Pic heavy thread and long post, but I could really use some advice for fixing my setup

H_Aspect

H_Aspect

Active Member
Please bear with me, I'm super fucking frustrated.

Brief background - I've grown only once before, 4 years ago in this tent with a combo of HPS/CFL (mentioned below) with 2 "fresh" CMC AutoMassassin seeds and those two plants grew 4+ feet in this tiny tent. I almost broke the stems having to tie them down at the very end. Nothing but problems, fucked everything up, couldn't kill them, and had a great harvest (all things considered).

This grow is an absolute fucking disaster.

These White Widow autos are 30 days from breaking soil as of today. Seeds came from The Vault and were leftovers I either bought (or were freebies) from about 4 years ago. Yes, the breeder says 50 to 100 cm, so I'm only expecting 2+ or so feet, but these seem exceptionally small for 30 days. 3 show lots of preflowers everywhere, 1 shows a number of them scattered, 1 shows maybe 2-3 total.

All plants the exact same spec:

Floor space – 2x4 (using only 2x3)
Lights – 2 Meizhi 450w (195w actual) = 390w total
Rotation - All plants turned 180 degrees daily, physical locations rotated 3x week
Fan - One oscillating fan on low
Temps - 77/81 bottom of tent & 79/82 various locations at the top
Soil – Combo of FF salamander soil, perlite, and Black Gold (yeah, total cluster fuck, you've told me)
Nutes - Fed twice, once in veg and once in flower with about ½ or 1/3 strength nutes (FF trio)
Foliar - sprayed with Epsom salts twice, one week apart, due to leaf issues and guidance here
Bugs - Fungus gnats. Treated with DE and Neem oil.
Water - Watered with Cal Mag x2. Water is regular tap (140ppm) pH’ed to no lower than 6 and no higher than 6.2

NOTE: I also own a Mini Sunburst 150w HPS, a Flurowing w/ 150w 2700k CFL, an Agrobrite wing w/ 125w 6400k CFL, a 125w 6400k CFL, and two Levin 36w LED lights (20w actual).

Some are crooked from LST last week, because I'm stupid and tried something new to help.

Tent is 2x4x5 with 4” ducting/fan/muffler/10” filter. A/C unit is attached as air intake and I can regulate the temp to whatever I want.

I also own the following seeds and would like recommendations: 4x Femaleseeds.nl Auto Kush, 5x The Vault Northern Lights Autos, 5x RQS Special Queen #1 Fems, 1x RQS Critical Fem, 1x Dinafem Critical+ Fem, 1x Dr. Krippling Red Leicester Tease Fem. Never had any of them, never grown photos.

Questions:
#1 - For 30 days, based on my considerable fuck ups (specifically soil), is this to be expected?
#2 - Based on my tent and all the lights I own, should I reconfigure for next grow?
#3 - I prefer those fabric pots. I wanted to grow 5, so I used plastic ones too.



#1 – 10.5”



#2 - 8.5"



#3 - 10.5"



#4 - 11"



#5 - 7.5" - total fucking lettuce

 
hotrodharley

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
Raise lights and wait. And stop with the frigging autos. You're well equipped and autos suck. For a variety of reasons. Not the least of which is the lack of time for recovery.
 
H_Aspect

H_Aspect

Active Member
hotrodharley said:
Start by raising lights to at least 22". You're way too close and it's not temps. It's light.
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Done. Thank you.

hotrodharley said:
Raise lights and wait. And stop with the frigging autos. You're well equipped and autos suck. For a variety of reasons. Not the least of which is the lack of time for recovery.
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Noted. As I mentioned I have other lights & seeds on hand, I'm not married to Auto's. I was drawn to their quick harvest time and generally smaller sizes, thinking my tent couldn't handle it. I was hoping to use 1 or 2 gal fabric pots and fit in 6 plants next time. But I don't know what lights to use or which strains to select.
 
B

Beachwalker

Well-Known Member
Might be the salamander soil ?

I recall another thread recently where someone had a disaster using it and they pulled it out and replanted, was that you?

If so you still not adjusting your pH properly, you didn't list anything about how your measuring (meter, strips,drops?) or adjusting your pH, if you're using less than 7 - 10 gallon pots you need to adjust your pH properly for best results
 
H_Aspect

H_Aspect

Active Member
Beachwalker said:
Might be the salamander soil ?

I recall another thread recently where someone had a disaster using it and they pulled it out and replanted, was that you?

If so you still not adjusting your pH properly, you didn't list anything about how your measuring (meter, strips,drops?) or adjusting your pH, if you're using less than 7 - 10 gallon pots you need to adjust your pH properly for best results
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Yes, probably me. I ripped and replaced the salamander soil with Black Gold once I realized it was garbage, but that was fairly early on. The bottom 1/3 of the soil is still a mix of salamander soil and perlite, but I don't know that the roots are that far down at this point.

I have two digital pH meters, both calibrated correctly, and as I mentioned the watering is between 6 and 6.2 by using pH Up/Down. I don't believe this is a pH issue, based on all my reading here and elsewhere, but anything is possible.

