Auto LST 500w cfl - 3x Ultra lemon haze (auto seeds) 1x Afghan kush ryder (WOS)

[lowblower]

aaaaaaaaaand theyre off! lol

Just a bit of techincal info:

Pots: The ULH autos are each going in 3 gallon smart pots. The AKR is going in a 40x40cm pot (id say about 6 gallons not sure)

Lights: 1x 125w white spectrum cfl for propagation and 2x 250w red spectrum cfl after 1-2 weeks veg (they are both in a twin reflector hood

gonna be on an 18/6 light schedule (because i feel like a bad dad making them work with no breaks)

Soil: Biobizz light mix AND added perlite AND 'J arthur bowers' garden lime (for cal/mag and stable pH)

Nutes: ALL AT 1/8-1/4 strength:

Baby bio veg feed and superthrive from week 2-4
Dutch pro Auto flowering nutes A+B from week 5-finish
Humbolt nutrients 'Honey ES' (molasses) from week 4- finish
some PK13/14 for around 1.5 weeks at heavy flowering (gonna use this in the lightest concentration because its so pure)

ALL FEEDING AND WATERING WILL BE pH BALANCED with humbolt nutrients pure silicate and using a simple test kit

Ventilation: 240m3/h extractor with a 4" rhino carbon filter. 180m3/h intake, plus a 6" desk fan for internal circulation

Using a 'powerstar' light contactor so my equipment doesnt overload my timer

(i was going to SCROG but realised i wont be able to do a traditional SCROG with an auto)

Thanks for all the help from everyone on RIU on my first grow, as it has given me serval invaluable pointers for this one. I always give +rep to people who give good advise from their own experience in growing

 

[lowblower]

*thanks to 'slipon' for encouraging me to go ahead and get the superthrive and molasses...which id been in two minds about for a while*

 

[lowblower]

got 100% germination here how i did it:

1) put 3 ULH seeds in a small pot of water and the single AKR seed in its own small pot of water and put them in the dark for 12 hours.
2) after 12 hours i poked each seed into the water to test if they sank, which they all did
3) then used the wet paper towels method to germinate
4) as soon as the root was coming out like 1cm, i put the seeds in the propagator in a seedling tray, each one about 2-3mm under the soil. and left them under the 125w cfl light.
SO they are officially 2 days from opening the packet, and i hope they continue to please

EDIT: i almost forgot one of the most important things = temperature. I would invest in an electrical propogator, and you can do the paper towels phase in there. I would have got one this time but the store ran out so i had to wrap my sealed box in foil (to keep it dark) and placed it about 6" under a 125w cfl. This kept the box WARM to the touch...which is optimal. And the seeds were cracking open after like 5 hours and had 1cm roots after 10 hours.

 

[lowblower]

3 days from the packet, getting stronger. Next update i think will be when i repot them

 

[Slipon]

look nice and helthy .. give em a week or two .. then repot to final pot (I reccon its normal with 3 galon for autos)


make sure to do a littel google/reading about repoting ..

you can do it realy carefully so ther is next to no stress on the plant (importent for autos) only thing you will see is a few days of no grow abow the soil wile the plant find its feet in ther new pots .. super thrive is a good product for a repoting .. with a auto I would use it ther and maybe a week later .. then stop as the plant schould be well in to flowering by now ..

and also do some research about LST .. I would wait untill after the repot .. and give em a few days before I did it ..

and use a string or two to secure the main steam just abow the soil in the other direction of the way you LST so you dont uproot it ..

and with a Auto I wouldnt continue or do hard training .. just get the top down so you get them 4-7 main colrs insted of one .. and a even brod canorpy for your CLFs

 

[lowblower]

Yeah man all covered lol brilliant advice though, 100%. On my first run i had to transplant, and did some research into the least stressful technique and it worked amazingly, heres how i did it, for anyone checking in who doesnt know yet:

1) I decided to do the following: run some water through the pot with the plants in, and it makes the soil hold together and it also lubricates the soil so it slips out easier.
2) Then i used one of the smaller pots to make perfect sized holes in the soil of the larger pots
3) *at this point gotta be almost artisticly gentle* turn the pot with plant in, upside down slowly, then gently sqeeze the sides of the pot to ease the soil out. The roots need to have established a decent system, because they are responsible to holding all of the soil together (if the soil crumbles away its jus gonna disrupt the root system for the replant)
4) once the soil and roots have slipped out then quickly turn them back upright and down into the hole you have made in the larger pot of soil. this has to be one quick constant motion to make sure the soil doesnt have time to crumble apart.
5) once the plant has been repotted, only water it in slightly (you dont wanna drench all the new soil because the water will go stagnant (apparantly) as there are no roots in it to take the water up)
6) but you must make sure that the boundary beneath the soil between the wet old soil and the new dry pot soil has been wetted, so that the roots fit into their new environment much more comfortably.

