Jakes Northern Lights & Early Miss Autoflower Grow

[Zonked]

Hello, this is my first ever grow attempt and on a small budget after browsing the forum and watching some youtube series of auto grows. December 13th I germinated 5 Northern lights and 3 early miss auto seeds following the crop king instructions. Four of the northern lights seeds and all 3 of the early miss seeds germinated and made it into soil last evening. I am having a little difficulty worrying they are too dry or too wet but I have just been watering with a spray bottle and spring water waiting for them to sprout.

They will be in a 6x2.5' closet tomorrow and I will post pictures of the finished setup as well. I will be using a 1000w Bestva LED from Amazon and I planted using organic pro mix from Walmart as that was all that was available.

 

[Chris Scorpio]

Congrats and welcome aboard

Is it bottled water or from your spring? If your spring be sure and get a pH pen and TDS pen.

Does the promix have time release nutes?

What nutes are u planning on using?

 

[Zonked]

I am using bottled spring water for now and have a PH pen on the way. I plan on ordering the advance nutrients bloom micro and grow set from Amazon soon. The pro mix says feeds for 3 months and the ingredients read sphagnum peat moss, peat humus, compost, perlite, gypsum, lime, organic fertilizer and GHA297

 

[Zonked]

As of now it has been 24 hours since the seeds have hit soil and I haven't seen anything sprout yet. I have my other early miss seeds soaking and all of them sank. Its been about 16 hours I am about to transfer them to paper towel. Any input on how many autos I could fit in a well lit 6x2.5' closet? I will try to pick the plants that seem to have the best potential and discard the rest.. at least that's the plan.
I also seem to be getting enjoyment from the DIY part of growing. I am lo9k9ng at carbon filters on Amazon for about $65 compared to DIY.. either way I would be getting a cheap $30 4in fan to connect the filter.. other than my plans for a filter I'm getting a humidity monitor and a small fan to move air in the closet. Would a cheap $65 filter be much better than a diy costing 20-30 in supplies? I have a light, mylar & Ph meter, Is anything else essential other than nutes and a fan and filter? Thanks again

 

[Zonked]

I woke up this morning to 3 of my northern lights plants sprouting the soil. I set my light up in the closet approx 24 inches from the plants and stuck up the mylar. Still watering with a spray can. Thinking I may water the plants until I see some drip through the bottom today.
The closet is also very tall. My Mylar goes as high as the light is that sufficient to reflect most of the light to the plants?

 

[Dzkilla]

I'll take a ride on this one I got early miss running too for my first grow so I'll compair

 

[Zonked]

Love the little leaves opening up. I will be going with 24 Hours of light for a few weeks and then may go to 20/4. Next week I will post another progress pic of both plants. This is one of the Northern Lights, the Early Miss are starting to get their first leaves now as well.

 

[Dzkilla]

Looking really good!!! Just dont forget to let the water completely dry up 2-3 days I found perfect. makes the roots chase the water they grow stronger and faster! Happy growing

 

[Zonked]

Today I set up my mechanical timer to give the plants 4 hours of rest a day. I also noticed one of my plants seemed far less stable than the rest and was growing rather tall with white hairs on the stem so I buried deeper. I thought the plant looked better deeper in the soil so I topped the soil on my other pots as well. The pink pots are my early miss plants and the red solo cups are the other 2 early miss plants just a few days behind the others. I also gave a very small dose of advance nutrients grow without the micro and bloom because it's all I had.

 

[SmokeLake]

Autoflowers do best grown from seedling to finish without transplant. The seedling tap root will bottom out in those cups in a couple days. I learned this first hand with my own autos started in peat pucks. The tap root was out the bottom and an inch long in less than a week i planted them in final pots but felt they were stunted a bit. From what ive read early root development dictates later plant development to a greater degree in autos. I also over watered a bit early on and struggled to keep temps up but they survived. Goodluck Grow Hard!!

