Smoothie Auto Grow Diary and Strain Review

This run was my first proper look at Smoothie Auto from Fast Buds. I wanted to see how the strain would behave in 2 different media, so I ran 3 plants side by side: 1 in Ecothrive super soil and 2 in coco with perlite.

All 3 Smoothie Auto plants went into 37l (9.8gal) fabric pots. The plan was simple enough on paper: let the super soil do most of the work in one pot, then feed the coco plants more actively with SHOGUN nutrients and later Mega Crop.

24% THC

Smoothie Auto (Fast Buds)

• Autoflowering
• A sublime layering of berries and euphoria
• 400 - 550 g/m² indoors
  50 - 250 g/plant outdoors

Pack (number of seeds)

1

3

5

10

£11.24 £31.12 33.71 Save 2.59 £49.75 56.19 Save 6.44 £91.71 112.38 Save 20.67

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Starting the Run

Week 1

I planted the seeds straight into soaked Root Riot cubes and kept them in a warm propagator. By the end of day 3, all of them were above the surface, though a couple needed a bit of help getting rid of their shells.

The roots filled the cubes quickly, so on day 4 I moved the plants into their final 37l (9.8gal) pots. The box ran under 24h light, with the lamps at 60cm (23.6in), temperature around 23°C (73.4°F), and humidity near 75%. Each plant got about 1l (0.3gal) of water per day. By the end of the week, the seedlings were 2-3cm (0.8-1.2in) tall and looked upright.

Week 2

The second week was mostly about watching the plants settle into the big pots. The third plant, one of the coco girls, was already the clear leader. She looked stronger not only than the other Smoothie Auto plants, but also compared with the rest of the room.

The super soil plant was slower, though not in a way that worried me yet. At this point, I was more interested in how long it would take for the organic pot to wake up properly.

Week 3

The pace picked up this week. Smoothie Auto #1 in super soil still looked a little unhappy, but the color was better, and it seemed like the root system had finally started working through that large pot.

Plant #2 had a rougher time. The first leaves started drying out, and I suspected the coco might have picked up something unwanted after sitting outside in the rain before planting. The third plant stayed the best of the group, with clean growth and no obvious health issues.

Week 4

I moved the feeding over to Mega Crop and added Cal Mag and Silicon to keep the nutrient balance more stable. The mix also included SUPERthrive at 0.25ml/l (0.03fl oz/gal), SHOGUN Silicon at 1ml/l (0.1fl oz/gal), Cal Mag at 1ml/l (0.1fl oz/gal), Root Stim at 1ml/l (0.1fl oz/gal), Biosys at 0.65ml/l (0.09fl oz/gal), and Neutralise at 0.22ml/l (0.03fl oz/gal).

The super soil plant handled the new routine well. Plant #3 was still the strongest, so I chose her for the first real training. I topped her and started LST while there were still no signs of flowering.

Veg Progress and Training

Week 5

The Smoothie Auto girls looked better this week while I was busy worrying about other plants in the room. Training caused no real problems, and the Silicon seemed to make the branches easier to work with.

I stopped using Mega Crop in the organic pot because the soil was meant to feed itself. I still kept an eye out for deficiencies, but I didn’t want to overdo it just because the coco plants needed a more active routine.

Week 6

The plants kept stretching, and the canopy needed more attention than I expected. I removed some leaves where they were blocking light or crowding the middle of the plants.

Plant #2 still didn’t look pretty, especially on the lower growth, but it kept moving. That made the grow more interesting, because its rough appearance didn’t seem to stop it from building structure.

Week 7

By this stage, the trained plant was around 45cm (17.7in). I kept using LST to hold the shape down and spread the tops instead of letting everything go straight upward.

The difference between the plants was obvious now. The trained one was easier to manage, while the untrained coco plant wanted to climb higher. I was already thinking that without LST, Smoothie Auto could easily outgrow my box.

Week 8

Flowering was underway, but the buds were developing slowly. I guessed there were still 3-4 weeks to go before harvest, maybe longer.

