First grow (LED + Soil + Various Autos)

Starting my first grow and figured I'd create a journal. I'm horrible when it comes to remembering things so I'm hoping this will help me learn and improve my skills over time.

I'd love to hear your feedback on my progress!

Strains (ALL AUTOS)
2x Seedman - White Widow
2x Greenhouse Seed Co. - King Kush CBD
2x AutoSeed - Candy Kush

Germination
Soaked for 24 hours then planted all in soil.
FoxFarm ocean forest with a bit of light warrior mixed at the top.

Gear (updated to reflect latest setup)
Tent: Vivosun 96"x48"x80"
Lights: 2x ViparSpectra PAR 600w LED
Pots: Smart Pots
Exhaust Fan: 8" Hurricane on Active Air controller
Scrubber: 8" iPower

Schedule
Light/Dark: 20/4

Initial Dates:
Soaked: 7/25
Planted: 7/26

Notes: After planting at 1/4" depth, I watered the core area and then covered them with the clear plastic basins that I'll later use for run-off. Currently have FoxFarm Trio, Advanced Nutrients Organic Super Tea, and CalMag. I plan to wait at least a few weeks before applying anything.

Jesh, after only 1.5 days in the soil I've got a king kush up and working on her second set of leaves. I'm feeling like a happy daddy!

I need to get some normal lights in there for photos or figure out how to use my camera flash.

Ok both white widows are peeking through, nothing from the candy kush nor the second king kush.

Looks good so far! I'm using two 300w LED in a 2'x4' tent for veg right now. They bush out nicely. Just put a few into flower the other day under a 1200w LED. First time using them, I'm hoping for good results. Where did you get your seeds from? I've been curious if autos serious do well under LED.

Thanks man. Seeds are from Gorilla Seed Bank (Candy Kush) and Seedsman (WW & King Kush CBD). Both delivered within 15 days of order, both discreet but I have to say my order from Seedsman was soooo stealth that I honestly thought to myself "heck, are they even in here?!?!" as I worked through the multi-layer approach they took with my order.

Raised light to 16" on sprouted seeds. Removed dome from KK that has sprouted second set of leaves, waiting on WW to do the same, should be tonight or tomorrow morning. Humidity is low in general, misted inside of plastic covers. Leaving light at 12" on rest of ungerminated seeds.

Ok great news, we have a 100% germination rate. All containers are labeled but I've added their labels to this photo for record keeping as I plan to re-use the plastic basins these smart pots are sitting in. Also, some shots of the progress.

I've screwed up a few times so now I'm going to add a "F-Ups" note to each entry:

F-Ups: Last night the lid came off my nalgene while watering and poured nearly 20oz of water on the king kush that popped first (#1 in photo).

Misc. Notes: I had to pull a redundant seedling, it was a WW seed that I had accidentally dropped and then couldn't find. To my amazement even though the seedling had just broke surface, its root was 3' long. I had no idea. I've been watering a tiny bit 3 times a day. I mean tiny bit. I'm going to shift to once a day but a deeper water.

Stats this morning: 66% RH, 75°

Ok big deal here, going to shift into the 20/4 cycle today since all seedlings are up. The Candy Kush (#6) is barely up but I want to kick the cycle in for the other guys.

Shit, I tested my soil before the seedlings went in and while I tested the PPM of our kinetico filtered water, I didn't even think to test the actual PH of the water. We are in a very very acidic area, I should have known better but anyhow the water I've been using came out at 5.0.

I realize now that the kinetico filter is removing the soda-ash that is being injected into our tap to raise PH and prevent pipes from corroding. Our unfiltered tap is 6.0. I'm going to water with 6.0 for the next day or so and then raise it to 6.5-ish to slowly correct the situation. I have jugs of soda-ash for our whole house system so in a few days I'll use that to raise ph rather than buying chemicals. Going to try dissolving a tablespoon in a gallon of water, test results to come.

Ok I've got a long term solution for my pre-nute water PH issues. A 1/4 tsp. of soda ash per gallon raises my standard tap water's PH to 6.5 to 6.8 range. The seedlings look pretty good despite the initial high acidity water so I'm optimistic that having caught it now will not impact them much. Fingers crossed.

Day 4 post germination, zero nutes. Shifted to watering ONLY when top feels dry dry. Not desert cracked dry but the soil particles easily move around like playsand almost. I've got my PH water issues squared away. They've only needed to be watered once in the last two days but I was so glad to be putting down better water (tap as opposed to my acidic as heck kinetico filtered water)

The girls (plus two new marzano tomatoes in germination) are in their new digs.

Photos of progress.

I noticed some gnats this morning. Ordered up some yellow sticky traps. Will attach trap to plant label stake and plan to very lightly spray the top layer of soil with organic insecticidal soap prior to next watering. Plants are looking great based on my bookmarks comparisons of X day progress shots. Every seedling is working on their second set of leaves. All cotyledons are still present.

Day 6. Just a quick update with some shots! Raised the lights to 18", also modified layout to better utilize the lighting. Zero nutes applied. Just light, water, soil and love at this point. No sign of the tomatoes (blue buckets)

Damn this lighting thing has me vexed. I feel like I'm fast forwarding through newbie mistakes at lighting speed. First was dual 300W vipars, now dual 600W better vipars. Now I'm looking at a DIY COB kit from timber. Thank god for amazon prime's return policy... jesh.

Ok got some taco-ing of the leaves going on. I've searched and searched and it appears to be due to a process called transpiring (sweating) which can be the result of too much heat/light and/or too much wind drying them out. I haven't raised my lights in a few days so I raised them to 24". This might also explain why they are so stubby, not that its a bad thing, but some of these are working on their third set of true leaves while only being an inch tall haha.

I also removed the wedge I had under the fan which helped to point them at the seedlings a bit more. They weren't swaying back and forth wildly but you could see them twitching back and forth when the oscillating fan reached them. They needed water so I watered and also threw in a few bucket liners with water in them to try and raise humidity a bit. Although I'm seeing 58% RH, it feels drying in there than normal.

Pic included of curling leaves on one of the king kush seedlings. Hopefully by EOD, she'll look better. Will post a follow-up pic for sure.

Ok so with the light raised and a watering, the problem got worse. Originally it was just that single king kush, now a few other's leaves are curling up. The next culprit based on my research would be over-watering, which sucks since I just watered them. Lifted each smart-pot out of their round trays and sure enough the bottom of each pot felt damp. So, I removed the plastic trays and slid some 6" 1x1 pieces of scrap wood under them and placed a clip-on flan directly on the floor pointing at floor. The air runs along the floor so hopefully it will help dry up the bottoms of these pots. Will report back tomorrow morning.

I just ordered my second ViparSpectra 450w. Loving it, for what it is.

What are you temps looking at? And yeah do remove the trays I don't think it's necessary for smart pots, unless maybe your growing in a area where you don't want spillage. And canoeing on the leaves is usually due to heat stress. Here a link that I use at times when in trouble.

http://www.growweedeasy.com/seedling-problems#heat

I don't have any temp issues, personally. 70s, very low 80s on extremely hot days.

It may have been due to the heat then theyre just babies give them some time might take more than a day to show you he improvements but goodluck . . .

Subbed

Olive Drab Green said:

I just ordered my second ViparSpectra 450w. Loving it, for what it is.

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Yeah, they seem solid however I ended up going with this 300W DIY kit from Timber, those Vipar 600s are headed back to amazon as soon as my cree setup arrives. I started this whole thing with unrealistic goals with too much space, too many plants, and not enough light. I'm downsizing to probably half (or less) the tent size with a 1 or 2 plant SCROG approach.