New Getup: First Grow Auto Lemon Haze Kannabia & Sticky Beast

[Fenderbender]

Hi all, Got a new setup that fits my new place better, I found a square meter of Homebox 2 meters high to be rather imposing and intruding in the room.. I bought a Lighthouse 0,5 Max which fits nice into a little alcove.
The tent material feels nice but hmm the corners leak light and the ziplock as well, with the ziplock it's because the fabric that is there to counter light leak has hundreds of tiny firm creases because of how it was folded in storage I guess that make for tiny openings, and the corners, well they need to up the stitching or change construction so that there is some overlay on the corners.

luckily somehow there were two strips of mylar supplied with my order, maybe as sample, maybe for filling the front corners, well that's what I used them for, at least a bit less leak.. and I gots an arty canvas over the rest of the tent, covering most of the ziplocked area.

I do like the measurements of the tent 50cm by 1m by 1,80m (although It's a few cm short of 1m) and the ins & outs of the tent.. I've put in a Ram 100mm mixed flow fan with a carbon filter with two pieces of acoustic ducting.
A little Ram oscillating fan and the Mars Hydro TS1000 led light, this will be my first led grow.

I'm still waiting on a couple of things to really have it all finished then I'll post pictures. I want two thermostat timers and a little frost heater so the fans & the heater regulate that it never goes below 22 or above 28.. should be doable since it is in a heated room. still winter is coming and at night it gets frisky. That half a square meter is gonna stay constant
Meanwhile the grow is underway, got two autoflowers in there in rather large airpots, and soil I seasoned with Zamnesia monster bud nutrition
They are a week old and I must say promising, the stem is only 3cm long but the wingspan on one of the plants is 10cm.. usually it's the other way around.. shooting up 10 cm with a few cm wingspan... I've got the light at 45cm.. humidity is low though in the room 31%, or either my meter is busted as well it's kinda wet outside.
Temp fluctuates between 26 and 28°c
I am thinking about low stress guiding them kinda circle them around the edge of the pot, so the side branches grow upward and at the end you let the artist formerly known as the main bud rise up.. as I would like to have an even low height canopy.

game on

 

[Fenderbender]

They are on a 20 hour light cycle, and holy cow this works.. the previous picture isn't 48hours old.

 

[Fenderbender]

Ohoh, something went wrong with the left plant, I think they look rather stressed? or boosted maybe with the 2 extra hours light, or the roots already went down deep and found the nutrition layer, I had topsoil and then soil with the monster bud mix..
Maybe light too close? as well they already have branches coming from the armpits.. in only 7 days of existence, never had that.. there's is little impulse to grow taller and all the impulse to deploy the solar panels wide;

 

[Fenderbender]

Hmm so the left one (auto lemon haze) is funky.. growth of the main stem is going crooked and slow, he's already pushing out branches more than the main.. so I just alcohol wiped my scissors and am thinking about topping it. I know it's an auto and only a week and half old.. but well it's fimming itself at the moment by the looks of it, and that way I just have two nice branches going further.

 

[Fenderbender]

I went for it.. one is topped the other is tied down.
They are getting bottled water ph7

 

[Fenderbender]

I was overwatering so I cut down on that, I kinda wanted to soak the soil to get more humidity in the tent as it was rather dry from the bag, I've got a bucket of water next to the plants, I've got some water on the heating in the room, I put a big house plant in the room.. anything to get the humidity up but nope nothing is really working.

The plants have resumed growth after one got topped and the other tied down.

 

[Fenderbender]

Grrr, just saw some little black flies in the tent.. pfff makes me wish I used the Hydro gear.. soil in tent I always get some kinda critters in there.

 

[LLsBestGo]

 

[Fenderbender]

I wonder how this is going to turn out.. the plants are barely peeping over the edge of the pot they are not 10cm high (well the tied down one is longer but well it's growing differently now) and kinda looks like they are going to start flowering, next week they will be four weeks old.

I know they say not to top or train auto's but well I grew sticky beast in daylight on the porch in the summer and those got 80cm to 120cm high, and well I don't want that in this tent, It's been a while since I grew under a light, and well it's my first time using leds.. so far kinda impressed the light give just the right heat for the tent, the light goes of at noon till 4 I chose that to have it off at the warmer part of the day.

