Pineapple Express Auto Grow Diary: I Hit the Jackpot With This Monster

Hi everyone! In this post, I’ll be sharing with you the details of my Pineapple Express Auto grow diary. It was an awesome experience, as my single Pineapple Express Auto plant took twice as long to mature as a normal autoflower but yielded five times as much. This is the kind of math I like, and I just wish every auto was that generous.

My Pineapple Express autoflower was just one of many crops when the grow cycle started, but at the end of it, she was alone and had the grow tent all to herself. She used this to fill all available space, with more branches and bud sites than any plant I’ve ever had. The final haul was way more than a pound dry!

Germination And Seedling Stage

When the seed germinated, I planted it into a 2-liter air pot and for the first two weeks, kept Pineapple Express Auto and a few other Fast Buds strains in my propagation box, which has a CFL light installed into its transparent plastic cover.

It was very convenient to maintain high humidity in this sealed-off space, but the light could’ve been more powerful, as all my seedlings were quite stretchy and all but one fell over. The one that didn’t was – that’s right – Pineapple Express. This baby had the thickest and sturdiest stem.

She kept stretching all through the second week, displaying long internodes, a pale green color, and kind of narrow leaves – all the signs of a plant starving for light. I sometimes get the same look and bush structure when I keep my plants in the window before planting them outdoors.

The Vegetative Stage

I began to count the vegetative stage of my Pineapple Express Auto from week 3, when I transplanted each of the seedlings into a 38-liter (10-gallon) container and put them all in the ‘grown-up’ tent. My girl quickly recovered from the stress – still growing at the fastest pace – so I didn’t have any second thoughts about FIMing her on day 18. She took it in stride and remained the fastest-growing one in the tent, gaining 25 cm (10 inches) in the fourth week alone!

By week 6, my Pineapple Express autoflower was a great bushy plant with a very light open structure, stretchy internodes, and thin, pliable branches. I decided to FIM the tallest tops for the second time, and boy was I glad I did! Even with such high-stress training, she grew 10-15 inches a week easily. By week 7, she was growing past the lights!

A Rich Diet Worthy of This Giant

I knew I needed to sustain this growth with adequate feeding, so I used a 20-20-20-NPK powdered fertilizer mixed into the water. I also tried to give my garden a boost with a CO2 bag, but it was a disappointment, as I never measured more than 400 ppm of CO2 (which is hardly more than the ambient levels).

I wasn’t stingy with nutrients, and by week 6, my PPM levels reached 1600, of which 300 ppm was for my clean water. Besides the powdered fertilizer, I regularly added Cannazym and Terpinator. Pineapple Express didn’t show one sign of overfeeding. If anything, her top leaves looked pale green, as if I wasn’t giving her enough nitrogen.

The Flowering Stage

During the flowering stage, Pineapple Express Auto received the same 20/4 of light she did from day one. Maybe this was why she took so long to finish, but I doubt that. Most likely, it was just a long-flowering (and insanely high-yielding) phenotype.

When Training Doesn’t Stop ‘Til Harvest

Fast Buds says that Pineapple Express Auto reaches up to 140 cm, and mine would’ve stretched even more if I hadn’t tied down every cola as soon as it got too close to the light. At first, she was crowded by her tent mates, but as they were harvested one by one, the Pineapple got more and more room all to herself and finally reigned supreme.

I kept bending the branches all through flowering, and even before the colas really filled out, she had that droopy look of a plant that’s too high-yielding for her own good.

A Voracious Eater

In mid-flower, I tapered off the nutrient levels first to 1500 ppm and then to 1200, thinking that she only had a few weeks left, but then I realized we had a longer road ahead. I upped the nutes again to prevent the yellow in the bottom leaves from spreading upward prematurely.

She was also drinking an insane amount of water – 3 liters a day, which I even upped to 4 liters a day for the last couple of weeks.

The Trichomes Were Long in Coming

One of the things about this grow that seemed confusing to me was how late in the game the trichomes appeared. My Pineapple Express autoflower ended up as frosty as they come, but you wouldn’t have guessed it at the start of flowering. Rereading my original grow journal now, I remember how excited I was to finally see some ‘sugar’ appear on the leaves.

The other thing about the trichomes was that once they appeared, they got close to maturity in a regular timeframe but then kind of stopped changing – or rather, new clear trichomes were developing next to the milky ones almost until the end.

The question of when to harvest is among the most important ones, and it always has one answer: when all the trichomes turn cloudy, no matter what the breeder specs (or your impatience) tell you. For me, it meant waiting several long weeks, but I was thanked with a scale-bustin yield as a reward.

Harvest, Yield, and Smoke Review

Pineapple Express Auto’s flowering time was 11 weeks out of the total 18-week grow time. Some autos require less than 9 weeks from seed, so this one’s not for an impatient grower. However, I got way more than I would have from even two consecutive harvests, so no complaints here. 527 grams from one autoflower is something I never thought was possible!

Trimming her was a full-time job for several people. My back was aching simply by looking at her! The trim leaves were frosty from all that THC and looked quite smokable, but I like to close-trim my buds, and I can say that I turned them into a first-rate product with a high bag appeal.

The Pineapple Express Auto strain is an incredible Sativa smoke – a pure injection of bliss and euphoria straight into your lungs. I’m also in love with this weed’s fruity pungency and tropical vibes, and although I smoke this day in and day out, my stash will last me a long time.

Pineapple Express Auto (FastBuds)

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Pineapple Express Auto: Final Review

If I were to choose just one autoflower to grow for the rest of my days, it would be this one. I hope I made clear in my Pineapple Express Auto grow diary that this plant has everything going for her, from incredible vitality to jaw-dropping yields and a top-shelf smoke. The long flowering time isn’t even really a drawback, as each extra day adds up to productivity. I recommend this strain to anyone and hope my week-by-week guide will give you enough insight to achieve even better results than I did. Happy growing!

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