New Grower 1st Grow Journal - realNeat - AutoFem White Widow x3

[realNeat]

Hello everybody. I am another brand newbie looking to strike gold with this hobby. I've spent about a month or more reading about MJ, growing, and autoflowers in general - most recently spent some time diggin through these forums and even connected on the phone with Big Smo. I am not overly confident, but I felt I knew enough and dropped 3 White Widow from Ministry of Cannabis (MoC) about 36 hours ago. If all goes well this first try, I will move onto my Mephisto seeds next. All 3 seeds have opened, and I'm just waiting for more root extension in order to send them home to their pots.

My equipment:
(1) 3x3x6 iPower tent via eBay (HpsGrowlightStore)
(2) AutoCob 3500k by Big Smo via Cobshop.net
(1) 4" Hurricane inline fan via Growers House
(1) 12" Phresh carbon filter via Growers House
(1) Speedster variable-speed controller via Growers House
(1) 35pt Hisense dehumidifier via Lowes

Other items:
-Light-proof ducting
-Acurite thermometer/hygrometer
-3Gal fabric Smart Pots
-Fox Farms Ocean Forest soil via eBay (VM Innovations)
-Fox Farms nutes - Big Bloom, Tiger Bloom, and Grow Big
-General Hydroponics nute - CaliMagic
-General Hydroponics pH kit


Right off the bat, I've ordered more Perlite to add to the Ocean Forest. It has some, but not enough in mine and others' opinions. I also have come across, suddenly, many threads with warnings about nutrient burn with this soil. Yolo, moving forward. I will add nothing to waterings for at least the first 3 weeks except for possibly some CalMag. I also decided today to try and pH my soil in the Smart Pots using a cheap meter reader from the local hardware store. I do not fully trust a $10 item "Made in China," but I had no other quick choice. I may order the Accurate 8 by Control Wizard that I saw someone else talk about in these forums. Anyway, the meter told me that this Ocean Forest was about an 8 on the pH scale. Does this sound right? My feeling is that I need to get the pH more acidic by conditioning with appropriately treated water. I am more worried about "stunted growth" that I've read about if conditions are too basic as opposed to getting "wilted, droopy" plants if too acidic, though, I'd rather just get things right.

I am still debating on what water source I will use. I finally played around with my pH kit and discovered that my filtered tap water from the fridge is a Base of around 8. I have not used a PPM reader on my water. I may go with buying gallons of distilled water from the local grocery store. Can anyone suggest a "pen" PPM/pH meter that is simple and trusted? Price is not a concern if it's something that I'll use forever.

I am located in the Midwest, and the climate has been very humid this Summer. Indoors, my hygrometer has been displayed for a couple weeks so that I can monitor the conditions that I'll be facing. The range has been anywhere between low 60s to low 70s. This may not be a problem early on, but I've read that I need to be around 50 relative humidity (RH) or lower come flowering - to lessen the chance of mold taking hold inside the buds. This small humidifier (35 pints) has filled completely about once per day while I test out keeping it set to around 60 RH. I hope that a month from now the weather will be a bit drier, otherwise this humidifier will be cranked or replaced for larger.

Some things that I've already decided to do differently the next time will be the soil and the pots. I want to try Air Pots next, and I also like the idea of moving to a more inert soil medium so that I can fully monitor the nutrient makeup. It makes sense for learning purposes to know exactly the what/when/where/how when it comes to nutrients. A hot soil takes away from that lesson to a certain extent.

On another note, I am not set up yet or comfortable with the harvesting phase. I know a lot (through reading) about the identifiers for harvest time but not much about the action itself. I also do not know what to expect about the yields, which have a huge potential for variation based upon many aspects. I can say that my personal goal is to net +6ozs when all is said and done from this grow.

Can anyone chime in on the soil, nutrient feedings (which and when), and water source? I'm sure there could be many variations in answers, but I'd like to weigh the responses. Also, is there anything that I have wrong? Anything that I'm not thinking about yet? Anything constructive is much appreciated. I am trying to be as thorough as possible.

Uploading just a few pictures of what things look like at the moment.

 

[Patauto124]

Looks like a good set up to me. I'm new as well and on my first grow.
I used pro mix it's a nutrient free soil. I agree in getting to know what plants want when they want it and how much they want of it.

Sent from my SM-N900W8 using Tapatalk

 

[realNeat]

Looks like a good set up to me. I'm new as well and on my first grow.
I used pro mix it's a nutrient free soil. I agree in getting to know what plants want when they want it and how much they want of it.

Hi Pat. I meant to bring up the Promix, because I've seen that many people here use it. I believe there were many types, so what exact Promix soil did you use?

*EDIT* You use Promix HP, got it.

 

[Patauto124]

Yup pro mix hp with myco in it. Add a bit of domalite and your golden.

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[Patauto124]

I've been following a-trains feed schedule and it's doing wonders!

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[sewerdweller]

Welcome to the cob life. Big Smo is a great guy to help out along the way. He knows his shit and is friendly about it. As most are here. You landed on the best forum since Overgrow imho

 

[sewerdweller]

Im sure big smo will be by to visit ya good luck sir on the grow

 

[Proph]

Welcome to the party!! Glad you've decided to share your adventure with the rest of us! White Widow was my first plant as well! You won't be disappointed! I'm also part of the good old [HASHTAG]#autocoblife[/HASHTAG] as well! You're set up for success brotha!

 

[jingo]

Hey real

Congrats on getting your first grow going. I wouldn't trust that 8 pH reading on the soul probe. When I grew in ffof it was always 6.5 pH. I didn't use a probe, I ground up the soul dried it out and took a sample.

If your filtered water from your fridge is 8ppm then your tap water it's fine for growing.

pH probes last about a year in our solutions. I like the ecco testr, I find them for about $50.

Skip pro mix and go with Coco if you really want control. Pro mix is peat with some nutrients and a ton of buffer since peat is low pH.

Of course, you could only grow one ww with Coco in your setup. It would be a pound plant.

 

[realNeat]

Congrats on getting your first grow going. I wouldn't trust that 8 pH reading on the soul probe. When I grew in ffof it was always 6.5 pH. I didn't use a probe, I ground up the soul dried it out and took a sample.

If your filtered water from your fridge is 8ppm then your tap water it's fine for growing.

pH probes last about a year in our solutions. I like the ecco testr, I find them for about $50.

Skip pro mix and go with Coco if you really want control. Pro mix is peat with some nutrients and a ton of buffer since peat is low pH.

Of course, you could only grow one ww with Coco in your setup. It would be a pound plant.

Hi Jingo! Thanks for your input. I will look at that reader and probably punch out on it. I will also get a second reading with a new device on the FFOF soil. The filtered water from fridge was an 8 pH, not 8 ppm. I don't have anything to measure ppm at the moment, and so was thinking about using distilled to play safe. The 8 pH though can be altered without much problem, but if distilled can solve both problems immediately I may just go that route.

About the coco comment, why would that net huge over a nuted soil? I don't know much about coco, but 1 pound sounds like a good problem to have. I would prefer more than 1 plant though in case something catastrophic happened to it. I would love to know more about what you were saying there.