I don't think Al Gore has any friends. Autoflower grow, start to finish

[Cap_Ron]

Hey all, just started another autoflower grow last week. I switched from photos to autos several years ago, and I’d like to help others growing autos avoid the potential pitfalls.

This grow is 8 plants.
1 - ILGM Wedding Cake
1 - Mephisto Samsquanch OG
2 - Mephisto Sour Stomer x Forum Stomper
2 - Mephisto ManBearAlienPig
2 - Atlas Seeds Froot by the Foot

Each of my grows gets a name. If you’re a South Park fan, you might get the reference to Al Gore having no friends because I have ManBearAlienPigs in this run.

This grow is in soil. I alternate back and forth now between soil and coco grows. In coco, I work really hard, feeding every single morning and every single night for 3 months. So when a coco grow ends, I go back to soil to take a break and spend less time in the grow room. When I grow in soil I use Mother Earth Coco Peat, but my local grow store was out of it this time, so I’m using Roots Organics Original on this grow. It’s very similar to my regular soil, and most importantly it has a good amount of coco fiber in it.

Ok, so I start out with a seed soak for anywhere from 18 to 24 hours.

After the soak, I plant directly in solo cups. I did the paper towel germination for a few years, but once I tried planting straight in the soil/medium, I liked the results better and I’ve been doing it that way ever since. With the paper towel method, I used to occasionally have seed hulls get stuck, and need to carefully remove them. This hasn’t happened at all since I started planting directly in the soil, and it just seems like a more natural process.

I make sure the soil in the solo cups is thoroughly saturated, place the soaked seed about 3/8 of an inch below the surface, put a wet sandwich baggies over the cups, and turn on the grow light to around 250 PPFD.

A couple of days later all 8 are above ground and I remove the baggies as soon as each one breaks the surface, and I keep the tent around 80 to 84F and 75 to 85% humidity. I also have an oscillating fan blowing gently on them from the moment the baggies come off.

A few days later.

Another few days.

And where they’re at this morning, which is day 10 above ground for them.

I’ll give as many details as I can along the way through the grow, and feel free to ask about anything I might fail to cover.

I’m expecting transplant day to be as early as this Thursday, or possibly as late as Saturday, depending on how rapidly they grow over the next couple of days.

A week or two after transplanting I’ll do toppings and super croppings where necessary, and show you that autos can handle a lot more training than people give them credit for.

Aside from a paper journal, I also keep a track sheet for each grow with basic information. I enjoy checking off the weeks and keeping tabs on the basics.

[MidwestGuy]

Good stuff, @Cap_Ron. Journaling the details are a great way to be able to look back and learn.

[WilIy]

Morning Cap, I’ll be following along if ya don’t mind. What is the purpose of 10 minutes of far red at lights out time. I’ve red that it can shorten a plants switch to flowering after 12/12 switch but was wondering why at this stage. Looks like they’re off to a good start

[Cap_Ron]

Glad you’re following along. I actually don’t plug in the far reds to the timers until after transplant day, I just put it on the tracking sheet when I lay out the hours.
I use the far red bulbs not so much for flower initiation, but because I read that the plants get much better use of the entire lights out period, rather than having to ramp down slowly for a couple of hours after lights out. I could definitely be wrong in my interpretation of what I read, but it seemed to me as if it’s like the equivalent of us getting an extra couple hours of sleep.

[Bunger64]

Hello @Cap_Ron just stumbled across your grow, very impressed with your procedures. I’m going to tag along if ya don’t mind another solocup Growmie. Lol

[Fishyswaw]

Alright @Cap_Ron , first question; Do you have drain holes in the solo cup or not necessary because of the small amount of water? Also a transplant question but I’ll wait on that, you’ll probably answer it later. As for no humidity domes, not necessary with your high humidity in the tent? But would be needed if not high humidity?

[Cap_Ron]

@Bunger64, glad you’re following along.

@Fishyswaw, yes, I use a cigarette lighter to melt 4 slots on the bottom edge of the cups. It’s best to do it on the edge, instead of on the flat bottom, drainage is very important, even for seedlings.

I have a slightly different approach to seedlings than many other growers. I’ve seen lot’s of people here who suggest to only give seedlings tiny amounts of water, and to wait until they’re dry to do it again. I’m not saying that’s wrong, if it works for someone, great, but I prefer to give my seedlings much more than that. But it’s important to note that if I weren’t using soil that has coco in it, I’d ease off on the amount of water. I start out with saturated soil. Then it’s usually around day 4 or so when I give them a first feeding, and I get runoff. Then I don’t wait for them to get totally dry, just until the cups lighten up a bit, and I give them the next one.

If you can’t get the humidity in your grow space up high, then a dome is a decent idea for the first few days, but I much prefer to let them be in the open air and have a gentle breeze from a fan. There are lots of ways to increase humidity in a tent. Seedlings don’t use up much carbon dioxide at all, so I seal up all the ports and openings, and don’t use an exhaust fan. That in itself will give you a decent humidity level, and if you don’t have a small humidifier, just keeping a wet towel on the floor in there will help a lot.

Yes, I’ll be detailing my transplant routine in another few days.

[Sorceress]

Love the details. Gonna tag along.

[Shaggy1987]

Off to a good start @Cap_Ron. Gonna follow along. I’m on my first run of autos, growing a sour stomper x grape crinkle berry and strawberry shortcake. Both started flowering about 3 weeks above ground, didn’t have a chance for any training or topping.

