Bruce Banner Autoflower Week-by-Week Grow Journal

Hi, everybody! Welcome to my Bruce Banner Autoflower week-by-week grow guide. This strain is yet another amazing autoflower by Fastbuds, and I’ll probably try them all eventually. In this particular run, I grew three BBs as part of a nine-plant SOG grow and got 8.71 ounces (247 grams) dry.

Now that the buds are cured, I’m enjoying their strong hybrid high that greatly improves my mood and makes me uplifted and happy. Bruce Banner Auto is a reliable plant and a first-rate smoke that deserves the highest mark.

Bruce Banner Auto Feminized Seeds

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Bruce Banner Autoflower Week by Week: The Seedling Stage

I know that germination makes first-time growers very nervous, but with Bruce Banner Auto, you shouldn’t be. Personally, I’ve long since switched to the most basic glass-of-water method where I let the seeds float on the surface of the water until they crack. This way, I know that they are viable and will most probably sprout after I put them in the soil afterward.

I prefer to plant autoflowers (with their very short life cycle and all) straight into the final container. This spares them the shock of re-potting, and they never skip a beat. The smart pots that I use are quite large at 19 liters. I don’t think you’ll ever need more for an indoor autoflower grow.

I placed 9 such pots into the flowering part of my Mars Hydro 2-in-1 grow tent under a 480W Mars Hydro LED light. All seedlings came up in time and were coming along nicely. I was watering them with just a couple of spoonfuls each. Using just a little water encourages the roots of the seedlings to grow deep and wide in search of moisture. On the other hand, don’t let the medium around the base dry out. If you’re not sure whether you can achieve the right balance, maybe think about planting your seeds in starter pots and transplanting them after a couple of weeks.

Bruce Banner Auto Grow Diary: Veg

In the second week, when my Bruce Banner Auto and others were just 5 cm (2 inches) tall, I started to LST them by simply tying down first the main stem and then every side branch. As a result, the plants were spread flat just inches above the ground and were no taller than 4 inches (10 cm) by the end of their veg.

I didn’t feed them in the first week, as Biobizz Light Mix has just enough nutrients to cover all the needs of the seedlings but not too much to hurt their sensitive roots. That’s just perfect for autoflowers! Starting from the second week, I began to add liquid nutrients and stimulants: TNT Complex (the staple NPK formula), SuperVit (vitamins and amino acids), PowerZyme (beneficial fungi), and Root Complex (beneficial bacteria). Collectively, these made a rich organic mix with a lot of nitrogen for explosive vegetative growth.

The only problem in the veg was a minor spider mite attack, and I took care of it with pyrethrum and a systemic acaricide. I also topped one of my Bruce Banner Autos by accident, but I don’t think this affected her in the slightest. By week 5, all three had their first female pistils and were getting ready to transition to flowering.

Bruce Banner Autoflower Grow Journal: Flowering Time

In week 5, I could already see lots of hairs at the nodes and on tops – the flowering had begun in earnest. So did the flowering stretch, but the plants only stretched 30 cm (12 inches) and then stopped. That was due in part to my heavy training earlier and in part to the strong light, but I’m sure genetics played an important role too. I think Bruce Banner Autoflower is perfect for micro grows or if you want your outdoor garden to be out of sight.

Of course, I completely overhauled the feeding schedule once the flowering began. I stopped the use of Root Complex because the roots basically stop growing during the flowering stage. I also swapped TNT for Bloom Complex with its higher levels of phosphorus and potassium, and starting from the fourth week of flowering, I’d give my plants even more P and K with Phosphorus Plus Soil. Finally, I fed them a bloom activator called Boost.

All this resulted in very rapid bud development and trichome production. The flowers were filling out and stacking up nicely. The canopy wasn’t very flat because I had stopped the training during veg, but with a final height of only 30 cm and the powerful light, that didn’t matter – all the bud sites, including lower ones, received more or less the same amount of light and were big and dense. I only had to facilitate light penetration, so I was defoliating regularly by removing a leaf or two every day during mid-flower.

The Harvest

I’d say the leafiness of Bruce Banner Auto is her main drawback. However, it can be an advantage for concentrate makers because you’ll get tons of trim and it’s insanely resinous – you don’t see so many trichomes on leaves very often. As you can imagine, post-harvest trimming isn’t a walk in the park. However, the buds themselves were dense and packed a lot of weight. With close to 3 ounces per plant, the yields were spectacular.

I was watching the color of the trichomes, and when they started to turn cloudy, I started the final flush with pH’d water. I did it only for one week, but it was enough to get rid of the built-up salts. I chopped the plants after 12 weeks from seed, which means that Bruce Banner Autoflower’s grow time is quite short: 4 weeks of vegetative growth and 8 weeks of flowering. After another week of drying and three weeks of curing, my smoke was ready.

The buds had an extremely pleasantly sweet smell, very floral and fruity, and I could feel these notes both on the inhale and exhale. The effects were mixed and not quite balanced, with the Sativa part feeling stronger and longer-lasting. It made me happy, uplifted, and talkative. After maybe an hour or so, this rush of great upbeat mood subsided and I felt the desire to sit back and chill. I’d say it’s the perfect afternoon and evening smoke.

Bruce Banner Auto Grow Tips

I want to wrap up my Bruce Banner Autoflower grow diary with some tips. This is a very uniform strain and you can cultivate it in a Sea of Green by using smaller pots and packing even more plants in your tent than I did. Just make sure you have access to every part of your garden, as your girls will need regular defoliation for the best results.

Heavy training, including ScrOG, could be less convenient since the plants are very compact and have short internodes, at least under powerful lights. Having said that, Bruce Banner Autoflower responds well to training, and even topping isn’t something that could hurt her. The amount of trim leaves is overwhelming, so read up on what you can do with them to make use of all that resin. Thanks for reading my Bruce Banner Auto diary, everyone, and happy growing!

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