A Tale of Two Autos - Blueberry Auto Indoor Grow

Grow from Home Grow Journals
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Hello Grower’s Network!

This is going to be my first (of hopefully many) grow journal and it should be quite an interesting journey!

Why am I starting this now? Well I just started growing again after a 15-year break. Why 15 years? Life! It does sometimes get in the way, but I am happy to be back. I recently completed my first run, a mixture of photoperiod clones and autoflower seeds. With a yield of 24 oz from 10 plants, I was happy with both the quantity and quality!

I don’t know about you, but when I start a project or new journey, I like to research heavily before I begin. This is especially true for my new hobby. I spent hours researching soils, nutrients, lighting and temperature techniques and recommendations, and integrated as much as I could in my first grow back. Of all of the resources I found, it was the hobbyist grow journals that were the most helpful. Thus, it seemed only fitting that I start detailing my own grows, with the hopes to start some enlightening conversations, absorb knowledge from this well-established community, and hopefully help a new hobbyist grower find their stride growing one of nature’s greatest gifts.

A Tale of Two Autos

I recently planted two Blueberry Auto seeds from RQS (Royal Queen Seeds). They were similar in size during germination, and were planted in the same medium at the same time. After their first two weeks of growth, they are starting to show almost a 50% difference in size.

This presents me with a bit of an experimental opportunity, a self-assigned challenge that would give me a chance to try out some low-stress training (LST) that I played around with in my previous run.

Here is my challenge: Can I use various LST techniques to bring the smaller of the two autos to the same yield size as the larger?

Over the course of the grow, I will update this journal once a week with plant status, pictures, and general plans for the following week, with the latter being where I would love to foster some conversation! I would love to benefit from the wisdom and experience of this space! Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts on what you think you would do in my situation, and I will be sure to consider all suggestions throughout the grow!

Here are some initial specifications for seeds, soil, nutrients, and grow environment:

Seeds: Royal Blueberry Auto from Royal Queen Seeds

Soil: Paonia Soil Co.: The Bomb 50/50 Mix

Nutrients: Ventana Plant Science (VPS) + FlavUh + Stash Blend

Note on nutrients: The combination of these three nutrients yielded fantastic results for my first run. The VPS feeding chart easily walked me through each week of nutrients and adding Stash blend helped me with some easily noticed deficiencies during the first few weeks of flowering. Consistent feeding using these nutrients is absolutely recommended for plant health, yield, and flavor!

Grow Environment:

Light: AC Infinity IONBOARD S44 – LED Grow Light Board 400W

Tent: AC Infinity CLOUDLAB 642, Advance Grow Tent 4 x 2

Humidifier: AC infinity CLOUDFORGE T3

Ventilation and Circulation: AC Infinity CLOUDLINE T-Series Duct Fan 4 Inch, AC Infinity Duct Carbon Filter, Australian Charcoal, 4-Inch, AC Infinity CLOUDRAY A6, Gen 2 Grow Tent Clip Fan 6”

Pots: AC Infinity Heavy Duty Reusable Fabric Pots 3 Gallon

Blueberry Auto #1: The Control

This little lady will be untouched throughout her growing process. There will be no training, defoliation (outside of normal pruning dead/dying leaves). It will get the normal course of VPS and Stash Blend.

Blueberry Auto #2: The Challenge

#2 will undergo everything I can in terms of LST, defoliation, and any other techniques you all might recommend throughout the process. It will get the normal course of VPS and Stash Blend.

Week 2

Week 3

BB Auto #1 - Control

BB Auto #2 - LST

Removed some fan leaves and added 1 stake down under top 4 nodes.

My questions to the group for this week are:

  1. Have you ever seen two seeds grow so different from the onset of their seedling stage? If so, what do you think could be the cause? If you have had this experience before, what did you do/
  2. What LST techniques have you used in the past to try and increase yield in autoflowers? Any cool ideas could influence how Blueberry Auto #2 performs!

I look forward to sharing this journey with the Grower’s Network, and please share your ideas… not only for my benefit, but for the benefit of any new hobbyist looking to start their own journey!

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Hi @kevinstrombel , welcome to GN and what a wonderful introduction. You have a beautiful setup and great lineup of genetics and seem to be in the thick of things when it comes to growing.

Dont stress about the autos being different, its just a refelction of different phenotypes, however saying that the smaller of the two is looking stressed even though it looked very similar in size after transplanting.

LSTing is an essential skill that is developed over time with auto’s, so really after 15 years of being dormant and probably your first auto experience, dont stress too much, you about to learn alot, just like autos have come along way since first being introduced in the late 90s’.

Below are some recent journals and auto grows that may give you some insight to LSTing your plants.

Going to invite a couple of our moderators to your grow, @kevinstrombel is helping us grow GN and based in Colorado working for growershouse.com, lets welcome him aboard:

@PreyBird1 @Slym3r @happilyretired @nacho151

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Welcome to the forum!

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Yes, welcome. Unfortunately I have never had much luck with auto flowers. So I don’t know how much help I can be in this instance. I will follow along and help where I can.