[Cap_Ron]

Quick update, at lights on this afternoon I saw the girls had grown enough to be touching each other. I try to avoid that when possible, so I split them up between two trays and moved then from the 2x4 to the closet grow for extra space. It looks like they’ll probably be ready for transplanting on Thursday, or Friday the latest.

[Cap_Ron]

@Shaggy1987, that freebie you’re growing is one I’ve never had, and it sounds like a good one. I actually built up a great collection of Mephisto freebies. I kept wanting to give some a try, but I always gave priority to the main strains instead. I finally tried my first freebies in my last grow, and they were all awesome.

[Allingamer]

Im still on my first grow, going to follow along and try to learn stuffs. Everything looking nice.

[TimberLaddKush]

Hey Capt Ron! I myself am a fellow Russian and fell in love with the band back in 1975 with their “fly by night album”… 2112 was definitely the album that put them into the stratosphere, hope you don’t mind if I tag along as I’ve never done auto flowering before and I’m basically new to all of this growing with techniques and so on. I have my own flowering post going as of this moment. Have a great day sir. I’ll be checking in from time to time.TLK

[Cap_Ron]

@TimberLaddKush, always nice to meet another Rush fan. I’ve come across a few here in the forum. They’ve been my favorite band since I was 9 years old.
Happy growing!

[TimberLaddKush]

That’s awesome at such an early age. I was around 14 when I first heard them and it was from a radio station in Canada called CKLW. And happy growing to you as well. Captain Ron be seeing you around.

[Fishyswaw]

@TimberLaddKush , I remember listening to CKLW years ago. That’s wild. Didn’t know it was in Canada, always thought Michigan.

[TimberLaddKush]

Yeah, the station was in Windsor Ontario however, broadcast to Detroit also I think Dick Purton worked out of there as the DJ, and it was like my first rock ‘n’ roll station before WRIF in Detroit …. Go figure I didn’t know at the time that Rush Was a Canadian rock band either😂 at 14 I just thought to myself “holy cow who are these guys?” & I loved the drummer as well (Neil) immediately, not knowing even who he was at that time as I was quite the Buddy Rich fan back before my early teens, my dad used to take me to a place in Livonia Michigan called Clarenceville high school where it had a small venue. I think it had a few hundred seats and he always managed to get like fourth or fifth row from mid stage, watching buddy Rich around the age of 10 who I was fortunate to see at least half a dozen times as my dad loved him & He also loved brass bands, and he loved jazz and at that time for me buddy Rich was the MAN as I was pretty impressionable and thought he was absolutely amazing & he blew me away however Neil Peart oh my God changed me as far as a rock drummer as it seemed every album from that point from fly by night on, just seemed to get better and better and better, I have been fortunate enough to see I want to say 10 or 12 different shows over the years….From hemispheres tour being my very first concert in the nosebleed section all the way through to Moving pictures and then counter parts & test for echo, and then I got to take my current wife to the R40 concert in Auburn Hills Michigan at the palace, which they have demolished that building I think a couple years ago which that concert was EPIC there was never a bad show😉

[Cap_Ron]

I’d say there’s at least a decent chance we might have been at the same show at some point throughout all the tours. I used all my vacation time over the years on traveling to Rush shows. In the years they didn’t tour I just saved all of my time off, but in the years they did tour, I saw 28 shows all over the US and Toronto. I also managed to make it to 3 Rushcons. I have Rush friends from all over the world that I met at shows over the years, many that I keep in touch with still today!

[TimberLaddKush]

My God Cap! What an experience you’ve had!. I’ve never been to any rushcon, events, or meet and greets or anything like that I was the fan where I’d get the concert T-shirts and I would wear the living hell out of them with holes and everything in public to the point where they looked ridiculously unwearable before I even threw them out. I still have my R40 T-shirts. However they’re looking pretty bad these days, still wear them from time to time, I’d be willing to bet all the shows that you have been to were just as awesome as the last one, all three men epic musicians, in every sense of the word and seemed to really care about their fanbase. There was absolutely some type of magic with that trio. A lot of people don’t like Geddy lee’s voice and find it to be a real turn off however, I loved it because back in the day he could just belt out the songs, one of my favorite memories, watching him sing back then I’m not fairly certain which tour, i’m thinking permanent waves, he had Kim Mitchell/Max Webster as the warm up, and at the end of the show played , “Battle scar”, and when it came time for Geddys part to sing the lights came on where he was standing & the crowd over the top erupted! You could literally feel that energy! It was amazing To me! sad when Neil died, as my father had passed away in January 27 of that year and the wife told me at the funeral home that Neil had died of brain cancer. Talk about a one two punch, ugh …. Will most definitely be enjoyable watching your auto flower grow & looking forward to further discussions with not only you the group of people that your gathering for your grow. Have a great day Cap Ron.TLK

[Cap_Ron]

The girls got a feeding last night, and they’re very close to transplant time. I don’t judge when they’re ready by their leaves or size, I go by how fast they drink. As soon as they get thirsty again the day following a feeding, I do the transplant. So if they’re thirsty tonight at lights on, I will transplant them, if they’re not quite ready yet, it will be tomorrow night.

This is where they’re at this morning.

And a more Birdseye view of their home.