Hey all, noob gardener excited to finally be able to get started on my first grow. I wanted to document my experience and share with the community. Please feel free to offer any tips or tricks or if I'm doing something wrong please let me know.
Strains
Seeds by Nirvana Seeds sold by Seedsman.
White Widow Auto x1
Girl Scout Cookies Auto x2
Equipment
Tent - Vivosun 4x4x6.5
Light - LED Bestva DC 2000W
Medium/Nutrients
Soil - FoxFarm Ocean Forest
Nutes - FoxFarm trio, cal/mag, Great White micros, molasses
Germination
Paper towel method - soaked in shot glasses for 24 hours prior to placing in paper towels. Each had half inch taproot within 48 hours of being in the paper towels. Each then planted into the medium in 3 gal fabric pots with a sprinkle of Great White. Each sprouted within 72 hours.
* I made the mistake of adding too much water to the soil when planting, it was moist enough from being a new bag and I didn't need any more. This made it take a very long time for the soil to dry causing the seedlings to be droopy for a few days. Once the soil dried they perked back up.
Seedlings 3-4 days old
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Week 1 -
First week after sprout.
Light schedule 18/6
Daytime:
Temp - 75 F
RH - 65%
Night:
Temp - 70 F
RH - 68%
8-9 days old
8
Looking good. Don’t overdue anything
Looks like your off to a good start, if you run into any issues there is a ton of us on here to pitch in advice. And welcome to the community 👍
Welcome...
A few extra degrees is temp wouldn't hurt. I try to keep my seedling tent 80* plus. Rh around 55%. That me... 55% in that tent puts my other at around 62%, and thats about where I like to run. You will see everyone has a different way, that why we are here to share. Good luck...
Great start! Looking forward to watching them grow 😀🌱
Week 2 -
Second week after sprout.
Environment Changes: lowered light 2" to 30“. Reduced RH to 60%. Raised avg day temperature to 78F and night to 72F.
15/16 days after sprout. GSC both a little larger than the Widow. All 3 with nice symmetry. Going to give them a small dose of great white and molasses next watering.
Today I noticed that a few of the lower older leaves on the GSCs were looking a little twisted. After some research I believe this to be early stages of calcium deficiency. I had been using distilled water and had not yet added any cal/mag so it's probably time. I made a 1 gal tea with 2.5ml of cal/mag, 1 tbl molasses, 1/2 tsp great white.
Twisting of the leaves like that early on is pretty normal and the plants typically grow out of it. That's the first time I've ever heard someone associate it with a lack of calcium. Can you post a link to where you heard that?
Oh ok cool yeah I wasn't sure if it was an early sign of something or not. I figured they would need some cal/mag soon anyways lol. I'm not 100% sure where I read that was an early sign though, but it was not a consensus idea at all. Most the other consensus causes for the twisting leaves didn't sound as plausible for mine. The girls definitely loved the molasses though, after I gave them that they really perked up. How often do you give molasses? I read the plants really love during flower?
@Neil Wallis I actually made a video on molasses a few weeks back. I mostly feed during flower. Once every week or two max. Although, you can feed throughout the grow.
Thanks for posting this. I'm running a very similar set up and I have the exact same seeds. I plan on starting in two weeks. First time grower as well.
Out of curiosity, why are you using great white during water? I have some on hand now too, but I was only planning on using when transplanting photos in a future grow.
Good luck! Nice job so far!
Hey welcome! Yeah I use the great white also when initially planting as well. I also add to watering to help continue to refresh and build the microb population in the soil. This is what will help the plant absorb the nutrients. You can do this as a top dress as well but I just mix it in water per the directions on the container.
Yeah growing for the first time is exciting, I will say the first week or so is slow but then things really get going. I'll probably be attempting some LST starting next week :)
Good luck with your grow and have fun!
Right on, thanks for the explanation man! I'll continue to stay tuned for future updates!
What kind of LST are you trying? Looking great so far!
Week 3 -
Things are definitely starting to get going, all 3 began to flower on days 20/21. I also began my low stress training (LST) and made a few other environmental changes.
Environment Changes -
Turned on the full spectrum mode on my light. This required me to raise the a few inches to keep my PAR in the correct range. This also raised my daytime high temperature to 80F and slightly reduced RH to 55%. I also replaced my previous tower fan with a floor fan. The tower fan is too tall and I wasn't getting enough air flow on the pots so they were taking forever to dry. The Widow is a little more sensitive to water and I've noticed prefers to be dry.
