5th grow, 1st 420Auto attempt

[20Hurtz]

Hi, I was inspired by 420Autoflower’s thread on the old forum. I’m a new grower but after 4 mostly ok/pretty ok grows I felt I was ready to tackle a 420 style grow.

I’ve previously grown exclusively in DWC but for this grow I mixed it up a bit. I originally was going to go full rockwool but I had to go away for a week early in the grow so I decided to do a hybrid DWC/rockwool setup, it just made me feel more comfortable at the time (stick with what you know a bit I guess) and I think it still worked really well. Two reservoirs, two pumps shuttling water back and forth constantly, the res/pump in the tent keeps a minimal water volume (1-2L) and the res outside is kept full and cool.

Other primary difference to the true 420 style is a rotating scrog as I can only access one side of the tent.

Plant/Setup

1. Strain/breeder: Anesia seeds, Blackberry Moonrocks
2. Grow type: Autoflower, indoor 70cmx70cm SF tent.
3. Growing system: Reservoir-based hydroponics / DWC-style setup, rockwool netpot medium, idfk.
4. Environment: Pretty dialed in, heater, dehumidifier/humidifier, SF GGS controller.
5. Nutrients: Biodiesel Silica, GH Calimagic, HY-GEN single part series
6. Lighting: Spiderfarmer 100w led, soon to be 200w
7. Light schedule: 24h
8. Training: LST, defol, supercrop, scrog net
9. Method: Using the 420 Autoflower method as a reference
10. Grow start date: Above ground on the 11th of August
11. Current status: Flowering, day ~60 total, ~20 since first pistils

Mistakes I’ve learnt from (so far)
Don’t skimp on the CalMag in rockwool. I seemed to get away with much less in straight dwc, guessing the rockwool sucks those nutes up a bit or something. Anyway in some of the early pics you’ll see the deficiency.

Don’t LST all your branches in veg. I did, to open up the canopy, but I regretted it when it was time to supercrop and scrog as the branches weren’t straight but curved (from the earlier LST). This curve positioned a lot of the nodes below the scrog level. Not a big issue but next time I’ll just pin the tip down and not fuss with it any more than that so that when its time to scrog the branches should lay ‘flatter’ along the scrog.

Day 10

150mmx150 rockwool cube, bottom edges cut to fit in the netpot and then repurposed to sandwich the seed(ling) in the rockwool pre-cut hole.

Day 20

I had some humidity issues (too low, humidifier problems), and you can see the calmag deficiency starting.

Day 24

Calmag deficiency very obvious, I added a diluted shot of calimagic straight to the rockwool (after some research that the rockwool could be causing the issue).

Day 27

Deficiency has stopped progressing (in new leaves, old leaves don’t recover). First LST, next time, I’ll use more of a stake than a tie so as to only keep the top tip down. With ties it pulls the plant over too much (the way I’ve done it anyway).

[20Hurtz]

Day 30

Only res shot I have but gives you an idea of how the setup runs.

Day 34

I continually applied LST to the plant.

Day 37

Despite the calmag and humidity issue this is the biggest plant for its age I’ve ever grown. While many may see the rockwool and constant watering redundant vs a normal dwc I think its helped prolong veg and get it big early.

[20Hurtz]

Day 40

First pistils, the clock begins, I think 420A recommends scroging 5-7 days after this milestone.

Day 45

With the benefit of hindsight I should have let it get a bit further along. Doing it day 45 wasn’t bad but I think day 50ish would have been better. I think I caught that first pistil hours after it emerged

First defol pass

Second defol pass and supercrop. I was amazed at how many leaves I took off, I had to remind myself of some of 420A’s pics to convince myself to keep taking them off!

[20Hurtz]

I credit PirateBoarderLife for the hoop idea, differentish application but whatever, right on big dog. It is tethered at the corners initially to keep the scrog level. The res is on a turntable so when the plant grows through the scrog I can cut the ties and it will be a ‘self supporting hoola scrog’ Also credit to 420A for the idea of a self supporting scrog, I think his were a metal grid?

Day 48

Embarrassing, I had to wrap up day 45 abruptly and couldn’t clean up after myself. Hey it kept the humidity up as I had to take the heater and humidifier out when I scrogged. I should have taken the pic after I tidied

Day 52

Recovering very nicely, no defol just “keeping the tops down so that the bottoms come up”

[20Hurtz]

Day 57

Defol again and final tip tuck and structural adjustments. Only defol from here. Again, I feel i scrogged too early, it saw me tip tuck for too long and didn’t give me long enough between first and second defol. I’m learning also corner tethers are now off.

Day 59

Overall I’m happy with the recovery.

This is the worst example, I’m guessing the stress is causing the early browning of the pistils? Anyway lower stress from here with regular small defol and maybe one big one in later flower, we’ll see.

I’ve tried to ‘read the plant’ this grow and combine the knowledge of all the members who tried this method on the old forum. If any of the pioneers of the method from the old forum are on here could anyone reading this please tag them or let them know about this thread? I’d really appreciate their input

[MasonJarOG]

I love pirateborders hoops and training!

[MasonJarOG]

While no single nutrient directly targeted at pistils causes them to brown in isolation, premature browning of pistils is usually caused by excess Nitrogen (Nitrogen toxicity) or a general high Electrical Conductivity (EC) / salt buildup leading to overall nutrient burn.

[pop22]

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[DDubs]

It’s happened to me. Figure the flowrs are the fruit. When you bang them around they get bruised. It will be fine. Just note that you have to get into heavy LST before flowering takes off. After that, be gentle.