Auto's, 1st grow in 25 yrs...

[Creature1969]

To start, I'm new. Had one very nice plant about 25 years ago using a recycled 250w HPS, Miracle Grow soil with 4" of fish tank gravel on the bottom, using Miracle grow for tomatos as nutes. Grown in a makeshift cabinet made from broom handles and aluminum printing plates. Plant reached 24" and was 2 weeks into flower when we moved on a whim and I had to dispose of her. I had a grow book that helped a lot and I've retained most of the info so with the help of the internet, this forum and it's wonderful patrons, I feel fairly confident.

Today. Legal in Mass so why not right? Started researching whats new and good right around xmas. Ordered some photos from ILGM. Stumbled on auto's. Interest piqued. Some more searching led me to @HighLowGrow Autoflowers indoor - It really is that simple thread. Awesome stuff!! Mind set. I'm running auto's my first go. New seed order, MH/HPS lights, soil, fabric pots, fans, temp/rh meters, mylar, etc in the mail the next day...

Going with "Kind Soil" following their recommendation of 1lb soil per month of grow and tossed 3lbs per pot, the rest coco. Using plain ol' tap water that starts at around 8ph and settles down to around 6 after 24 hours. No idea what the ppm is.

1/12 Dropped 3 Bubblelicious auto fem seeds into Rapid Rooters in dixie cups with 1/4" tap water. Placed on top of PC for warmth.
1/13 Bored. Dropped auto fem AK seed into wet paper towel placed in plastic baggie.
1/14 AK seed cracked open. Dropped into a Rapid Rooter and placed by the others.
1/15 first Bubblelicious popped up. By 1/18 all 4 were sprouted.
1/18 Planted 3 Bubblelicious seedlings w/ rapid rooters into 5 gallon fabric pots. 3 lbs "kind soil" on bottom with coco on top. AK went into a 2 liter bottle covered in tape, half kind soil. (experiment) Placed under HPS @ 50% power.
1/26 Changed the closet up a bit mostly rerouting wires and swapped to MH @ 100% power.

Kind soil recommends 1lb for every month of grow. I may be light on the soil so I have a GH go box just in case. I did not research coca and did nothing to it before use. We'll see how that goes I guess. I'm a little concerned as I've seen conflicting results using this "kind soil".

I'm growing in a 2.5'x7'x9'H closet. 400w MH going now, will switch to HPS when the time comes. I'm pondering another ballast and running the MH for the last 2 weeks? 2 fans going right now. Have a 4" fan, duct and filter to install yet, unnecessary mylar on walls (may get removed). I made a box to place at the foot of the closet door to exhaust out under the door 12" wide x 1.25" tall. Hoping this works out.

Right now with the MH at 100% power I'm maintaining anywhere from 73 to 85f and between 35-45%RH depending on outside temps. The room the closet is in is usually a tad chilly.

Provided things go well, the plan is to start another set of seeds around day 40 from germination. I have a LOT of different auto seeds to play with in the future.

So here we are 2 weeks from dropping seeds. Tryin' to keep it simple. Wish me luck and any advice is welcome.

Hope these pics work. The rear right plant has a deformed leaf from a water droplet early on.
Bubblelicious in the soft pots, AK in the bottle.

 

[bf80255]

good luck bud. they look nice and happy so far

 

[Creature1969]

good luck bud. they look nice and happy so far

Thanks. IF these turn half as good as the pics you've been posting, I'll be a happy camper.

I topped up the coco today and noticed the biggest of the 4 is getting a bit darker than the rest. Guessing that tap root hit the soil below. Good times. I was concerned the roots wouldn't hit it before they needed nutes. Keeping a close eye while trying to remain patient.

Also noticed that after only 24 hours under the MH they look quite a bit perkier. They've been praying all day. The seedlings seemed happy under the HPS at 50% power. Put them under it at 24" as soon as they sprouted. I ran under an assumption. Science.

 

[Creature1969]

Update!

10 days later, 21 days from the first sprout.

Still nothing but water.

These girls are officially named 1 through 4 in the order they sprouted as they all popped up a day apart. 2 and 4 suffered a bit of deficiency a few days ago. Seems they were a bit slower with root growth and didn't reach the "Kind Soil" quite as soon as I hoped. New growth is looking much better though 4 is still a bit slow. Starving her for water to try and get her reaching. She's a lazy bitch!

Pics!
1,2 & 4 are auto Bubblicous, 3 is auto AK.
1

2

3 she seems very content in the 2 liter so far.

4, henceforth to be known as the Lazy Bitch! I still love her though, I'm sure she'll put out someday.

Think #1 has some preflower going on.

I admit, I was skeptical of the kind soil. Didn't follow their recommendation of NOT using pure coco on top. 2 plants did suffer a bit but I don't think it's enough to do any harm. We'll see what the future holds for them but the plants that hit the soil early look VERY happy imo. Hoping this will allow the plants to feed from the soil when they want and just take in water from the coco? Dunno if it works like that but it sounds good to me in theory.

So far, so good!

 

[GrowUrOwnDank]

TLDR. Handle.

