Grow Diary of the Auto SFV OG plant that won the 2023 Highlife Cup

Auto SFV OG grow conditions: light-mix/coco blend with BioTabs & LED

With around 40 cannabis cups of his own, Antonio is a master grower who has also collaborated with Dutch Passion to produce his own limited edition releases and soon will be making a ‘regular entry’ into the Dutch Passion collection with his Ice Cream Haze, available in both feminized and regular seeds.

His preferred grow method is fully organic using the complete dry nutrient BioTabs line and their liquid PK Booster. This proven system is one of the easiest ways to grow, used by beginners and experts alike.

Apart from a few simple additions (e.g. occasional beneficial soil bacteria, PK boost) all you need to do is add water for much/most of the grow. For many, this foolproof ‘water-only’ method is much simpler than use of bottled mineral nutrients, allowing predictably solid results – time after time.

Seed germination

Germination of the seeds went fine, 10 seeds germinated producing 10 plants – 100%. 10 seedlings were planted into 0.25L pots after germination.

Vegetative stage

In his own words, Antonio explains how the initial vegetative growth phase went and his observations.

These seedlings were then pre-grown in 0.25l containers for about 4 weeks. Unfortunately, a week longer than I would normally do/advise to do when growing autoflowers. But due to unforeseen circumstances I had to wait before transplanting her. So, I picked my favourite one and the 9 others went to a friend from the growers collective.

My remaining Auto SFV OG grew for about 6 – 6.5 weeks with no visible flowering hairs. The first 4 weeks after germination she was kept in a small 0.25l pot before being transferred to a 30L Airpot. From this moment on she started to really grow vigorously.

During the vegetative phase she really showed a more hybrid leaf and branch structure. Therefore, most leaves tended to be medium sized, with a visible mix of Indica and Sativa, maybe leaning a bit towards the Sativa side.

Flowering stage

With just his favourite plant remaining from the original 10, Antonio saw the cannabis flowering phase start around week 7. That’s a week or two later than usual but this allowed plenty of resin and flavour to build. The Auto SFV was grown naturally, without cannabis low stress training (LST) or cannabis high stress training (HST).

This natural grow style, combined with the ‘water-only’ BioTabs nutrients system made for a simple, but highly effective, grow & harvest. The Auto SFV OG had the small 60x60cm (2ft x2ft) tent to herself with a quality 125W Migro Aray 2 LED overhead. Here is the feedback in Antonio’s own words:

She grew well though I knew I may have stunted her growth a little by keeping her in a small pot for 4 weeks. Growing an autoflower from start to finish in the big, final container is always best.

However, I was still happy with her overall size. It was actually perfect for a natural grow in a small tent because there is obviously not a lot of room for a massive lady without using the SCROG method or other grow techniques.

Her flower development was pretty fast, and she was filled with haired pistils within a week or two from the moment she started showing sex. At the same time a lot of trichomes popped up on the small leaves surrounding the flowers.

Her stature was rather compact but filled with quite nice sized flowers. Almost a similar stature to the Auto Skywalker Haze that was grown 2 years earlier. I had a feeling the buds would become quite massive in the end again!

A few weeks later, the cannabis flowers have grown to decent sized buds and they have become quite sticky as well. Looking really frosty and appealing to the eye! The aroma of the plant was also quite pungent and strong, resembling a more creamy, earthy Kush scent. Quite unique and interesting.

The Migro Aray-2 LED light was used at around 75-80% of max power. So around 90-100w (of the 125W available) was used to grow this Auto SFV OG.

Structure-wise, it resembled a slightly more open hybrid structure – without being super fluffy. When you squeezed the buds, they were still rather compact, probably coming from the SFV OG heritage of this cross. Interesting to say at least!

The bigger fan leaves were not caked with trichomes, but the smaller leaves (often called sugar leaves) were really frosty and sticky!

I also loved how the main cola looked. Really nice contrast with the light green leaves and a very white overall appearance. Definitely some high-quality bud!

