The “Dark Harvest Grow Challenge”
I started this grow back on August 11th along with 6 other growers.
@Chefomj
Are among those growing along with me. I hope that OldJarHead and RoseattaStoned know that we would love to have them here as well!
We set out to grow the same two strains at the same time in different media with different techniques. We flipped to 12/12 on the same day 9/28, and had planned to all harvest together.
We are growing Gorilla Cookies (Expert Seeds) and Dark Ghost Train Haze (Rare Dankness).
It has gone a little differently than planned! Certainly an odd grow – to say the least!
I experimented with a germination strategy that backfired and set me back a week. Because of that and some other participants having their own issues we set the flip back a week from 9/22 to 9/29. Then, on about 9/24, when my plants were still under 18 hours of light, the Gorilla Cookies (If that’s what they really are) started to flower!
@Chefomj ‘s gorilla cookies had already flowered under full light, so apparently we got autos and the mix-up extends to more than just my seeds – I still would love to know what happened!
Above: Flowering still under 18 hours of light
We flipped to 12/12 regardless, a necessity for the Dark Ghost Train Haze (DGTH). So now I have two Auto-flowering mystery seeds being grown alongside the impressive DGTH. It’ll be fun to see how this all turns out.
"Not-Photos" occupy the left - DGTH is still stretching on the right. We are putting the "challenge" into "Dark Harvest Grow Challenge"!
GROWER LOVE!
Yeah, I wish I could too. I get jealous when I see yours, but mine started after yours anyway. With less light they probably won't catch up. The next time I grow Autos I want to make sure that all of the seeds are autos!!!
But I am going to make the best of it!
After looking at the autoflower pictures on expert seeds site I think I have either the bluecheese auto or the cheese auto. They don't have many to choose from so maybe you can take a peek and see what yours look like ?.
I looked, but you'll have to give my plants a week or two of development to say for sure.
They all look good though - hope that we got one of those!
Oh that's why you said they Boch orders @chefomj ! I didn't realize they gave you the wrong seeds xD tbh idk if mine are the right seeds now I haven't grown any yet ?
Just a quick update.
Took these pics last night
The DGTH on the right is just growing away. I will try to do some training again at some point but evening the canopy is not in the cards. Fortunately I have two lights and have them set at very different heights. I just want to say that this is a weird grow! The two sets of plants are nothing like each other and are at different stages of their lives. Makes all sorts of things "challenging" - Like one stretching 2" per day when the other effectively stopped! and what kind of nutrient solution should I give them all - since they all get the same! I am just trying to split the difference and running a little easy on EC.
Flowers are starting to smell strong on the "not photos"
The DGTH has some nice flowers forming too
Cheers everyone!
Well, The DGTH is on day 18 of 12/12, but the Not Photos are doing their own thing, they started to flower around 24 days ago - that I could tell, which was prior to the flip.
Im about 12 days in flower, not far from you ^.^
12/12 Day 20
Well the DGTH has not slowed down. I set lights at 18" two days ago - and missed the ability to raise them last night. Tonight at lights on the tops were less than 13" from lights. So I had to raise the light 5" and it is now super close to out of room. I will have to take her down with super cropping tomorrow. Not sure how I am going to manage that as I have no bamboo in there yet and the smart pots are pretty small to be shoving a bunch of bamboo. This is why I haven't done it yet - except the once at the "net". But now I am out of room and the plant really needs a super cropping.
This pheno of DGTH is a stretching monster!
Meanwhile the "not photo" is behaving more like a sedated cow and just laying pretty much right where I took her down. The buds are forming, but I feel they should be further along because of @chefomj 's not photos. But I have no idea what these plants are or what timeline to expect or anything. They do smell strong!
The focus on the picture is not exactly what I wanted - but thought it was kind of cool anyway
Not-Photo Bud-let
Final bit of news: came home tonight to a smelly fishtank for a reservoir! It has been 7 days since I cleaned out and I haven't been able to control the temp consistently. So despite getting only three hours of sleep last night, commuting for over 5 hours today, and teaching (let's just say lots) of students today, I get to come home and clean out the res. BTW H2O2 hurts! I am tired! Pump and airstone still soaking in H2O2 - nutes still need to be mixed. The joys of growing!
Grower Love
Yeah, I have had limited success trying to tie super-crops to the plant itself. I use soft-ties and it was kind of a pita when you have to take down a dozen in short order. And I am going to take them down probably a lot - 8 inches or so. But I am going to consider it - because in other respects that would be so much easier.
The other issue is that they will need support if "scropped" now, because weight is going to get off center. So yoyos (nope), or a frame (I have thought about this so much) or bamboo (probably need to go with bamboo). I got 21 hours to decide.
I'm glad mine stopped stretching so much. I definitely thought I would have a containment problem with the leggy one. Must have been the mh that really helped.
Since expert seeds doesn't have a wide variety of auto flowers it should be easier to tell towards the end ?. I believe there is 11 strains to choose from.
Have you tried tying to your net? I actually poked some holes in the fabric pots and threaded garden wire through to tie mine. I was thinking about customizing my next fabric pots. Poking holes in them and putting some rings through the holes to tie multiples.
I actually think I am going to remove the net and add bamboo. I may attach the bamboo horizontally to the frame (like the net). The plant is pulling the net and looks like it is strangling itself with it.
No time today, so this is project to implement tomorrow. Still some time to think!
During this part of the stretch I always question why I grow so many plants. The one DGTH could probably fill the tent by herself! I might only grow 2 plants in the next challenge. It's just that when they are small, it is hard to imagine them becoming this big - even though it happens every time!