I used this technique on about 15 plants and about 2 hours after transplant, they looked sick.....but 5 hours later they looked healthier than ever before and went crazy!

7) this is very important...the last time i transplanted them was when they showed preflowers (about week 3) and all companies dont recommend to do it after preflowers have shown.

and yes Slipon, ive done alot of reasearch into LST, seen some good vids and tutorials and feel confident. I was gonna do LST to begin with before doing research into the scrog technique. But now ive gone back to my original idea because i havent found any good use of the scrog with autos online anywhere. The mesh is poorly used and may as well not be there. LST is the way with autos, to keep the canopy even +rep to you (when im allowed to giv u another one lol) u do know what ur talkin about!

 

[Slipon]

a nice repot guide .. I wish evrybody who was about to repot did as mouch research as you (and me)

and nice move makeing a hole with a small pot .. I even learn something here


I usealy use a spray to mist the soil .. in between layers as I fill it up .. and the hole and around the old soil .. so I dont have to water .. just mist the top layer good when done ..

and yes dont repot a full flowering plant .. it will maybe stress it .. and last thing you want .. is to stress a flowering plant ..
plan up front .. I repot in to the final pot a week before flowering (tho not autos)

but if you end up with a root bound plant early in flowering I would repot .. asap.. carefully .. the cost of a day or 3 "lost" is a littel price to pay for a helthy plant with enough space for roots doing flowering as it will use some space fist 2-3 weeks or flowering .. and I belive the stress of root bound doing flowering will tress it more then a quick carefully repoting ..


and yes .. to mouch traning or topping .. FIM aso. will stress a plant and stall its grow a littel ..
not a problem with a normal plant .. you just give it a week or two more in Veg ..

but with a Auto you dont have that mouch time ..
so trick is to not stress it to mouch .. as yild might be less in the end .. I belive LST is the way to go .. topping and FIM will demand a week or so for recovering .. and a weeks lost with a auto is like 1/8 of its grow .. might loose more then you gain with a tecnic like that ..

 

[lowblower]

Just a quick update: 3 days from emerging from the soil. Looking healthy, i think ill repot them tomorrow evening or saturday afternoon into final pots

 

[lowblower]

if you have any questions/comments about the set up/strains etc etc feel free to post. I grew the ULH last grow and it budded really nice. I fucked up a few times though, and so i thought id try them again under (hopefully) more optimal conditions and see how they do. I think when your learning to grow, its good to keep a certain strain for the first couple of attempts so you have some kind of rule to go against. This is my second attempt and i did aloooot of research during my last grow and up to now, so i think, it should all go smoothly but we shall see what happens *fingers crossed* i hope people can learn a thing or two from it, good or bad lol

 

[Dameon]

Nice and healthy. You have a decent little setup there man. Best of luck. I'll be round to check you out. Stay Crunchy! Crunch* Crunch*

 

[lowblower]

Nice and healthy. You have a decent little setup there man. Best of luck. I'll be round to check you out. Stay Crunchy! Crunch* Crunch*

cheers man, its an upgrade from my last grow, which consisted of bin bags and heat blankets stapled together to form a light proof sheet, a desk fan, and a 250w cfl light, and about 5 strains in one pot and a jar of Ona gel lol But it worked and i was just amazed that i grew my own bud that me and my frends could get high off, so now i got the bug. Anyways see u soon for updates!

 

[lowblower]

LOL theyre so small! They are 4 whole days old from the soil today. I could have let them stay in their propogation tray a bit longer but im gonna be busy this weekend and dont wanna risk them getting root bound. Had to surgically remove them from the trays coz the roots werent that developed.......i just hope they will settle in ok exciting times. Next grow im gonna get a couple more smart pots n do away with the big one, i guess i got greedy with the AKR, she prob wont ever actually fill that pot with roots lol who knows

 

[alley.walker]

I have a warm little feeling that you are going to do well my friend! Nice lighting! Youre only concern I would think is temps.. But only you would know..

