Sweet Seeds Fast Bud #2 vs Female Seeds Speed Bud (both autos)

After a devastating case of root rot which has done for several of my plants, I'm scrubbing down and starting from scratch in an effort to have a green Christmas.

My order from Herbies arrived yesterday I received

1 x Sweet Seeds Auto Fast Bud #2

1 x Female Seeds Speed Bud

1 x Short Stuff Onyx

I shall be waiting a few weeks before starting the Onyx and doing it in a considerably larger pot than I will be using for the race contestants.

The grow will be done in a wardrobe with no extraction and a floorspace of 5 about square feet. The 2 competing plants will be started off with a 23w daylight cfl over 1 plant with a 360 degree 23x3w LED bulb placed between them and a 105W Warm White CFL over the other plant. Light will be 24/0 throught the grow. I shall rotate the box frequently so that the seedlings get some time under both the CFLs.

After the plants are established, I will switch to 24 hours led plus 250W to 400W full spectrum Omwga HPS switched on and off manually when I'm in and by timer when I'm out as and when temperatures dictate. I think my temps went too high in the summer when running the HPS continuously which allowed pythium to flourish. I know I need extraction but I can't quite manage that at the moment and for now 2 or 3 judiciously placed fans will have to suffice.

I will be using 8" wide at top 8" deep plastic terracota pots (not sure of capacity). I don't want to use too large a pot size for these as I do not want to delay their finishing.

i will be using approximately a 60/40 mix of J Arther Bower. Seed and Cutting Compost and Perlite. Will probably throw a liittle Poundland Rooting Powder which contains seaweed in with the soil.

For nutes I will be using Hydro Grow and Hydro Bloom from Poundland.

The seeds will be sown directly into their final pots.

i pray to Shiva that This time I won't get root rot and make it all the way to a bountiful harvest! I will be planting up as soon as I've finished this post. Photos later today.

All comments, predictions welcome. Constructive criticism welcome to a degree, but the grow is what it is and I can't afford to spend any more money on it at the moment.

Thank you

Day 0 - Seeds planted within a minute of each other approx 1 each deep and given a drop of tap water.




I will just keep the LED on until the seeds sprout.

Day 1 - Update

I have decided to count the days from when the seeds were sown. It was not an intentional thing, but I realised afterwards that I planted the seeds very close to 4.20pm yesterday. This is the hardest part - waiting for for them to pop their heads up above the soil. I know they can hear me down there, so this morning I decided to read them a story.

I thought about reading them Jack and The Beanstalk in order to inspire them to grow big and strong, but I remembered that that tale didn't end very well for the beanstalk and I didn't want to give the poor little poppets nightmares.

I settled on reading them The Magic Porridge Pot, as I thought it might give them a good idea,

"There was a poor but good little girl who lived alone with her mother, and they no longer had anything to eat. So the child went into the forest, and there an aged woman met her who was aware of her sorrow, and presented her with a little pot, which when she said, "Cook, little pot, cook," would cook good, sweet porridge, and when she said, "Stop, little pot," it ceased to cook. The girl took the pot home to her mother, and now they were freed from their poverty and hunger, and ate sweet porridge as often as they chose. Once on a time when the girl had gone out, her mother said, "Cook, little pot, cook." And it did cook and she ate until she was satisfied, and then she wanted the pot to stop cooking, but did not know the word. So it went on cooking and the porridge rose over the edge, and still it cooked on until the kitchen and whole house were full, and then the next house, and then the whole street, just as if it wanted to satisfy the hunger of the whole world, and there was the greatest distress, but no one knew how to stop it. At last when only one single house remained, the child came home and just said, "Stop, little pot," and it stopped and gave up cooking, and whosoever wished to return to the town had to eat their way back!"

Bud little plant, bud! (lol - imagine having to smoke your way a route home!)

I'm still debating on whether to read them Day of The Triffids but am worried it might inspire them to murderous intent. It should be safe as long as I chop them before they get too muscle bound.

I wonder which one will pop up first. My money is on the Fast Bud #2.

Day 4

Ha - you owe me £50! Fast Bud #2 was first out of the traps and I have named her Mona Lisa because she was born on a Monday and I'm hoping she's gonna give me an enigmatic smile. With a bit of luck, speed bud will be up by tomorrow.

Day 5:

Fast Bud #2 is now standing up straight at about an inch tall.

