harvests while on the same feed regimen.

During veg, I used a 160 ppm-N / 60 ppm-P feed with as close to a 4:2:1 ratio of K:Ca:Mg based on what fertilizers I had available. For example, that resulted in a 240 ppm-K / 125 ppm-Ca / 65 ppm-Mg using MegaCrop 2-part.

During bloom, I would then typically reduce N and keep P about the same. The exact bloom formulation varied between grows depending on various hypotheses I wanted to test - e.g., one grow was performed without reducing N to see what the effects would be on final yield & quality. Overall, bloom formulations typically ranged between 80-120 ppm-N / 50 - 90 ppm-P. I allowed the K:Ca:Mg ratio to deviate more during bloom, but it can ultimately be kept in better balance by including epsom salts in the formulation.

I also got lazier in my grows over time, specifically with controlling temperature and RH. The first few grows were in a closed tent exhausting to the lung room with ventilation / humidification as needed to generally stay within typical ranges. By the later grows - open tent and no ventilation to simplify things. Then, of course, there was the occasional missed watering, power outage, etc over the course of six grows.

But, by then, the objective was mainly to evaluate yield variance based on a 'standard feed formula / lazy farmer' approach - i.e., to see how many things I could not pay attention to during the grow and still get 'decent enough' yields.

See next post for results: