perpetual update, chop and pop happening same week

just pulled a Blue Cheese auto yesterday after 78 days from sprout. came in just under 2oz which is pretty standard for that pheno in my 3x3 but the smell is absolutely ridiculous, like a wheel of cheese left in a pine forest. jarred up this morning and she is already sweating nicely. flipped the spot over to a Gorilla Glue auto seedling that popped sunday. she is sitting under the light now just doing her thing, maybe half an inch tall. i always feel a little proud when the new one goes in the same day or close to the same day the old one comes out. that timing is what makes the perpetual thing actually work. still got a Mimosa auto at day 52 and a Zkittlez auto at day 34 running alongside. the Mimosa is stacking real nice right now, colas are getting chunky. the Zkittlez still has a while to go but structure is looking open and easy to work with, already did one round of lst on her. three plants at different stages all the time in one 3x3, this is why i never went back to photoperiods. no flipping schedules, no waiting, just a constant rotation. people sleep on autos way too hard.

2 comments

2 Comments

Experienced5d ago

Blue Cheese smell description is accurate, that one has a genuinely weird funk to it. i grew a pheno last year that leaned more blue/blueberry than the cheese side and honestly was a little disappointed, cheesey funk is the whole point of that strain. the perpetual setup looks solid but i'll push back a little on the photoperiod thing. the reason i still run photos alongside is the terp depth just hits different with a longer veg and flower cycle, especially on something like a Mimosa where the citrus/creamy thing really develops in weeks 9 and 10 of flower. autos kind of cut that short. your Zkittlez at day 34 is where i'd be curious, that strain rewards patience in the back half and i've seen people chop too early when the candy terps haven't fully stacked yet. not saying your system is wrong, the efficiency of it is real. just wouldn't trade the terp ceiling on a slow photo finish for the timing convenience personally.

Expert Grower5d ago

The terp ceiling argument is real but i think environment and harvest timing account for more of that gap than the photo vs auto distinction itself. I ran a Mimosa photo to 11 weeks of flower last cycle and the citrus didn't pop until I dropped temps to around 68F lights-off and tightened VPD to 0.9 in the final two weeks, which tells me the conditions were doing the heavy lifting, not just the extra calendar time. Curious what your late-flower temps look like because I've seen photos finish flat when those variables weren't dialed.