Speed bud is just starting to show. I've named this one, Tuesday.

Gave them each their own humidity domes made from the bottoms of plastic water bottle with a few ventilation holes. Paranoid about transmitting Pythium, I sterilised these with isopropyl before placing them over my precious babies.

Have just ordered a MarsHydro 48 x 5w panel. Hopefully it should arrive on Thursday.

Also, even though I realise it's pathetic, today I fitted a 4" PC fan as a micro extractor which vents into the next wardrobe compartment.

Just for my own record, I gave them both a wee dribble of tap water yesterday (day 6)

As I write this, I'm just into the wee small early hours of Sunday 27th, 2015. Just coming into day 10 which I will talk about some more after some pictures from day 8 (from sowing the seed.)

Female Seeds Auto Speed Bud 3 days old. 8 days since sown.


Sweet Seeds Fast Bud #2 4 days old. 8 days since sown.


My seedling set up before receiving my MArsHydro 240 Reflector panel on Friday. I was using a daylight 23W CFL above each seedling. To minimise heat and give the plants a break from receiving full power light continuously, I had each light switch on and off for 15 minutes at a time. While one is on, the other goes out. The bulbs were placed almost touching theflat bottoms of the improvised plastic bottle propagators with ventilation holes. The blurple LED bulb is a 23x3W which I got for under £20 on ebay. This was left on continuously until I got the MarsHydro and has now been put away. I do give the seedlings lengthy spells outside their plastic prisons as I don't feel it can be too good for them to be in their the whole time.


The Omega 600W dimmable which I switch on at 250W for for half an hour here and there during the day when the temperature drops below 80F. As soon as it comes close to approaching 85, I switch it off. From about midnight, I can leave it on continuously until 9 or 10 in the morning before I need to switch off again due to rising daytime temperatures. Hopefully, I will be able to use it more and more in the winter. Maybe even at 400W for a few hours. Wardrobe doors have to be open obviously.



OK, this is embarrassing, but it's all I can do right now until I spec out a proper extractor fan, order it and install it. I'm working on it. There's a nice gentle breeze coming out the other side so it's doing something, albeit at a quantum level.



Ever fearful of root rot and wanting to get some more oxygen to them, I decide to drill multiple holes right through my pot container and into the pot walls. There are many of these holes all the way round the base of the pots and a cluster on opposing corners of the pot container box. I have another fairly strong fan situated just outside the wardrobe which is aimed at these holes and a small usb fan blowing directly into inside of the pot container. Air circulation should be fairly good around my pots and even if the amount air getting to the soil and roots is negligible, at least it's contributing towards keeping the root zone cool. I think I'm going to invest in Air Pots - I like the looks of those.



I was a little miffed that Mars-Hydro or their UK agent placed this sticker on the packaging. Black mark to Mars there - I nearly had some very awkward questions to answer. Why? Why? Why? ARe you hoping the postman will see your advert and buy a light from you? Major fail but I'm happy with the light. It has enabled me to bring my temps under better control. Just trying to work out the optimum distance for my seedlings. I'm at about 11"-12" (30 cm) at the moment. Mars recommend 60-76 cm, but that seems too far to me.



My new £80 MarsHydro panel in action. Veg lights only.


It's late now and catching up with this has kept me from skinning up for 20 minutes too long now! I'll say goodnight to myself and anyone else who might be spying through the keyhole in at this grow log and I'll catch us both up with some day 10 photos some time after the cock has crowed.

12 days since planting.

The girls are now 7 and 8 days old. I'm sure I have seen more vigorous seedlings before so I had a little think. I've been keeping my temperatures within a decent range 75-85. I think I may have a little too much perlite in my soil mix and will use a little less next time (I must be approaching something near a 50/50 mix). The soil itself is a low nutrient seed and cutting compost by J Arthur Bower. I have been giving mineral water mixed 3 to 1 with 12% H2O2 sparingly with approx half dose Pound Shop veg nutes. I know people say you shouldn't give any nutes until they have a few sets of leaves, but there really isn't much for them to get their teeth into so I thought it might help. Ever worried about Pythium, I decided to do some research into boosting beneficial bacteria and microbes as I believe they need to out-colonise the Pythium. At this stage, I haven't decided on whether to inoculate the soil and would welcome any advice pertaining to my particular circumstances. I figure there must be some microbe activity in there anyway as I never sterilised it by nuking it as some people suggest is a good idea. I don't see how completely sterile soil is a good idea. I believe all I need to do, is encourage the beneficial bacteria that I hope is already in my soil by feeding it. I'm also wanting to to do something to encourage healthier roots so I've been looking into root stimulators. I don't want to spend a fortune on a multitude of supplements so for now, I've decided that some Canna Rhizotonic is probably the best thing I can spend my money on. I will also buy some SuperThrive despite the controversy that exists around it, as I tend to believe the anecdotal reports of its ability to revive ailing plants. I will explore the possibility of using a bud supplement when the time comes in a few weeks.

