New Grower A moron’s grow journal

[HairyHillbilly]

I’ve never claimed to be a clever man. To be upfront, I don’t feel I did proper research when starting, but am open to correction.

I’ve converted a 2x4 closet space into my grow room, where I’m growing a singleton white widow auto from Grower’s Choice. I’m using a spider farmer SF-1000 LED light, which I’m currently running 24/7 at 24 inches away. My growing medium is where my largest concern is as it’s a coco mix I was able to procure locally with some (I’m so sorry) blood meal, bone meal, 4-4-4 and earthworm castings mixed in. Planted seed directly into the 3 gallon pot after it spent 24 hours in a glass jar of warm water softening it up. Water is currently sourced from a rain barrel I installed this year, which is just barely on the acidic side of neutral (I broke my PH meter yesterday). I’ve been using the color charts in the meantime and .5ml/gal of PH down seems to get me close to 6.0.

I know I probably should have came here earlier so I could avoid whichever mistakes I’m making currently, but I can be a very impulsive individual. My biggest concern now is how and when to start feeding this thing.

This is currently what she looks like, I will answer any questions to the best of my ability, please help me not screw this up.

 

[Bruce Campbell]

Generally, week 2-3 is when you start easing into feedings but when, what, and how much depends on your specific media. Overall, it mainly involves observing the plant's response and adjusting accordingly.

When you start with a specific vendor's media or soil, you will usually also use their nutrient products, and they'll have a recommended feed schedule using their products. Without that baseline, it's going to be more difficult to predict what the plant will need up-front, but here's a few notes / resources that may help:

1. Muddy's The life cycle of auto flowering cannabis thread has a lot of good discussion about overall progress, when to start feeding, what to expect, etc.
2. I find myself referring to the Self-Diagnosis and Deficiency Picture threads a lot.
3. ManOGreen's A word on Nutrients tutorial gives a good overview of nutrient ratios. Be aware that what can look like a deficiency may be a lock-out due to an excess of a competing nutrient.
4. 6.0 is an okay pH, but don't let your pH go above 6.5 - that can create nutrient lock-outs in itself. I'd recommend ordering a new pH pen, just because I hate color charts, and that's something you will likely be checking a lot. I'd recommend getting one that comes with 2-point calibration powders, as a lot of the cheap ones can be pretty inaccurate out of the box.
5. A feeding typically involves settling on an overall nutrient ratio, then adjusting / diluting the strength to hit a target EC for the final feed strength. So, you'll also want an EC (i.e., TDS) meter along with a pH pen. If you're not familiar with EC/TDS - then be aware there are three different scales people can use - EC (mS/cm2), ppm (500 scale), and ppm (700 scale). Either one is fine, as long as you understand which scale a person / meter / etc is using.

With all that said - so far, the little guy looks to be doing well.

As far as what to use for your first feed, your soil amendments may be a bit low on Potassium (K). They look to have a decent amount of Phosphorous (P) (not as critical in early vegetative) and Nitrogen (N) (which you typically want to maximize without overdoing it / running into other nutrient issues). I would maybe recommend starting with a feed mix that has an NPK of about 2-0-3 (or somewhere in that ratio).

As far as how much, a typical "full strength" mix can be range from 1.4 - 2.0 mS/cm2 depending on your media. I'd say maybe start somewhere around 25% strength for a first feeding (i.e., 0.5 mS/cm2 = 250 ppm-500 = 350 ppm-700).

 

[HairyHillbilly]

I appreciate your reply, looks like some more reading is in order.

 

[fauxnacho]

Big up that title
Starting with hydro is a tough way to do it, not impossible though. Guys here always ready to help out and you can make use of the resources listed in the previous response. If you do end up having all sorts of problems, try a soil grow next - lower yields but lower difficulty

 

[MassMom]

I love your heading!!!

I am a "Hot Mess" grower, so take what I say with a grain of salt! I start my babies in coco also. I use distilled water and Mega Crop as a nutrient, and start feeding as soon as her leaves show. Every water she gets a very low dose of nutes, pH'd to 5.9 I also PPM my feed according to her size and needs (I use a PPM meter and a TDS meter on the 500 scale and calibrate them both often.)
I have had awesome luck vegging out my babies, its flowering when I lose the MOJO

Welcome to the best growing forum on the net!

 

[HairyHillbilly]

Thanks for all the welcomes, I don’t know what kind of update schedule is expected but here you go.

So here she is in all her current glory. Those yellow spots are pest damage, luckily I caught it very early and was able to dispatch the aggressor (was a fuzzy white guy). This happened about 4 days ago and other than some yellowing where he snacked and the original light burn on the tips of my first leaves, I don’t see any other issues.

I have started adding some nutrients to my water, 1/4 of what is recommended on the back of the package. I’ve seen your recommendations for a ph meter and EC meter, but I’m going to have to wait until the end of this week at least.

In the meantime, I’ve got a small starter pot where I’m growing my next seed: a Super Orange Haze from Mephisto Genetics. He has yet to break the surface, so no pictures of him yet.

Also, the cotyledons haven’t really budged off the first plant, I guess that’s okay? I’m trying to leave it alone as much as possible, as I don’t know what I’m doing.

Edit: oh yeah I forgot to say this is day 14

 

[Clem Fandango]

Firstly due to that thread title, expect a letter from my lawyer for patent infringement.
Secondly, the little girl looks good. The nutes in that medium should carry it for a short while.
Pure speculation, but maybe the cotyledons have stayed on due to the plant not needing them for starter fuel as the medium was already well loaded?

 

[MassMom]

Looking awesome! Hey, this is your journal, you can post as much or as little as you want. Look at some of mine, I posted every day sometimes 2x a day! LOL....

 

[Bruce Campbell]

Have you named her yet?!?

 

[Cannagus]

Have you named her yet?!?

He's calling it A Moron. Oh wait a second.....