 

[TMAF]

I start my seeds in a cube of coco coir. Germ them there and let them grow. Transplant from the propagation tray to the pot is much easier because the cube holds together nicely.

 

[lowblower]

I have a warm little feeling that you are going to do well my friend! Nice lighting! Youre only concern I would think is temps.. But only you would know..

yeah i came back to my room last night and it felt like a halogen cooker. BUT it was very warm last night anyway. I checked the temp (with my skin) in the room this morning after being on for about 2 hours, and the temp was fine. Mildy warm. And the seedlings are looking strong, so it must be ok in there. Gonna go and get a thermometer this weekend though just so i can be sure :/ also need some run-off collectors for the pots to sit in.......lol so its still work in progress, its still experimental, never used this set up before and only my 2nd grow so im expecting a few hiccups

 

[lowblower]

just put a 9" desk fan to point at the reflector, because i think it will get too hot with the weather. Just gave them a watering, they have grown a tiny bit more but im just tripping about heat stress. Ill check on them after work today and post a pic on sunday morning hopefully they will not be dead lol

 

[lowblower]

Kinda hot in these rhinooooos



6 days above soil

Afghan Kush ryder
Ultra lemon haze
ultra lemon haze
ultra lemon haze


Thought id post up now as i wont have time tomorrow, next update on wednesday! Wish me luck :/
They have grown noticably fast since going under the 500w cfl's. Heat is a potential issue but so far the seedlings have shown no signs of stress

 

[Slipon]

Alright man, can you send me a link of that sheet you got to cover your door. I looked for similar things over here but never knew what to search for specifically, so i had to settle for making my own door...but its not completely air/light proof. Cheers man! please send the info to my grow journal coz i cant accept incoming messages, should be in my sig, but if not jus go to the autoflowering section its Auto LST 500wcfl. Cheers

did you try to clean your inbox .. your only allowd to keep 50 MSG stored ..

the black rubber mat I used as door is from my work .. its thick rubber matting we use to isolate big stainless steel tubes .. so I dont know wher to buy it ..

but Im sure you are able to find some black rubber similar to it .. and then I just got a zipper from a dust door ..



8$ at my local "walmart" .. just keepd the plastic for my floor and used the zipper for my door .. thic black zipper with glue on the back ...

 

[lowblower]

Day 13, the Ultra lemon haze autos are going strong. I havent been around much over the last week and a half, and they have only beenw atered about 3 times over that time, so its amazing how they have coped, especially in the heat of the grow room. It dries the soil quit quickly. Im back to lok after them properly now but may have to turn off one of the 250w lights until mid flowering, not because its too hot in the growroom, but all the hot air is pumped into my bedroom and its unbearable with this weather. It would be fine in the winter because i would use the growroom for my bedroom heating instead of the radiator.






The AKR is a different story, it may be a dodgy seed. But i think its deformed growth has to do with the size and type of the pot it is in. It dries out much quicker than the 3 gallon pots because its so big and its directly under the light. I really wish i had just used a 3 gallon smart pot instead of the shitty 6 gal garden pot its in. It takes up aot of floor space too. Thinking of just killing it off and sprouting the other 2 ULH i got and buying two more 3 gal smart pots to take its place :/ ill give it another few days to decide

 

[lowblower]

turned off one of the 250's and taken the AKR out of the room. Ill switch the other 250w on at my leisure during flowering but for now, it just makes my bedroom too hot. I wake up at like 7.30am no matter what, coz it gets too warm to stay asleep lol

My new plan, is to keep just one 250w on my three ultra lemon haze autos for now. Im gonna be producing seed in winter for spring by using colloidal silver and a mix of autos to cross pollinate then im gonna use those seeds for a perpetual outdoor guirilla grow throughout the summers so that i dont need to have any lights on in my cupboard over the summer months. Indoor growing will be kept to the winter after this grow, i reckon i could pull around 3 photoperiod 12/12-from-seed harvests for the bud, and one auto seed crop for the following spring. Should work quite well that way *its all a learning curve* the plastic shelving in my grow room is starting to bend inwards coz its so warm lol looks like its melting but its way too tough to actually collapse....i hope! think ill look into some steel caging after this ULH harvest. Ill probs also need another extractor and carbon filter at some point. Indoor growing is costly (for a stealth grow making small harvests)