First grow, need opinions

I have 3 Barney’s Farm Pineapple Express autos and one critical kush auto from North Atlantic Seed Co growing. They’re in 5 gallon pots, ffhf soil with nature’s living soil autoflower super soil. PH from runoff is at about 5.8 to 6.0 for each plant. I have an HLG 600 rspec at maximum brightness hanging about 20” above the canopy. RH is currently staying at about 45%. Average temps of about 79F. We are currently in week 3 of flower.

I did top the Pineapple Express plants in week 2 or 3 of veg. I did not top the critical. I also began some defoliation, removing a good 10-20% or so of leaves. The defoliation was one week ago tomorrow. Things were just so dense and bushy because I trained the plant to grow short. On one of the Pineapple Express I removed all leaves and short stems from the lower half of the plant. I did different things to different plants to learn what it would do to affect yields.

I would love if some experienced growers can chime in. Can I just get some opinions? How are things looking? Any estimates on yields at this point in the game? What could I have done differently and what have I done right?

How much longer does it look like before it is harvest time? I’m guessing I have another 30 days or so, but in another post somebody told me they’re almost ready and my yield is going to basically suck. Would love a second opinion because I felt like I’m still 4-5 weeks out from harvest. That person’s opinion has had me really bummed out. Has the past couple weeks been a waste as far as the yield from this harvest?

You did well mate. Can't advise for you are a couple weeks ahead of me, or.. I'm a couple weeks behind you, but looks like you have some nice and healthy plants that should work out well for you. Nice even canopy. Still a ways to go tho'. Good luck!

Couple of observations
What are you feeding with besides what came in the soil?

They look like they're a little heavy on the nitrogen based on the darkness of the green leaves but not too bad. I can see some spots in your leaves that look a little suspect not sure but it could be calmag or nutrient lockout because of the pH level. are the leaves always that droopy what is your watering schedule look like?

Those plants probably have at least six weeks minimum probably 8 weeks if you really want to push it to a ripe Harvest

Some people will probably argue but your pH seems pretty low to me it needs to be around 6.5 to 6.8 in my opinion
I'm by no means an expert but I grow only Autos in living soil I average a hundred days from seed to fully ripe sometimes longer

Not feeding anything in addition to the living soil. I was told I was underwatering a couple weeks ago, which likely led to a nutrient overload when the roots started expanding. Maybe that’s why they appear as if there’s too much nitrogen?

Because of underwatering I started doing 1/4-1/3 of a gallon per plant each night. Basically I am just watering until run off from my cloth pots.

Thank you for confirming what I thought about 6-8 more weeks. I was stressing that they were going to be ready way sooner than I thought based on that other feedback.

6.5-6.8 PH? I’ve been shooting too low. I’m using test strips, not a PH meter. My runoff appears to be around 5.8-6.0 though. I will modify my PH. My tap water is about 7.0 without PH down. A few waterings without PH down should bring my PH back up.

Lastly, about the leaves drooping, that happened immediately when they started flowering. The leaves were beautiful until the day they started flowering and I don’t know why that happened. Others said due to underwatering. However, I increased my watering volume and still have the same issue there. I don’t know what’s up.

Just make sure your tap water is non-chlorinated or dechlorinate it if necessary chlorine is not good for microbes everything looks like it can be brought back and you should still be fine with your Harvest maybe some experts will chime in as well

I'm actually burping some jars now. I have been working on my routine for about 4 years. Still tons to learn. Here is some Cinderella Jack that has a 3 month cure on her just keep growing and learning. Cheers!

Fatleg77 said:

I'm actually burping some jars now. I have been working on my routine for about 4 years. Still tons to learn. Here is some Cinderella Jack that has a 3 month cure on her just keep growing and learning. Cheers!

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She’s beautiful. I like how you have your boveda packet in the lid of the jar. I just throw mine in the jar with my weed. I’m stealing this idea.

Brellan217 said:

She’s beautiful. I like how you have your boveda packet in the lid of the jar. I just throw mine in the jar with my weed. I’m stealing this idea.

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Thanks !

I think they look pretty nice.
When you said you were watering living soil to run off each day? I cause myself problems by not letting my soil pots get pretty light before watering again. Your plants have some droop, not bad but maybe a consideration?

Roy O'Bannon said:

I cause myself problems by not letting my soil pots get pretty light before watering again.

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I think watering daily might be overkill. My soil should be fully saturated at this point. I’m going to cut it back to every other day. Thanks

Brellan217 said:

I think watering daily might be overkill. My soil should be fully saturated at this point. I’m going to cut it back to every other day. Thanks

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For a 5-gallon fabric pot I water about 3/4 of a gallon every 4 to 5 days if that helps anybody and I seem to never have an issue with water obviously I don't water this much until the plant is late in its vegetative stage so you just have to play it by ear with seedlings and small veg plants

Honestly OP, looks like you were fine before somebody changed your opinion of your plant, still fine, just don't want to slow auto's down too much. I really messed with mine I guess, took 21 ish wks to almost finish, root issues made me chop or trash a wk early or so.

Looking good, since you're organic a bigger pot will = a bigger yield if you can fit it, grow in larger pots. Don't add any synthetics and you can reuse the soil.