What's up, Weed Lovers and Canna-Fam!?
It's #WeedWednesday again, which means it's time for another Grow Update! Last week I realized that I had stunted my Autoflower plants and they had started flowering at only a few inches tall. I'll admit that this was a little upsetting, but I wasn't going to let it ruin my plans for this outdoor grow!
I decided to let the autoflowers go for the weekend just to see if they would stretch anymore at all or not. Unfortunately, the Novakane was definitely flowering, which is sad to see, but it's kind of cute at the same time to see such a small plant growing a top bud.
The Grape Gorilla Poison didn't seem to be flowering at the time, but I knew it was only a matter of time before it would. Since last week, this strain definitely entered the flowering stage and started growing the top bud, although it's not as far along as the Novakane.
I'm definitely not one to waste anything, especially weed, so instead of pitching these girls into the garbage bin, I put them into small planter pots to finish up. I've always thought that growing a “bonsai weed tree” would be pretty neat, and it looks like I'll get the opportunity to do so!
Grape Gorilla Poison "Bonsai Bud"
I'm really not expecting anything worthwhile from these small plants, but watching them flower is a neat and interesting experience that I couldn't pass up! The “Bonsai Buds” are currently doing well underneath the indoor grow light they started under, which is where they will stay until they are finished!
Novakane "Bonsai Bud"
The photoperiod plants seem to be doing really well so far in comparison to the autos. Both of these girls will be two months old next week, so we're chugging right along in the vegetative stage until the time changes and the days start getting shorter again.
The Lemon Kush is by far my favorite of the two photos, even with its 3 leaf mutation. It's a very beautiful plant, and it seems to be growing at a steady pace with vibrant new growth forming all over. I'm curious if this mutation will have any negative side effects moving forward, especially when it starts forming buds, but hopefully I’m just overthinking it!
The Northern Lights x Perfect Circle looks good too, just not as tall as the Lemon Kush plant, but it's starting to change colors a little bit on the newest sets of leaves. It almost resembles a fall fade, so I'm wondering if this specific plant will be a phenotype that grows colored leaves. I'm not sure what the Perfect Circle strain looked like on its own, but I imagine that the Northern Lights strain would be a very colorful plant, so I'm very curious to see what this girl will look like in the later stages of her development!
So far I haven't really done anything special to the photos except for adding some used coffee grounds for a boost of nitrogen last week. This week, I stripped the bottom-most set of leaves from both plants to encourage more top growth and I also started to mound the soil around the base of the plant to encourage more root development. I plan on adding compost to the buckets in the near future just to fill up the container all the way to the top, which I'm hoping will provide beneficial nutrients to the soil for these beauties!
Lemon Kush stripped area (Brown line on stem)
Northern Lights x Perfect Circle stripped area
Close up of stripped area (small brown dot on stem)
Last week I mentioned that I would probably start germinating new seeds to replace the autoflowers that I seem to have failed. So a few hours ago I decided to finally start germinating one more seed of the Novakane and Grape Gorilla Poison Autoflower strains.
With only a 90-95 day estimated harvesting date, I should definitely have enough time to get them finished up before the end of the outdoor season! This time I will be planting them directly into the 2 gallon grow bags instead of attempting another transplant, which should hopefully prevent the stunted growth I just experienced.
I will also be waiting to add any nutrients to the soil until they start flowering or unless there are any visible signs of deficiencies. These specific Autoflower strains were bred to be heavy nutrient feeders, so it will be interesting to see what happens using the homemade “natural/organic” sources of liquid macronutrients that I’ll be providing!
Unfortunately I still have quite a bit of research to do on that topic, but I am in the process of creating a list of various household food items that can be used as mobile nutrient fertilizers and soil amendments.
I do plan on sharing this information with everyone here in the Canna-Curate community, so if there are any specific nutrients you would like to see on this list, please feel free to let me know!
Anyways, I think that about does it for this one! Thank you all for joining me on this adventure, and I hope to see you on the next one! ✌🏼💚