 

[Zayatoth]

looks great, I hope mine get looking like those

 

[cawolves]

I always wondered if those humidifiers from wal mart would help with boxed in grows like this. Either way I think your setup looks good, however hopefully highlowgrow will show up. I trust his judgement

 

[Creature1969]

Pics from Feb 22, Day 38

#1 Bubblicous, stunted as all get out but getting pretty fat and she smells so sweet.


#2 bubblicous not quite as stunted but has suffered thru def's and nute burn over and over. I think she's starting to stabilize. She just started to flower. Bonus mini cup Critical+2.0 to the right



#3 Canuk AK in 2 liter. She's going nuts. Took very well to LST. She emptied the soil of nutes and is currently on Go Box stuffz



#4 The runt! Bubblicous with a rough start but she's packing bud pretty good. The way things look today, she'll likely produce the most weight. I did break the top off a lower branch the other day which was sad.


Issues and mistakes. This has been a crazy learning curve. Due to my error with layering coco over Kind Soil, I've resorted to dual feeding. Straight ph'd water soaked from below one day. CalMag with super light canna coco nutes from above, just enough to keep the coco damp. It seems to have stabilized the ups n downs I was having.

Live and learn. I've gained quite a bit of knowledge through this grow with the errors and experiments. I'm feeling better about the next one already.

I still have about 10lbs of Kind Soil so it got mixed 50/50 with FF Salamander for my next group. Should be more stable until flower then I can just get a feed schedule going from there.

I dropped a Canuk Quarter Pounder and a Panama Lime seed into Rapid Rooters yesterday.

Have plans for a modified hempy bucket soon as well. Going to run air in the bottom with an inverted netpot and perlite, aka Autopot airdome style. No idea what I'll plant in there. Have around 13 strains to pick from. lol

Good times!

 

[Creature1969]

Top bits of #1. She's short and fat. What's not to love?


Her and the AK are the only ones in "good" shape. The unmolested #4 runt is pushing through pretty good but #2 is walking a thin line. No matter what I do for her, it's never enough.

 

[visajoe1]

give #2 a good flush and let dry out for 2 days, then feed morning of the 3rd

 

[HansBud]

give #2 a good flush and let dry out for 2 days, then feed morning of the 3rd

You flush toilets not plants I don't recommend flushing ever

 

[Creature1969]

give #2 a good flush and let dry out for 2 days, then feed morning of the 3rd

Theres organic soil below the coco, pretty sure I don't want to flush it. I have let her dry out the past 2 days and I'm gonna try just watering from the bottom. I have 2 ph levels going on in the soil and coco but they're pretty spot onto where they should be, respectively.

That accurate 8 soil meter is pretty nice thing to have. lol

 

[Creature1969]

day 44 Still doing the crazy water routine...

#1 is getting fatter by the day. Straight ph'd water soaked from below, coco sprayed with canna coco nutes @ 25% just enough to keep the top 2/3 coco wet.




#2 Let her dry out for a couple days and she woke up a bit. Starting to wonder if she ever reached the soil below the coco. Her leaves never got as dark as the other 2 and she suffered different issues altogether. She may have been surviving off very low nutes in the coco.


#4 chugging right along almost happily.


And #3 the AK. She's just doin her thing with no cares about anything. Super light and airy flowers compared to Bubblicious for sure.




bonus of #1 playin' with the camera

 

[Creature1969]

uh-oh! What are these?

 

[HighLowGrow]

What are those? Some sort of LEDS? I can't keep up with all the new gadgets. lol

 

[Creature1969]

What are those? Some sort of LEDS? I can't keep up with all the new gadgets. lol

They are citizen cob leds. Silent and very cool running. The 6 are roughly equivalent to 600-800w HID but at only 55w each from the wall. White light, none of that blurple stuffz. lol. Should be a pretty good upgrade from my 400w HID. Everyone that I've seen switch to these has been extremely happy. I'm only 46 or so days into my first grow though so what do I know? Oh, I put 1 light in the closet an hour ago and 2 plants turned toward it. It's about 12" above the HPS off to the side. I'm hopeful. lol

I went with 6 separate lights specifically for autos so I can adjust the height per plant. It cost me more up front but I think it should pay off adjusting lights instead of buckets.

I'm going to start them 2 right now as supplemental light with my new sprouts and slowly add more and turn down power to the HID until it's off and removed. Don't wanna shock the girls with different light. I really can't wait to get all that ducting and extra fans out of there.

Closet should stay 68-72 in there year round with these lights on or off.

 

[idfuckmyplants]

I'm only slightly jealous of your new cobs

Diy or pre-built?

For there first grow in a long time someones not fucking around lol

Looking forward to seeing how they do!

 

[Creature1969]

I'm only slightly jealous of your new cobs

Diy or pre-built?

For there first grow in a long time someones not fucking around lol

Looking forward to seeing how they do!

Pre-built. Made the final decision to switch on Tues and here we are. lol. The guy who makes these lives about an hour away actually. Small world. lol

 

[idfuckmyplants]

It's the initial cost that scares me lol but I suppose you get what you pay for

From what I've seen on here though there capable of producing some good results.

 

[HighLowGrow]

Seems like you could put 2 above the plant and the other 4 around the plant. Something like north south east west. Get those lower buds plumped up.

It makes sense, but I really don't know what I'm talking about regarding these cobs.