The AutoToka grow....first auto... 2nd grow!

[TOKABIGONE]

Week 8 update:
This is week 8 plus 2 days and finally an indication of plant aging in the lower fan leaves. Saw 1 two days ago now about 3 on each girl. Left lady stretched the most but her colas are spread so they are mostly bud clusters 1 inch to 3 inch dia. Right lady is more squat with 6 inch colas 3 inches in diameter at the butt. Kinda cone shaped. Mostly white pistils, just a little visible sugar and about 25% cloudy. my guess is 4 weeks yet but I don't really know autos but this is in line with what I read. Tallest colas are about 14 inches from dirt. SEven inches in 10 days.I'm looking or cloudy with just a few amber. If I get shimmering, flowing colors in my head they will be just right!



Flash only makes pretty pictures!
Seven inches growth in 10 days!

[Farmbuck]

Congrats sir you are now an official auto grower..! Go with your guts and knowledges. They are fat little ones eh ?

[TOKABIGONE]

64 days from sprout today:
So the fade to the end is in full swing now. Green and vibrant until 3 days ago when I noticed 1 yellow leaf then next day 2 or 3 on each plant and today there are several so it's on! I'm still amazed how quickly these mature. I'm still pretty sure they are both Maui auto even tho very diff in structure and color. Short, fat and healthy green vs taller, lankier and dark green. Still have used no chemical nutes nor pHed the water or nutes input. The soil with microbes are regulating the pH with no issues ever this grow. I gave them their last supper today with cast tea, salmon emulsion, recharge mychorissae (sp) with molasses to feed them.

[SoOrbudgal]

Little frosty forest of weed i want to face plant just for few breaths, smell the scent of your green. Yep those are lovely

[TOKABIGONE]

Thanks Farmbuck and SoOrbudgal, High compliments from 2 very experienced growers who have earned my respect! yes Budgal, you will have to do that for me as I said before I have no sense of smell. None, zip, nada...drives me nuts! My good friend BU2B visited the other day and said they smelled great but not really discernible from several feet away from the cabinet which is out on the back screen porch. Sorta did some name dropping there but just so you know I have connections with the royalty here, lol!

[Farmbuck]

LOLLLL I would not consider myself an experience grower..! I'm just an old grower who like to grow exotic plants lolllll

[SoOrbudgal]

LOL oh please make me blush what a wonderful gang of growers we have. I've lost touch with a few, it happens but to be able to put a live face in front of you after chitty chatting for such a long time well i for one cant wait to meet up with some folks on here. Mexico is becomming closer to me.

[Farmbuck]

Mexico ?? Really ?? SoOrbudgal if you need tips on Mexico we are here to help you mi amiga..!

[TOKABIGONE]

The first couple shots are from yesterday and today just to show how quickly the color can change. Then a few tric shots which show a lot of cloudy, some clear yet and less than 1% amber. They look very much on track for my liking which is all cloudy with little amber. 2 or 3 more weeks maybe?

Next day: I cut a small nugget so I could get a more stable shot of trics. Much better IMO.

[Farmbuck]

Great shots of your trichomes sir. Yeah not much of ambers in there hey ?

[TOKABIGONE]

Farmbuck I was hoping you might notice that as I remember you being so surprised when you saw cloudy so quickly but amber took awhile. It seems autos are so quick about everything except amber. Maybe this is an auto thing? We don't know, were newbs! I on the other hand

don't want much amber, but for sure all cloudy. That is the rub I think. Without a really clear shot in good focus it can be difficult to determine clear from cloudy. They are actually much more clear on my 4 year old Android than my 5 YO Windows 7 laptop but still you must look carefully everywhere. My scope is bluetooth connected to the phone then downloaded through email to my laptop..
They are both auto Maui but obviously very diff phenos, same age but one is being quicker than the other. Right now I'm guessing 2-3 more weeks on quicker one and 3-4 on the other. The tric shots are from the faster one.

[TOKABIGONE]

Not a lot of frosty but they are sticky and firm! I cut a small sample bud from the bottom side of the main cola and crossed the tipping point. It flopped over from weight. I guess that's good and bad! Good cuz it's very heavy and bad cuz it can't support itself anymore. I can tell by lifting it that it's heavy!

[TOKABIGONE]

maybe a 10 ton crane?

[Puglover1]

No yo-yos?

[TOKABIGONE]

Sorry Puglover1 no yo yos, lol! It's fine with a stake to prop it up. No real problem. I cut a bud from the bottom of the largest cola so it lost it's balance I guess. Kinda floppy without the stake but it will be fine for a couple weeks till I chop off her head.

