Worrying About Weather & Autoflower Harvest

midgesmith

Active Member
Hi,

I haven't grown for more than 20 years and grew 2 Sweet Tooth Autoflowers in a greenhouse this year. They're supposed to finish in 9 - 10 weeks total. I was expecting them to be done sometime in later August, but that wasn't to be :)

The first plant accelerated past the second and finished, or so I thought in 11 weeks. It had a small yield of about 10 grams (not many bud sites) but when 80% of the pistils were red and almost all the trichomes (about 90 % on the buds) were cloudy, I harvested - despite there being no amber trichomes visible. Despite the high humidity and lack of drying room, I managed to dry them within a week and they're now nicely cured and smell good, despite the small amount of excess leaf I left on (because the buds were quite skimpy).

However, having vaped some of the bud 3 weeks into curing, I was disappointed to discover that it is unpleasantly racey which I wasn't expecting. It's not racey like a Sativa cerebral shuffle, but racey like having 6 extra espressos! Bearing in mind the small number of clear trichomes and the number of red hairs and it being an Indica dominant strain too, so I didn't figure on this at all!

I know that waiting on a few amber trichomes would usually point at a better body stone and that I had none when I harvested, but, going by my - out of date experience - I figured she was done enough and I'd give her sister some room - which I am regretting now. I admit I was deliberately avoiding couch-lock characteristics by trying, also, to harvest before there was a deluge of amber trichomes, but early harvests in my youth never delivered such 'over-caffeinated' raceyness, just a weaker effect!

The second plant, her sister was way, way slower maturing and got significantly bigger with several more bud-sites. She still hasn't been harvested though she is heading towards 15 weeks old. She has about 4 times more bud on it than the little early harvested one, though she never filled out and got dense buds either.

I should say, I have to grow them in a greenhouse with obscuring polycarbonate on one side and tomato plants on the other, hiding my beauties from the neighbours who can see into our greenhouse from 6 different houses. Neither plant had as much light as I would have liked, but fluffy buds are better than no medicine at all.

I was hoping to bring her in as late as possible to avoid the racyness this time. She had yellowing fan leaves, some of which I removed because they were going brown and I started to flush the soil around a week ago, though I've only given mild nutrients twice during the growth. She's using water so slowly I've only been able to flush / water twice in that time.

She also has 60% - 70% red hairs, though plenty of new white ones. I haven't seen a single amber trichome yet though. I'd have expected to with her being nearly 6 weeks over estimate :/ She smells great, but she's not taking on water or growing any now. Saying that, it is so cold now she might have stalled completely.

I wouldn't care about the delay, but the weather is now so poor that I am starting to worry about mold. Daily temperatures range between 41F and 56F and humidity is mostly around 88%-98%. The RH only dips as low as 75% occasionally at the moment. It hasn't stopped raining for 2 days and there are 3 or 4 days of solid rain to come, at least.

I have been using small solar powered fans in the greenhouse as it has no power supply. Unfortunately though, the light is now too dull to power the fans. I have a couple of USB powerbanks which I am going to use from tonight to try to get a little air moving in the greenhouse, but they'll only give about 4 hours each, so that will probably be a drop in the ocean.

The trichomes are mostly milky on the buds or cloudy and there are very few transparent / glassy trichomes on there now, so normally I'd think I was looking ok to harvest. The thing is though, the trichomes were this milky on the first plant I harvested and I don't want this one to have such racey effects!

I am wondering if this extended grow means that this plant has more Sativa genetics than Indica? However, I used LST on both plants and this one exhibited a strange look to the stem in week 4, like the outer part of the stem had opened and a core of internal stem was exposed, though that soon beefed up and was hidden again by more outer stem. I think it may have been caused by a slug though the stem. There was no 'break' in the stem, but either way, that may have slowed it down considerably.

Anyway, my quandary is:

Do I harvest now and risk the plant being as annoyingly racey as its sister (even though she is four weeks further down the line - the pistils and trichomes look the same as her sister had).

OR

Do I have faith and keep her out there, despite the lack of air circulation, heat and the very high humidity? Despite the evidence, might she show some amber trichs soon? The weather will only get colder and the humidity is not likely to improve a great deal now this year.

Any help or advice will be gratefully received.... I've included some pics, though the yellow leaves were removed before I took them.

Thanks in advance for any advice,

Midge.
 

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midgesmith

Active Member
Well, I took her down today as the weather has closed in for the next couple of weeks and other plants in the greenhouse are starting to get covered in PM. I saw what looked to be the beginnings of some amber tinged trichs, though it could be wishful thinking. I called it anyway.

I'd have liked to give her another week or two, but I don't want to start losing material to mold, which at this point, was looking to be inevitable.
 
Hey man im in a pretty similar situation to you im guessing your in europe , i luckily have power to my mini greenhouse and a mini heater as we have constant rain and cold forcast, i already had to cut out half a bud this morning though due to mold and my plants dont seem to be pregresing more or at least so slowly and they still are further off than yours, cause of the lack of sun im guessing the water intake has slowed because ive hardly had to water mine soil wont dry out. Im not sure what to do try keep them to grow for 3 more weeks somehow
 

Kaotic

Well-Known Member
Hi,

I haven't grown for more than 20 years and grew 2 Sweet Tooth Autoflowers in a greenhouse this year. They're supposed to finish in 9 - 10 weeks total. I was expecting them to be done sometime in later August, but that wasn't to be :)

The first plant accelerated past the second and finished, or so I thought in 11 weeks. It had a small yield of about 10 grams (not many bud sites) but when 80% of the pistils were red and almost all the trichomes (about 90 % on the buds) were cloudy, I harvested - despite there being no amber trichomes visible. Despite the high humidity and lack of drying room, I managed to dry them within a week and they're now nicely cured and smell good, despite the small amount of excess leaf I left on (because the buds were quite skimpy).

