Dr. J's 1st Auto-Flower Soil Grow - BigBud X NorthLights - 400W HPS

[Dr Jay Rolla]

...anyone willing to offer any help during my grow its encouraged....

Setup

3'x3'x6' Grow Tent
400w HPS...used for whole grow (I bought an MH to use during veg next grow)
190cfm Vantech Exhaust fan with odor sok filter...connected to the top wall outlet port and exhausts from top of tent.
6" electric fan for fresh air intake...hooked into my bottom inlet port.
Big electric fan inside to provide circulation....its on same side of tent as fresh air intake(so they work together)
Lights ON Temps 70-77 degrees
Lights ON Humidity 35%-55%
Lights OFF Temps 60-62 degrees
Lights OFF Humidity 50%-65%
7 plants total
(5) 3 gallon pots
(2) 2 gallon pots
Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil 75%......perlite 25%
GH FloraNova 'Grow' and 'Bloom'....may purchase liquid kool bloom as well
3 Northern Lights
1 Big Bud X Northern Lights
3 Auto Pipis....all seeds bought from Herbies

...my tent is setup in my basement...roughly 50-60 degrees and 45% humidity is the basement atmosphere.

Germination

Since i knew nothing about germination or growing at all.....i started searching online. The results i came up with was that germination was one of the toughest if not the toughest part of growing.

So...i bought the propagator pro with sponge pots. The sponge pots already have a compost in them thats specifically made for germination. They worked great....the first time.

I popped 6 seeds down in the sponge pots....watered them with the bacto mix that comes with it...
...put them in the propagator and the stored that in my dark cool closet.

....3 days later they were already coming up....
Right away 4 of them were over an inch in 5 days....i figured they were streching so i planted those 4 in their final pots on day 6. They other 2 were planted 2 days later in their final pots.(1 went into a 1 gallon pot and was later transplanted to a 3 gallon....and 1 ended up dying a day later..which gave me an extra 3 gal pot)

So i hit 6 out of 6 on germination.......but 1 died very shortly after.

5 plants left and i figure some may be male....

...so i pop 6 more in the propagator.......this time i only get 2 out 6.....but i put the propagator in my grow tent with the light on for this 2nd batch......so thats prolly where i messed up.....but i just felt like the light LED light the propagator comes with wasnt enough.

So now ive got 7 plants....and all turned out to be FEMALE!!!
2 of them are 1 week behind the other 5.

4 out of my first 5 plants went into 3 gallon pots....
1 of them went into 1 gallon pot since it was all i had at the time....transplanted into that extra 3 gallon pot at 4 weeks....roots were coming out bottom of the 1 gal pot.

I bought 2 gallon pots for the other 2 plants.....
for those 2 plants....an Auto Pipi strain and a Northern Light strain i did the solo cup method...where i planted a solo cup with the bottom cut out in there final pot and then the seedling was planted into the solo cup...its a method to get water to the roots better when the plant is younger, basically i just watered into the solo cupfor the first 2 weeks...i just tried it to see if it helped any....
i can tell you that the auto pipi doesnt look the greatest right now.....but the Northern Light has already started to flower at 4 weeks and it looks very very happy.

As for the other 5 plants....
The BigBudxNorthern Light is looking very healthy and happy.....the other 2 Northern Lights are coming along really well.....and i have 2 more Auto Pipis that are looking better and better everyday.

I just gave them all water for the first 4 weeks of the 5 older ones and the first 3 weeks for the 2 younger ones(i gave them all their first nutes at the same time)

It was 1/8 dose GH Grow....then it was plain water.....then they all got an even smaller dose of GH Grow....then plain water....then the 2 younger got 1/4 dose grow/and the 5 older got 1/4 dose GH Bloom.....

and thats where im at now........oldest plants just entered week 6 today

this is my first grow ever.......im definitely learning as i go.......any help is encouraged!

if u need any other info just holla.....

i would have added a photo but i dont know how. Sorry.

 

[Dr Jay Rolla]

Im having an issue right now thats been ongoing for almost a week....

i have damage on some leaves......ive been told it looks like pests....
but ive also been told it looks like nute burn.

I ordered neem oil spray and i have a recipe for a solution to mix and spray on the plants to rid them of any pests....
but if this is not the problem then i dont want to spray them.....

any help is appreciated!

