Auto Gelato 33 & Auto Strawberry gum

Hello everyone,

I'm an avid gardener (food crops and flowers) and given the current situation with Covid-19 I thought I may as well try and branch out and become a bit more self sufficient growing another crop I regularly use

This is my first time growing MJ so wanted to create this thread for future reference for myself for things I could change or improve going forward.

I've currently got 2 plants on the go:

Feminized auto strawberry gum - https://www.justfeminized.com/advanced-auto-strawberry-gum-3-feminised-seeds-48683-p.asp

Feminized auto Gelato 33 - https://www.justfeminized.com/advanced-auto-gelato-33-female-3-cannabis-seeds-68980-p.asp

I have a 2.6ft x 2.6ft x 5.2ft grow tent.

I'm using a heated pet mat (variable heat from 30 celcius to 50 celcius) to help maintain a steady soil temp during lights on and off so the temp stays between 20 and 23 Celsius.

RH in the tent is usually between 50 to 60%

I'm using nute free soil (had it spare from my usual gardening) I amended with blood, fish and bone (4.4.4) in 30 litre fabric pots.

I have a 4" Fantronix fan (187 m3/hour extract airflow rate with a high pressure mixed flow impeller) for air extraction and a 4" fox hydroponics carbon filter I haven't attached yet as there isn't an odour.

I'm watering with aquarium water PHd to 6.4 with citric acid. If anyone is planning on doing this please bear in mind a little goes a long way so go easy with it because you can always add more but can't take it out! I've also added epsom salts to it to try and avoid and Magnesium issues etc going forward.

This is where I'm going to get grief I'm using a 600w Phlizon LED light (blurple) with an actual wall draw of 108w. I'm planning on getting a few CFLs further into the grow. I have some smaller clip on grow lights to go in there anyway but the plants don't appear to need them right now.

Provided the results of this grow aren't terrible I'll invest in a second more expensive light for future grows and the Phlizon can stay in the tent to compliment it.

The seeds were planted straight into the final pots with a dome over them to germinate on 15/4 (didn't want to transplant and shock an auto due to the shortened veg period) they took 4 days to appear.

They have been above ground since 19/04 meaning as of today they are 19 days old since planting.

If anyone has any questions etc then fire away. If not I'll regularly be updating the thread to track my progress and have a base to work from next time.

Thank you for taking the time to read my thread and happy growing!

A few days ago.

Started LST today.

A few days into LST. 26 days since starting germination and 22 days since they sprouted.

30 days old.

Looking really healthy!

Thanks. It's been pretty hassle free so far thank god. I've only had to water them twice and top dressed with blood, fish and bone both times and left them to it.

40 days.

47 days (6 weeks and 5 days)

I've adjusted the ties and pulled the plants back down. I've lowered the light by a few inches as well.

There is very slight tip burn on the leaves as I upped the feed a few days ago. It doesn't appear to be worsening so I'm not bothered.

The Strawberry gum appears to be doing well but I'm not overly impressed with the Gelato. Considering they have been in exactly the same conditions its considerably smaller and slower growing.

The seller states they are both meant to be finished between 7 to 10 weeks. Mine are 6 weeks and 5 days old now and looking at them I think they'll take closer to 11-12 weeks.

I'm happy so far considering its my first grow and will at least get a bit of smoke from it.....maybe even 1lb from each if i'm lucky

60 days old today. They've been under the Spiderfarmer sf1000 for 9 days and I've taken the blurple light out.

I've started 1 more of each of these seeds from the same bank in plastic pots, different soil mix and perlite. I want to see what difference it makes using the new light from seed, altering feeding, watering etc and see how it goes. It's a learning curve after all.

As you can tell from the above pictures I didn't get a great deal from either plant so didn't even bother weighing it.

I did plant another Strawberry gum and Gelato33 from the same batch as the above but with altered conditions.

They have been under the Spiderfarmer SF1000 since sprouting on a 20/4 cycle. This light has made a hell of a difference!

I've used plastic pots this time which has made the LST far easier. I've fed 1/4 strength All purpose 7.3.5 until flower then half strength 7.3.5 and full strength PK booster 0.14.15 with 1/2 tsp of epsom salts every so often. The PH is around 6.4

They are getting around a litre each every 3 days. Here they are at 47 days. I've defoliated them about 3 times each.