Indoor automaria2 and speed devil grow journal :)

[wheredaweedat]

:ISCLAIMER::
This will be my first attempt at a grow journal and have no clue how to start one, so, until other wise notified, I will just continually post comments on this thread with my updates

Hey Everybody
This will be my first auto grow and Im pretty stoked. Ive only had one other successful grow (where plants were brought to harvest) that ended about a month ago, from photoperiod bagseed. So, onto the new, shall we?

The Nitty Gritty :
Strains - sweet seeds Speed Devil (x2) and paradise seeds AutoMaria2. Both strains are feminized.
Medium- soil.
I decided that there was too much debate and not enough factual information regarding the best medium- soil wise. So I decided to try and follow the Grow at Lowes dirt guide (found none other than here at AFN). But when I ordered it online, I didnt actually order the SOIL I ordered the COMPOST. Luckily I had some black gold organic leftover from the last grow. so the grow medium is actually a concoction of things.
Black Gold Organic
Harvest SuperPowered Compost
Epsoma Bio-Tone Starter+ Organic ( at .5TBS per quart)
Coco Coir (added drainage)
Perlite (added drainage)
Pots: The two SD are planted in 3qt pots and the AM2 in a 3 gallon.

Nutes: Again- following the grow @ lowes guide, Ill be using a combination of Alaska Fish Emulsion for veg and Miracle Gro Liquid Quick Start/blackstrap molasses for flowering.
Lights CFL - a mixture of blue and red bulbs...cant recall the exact number, but theres somewhere around 500 actual watts on them...is that overkill for 3 autoflowers? Also there are more blue spec CFL than red at this point cause I feel like I remember reading somewhere that red spec from the start can lead to hermies, but that a mixture of both is best.

day two above soil
day three
The AM2 is the cutest little sprout. Im in love with her already<33

 

[pop22]

Looks like your off to a good start! I'm subbed to your grow, looking forward to see these new to me strains grow! :Sharing One:

 

[Egzoset]

Salutations WhereDaWeedAt,

...somewhere around 500 actual watts on them... is that overkill for 3 autoflowers?

Well, first of all i'm no guru so i have no definitive answers to offer but since one of your plants happens to be an AutoMaria II i felt the urge to pass as i tried it on a window sill and i feel i couldn't have made a better choice.



It was skinny but yet quite sticky for an easy ride, then i eventually concluded i needed some light supplement so i started evaluating CFLs. In a 600 W scenario i'd probably go with 3 x 65 Watts bulbs per plant and install them around the top instead of directly above, to avoid shadows... Well, ideally as that's not exactly how it ended up for me.

Anyway, in a triangle configuration it would make 3 lamps for 1 plant, 4 for 2 or 5 for 3... Using 2 lamps from one triangle side in common - but this would be at full power as young plants don't need so much light unless you're attempting to keep them short i guess, which means you must be able to reconfigure the lighting layout a few times during the session - though once in flowering their height can be expected to stabilize.

So i'd say half the power in the begining and lots of redish lamps in the end.

Ah, and i try not to burn them right away with a rich dark earth. Instead i remove some of my substate with a toilet paper tube and fill it with lighter potting soil...

 

[Soylent Green]

some advice , during the first weeks after sprouting 600w of light is certainly not necessary for 3 plants! 200w will be more than enough, the blue spectrum is most important during vegetation and the red during flowering( why people use MH-lamps during veg and hps during flower)
Keep it simple, autoplants have a short period of life say like 90 days average so using to much organic compounds is useless because in soil it might take months before organic matter turns into mineral matter.
So I would advice if you don't find specialized MJ soil you buy yourself a bag of seedlings soil. I found out that this gives better results than some funky mixed homemade stuff(unless you now what you are doing).
If you want a big harvest use bigger pots, like 5 gallon airpots pots especially if you are going to place them under 600 watt of light!

Most important right numbers temp, humidity, ec and PH.

Anyhow best of luck with your grow:Sharing One:

: Like Weed:

 

[wheredaweedat]

Update: Day 5

so we've knocked the lights down to about 300. AM2 is still just as cute as ever..but i am starting to worry about the 2 SD, as they still have yet to break the soil. They aren't planted very far under the surface (about a cm), and there is no perlite or anything obstructing the seed.
AM2 earlier today

Planning on getting new soil but still a bit iffy on what to get. Im thinking about perhaps a seedling soil/ffof combonation...any thoughts?

temps between 78-80F
PH holding at 6.5
humidity..has always been an issue for us. (us being my boyfriend and I. We live/grow together so there are two voices in everything thats done to and with the grow(s).)
There's a thermometer/hygrometer sitting on the edge in the AM2 pot and the % it's reading jumps between 26-30%. I suppose pictures/details of the grow space would be nice, eh?
Well...its an L shaped walk in closet ..its fairly large, so i did try to make it smaller the other day to help with the humidity as best i could with what I had at the time haha. so now the closet is *give or take an inch* 5.5ft long by 4.5 ft wide. Pretty sure its got an 8.5 foot ceiling but the lights are currently hanging from the hanger bars, so theres roughly 5.5 ft of head room.

