New Grower Am I doing OK? End of day 19, first grow, sweet mango

[illbethere]

Hi,

I'm new and have been working on my first autoflower (first plant in general).
I have been doing loads of research and I "think" I'm getting the hang of it.
Since the start of this plant I only did research and haven't really asked for help.
Which unless something I can't fix happens won't happen either.
Now I do want to get some input on how I'm doing since I wouldn't want to screw this up. (getting pretty attached to this little female)

So...

I'm gonna tell you as much of what I've been doing as possible and show some pics.
Tell me what you think!

Ok I'm gonna start with the fact that I started with a REALLY cheap build.
- I use 2700K lights

• 47 watt till start of day 18
• 150 watt since start of day 18
• + I can open the blinds of a window for some extra light
• I do this since I sometimes am not at home and the lights are only on when I am (Parents.. They know but rules are rules)

- some soil I found in a big bag in my garden
- I only recently made holes in my pot since I was getting too afraid for rootrot (probably wise decision)
- I am using Green House Seed Co.: Power feeding (motherPlants) since day 1 without major problems.
- Transitioning to (mostly indica) flowering feed when needed
- a little fan I pulled out of a laptopstand (easy to plug into a USB charger)
- I also live in the same room as the plant = I stimulate her with music, youtube video's and some euhm.. other stuff might be heard.. coming from a surround system
- and ofcourse sweetmango autoflower(fem)

Now I know this type of plant isn't optimal for starting since it's a new kind and this brings genetic problems with it.
but.. You know.. YOLO (I did not just say that)

 

[Vas Deferens]

"- some soil I found in a big bag in my garden"... do you know what type of soil it is ? what's in it ? did you test ph ? soil quality & ph is so critical.

"- I only recently made holes in my pot since I was getting too afraid for rootrot (probably wise decision)"...yes very wise ! weed needs well drained soil.

good luck man

 

[gone1]

Hey awesome, plant looks good! Welcome to AFN, hope your grow will reward you well

 

[Eyes on Fire]

well imo a few things Id like to make note of if I may..,not to stress it too much pre flower so it dont hermie which can happen since I noticed your LSTing her nicely I might add.well done.also your drain holes(assuming for soil drains fair)should be atleast numbered in the 5 range in opinion to give it the best chance for even drainage and generally of no more than 7-8 holes.also are you using chems to feed your plant?you have some light pigment blotching that could either be genetics or promoted or caused by heavier stresses so again just go easy on the LST'ing but alls lloks good man.just a question and an observation is all.did you use any lime at all in your soil /or do you know?if not might I recommend buying some and having it on hand just in case cuz most likely your going to run across a time that you'll need it.also the lights.how much light and how staggered is the schedule cuz you might have issues there too.but all in all looks good and if they know why not get a cheap timer for your lights and a 10 dollar fan or another button fan to help with some air intake aimed from outside maybe.ive always done that in close spaces.small air intake and one or two smaller fans for interior motivation of airflow.nice job!!

again bro your doing a great job these are just questions and some minor what ifs so no worries.just observations man.:Sharing One:

 

[F.N.]

Nice looking plant for day 19 keep up the good work nice bondage job should produce lots of bud sites

 

[illbethere]

Thanks guys!

I'll try and answer all the questions.

Soil: I don't know where you are from but the soil is "aveve" (a brand don't know if it exists where you live) and is a very light and airy soil.
Tho I don't really know what's in it.
I also don't know the Ph (buying a lot of stuff on the go and I'm buying a ph-tester once I got the money for it)

pot: it has about 7 bigger holes underneath and about 20 small ones around the side at the bottom just in case drainage is bad so I can see water coming out of the side and I figured providing some more oxygen too the roots wouldn't hurt?

spots: I'm 100% sure it ain't stress from LST since it showed a few days before I started the LST. And I ruled out nuteburn since I didn't stop giving nutes since it started and I am giving it even more nutes than I used to, so I figure it's genetics? (or Ph imbalance wich I'll find out once I got a tester)

no lime used. We ussually have some lime in the fridge so if needed I'll probably have it or run to a store.

Timer: well my parents are worried about the house burning down. My mom did suggest using a timer yesterday when they noticed the new 150 watt light hanging in my room. So probably adding a timer to my things to buy.

 

[F.N.]

You have some really cool parents bro. You are on your way to becoming a professional grower stay on here ask questions when you are not sure of. Remember with autos less equals more always feed half of what the nutrients call for. You will have to learn when to ph up or down in order to get your nutrients to the plant. Start and read on here about what grow mediums work and what do not. Do not over water have a great day bro

 

[illbethere]

AAAAIIIIT here I am again!
Update day 27:
Got a 45Watt 6500K CFL hanging at the side now.
Looks really healthy.
Bottom leaves (first set of leaves) are dying. guessing this is normal? well.. I've read that the first set starts dying after a while somewhere?
or do I have a problem here?

Ps.: damn this plant is bushy 6 or 7 nodes + 2 or 3 nodes on sidebranches! (can't really count cause it's so bushy)
pics:

 

[Eyes on Fire]

well your plant looks good bro,there is tons of potential right there bro.but yes it is common for lowers to die off after several weeks generally but imo its too soon for them to be dying off.in my dealings even chem,mine often go for moost or much of the life of the plant.your PH still ok?if so did you feed them heavier at all or too light? how many cfl's do you have?i ak just because if there is a way for you to swing a 2ft panel T5 your plant would totally thank you for it too.are you doing leaf tucking at all yet too with your LST?looks like its getting a lil crowded in there man.nice clustering!!make sit easy for a good tucking to take well too

 

[illbethere]

Well, on the lower leaves. I had upped my nutes, but I don't remember how fast the browning happend after that I think it took a while.
Actually I'm pretty sure it took a few days since I watered her a day after the burns started showing since the soil was getting dry and she told me to water her.
The leaves are very dark green so at first I thought it would be nuteburn, I stopped giving her nutes a few days ago.
yet, the bottom leaf (the one you see in the picture) is still dying. (at first both bottom leaves were showing nute burn signs + 1 leaf above had brown stripes on it)
the 2 others stopped declining further and just the one leaf is still going.

I still don't have a PH-meter I KNOW THIS IS IMPORTANT yet it looks like my tapwater has a good ph?
(I spend a lot of time around my plant and with the slightest problem I'm on it, so feeling her, I don't feel water is the problem)
I want to buy a PH-meter but a good one costs about 45€/31£/65$ and I just don't have that money right now.
And after looking up some cheaper ones and their reviews on amazon I have decided that cheap for PH-measuring is not an option.
I'd rather throw some saltpeter acid on my plant than use a cheap PH-meter after reading those reviews..

I have a 150 Watt 2700K cfl + I added a 45 Watt 6500K cfl yesterday
I don't really have room for more lights right now, since I need to keep the top open so that during the day (whenever I leave my house) I can open the blinds of a window to let sunlight in.
I am not allowed to leave the lights on when I'm gone so this way I can still make my plant benefit from some light.
And it might add some light spectrums she usually doesn't get from the cfl's

I try tucking my leaves yet everything is growing so abnormally fast it's almost impossible.
(read: I tuck some leaves and a few hours later it's overgrown again..)
I'm still LST'ing 2 bigger branches tho puling them down while the rest grows up so that the smaller branches grow and get light over time.
Basically the definition of LST'ing :clap: