Humboldt Seed Organization Autotron does HSO UK Cheese - Hydro, COB

[Autotron]

My UK Cheese is 13 days old today, standing at 5 inches tall, with the third node coming in. She's been looking very good and has been growing steadily. I thought she looked a bit lanky and stretchy below the first node, so I've been slowly lowering the light the past week(@Olde School Player , I saw your other post in my other thread about light height, good suggestions). My COB(with reflector on) is currently standing at 21 inches from the top of the seedling. I don't see any signs of light stress, so I'll be working on slowly reaching that sweet spot.

I noticed some pH fluctuation(it kept dropping the past week, down to 5 or so), so I had to correct it with some pH Up a couple times to bring it back up to 6. I can see some very minor signs of that pH fluctuation on the two first true leaves at the bottom. No big issue. Hopefully this fresh res change will make things better and more stable.

I just changed out the nutrient solution. Here's the breakdown. I started with 3 gallons of tap water that has been sitting in my tent bubbling away for the past several days. The starting PPM was about 135.

I first added 1 ml/gallon of Armor SI silicon, stirred it up and then I added 2ml/gallon of CALiMAGic and stirred it some more. This brought my starting PPM up to 300.

I added 2.5 ml/gallon of Micro, Grow and Bloom and this brought the PPM up to around 575.

I added 2.5 ml/gallon of Rapid Start, FloraBlend and Diamond Nectar, and 1 ml/gallon of Floralicious Plus. I also put in 2 ml/gallon of Hydroguard at the end.

At the end, my total PPM was roughly 600. I thought measuring the effect of each set of ingredients would help give me an idea of how much of each is in the solution and how much they each contribute to total PPM. After all of this, my pH was at about 6.8. It took me 4-5 ml of pH Down to get the entire 3 gallons down to 6.0.

Do you guys think she is looking good for her age so far? Any suggestions or tips?

 

[Autotron]

Checked the pH just now(about 11 hours after creating the new solution) and noticed that the pH had drifted up to 6.5-6.6. Added a couple ml's of pH Down to bring it to 5.9.

I know it can take a couple tries to stabilize the pH at first with a new brew. I'll be checking again later this evening to see if it settles at the correct pH.

I may try mixing my new solution a day in advance before adding to the reservoir from now on so that it stays at the right level and doesn't expose the plant to fluctuations.

 

[Olde School Player]

My UK Cheese is 13 days old today, standing at 5 inches tall, with the third node coming in. She's been looking very good and has been growing steadily. I thought she looked a bit lanky and stretchy below the first node, so I've been slowly lowering the light the past week(@Olde School Player , I saw your other post in my other thread about light height, good suggestions). My COB(with reflector on) is currently standing at 21 inches from the top of the seedling. I don't see any signs of light stress, so I'll be working on slowly reaching that sweet spot.

I noticed some pH fluctuation(it kept dropping the past week, down to 5 or so), so I had to correct it with some pH Up a couple times to bring it back up to 6. I can see some very minor signs of that pH fluctuation on the two first true leaves at the bottom. No big issue. Hopefully this fresh res change will make things better and more stable.

I just changed out the nutrient solution. Here's the breakdown. I started with 3 gallons of tap water that has been sitting in my tent bubbling away for the past several days. The starting PPM was about 135.

I first added 1 ml/gallon of Armor SI silicon, stirred it up and then I added 2ml/gallon of CALiMAGic and stirred it some more. This brought my starting PPM up to 300.

I added 2.5 ml/gallon of Micro, Grow and Bloom and this brought the PPM up to around 575.

I added 2.5 ml/gallon of Rapid Start, FloraBlend and Diamond Nectar, and 1 ml/gallon of Floralicious Plus. I also put in 2 ml/gallon of Hydroguard at the end.

At the end, my total PPM was roughly 600. I thought measuring the effect of each set of ingredients would help give me an idea of how much of each is in the solution and how much they each contribute to total PPM. After all of this, my pH was at about 6.8. It took me 4-5 ml of pH Down to get the entire 3 gallons down to 6.0.

Do you guys think she is looking good for her age so far? Any suggestions or tips?

Looking at your girl's pic's, she is definitely stretching to the light. Start dropping that COB 3" per day until you get down to 12-15" and that should stop the infant stretch.
If I recall, last week you were looking at a thread where HemiSync had showed how "stressed" his girl was with his COB at 5" above the plant, he was drooling at how wonderful the plant was doing & just making fun of light stress from SM0's COB's. If you drop it several inches a day that will give the plant time to harden and not cause any stress to a tender young plant.
pH fluctuations are common with a fresh nute mix, but generally, once you get a sufficient level of cal-mag in the mix it should stabilize. Flora Micro has some, your cal-mag has even more, and your water has some unknown amount. Just keep a close watch on pH and adjust like you've been doing. To that effect, you said 135ppm water went to 300 after 1mL Si and 2mL Cal-mag. Yesterday I transplanted my DinaFem Blue Cheese, and with my RO water at 0ppm, 1.5mL Si and 3mL Calmag took me to 300ppm so I think you're where you need to be for cal-mag for now. But within a week I'd up the Si to 2mL / gallon and cal-mag to 4mL / gal.
Now that you added 2.5mL per gallon of your base & additives you should see the trunk start to thicken considerably, within the next 2-3 days.
I don't use HydroGuard but I think it's a fine product, you're on track for what it needs to do so keep doing it.
You have a deep net pot in your DWC, I'm curious when you will see your first root growth exiting the bottom of the netpot. I have a shortcut for that for you, but too late now. I'll clue you in as I get my thread started. But probably within another week you should see good root activity & she should be ready to bump up nute strength once again. By then I'll have my new thread started & you can follow along with the full nute regimen I've adapted to auto's over the last couple of years. Good things to come!!!

