Sweet Seeds Femme Fatales: Red Poison, Dark Devil, Ice Cool, Cream Caramel, and Gorilla Girl XL Autos

[Shumroom]

Congratulations 

 

Atb 

 

 

[jadenugs]

Nice growing dude and great macro shots  

 

Congratz on grower of the month, very well deserved, KUTGW  

[delagdo]

@Dov1 @Shumroom @jadenugs Thank you very much for looking at my diary and leaving nice comments, and thank you ever so much again to Sweet Seeds 

[delagdo]

Flowering: Dark Devil Auto

Here’s a few pictures focussing mostly on the trichomes as the plants near full ripeness. I was considering starting the 48-hour flush and harvesting this week, the calyxes look nice and swollen at the top of all of the plants, and some of the leaves are in quite a poor state. However, I looked closely at the trichomes over the past few days and decided they could do with slightly longer.

Dark Devil Auto is the youngest but has developed the fastest throughout the grow, so it is no surprise the trichomes are starting to turn first.  I would say the majority are cloudy, and there are more and more red and amber appearing, clear trichomes are in a minority.

Dark Devil Auto, day 62

Dark Devil Auto, day 62

Some patches are looking very ripe:

Dark Devil Auto, day 62

A few more pictures from the next day:

Dark Devil Auto, day 63

Dark Devil Auto, day 63

I have a new favourite photo I have taken this grow. I’m really lucky with the background colours naturally complimenting the subject so well:

Dark Devil Auto, day 63

She’s pretty much done. There’s a bit of fluffy stuff lower down which isn’t quite as developed or swollen but it doesn’t amount to much. I will start the flush very soon for Dark Devil Auto, and harvest at the weekend.

Here’s a couple of budshots from earlier today. The main cola:

Dark Devil Auto, day 64

The top of a sidebranch:

Dark Devil Auto, day 64

[delagdo]

Flowering: Ice Cool Auto

Ice Cool Auto flowers appear very ripe and fat to the naked eye, but when I look closely at the trichomes I see the majority are turning from clear to cloudy, so will still be producing cannabinoids and increasing in strength, with a lower number that are fully mature.

Ice Cool Auto, day 64

Ice Cool Auto, day 64

Ice Cool Auto, day 64

I’ve been trying to use some extension tubes I bought for the camera, which let you to get even closer to the subject. They are fiddly to use, the shots are more difficult to set up, light, focus, and process afterwards, and there is a little bit of loss of image quality, but they’ve allowed me to get as near as this:

Ice Cool Auto, day 64

Ice Cool Auto, day 64

 

Here’s the main cola – the leaves are browning and curling up, due to the close proximity to the lamp:

Ice Cool Auto, day 67

The foliage is a bit healthier and much more green lower down. Here’s a sidebranch:

Ice Cool Auto, day 67

[delagdo]

Flowering: Cream Caramel Auto

Cream Caramel Auto is in a very similar position to Ice Cool Auto, I would say the trichomes are ever so slightly ahead and a few more have reached full ripeness, but there appears to be plenty still clouding up.

Cream Caramel Auto, day 65

Cream Caramel Auto, day 65

Looking with the naked eye seems to tell the opposite story, where Cream Caramel looks ever so slightly behind Ice Cool Auto with more white pistils remaining, especially lower down the plant.

This is the main cola, including some now very ratty leaves:

Cream Caramel Auto, day 67

The sidebranches look only slightly more healthy:

Cream Caramel Auto, day 67

[delagdo]

Flowering: Gorilla Girl XL Auto

I think Gorilla Girl XL Auto is a little less ripe than the others, but not far behind. There are definitely lots of cloudy trichomes visible, and some turning brown and amber, but a higher proportion remain clear. I do not have many trichome shots of Gorilla Girl XL Auto. I don’t want to move her at all while I am shooting the timelapse video, and it’s not possible to set up the camera tripod and flashes in the tent.

The calyxes are getting nice and very swollen at the top, but lower down this process is still ongoing. The pistils are orange at the tips of the buds, but looking across the plant the majority are still white.

