1st time super noob grower

[Commandprompt]

Hello World!
First I would like to say how amazing the forum is here. The wealth of knowledge and resources available are awesome, and thank you to everyone for spreading their knowledge.

I have started my first ever grow (Dec 4th, 2018) and I would like to reach out to the subject matter experts on here for advice and best practices. I am going to place a couple images that I took last night of the current state of the gals to help with any info that could be provided.

I feel everything is going smoothly at this point. But, I know I have much, much more to learn. I am taking a very careful approach to this first grow, mainly so I can grasp the fundamentals. I will place the specs lower in this post for reference as well.

I do feel a couple items to note: I have not used any nutrients yet. This is because I was told that the Fox Farms soil would provide plenty until the bloom stage. I also have not tried to do any LST or anything, again, because I am trying to learn the basics and plan on trying my hand at LST etc.. on the next go around.

Any and all help is much appreciated. Thanks in advanced for everyones' much needed input!

What strain is it? California Snow Auto Femm
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages? Sativa
Is it in Veg or Flower stage? Currently in the Veg state
If in Veg... For how long? I have kept the gals in Veg since the beginning, on a 18/6 schedule
If in Flower stage... For how long? N/A
Indoor or outdoor? Indoor
Soil or Hydro? Soil, Fox Farms Ocean Soil with a Perlite combo
If soil... what is in your mix?The FFOF/ Perlite
If soil... What size pot? They are in 5 gallon smart pots
Size of light? 1000w LED
Is it aircooled? Yes with fans on the inside as well as CPU fans in the exhaust ports (?) of the grow tent to pull hot air out
Temp of Room/cab? Temp stays between 70- 85. I keep monitoring to get the temp down to 80 or below.
RH of Room/cab? I have seen the RH get up to about 40%
PH of media or res? I have not test ed this yet. But, I have just received an PH water tester today. And I am researching the proper methods
Any Pests ? NO
How often are you watering? I water approx every 3 days
Type and strength of ferts used? I have not used any nutrients yet. I did order the Fox Farms Nutrients

 

[Old Salt]

to the forum.

I have no experience with FFOF, so I can't offer much help. I'm sure one of our growers with the required experience will show up soon.

 

[Commandprompt]

Thanks Old Salt. I appreciate the quick response. Stay Frosty and Salty.

 

[Chris Scorpio]

Welcome aboard


FFOF works great, just be sure and add calmag to yer schedule

Do the pics look good to you? Can you see all the colors of the leaves?

I ask because the look blurple to me.....lol

Try pics with lights off, much better for us all


Good luck with your grow

 

[Commandprompt]

Chris,
The gals look great to me of course. But, I am probably being biased lol. I will take some better pics and place them back in here. The LED hues do make the space very purple-ish for sure.

I will add the calmag to the schedule and do some research on it. I presume this is during the nutrient schedule? Is there a best practice with the calmag to use as a guide? I haven't started any nutrients yet. Because I was told the FFOF was plenty until the flower stage. I am trying to get more info with the nutrient aspect, since that part is really new to me.

 

[Chris Scorpio]

With lights on there is no way to see the health of the plants, just trying to help

Calmag is needed with FFOF, every other watering ish, depending how you water. Later with your nute feeding as well


Be sure and keep yet pH in line as well, very very important

 

[Commandprompt]

No worries, I totally get it. Thanks for the info! I will get some on order today and start adding it to the water cycle. I did get the PH tester today and plan on getting that in line also. I feel I have been lucky so far, but I don't want to leave anything to chance and ensure I am doing the best I can for them.

 

[Chris Scorpio]

Be sure and go light on the FF nutes
Max at 1/2 strength

I started with both Fox Farm soil and nutes, trust me, keep the nutes low or you will burn up yer plants

 

[philthegeek]

On Soil?

I use my own mix. Base is 2 parts coarse river sand, 2 parts composted Pine Bark fines, 1 part Coco Peat. Add a small scoop each of Dolomite, CaCo3, "Growers Blue" NPK fertilizer, and Osmocote Slow release Fertilizer to every 40l of that.

