New Grower Doogal's first auto attemp

[Doogal]

Hi everyone and thanks for popping in to have a look.
I'm new here and made a post to say hi earlier with a little intro http://www.autoflower.org/threads/popping-in-to-say-hello.63616/

Last weekend I finally got around to taking the carpets out of my spare room and cleaning and disinfecting the whole place.
I haven't grown for over 10 years and this is my first try with autos so I'll be a complete noobie, please bear with me.

Setup :
1.2x1.2x2m tent
600w hps
5" extraction fan + 5" carbon filter
13.5L fabric pots
Biobizz lightmix soil
Mini heater/cooler just in case

20/4 light cycle
Temps 24-28 celcius
humidity 48%-56%

Nutrients :
Remo Nutrients Velo Kelp
Advanced Nutrients Sensi Grow+Bloom, Calmag xtra,
Mammoth P
Yet to decide between AN Overdrive/Big Bud or a dedicated PK nutrient for flowering.

I was thinking of adding a silicone based nutrient, however rhino skin by advanced nutrients is costly for what it does. This seems to be a more cost effective option : http://www.hydroponics.co.uk/shogun-silicon.html#.WmMVE6hl_cc
Not sure how it would mix with other nutrients. I know that silica based nutrients need to either be mixed into your water first before any other nutrient, or diluted before adding to a mix with other nutes in it.

Strains going in :

1x chem city blues - Mephisto
1x blue dream - Humboldt
1x alaskan thunderfuck - geneseeds
1x summer berry kush - aztec smoke shop
2x chem bubbly - seedsman
2x stress killer cbd - royal queen seeds
2x pineapple express - fast buds

So I started 5 days ago by putting my seeds into water glasses for around 14 hours until they all sank to the bottom and transferred them, wrapped in kitchen roll to dvd boxes. The next night I put up the tent, potted up my soil and gave it a light watering with 1/4 strength Velo Kelp.



Around 36-40 hours after I checked my dvd boxes and all my seeds had germinated :



So into the soil they went.

Had some initial temp problems on the first night of the light being on. Temps were going up to 28-30 degrees celcius with lights on and 15-17 degrees celcius when off. I made some small changes and got myself a heater/cooler and now temps are pretty damn good. Below photo is after I have had the doors open for around 8-10mins :



I'm not sure if there are too many plants in there, I had 10 fabric 13.5L pots, so I thought that I would try all 10, especially considering there are a couple of smaller known strains in there.
If I run into problems with space I have it covered. I have another tent which will be going up soon, I'm just planning it out and trying to decide whether I want to try my hand at throwing a WILMA system in there too.


So this morning I woke up, had my coffee and wake and bake, some lovely GG#4 grown by a friend


After which I went to check on the tent and to my surprise we have seedlings, 7 of them, so just waiting for 3 more to show their heads.



And finally, a little bit of light hearted comedy that I thought cultivators would like. Here's the sign on the door into my indoor garden, you would never have guessed whats in there would you?



anyway, thanks for checking in and I hope to do you guys proud, because I've mainly picked up all my planning and everything from the great stuff on these forums. I imagine things will be slow this next week or so but I will try and keep this thread going and updated.
Take it easy folks.

 

[Boradan]

Subbed in.
I reckon you will need that second tent up in a month or so

 

[Doogal]

@Boradan I do believe you're right my friend. It is a 1.5x1.5x2 however it is a second hand one which I was given. Apart from one relatively small hole in the bottom left corner it is very good condition. I just need to sew some thick mylar on both sides of the hole and get it nice and strong and it will be ready for use.
My only concern about the second tent is the temperatures. This room gets very hot when the lights are on, so having 2 tents could get a little silly. I'm currently researching getting some cobs for the second tent instead of having hps lighting.
Either way, once I figure out how to work it all, 4 of the plants will be going into the bigger tent so that there are only 6 in here. That should be within the next 2 weeks really.