 

[Zonked]

Autoflowers do best grown from seedling to finish without transplant. The seedling tap root will bottom out in those cups in a couple days. I learned this first hand with my own autos started in peat pucks. The tap root was out the bottom and an inch long in less than a week i planted them in final pots but felt they were stunted a bit. From what ive read early root development dictates later plant development to a greater degree in autos. I also over watered a bit early on and struggled to keep temps up but they survived. Goodluck Grow Hard!!

Thank you for the information. I'm transplanting them Monday. I also just got a temperature and humidity meter. I'm sitting about 90F and 40 humidity what would be more appropriate

 

[Nunyabiz]

Thank you for the information. I'm transplanting them Monday. I also just got a temperature and humidity meter. I'm sitting about 90F and 40 humidity what would be more appropriate

If you're transplanting I would suggest 5 gallon fabric pots and add 30% aeration to the soil like pumice, rice hulls and biochar.
And you need roughly 50w (real watts) per square foot of light for each plant.
The "1000w" Bestva is actually 185w to "fill" a 2x6 closet which is 12 sq/ft would be around 600w so at least 3 of those lights to be close.

90 degrees is massively too hot especially for seedlings that needs to come down immediately to below 80.
Ideally about 75 degrees and 65% humidity is ideal for seedlings and really all the way through veg.

And unless your soil has virtually zero nutrients in it then you should not need to give them any nutrients for 3 weeks, especially autoflowers.

 

[Zonked]

I understand the true wattage and I am transplanting to fabric pots on Monday. I think the light will work fine for my closet setup, either way it's what I have for now so it's what will be used for 8 autos this grow. I'll see how it goes and maybe add a second for my next run. I think the 185w true draw is actually a lot more efficient than you think asking 50w true draw per sq foot of each plant for LED lighting is excessive. I will also get a fan and humidifier the start of the week.

 

[Nunyabiz]

I understand the true wattage and I am transplanting to fabric pots on Monday. I think the light will work fine for my closet setup, either way it's what I have for now so it's what will be used for 8 autos this grow. I'll see how it goes and maybe add a second for my next run. I think the 185w true draw is actually a lot more efficient than you think asking 50w true draw per sq foot of each plant for LED lighting is excessive.

Depends on what kind of yield you want.
Iam running right at 60w per square foot and would like to get a little side lighting to add to it.
Absolute minimum is 30w sq/ft
If you fill 12 sq/ft with one 185w light that's about 15w sq/ft.

But you will get some decent growth especially in veg and get some decent but kinda airy buds.

 

[Zonked]

We will see how it goes! I'll try to add at least a second light as soon as I can. No way I'm getting a couple more before these plants are done. Thanks for your input

 

[Zonked]

Depends on what kind of yield you want.
Iam running right at 60w per square foot and would like to get a little side lighting to add to it.
Absolute minimum is 30w sq/ft
If you fill 12 sq/ft with one 185w light that's about 15w sq/ft.

But you will get some decent growth especially in veg and get some decent but kinda airy buds.

Also, would 24/7 lighting compared to 20 hours a day combat lack of wattage at all?

 

[Nunyabiz]

Also, would 24/7 lighting compared to 20 hours a day combat lack of wattage at all?

Probably not much, but it could help a wee bit.
Lots of people do grow autoflowers 24/0.
I think if you have plenty of light that a little dark is best, I run 20/4.
But in very low light situation it may not be a bad option.

 

[Zonked]

I made a few changes today. I added a fan and humidifier and I transplanted my plants. I'm only going to have room for 4 or 5 5 gallon pots in there. I'm going to try to squeeze the 5 in. I'm a little worried about how disturbed the roots were on one of the plants during transplanting. Here are some pics.

 

[Zonked]

I also got the humidity to 70 and temperature to 80 so far.

 

[SmokeLake]

They look happy in their new home! Honestly you might be better off to cull a few and focus on the 4 or 5 best ones that fit. Im thinking you will yield better off a few plants with space than lots of plants crowded. Keep us posted I hope all works out for you!