Now I leave him in charge of the...manly things lol. IE ventilation lights air flow ect and i do the majority of the gardening. Not to say that a man or woman cant do both, just saying I cant lol So I cant really give specifics as to anything regarding that

There is a cool mist humidifier basically right in front of the plants, but it only reaches a max of 60%...i vaguely remember him having a reason for getting that one but i cant remember lol and theres also a standard box window fan in the back corner on low.
It is far from perfect we're well aware..I think we just dont know how to go about improving and utilizing the space we have and doing it right, so any input/advice would be awesome

 

[wheredaweedat]

Update day 12 - now the AutoMaria 2, Auto Acid, and Pandora grow

Back.

the AM2 is doing really well. Very green and healhy looking
the 2 speed devils never popped, i think we let the soil get too dry =/

Germed 2 more seeds from Paradise. Pandora is still hangin under the soil, and as of yeserday we have an Auto Acid baby

As for the soil debacle i was having, i went with ffof and cut it at 50/50 with black gold seedling mix, then added maybe 25% perlite and about 10% compost. Then?
Well then I mixed the shit out of it = P

here are some updated picures
-AM2-
2/18
2/20
2/23

Baby Acid -

 

[wheredaweedat]

update day 14 and 3

sooo the plants...are...plant-like - haha.

AM2 is on her 14th day...though i guess technically not yet, her birthday will be iiiinnnn....3 hours lol.

i am however starting to get a little worried.
im probably just being paranoid, BUT.

I feel like the AM2 might be a teeny bit stunted for 2 weeks. She looks healthy but when i googled pictures of 2 week old autos, most were either way ahead or way behind. i know its got a lot to do with strain and all that jazz buuuutt...I wouldnt be surprised if something were fucked up.

AA is...tall. which i dont get cause its under the same lights as the others. Again, strain dependent, i know.
But what worries me the most is that both seem...flimsy. Like when I mixed my soil I made it too light and the roots arent really holding? uggg

- pictures -

 

[AndyBotwin]

Subbed up for this one. "Munch..munch..munch I wouldn't sweat it too much regarding the size. Autos can vary greatly in size over the first few weeks, but in the second month they seem to even out for the most part. Obviously there are environmental factors that can cause one plant to be bigger or smaller than the other, as well as the skill of the grower. But when they're this young, just sit back and let them take their time. Also, you have the pot size which can be a factor as well. Autos like to sink their tap root deep in the pot before doing a lot of growing above the soil, so sometimes you think you have a runt & then it explodes with growth once the roots are established.

 

[wheredaweedat]

Subbed up for this one. "Munch..munch..munch I wouldn't sweat it too much regarding the size. Autos can vary greatly in size over the first few weeks, but in the second month they seem to even out for the most part. Obviously there are environmental factors that can cause one plant to be bigger or smaller than the other, as well as the skill of the grower. But when they're this young, just sit back and let them take their time. Also, you have the pot size which can be a factor as well. Autos like to sink their tap root deep in the pot before doing a lot of growing above the soil, so sometimes you think you have a runt & then it explodes with growth once the roots are established.

see, now i thought that during the first two weeks autos were doing nothing but burrowing the tap root and making new, additional roots, so top growth was slow.
Guess I figured that at 16 days, we'd be a little more stable than we are now.
Or maybe since its my first auto grow, i just have unrealistic expectations haha

 

[wheredaweedat]

ALSO - lol- i know they will take longer than the seed bank says buuuuuut heres my thing regarding THAT

Ive had very little luck finding grow journals on either strain ive got going. But Paradise had a full grow report on THEIR site for the automaria 2. So Ive been using that as sort of a general time line on where she should be (as far as growth and what not).

Paradise says approx. 60 days from seed to harvest. The grow report on the site says they COULDVE been done at 60 days, but they went 72, and the smoke was pretty damn good.

Much like the seed banks advertised finish time, should I also take a grow report found on THEIR site with a grain of salt?
I mean obviously there will be differences, cause Im FAR from a prof. grow room. Or even a good grow room...or grower....