[TOKABIGONE]

Week 10 plus 5 days update:

Checked on the ladies and took a few more tric shots. my guess 85% cloudy, 10%still clear, 5% amber so they're coming along slowly it seems to me. Autos are fast to this point and then seem to take awhile to finish, right Farmbuck? At 90 % cloudy, they're coming down. There are several small cola budlets lower down so I will take the tops and let the lowers go a little longer. Gotta remember to date them while drying and jarring to keep them separate.
I found my tric scope and with it a pair of snippers from last harvest with a lot of dried scissor hash so I just fired it up. If I don't finish this post for awhile you know why!



A little later.....
Measuring tape sez tallest top is 17 inches from dirt or 7 in from top to clear stem where I will make first cut with buds on that stem still growing below. I have 7 on left lady that size 1 1/2 to 2 in diameter and twice that in smaller which will go on as long as possible. Right lady is squatter with eight 4 to 6" in colas, 2 to 3" in dia. and a whole litter of pups! If I get 3 oz each I will make it to next harvest (photo). I'm hoping to surprise myself of course with 4 each but we always take what we get and it's all good!

[Farmbuck]

Beautiful girls you have sir. I have 2 GG4 girls left so this is it, the end of my first full autos grow. I'm hoping they will give me at least over 1.5 ounces each. Now the Amnesia Haze and one GG4 are drying. Once they are all dried up I will take a final weight before I jarred them to their final destination.

If my calculation is correct the grow took at least 92 days from germination.

Don't worry sir I'm confident you'll reach your 3 ounces. And yes you are completely right, they are fast in veg but slow in flower.

[SoOrbudgal]

Looking good there little more time and you'll be using a clothes line soon

[TOKABIGONE]

Thank you SoOrbudgal, yes but I won't rush them either. Still a few too many clear as my goal is all cloudy with little amber. I'll do a 2 stage harvest so smaller buds can go as far as possible.
My good friend Jim (you know him) gifted me enough to get by so I'm a happy camper

[Puglover1]

Wow, Toka, I thought you would've been hanging colas by now but those plants look beautiful. Nice macro shots. If looks matter I think you have some quality bud there. I did a tops then bottoms later harvest on 3 photos a year ago, I think it was worth it. The bottoms didn't get as purple but they cured the same color and work just fine in joints. Are those colas as hard as they look? They're fatties. I'm getting jelly, even if they are autos.

[TOKABIGONE]

Hey Puglover1 thank you dear lady! Kind words! I will admit that I'm pretty proud of what I've done on this grow. Yes the colas are very firm and sticky. 1 1/2" to 3" in diameter and 4 to 7" long with many more good size buds below. This grow was intended to be an experiment to create a soil
with a coir base and all natural dry amendments and a strong microbial colony to support the root system and is able to regulate the pH without checking or adjusting it, completely naturally. Of course it had to also enable healthy plants that will produce a far better crop than normal in size and potentcy. The proof will be in the dry weight and effect. I used plain tap water that runs high at 7.5 to 8 pH without ever checking or adjusting both water and nutes. I fed with no chemical nutes, only casting tea, fish emulsion and unsulfered molasses in flower, water only for almost 4 weeks. My 1 previous grow was a constant pH chase and trying to read the plants to diagnose problems so this has been an eye opening experience and a really fun grow. Not one leaf ever showed any sign of an issue. I am amazed by this and like every grow I know I can do better and refine this more as time goes on. Going forward I will grow landrace photos for seed with an occasional auto for fun. I know there must be more growers doing this or very similar such as UndergroundFarmer so I hope eventually I will hear from some.

[TOKABIGONE]

So I did it...15 biggest colas cut and hanging in my 2nd bath tub with a humidifier running to keep RH in the 50s. There are still a total of 42 healthy buds on the plants to see if they add more weight. I figure about 3 oz dry now hanging. Maybe another 3 from the remaining buds when I cut them so I think I'll get my 6 oz or a little more.




Bottom left cut 8 Bottom right cut 7

I will continue to feed and water the rest just to see if they will add any more weight!
Now the really difficult part starts...waiting for cure!
BTW they are very firm and don't even think about trying to squeeze one...you'll never get it off your hands unless you make Charas hash!

There are still a good number of white pistils up and down the buds so they are still actively swelling in hopes of pollenation so adding weight.

[BU2B]

Very nice Job and still more to come! Happy Holly-Daze indeed. 🎄

[TOKABIGONE]

Thanks BU2B You are the one who showed me it's ok to question and try new approaches without fear of screwing up. Question everything!

[TOKABIGONE]

My shower/drying room with humidifier seems to be working well. Buds feel less moist but still pliable and not crispy so I'm on track with it. I hope to stay in the 40% to 50% range of RH. Ambient RH is helping today at current 52% but that changes quickly in N AZ! Just say No to too fast drying! A week to jar time at 58%

[TOKABIGONE]

Pugs I'm glad you got your booster. I will be soon but I'm 35 miles from town so I have to plan a town trip around availability. If we could convince the idiot resisters to be vac we could defeat this menace in 6 months!

