4 Auto Strains, LED, First Grow

[kaymen667]

Still chugging along! Temps around here have been great the last couple weeks so I have been able to keep the room between 74 and 78 during the day and around 70 at night. Decided to adjust the nutrients I got a sample kit from Nectar for the gods but was using the spartan feeding which only used four of the 6 products so I decided to add in athenas aminas and Demeter's Destiny for some aminos and calcium.

 

[kaymen667]

The White widow and Gorilla glue autos are both starting to bud, they have been growing good and are looking green and healthy I can see some nice bud sites developing. Last week I added aminos and calcium, now i'm going to start the early flower nute mix.

 

[kaymen667]

Started a little over a week ago giving the plants a daily spray with bloom khaos, Since this is my first grow I have nothing to compare it to so I can't say its making a big difference but it isn't hurting either. I started adding a little to the rest of the nutrients in the water when feeding, i've seen a bunch of reviews that is was good to add during flower. Also upped the calcium to the higher end of the recommended amount. Finally added a little blackstrap molasses to the food.My current nutes are :

1 gallon ph balanced water
Medusas Magic 2 tsp
Gaia Mania 2tsp
Zeus Juice 2
Herculean Harvest 4 tbls
Athenas Aminas 2 tbls
Demeters Destiny 2tsp
Bloom Chaos/Foliar 1 tsp/qt
Molasses 1tsp

https://www.420magazine.com/gallery/data/504/IMG_196328.JPG

 

[kaymen667]

Close up of the gorilla glue auto

 

[kaymen667]

Looking forward to a great weather week for flowering. Buds are getting noticeably bigger each day. Trying to figure out how much longer they have is hard, I think they are about a week or so behind because of all the cold problems. It's supposed to be in the 80's and 90's her for the next several days at least so I'm hoping I get some good growth. Also bought a microscope attachment for my iphone so I can take some close up pics as soon as I figure out how to use it.

 

[Snugs]

Looks great I must say! How often are you watering the autos? I'm definitely concerned about overwatering with my first grow!

 

[Snugs]

Also was curious how long did germination take with planting seeds directly in the 3 gal pots? I'm still deciding on which germination method to use. With autos I'm thinking your method might be a good idea.

 

[kaymen667]

Looks great I must say! How often are you watering the autos? I'm definitely concerned about overwatering with my first grow!

Same here, after spending the winter researching for this first grow the main advice I got from pretty much everyone was watch the Ph, get good genetics and don't over water. I'm in new england and it's been really cold and wet here all spring. I have based my watering on drier is better so I check daily and only water when the soil is dry and I can stick my finger in the pot about an inch and the soil doesn't stick. Up until the last two weeks I have only watered/fed once a week. Now that they are in flower they are using more so I have been watering/feeding about every 5 or 6 days. Basically what I was told was they can recover from being dry but they can die from over watering so it's better to be cautious. Another thing I did with the watering was in the early veg stages I put a little water at the base of the plants and then I watered around the outside to try and encourage the roots to grow out further to get at the water.

 

[Growingmaster]

Count me in.and led lights do give off heat in a tent or closet.just the heat isnt directed at ur plants.i run black diamond perfectsun goliath 1000 .the light is 2.5 ft by 2.5 ft.my tent is just over 3 ft by 3 ft.have my light and a fan in tent.i use the tents vents ,and leave door unzipped alittle at the top if needed.my temps sit at steady 30c most of the time but here in uk weather always changing.but is managable hope this helps.happy growing every1

 

[kaymen667]

Also was curious how long did germination take with planting seeds directly in the 3 gal pots? I'm still deciding on which germination method to use. With autos I'm thinking your method might be a good idea.

This is a tough one because the weather was so cold here. I had originally planned to start all the autos in soil as they don't do as good with transplanting. So I planted them direct. I ended up losing two, the popped but never really broke the soil. The next two I soaked then put between damp towels in a baggy they sprouted in a couple days and once the root was about an inch long I planted them. Then even though we were well into May temps dropped into the 40's and 50's and I lost those two.

So i'm still torn on which method is best. The two plants that lived took about 7 days to sprout. I think next seeds I will soak and then plant in soil. Also it really pays to double check the climate the strains you buy are best suited to. The two plants that survived were both cold climate plants. The seeds I just got I made sure were all cold climate.

 

[kaymen667]

That's a great light set up Growingmaster!!

 

[Growingmaster]

Kaymen works at treat mate the bigger the light the better the heat.does it for ya,or say basic leds to get u started.cheap and very effective say a 900w led light in the middle and 2 300w lights each side. Will give them a warm cosy home best of luck with ya first grow,il be watching

 

[kaymen667]

Week 11 The white widow has stretched, grew about 6 inches in a little over 24 hours, just over 2 feet tall, gorilla glue is about 20" and the buds are starting to fatten up. Finally it's been in the 80's for the better part of two weeks so I no longer have to run the heater.