I'm not sure how to post pics......if someone to explain to how to post a pic ill get some pics up.

Thanks

 

[Pigeons420]

Count me in big guy! Interested to see you flourish!
Post pictures by going through the Gallary top left, then upload photos. I do it through my phone so I don't know if it's different on the comp.

 

[Dr Jay Rolla]

There here are pics of what im dealing with right now......
anyone have anything to offer as to what would cause this????
im thinking possibly Thripes??? PLEASE HELP!

 

[Dr Jay Rolla]

This is a look into my tent at all the plants.....

 

[Dr Jay Rolla]

Thanks Pigeons and good luck with your grow as well....Glad to have on
...please offer up any suggestions or questions.....anything that will help someone who may be reading this...


Does anyone have any ideas what would cause those damages on my leaves from the 3 first pictures posted in the thread???

Please help

 

[Pigeons420]

Possible phosphorous deficiency? Maybe this will help

 

[Dr Jay Rolla]

Update:

I sprayed them today with a neem oil solution......its an organic solution that works as a pesticide.
Recipe
-2ml neem oil
-1ml soft soap
-500 ml water.......mix in spray bottle and shake well.

I sprayed them right when the lights went out....in order to allow them to dry before the light comes back on. You dont want water droplets on your leaves under the light.

I will spray again in 2 or 3 days and that will be it....ill be done with the insecticide and hopefully the pests will be gone.

PS I have some pics of my first grow up to week 5 posted in my photo gallery if you would like to criticize....

Please if you have any idea on my leaf damage speak up......i need to move on from this situation and focus on other areas.

 

[patman13mia]

from looking at the plants and the pictures i cant really tell what it would be.. wish i could help man!!

 

[Dr Jay Rolla]

Thats a very nice illustration Pigeon! Thanks you ill use that for future reference.

I think i have something munching on my leaves.....ive ruled out nutrient deficiency.

 

[patman13mia]

Thats a very nice illustration Pigeon! Thanks you ill use that for future reference.

I think i have something munching on my leaves.....ive ruled out nutrient deficiency.

do you have one of those jewelers lens, maybe you can see them they are prolly super small!! idk i havent encountered anything like that yet but have seen grow journals of ppl having them.. hope that stuff your throwing on there works!!!

 

[Dr Jay Rolla]

Thanks patman....im glad youve never had to deal pests and hope you never do....its not fun.

Plus, those damn little bugs creep me out....i dont think i want to spot one out with a magnifying glass lol...

My first grow....i didnt think insects would be something i would really really have to worry about.

Anyone know any prevention steps to take beforehand in order to reduce or eliminate chances of getting pests down the road??.....maybe i will put something in place for my next grow...id like to avoid this situation im in completely for now on.

 

[Pigeons420]

From those pics bro. I really don't think its a pest issue. And for your sake I hope I'm right *fingers crossed*
I've never had insects but I've had similar damages to the leaves.

Edit :: and all I did to get rid of it was flush and continue doing exactly what I was doing. But it's a bit difficult to see from the photos when I try to zoom in

Sorry for the no help Holmes

 

[Dr Jay Rolla]

Ill try to get you better pic tonight man...check back later if you can.
Thanks!

If you get a chance guys go check out my thread on my Dry Box design.....thanks
Drying Box Design: Will it work?

 

[MassMedMan]

I've noticed some leaves that look like that after I FIMd. I think I mistakenly damaged nearby leaves, young ones, while doing it. Maybe that is it? I'm in for the ride, good luck

 

[Dr Jay Rolla]

I figured it out....

my soil (fox farm ocean forest) is so rich with nutrients that it didnt need any added....
...so when i added nutrients i was making it worse and worse...

solution: flush the crap out if it and continue on and be more careful

 

[Pigeons420]

That'a boy glad you got er figures out!

Every mistake leads to a bigger lesson

 

[Dr Jay Rolla]

Thx Pigeon...

im going to flush the really bad looking one tonight......then ill hold of on any nutrients for at least a couple weeks...
...i think my plants were growing so fast maybe i jumped into thinking they wanted more nutes....

...lesson learned

 

[Dr Jay Rolla]

Update to my last post:

..i ended up flushing 3 plants tonight...
all 3 looked nutrient burnt and 1 of them looked really bad.....
so i flushed the shit out of them...