I've been growing nearly a year now and have seen many mentions of Molasses in the forums. I decided it was time to investigate. Long story short, I purchased some Billingtons Natural Unrefined Molasses sugar, which I've read other growers have used with success. The liquid stuff is not readily available in my local Tesco.

I've got some pure Aloe Vera is the fridge so I googled whether anyone was using that for cannabis and it appears that it is an excellent additive.

I also wanted to make sure I'm giving it the best water possible. The tap water here is very hard and chalky so I went from using that to bottle spring water. I wanted to see what others thought of spring water and what other options there might be. A lot of people talking about Reverse Osmosis water. Well that's out of the question for me right now. I then looked into De-Ionised water which is available for £1.15 for 2.5L at Tesco. It's probably the purest water available to me so I decided to use that from now on.

This morning I mixed appropriate amounts of Molasses and Aloe Vera in my DI water container. I decant some when I want to water and mix it with H2O2 if I have any.

I'm really looking forward to seeing whether my loving attention will do anything to make them start growing vigorously with a vengence!

Still keeping their humidity domes on most of the time at the moment as the humidity is quite low in there. Average 35-45. I expect the bare unvarnished wood at the back of the wardrobe absorbs moisture from the air.

They don't seem to have gained any height of girth since my last report. All I can notice is an increase in the size of the second set of true leaves in the last 4 days.

12 days from planting. 7 days old. Female Seeds Speed Bud


12 days from planting. 8 days old. Sweet Seeds Fast Bud #2

15 Days since planting.

Been playing about with lighting configurations. Have been unsure about optimal distance for Mars 240 at this early stage and think I may have bleached the young leaves slightly, so I'm holding back on them until they have a few more leaves. I have now got a couple of 23W daylight CFLs hanging just above their humidity domes. I don't think the CFLs will do the young'uns that much harm as I've seem vigorous growth in seedling before with the CFLs just a couple of inches above them. I have now started misting them with a half diluted version of the mix I am watering them with ie: de-ionised water, molasses sugar, aloe vera, Rhizotonic and a drop of Hydro Coco Grow (Poundland veg nutes). Looking at them, they seem to have been slightly slow starters, but finger crossed, there's a good chance they'll take off in a big way over the next week.


Fast Bud #2 -11 days old



Speed Bud -10 days old



Reconfigured lights

18 days since planting

Not much to report really except that they seem to be getting moving properly at last. Removed the humidity domes today.


Fast Bud #2 day 14



Speed Bud day 13

24 days since planting.

Hmm, these plants are growing quite slowly. They are both behaving as if they were the hare in the race. Tortoise or hare, I don't really care, as long as they grow into a beautiful pair. Not looking like they're gonna yield much at this stage - still you never know your luck. All the autos I've grown before have started to flower round about day 21. I hope these don't start before they've grown a bit more. A couple of days ago, I added 125W warm white CFL to supplement the LEDs and all 6 plants in the grow space have responded positively to it, leading me to believe that the LED panel on veg only is not very efficient. Therefore,, I'm switching the bloom lights on early to see if that helps. The pots feel heavy but completely dry near the top so I need the hold off watering for a few days to give them a chance to get their roots down the the bottom to suck up the water that's down there.

Fast Bud #2 day 20


Speed Bud day 19

28 days since planting

They are still very short. Not sure what my plants aren't liking about their environment. One thing I do know, is my first and most successful grow was done with MiracleGro soil and I shall be using it again for my next batch of autos. People say the slow release nutrients in MG soil are all wrong for cannabis, but I'm starting to think they might not be too bad at all for a 3 month auto. Anyway, they are growing - slowly. Stems are staring to thicken up a bit. Could they be this short at this age because they're more Indica than I'm used to or are they growing slowly? I would welcome some input at this point.

