Indoor Indoor Auto Grow, Dutch Passion, Mephisto, Fast Buds

[WildBill]

Thanks WildBill

I'm fortunate, this grow is all hobby and experimenting. I've compared growing pot on the hobby level to fish tanks -- I'm more of a living plants and goldfish guy, not so much salt water, coral reefs and exotic fish. There are a million ways to grow pot, just gotta find the shoe that fits.

I can easily relate to the aquarium comparison. I was a Guppy, Mollie, Corydoras and Gourami with live plants kinda guy. I got into breeding Mollies when my cousin gave me some very fine examples of wild males with a pretty prominent sail. I got some really interesting fish.

 

[Humanrob]

I can easily relate to the aquarium comparison. I was a Guppy, Mollie, Corydoras and Gourami with live plants kinda guy. I got into breeding Mollies when my cousin gave me some very fine examples of wild males with a pretty prominent sail. I got some really interesting fish.

Sounds like a great setup. Life just wants to continue, breeding fish, breeding cannabis, probably the same impetus.

I haven't had fish for years, these days it's just "fur babies" and "leaf babies". I think about getting a tank from time to time, maybe some day. I think at this point the botany of fresh water plants would attract me almost as much as the fish. On a different plant/fish note, when I was building SIPs, I thought about using a fish tank as the res for some aquaponics. That could still happen some day, especially with autos. I always imagined a reinforced armoire as the starting point...

 

[WildBill]

Sounds like a great setup. Life just wants to continue, breeding fish, breeding cannabis, probably the same impetus.

I haven't had fish for years, these days it's just "fur babies" and "leaf babies". I think about getting a tank from time to time, maybe some day. I think at this point the botany of fresh water plants would attract me almost as much as the fish. On a different plant/fish note, when I was building SIPs, I thought about using a fish tank as the res for some aquaponics. That could still happen some day, especially with autos. I always imagined a reinforced armoire as the starting point...

I get the same pleasure growing canna as I did with fish. Except the fish didn't get me high.

 

[Humanrob]

Another week...

The Colorado Cookies got sick, I trimmed the sick leaves, the next set to arrive looked bad too, so I pulled the plant from this grow. If I had been further along in the grow and had more invested in the plant, I might have sought advice on how to fix it. But that's not the case, it's more of a limited space and time situation, where they either sink or swim. Also factored in is that I still have time to start another -- if I didn't have that option, I probably would have left it there to see what happens.

We have a place next to a sliding glass door where house plants and various (auto) cannabis misfits go with 100w of COBs running 12 hours/day, so it's there now. If it turns around, I'll turn the timer up and give it a few more hours per day, but the temps there by the window are relatively chilly, so not much is to be expected of it.

After removing the CC, I had the option to just run the remaining two and let them spread horizontally, or start a replacement third, and I decided to replace it. I've never grown a Fast Buds indoors, so I decided to give one a try. The choice was made based on FB's projected finish time -- not that I expect it to be accurate -- but I chose the FB strain I had with the shortest finish time, which is Gelato at a claimed 8 weeks. Even if it takes 10 weeks, this new one should end right around when the already started ones finish since they are realistically more like 90+ day strains.

Dutch Passion Critical Orange Punch, day 29 - starting to stretch

Mephisto Mango Smile, day 26 - topped earlier in the week at node 5

Fast Buds Gelato, day 0.

Dutch Passion Colorado Cookies, day 19, out to pasture


General images

 

[Humanrob]

Weekly update

Since this grow is a first on many levels (first time growing in this space, first time training autos this way, first time growing these strains...etc), I'm trying not to overreact. The two older girls have started to stretch, especially the Mango Smile. The inter-nodal spacing is so huge on her that I got concerned that I'm not giving them enough light, so yesterday I turned the light up from 250w to 300w. It's been a while since I've grown in plastic pots, the MS got a bit overwatered. They take forever to dry out, which slows down feeding opportunities. I'll go back to fabric next time.

I've thought about an elaborate training method, not sure where I originally saw it, but I have a picture in my head of 'spiral' training, where you sort of swirl the plant around rather than let it grow upward. I thought of that for the MS but it adds a level of difficulty in that it makes the plant harder to access for maintenance/feeding/watering, and I'm not sure it would be necessary.

Anyone know the approximate range of days I should expect the stretch to stop? If I've only got 10-15 more days of stretch, for instance, I think I could handle that. If it's more like 30 I'll need to figure something out. Last resort is always super-cropping, which I've done before and never really had an issue with.

Critical Orange Punch at day 36

Mango Smile at day 33

Gelato, day 6

All three...

 

[WildBill]

Yeah, quite large spacing..

