Hi All!
Here I am drying my first grow ever. I have always wanted to grow but never have and it is already proving to be addicting. I grew just one Blue Dream auto and missed some things with nutes and ph levels but just put 2 Grand daddy purple autos and 2 AK- 47 auto seeds in paper towels to start my next grow. The next one I do will be photos.
Fox farm ocean forest
Probably 3 gallon fabric pots this time
Spider farm square 200 watt led light. I have another 100 watt light I can throw in there if needed.
32x32” x 68” ish tent.
Temps running around 67f and 50%rh.
4” carbon filter exhaust and 1 small clip on and another stronger fan for the floor.
Advanced nutrients trio and cal mag is all I plan to use except I may add some fish emolsion during veg. I had ph lock issues with the 1st grow that led to buds being smaller than desired and bunch of larf even though the grow went much longer than expected and trichomes were ideal for me. Maybe 5%amber.
Goal is to have fewer but meatier buds and if all 4 seeds germinate I will top 2 and lst 2 of them to compare results. May be tough with the gdp but we will see. I’ve learned enough to know that sometimes the plant dictates more than I will.
Anyways, any advice is greatly appreciated. Let me know what you think and what I can do to get some meaty buds going with my limited setup and experience. Appreciate you all and keep reading through different post to gain as much knowledge as I can. This group is truly amazing! Pics to follow as things progress.
Sounds like you have caught the bug. Goal is to get a little better each time. A couple areas I see that can be improved is the temp and the humidity. The plants will do better if you can get the temps closer to 75 or 80 and the humidity in veg about 55% or 60%…even higher in early veg. A small heater and humidifier can help achieve this.
If you can make a bigger investment, a more powerful light will help you get the high quality buds you want to produce.
Good luck with you second grow and your first dry / cure.
Here are a few tips that I have for Auto flowers. Number one I grow in 5 gallon buckets. I do this for a couple of reasons.. they stack very easily. When I’m growing multiple strains, I will sometimes get plants of different heights no matter how hard I try. If you grow in 5 gallon buckets, you can add another bucket under your shorter plants to level them up so you have one canopy height. 5 gallon buckets are made of plastic very easy to drill holes in. Drill holes 1 inch apart all the way around the top I use the rubber coated wire to tie through these holes and pull down my branches to spread my plants open. Defoliate well so that light gets all the way through and lollipop your plants to the top 2/3 . This will give you maximum yield I top them After three sets of leaves as long as they’re not showing flowers yet
I do have 5 gallon plastic pots I can use. If just 2-3 of the seeds germinate I will use them. If all 4 sprout I may just use the 3 gallon as I don’t have a bunch of room. I can for sure add some things to level the canopy. I think I will have to to keep the topped and lst plants with similar canopy height. Hope they all germinate but that means way less light per sq inch of plant. I will for sure grow less amount of colas per plant. I had over 30 bud sites on the blue dream and I think if I would have limited to 10 or so bud sites they would have been better. Is this true?
To be honest I’ve never grown in a small space so I don’t limit my sites . I spread them well and prune them so there is about 1" clearance all around each branch.
Yea, I have been thinking about temp and humidity. I may do something with that as I keep going but will try again with basement temps in Colorado. Pretty dry and basement stays steady 67-70. I do have a small heater I could try.
I know I have light deficiency. Both lights I have are square but do you think I should add the other 100 watt led maybe in the back of the tent? Won’t really help with maybe 2 of the plants but if I have 2 shorter plants it may help. Idk. Buying a new light isn’t in the cards for this year.
Oh man those are nice looking plants!
Thank you . One is Multiverse Titan 9 the others are Atlas Turtle Taffy and GMO OG . All autos. I switch back-and-forth. Photos during the cool season. Autos in summer. I used a Spider Farmer SF 7000 light on these. I got an average of 4 oz per plant mainly because the T9 delivered a whopping 7 oz. What light are you using? Also, don’t worry, how long your plans take. Last group of autos the ones in the picture took 125 days for the longest one they were all supposed to be seed to bed in 75 days. I don’t care what any seed company says that never happens. Autos always take over 100 days if you want good amber
Also, I forgot to mention, I sprout my autos in the buckets I’m gonna grow them in. They seem to get off to a better start this way in my opinion.
Too small for 4 flowering plants.
All sounds pretty solid.
Lack of adequate light intensity deep enough into the canopy is the main reason for LARF if that was your concern. Should run 50 ish watts per square foot or about 150ish watts a plant minimum is what I’ve always heard for flower. I’m underpowered to fill my 5x5 at 780 watts but found it’s enough for 2-3 large plants in the middle. You’ll be on a shorter light schedule during flower too, so it would likely be worse than with the autos if that was the same lighting you used.
If you’re running the liquid series and not the powdered chelated series of Advanced Nutrients you should pretty much always use Sensizym. It’s their enzyme for salt buildup. Also consider bud candy as your sugar source and some source of Silica during flower to boost trichomes. Silica must be mixed in first to avoid issues if you pick that up and I would recommend waiting until any training is complete.
My biggest recommendation though would be consider organic and autopots. I’m still tuning it in, but the plants are such a different level of healthy. I do half the feed rate of the buildasoil chart (feed once ever other week) or less and only feed 1 gal to supplement the top feed, so it’s way less work. The rest is plain water through the autopot. I honestly almost wish it automated the grow a little less because I love tinkering but I still have plenty of other ways to tinker and screw up my yield. I need to get through this grow to really comment on yield impacts because I screwed up the flower feed last grow but the quality was still top with deficiencies. I feel like I had way less LARF too with organic and had some really dense lower sites.
Ah; another Colorado grower. I’m in the 'Springs and been growing here since moving 5 years ago. The high elevation and low humidity actually make it ideal for indoor growing. You would benefit from more light in your grow space for sure.
I’m going to suggest a different direction: photoperiod plants allow you to manage them with high stress training, aggressive topping etc. with any problems in veg you can simply grow out longer before flipping.
I’m a fan of Autopots and Jack’s nutrient line. The least expensive and great performing nutrient program. Many of us have gone to that. I don’t even bother to PH any more with this setup. I normally do 12 to 17 oz. yield per plant with this arrangement.
Not a fan of 5 gallon buckets: plants need lots of air to the root zone and fabric pots will allow the most possible. They can easily stack to regularize heights based on my experience. The Autopots allow for either their 6 gallon pot or fabric pots. If using the plastic pots I add an airdome and pump air to the root zone. Using Autopots allow you to tinker with the plants and love on them, as well as using photoperiod.
I only grow once year now as that usually produces all I can handle in a year.
Yea. The one plant actually filled in the tent pretty good. Thinking the 3 gallon pots may keep them a little smaller. Depends on what sprouts but ideally probably 1-2 plants max in this setup. Or a different setup all together.
Sounds good. May order those then. Trying to get these first few grows under my belt and get familiar with the plants and what they do. Appreciate it!
I do want to grow photos and will the next grow after this. I like the idea of topping and working on a handful of colas and seeing what it can produce. Thank you!
And all I can say is Wow! On that plant.
If you have room, do it. Those extras photons will help until an upgrade is in the cards. My give you a little more heat.
Sounds like it’s worth a try
2 or 3 gallon bags are my favorites for indoor container grows. They won’t necessarily keep plants smaller up top, but root balls will take up less space.
What do you mean by this?