Fast Bud #2 day 24



Speed Bud day 23

I'm just a few days ahead of you and using soil and cfl too. Unfortunately it does look like your plants are stunted but idk why I'm afraid no obvious signs of deficiency to me, looks like overwatering to me but you say the soils dry? Maybe root problems? I do hope someone can help you. Here's my autofresian dew running at a similar time to yours
https://www.rollitup.org/t/1st-grow-fresian-dew-auto-by-dutch-passion-in-soil-under-300w-dual-spectrum-cfl.884480/

Weat

Yours is looking very nice. Yeah maybe you're right about the over watering. It's harder to gauge it right when you can't pot up from small pots. My tendancy to perhaps over water should become less of a problem as the plant's ability to absorb it increases. My first grow was Ministry of Cannabis Auto Silver Bullet in MiracleGro soil, a Sativa dominant strain and it must have been nearly a foot tall when it went into flower 21 days from sprouting. Since these pics were taken this morning, the speed bud has started to show it's first flower. It's not looking at this stage like I'm gonna get much of a yield from either of these plants, but now they are getting some leaf, they do seem to be picking up. Maybe they will surprise me yet. I hope I get at least half ounce from each plant. Need some new auto seeds and Miraclegro soil ASAP. Thinking of growing another one of those Silver Bullets (as pictured in my profile pic) - I found it a very vigorous strain and the buzz was pure haze that put an instant smile on my face.

Yesterday was 32 days since planting - photos were taken yesterday.

Fast Bud #2 doesn't seem to be doing much at all at the moment. Speed Bud started to flower on Saturday so that would be day 25.

I'm really depressed at how this grow is going. I've will be starting a new grow in a few days - Mephisto S.O.D.K.and Sativa Jock Horror - both autos again.

Fast Bud #2 day 28


Speed Bud day 27

35 days since planting seeds.

Time to take positive action!

After a conversation on Twitter with @cannabis_dr, we've both arrived at the conclusion that my problems with slow growth are being caused by my use of way too much perlite. My mix must be somewhere near 50% perlite. We think that it is stealing nutes and water from the plant. The pots feel heavy but the plant isn't getting the water, not because of root rot, but because it is all locked up in the perlite. Does that make sense to anyone else?

The Speed Bud is less affected than the Fast Bud so I'm going to try an experiment by repotting the Fast Bud with less perlite. I know ideally autos should not be repotted, but at this stage I have nothing to lose and if the plant picks up it will confirm the theory.

Fast Bud #2 day 31 -stunted and no flowers - repotting today.


Speed Bud day 30 - will wait and see how the Fast Bud responds to repotting before deciding whether to do the same for this one.

OK - just repotted the Fast Bud #2 - this time using a minimal amount of perlite. Let's see if it bucks her up after the shock of repotting.

I've also just planted a Mephisto Genetics Sour Orange Diesel Kush for which I shall start a separate grow journal.

I really hope it works out for you buddy, IL be watching

The Fast Bud is touch and go after transplanting. The Speed Bud is progressing steadily albeit slowly. Don't expect more than a couple of grams from it the way it's looking at the moment. Still, I will continue this grow journal until its conclusion. Proper update with pics in a day or so.

43 since planting

The Fast Bud #2 at 39 days old is still not well a week after transplanting, but it is showing small signs of improvement and has just started flowering - maybe I'll get a teenth from it! lol poor thing - I will try to make her better.


The Speed Bud at 38 days old is starting to flourish now despite her diminutive stature. She is 13 days into flower now and I'll be happy if I get a quarter ounce from her.


Bonus Pics:
Heavyweight Dream Machine Clone - my first ever clone of which I'm very proud


Week old bag seed for which I'm not doing a journal on at the moment. It seems to be growing more vigorously than any
seed I've ever bought!

49 days since planting

What can I say? Another disastrous grow really. I need to find a better draining soil. Just lost another seedling - that's two now, Mephisto SODK and Jock Horror

The Fast Bud #2 is about 6.5 inches tall, and is recovering slightly after repotting, but it still pathetic. Still, it's flowering so I may get an eighth from it by the time it eventually finishes! Looking a little light in colour so I think I need to get it some more nitrogen.



The Speed Bud is budding like crazy and seems healthy despite being retarded. She smells wonderful but unfortunately is only 5.5 inches tall. It should be finished within a couple of weeks and I'm hoping the buds will swell even more to yield me maybe a quarter ounce.