Pineapple Upside Down Cake Autopot

SamDo Hi everyone, here’s the update for week 1 after germination. Still growing in the Autopot system with the Airpot. This week was a bit tricky. Temperatures spiked over 30°C, and you can see some heat stress on the leaves—they’re slightly wilted. Thankfully, today temperatures have dropped back to around 25-26°C, which should help the plant recover. I also swapped the light. Now I’m using a Core 5000K 54W from OpticLED. It generates much less heat and it’s more than enough for the vegetative stage. As for the parameters, they’re holding steady: EC at 0.6, pH between 5.8 and 6—all good. I’ll also put the dome back on to avoid uncontrolled heat spikes. That’s it for this week. See you in the next up.

SamDo Hey everyone, welcome back for the Week 2 veg update. So… things are still not great — the plant is still showing stress symptoms. pH is stable, between 5.8 and 6.0, and EC is low, around 0.7. This week, we’ve had temperature spikes up to 30–31°C, which is making it really hard — temps keep rising and falling, so it’s very difficult to maintain a stable climate. Right now, we’ve cooled down to around 25–26°C, with roughly 55% humidity. Humidity is fine for now, but heat is still the main issue. The plant is growing — slowly, but surely. I’m using a low-heat light, just to avoid pushing the temps up again. I also have another plant that’s a bit older and coping much better, but the younger one is still struggling — she’s delicate. That’s it for this week — no big changes, but still under control. I’ll keep watching things closely and catch you next week for the update. Take care, see you soon!

SamDo Hi, we’re back for week 3 of the vegetative stage. It’s not great… I decided to repot my plant into a larger container with a new nutrient-free substrate. I went for a coco-perlite mix and placed it in an 8.5-liter pot. The plant hasn’t really grown since last week, so I put it under an Autopot dome to maintain better humidity. As you can see when I zoom in, it’s struggling to get going, with very little visible growth. I kept the COB lighting to maximize vegetative growth while avoiding too much heat. Conditions are stable: around 25°C and 50% humidity in the grow tent. That’s not very high, so I added a small water tray to try to boost humidity a bit. For the parameters, pH stays around 6. I slightly increased EC to 1.2 and switched my base nutrients to the Athena line: Grow A, Grow B, and CalMag. Let’s see if these changes pay off next week. See you then, bye!

SamDo Grow Journal – Week 4 Week 4 of veg. After last week’s transplant, the plant is showing its first signs of recovery: a new set of leaves is forming, which suggests it has likely adapted well to its new substrate. I had kept the dome closed until now, but slightly opened it to lower humidity, and the plant seems to be responding well to the change. Inside the grow box, humidity stays between 50 and 55%, with temperatures ranging from 25 to 30 degrees Celsius. Higher peaks are expected next week, which may make it harder to keep the climate stable, already a bit inconsistent at the moment. For feeding, I’m continuing with the Athena line. Current doses are: • Athena Grow A: 1.5 ml/L • Athena Grow B: 1.5 ml/L • Athena CalMag: 1.2 ml/L • Athena Cleanse: 1 ml/L EC is holding at around 1.3–1.4, with a target pH between 5.8 and 6. I’ve noticed a few pH drops this week, possibly due to working with small 5 L volumes. The main highlight for this week is the visible vegetative growth recovery, an encouraging sign for what’s ahead. The goal now is to keep monitoring closely, especially with the upcoming temperature fluctuations, to keep the plant in the best possible conditions.

SamDo 🌱 Grow Journal – Week 5 Week 5 of veg, and things are looking better. The plant has clearly shown signs of recovery since last week’s transplant and repot. It’s gained back some strength, which is really good to see. I took off the dome because it felt way too hot underneath. Without it, the environment is much easier for the plant. I also switched on bottom feeding by opening the Autopot valve. Now the nutrient solution wicks up from below, and that seems to have helped a lot. Not an instant boost, more like the steady support it was missing. I think it was slightly under-irrigated before. The plant is now back on track and should return to normal growth over the next weeks. The start was rough, but I’m glad to see it hanging on and gaining vigor again. I also turned on the air pump to run the AirDome at the bottom of the Autopot, giving the roots more oxygen. We’ll keep an eye on how it responds this week. As for conditions, it’s still pretty hot: temps around 25–27 °C, sometimes hitting 30 °C. Humidity stays low, about 50%, not ideal but manageable. That’s it for this week. Have a good one, see you next time, ciao!

