The Great Auto Showdown

[Spidermite]

Well we are getting close to harvest. Cant wait till the girls are cured. These are the photo plants.

[Spidermite]

I'm a bit short to reach the top of the tent easily. So I put yoyos on the dowels and then put them all up at once. Makes it easy to keep the buds where you want them.

[Spidermite]

Oh and the dowels in the pots give me another anchor point to adjust the colas where I want them.

[oldjarhead100]

cool what makes our lives easier is a good thing lol

[Spidermite]

These are the autos.

[Spidermite]

Autos with lights off


The top pic is of the autos and in the background the photos.

[oldjarhead100]

nice long kolas I'm jealous lol

[Spidermite]

Yes that 6 shooter by fast buds has colas 31 inches tall. The photos have 21 inch colas. The other autos have short fat dense colas that will weigh alot more than they look. The other autos are fast buds Girl Scout cookies. Awesome smoke. But lower on the amount they make. Maybe 7 ounces each? No clue. Last run I only got 2 ounces from GSC I think but I didnt train them at all that time. These were topped and lst.

[Juicyj89]

So I’m looking for a little input..

first, I have 3 white widow autos a few days old or so and the one in the middle, does it look sativa? Is there sativa in ww? Also what’s up with the one on the bottom? Leaves are kinda horned/curled under but seem to be growing. Pic from today

Second, I topped my p98 Monday and I know some may say it looked a little soon but she was on her 6th node. Anyways, would any of you be happy with the amount of growth since then or should it be more by now? Pics from the day of top and today.

[Colombo]

All looking good Juicyj89 The growth on your toping looks real healthy and "motivated". The little ones look like they should, getting ready to put the high heels on.

[oldjarhead100]

Juicy your plants look great ,I have found that if I wait until the node where I want to top has new growth tips at least a half inch long then it doesn't slow the plant down

[Spidermite]

I just top my plants when they ask for it. I just know. And I change the node from plant to plant. Yours look great. I'm just an oddball. All my plants of the same strain look exactly the same regardless. Retodd says he can tell my plants just by one quick glance.

[ocgreen]

Presenting.... 50 shades of Blue Dream'matic 😂👍








How's the LST and topping looking?

[oldjarhead100]

looks great are you bending the top over?

[ocgreen]

Yes, the main stem (which has been topped) is bent to as close to 90 degrees I can get it. Is that the right approach?

[Spidermite]

That is how I do it about half the time. The other half I top them, wait for the new branches to get long enough and form a T with them. So my plants are either a ¥ or a T

[ocgreen]

This BlackBerry by FastBuds looks and smells amazing



If it's half as good for sleep as they say it will get a permanent spot in the perpetual garden

[Juicyj89]

Can we see the whole beauty please??

[oldjarhead100]

that is gorgeous I love the color change plants let me know about the sleeping always trying to find something better lol

[ocgreen]

Will do oldjarhead100. If you're looking for something to sleep I was grateful to find King's Kush. Knocks me out

[ocgreen]

More pics of BlackBerry for Juicyj89

This is overall shot of tent:



In hindsight these strains dont belong together in same tent because Grapefruit is much shorter.

And here's some random bud shots but I feel like photos are coming out really yellow:



You can see some cupping, spots, etc. Made a lot of mistakes early on but she's durable af





Got 4 more going rn so I can do better. Pics and my grow skills dont really do it justice. But you get Spidermite growing this and a proper camera and it would come out looking like art

[Juicyj89]

Hey man ya your plants look fabulous. My first was my best haha haven’t had a good one since. But I’ll agree, spidermite is a beast.

[Spidermite]

Very nice looking plants. It being summer here you may want to open the plants up by heavily defoliating them. Looks like your in the flush period. 2 weeks is a perfect time to do it to prevent mopd and bud rot. And if you do it like me you get extra mj along with it. I was going to explain below.

[ocgreen]

Hey Colombo thanks for the encouragement. I know I will get better in time -- already know a lot more than I did when I started from ground zero in February of this year.

Juicyj89 thanks man. Same here -- my first grow went really well. My 2nd grow turned out to be a stunted mess. The BlackBerry and Grapefruit is my 3rd grow.

Spidermite really appreciate you putting together such good info. I didn't realize I was anywhere close to flush. I actually just gave them a fresh reservoir with mid bloom level nutes. Can't remember when I started these guys so I will need to look at trichomes and start defoliating like you say.

