My first thoughts are that I’m shocked to see so much foxtailing. These guys are doing it uniformly throughout the plant, so it isn’t lighting (I don’t think?). They’re both doing it, No Dots to a lesser extent. Oddly enough, their mother didn’t foxtail at all. I wouldn’t have thought it was genetics, but perhaps. Maybe just environment. I have been running them under pretty brutal conditions - heat as high as 90°F nightly. Watering is not as frequent as it should be for plants in autopots.
Here we go:
Grow Dots - she looks done to me. Unless I want to wait for her to finish foxtailing. We may be here all year if we do that.
For what it’s worth, I have found a couple nanners on No Dots during the course of taking these evaluation photos. They’re very small and just beginning to emerge, which makes me wonder if I missed a round of stress nanners early on - hence the flagrant pistil throwing from GD and ND both. They’re neighbors, I’m not sure anyone else would be compromised but they rub buds all the time.
Harvest completed. Stripped several fans from both to speed drying. Lately they’ve been taking too long - 12-15 days. As hot as it is, I don’t want to risk mold. Grow Dots right, No Dots left. GD looks much larger.
Stupidly easy. Added CalMag and microbes throughout. These clones were so speedy, I didn’t have to stress about a mid-grow too dress, which I find surprising for photos.
For anything I can’t get into autopots, I’ll keep using the Dots. Frankly for things I can put in autopots, I may still try to get 4 plants uniformly into Grow Dots so reservoir refill day is only 1 batch of nutrient mixing (one res holds 4 plants, one holds 6).
I will be curious to see the final weights, but I also suspect they’re going to be pretty close with the Dots plant winning. Whether because she didn’t herm and self-pollinate (thus derailing her bidding process) or because she was truly superior, I can only surmise.
Running more plants and continuing to watch the other growers who have been using the Dots as their grows progress will tell me more. Dollar wise, Jack’s remains king. Although, worth mentioning Grow Dots is still pretty darn affordable. At a “heavy” application rate, I estimate that the $150 6lb bag would last about 64 full plants. At a “medium” rate (@Twelve1 is running at medium right now, so my eyes are on that), the 6lb bag could last as much as 96 plants. That ain’t nothin’ for $150.
I agree using dots is like growing on auto pilot later in flower you have to start watching for deficiencies. I’m on my third grow with dots I backed off using 55 grams per 5 gallon as opposed to 70 grams and 4 weeks in my Ppm is 450 so I think I’ll go back to 70 that’s in ProMix
I used the heavy rate on two white widow autos, and they didn’t have any deficiencies. I also used calmag and Recharge, but that’s it. RO water and no PHing. Their leaves were very dark green, but that didn’t seem to cause a problem.
I listened to that 2-hour long podcast with Scotty Real, and for most autos they recommend the medium rate. He also said that the Grow Dots are fairly forgiving, which seems congruent with real-world grows.
As Graysin mentioned, I’m using the medium rate on my current plant (which is two weeks old), also in large part because the breeder (Fast Buds) says this about the strain I’m growing:
“Sativa dominant varieties prefer lighter doses of nutrients and this one is no different. Especially during the flowering stage, growers will want to go light-handed with the Nitrogen.”
So, lower nutes (overall, it “seems”), but also lower nitrogen in flower that likely isn’t a problem with Dots. This is the first sativa I’ve grown, so I don’t have experience with them; I’ll see if this current plants gets any deficiencies. Anyone is welcome to follow my journal. I think there is a different way to share a link that is a link only …
I’ve just been lazying around most of the day (claiming to be working, of course!)