 

[Autotron]

Looking at your girl's pic's, she is definitely stretching to the light. Start dropping that COB 3" per day until you get down to 12-15" and that should stop the infant stretch.
If I recall, last week you were looking at a thread where HemiSync had showed how "stressed" his girl was with his COB at 5" above the plant, he was drooling at how wonderful the plant was doing & just making fun of light stress from SM0's COB's. If you drop it several inches a day that will give the plant time to harden and not cause any stress to a tender young plant.
pH fluctuations are common with a fresh nute mix, but generally, once you get a sufficient level of cal-mag in the mix it should stabilize. Flora Micro has some, your cal-mag has even more, and your water has some unknown amount. Just keep a close watch on pH and adjust like you've been doing. To that effect, you said 135ppm water went to 300 after 1mL Si and 2mL Cal-mag. Yesterday I transplanted my DinaFem Blue Cheese, and with my RO water at 0ppm, 1.5mL Si and 3mL Calmag took me to 300ppm so I think you're where you need to be for cal-mag for now. But within a week I'd up the Si to 2mL / gallon and cal-mag to 4mL / gal.
Now that you added 2.5mL per gallon of your base & additives you should see the trunk start to thicken considerably, within the next 2-3 days.
I don't use HydroGuard but I think it's a fine product, you're on track for what it needs to do so keep doing it.
You have a deep net pot in your DWC, I'm curious when you will see your first root growth exiting the bottom of the netpot. I have a shortcut for that for you, but too late now. I'll clue you in as I get my thread started. But probably within another week you should see good root activity & she should be ready to bump up nute strength once again. By then I'll have my new thread started & you can follow along with the full nute regimen I've adapted to auto's over the last couple of years. Good things to come!!!

I'm looking forward to checking out your journal. Definitely tag me in it when you get it going.

Thanks man, I'm definitely working on bringing that light height down. The internodal height on newer parts is definitely shorter now that I've lowered the light.

I've been dancing to the "pH Shuffle" the last few days as the pH level has been trending lower in fluctuations. I check it at least a couple times a day and have had to make adjustments every 1-3 days to bring it back on target. I'm definitely going to make my new solution a day or two in advance so that it can stabilize as much as possible before adding it to the reservoir.

I did a little LST today(twist tie stem to lid) to bend it over and encourage the side branches to grow a bit. I always prefer a nice stocky structure over a lanky Christmas tree figure, so I try and get started on that as early as I can.

What do you think about nutrient levels for the Diamond Nectar and FloraBlend? The GH schedule calls for a whopping 10ml per gallon of each throughout early veg, which seems a lot to me, even though they always inflate the recommended levels.

I'll take a look at the roots in a couple weeks. Right now if I take the lid off, it will pull out the delicately placed hose I ran through to the netpot to circulate water over the rapid rooter plug and encourage the roots to grow bigger faster. I can already see secondary roots sprouting off the stem and running through the hydroton.

 

[Olde School Player]

2.5mL PER GALLON of grow, micro, bloom, diamond nectar and Florablend is right where you want to be, along with 1mL per gal. FloraliciousPlus.
GH is crazy high with their recommendations during veg, especially for autoflowers. What I find most useful is their ratio's of each nute to each other. I follow those closely during bloom but vary strength based upon what the plant is doing. I'll explain that in fine detail a little later.
Soon as that main trunk fattens a bit you'll be ready to double that nute strength, with some adjustments I'll be sure to cover.

 

[dankstyle J]

I really enjoyed this auto was a very compact fat dense bud having plant .Mine had a fruity cheese smell an the high was very uplifting an good for pain a awesome skunk high .

 

[Autotron]

I checked on her today and noticed a bit of "claw" and drooping on the tips of the leaves. No tip burn, so I don't think it's nitrogen toxicity. The edges of the leaves are turned down slightly too. I noticed a slight tear along the fibers at the base of the stem. It must have happened when I bent it over yesterday doing LST.

pH is staying in safe range and PPM is holding solid. The light was at about 20-21 inches from the top.

I wonder if this is just a temporary issue due to the tear from LST? Or could it be light stress? Trying not to overthink it just yet, but keeping a close eye to see if it improves or gets worse.

Any thoughts?

 

[Autotron]

Hey @Olde School Player , what do you think about this drooping issue? Also, I have some brown areas on the ends of the first true leaves. You think that's just from the pH fluctuation I had before?

 

[Olde School Player]

That first set of single lobe leaves is always the first to go, normal. Drooping, really I don't see enough to be concerned. It's not light stress, but I'm still concerned about the spindly stretch, are you continuing to lower the light? If no, do. The droop, it could be from the LST stress but it's nothing I would worry about.

 

[Olde School Player]

@Autotron

Has your pH stabilized? You are probably going to need to up your cal-mag and Si if not.​

How's the light distance now? And if memory serves, you should be about 20 days in today? That's

at the stage where you should ​

up your nute strength as well, but first I'd like to see another pic of how she's doing. Any new pic's to share?