At this latter part of her lifecycle, I decided to take away most of the bigger leaves. This is important in order to have more light shining through the canopy. It also helps to improve air/oxygen flow and reduces humidity levels (due to reduced transpiration). All these are beneficial for the ripening of the buds, achieving higher yields and quality levels.

After completing this final strip (or ‘schwazz’ as some growers might call it), the plant really looked like a compact tiny Christmas tree, with a decent main bud surrounded by many decent sized side-colas. A typical plant structure seen by many Dutch Passion autoflowers.

A lights-out picture made with a flash really shows the trichome production in a good way!

At the same moment, I was growing this lady, some of my friends were growing the other 9 Auto SFV OG plants. This is one bud-shot of one of those plants, which you can see became quite potent and sticky too and with a totally different terpene profile. More on the sour, fruity, Kush side with some sweet candy notes. I loved that one as well!

From the moment, I had stripped her I was going to feed her strictly with water, so no more added nutrients to the water anymore. Although the science behind cannabis flushing might be up for debate, I usually starve the plant of additional nutrients during this last week (usually around 10 days).

The soil is, of course, amended with BioBabs already and I let the plant use up some of the nutrients in the leaves and soil to create a fade/get some stress…. and hopefully produce more THC. This often shows in the leaves, in this case they started to become yellow/brownish and wither at the tips, but nothing too extreme.

Harvest report

As harvest approached, Antonio knew he had a special Auto SFV OG with a rampant, all-pervading aroma and high-end THC levels. Frost levels were extreme and the blooms were getting ready for the chop.

Here are Antonio’s remarks:

I took the Auto SFV OG plant out and shot a few pictures outside the grow tent. A really compact lady with super frosty buds which reeked like old-school strong cannabis! Really pungent and interesting terpene profile in my opinion, something unique and exciting.

Final Height:

Small, compact plant of about 40-50cm (18 inches) in height.

Calyx-leaf ratio (Easy trim/yes or no):

Yes, pretty good calyx-leaf-ratio, not perfect but definitely not bad. She was quite easy to trim, although I did a dry trim this time. When it was harvest day, I cut the main stem and let her hang upside down in the drying tent. After she was dry, I trimmed the buds.

Quality (Resin/Smell/Compactness):

Top notch! Really pungent aroma, interesting terps, with a more semi-compact hybrid structure. The resin levels are simply amazing, super frosty and sticky as hell!

Yield:

Solid, but could have been better, around 90g (3.1oz) of dried buds from this single lady. If she was grown in the 30 litre (6 gal) container from the start (or after 2-2.5 weeks in the small container) it could have easily been 100-125 grams (3.5 – 4.5oz) from a single plant.

Remarks after curing:

Amazing buds, very nice bag appeal. The frosty trichome-loaded buds make this lady stand out! It was so easy and uncomplicated to produce buds of this quality.

I loved the way Auto SFV OG looked and smelled, and she also had a great taste. Very nice to smoke and vape and almost exactly like the aroma, which cannot be said all the time.

Auto SFV OG rating

I gave Auto SFV OG an overall 4+ star rating, which is pretty damn good. Definitely one of the better autoflowers I have grown. The aroma and the bag appeal were really top notch. I would have given the bag appeal a 5 if the buds would have been a bit more compact. But hey, really I can’t complain here.  

She is strong, but with a potency of around 21% (confirmed with independent lab testing) she doesn’t quite match the strongest autoflowers I have grown, like Auto Cinderella Jack and Auto Skywalker Haze. Taste was, as I said before similar to the aroma – which is always a good sign.

When I saw the 21% THC lab-report, it confirmed my belief that this really was a top-class individual. The taste and the satisfaction/enjoyment from a single hit of this weed was as good as it gets.

Some buds were submitted to the Highlife Cup where my Auto SFV OG went on to win 1st Prize in the Autoflower seed category.

Although I have grown higher THC autoflower buds before, it’s important to note that absolute THC levels are often not the deciding factor. Once you get above 20% THC, potency differences get tough to discern. In these cases, the cannabis cup judges tend to lean towards those strains with the best flavour, distinctive taste and overall enjoyability. I was grateful for the win!