So we are new growers. Started with autoflower due to research on ease of growth for beginners. Have 14 currently, 4 purples in flower, 5 afghan and 5 Tangerine in veg. Tentatively starting 3 photophoric strains, 2 CBD high strains, 1 White Widow. Rather nervous to begin photophoric plants, so we are starting small there, and currently researching the upcoming harvest and curing of the 14 currently. Any advice is appreciated. We currently do a 20 & 4 lighting tho not important with autoflower, just getting into the habit. Have had loads of guesswork with nutes, burn and the like during this process. Hub did low stress training so far successful, yet still all guesswork. Advice appreciated!
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Looking great, especially if this is your first grow!
How old are they and what lights are you using? Tell us all the basics, including your grow medium, what pH meter you use, etc. We like details like that.
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The Crit Purple was put in soil on 8-29
Afghan and Tangerine on Sept 19th
The 3 photophoric Oct 24th. No pics currently as they are just wee seedlings lol.
We have 3 pH meters, 2 digital from Sumgott one needle meter which was not very accurate yet it does also give lighting readings for our light placement. 2000 led bloomspect, a 600 watt led from the original small tent, it is fairly substandard tbh. Then a 1000 watt veg/bloom lite from Recordcent. The bloomspect actually seems better than the bloom/veg lite in lighting. We y’d the washer faucet and hooked up a filter for H20, we pH our H20 with vinegar, 12mls per 2.5 gallons. Takes our water to roughly 6.0. We planted in a mixture of 70% miracle grow with 30% coco and 2 cups perlite for 10lbs of soil. Current temp in both tents, is 75-77f, with humidity of 40%. We use Advanced Nutrients for nutes yet discovered with nute burn we need to use with caution, having flushed out our roots twice lol.
so the first pic is of Afghan and Tangerine they have just exploded in growth. The others are of the purple. The last pic has discoloration on leaves. It HAS been there however makes me nervous
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Honestly I think autos are far less beginner friendly than photos. If you make mistakes with photos, you have time to correct issues and make sure they’re healthy when you switch to flower. Making a mistake with autos can cause some trouble. Seeing how you’re doing with the autos, I don’t think you’ll have trouble at all with the photos.
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Welcome to the community, great job keep up the good work. I would buy some ph up and down little easier to work with. And a bottle of clean 7 solution to verify your pH meter. Good luck
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We have both pH up and down. We did some research and found that vinegar does the same thing, less amounts needed too to really pH your water. I will get clean sln 7 tho. As far as auto vs photo…never thought of that lol! Mistakes can be resolved. We do plan on getting more lights. For 14 plants Id like a full 4000 watts. Addl another tent to truly do a full photophoric veg. I want this as my retirement business, along with extracting, cloning, etc. So we need all the help we can obtain!!
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100% agree. I’ll grow my auto beans, but I prefer photoperiod, and won’t be ordering any more autos.
I think that you’d be pleasantly surprised at how easy a photoperiod plant is. Just my opinion here. Welcome to ILGM. @Lorilou
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Welcome to the forum
Your grow looks great!
Moving forward you may want to look into more capable lighting that will have better coverage less heat and less power consumption.
The recordcent light fixture for example states 1000W but only draws 130 watts from the wall and it states 2x2 coverage for flower.
The bloom spec 200W actual wall draw is like 375w and states up to 2x2 flower. Both these fixtures from what I’m finding state good PPFD so I don’t know if that part is accurate.
The cost is low but that savings takes away from the potential you can get with better LED fixtures. They cost more but have many advantages over the “blurple” lights.
Many posts here on lighting and recommendations for them. Not saying what your now using won’t work as clearly they are just mentioning so if you look to add lighting in the future you can explore other options.
Again welcome to the forum
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No doubt. My husband is currently researching lighting. We got the bloomspect on Amazon, not too pricey etc. Yet realize we need more lighting if not better lighting overall. It is a matter of prioritizing our grow needs. A new tent is necessary along with filtering to limit odors during the dry/curing process. It already has a mild dank odor which will only increase. However this is what I hope will be our future livelihood, so creating an exceptional product is our ultimate goal. Lighting is very much a top priority especially when we are dependent on this with photophoric strains. Any suggestions on decent lighting that fulfills our needs both plantbased as well as economically?
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Definitely need more lighting. Check the watts being pulled from the wall, which will give you a better idea of their actual power. I used to grow with blurples; I used 520 watts from the wall to grow in a 2.5x5 area. Now, I use QB lights.
Miracle Grow will have you fighting with nute burn, with flushing potentially making it worse, due to time released nutes that get activated by the flushing.
What has your pH run-off been measuring at?
Any pics available w/o the blurples?
They really do look good.
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Unfortunately, vinegar really isn’t the best for long term use, as it isn’t a very stable pH buffer. It’ll work, but there are other things that work better, which are developed specifically for growing plants.
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You can replace that vinegar with citric acid crystals to lower your ph. You can get it at most grocery stores in the canning section. If you’re doing a live soil or organic grow, citric acid crystals won’t hurt your microbes.
Has anybody out there heard about the new idea that you don’t need to pH your water or anything like that because the roots let out their own chemicals to keep them selves and balance anybody heard about that yet
Haven’t heard of that. Doesn’t seem like it works very well. Throw your ph out of range and watch your plants tell you they hate you.
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Yes I can show you a couple plants that did not like their pH being out of whack 
I learned the hard way @Dmy .
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Neither will phosphoric acid. Which is the standard for PH’ing anything grow wise.
I should have written “marketed” rather than “developed”.
As far as roots balancing their own pH, you need a helluva lot of microbes before you even think about trying that experiment. That’s definitely some dangerous misinformation to share.
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Iam running timber grow lights, only on my second grow ,but seem to be working nicely