So after years of lurking and waiting with the hope that my state would legalize home grow, the day finally came. I went with autos from Nightowl & Mephisto for my first few grows so I can get my feet wet before diving into photoperiods. For my first grow I popped two 4AM's in living soil and it was pretty straightforward with a few errors on my end. I prefer learning from my mistakes so I adjusted my soil and amendments going into my 2nd & 3rd cycles, which are the ones I'll be highlighting here. I've already begun my 3rd cycle with further adjustments from my 2nd cycle that hopefully will help me transition into growing photoperiods.
Anyway for my 2nd cycle, I went with Nightowl's Zamaldelica Express (Zamaldelica x Fantasmo Express). For my 3rd cycle, I went with Nightowl's Wizard's Apprentice (Cheech Wizard x Auto Skywalker) Foxy Purps pheno & Mephisto's Super Orange Haze (Super Lemon Haze x S.O.D.K.). My ZE and Foxy will be the main stars of this thread with an occasional SOH guest appearance.
My current setup is a 2x4x7 Gorilla tent with Timber 3VL lights. My ZE is in a 5 gal rootmaker pot and Foxy is in a 3 gal rootmaker pot. All my seedlings start their first 2 or 3 weeks in a 1 gal airpot. The soil I use is called Detroit Nutrient Co Great Lakes water only. I used my first grow to assess what the soil was lacking to sustain a plant for a 3 month cycle. I noticed that in a 5 gal pot, the soil only had enough nutrients for about 4 to 6 weeks so for the seedlings, I amend with some worm castings and Recharge. For flower, I amend the final pot's soil with more worm castings and crab + lobster shell meal which provides additional N for flower stretch, lots of calcium and some magnesium. For my current cycle, I also added charged biochar and rice hulls to my final pot which I plan to incorporate into all my future grows. My Foxy and SOH in the 3 gal pots seems to love my new soil mix. Foxy's almost 4 ft tall and SOH is the same height as my ZE.
I don't PH my water and I use regular Chicago tap water that sits in the sun for a minimum of 48 hours. I also have a couple of amendments that I use going into flower and I do 3 specific feedings every 7 to 9 days depending how thirsty/hungry they are.
Feeding #1 on Day 1: Neptune's Harvest liquid Fish & Seaweed at 1 ounce per gallon + 0.3 mL of Mammoth P
Feeding #2 on day 4: Buildabloom and coconut water at 1 tsp per gallon each + 0.3 mL of Mammoth P
Feeding #3 on day 7: EM1 at 1 ounce per gallon
Towards the end of flower, I phase out the Neptune's Harvest, followed by phasing out the Buildabloom so the last 2 weeks all they get is coconut water and microbes. So far I have had pretty good success. Foxy Purps is almost 4 ft tall on day 46. My Zamaldelica Express is on day 94 now since breaking soil and still no amber trichomes. Mostly cloudy with some clear. Some of the top calyxes are starting to turn purple on the tips and she's drinking less water. The biggest fan leaves are starting to fade and the smaller ones on the bottom are starting to die but other than that, the plant is still mostly a healthy green. I suspected that she might run on the longer side for an autoflower because of the Zamaldelica genes so this doesn't upset me. The calyxes are still swelling and now changing color so I'm intrigued
I'm thinking at least 1 week for sure but possibly 2 more weeks under the lights followed by a week with no water in the darkness of my only air-conditioned room before the actual chop.
Anyway for my 2nd cycle, I went with Nightowl's Zamaldelica Express (Zamaldelica x Fantasmo Express). For my 3rd cycle, I went with Nightowl's Wizard's Apprentice (Cheech Wizard x Auto Skywalker) Foxy Purps pheno & Mephisto's Super Orange Haze (Super Lemon Haze x S.O.D.K.). My ZE and Foxy will be the main stars of this thread with an occasional SOH guest appearance.
My current setup is a 2x4x7 Gorilla tent with Timber 3VL lights. My ZE is in a 5 gal rootmaker pot and Foxy is in a 3 gal rootmaker pot. All my seedlings start their first 2 or 3 weeks in a 1 gal airpot. The soil I use is called Detroit Nutrient Co Great Lakes water only. I used my first grow to assess what the soil was lacking to sustain a plant for a 3 month cycle. I noticed that in a 5 gal pot, the soil only had enough nutrients for about 4 to 6 weeks so for the seedlings, I amend with some worm castings and Recharge. For flower, I amend the final pot's soil with more worm castings and crab + lobster shell meal which provides additional N for flower stretch, lots of calcium and some magnesium. For my current cycle, I also added charged biochar and rice hulls to my final pot which I plan to incorporate into all my future grows. My Foxy and SOH in the 3 gal pots seems to love my new soil mix. Foxy's almost 4 ft tall and SOH is the same height as my ZE.
I don't PH my water and I use regular Chicago tap water that sits in the sun for a minimum of 48 hours. I also have a couple of amendments that I use going into flower and I do 3 specific feedings every 7 to 9 days depending how thirsty/hungry they are.
Feeding #1 on Day 1: Neptune's Harvest liquid Fish & Seaweed at 1 ounce per gallon + 0.3 mL of Mammoth P
Feeding #2 on day 4: Buildabloom and coconut water at 1 tsp per gallon each + 0.3 mL of Mammoth P
Feeding #3 on day 7: EM1 at 1 ounce per gallon
Towards the end of flower, I phase out the Neptune's Harvest, followed by phasing out the Buildabloom so the last 2 weeks all they get is coconut water and microbes. So far I have had pretty good success. Foxy Purps is almost 4 ft tall on day 46. My Zamaldelica Express is on day 94 now since breaking soil and still no amber trichomes. Mostly cloudy with some clear. Some of the top calyxes are starting to turn purple on the tips and she's drinking less water. The biggest fan leaves are starting to fade and the smaller ones on the bottom are starting to die but other than that, the plant is still mostly a healthy green. I suspected that she might run on the longer side for an autoflower because of the Zamaldelica genes so this doesn't upset me. The calyxes are still swelling and now changing color so I'm intrigued
I'm thinking at least 1 week for sure but possibly 2 more weeks under the lights followed by a week with no water in the darkness of my only air-conditioned room before the actual chop.
You know I'm here waiting to see how Foxy finishes