[Colombo]

Well my reveg of Motel 6 ScrOG frame? Thinking outside the box. grow really left me with smiles and laughter that it wanted to start all over again LOL. I left the shell in the sun and rain waiting for the mulch pile and suprise. I think I will attempt this with the CY-Clone shell. Some updated photos. Enjoy ! You have to really respect Mother Nature !! Good Growing !!

[Rwise]

Gotta luv it! I hope to try this with a few plants,,,

[ocgreen]

I had no idea this was possible. Totally would've done it with shell from my first grow. Very cool!

[Colombo]

Same here, LOL. I guess it's like an ass backwards cloning. I trimmed my CY-CLONE shell back and will post on its progress for a re-veg. I wish I had an Auto Flower shell to try . That would be super cool !!

[Spidermite]

Ok it is flush time for all my plants. They have about 2 to 3 weeks left. So here is what I do in the summer to get extra mj to cook with or use for hash, oils, lotions etc.This is for inside grows.

First you train the heavily for 8 to 9 weeks. During this time nake sure to remove all leaves that block any growth tips no matter how small. You want to keep every growth tip you can no matter how small.

At the flip defoliate by just unblocking the growth tips again. At 3 weeks after the flip defoliate to unblock all growth tips but no more. Do not lolipop the plant or remove any buds or growth tips no matter how small.

Then here is where all this oddness comes into play. Two to 3 weeks before harvest, I do it when I start the 2 week flush, defoliate heavily. You want no buds touching each other. You want no leaves touching each other, and you want all the plants getting wind. I have 6 fans in my one 4x4 tent atm. All of this is just to prevent bud rot or mold.

Now the extra weed is now in your hands. When you lolipop you will get alot of popcorn bud. When you defoliate you will get leaves with trichomes galore. Save this they are pretty stout if you have run out of smoke. You can smoke it all. Just think big blunts. But I make hash or make caps out of the popcorn bud. This is also when I take my cuttings. Since it's in flower I remove the bud and it takes about 5 days longer to get on track but works.

Today I did the autos and 1 of the photo plants. It takes a very long time to do lots of plants. I'll have help tomorrow. Here are pics of before and after. Some are repeats of above just didnt want you guys to have to scroll back and forth.
Before


After

Before

After

After



Now no worries about bud rot or mold as long as the fans are going. And the smaller bids are getting full sun so will double in size in 2 weeks. In the winter I dont do this because the humidity is low. Next I'll post the start of the photos which are real easy to see even though none are finished.

Before



The pic below is after look how much was removed. If I had done this at week 3 after flip I would loathe out on 7 ounces of useable material already. And about 12 more between leaves and popcorn on 4 plants plus the back of that one. And now the plant will go into survival/hurry up mode and make more bud than normal. At least it has worked for me.
After

After

You can see before below and after above. The amount of popcorn bud per plant on defol is about 2 to 3 ounces. Will probably be another half ounce when done. But most of the buds that are still left will turn into respectable size buds

Before


they still have at least a day or two of work to go. I have gotten 35 clones, and popcorn bud when dried would be about 48 grams. The trichome covered leaves would be about 100 grams dry. I suspect the popcorn from the whole tent will be 12 ounces dried. The leaves alot more. I can make 100s of clones if I wanted to.

But I freeze the mj to use for hash or other things.

Anyways that works for me. Only one person teaches that and he is on one of the alternate defoliating pages on GWE. I just changed it to harvest the lower stuff and defoliate at flush on my own. And 12 ounces of popcorn is alot. That's why I dont count it in my total. It wouldnt be fair. I wanna win with top shelf bud. Oh here is a picture showing the height of the photos.



And here are the popcorn buds I leave of they now have light. They turn into respectable buds.

[oldjarhead100]

I have been thinking that cutting off those lower buds will increase the size of the buds left because they can focus more energy on them , Hmmm I think next grow inside I will do both and see what happens

[Spidermite]

oldjarhead100 it rreally works. It's still about 2 weeks to harvest and I already have engrams of if decent looking bud from yesterday and today. That is figuring they will weight 20 percent of the original weight. And as you saw the buds today would not be considered popcorn buds by many hone growers.

[MmmHmmml3]

Great post, very helpful

[Spidermite]

Wouldnt let me post all the pics. Here are more to help get an idea.The weight of the popcorn and trichome leaves while wet.



.

This is the size popcorn bud I leave to mature.

These are the size popcorn I leave to fill out to respectable size buds. Below is a plant that I havent touched yet. Look at all of and the size of the popcorn.