Plant #1 in super soil looked much better after training and had a wider structure. Plant #2, the rough-looking coco girl, was taller because I hadn’t shaped her the same way. Plant #3 was smaller, so I moved her into the middle to give her more light. She had a low crown with plenty of bud sites starting to form.

The Flip and Early Flower

Week 9

I added PK Warrior 9/18 to the nutrient mix at 0.75ml/l (0.1fl oz/gal). The breeder timing suggested the finish was getting close, but in my room it looked like the grow would run at least 2-3 weeks longer.

The bud development reminded me more of photoperiod plants than fast autos. The smell was already impressive, and the strange-looking plant had stretched up to 1.2m (3.9ft). Her leaves still weren’t pretty, but that didn’t seem to stop the buds from forming.

Week 10

This was another good week. The buds started smelling like pineapple and tropical fruit, and trichomes were becoming easier to see. The flowers also looked dense enough to keep me optimistic.

Plant #1 was the biggest and widest overall, though the other 2 were taller. Plant #2 quietly became the second-best plant in height and had several thick buds. Plant #3 surprised me the most. Her leaves still looked rough, but she was flowering hard and building plenty of bud sites.

Week 11

The finish was getting closer. I changed the feed again and used SHOGUN Silicon at 1ml/l (0.1fl oz/gal), SHOGUN Dragon Force at 4ml/l (0.5fl oz/gal), SHOGUN Sumo Boost at 2ml/l (0.3fl oz/gal), Cal Mag at 1ml/l (0.1fl oz/gal), and Neutralise at 0.22ml/l (0.03fl oz/gal).

The smell in the tent was like a fruit stand by this point. Once some other plants came out, Smoothie Auto #3 finally had more space and light. She responded quickly, and all the plants were drinking about 2-3l (0.5-0.8gal) per day.

Week 12

I simplified the feed to 4ml/l (0.5fl oz/gal) SHOGUN Dragon Force, 2ml/l (0.3fl oz/gal) SHOGUN Sumo Boost, and 0.22ml/l (0.03fl oz/gal) Neutralise. I had used that finish before and trusted it enough to keep the final stretch clean.

Plant #3 changed the most this week, with the buds almost tripling in size. The super soil plant had a strong tropical smell up close, and the structure looked better than it had earlier in the run.

Late Flower and Finish

Week 13

At this point, I mostly watched the buds fill out and tried not to interfere too much. The plants had already shown what they wanted: space, light, and enough room around the branches to keep the flowers developing.

The earlier differences between the 3 pots were still visible. The super soil plant looked broad, the untrained coco plant stayed taller, and the smaller plant had made the best use of the extra room once it became available.

Week 14

The late flower period was slower than I expected from an auto, but the wait made sense once the buds started putting on more weight. I kept the finish routine steady and avoided adding extra stress.

Plant #2 especially made me rethink the value of space. She had struggled for much of the grow, but once the room opened up, she started looking far more serious.

Week 15

By week 15, the resin coverage looked much better, and the plants were finally close enough to the end that I stopped worrying about speed. The flowers had the fruity character I wanted from this strain.

The run also made the training lesson very clear. With more space and more deliberate shaping, Smoothie Auto could have done even better.

Grow Notes

The main lesson from this run was simple: Smoothie Auto doesn’t like being crowded. The plants that got room and light responded fast, and the trained structure was much easier to manage than the one I left taller.

Smoothie Auto Yield and Final Thoughts

I didn’t treat this as a clean side-by-side yield test, because the plants had different levels of space and training. Still, the run showed enough to make me take Smoothie Auto seriously. The strain handled training well, and even the rough-looking plant kept flowering.

The finished buds had a clear fruity aroma. The effect felt upbeat first, with a relaxing side that came in later rather than flattening me right away.

My main takeaway is that Smoothie Auto is worth giving room to. If I ran it again, I’d train earlier and avoid letting any plant sit in the shade for too long. This grow was also a good reminder that ugly leaves don’t always mean a plant is finished.

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