First time, long time. Figured I’d start a grow journal for my new batch of beans of which I’ve just potted 5 of 8 yesterday.
Seeds: 4 X Super Skunk and 4 x White Widow autoflowers from ILGM
Medium: 70% coco 30% perlite
Nutrients: Advanced Nutrients coco grow & bloom
Lights: 3 x Viparspectre P600 600W LED Full spectrum
First hurdle was not ordering enough soil for all 8 pots, so I had to germinate 5 seeds Sunday evening, 2 of which sprouted pretty quickly (I think) by Tuesday morning, the others by Wednesday and the last 3 just went in to germinate yesterday too. Popped them in their forever home - I went straight into a 30L fabric pot as I didn’t want the stress of repotting them from rooters, solo cups, etc which is what I’d read I should do as a first time auto grower. I gave the medium a good soaking with 0.7 EC, RO water using 1ml calmag/litre and 4ml per litre of the part A and B advanced nutrients. 5.7 (ish) PH. Now just planning to give them the same strength nutes using a syringe to keep the roots moist, and a light misting daily.
Pleased to say I think two of them are doing quite well and have come up already! Of the 3 planted yesterday, 1 is starting to come through also but still doesn’t have it’s first set of two leaves.
Where I live it’s winter now so quite dry, so I’ve had to put some cups over them to increase the humidity as it’s only 50% in the tent and I’ve had to run a mini heater to keep the heat up around 22c.
Is this good for 2 days growth? Anything I should change? I’m a bit worried about over watering so any coco growers with tips on how to nurse seedlings welcome!
Love the forum and will keep tracking progress here.
To LST, or not to LST? I’ve seen differing opinions, but given I’m doing a SOG grow with 8 plants, not sure if I will worry about stressing the gals out too much.
Was thinking about topping one of them just to observe the difference.
@Hey_Hey_Smoke_Weed_Everyday hey man welcome to the forums!! Personally I would both top and train more of them than not. They are things that are very easy to do and will dramatically increase your yield if done right. Now I’m not 100% positive about autos but I think I remember hearing you don’t want to top them. It does stunt growth for a little while and that’s not something you want with autos.
When you want to talk to someone specific just put an @ infront of the username by the way
Ok so first problem - I think I overwatered the coco before putting them in. I read conflicting reports, some saying soak the whole medium, others saying just around where the seedling will go. The first two still look great:
Is this overwatering, or a problem with nutrients. I only went super low on the nute dosage - 0.7 EC - and have only watered the medium before putting them in, and a tiny watering of about 10ml using a syringe around each of them yesterday. My plan now is just to let them use up pretty much all the remaining moisture in the pots and give it a day or two to water again.
The one with the white spots looks like maybe the leaves had extra moisture in them when the opened. The light will cause the water to burn the leaves.
Do not let the coco dry out. It’s pretty hard to over water with coco and cloth pots.
When my seedlings are small like that and in cups I water every other day. Once they get a couple of sets of leaves I start watering everyday.
Amazing, thanks @AfgVet! They did indeed have some water droplets on the leaves when I found them today, so that probably explains it. Nothing to be too concerned about.
Well, I’ve learned a lot already, particularly about watering seedlings. Originally I had planted my germinated seeds straight into coco, and had watered all of the coco before. Big mistake it seems.
So only 3 survived, but they look quite healthy and are growing their second nodes.
I germinated another 5 which I planted into red solos instead. I thought I’d rather deal with some transplant shock in 2 weeks time than losing more than 50% every time I plant. Good decision as the first 2 are already further ahead than the original 3 were at this stage, and the other 3 look ok. Not great, but solid, but they’ve only been planted 3-5 days ago.
I am now watering the bigger 3 every other day and they’re thriving. Because they’re quite healthy, my plan is to FIM 1 as an experiment once they get their 3rd nodes. The other 2 I will LST. Of the remainder, I will do the same - 1 FIM, 2 LST, then let 2 just grow. It will be a nice experiment.
I definitely think heat was more a factor than humidity early on too, FWIW. When I introduced a mini convection heater they shot up, despite it dropping RH to 50-60%.
Any thoughts on the training ideas? Will send pics later when I’m home.
For a first attempt at autos, I’ve successfully sprouted 8 out of 12 seeds which for a second time ever grower is a good achievement imo. You can see a couple of them have issues and the ones in solos are stretching a bit but overall I’m pretty happy.
Any tips? Lighting seems to be fucking me a bit, I have them set at 12 inches away from plant but only 30-40% intensity on a 600W LED. I went closer to avoid stretching and as you can see I burned a couple.
Everything seems to be going pretty well. I know they are a bit stunted as I was overwatering them and the pots were too big to begin with. 2 from the original 3 are doing pretty well and the other is catching up fast. Crazy how they grow after being stressed.
Of the other 5, 1 is hilariously stunted, 1 has some iron problems which I’m fixing up gradually and the other 2 have taken off in 8 days since transplanting. They are 21 days old.
I just started LST on the biggest one 3 days ago and it has responded well. They are quite squat plants because I had the light too close after being paranoid about stretching early on. But I have moved the light up and reduced the intensity to get them to stretch a bit.
Update at Day 30. Man, once they hit a few weeks they really start shooting up.
I’ve deduced that I was going too low on the nutes and as I had yet to water through to run off (just keeping the medium moist), I did so last night. The EC was a little high (1.9-2.1 on run off) but this morning the girls are already showing darker, stronger leaves and the one with iron deficiency has been corrected with high doses of cal mag and more consistent watering.
I also started LST on another yesterday and she responded very quickly. I have started tucking the one with the most vigorous growth as I would not like to stress her and risk a reduced yield. Since this is my first grow from seed to harvest, I will just keep the LST to two plants and be more aggressive next time.
Finally, the one which I LST’d 5 days ago has responded well, so I tied down the new growth today. Am I doing this right?
Update at Day 35 and Day 28. Had a mishap during the week and snapped the main stem. No problem, just taped her up and she soldiered on, and 3 days later it’s mostly healed and the main stem is shooting up again.
I’m still having iron deficiency problems with one, but it’s growing ok and one is massively stunted (lol at the pics) so I will just let them go and hope for the best. I have been upping the calmag dosage and micro nutrients for the iron deficient one and it is slowly going away, but I’m wondering if there’s anything else I could use?
I was torn, but decided to FIM one. I just want to see the difference and whether it helps/hinders yield. I then LST’d the rest a few days ago, all except one which I have just been tucking as it is growing well untrained.
All in all, I know I’m behind but it has been a fun experience and I feel like I’ve learned a lot already and my next grow will be much stronger.
Been a minute so wanted to update. All is going well in the garden, and we’re getting closer to harvest time!
First group is currently on day 62 and second group is on day 55. Here’s a look at the whole garden as it is now too hard to get individual pics due to grow room size and size of plants. I wanted a SOG and a SOG I got. FWIW, 2 plants were completely untrained, 1 of which was the runt, 5 were LSTd and 1 was FIMd but it didn’t really work.
Frustratingly, 2 of them are still barely in pre-flower, so I think I might switch the light cycle over to 12/12? Any thoughts?