I will post pics when done. Hope I didnt bore you guys. The last pic hasnt been defoled yet. You can see why I worry about mold and bud rot.

[Spellbound]

Michigan... And that has to be a dream job, man.

Thats seriously what would make me happy- being able to farm/homestead. have some animals. Right now my wife and I live in a city but I grew up in the country and thats where we plan to retire.

Its all off topic but I dont really believe that man was meant to live the way we currently do and its showing up in a stressed and mentally unwell populace. We've deviated too far from the land imho- And I'm one who loves our modern convenience, technology and generally easy lifestyles. But somethings certainly missing.

[Rwise]

For a job like that I could go back to work,,,,

[Spidermite]

Yes I'm medically retired. But I love plants and animals. So went into farming. First crops to help feed the needy. Now hemp to make cbd products and for biomass. Plus for every acre we farm we get paid by FedEx to help offset their carbon footprint. So it's a sweet thing to do.

[Spidermite]

20190719_025359.jpg Ok I have alot going on. Here is our cbd/hemp farm. The greenhouse isnt ready yet. It also has a blackout cover so we can switch to 12/12

[ocgreen]

Sounds like you're living the dream Spidermite. My wife and I plan to sell our home in the city when mortgage is up in 2 years and go buy a chunk of land in the country; get a similar setup going. Goodbye corporate world and hello sunshine! Hope the greenhouse setup goes smoothly.

[Spidermite]

Well even with the greenhouse not completely buttoned up it withstood the 75mph winds we had from the tropical depression that hit here. I'm just curious to see how hard the blackout cover is to put on a greenhouse that big.

[ocgreen]

Are you going with one of the type where the blackout cover/roof can open/close via motor? I saw one on a show called cannacribs or something similar and it looked amazing.

[Spidermite]

ocgreen well more pics just for you. I will post the photos when I'm done defoliating to prevent mold and bud rot due to the high humidity.

HappyDaze the name you are using is a trip. Our tree farm is Called "The Happy Days Tree Farm."

Hope that info helps someone. I wish someone else would at least try it and see if they get more of both popcorn, useable trim, and especially more top shelf buds using that method. Maybe it just works for me but it sure does work for me.

[s62]

I will be using that technique for my next grow. I am a bit confused about it, though. Do I still prune off suckers, or do I leave ALL growth (well, except the fan leaves obviously)?

[Spidermite]

Leave all the growth even suckers until the last 2 to 3 weeks. If it's really humid go ahead and remove the leaves at week 3 then the popcorn at 2 weeks. That week will make a difference in the total weight.

But yes the only thing you remove until the plant is ready to start the flush are the leaves blocking growth tips. Even try to get some light down to the suckers. So basically you will only be removing the upper leaves, an any leaves that are fighting for the same spot(overlapping )

Does that help?

[s62]

It does, thanks!

[ocgreen]

Ran out of time before I could finish but started defoliating:



That's a lot of leaf!

Hope I'm doing this right. Worried this will stunt or hermie them but have to trust the experts!

[MmmHmmml3]

I thought you aren't suppose to take but a small amount off at a time. Does this change based on where the plant is at? For example maybe only remove 10% or less of leaves at once during veg, but defoliate at the switch has different rules and will be fine to clip it all at once?

[ocgreen]

MmmHmmml3 I thought the same but trying some techniques I see others are using. I will post updates so you can see what happens either way

[MmmHmmml3]

Sounds good, keep us updated. I'll try it on my next plant, it could def save some time

[MmmHmmml3]

Just a few photos of Lavender F23ish. So much frosty goodness all over those leaves. It's exciting seeing this one develop. Looks like still a way to go, but those leaves are making a nice thick layer of trichs.

Should I worry about the very tip of several leaves curling down? You can see a few of them in the photos. Plant keeps developing so I figure it's a non issue. It shouldn't be light being too close and no discoloration on the tips.

[Spidermite]

Looks good. Love the trichomes.

[s62]

Great looking frost!

[oldjarhead100]

Love the frost on them

[Canuck147]

Think Big - day 80. - according to seed producers I got about 3 weeks more - she has been very slowly building up her buds. - but has been very thirsty lately - watering every second day.

[Colombo]

She looks real pretty glistening in the sun Canuck147 ! Soon you will get the sag (weight) from those nice buds. Nice ODG ! Good Growing !!

[Canuck147]

Thanks - patience is everything - we're finally going to get some warm sunny weather this weekend.