Z Auto by Fast Buds (Budget Grow!)

Resilience: Extremely good. Took transplanting like an absolute champ & survived a day and a half with a heavy black 40-gallon trashbag over her head. No herming or rampant leaf yellowing like the last 2 times. She reacted worse to plain water than any of my weirdo feedings but ultimately seemed very hardy & resistant. // Final Height: 33 inches. // Notes for Next Time: I'd only do a couple things differently in the future: 1.) Extend nitrogen feeding through pre-flowering and/or start it a little earlier during veg to prevent yellowing leaves & the need for more N later in flowering. Felt like I gave N a little bit late, delaying flower bulking & reducing overall aroma/trichomes. But it had to be done to stop the yellowing leaves. I'd assumed the soil that causes "nitrogen burn" (lol) in cannabis plants would supply all her N needs. I was wrong. // 2.) Avoid defoliating (which I didn't do this time anyway) so plant would have enough extra leaves to lose safely if they start yellowing/dying. Trimming a couple scraggly fans as needed is fine for me but not taking a shit-ton at once as a training technique. // 3.) That said, I would train her somehow (LST, etc) to keep height down, as a 33" plant was NOT practical at certain times. Ideally, I'd like to find an LED grow bulb (not a board) and maybe experiment with some nutes. I'd want a bulb that screws into my splitter and/or current fixture, otherwise I wouldn't even fuck with LEDs & would just add 1-2 more CFLs for the sake of convenience & saving $$$. Stick with what ya know. // I'd absolutely use the Miracle Gro soil again before some specialty brand like Black Gold (used for previous 2 grows) or Fox Farms and would transplant her again if not feeding bottle nutes. My rationale for that was: more/new soil = more nutrients after using up everything in the Solo cup. I would use the pH strips liberally again, as I suspect that's where I fucked up with my past grows re: the yellowing (nute lockout). // ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ HARVEST Cut the top cola down in 3 separate rounds 12 hours apart. There were 3 "pieces" of that, then I left the bottom of the plant to continue growing, which it did until the Friday after next (the 14th, aka 2 weeks later). I wet-trimmed because it's highly humid here and I don't want mold. The rest of the plant was harvested 14 days later & also wet-trimmed. // ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DRYING Hybrid refrigerator ("Lotus" dry) + regular hanging in closet: I didn't buy a special fridge for this purpose nor was mine spotless, but it was mostly devoid of food & smelled decent. Lots of baking soda in bowls & sprinkled around to reduce moisture & absorb bad smells. The bud box went on a bottom shelf & was kept shut by the shelf directly above it, and when I took it out it was open in my dark closet with 2 fans moving air. // I started by hanging the buds in my closet for the first 12 hours after harvest to give them a jumpstart on drying, then hung them in the box by taping the stems to pipecleaners. I took the box of buds out for 15 mins twice daily at first, then reduced it down to 10 minutes once daily. I did this because there's no real air circulation in the closed fridge. But they were drying EXTREMELY slow so on Day 10 I started an 18/6 schedule: 18 hours in the fridge and 6 out while lights were off for my remaining plant. I wiped the inside & outside of the cardboard box with isopropyl alcohol & peroxide multiple times to help prevent fungal growth/bacteria. So they were mostly fridge-dried (80%) but also closet dried some too. // I'd also use this drying method again because it just makes sense. The fridge gets both darker & colder than I can make my living space. Buds lost all smell almost instantly after going in the fridge but were full of pungent fruity terps when broken up & smoked. And they retained nearly all their original vibrant color! They DEF kept more of the good stuff than my previous closet dried buds. // ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CURING Buds were cured in sealed glass Mason jars at room temperature & stored in a dark cubby. I opened them to "burp" for 30 minutes 2x a day in Week 1 and am going to reduce that to 1x per day in Week 2, then 20 minutes daily in Week 3 and beyond. // ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FINAL (DRY) YIELD: 9.3 grams. So between a "quarter" and a "half."