Then, dilute that 50% with medium or coarse grade Perlite. The Perlite is important as it gives a nice "fluffy" mix that holds water but not too much. As i use a bottom up smartvalve based watering system the pots spend a lot of the time sitting in 10-20mm deep water which gets into the soil by capillary action. Having 50% Perlite means that even then, i have never had over-watering or root health issues as there is plenty of air space in the soil. I reckon a well aerated root zone is really critical.

One grow i did i had run out of Perlite and used Vermiculite instead. Soil mix wound up too heavy and damp. Worked, but not nearly as well as Perlite.

I recently tried a small grow as DWC hydro. Am back to soil as a lot less work and i am lazy. Work out a good soil mix for your circumstances and you get "buffering" as regards pH issues.

The mix i am using seems to provide well enough nutes for the early stages of development and growth. They get nothing but water till they have a root system developed, 3 weeks or a month.

Then i start adding simple Thrive ( a powder you make up liquid fertilizer from) every week or so at no more than 1/2 strength. I add a little Neem to that as a prophylactic against insects like fungus gnat. All put on as a soil drench so am not contaminating the foliage with anything or directly wetting it. Seems to work well and over a few grows have had no serious insect issues or nute issues i couldn't fix.

New thing i am trying is "Great White" a micorrhrizal fungoi / bacteria additive. Dusted the seeds in that before popping them into peat jiffy pots for germination.

Everyone works out thar own thang depending on preference an what they have available easily. And hey, they call it weed for a reason.

 

[Greenlizard]

Hello Commandpromt. Welcome. I notice you said you are growing autos and you mentioned you are in the veg stage. I am not very familiar with autos but by looking at your photos I can clearly see you are in the flower stage by about 2 weeks. Someone jump in and correct me if I am wrong. You should be using bloom nutes now IMO.

 

[jodyhighrollr]

Hello Commandpromt. Welcome. I notice you said you are growing autos and you mentioned you are in the veg stage. I am not very familiar with autos but by looking at your photos I can clearly see you are in the flower stage by about 2 weeks. Someone jump in and correct me if I am wrong. You should be using bloom nutes now IMO.

I believe you are correct. There are pistils and buds are starting to form. At least that's what it looks like but I also stay away from autos.

How are away are the leds from your plant?

 

[420IS]

definitely flowering.. not long to go now.

 

[George Mc]

I used ffof on both of my grows and did not start feeding nutrients till the third week of veg. And even then I don't think I went much past a quarter dose the entire grow. But I did use Cal Mag in my pH water every time I gave her a drink . I will do everything the same way on my third grow except I will max out at half of the recommended dosage of nutrients.

 

[Commandprompt]

Wow, hey guys. Sorry for the late response. I haven't checked on here in a bit and I never got an auto email saying that there was a response to my thread.

George, that is the plan I am thinking. Although, I just started the nutrient schedule according to the FF sheet. I did 1/4 the dosage. Hope I am not to late on this aspect. Again, this is my first grow, and maybe I shouldn't have started with autos. I have been told that they are a little more difficult to work with at times.

jodyhighrollr, The LED's are pretty good was away. I haven't measured, but I can tonight. The LED's are about 2-3 ft from the top of the plants. I was worried about putting the LED's closer, since they are supposed to be "1000w".

Greenlizard, I just started the nutrients last night. I am using 1/4 the dose that FF recommends. I hope I am not to late, but I believe you are correct. They definitely seem to be flowering. I thought that flowering wouldn't happen for another week or two. Lack of education on my part. But the larger plant is 8 weeks old and the smaller is 7 weeks old.

philthegeek Thanks for the info!!

Chris Scorpio, I am going to attach some better pictures that I took today.


Thanks everyone for the help!! I really appreciate it.

 

[jodyhighrollr]

Wow, hey guys. Sorry for the late response. I haven't checked on here in a bit and I never got an auto email saying that there was a response to my thread.

