New Grower Blueberry Autos - First Auto Grow

[TxGrowman]

I have two of the three seeds popped and I saw a crack in the shell of the other following putting them in water for 24 hours and then another 48 hours in wet towels. Since two of the three popped I set them all in the starter soil and put them in the peat pots, under the fluorescent lamp. the two that popped have a 1 1/2" stem on them. Will send some pictures as soon as they are out of the incubator. Hope the other one pops soon. I want to try to keep them together. Once I get them going, I am going with 20/4 lights. I am not going to use the Veg setting on my LED, I want them to have full spectrum all the time.

Got my soil ready. Going with Black Gold soil, a premixed blend of peat and coco, Mycorrhorizae, Mag salts, some organic compost, dolomite lime, earthworm castings, expanded shale and soil inoculants with helpful bacteria. More than I initially planned on putting into the soil but am told that the quality is better on organic. Going to find out the truth for myself. Do not care about the smell of the organics, that is what I have a charcoal filter for ! ! I am trying to get everything I can in the soil so I do not have to add many nutes to the blend.

 

[TxGrowman]

OK. Now let me get my parameters for my grow set up.
Tent: Yield Labs 2x4x5
Light: Mars Reflector series LED 432 Watt (draws 300 watts actual)
Soil mixture, as described above, and lots of TLC.
A 4 inch in-line exhaust fan with 190 cu ft/min capacity.
I have 4 - 100 watt equivalent CFL light bulbs that I was as drop down lights when the canopy gets full. I also have 4 - 65 watt equivalent LED lights that I will use for drop down as needed if the canopy gets really dense. My LED has plenty of penetrating power but I was told that the extra light will make a difference over a 3-4 week period. It seemed to help on the last grow.
That's about all for now. Will keep this updated as my grow progresses, with pictures. Not much exciting about a seed popping except it is the beginning of some fine weed ! !

Good Grows and Great buds to you always.
Jerry

 

[TxGrowman]

My ladies are in their pots and soaking up the fluorescent light. My only question now is, how long do auto's need low intensity light so I can switch to the LED Lights? They all have at least two good sets of leaves. Have to see if I can find the answer as I almost burned my last set of AK-47 switching to the LED too soon.

 

[TxGrowman]

All four of my ladies are in the grow tent and doing well have three families of leave on all plants. As soon as they give me another set, I will convert to LED vs the florescent tubes (43 watt). Do not want to wait too long but also want to maximize growth as they are autos.

 

[Joe383]

You can burn with LED? You need a small fan slightly blowing on your plants. I have my 600W HPS about 12-14" from my plants and there about 1 - 1 1/2 week old. One is about 4 days older than the other. There still babies. I put a small 5000 BTU AC in the room and have my closet door open enough that I could direct a fan at them to give them a slight breeze so they barley sway. If your burning plants at a young age I would try to cool the grow room. You should be able to start under your LED.

 

[TxGrowman]

You can burn with LED? You need a small fan slightly blowing on your plants. I have my 600W HPS about 12-14" from my plants and there about 1 - 1 1/2 week old. One is about 4 days older than the other. There still babies. I put a small 5000 BTU AC in the room and have my closet door open enough that I could direct a fan at them to give them a slight breeze so they barley sway. If your burning plants at a young age I would try to cool the grow room. You should be able to start under your LED.

Appreciate the input! I was being a little more careful as this is my first Auto grow and I did not want to stunt them.

 

[TxGrowman]

Well, I started my 300 watt LED today. Put the florescent tubes away for a while. Will bring it out again when start my next grow in about 45 days. I am going to veg them in another room and start them in the tent when I harvest. I also put in four of the six 100 watt equiv (23 watts actual draw) 6000K drop lights today. Only an extra 92 watts but all increase in lumens should help and I am expecting them to help when the canopy gets bigger. Will put in the other two lights but leave them off for now and introduce them in 5 days. When the ladies get into full bloom, I am going to change all the drop lights to 2700K and see about boosting the yield.

Used my new bloom nute, Alaska Morbloom (0-10-10) on my bell peppers two days ago and they took off! As soon as I start blooming I am going to get this in the soil. It also worked great on my butternut squash and tomatoes ! Using my growing MMJ knowledge to feed my wife and I. Hoping for a good garden harvest at about the same time as my blueberry ladies are going to be ready. Truly a harvest to be thankful for!

Great Buds to you always. Jerry

 

[TxGrowman]

Day 14 of grow and the ladies are reacting to the LED light and I still have not watered. I am going to add my first nutes today. Gonna make it about 1/4 strength with the veg feeding. and watch closely. 1/4 strength should be enough for the first feeding and ONLY feeding for veg!

 

[TxGrowman]

Changed my mind on nutes. Only pH water today at 6.3. Let 'em stretch out for a while longer, they are definitely not low on water but I gave them a big drink to flush them a little. Going to check the ppm of the drain water to see how the soil is doing and get an idea of my soil mixture and how it does with the plants. The roots have made it out of the peat pots by now and there doesn't seem to be any burn from the soil. That makes me happy. This soil mix was the result of a lot of research and trying to find a maximum that I can put in the soil. From the looks of the plants. this soil seems to be doing well.

Checked ppm and is 620 in the water from the flush. No nutes have been added yet.

 

[TxGrowman]

Well, I finally got the grow going well. The lights are effecting the plants and they are stretching as well as having new leave sets on each plant. I may have spent a little too much time in veg, time will tell. Auto's are a different grow all together and I am almost bored right now as there is nothing to do but watch the plants grow. Got so used to growing photo period that this seems like I should be doing more. I am making good use of the time though.
Researching for my hydro grow and the best setup I can get. Will have to buy two more lights for the grow. LOVE LED but too expensive, will go with MH/HPS setup as it is cheaper (need two). I cannot afford TWO 600 watt LED's ! ! I am going to use my one LED (300 watt) to intensify the buds as well as some UV A &B light at the end to harden the buds up. This seems to be a new science (al least I have never heard about it) I do have UV in my LED, that may be what is doing the work on hardening the buds.

The peat pots were definitely the right call for the grow and I will use them from now on. After germination, I just stuck the entire pot in the soil and they are already deteriorating into compost. No transplanting problems and they seemed a lot more healthy with no decrease in growth. I did the soil up with all the things that I could think of and it seems to be doing very well.

All in all, my general knowledge of growing all things, not just pot, has increased greatly in the last year. Thanks in no small part to the information on Robert's site. Will add some pictures of my garden in next time as well, pretty proud of the garden and lawn.

Take care all and Great Buds to you always
Jerry