[TOKABIGONE]

Puglover1 Hi, I got shot today twice! Covid in left, flu in right. The right one is sore and the covid is fine.

[Puglover1]

TOKABIGONE Glad you got shot! I think my booster is still largely sitting in the muscle. Hardly much effect and it feels swollen still, same arm but different spot. I hate to tell a nurse where to give a shot but this was not typical. They wanna give me the flu shot, the pneumonia shot, I wanna know why I got rhabdomyolysis first. I refuse flu shots, pneumonia I'll wait until I get today's chest CT report. Glad you're feeling OK, you have plant bottoms to nurture.

[TOKABIGONE]

Here's a few more harvest shots and the ladies growing ever onward I hope. There is still some viable green growth at the bottom but I don't think there's a way to reveg an auto. I wish I had seeds from the larger pheno. That is a great plant!

[TOKABIGONE]

I'm having an issue with uploading pics to my laptop so none for this update. The first harvest is drying nicely in my little bathroom where I can keep the temp in the 60's and RH mid 40's with my swamp cooler on periodically so much more controlled dry than last time when they went crispy overnite. The second harvest got a feeding because the leaves are still about 1/2 green. Trics are mostly all cloudy but still little amber so I'm just being patient with them a few more days. I'm in soil so I won't flush, just one more water and chop. There's more weight there!
Oh and the bigger one is showing some color, just a hint of purple and tan mix. Tent temp is at 60 degrees at nite and lights are still 24/0. I'm thinking to put them dark for a couple days before I cut the rest. I want to get the first harvest in the jar before I cut these to hang.

I'm boosted and flu proofed today! Flu is sore, covid nothing.

[BU2B]

Congratulations on your first ever auto grow my friend. Vax coming up for us soon. I hope your sore arm isn’t the one you use to pat yourself on the back. Nice Job!

[TOKABIGONE]

Thank you sir! Actually in the middle of the night I couldn't sleep cuz both arms were so sore. They are feeling better now. Don't worry, I won't break my arm patting. I have a ways to go for that. Maybe with your continued tutelage, lol!

[Bowhunterwoody]

Congrats on the boost. Had mine on Thursday. All good.

[TOKABIGONE]

It is finished! Power is off, Cabinet is dark. First harvest is going in the jar and second will sit dark a couple days then cut and hang. Cloudy now but still not much amber which suits me fine. The larger gal has a little purple in the leaves. Night time temps were at 60 degrees.



What's next? Clean up the cabinet and dump the soil on the floor to mix in fresh amendments and repot. I want to start my regulars for seed but they come from GB or Spain and I hate dealing with that.

Took down hanging buds to jar up w/Boveda and a small hygrometer to monitor pH. Total dry weight was about half what I hoped but as we all say, I can do better. I'm confident of that as I know my diy soil mix was missing a few important nutes. They never exhibited any real issues with a vivid medium green all over throughout. 2 very diff phenos of Auto Maui. Size, structure, growth rate, color were all different. I THINK they were both same strain but will never know. Buying seed online sucks as I hear a lot about poor quality control in packaging and shipping. Soon I will get to the point where it will behoove me to grow my own from my own! I violated a lot of the rules during this grow such as never checking pH cuz I knew it was taken care of. And topping plus lst which is supposed to be a no no. Also going forward my focus will be photo landrace strains with an occasional auto thrown in the back for flavor. I'll report a final dry weight when ready. Thanks to everybody involved on GWE for all the info, advise and encouragement through all of it! I'll be back! Farmbuck it has been a really fun grow. Thanks for your encouragement! It was a time filler for me until the heat cooled off to start my photos. You are gonna run away to Mexico...Maybe if they unlock the gates! I can't wait to drop seeds again!

[Farmbuck]

Congratulations sir on your first and hope not your last autos grow, They are auto-fun to grow hey ? Mine are all jarred up and my dry weight is 21.5 ounces in total including the Beast. Yeah I wish I could say I'm escaping the harsh Canadian winter for Yucatan but our stupid Prime Minister is imposing more bloody rules for entering the country. WTF it's easier for others to enter Canada than a Canadian !!! Go figure !! Now it's 50/50 so if I can't then I'll start a photo grow in February.

Again TOKABIGONE well done !

[UndergroundFarmer]

Oh yes....the joy of finally getting to drop more seeds! Buying from Europe gets to be a pain in the ass especially when there are such good genetics to be had from the states that were early adopters of legal weed. Nice job getting that much from autos! I might play around with the few auto seeds I've got left by putting them outside next April or so. The thrill of home grown eventually fades but then there's always dispensary weed to remind me of how good I've got it. I shall now partake a bit of my own harvest in your honor.