I am letting them dry completely before watering, both via the "lift test" and a Rapitest Digital Moisture Meter probe.
 
hotrodharley

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
H_Aspect said:
Yes, probably me. I ripped and replaced the salamander soil with Black Gold once I realized it was garbage, but that was fairly early on. The bottom 1/3 of the soil is still a mix of salamander soil and perlite, but I don't know that the roots are that far down at this point.

I have two digital pH meters, both calibrated correctly, and as I mentioned the watering is between 6 and 6.2 by using pH Up/Down. I don't believe this is a pH issue, based on all my reading here and elsewhere, but anything is possible.

I am letting them dry completely before watering, both via the "lift test" and a Rapitest Digital Moisture Meter probe.
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If there's differences go with the weight and not a meter.
 
B

Beachwalker

Well-Known Member
You say "it was early on" and you pass right by it.. but I suspect thats still your problem? (Roots live at the bottom of the pot too)

I'm not sure you're going to be able to fix it this run if I'm honest? but I would definitely adjust my pH to 6.5 going forward, your low pH is not helping you, its coco range, not for soil
 
hotrodharley

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
Beachwalker said:
You say "it was early on" and you pass right by it.. but I suspect thats still your problem? (Roots live at the bottom of the pot too)

I'm not sure you're going to be able to fix it this run if I'm honest? but I would definitely adjust my pH to 6.5 going forward, your low pH is not helping you, its coco range, not for soil
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Agree on pH!
 
H_Aspect

H_Aspect

Active Member
Beachwalker said:
You say "it was early on" and you pass right by it.. but I suspect thats still your problem? (Roots live at the bottom of the pot too)

I'm not sure you're going to be able to fix it this run if I'm honest? but I would definitely adjust my pH to 6.5 going forward, your low pH is not helping you, its coco range, not for soil
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I discussed the soil issue, exactly what I did, and when I did it, in much detail in another thread. I didn't want to beat a dead horse by describing it all over again, especially when you said you remembered that thread. So, I didn't pass right by it, I figured this thread is long enough as-is to keep rehashing issues.

Recap for you: This is hard to visualize, but I was able to remove the soil from the sides of the pots all the way to the bottom. I used a solo cup to scoop soil about 1/2 between the stem and the pot wall. I didn't hit any roots. I did it when the plant was too young to have them go out too far. However, I left the soil directly BELOW the plant, because I had no idea where the roots were, and wasn't going to chance it. So all the soil directly below the plant, about the size of a coke can, straight to the bottom is still salamander soil (coco) and perlite. At least of a 1/3 of it is coco, nothing I can do.

Yes, roots live at the bottom. ;)
 
jtrizzy

jtrizzy

Well-Known Member
I have the same autos ww. These all range from 35-40 days. I have had issues though but they are small as well. My last ww were also small with hps. I think I am going 2 photos next and Scrog them. FFOF soil, no additional nutes until they start to flower, tiger bloom only. If you don’t know FFOF has plenty of nutes ameneded into it so no need for nutes until they start to flower. BUT if you have seen my threads I had overwatering issues and the most recent fucking aphids. Aphids seem to be eradicated (caught it early enough) and over watering seems to have been eradicated but it def stressed the fuck out of them. These are bigger than the hps ones last time.
 

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jtrizzy

jtrizzy

Well-Known Member
So I guess what I am saying is, it could be quality of seeds, it could be your fuck ups, just like my fuck ups. But I have grown this before and the same thing occurred but worse. I still have 20 of these fucking seeds, kinda wanna give a few to some of the master growers on here and see if they can get these bitches bigger. I also seem to fuck up in some way all the time so I can’t tell if it’s me or the seeds just blow. But you know the staying “don’t blame the arrow, blame the Indian”.
 
H_Aspect

H_Aspect

Active Member
jtrizzy said:
So I guess what I am saying is, it could be quality of seeds, it could be your fuck ups, just like my fuck ups. But I have grown this before and the same thing occurred but worse. I still have 20 of these fucking seeds, kinda wanna give a few to some of the master growers on here and see if they can get these bitches bigger. I also seem to fuck up in some way all the time so I can’t tell if it’s me or the seeds just blow. But you know the staying “don’t blame the arrow, blame the Indian”.
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I hear ya. With so many variables, I'm not sure it's possible to say for certain it's one single thing. Soil + genetics + bad pH + lights... Any one of those could cause problems, and I have them all.

At this point, I just need to figure out which of my lights (or combo of lights) I own I need to use next time. I'll be sure to use FFOF, etc., but I'm not sure if using a combo of that 150w HPS, the CFLs, and/or these LEDs are going to give me the best results in this tent. But after this experience I think I'll try photos next. I've got plenty of seeds. I hope they germ.
 
5BY5LEC

5BY5LEC

Well-Known Member
Might be the lights but you are looking heavy on the nitrogen.
Dark green and the tips pointing down is what makes me say that.
 
waxman420

waxman420

Well-Known Member
Most autos are so touchy it seems of there is any slight problems and you can cut yield in half for each set of issues ie . Re-pot lose half your yield. soil too hot lose half or over water it you've guessed it ÷2 . Pretty soon you've got 10g plant hanging .
 
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