I managed to take a handheld shot which didn’t come out great, but illustrates the appearance and density of trichomes:

Gorilla Girl XL Auto, day 66

Here’s the main cola:

Gorilla Girl XL Auto, day 67

This is a bud on a sidebranch:

Gorilla Girl XL Auto, day 66

Bud growing up the tripod, like ivy wrapping round an old cottage:

Gorilla Girl XL Auto, day 66

Temperature has usually been around 22°C at the canopy, up to a maximum of 24°C and minimum of 20°C over the past five days. The air temperature reached 26°C at the top of the tent but is more often about 23-24°C with the lights on. Humidity has ranged between 36% and 53% and is typically low to mid 40s.

It’s become too much of a squeeze to get all four plants in the tent, so since Sunday I’ve been keeping just three at a time, rotating the Dark Devil Auto, Ice Cool Auto and Cream Caramel Auto. Two will be in the tent with the Gorilla Girl XL Auto, whist the final one takes a break and stands outside the tent. I am swapping them round twice a day – mid-way through the light cycle, then again during lights off. 

This was the tent last night:

Gorilla Girl XL Auto, Cream Caramel Auto (both day 66), Dark Devil Auto (day 63)

This is how it looked this morning, when I had swapped the plants around:

Gorilla Girl XL Auto, Ice Cool Auto, Cream Caramel Auto (all day 67)

It’s not ideal but it means that across three days, those plants are under the light for 40 hours instead of 60, i.e. an average of 13 and a third hours a day. It also allows the light to better reach those lower parts. I might be concerned about hermies if I did this earlier in the grow, messing with the light cycle, but at this late point it’s not a worry. I will keep the Dark Devil Auto out of the tent permanently very soon, and the rest won't be much further behind.

Thanks for looking! 

Edited March 17, 2021 by delagdo

[jadenugs]

Lovely fat buds mate and your trichome shots look beaut   

 

It's inspirational to see your skills with Sweet Seeds autos. I've grown 3 SAD autos a few years ago and they did ok to say I'm useless with autos  I'd love to grow some like these though, you've defo brought those trichomes out nicely  

[delagdo]

@jadenugs That's very kind of you. I do love to grow autos. Once I saw the speed and quality that was possible from a decent breeder like Sweet Seeds I was sold - they are perfect for my needs. My technique and schedule have been built over the years and repeated grows. Recording attempts here has been really helpful in doing this. I have more ideas to improve things, particularly towards the end of the grow.

[delagdo]

Bonsai Surprise & Merchandising Competition

I have a little surprise to reveal. Back at the start of the grow I had a few problems with seeds, and I restarted my Dark Devil Auto, which is why it is a few days younger than the rest of the gang. I really wanted to grow some colourful cannabis this time, so I actually soaked two seeds back then. They both cracked just fine, both within 24 hours in fact. One went into the tent, but I didn’t want to just throw away the other.

I decided to keep her on a windowsill in a shotglass. I put the seed in an old Root Riot cube which had dried out, but I rehydrated with nutrient solution. I simply kept it moist with whatever strength and ratio the plants in the tent were getting, I didn’t give her any other attention until this weekend when I took pictures. It’s a spot which would get a couple of hours of sunshine if it was sunny, though we haven’t had much of that recently.

She’s looking lovely. She has all her leaves still, even the cotyledons, although they have turned brown. The fan leaves all have three fingers, the largest of would just about stretch across a 50p piece. She’s only made it to four nodes but everything is there - she’s fully formed with calyxes, pistils and trichomes as you can see in the pictures taken today, 68 days from sprouting.

She is 14cm tall, if you don't include the pot (18 cm if you do). Nearly ready for harvest - possibly a full Vapcap, at least a half 

I thought she would be a great prop to use in the merchandising competition. I really like this mini-contest that Sweet Seeds run, I think it’s one of those nice little touches that helps give the company a personality and shows a true love of cannabis beyond the business side of things. I had a lot of fun trying to think of an entry using the various bags, t-shirts, stickers, badges, catalogues, grinders and other nice bits and pieces I have collected. I decided to set up a ‘trichome inspection station’ and came up with this - Inspector Ganja:

 

 

“Go Go Ganja Magnifiers… Let’s see... Wowsers! Go Go Ganja Vapes!”

