Im using a 4x4x7ish tent. 2 mars hydro tsl2000 lights
Avg temp 84°F avg humidity 40%. 18\6 light cycle. I have 9 plants started (if i run out of room in the 4x4 i have a 3x3 i can move some to)The 9 are 14 days old as of today. They are fairly thick but in my opinion fairly short…maybe thats just because this is my first auto grow. They do seem to be growing fast i have pictures of the last few days ill post up. And i will continue to update this post thruout the rest of the cycle. When should i start feeding these things? I plan to use PHed maxibloom and calmag. I chose cheap soil like a dumby and am slightly fighting low soil PH. Lesson learned will be using fox farm next time around. Picture is today, 14 days old…
@Thisguy352 welcome to the forum. Some autos are compact in size just finished a Blueberry that was 26 inchs tall. they look real good.
Thats a major relief. Thanks! I have a photo thats maybe 6 days older and its almost 3 or 4 times the size so i was a bit worried. At what point do most begin feeding? The soil im using wasnt really prefertilized…
@Thisguy352 Let me tag some people who can help @PurpNGold74 @MrPeat @Myfriendis410 can you help with his soil question.
Also about the soil, while we are on the topic. It was 13$ for a HUGE bag of it from ace hardware. If my cheap soil ph meter is correct, most of the pots are around 5.0ph. So i got the yellow water ph meter of amazon and some ph up. And i planned to maybe water with 9.0ish ph to eventually bring up soil ph. Is this possible or i wonder if someone recommends supplementing with something to raise ph. Suggestions are welcome. The plants look good maybe the soil ph meter is wrong. It seems suspiciously inaccurate.
Yes they look good. Did you calibrate your Ph meter when you got it. I calibrate mine evey so often with buffer solution. i have 2 of those yellow meters and they read close to each other
I am growing Girl Scout cookies now will try and tag you to my page, yours was like mine, short but the just took off
@Thisguy352 You can use Potassium Carbonate to raise soil pH. It doesn’t take much at all. Also use Agricultural Lime.
Also pH UP.
That soil no clue. You cross into Fox Farms and you enter into my Wheel House.
You will need that 3x3 for sure. Unless your Autos are small.
Awesome ill try supplementing with potassium carbonate. Thanks! And how many “average” autos do you think will fill a 4x4? I plan to do some LST.
Ditch the meter: never seen one read anywhere near close. You need to purchase a decent PH and TDS meter.
Better by far to use soil made to grow cannabis in. Especially a new grower.
I have a decent ph and tds meter but i don’t use the tds because i dont know how guess its time to research, thanks.
And ill never use cheap soil again. Lesson learned. This is not my first grow but rather my first indoor auto grow…
Hey, I’m learning all the time so you’re doing fine. I didn’t have much use for a TDS meter until I had been growing for some time. If you peek at what @ashhhh is doing you can get an idea. Salt management in soilless media is what he’s learned and it shows with his plant. If you never exceed 800 ppm in veg and 1,000 ppm in flower you will do great.
When you lst , which I would do, they take up almost 2sq ft each, I have 3 in a 2 1/2 x 5 closet, I might could get 4 in there but would be tight
Or be me and break every rule possible and still knock it out of the park. Gotta love being the extreme exception. I am always learning so I have to do the opposite.
All girls got water today. Measured runoff for each pot. Avg. pH of 6.3 and ppm of around 1300ppm. Ive read runoff should be around 6.8 ph but the girls look good. Im assuming my next move should be to check pH and ppm next watering to verify that the plant is taking nutrients? And if it gets low ppm to feed? Otherwise just a watering? Also im wondering if 12-1500ppm is okay for a 2 week plant?
Before doing any thing to the soil recommend confirming or determine what its PH is. Take some of your soil (a little out of each pot if need be) and do a slurry test with your PH pen. Use distilled or RO water to perform the test. This way you know what it is and will have a base line when checking you runoff down the road.
Thanks for the help! So Pull a few teaspoons of soil from a few inches down in the pot, and put that in a solo cup and add distilled water. Let it sit for 30mins and strain it with a coffee filter and test? Is that correct? Do i have to filter the “slurry”? Lol
You don’t have to dig down for this slurry. You are just wanting to get a reading on the native soil. Other wise you have the process. Soil, cover with water, wait, test. You don’t need to filter it. I drain it off into a clean container. Just need to make sure there is enough water to cover the pen’s bulb.
At first I didn’t PH anything. Ran into issues in one grow, realized I had been lucky at first. Now it is part of the routine. PH and PPM what goes into the plant and out. That includes the soil because that is what it lives in and on. If the soil is 7 or a little less, and the water is 6.5. That is my runoff range. If it starts coming out under 6.5 I know I have acids (salts from nutrients) building up and need to address it. Good luck