1 plant was in a 3 gal pot and i used at least 3 and half to 4 gallons on her..
the other 2 are in two gallon pots and i flushed them with prolly 1 gallon each or maybe a little more(they werent quite as bad)

Update on all my plants:

5 plants are just into week 6
2 plants are just into week 5

3 Northern Lights - plants are looking fairly good and healthy(few yellow leaves towards bottom of plants)
-NL #3 (planted 11-27) is a week behind the other two NL's and she is quite a bit smaller since i pulled it out of the tent for a week cause i thought it was hermie....turned out not to be(was just a swollen calyx).....so she missed out on a week of good light and good temps. Shes coming along tho. She was also transplanted from a 1 gal pot to a 3 gal pot at week 4....about 2 or 3 days ago.
-NL #2 (planted 11-20) is in a 2 gallon pot.....she is already flowering and has pistols all over.....shes looks tall and skinny(not real bushy)...it looks like it could produce solid buds!
-NL #1 (planted 11-20) is a 3 gallon pot....She is short and bushy and looks as healthy as my healthiest!...i cant believe #2 and #1 are the same strain because of the difference in how they grew. This plant looks like it will do well....key is be patient!

1 Big Bud x Northern Light
-BBxNL #1 (planted on 11-20) in a 3 gallon pot....she is looking like my best plant by far......the pistols have developed so much that they already look like buds...and it has sites like that all over it....it just looks really good and i have high expectations for her!

3 Auto Pipis - this strain is a little less potent...its like 12% THC. But these 3 are the ones that all looked damaged from the nutrient burn....so im thinking my other strains were strong enough to handle what i give them but this auto pipi strain might not be as tough of a strain so it burnt them up......so these were the 3 that got flushed tonight.....lets hope they get better or at least not worse.
-Auto Pipi #1(planted on 11-20) is in a 3 gallon pot....its the plant with the most damage....almost every leaf spot you look at there will at least be 1 affected leaf if not more in that cluster.....i think i waited too long to flush it...and i added nutes to it twice since i first noticed the issue(i was directed to do this, they diagnosed my issue wrong).....so lets hope this flush will do the trick for her!!!!
-Auto Pipi #2 (planted on 11-20) is in a 3 gallon pot....it had very minimal damage to the leaves but i noticed a little more today....flushed her out and like AP#1 i hope that does it the trick....
-Auto Pipi #3 (planted on 11-27) is a 2 gallon pot....she was looking ok just very slow growth....definitely would consider the runt of batch from the get go...now her leaves seem to be turning really yellow and getting dark spots and kinda looks like an extra ripe banana.....flushed her as well...lets hope she progresses from here....

So that was an update of my plants as of Dec 26, 2014.....
Check back tomorrow and ill get some new pics of the crop......

Anyone has any input.....lets here it!

 

[Dr Jay Rolla]

Ok...can anyone help me out....
...i'm into week 5 on my autos and the leaves at the bottom of the plants are turning yellow....
anyone know what would be causing this and what i should do about it or if i even need to be concerned...???

Also my light fell down on top of the plants.....it only hit 1 plant hard but the bulb was right on the some of the leaves for maybe 10-15 seconds....those leaves did get burned pretty bad.....
...should i do anything with those leaves like clip them off? ......or just leave them alone?

If anyone would like to see a few pics of my 'Nutrient Burn' damage........go to my gallery and there are 4 pics titled 'Week 5 - Nutrient Burn'......any comments or questions just shout them out....

Here are a few pics of some of my better looking plants at week 5.

Big Bud x Northern Light#1.....my best looking plant....22%THC

Big Bud x Northern Light#1....this is a shot of the 1st branch intersection down from the top of plant....the next one down looks similar...it looks as if the stem is going to form one giant bud about 8-10 inches long....What stage would you consider this to be?

Big Bud x Northern Light#1(only have 1 of this strain if you didnt notice)...you can see the bottom leaves are turning yellow....can anyone help me on what i need to do?

NL#3 - this is the tall skinny one....she has yellowing leaves at the bottom as well...

NL#3 - just a closer view up into the same plant in previous pic...

Can anyone offer me any help/advice on the yellowing going on with the leaves on the bottom of the plant?
Also with my ordeal with my light falling and burning a few leaves.......Thanks for looking.