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Welcome back! And welcome to the forum. I also like you stopped growing for a number of years. I got back into growing because my “guy” went to amsterdamn on vacation for 3 weeks and forgot to tell me! Man i was high and dry lol. well i wasnt high until i crossed state lines and brought back some weed. Thats when i vowed id never be without weed ever again. And i started growing again. And i kept telling my wife when i get a new place im growing again. She thought i was kidding around…nope. and once the plants started to smell at the new spot i had to move them indoors. Because Im in a no grow state, so its already pretty ballsy to even grow in this state to begin with let alone get on cannabis forums and talk about it.
But i love to grow cannabis and all kinds of plants.
I always try and help others and learn from them aswell. Thats what made me stay here for so many years. People here become just like family and i have met a few GN folks in person. @bullfrog420 is one of those special people. I flew up to Washington to meet that awesome man and his wife. Hell he came down from Tennessee to hang out with us/me. Growers network is a Great place to learn and help others learn. Its good for your “weed karma” to help other growers out.

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11/12

Both plants are on Week Three of Ventana Plant Science (VPS) + FlavUh + Stash Blend (1 tsp/gallon) with an average PH of 6.4. Each plant receives 1 L of water every two days.

Here is our weekly side by side comparison:

BB Auto #1 (Control)

Whew, she is looking healthy! Robust, shades of emerald and forest green, and even starting to flower a bit! At this point, I can really see why some types of LST, defoliation, and other manipulation of the plants could stagger otherwise healthy growth. I have quite the uphill to climb with BB Auto #2 and my self-imposed challenge. As a reminder, I will not be doing any training or defoliation (outside of typical pruning of dead or dying leaves) for my control.

BB Auto #2 - LST

She is looking quite different than Auto #1, but that’s the point! BB Auto #2 was half the size of our control on the onset of this experiment, and my goal is to use all of my training experience (which is still growing by the day) to see if I can match, or even exceed yield!

For this week of training, I started some defoliation and worked to stake down each individual limb in a specific direction to eventually maximize light access and space.

Here we can see the plant on November 8:

It did some wonderful growing, especially the main stem! One thing I learned at this stage which may benefit folks who plan on doing this type of training in the future… it might be wise to plant the seed a few inches off-center away from the direction that you expect to train your main step. As you can see in my 11/12 update, the main stem has already reached the pot’s edge, which may make it difficult to train moving forward.

Here is November 12:

As you can see, things are going well with training. I am trying to fill as much space as possible with purposeful training so that that plant will get as much light access as possible. I am removing any leaves that may cover nodes as well as stick too far down in the dirt. The main stem has already reached the edge of my pot, so I will start to work in some bamboo over the next week.

All in all, things are looking great! I find plant training very relaxing and exciting. How do you all feel about it? Do you have any tips and tricks that you might use that I should try and implement throughout this challenge?

I look forward to next Tuesday’s update!

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Thank you for the resources and the warm welcome, Chris! I will be sure to review some of these previous posts to benefit from the wisdom of this forum and I look forward to working with you all!

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Thank you!

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Both plants are on Week Five of Ventana Plant Science (VPS) + FlavUh + Stash Blend (1 tsp/gallon) with an average PH of 6.4. Each plant receives 1 L of water every two days.

If you have never used Ventana Plant Science, I highly recommend it for beginners and veterans alike. The system is easy to use and produces some strong and beautiful flowers. Their complete nutrient kit, as well as any Ventata Plant Science product, can be found at GrowersHouse, and be sure to use the code CPS25GN for 25% off ANY VPS products!

If you have any questions about VPS, don’t hesitate to reply on this thread!

Two weeks have passed since my last post (the dreaded day-care plague!) and my two Blueberry Auto plants are both looking healthy, but also couldt not be more different!

Blueberry Auto #1 (control) looks like a nice autoflower. White hairs have started poking out and our leaves are dark green and healthy. No real smell as of yet, but it is growing like a beautiful, untouched plant!

Here is a top-down from 11/20:

And a vertical from 11/26:

Blueberry Auto #2 is also looking great! Over the last two weeks, I have had 1 major defoliation, removing as many large green leaves as possible. This allowed full node exposure to light and also cleared out some room towards the base of the plant for easier watering. I also continue to train with plastic-covered gardening wire, hoping to achieve an individual SOG approach (Sea of Green).

Here is a top down from 11/20:

And another from 11/26 (with a bit of BB Auto 1 for reference):

Training is going very well, as there are 8 - 10 nodes with FULL light exposure. Additionally, there are several smaller nodes in the process of growing towards the center of the plant, one of the benefits of LST.

However, there is a very discernible difference in the current level of flower growth and budding. Blueberry Auto 1 has some solid flowering, especially for week 5 of a possible 10 to 12 week cycle. Blueberry Auto 2 is behind in flowering, no doubt due to the shock of LST. This is one of the side-effects of LST, and it is super interesting to see it side by side with an untouched plant:

The beauty of this process is that both plants are looking good for what they are! It is going to be very interesting to see what next week holds as the plants continue to grow their own way.

Stay tuned!

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