However, having vaped some of the bud 3 weeks into curing, I was disappointed to discover that it is unpleasantly racey which I wasn't expecting. It's not racey like a Sativa cerebral shuffle, but racey like having 6 extra espressos! Bearing in mind the small number of clear trichomes and the number of red hairs and it being an Indica dominant strain too, so I didn't figure on this at all!

I know that waiting on a few amber trichomes would usually point at a better body stone and that I had none when I harvested, but, going by my - out of date experience - I figured she was done enough and I'd give her sister some room - which I am regretting now. I admit I was deliberately avoiding couch-lock characteristics by trying, also, to harvest before there was a deluge of amber trichomes, but early harvests in my youth never delivered such 'over-caffeinated' raceyness, just a weaker effect!

The second plant, her sister was way, way slower maturing and got significantly bigger with several more bud-sites. She still hasn't been harvested though she is heading towards 15 weeks old. She has about 4 times more bud on it than the little early harvested one, though she never filled out and got dense buds either.

I should say, I have to grow them in a greenhouse with obscuring polycarbonate on one side and tomato plants on the other, hiding my beauties from the neighbours who can see into our greenhouse from 6 different houses. Neither plant had as much light as I would have liked, but fluffy buds are better than no medicine at all.

I was hoping to bring her in as late as possible to avoid the racyness this time. She had yellowing fan leaves, some of which I removed because they were going brown and I started to flush the soil around a week ago, though I've only given mild nutrients twice during the growth. She's using water so slowly I've only been able to flush / water twice in that time.

She also has 60% - 70% red hairs, though plenty of new white ones. I haven't seen a single amber trichome yet though. I'd have expected to with her being nearly 6 weeks over estimate :/ She smells great, but she's not taking on water or growing any now. Saying that, it is so cold now she might have stalled completely.

I wouldn't care about the delay, but the weather is now so poor that I am starting to worry about mold. Daily temperatures range between 41F and 56F and humidity is mostly around 88%-98%. The RH only dips as low as 75% occasionally at the moment. It hasn't stopped raining for 2 days and there are 3 or 4 days of solid rain to come, at least.

I have been using small solar powered fans in the greenhouse as it has no power supply. Unfortunately though, the light is now too dull to power the fans. I have a couple of USB powerbanks which I am going to use from tonight to try to get a little air moving in the greenhouse, but they'll only give about 4 hours each, so that will probably be a drop in the ocean.

The trichomes are mostly milky on the buds or cloudy and there are very few transparent / glassy trichomes on there now, so normally I'd think I was looking ok to harvest. The thing is though, the trichomes were this milky on the first plant I harvested and I don't want this one to have such racey effects!

I am wondering if this extended grow means that this plant has more Sativa genetics than Indica? However, I used LST on both plants and this one exhibited a strange look to the stem in week 4, like the outer part of the stem had opened and a core of internal stem was exposed, though that soon beefed up and was hidden again by more outer stem. I think it may have been caused by a slug though the stem. There was no 'break' in the stem, but either way, that may have slowed it down considerably.

Anyway, my quandary is:

Do I harvest now and risk the plant being as annoyingly racey as its sister (even though she is four weeks further down the line - the pistils and trichomes look the same as her sister had).

OR

Do I have faith and keep her out there, despite the lack of air circulation, heat and the very high humidity? Despite the evidence, might she show some amber trichs soon? The weather will only get colder and the humidity is not likely to improve a great deal now this year.

Any help or advice will be gratefully received.... I've included some pics, though the yellow leaves were removed before I took them.

Thanks in advance for any advice,

Midge.
I’m gonna keep it short on this one, you need to control the environment in the grow room if you can’t then it need a new room, only way for plants to really thrive is if the grow room has a tropical like environment, other than that she looks good, a little hot meaning a little too much fertilization but good, make sure your getting good seeds as well.
 

midgesmith

Active Member
It's a tricky dilemma bananahaze64.

I took mine down today - some 5 days after I posted the op.

I could keep a fan going, but haven't the time and budget for a new power cable run, heater and dehumidifier. Even if I did, the light levels are so crap at the moment, they'd be better off with a light to augment too! More complete ripening would have been guaranteeable with just the climate control though.

I am pretty sure I could detect just a few hints of amber in the trichomes today, though subtle. Probably 75% of the pistils were red in the end. I think she'll be satisfactory :)

The tomatoes around my remaining plant had signs of pm despite the fans on my female right next to them and I am not sure she'd have made it through another week intact, though I think it would have been beneficial for ripening.

Also, there was some spider(mite?) silk evident on one of the buds, compounded by the slug invasion and post-thripp damage. I don't think I needed the stress of losing some of her yield to mold or bugs at this stage.

Hopefully she'll keep me going for a while :)

20201006-05.jpg
 
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