 

[Fenderbender]

okay if I fill the waterbucket with boiling water I can get the humidity up in the tent to over 60% but the temp rises to 30/31°c I can't run the exhaust as that will bring the humidity back down to 25% instantly, if I don't it will be in the 40's all throughout the night.. leaves are looking better with some humidity in the tent the past two days.

I've also taken to getting the vacuum cleaner and tapping the pots and suck up any little flying things that come out. As I really don't like to see them in there.

 

[LLsBestGo]

Your plants training looks good, maybe some excess nutrients going on but no sign of deficiencies or nutrient burn as far as I can tell.


Bit of info about humidity & temps
@ Higher temps more water evaporation occurs, lower temps less water evaporation.

Relative humidity will change depending on the temperature of the grow space.

With higher temperatures the air can retain more water vapor before fully saturated so the relative humidity will likely decrease.

With lower temperatures the air can retain less water vapor before fully saturated so the Relative humidty will likely increase.

Anyways adjusting temps might change the relative humidty (rh).
Some possible solutions
Raise lights & adjust fans to change temps

Mist a towel hung in growspace to raise humidty since water can evaporate quickly from them. (Be sure to change as needed to prevent mold or whatever.)
Or change temperatures by other means & see what works.

As for bugs, I like using food grade diatomaceous earth as a alternative to insecticides & pesticides & it works great for critters in soil too, and can be mixed with water for application or dusted on soil dry.

& have had success with Neem oil during veg but not used during flower on foliar or buds as it can ruin the bud flavor.

wet + dry cycles for pests in soil can also possibly help.

 

[Fenderbender]

Thanks, ah yes I put the seed straight in the big pot and it think it just burrowed down instantly to the layer which has the nutrients in them.. not much I can do about that hope it learns to live on power juice.

I think the best solution is to go for a humidifier in the room the tent is in as that's the main problem, it's under the roof and well 25% humidity is not that great for living, that's a bit dry, so I'll moisturise myself in the process

Diatoms are awesome to look at, I think one of my aunts drinks that stuff from time to time or maybe I'm confusing it with medicinal clay.. so dust a layer of that on top to prevent bugs getting in or out? I've got airpots though, so critters can get in through all the holes in the pot.
What I've done now is I made some strips of ducttape against the sides and on the exposed ground to hopefully catch some critters and well I'll keep on vacuuming and tapping the pots.

And yes good tip I need to let the medium dry out before watering again.

 

[LLsBestGo]

I usually feel the soil about an inch down or less to tell when to water and go by the weight of the container.

Diatomaceous earth is the fossilized remains of diatoms

Diatomaceous earth causes insects to dry out and die by absorbing the oils and fats from the cuticle of the insect's exoskeleton. Its sharp edges relevant to insects are abrasive, speeding up the process. It remains effective as long as it is kept dry and undisturbed. It's also a soil conditioner and contains about 80 - 90% silica which plants can absorb and silica improves plant structure.
DE also holds the capacity to retain nutrients, and holds about 4x or 5x its weight in water
It also has other trace minerals.

 

[Fenderbender]

Today's situation.
I feel I alway see the most difference after the 4 hour dark period.. or maybe that's because I haven't peeked for 4 hours.. not sure
But well I take a look in the evening and then the next morning but then the light just has been running all night but if I look again at 4:20 when the light switches back on after their rest period I'm always like well well well how have you grown..

hmm and indeed I might have been a bit too generous with the nutrients.. come to think of it when I was making the pots I wasn't really thinking hey they are autos, they often don't require as much and have a shorter lifespan, as visually I'm thinking now too hmm they are a bit too green and shiny, clawed and jagged edges, but they are not standing up like you sometimes get with overpowering nutes, that all leaves are very erect and pointing upwards screaming beefcake!! so yeah they are not really that comfortable I think at the moment and sure the training probably doesn't help either, I'm tucking and bending so they constantly have to adjust and bend their leaves towards the light again.
But the idea was bucket o' soil & nutes instead of messing around with mixing nutes.. I wanted a different experience to hydro, with all the measuring, adjusting, mixing, a bit of this during this period a bit of that during.. well. yeah all that.
I mean the best experience are the outside plants which really don't get much attention or nutes at all and have stems the size of my ankle and grow 7-8 feet tall as they are on a piece of land with a water vain and rich bit clay like soil.