George, that is the plan I am thinking. Although, I just started the nutrient schedule according to the FF sheet. I did 1/4 the dosage. Hope I am not to late on this aspect. Again, this is my first grow, and maybe I shouldn't have started with autos. I have been told that they are a little more difficult to work with at times.

jodyhighrollr, The LED's are pretty good was away. I haven't measured, but I can tonight. The LED's are about 2-3 ft from the top of the plants. I was worried about putting the LED's closer, since they are supposed to be "1000w".

Greenlizard, I just started the nutrients last night. I am using 1/4 the dose that FF recommends. I hope I am not to late, but I believe you are correct. They definitely seem to be flowering. I thought that flowering wouldn't happen for another week or two. Lack of education on my part. But the larger plant is 8 weeks old and the smaller is 7 weeks old.

philthegeek Thanks for the info!!

Chris Scorpio, I am going to attach some better pictures that I took today.


Thanks everyone for the help!! I really appreciate it.

Do you know the true wattage of your light? I’m willing to bet it’s probably only a 250-500w light just based on how they usually advertise them. It says 1000w LED but manufacturers kind of put out weird numbers. When I started growing I bought 2x1200w viparspectra leds and they advertised that one is the equivalent of an 1000w hps but they only pulled 548w from the wall. Having it too far will stretch your plants out and make larfy buds. You should check the info from whoever made the light it should probably be lower. 3 feet is a pretty far distance from your canopy for leds.

 

[Commandprompt]

Do you know the true wattage of your light? I’m willing to bet it’s probably only a 250-500w light just based on how they usually advertise them. It says 1000w LED but manufacturers kind of put out weird numbers. When I started growing I bought 2x1200w viparspectra leds and they advertised that one is the equivalent of an 1000w hps but they only pulled 548w from the wall. Having it too far will stretch your plants out and make larfy buds. You should check the info from whoever made the light it should probably be lower. 3 feet is a pretty far distance from your canopy for leds.

That is a valid point. My main worry was with temp. I finally got the temp to a solid 80 and I was worried that lowering the light would make it hotter in there. Is this not the case?

 

[George Mc]

Do you know the true wattage of your light? I’m willing to bet it’s probably only a 250-500w light just based on how they usually advertise them. It says 1000w LED but manufacturers kind of put out weird numbers. When I started growing I bought 2x1200w viparspectra leds and they advertised that one is the equivalent of an 1000w hps but they only pulled 548w from the wall. Having it too far will stretch your plants out and make larfy buds. You should check the info from whoever made the light it should probably be lower. 3 feet is a pretty far distance from your canopy for leds.

I disagree with checking with the manufacturer because my thousand watt LED pulls 400 from the wall and the specs said it is very powerful and you should veg from 4 to 5 feet away, which we all know is false.

 

[Old Salt]

The LED's are pretty good was away. I haven't measured, but I can tonight. The LED's are about 2-3 ft from the top of the plants. I was worried about putting the LED's closer, since they are supposed to be "1000w".

I have a King X6 Dimmable 1800W COB LED Grow Light in a 2' X 4' tent. It draws 300W from the wall. I can't achieve light burn at full intensity unless the plant almost touches one of the COBs in it. A lot of the documentation for HID lights states that the distance to the plant required is due to the heat put out by these bulbs.

If you look at the documentation for your lights, you'll find the LEDs have a beamwidth, probably 90°. In this case the closest the light should be to the canopy is the same as the furthest it is from the wall of the tent, like this:

 

[Commandprompt]

So heat is not a factor with the height of the LED’s? I was thinking the closer it was, the hotter it got. I will try and see if I can find a manf recommendation for it. Mine seem to be doing ok though right, in the pics I mean?

 

[Old Salt]

So heat is not a factor with the height of the LED’s? I was thinking the closer it was, the hotter it got.

Heat is a consideration, but not to the same extent as a HID lamp. First, a greater percentage of power is converted to light, and less to heat. Second, the heat is distributed over a wider area than an HID. The heat source in a HID is about 3mm in diameter and 10cm long. For a LED you can consider it to be the entire surface area the LEDs are mounted on.

Mine seem to be doing ok though right, in the pics I mean?

They're doing OK, but I think they'd do better with more light. I base this opinion on images of the strain I found online, not personal experience.