 

[Growingmaster]

Top work

 

[kaymen667]

Plants are still moving along, gorilla glue and white widow buds are getting fat and starting to see some nice white starting on the sugar leaves. I started a Dr Krippling Bulk Smash auto and a dutch passion blackberry kush. Love this weather only took 48 hours to sprout in a paper towel after a 12 hour soak in some water. Once I harvest the Gorilla glue and white widow i'm going to start a pineapple express auto and a Crystal meth auto. I had planned to grow through october and take a break for the winter but I got some golden goat photo period fem seeds so I'm planning a smallish sized grow box. I'm planning to go 3'l x 4'w x 4'tall. 2x2 wood frame with casters and 1" rigid foam walls painted white. and a couple led's

 

[kaymen667]

Gorilla glue getting frosty

 

[kaymen667]

Finally ready to dry these girls this weekend. All in all i'm pretty happy with the first grow. The cold spring took it's toll though I think these autos should have been ready weeks ago but instead of 12 weeks they took 16. Not nearly the yield I was hoping for but considering I have never done this i'm still happy with it. If nothing else I have learned a lot in the process and I have already made some changes.

Started flushing last week, I'm going to flush one more time. I have a pineapple express and blackberry kush already started hopefully I can get these to grow a little better. I think i'm going to top these when the time comes.

 

[kaymen667]

Finally cut the girls down and hung them to dry. Not the yield I was hoping for but not bad either considering the temperature issue all spring. Not sure of the weight but once I trim them later in the week I will weigh it out.

My second grow has started and I'm hoping for a better yield per plant this time. I am going to change up a couple things to hopefully improve over the previous grow. I have added a second LED and a supplemental cfl. I have a pineapple express auto started and i'm waiting for a crystal meth auto and a skunk #1 auto to pop. I am also adding a golden goat photo cycle. My plan is to keep it in veg while the autos grow since they are on a 20 on 4 off light cycle. Once the autos are harvested I will switch over to 12/12 for flower on the GG. I should have enough time before the weather gets too cold to use that room. I plan to build a grow box I can move to another part of the house to grow more golden goat over the winter.

I'm sticking with the Nectar for the god's nutes as I had no issues at all with them or with the happy frog soil. I am going to move from the easy schedule to the more advanced one this grow to see if the extra nutes are worth the money.

The biggest issue I have run into has been seedlings. I have lost 6 over the last 4 months. The first ones I planted direct and lost 4, two never fully popped and two popped but died. I'm pretty sure from talking to others on here I lost those due to temp issues. I recently switched to soaking and then sprouting between paper towels and they looked good but died after transplanting. So it now seems I have the best luck soaking for 24 hours and then planting.

 

[knighthawktfc]

I think you'll find the biggest improvement will be from the added lights and the stable environment.

I have two of those tao-32's, they're great little lights, I use them as side\corner lights and to add some more uv\ir to the room.
But keep in mind they only pull about 18w from the wall as I recall, so you only had 36 or so real watts on two plants, you really want about 50 (from the wall) per plant, so if you added two more lights of about the same real wattage I think you'll see an improvement in yield (maybe still not what you have in mind mentally) and faster growth. I'm still on my first grow as well btw, it's all one huge learning process.

As for germing.. idk everyone has their own method they find that works best for them. Me.. I did soak for 14-18hr in distilled water, to moist paper towels folded over on plate... lightly re-mist with distilled water every 6-8hours while having the plate sit on top of a gas water heater in near total darkness... but with ever so slight breeze from fan in room, wait for 3/4" tap root and place into already moist soil... barely cover, and top with a little spritz of mist on top\around it and wait, when popped throw misted h-dome over each for first couple days then remove and let be. Two for two so far.... lets hope that trend continues.

 

[kaymen667]

I think you'll find the biggest improvement will be from the added lights and the stable environment.

I have two of those tao-32's, they're great little lights, I use them as side\corner lights and to add some more uv\ir to the room.
But keep in mind they only pull about 18w from the wall as I recall, so you only had 36 or so real watts on two plants, you really want about 50 (from the wall) per plant, so if you added two more lights of about the same real wattage I think you'll see an improvement in yield (maybe still not what you have in mind mentally) and faster growth. I'm still on my first grow as well btw, it's all one huge learning process.

As for germing.. idk everyone has their own method they find that works best for them. Me.. I did soak for 14-18hr in distilled water, to moist paper towels folded over on plate... lightly re-mist with distilled water every 6-8hours while having the plate sit on top of a gas water heater in near total darkness... but with ever so slight breeze from fan in room, wait for 3/4" tap root and place into already moist soil... barely cover, and top with a little spritz of mist on top\around it and wait, when popped throw misted h-dome over each for first couple days then remove and let be. Two for two so far.... lets hope that trend continues.

Thanks, I will be getting more lights as soon as I can. It's a really small closet but more light would go a long way. For $26 a bulb on amazon I have been pretty impressed with these so far. Once this grow is finished i'm going to move to a small grow box for the winter. Next spring i'm going to try and move to a single decent size led panel, if for nothing else it will only have one cord got a mess of wires in their now.

You're right it's a continuous learning process which I like. Now that it's legal here in MA the state is worried home grows will cut into their taxes but one thing i've learned is it's easy to grow, it's not easy to grow quality. Takes a lot of learning and patience, so I don't think it will cut into their taxes to much lol

Cheers