Auto Grow: La Bella Afrodita

[JeffInCanada]

Greeting GWE Forums!
First a brief introduction...my name is Jeff and I live in Canada :bashful: I have been growing cannabis off and on for about 10 years. Everything that I have learned so far has been self-taught or learned from reading and researching. I thought that I could learn more in this forum. I welcome all feedback and suggestions. I always just grow one plant at a time (mostly autos) in a grow cabinet that I have made myself.
This time I am growing La Bella Afrodita from Delicious Seeds. It is an autoflower.

Seed: La Bella Afrodita from Delicious Seeds: a cross between our own Il Diavolo with AK47 Auto.
Growing Medium: Promix Veg & Herb soilless mix with Perlite (72% soilless mix, 28% Perlite)
Lights: Two LED lights bars installed in a old 2 foot fluorescent fixture with a bunch of CFL bulbs hanging from it.
Nutrients: GH Flora Series

Put the seed in a glass of warm water for 12 hours. Then planted seed directly in the soilless mix. 2 days later it sprouted. Medium was wetted to saturation with PH'd tap water before seed was planted. 6.3 PH- 165 ppm.
Why not follow along and give me pointers as I go? Thanks!

 

[SoOrbudgal]

Hello from Oregon and welcome real nice grow box ya got there. Certainly got the light show going and enough head space. Are you going to train her, top her?

 

[JeffInCanada]

Hello from Oregon and welcome real nice grow box ya got there. Certainly got the light show going and enough head space. Are you going to train her, top her?

Hi SoOrbudgal,
Thanks for the reply :big-smile: Well, funny you should ask about training. I am going to try LSTing this plant. I have read about it and I am pretty sure I understand the concept and how to do it. But, I was thinking of just LSTing but not topping. It seems to me that topping is a little more advanced and I thought I'd just try and LST this time, see how it goes.

 

[Canuck147]

Hey JeffInCanada - which province are you residing in? BC for me. I love autoflowers - that's all I grow. Have 6 going right now.

I usually only top my plants - I always wait for the sixth node to get going then chop it off. I don't usually LST unless one is growing out of control then I try to corral it under control.
Good luck on your growing.

 

[JeffInCanada]

Hi Canuck147, Ontario for me. BC is beautiful! Interesting that you top but not LST unless the plant get out of control. I'm still leaning to only LST for this plant but I'm going to do more reading on topping. I know GWE has a great article about this for autos. Perhaps I will give it a try. Thanks for the reply!!

 

[quirk]

Very squared away one plant grow area. Nice and concentrated. Good luck with your LST. I'm a big proponent of training autos.

 

[JeffInCanada]

Thanks quirk
Appreciate you posting. Thanks for the LST pic too. I'll post pics as I go. If you could stop by from time to time to provide any feedback I sure would appreciate it.

 

[JeffInCanada]

8 Days
First feeding on day 8: (0.3 ml/L FloraMicro- 0.3 ml/L FloraGrow- 0.6 ml/L Calimagic): 413 ppm, PH 6.6.
I am going to try and follow the GWE watering guide and GH Floratrio application guide.
Current lighting: mix of LED & CFL- total wattage 71 watts.

 

[SoOrbudgal]

@JefflnCanada i see no pics they did not show up? Or is it my view?

 

[JeffInCanada]

SoOrbudgal Hmmm...that's weird. They show ok on my feed. I'll try editing it and see what happens.

 

[SoOrbudgal]

I see them now OK. May i suggest do be cautious about over watering this young. Otherwise she looks very healthy now

 

[JeffInCanada]

SoOrbudgal Thanks for the heads-up regarding the photos. Much appreciated :smile: Thanks for the watering advice as well. The plant seems to be taking the watering well. The soil has good drainage. I will let the soil dry out now until it is dry enough to water again.

 

[JeffInCanada]

16 Days
Second watering with plain PH'd tap water. PH 6.4, PPM 168. Total lighting wattage 267 watts.
Coming along ok I think. There is some waviness to the first set of leaves after the cotyledons. And there is some light green speckling on the first set of fans leaves (see close-up). Not sure what that is all about but she seems healthy otherwise. I'll keep an eye on it.

 

[Canuck147]

Did you transplant into coco? Those cfl's need to be closer.

 

[JeffInCanada]

Canuck147
No, just added the clay pellets as a cover to the soilless mix. I won the clay pellets from my local grow shop. I didn't really need them but I read that you can use them as sort of a lid to your soil.

 

[JeffInCanada]

21 Days
We have female preflowers . They showed up on day 19.
LST Question: I was planning on LSTing this plant. Not topping, just LSTing but...the main stem is very rigid. It's stiff as...well.....it's pretty stiff. I am sure that it will not bend without breaking. The top of the stem is a little more flexible but really not tall enough to bend it over much. What are my options? Wait for a while, see if the plant will grow taller and remain flexible enough to bend? Are some plant just not good candidates for LSTing?

 

[JeffInCanada]

22 Days
I did my 1st LST, it was a little nerve-wrecking. I bent it over a far as I could. I thought the main stem was going to snap...but it didn't :smile:
Looks like the Lilliputians tying down Gulliver

Ok, now...I'm trying to keep an even canopy right?

 

[JeffInCanada]

29 Days
Seven days after the LST I think it's going pretty good. I had to trim some a lot of fan leaves off to open up the light to lower bud shoots. Most of the larger older fan leaves are at the bottom out of the way now. I'm think maybe another defoliation may be in order. Any tips of how to keep things in order are welcome. She is really growing fast now.

 

[SoOrbudgal]

LOL she's a beauty i got nothing to add keep doing what your doing.

 

[JeffInCanada]

LOL she's a beauty i got nothing to add keep doing what your doing.

Thanks SoOrbudgal I appreciate it