I removed the tape as it didn't catch anything.. the light dries it out pretty quickly.

a

As for temperature and humidity with the method I'm using now, one adjustment in the morning and one in the evening and the tent will ride out the rest of the time with pretty ideal conditions
28°c at the canopy, 26°c above the lamp in the tent and the humidity when I put in the hot water it will spike to 80% but then I close the tent and fan until I'm at 65% and then fan off and it will gradually drop off over the course of 12 hours when I open the tent again to train or water it's at 40%.
But when flowering time comes and the fan needs to run more because of smells or well maybe the steaming bucket isn't such a good idea during flowering I need to get the room around humidified especially because I also think it will be just better for me as well

 

[LLsBestGo]

Nice progress fenderbender . Looks like some strong branching as well.

If the soil is fertile just keep giving them some water ph'd to 6 if possible when needed I'd recommend. My guess is the leaves will start responding to the light more as it continues to develop & eat more as long as the ph stays within range, and it isn't overwatered.

I'd be careful with any defoliation at this point though if you're considering it. A reduction in foliage will decrease photosynthesis and it's ability to use the available nutrients in the growing medium which could cause issues.

Ideally I like to start seedlings, or clones in a inert growing medium feed low ppm like less than 200 & transplant to a more fertile medium after they've developed and can tolerate a higher ppm if I'm going the super soil route.

 

[Fenderbender]

I find it ridiculous
I mean
3 October

14 October
That's 11 days.. The past years I've been used to natural light growing.. and well summer here is two months of maximum 16 hours a day and then august it drops to 14 already so.. seeing this develop under led light at 20 hours is bizarre as well it would take 11 days to get from picture A to the biggest sidebranch in picture B in the summer here.

Ph6 you say? I guess I could break out the meter and the acid.. the plan was to give plain water all throughout.. currently is 7,2 as the the composition is on the bottle

the next batch I could pregrow on the side in seedling soil in a little degradable pot I can drop in the bigger ones and the roots can grow through..

 

[Fenderbender]

Some more training & tucking

And it looks like I'm doing a stealth grow in my pots
almost everything is still within the cilinder..

Branching is indeed going this one is 1,2cm

 

[LLsBestGo]

If the soil is fertile just keep giving them some water ph'd to 6 if possible when needed I'd recommend. My guess is the leaves will start responding to the light more as it continues to develop & eat more as long as the ph stays within range, and it isn't overwatered.

actually I should correct myself, and my apologies. The ph 6.0 can be used in hydro, soilless, or soil. For hydro and soilless you'll want your water or growing mediums ph in the range of 5.5-6.5, and for soil 6.0-7.0

If you collect enough runoff water to check the ph that will help determine your growing mediums ph. Also works well to check ppm with run off.

& you can determine what to ph your water to based off the growing runoff ph if you want to do that that is.

 

[Fenderbender]

? how so you said 6? and then go on saying 6 to 7 is what to use for soil? I've read it's okay to vary as for possible better absorption of certain nutrients towards this end or that end for the scale..
I'll try it.. I'll have to break out the calibrating fluids It's been a long time since I've used the meters, hope the probes are still useful. And the next watering will be ph6 and see what happens..

But I'm not sure if they need anything or what they need, the drooping might be from overwatering in the beginning or could be ph thing, I haven't watered in a while and the top layer is pretty dry but there is still water in the can, I'm pretty sure the root shot straight down anyways, one of the advantages of seeding in the final pot as if you place it right that sucker will go straight down until it comes out the other end, on the other hand if you use a cube or a little degradable pot you create a big node that branches out.. also interesting

I'm gonna wait till they look thirsty,
the light is at 48cm at the moment maybe 46 from the highest leaves, and I vary that between 75 and 100% I don't know why.. well yeah if I read 29 or 30 or 31 at the sensor I back off a little but it's possible to run at 100% and be at 28 all throughout the night and maybe sometimes to give it the signal to grow a bit upwards instead of flattening out I mean the button is there... ima use it.

 

[Fenderbender]

See every time the lights are back on they've expanded a bit

I've turned the little oscillating fan off for some hours now, and I did give a tiny bit of water this morning that's been levelled down, but the little fan has been blowing non stop, might be good to have that with intervals as well, so the leaves can truly rest instead of being rustled all the time and having some evaporation forced?
They seem to be reacting somewhat.. It's not blowing straight on the plants it blows on the light but still, there's maybe something like overcirculation & ventilation