Closing in on the end of the road for these two ladies! I’m not sure exactly how much longer they need, but I’m (great timing of course) going out of town next week, so I’m hoping that when I’m back from my travels, the plants will be ready to be harvested. I think I’m going to switch to H2O only going forward, to make sure we’ve fully flushed them before harvest. I’m pretty excited to say that one of the plants looks really great! She’s got two tall main colas with several secondary buds as well. The other plant will still have some flowers to contribute, but it is much smaller and had much smaller buds than the big one. I think that is all a product of me having planted that seed upside down initially, which the plant eventually fixed, but it started life behind and then never caught up. But it’s kept the same timeline as it’s sister, started flowering exactly the same time, and they were in exactly the same conditions otherwise. Interesting!

a year ago

So it’s a good news / concerning news situation. While the buds continue to stack and show just how beautifully purple they are, I’ve noticed that the leaves, only on the taller plant, have started developing some orange/yellow spots on them, not the sugar leaves, but the larger fan leaves. And almost all of them seem to have been affected to some level. I’m guessing this is calcium/ magnesium deficiency or something because I’m using a mix of 60/40 coco to soil mix. It does not seem like the spots on the leaves are a growth of some sort, but if anyone has ideas other than this, please by all means let me know. One thing I have not been vigilant about this grow is checking run off ph and ppm. I’ve been very sparing in my use of additives, always check the input ph and ppm, but for a variety of bad reasons, I haven’t done the run off test. Which I’m regretting at the moment. Anyhow, I’m giving her a CalMag and h2o only feeding for today to hopefully get the plant some additional CalMag. I do generally include a small amount in each feeding, but I know coco has a hard time with the exchange of those nutrients in particular. Any advice is appreciated!

a year ago

Gosh I love the colors coming through on these flowers!

a year ago

I love the little flowers! They are so pretty! Just like the Bud cover photo! There are definitely several bud sites on both ladies and I just love how you can almost detect a hint of purple in them already! I grew some dark devils the first time I grew, and the only thing I got right about that grow was that the buds were purple. Hopefully a few years of experience will help these ladies grow some really beautiful buds!

a year ago

So the only thing that I’ve got a question about is the inter-nodal spacing on these two. I feel like they really really stretched, and the internodal spacing is significantly larger than I’ve seen in the past. I guess that means fewer flowers, but does it indicate anything else that I should be aware of?

a year ago

Ok, so I think we’ve officially reached the flowering stage! Little flowers are forming on the larger nodes on both plants. Interestingly, there seem to be significantly more of them on the smaller of the two ladies, but they are both looking strong and healthy. I can’t believe how tall both have gotten, but the bigger one has got to be nearly 4 feet tall with the pot, which is a heck of a lot of growth for less than 60 days! Changing the nutrient mix to include some bloom focused fertilizers, and going at the root base again. More to come soon!

a year ago

These pics are slightly obfuscated because of the bars and such in the greenhouse, but wow… watching autos stretch might be one of the most incredible experiences I’ve had in horticulture thus far. One plant is still much larger than the other, but they have both put on at least a foot of height and have recovered extraordinarily well from being topped with at least 2 or more main branches that should bare nice colas. They say these things are supposed to go seed to harvest in 80 days; I am honestly hoping that they grow a bit more before they start flowering, but we shall see. Same feeding schedule as my clones, advanced nutrients grow, CalMag and nirvana.

a year ago

Quick update and pics. You can really see the difference between the two now. I’m not sure if growing autos outdoors makes the plants take a bit longer to develop, but the internet seems to say that’s a thing, so it must be true, right? Right? Lol, who knows, but I’m still dubious about the 8 weeks thing. 5 weeks in and we haven’t hit flowering? That’s not going to happen at their size and if it does, it will be underwhelming to say the least. One other thing… do folks have any opinions on topping autos? I’ve heard people swear by it, and others that strictly prune only as there is really no time to develop a second, third, etc… main cola. Thoughts?

2 years ago

Both ladies are continuing to grow, and I am nearly to the point of topping them within the next few days. One plant remains much further along than the other, but they are both growing faster and faster every day. Current feeding schedule is still limited to what’s in the soil + CalMag + root zone emulsifier.

2 years ago

Hard to believe these ladies are a whole month in. If they are true to the word of Sweet Seeds, they are harvestable at 9 weeks… we shall see I suppose, but they are both looking like they are in good enough shape. I haven’t grown autos in a greenhouse before… only done indoors, and I’m wondering if they aren’t getting enough sunlight… but that seems doubtful. Seattle rains a bunch, but it’s been about the sunniest month I can recall for a May/June around here!

2 years ago

There are a few new members of the family… picked up some clones from Archive in Portland. I’ll make a second post for those as well. The Dark Devils are both in their final homes, with a mix of coco coir and Fox Farm ocean forest around 70/30 coco/soil. One of the two has gotten quite large with 4 nodes, while the second is not far behind with 3. I’m only adding a bit of CalMag, some advanced nutrients tarantula, piranha, and voodoo juice for root zone health for now. Given the soil nutrients, I think I’ll give them a few weeks before adding primary nutes.

2 years ago

Transferred the ladies from their starter pots to cloth veg pots. The bigger one has been in coco amended with fox farms ocean forest, and the smaller one was in just coco… I suppose the addition nutrients would explain the size difference, and I’ll admit that being new to coco, I probably underfed her initially. But they are both healthy enough looking, perhaps in need of some more CalMag, but happy praying leaves are so nice.

2 years ago

These pics were taken with the ladies sitting on my front porch. Man I love the Pacific Northwest! Not much to see at this point, aside from healthy leaf development and even some praying leaves, which always puts a smile on my face! They will typically be in my greenhouse, but the sun was too nice in the front yard not to give them some time up there. More soon!

2 years ago