I'd prolly let Mango Smile run as you have her now. In the pic, Ya might want to loosen up on the bottom to let them come up to the same height as the others. Hopefully they will thicken up, but it's still young.
Should be interesting to see how Mango Smile fills out. Keep up the updates!

 

[Humanrob]

Yeah, quite large spacing..

I'd prolly let Mango Smile run as you have her now. In the pic, Ya might want to loosen up on the bottom to let them come up to the same height as the others. Hopefully they will thicken up, but it's still young.
Should be interesting to see how Mango Smile fills out. Keep up the updates!

All good and appreciated comments/advice, as usual!

But... as you were typing that I was away from my computer and working on other solutions. Basically, we are having an ice/snow/wind storm/blizzard thing, and I'm super bored. With Covid-19 I rarely leave the property anyway, but now I can barely leave the house, so it's extra confining.

So I made the cage for the Mango Smile, and I'll keep myself amused training it in a spiral format. I know that given my grow style I don't have to worry about Mephisto's 7 ft. tall warning, but even 3 ft. tall would be an issue for me, so I'll use the cage to keep this one the same height as the others. I realize that it's possible that with all my training they'll end out a meager 12" past the pot, but that's OK too. I'd rather they be too short than too tall.

I've definitely been looking for the appropriate time to pull the training wires and let them lift a bit, I would usually do that about a week before the stretch stops which creates enough room for me to top-dress the pots with some nutrient boosted soil.

Oh, and that piece of plastic sheeting on the Gelato baby is something I use for about half the lights on period. Translucent but not transparent, it diffuses and cuts the light substantially, so that the baby doesn't burn. I use it less each day, in about a week it'll be gone altogether.

Last pic is the still going Colorado Cookies in the other room.

 

[WildBill]

All good and appreciated comments/advice, as usual!

But... as you were typing that I was away from my computer and working on other solutions. Basically, we are having an ice/snow/wind storm/blizzard thing, and I'm super bored. With Covid-19 I rarely leave the property anyway, but now I can barely leave the house, so it's extra confining.

So I made the cage for the Mango Smile, and I'll keep myself amused training it in a spiral format. I know that given my grow style I don't have to worry about Mephisto's 7 ft. tall warning, but even 3 ft. tall would be an issue for me, so I'll use the cage to keep this one the same height as the others. I realize that it's possible that with all my training they'll end out a meager 12" past the pot, but that's OK too. I'd rather they be too short than too tall.

I've definitely been looking for the appropriate time to pull the training wires and let them lift a bit, I would usually do that about a week before the stretch stops which creates enough room for me to top-dress the pots with some nutrient boosted soil.

Oh, and that piece of plastic sheeting on the Gelato baby is something I use for about half the lights on period. Translucent but not transparent, it diffuses and cuts the light substantially, so that the baby doesn't burn. I use it less each day, in about a week it'll be gone altogether.

Last pic is the still going Colorado Cookies in the other room.

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Oh that would surely work quite nicely!
Fuggin Covid BS!

 

[Humanrob]

The plants have travelled with us for another 11,200,000 miles through space since my last post. The two 'adult' plants are about as different as they could be, one squat and full of foliage and the other long, lanky, and sparse like a giant spider. This grow has been a series of lessons, many of which I'm still figuring out.

So far, my concerns about the plants getting too big for the space were apparently unnecessary. Between my intentional steps taken to keep them small, and the fact that I grow basically in bag soil with mediocre methodologies, odds are there is no universe in which my plants got too big for this space.

The Critical Orange Punch (Day 43). Lot's of bud sites. It's sort of a miniature version of a very big plant. Yeah, that's it. It's a micro-giant. It's a 1/10th scale behemoth. I suppose I should do some trimming in that central mess.

The Mango Smile (Day 40) is getting the old Tornado Treatment. Or maybe it's the Whirlpool Method. Or just a Cannabis Swirly. Anyway, I'm running it in circles to crush all it's dreams of ever being seven feet tall.

Not much to say about the Gelato (Day 13), she seems to be doing well enough. My plants grow slowly, I should just embrace that.

 

[Humanrob]

A humbling experience. Lots of years of growing photos gave me the hubris to think I simply knew how to grow pot, and habits that ran deeper than I realized took over. I tried to adapt my grow paradigm based on others' advice for growing autos, but apparently, not enough. For whatever reason, my methods seemed to work for the first 30 days or so confirming that I had a handle on things, before everything abruptly turned a corner and quickly went south. Long (boring) story, but a clusterfuck/perfect storm of issues based on poor choices overlapped and this one is irretrievable. Poop happens. I'll try again next fall.