Week 3 LST day 20/21
GSC 1 Day 20 before
Week 3 LST
GSC 1 Day 22 after
a couple new tops emerging after 2 days
Week 3 LST
GSC 2 Day 20 before
LST done
Week 3
GSC 2 Day 22
a couple new tops emerging just 2 days after lst
Week 3 LST
White Widow Day 21
This girl is a little smaller and slower growing so her first tie didn't take well, so a re-tie a couple days later looks better.
Day 23 LST after/before re-tie
Your plants look great. Just started some autos of our own. I really nervous about LST, I've done some on feminized before, but not autos. Please help. Do you bend the mainstream over continuously, how far, when do you start? Can you top? Is it suggested? Lighting? I put in an auto with some feminized before and didn't realize it. Grew it like a fem. And was wondering why that one was changing. So i flipped the lights 12-12. But I didn't know shit then, and probably still don't. But I try, and ask questions. Getting THE BOOK for x-mas. I like your guys and gals input. Thank you...
Hey thanks! For LST I would recommend taking a look at some of the videos from Mr grow it, I watched those to get a good idea. Most people don't recommend topping or other forms of high stress training HST on auto flowers as they have a very short Veg period and you don't want your plant using energy to heal during flower. A photoperiod is where you can use those HST techniques as it's the 12/12 light schedule that triggers flower so you can control it. Lighting for auto flowers is typically 18/6 but you can do 24. I have heard that autoflower yield will be less under 12/12, so not usually advertised to mix autos with photos.
@Neil Wallis thanks bud. Yeah I was getting into doing that (videos). That makes total sence,(photoperiod). Great information,thank you. Looking at them in a min, I have a seed to plant,(gorilla glue).
Week 4 -
Lots of new growth, LST taking very well on the GSCs and they are really bushing out. The Widow has really been fighting the training so I took it off. I decided for my first grow I wanted one to grow naturally for comparison. I may end up training if it gets too much taller than the others.
A deficiency has emerged as well, more on that below in next comment.
Also just for fun (and practice) I planted a bag seed, it ended up sprouting on Christmas day. Hopefully ends up female.
Day 30
GSC 1 Day 29 with multiple good bud sites.
GSC 2 Day 28 remove one fan leaf to open the middle up more.
White Widow Day 30
Week 4 - deficiency
I noticed the very slow progression of a deficiency a day or two after a plain water day. They are due for a feeding in a couple days so holding until then.
I have a theory this may be a potassium deficiency. Starts as light colored spots on leaf tips/edges but can also form in middle of leaf like shown below. The affected leaf also has a purple/red stem (all other healthy stems are green). Eventually the affected leaf yellow (last Pic). What do you all think? They are going to get a feeding in a day or two that should correct. All they have had so far is one 1/4 dose of Grow over a week ago, and then a couple doses of cal/mag, molasses, great white. I also noticed that the Ocean Forest soil has very little potassium to start.
@Neil Wallis The tips of your leaves aren't affected and are not curling. I would almost say Calcium deficiency or light burn.
Edit: Or maybe Magnesium. @Brandon @mwhite9829 I'll need an opinion.
Deficiency update -
After a runoff test I'm thinking a ph issue could be the problem. Ph was around 6.1-6.2, which I see is right on the boarder for phosphorus and may be slightly too low for calcium. My plan next watering is to use ph7.0 to bring it back to 6.5ish, this will be in a couple days. PPM was good at around 900, soil week 5.
What kind of water are you using? I use well water and ppm is usually 450 to 550. Without adding anything. My plants have done wonderful
I am using distilled, my city water is pretty poor.
I think I know how ph got out of range. I was adding my Great White after doing my ph, not realizing that GW drops the ph. So I thought I was putting in 6.5 and was actually putting in 6.
Week 5 -
Still dealing with some deficiencies that I believe are due to ph being too low. I was able to get the ph a little better today when watering to now 6.35. My cheap ph meter from vivosun died as well today lol, got a nice one now. Hopefully now that I have my ph better it will end the calcium lockout and allow for better phosphorus uptake.
Also did a dose of Grow today, girls are looking pretty lime green indicating needing nitrogen. Runoff PPM a little higher than I'd like at 1200 but hopefully in soil it will be fine. These Autoflowers are tough to gauge because they are vegging and flowering all at once.
Raise light every other day or so maintaining between 28-30 inches over canopy. RH avg 53, Day temp max 80, night low 72.
GSC 1 doing very well with training and maintaining a nice evening canopy. GSC 2 also training well, nice quite as open but still a nice bush. White Widow I ended up needing to tie down to keep more even with others. She is not real happy in general but still forming a nice main cola. Hopefully she'll start doing better with ph corrections.
Day 37
GSC 1 Day 35
Adjustment to tie to even canopy
GSC 2 Day 35
@Neil Wallis Is it just the light/camera or are those leaves really light green?