SamDo Week 6 of growth was another bumpy ride. Temperatures climbed up to 27–30 °C (Celsius), which is definitely on the hot side, and humidity sometimes dropped as low as 40–45%. That combo put some serious stress on the plant. To fix it, I made a simple but effective move: I turned off the exhaust fan. Right away, humidity went up to about 70%, and the plant clearly started looking more comfortable. She seems to be handling these new conditions much better. I did make a mistake this week, though. Wanting to push growth a little too fast, I cranked up the light intensity too quickly, jumping from 300 to nearly 600 PPFD. With humidity already so low, that sudden boost dried the plant out. She definitely felt it, but I caught it in time, adjusted back, and now she’s recovering well. A bit of lost time, but nothing dramatic. The real highlight of the week has to be the Athena nutrients. The pH stayed locked at 6.1 from start to finish, without moving at all. I really appreciate that kind of stability, and I’m excited to see how it will impact the plant’s health and growth over the next few weeks.

SamDo Alright guys, welcome back — week 7 of veg with the Pineapple Upside Down Cake from Humboldt. This week feels like a big win compared to the last one. The adjustments I made finally paid off. Cutting off the extractor really helped bring humidity back up, and that gave the plant the push it needed to get back into an optimal growth rhythm. I also realized that adding an extra light before was too much — way too much PPFD. So now I’ve gone back to a more balanced setup with a 54W COB at 5000K. The environment feels much more stable, uniform, and the plant clearly loves it. Nutrients are still straight Athena — Grow A, Grow B, CalMag, and Cleanse. EC is holding around 1.4. One thing I’ve noticed is a slight drift between what’s in the reservoir and what ends up in the saucer. That’s why I keep the res around pH 5.5–5.6. Once it drains through to the pot, it tends to rise, landing closer to 5.8 or even 6.0. It’s a bit tricky to manage, but the idea is to aim lower in the res so that the root zone ends up right where it should be. So, the main challenge for the upcoming week is to keep that pH steady in the sweet spot — ideally buffered around 5.8 to 6.0. If I can lock that in, the plant should keep pushing strong. For now, everything looks good. I’m happy with the comeback this week — definitely a victory. Let’s see how it evolves next week. Catch you then!

SamDo 🌱 Grow Journal – Week 8 This week, the plant kept growing steadily and looks healthy overall. She gained almost 8 centimeters in just seven days—that’s more than a centimeter per day, which is a great sign of strong development. I’m planning to work on her structure a little: probably a topping in the coming days, along with a light defoliation. The goal is to open up the canopy, improve airflow, and make sure the light is distributed more evenly, while guiding her growth in a balanced way. The main challenge this week has been the pH. This morning, the reservoir measured 4.8 while the tray was at 5.2, a 0.4 difference. I honestly don’t understand why the drop was so sharp. I had added Athena Balance, which should stabilize the nutrient solution. The only explanation I can see is the heat—we hit almost 31°C this weekend, and I suspect the nutrient solution was heavily affected by the temperature rise. If anyone reading this journal has insights on why this happens, I’d be glad to hear them. It’s a bit frustrating, because Autopots are supposed to make things simple. But in reality, I still need to monitor closely, especially since the coco buffer doesn’t seem to be doing its job properly—or maybe the reservoir just dropped too low and threw everything off. Either way, I’ll stay vigilant. Hopefully, with summer ending and temperatures cooling down, the solution will stabilize and the pH won’t swing so much. On the positive side, I’m still really happy with Athena nutrients. The solution stays crystal clean, no buildup, no deposits, and that makes things a lot easier to manage. So overall: strong growth, healthy plant, but pH management continues to be the main challenge. Let’s see how things evolve next week.

SamDo Hey guys! Here we are in Week 9, and honestly, nothing major to report. The plant’s doing fine — my main focus is still on pH stability. I feel like the coco is finally buffering around 5.9 – 6.0, which is exactly what I’ve been aiming for. I’m keeping a close eye on it. On the nutrient side, I’m sticking with the Athena base. I did add some Balance to the mix. Just to explain: I actually push the pH way higher than usual at first — up to about 7.4 — before adding the Athena nutrients. Once everything is mixed, it drops down to around 6.3, and then with just a drop or two of pH Down, I dial it back to 6.0–6.1. Right now, in the saucer I’m reading about 5.9–6.1, and the reservoir is showing about the same. So it looks like the buffer is finally kicking in. Structurally, I topped the plant and now I’ve got four nice apexes that I’ll train slowly over the next weeks. After the defoliation, I’m letting her recover and put some energy back into growth. Next week, I might start adding a little Rhino Skin (Advanced Nutrients) to help strengthen the stems and give her a more solid structure. But no rush — we’ll see how she goes. For now, EC is steady around 1.4–1.5, which is enough. I’ll bump it up later as needed. That’s it for this week — keeping the pH steady, letting her recover from topping, and just being patient. Catch you next week — peace!