[delagdo]

Flowering

I have a few quick pictures I took of each plant today, as the plants approach harvest. Cream Caramel Auto is looking nice and chunky now. The leaves at the top are scabby but they are still lush lower down:

Cream Caramel Auto, day 71

Cream Caramel Auto, day 71

Cream Caramel Auto, day 71

Ice Cool Auto is a smaller plant but the buds look nice and dense now too. Like Cream Caramel Auto, the leaves at the top look faded and unhealthy, but there’s more green lower down, and some nice red now:

Ice Cool Auto, day 71

Ice Cool Auto, day 71

Ice Cool Auto, day 71

Ice Cool Auto, day 71

 

[growinggold]

Really nice idea with the merchandise mate. Proper original.  Great photos as ever.

Edited March 21, 2021 by growinggold

[delagdo]

Flowering contd.

Gorilla Girl XL Auto has faded fast over the past few days, with very rapid degradation of leaves at the top of the plant.

Gorilla Girl XL Auto, day 71

 

Gorilla Girl XL Auto, day 71

She is absolutely laden with frosty flowers.

Gorilla Girl XL Auto, day 71

Gorilla Girl XL Auto has stayed in the tent under the timelapse camera, whilst I have been continuing to swap the three others round, so two are in at a time whilst the third has a half-day break. 

I decided it is time to take the Dark Devil Auto out for good. On Friday (66 days since she sprouted) I flushed her with tapwater (EC 0.4, pH’d to 6.0) instead of the usual nutrient solution. I used plenty, until I had several litres of runoff. She was in the tent for half the light cycle (i.e. 10 hours), and in the dark next to the tent for the other half. I did the same thing on Saturday, flushed her again and gave her 10 hours of light. I don’t have a chance to do anything towards harvesting her tonight, hopefully tomorrow, but I am leaving her out of the tent for good now and haven’t watered again today.

Dark Devil Auto, day 68

Dark Devil Auto, day 68

Dark Devil Auto, day 68

Where the buds are getting heavy, the thinner stems are bending over so I added braces to Dark Devil Auto and Gorilla Girl XL Auto to anchor them:

Brace holding Dark Devil Auto sidebranch

The tent looks like this now:

Gorilla Girl XL Auto, Ice Cool Auto, Cream Caramel Auto (all day 71)

They will all be flushed and harvested very soon, probably later on this week. I cannot keep them going any longer with the state they are in, really. They are all practically done in any case.

The environment has remained between 21°C and 24°C at the canopy since my last update, and up to 26°C at the top of the tent. The humidity has been between 37% and 47%.

I have had some problems this weekend. First I smashed the probe on my new pH pen putting the lid on wonky. Then my main camera lens (the Olympus 14-42mm kit lens that came with the camera) randomly malfunctioned – it works zoomed out at 14mm, but when I pull the ring to zoom in it makes a strange noise and the camera gives an error.  And finally I have noticed that my coco is now infested with springtails – where do they come from??  These things are all annoying but I can work around them, and there is only a small way to the finish line now.

Thank you for looking 

[delagdo]

@growinggold thank you very much! Sweet Seeds give me plenty of inspiration to help me think 

[delagdo]

Harvest: Dark Devil Auto

 

The first of the gang has fallen. I spent a couple of hours each evening on Monday and Tuesday slowly cutting off leaves, before I finally chopped her at the base and hung her up yesterday, which is 71 days since she sprouted.

A portrait before I trimmed on Monday:

Dark Devil Auto, day 69

…and afterwards:

Dark Devil Auto after trimming, day 71

Some budshots from before the trim – here’s the main stem:

 

Dark Devil Auto, day 69

 

Sidebranches:

 

Dark Devil Auto, day 69

 

Dark Devil Auto, day 69

 

Dark Devil Auto, day 69

 

Dark Devil Auto, day 69