 

[woody]

Looks like your all set and off to a great start- all that reading up pays off.
Good luck bud- 10 will be a jungle in there.
Heres a rep slap for starting your first afn journal

 

[Doogal]

Hey @sanguine thanks so much.
For sure 10 will be a jungle haha. I'll be patching up the other tent in the room today so it will be ready to go up whenever I need it.
Just trying to take it one day at a time but make sure that I'm prepared for whatever happens down the line.
Thats pretty much what I learned from reading other grow journals and stickied posts on here over the last couple of months.

I still have a few things to work out.
My carbon filter was delivered damaged so I sent it back and the seller on amazon already has one in the post for me. I don't envisage this being an issue as long as I get it shortly.
I still haven't decided what nutrients I want to use during flowering. I'll be using AN sensi bloom and mammoth p, however I don't know much about PK products and which would be best to add.
I'd also like to be able to stabilise my temps rather than having this 4 degree variance I'm seeing between 24-28°C. Its usually around 24-26 but if I close the door and have the heating on high in the house it can go up to 28. I just have to make sure I don't do those things haha.

 

[AJrexxx]

Nice set up and strain selection. Pineapple Express is on of my favorites. I was just about to say your going to need a bigger tent, but it looks like you got it under control. For silica I use General Hydroponics silica because its cheap and gets the job done. Now I wont be surprised if someone disputes this next comment, silica is silica. So get whatever you can and don't pay a ton of money for nutes.

 

[Boradan]

Hey @sanguine thanks so much.
For sure 10 will be a jungle haha. I'll be patching up the other tent in the room today so it will be ready to go up whenever I need it.
Just trying to take it one day at a time but make sure that I'm prepared for whatever happens down the line.
Thats pretty much what I learned from reading other grow journals and stickied posts on here over the last couple of months.

I still have a few things to work out.
My carbon filter was delivered damaged so I sent it back and the seller on amazon already has one in the post for me. I don't envisage this being an issue as long as I get it shortly.
I still haven't decided what nutrients I want to use during flowering. I'll be using AN sensi bloom and mammoth p, however I don't know much about PK products and which would be best to add.
I'd also like to be able to stabilise my temps rather than having this 4 degree variance I'm seeing between 24-28°C. Its usually around 24-26 but if I close the door and have the heating on high in the house it can go up to 28. I just have to make sure I don't do those things haha.

I am currently on my first grow also and I can wholeheartedly agree with the fact that 'one day at a time' is the way to go.
I spent the first several weeks opening/closing view windows to get the correct amount of temperature/humidity.
All of that has gone out the window now that I have had to switch to a 12/12 cycle (as of yesterday) due to one of my seeds being a Photo and not an Auto, so I had to turn on my Heater and will have to re-work everything now.
Luckily, I seem to have my Nutes dialed in with ppm and pH staying constant (DWC grow).
The 3 plants I have in my 4x4 are almost taking up the entire tent now:

 

[AnonymousGrower2]

@Boradan I do believe you're right my friend. It is a 1.5x1.5x2 however it is a second hand one which I was given. Apart from one relatively small hole in the bottom left corner it is very good condition. I just need to sew some thick mylar on both sides of the hole and get it nice and strong and it will be ready for use.
My only concern about the second tent is the temperatures. This room gets very hot when the lights are on, so having 2 tents could get a little silly. I'm currently researching getting some cobs for the second tent instead of having hps lighting.
Either way, once I figure out how to work it all, 4 of the plants will be going into the bigger tent so that there are only 6 in here. That should be within the next 2 weeks really.

If the tents are second hand i would disinfect the whole things just to be sure ......dont want to end possibly infecting ur girls with god knows what.......[emoji111]

 

[jingo]

Hey bro Welcome to The Forum. You'll find autoflowers main difference between photo period strains is the need for a little bit less nitrogen. In fact I think they get larger if they're given less nitrogen or slightly nitrogen deficient even.

Since you're growing in soil, and cost is an issue you could do without the silica for this grow. I would never recommend going without it in Hydro or coco butt potting soil has a fair amount of silica in it already. Then once you have more experience with Autos you'll probably want to add in that silica.





Where I'm growing

 

[Dudeski]

Welcome to afn! Looks like you have a great start. Keep it green