Fred Savage
Member
Ok so it’s been a few years since I’ve grown. Always bag seed. I’m trying 4 auto flowers and a photoperiod.
1-Gorrilla Girl Feminized
1-Cream Caramel Auto
1-Big Devil XL
2-White Widow Haze Auto
In the past I have always mixed my own soil and added nutrients along the way. I always hated it so I gave Fox Farms Ocean Forest a try. I started the seedlings off in
1 part coco
1 part vermiculite
1part perlite
2 parts FFOF
I water with RO water. The tap water here is terrible to the point it’s controversial (not Flint Michigan bad but it’s bad) so it’s not an option.
The plants spent the first three or so days of their lives under T5 96watt veg lights. In the past I would grow in Dixie cups for around two weeks then transplant. I heard horror stories about doing this with autos but have never had a problem with transplant shock so I assumed it would be fine. As an extra caution I planted them all in paper cups for seedlings/clones so I could transplant directly if any problems.
The Gorilla Girl began to stretch to a point that I became concerned and no matter how close I put the light she continued upward. At this point had no choice but to plant her deeper. I went to the grow shop to buy fabric pots and talked to the employee there. He spooked me about “root bound autos” so I decided to transplant them all.
I hadn’t expected to transplant any till they were old enough for FFOF. I figured I would split the difference with the FFOF strength and dilute it. Maybe I didn’t dilute it enough?
7 parts FFOF
1/2 part vermiculite
1/2 part coco
1.5 part perlite
All in 3gallon pots except for the Gorrila Girl which is in a half gallon pot. I intentionally left space in the pots so I could add soil later. My thought was this would speed evaporation and give me some wiggle room with overwatering.
I ran into a problem with the lightning in that the large pots make the 24” t5s insufficient for coverage. I put them under my 400 HPS but the outside girls were tilting towards the light and it was getting too hot to lower the light anymore. I switched to my 600watt HPS and they seemed to like that more and stopped stretching. I have two temperature probes at the plants level and another in the soil. I have a fan blowing over the tops of the plants. They have been under the HPS for three days.
Air Temperature 78-80 degrees
Soil temperature 75 degrees
RH 65-70%
Light 24-0 (I get wild temp swings if I turn the lights off)
The new growth seems very yellow. I have no experience with seedlings having deficiencies and can’t remember if this color is normal or not. The research I have done says it could be a deficiency but I can’t feed them yet and they are likely getting too much from the FFOF anyway.
I do believe I have overwatered them a bit. I have never grown such a small plant in such a big container and I’m trying to balance getting water to where the roots are growing into but still keeping everything else dry.
The pics are taken with and without flash with my T5s on from the left of the plants. I hope I gave enough info and any feedback is greatly appreciated!
1-Gorrilla Girl Feminized
1-Cream Caramel Auto
1-Big Devil XL
2-White Widow Haze Auto
In the past I have always mixed my own soil and added nutrients along the way. I always hated it so I gave Fox Farms Ocean Forest a try. I started the seedlings off in
1 part coco
1 part vermiculite
1part perlite
2 parts FFOF
I water with RO water. The tap water here is terrible to the point it’s controversial (not Flint Michigan bad but it’s bad) so it’s not an option.
The plants spent the first three or so days of their lives under T5 96watt veg lights. In the past I would grow in Dixie cups for around two weeks then transplant. I heard horror stories about doing this with autos but have never had a problem with transplant shock so I assumed it would be fine. As an extra caution I planted them all in paper cups for seedlings/clones so I could transplant directly if any problems.
The Gorilla Girl began to stretch to a point that I became concerned and no matter how close I put the light she continued upward. At this point had no choice but to plant her deeper. I went to the grow shop to buy fabric pots and talked to the employee there. He spooked me about “root bound autos” so I decided to transplant them all.
I hadn’t expected to transplant any till they were old enough for FFOF. I figured I would split the difference with the FFOF strength and dilute it. Maybe I didn’t dilute it enough?
7 parts FFOF
1/2 part vermiculite
1/2 part coco
1.5 part perlite
All in 3gallon pots except for the Gorrila Girl which is in a half gallon pot. I intentionally left space in the pots so I could add soil later. My thought was this would speed evaporation and give me some wiggle room with overwatering.
I ran into a problem with the lightning in that the large pots make the 24” t5s insufficient for coverage. I put them under my 400 HPS but the outside girls were tilting towards the light and it was getting too hot to lower the light anymore. I switched to my 600watt HPS and they seemed to like that more and stopped stretching. I have two temperature probes at the plants level and another in the soil. I have a fan blowing over the tops of the plants. They have been under the HPS for three days.
Air Temperature 78-80 degrees
Soil temperature 75 degrees
RH 65-70%
Light 24-0 (I get wild temp swings if I turn the lights off)
The new growth seems very yellow. I have no experience with seedlings having deficiencies and can’t remember if this color is normal or not. The research I have done says it could be a deficiency but I can’t feed them yet and they are likely getting too much from the FFOF anyway.
I do believe I have overwatered them a bit. I have never grown such a small plant in such a big container and I’m trying to balance getting water to where the roots are growing into but still keeping everything else dry.
The pics are taken with and without flash with my T5s on from the left of the plants. I hope I gave enough info and any feedback is greatly appreciated!
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