New Grower Critical Auto +2.0

[ddj192d]

Welcome to my new newb indoor grow. I have a few auto grows under my belt, but due to some issues in the grow I just finished up I decided to get a bit more serious and control some of the variables like humidity and temp. Here it goes:

Dropped 3 seeds into water on 1/25, and directly into the soil a day later on 1/26. I'm using two 3-gallon smart pots and one 1-gallon in my 2x2 tent. I'm using Happy Frog with worm castings and Dr Earth Veg & Dr Earth Flower. I amended the soil prior to dropping the beans with 3 heaping scoops of the Veg, and 1 heaping spoon of the Flower fertilizer (little less for the 1-gallon). This grow I'm torn between feeding a bit (maybe a quarter cup) each week, or the a heavier combination of the Veg & Flower every 21 days. If someone has any info on this please don't hesitate to comment.

My light is a Mars Hydro FC-3000 @ 300 Watts (needed a step up from my HLG100). At first I had the light at 18 inches at 25% power and noticed a little stretch in the seedlings so I lowered the light to 16 1/2 inches today. I have the light set to 18/6.
Humidity is set to 70% for the first two weeks, then I'll drop it by 5% each week to 60% for veg. Temps have been consistent so far at 70-77F.

Super stoked to get feedback on my grow.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Be careful overfeeding it is a new growers most common mistake. It is easy to add more and nearly impossible to take out! You should have drip pans underneath each pot that has an air gap to prevent anaerobic growth. I cannot see if you have them. It looks like you may be watering wrong?

What you need to learn about watering will come with practice. Here are the basic rules: Never let the soil dry out. Soil and or coco can become hydrophobic if allowed to dry. This means it repels water. This in turn will create dry pockets in the soil and the roots and microbes will die there. If your soil - coco have accidentally dried out use a surfactant to help re-wet it. I like yucca powder. Don't let soil remain soggy by watering too much too often. Root rot, damping off, molds, fungus gnats and other problems start in soggy soil. When you do water water the entire pot. How to learn when to water starts before you plant the seed. Fill your container with fresh soil/coco and weigh it (heft it) this is the lightest weight and consider it a dry pot. Now slowly water until the soil/coco will no longer absorb the water and run-off begins; weigh the pot (heft it) this is the maximum water, the wettest the pot can get. The difference between wettest and driest is the maximum water weight, for ease of explanation lets just say the water weighs 20 pounds. When the pot loses 10 pounds (half of the water weight) it is time to water again. Slowly wet ALL of the soil until run-off begins. There is an art to watering. Remember you are not watering the plant! you are keeping the soil moist for the microbes that feed the plant.

 

[ddj192d]

Thank you for tagging along. I don't think watering is a problem. I have saucers underneath each pot and historically watering has not been an issue.
What I did differently this grow (and regret a bit) is I didn't give the soil a good soak before filling the smart pots. Makes the first few waterings a bit difficult because the water doesn't easily soak in. That's why on the first image you see the majority of the surface wet. The second image is from a day later

 

[ddj192d]

Update day 8:

Light: 17.5in
Temp: 73F
RH: 68%

Some leafs are looking a bit lighter than I had hoped and I'm not sure if it's related to the lights being at 16 inches. I moved it slightly higher to 17.5 inches.

I really need to water the soil tomorrow to slowly activate the Dr Earth organic nutes. For some reason I decided against it and as a result the soil is a lot less compact in the smart pot. I hope the soil doesn't sink much lower once I water more frequently.

 

[ddj192d]

Update day 11:

Light: 18in
Temp: 74F
RH: 68%

They're looking a little pale but honestly not sure what to do in organics ..

I watered a 1.5l with some Grower's Recharge between all three plants. PH'd to 6.6

 

[ddj192d]

Day 14:

Light: 18in. Just increased power to 30% (90 Watt)
Temp: 76F
RH: 63%

The plants are still looking a bit pale. I'll be watering tomorrow and hopefully the added moisture will help release more organic nutrients.

 

[St. Tom]

Day 14:

Light: 18in. Just increased power to 30% (90 Watt)
Temp: 76F
RH: 63%

The plants are still looking a bit pale. I'll be watering tomorrow and hopefully the added moisture will help release more organic nutrients.

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still looking great my friend plus I'm growing some girls using biotabs water only and I used lightmix soil and hopefully someone may use the same sort of mix as yaself and give you some pointers

 

[ddj192d]

Day 17:

Light: 20in. and increased power to 50% (150 Watt).
Temp: 78F
RH: 61%

They're really coming along well. I had to water again yesterday after only 2 days. The pots were really light and so I'm still feeling out how much to water in relation to the pot. Currently I'm sharing about 2 liters between all 3 pots, with the 1-gallon getting a little less than the larger pots. I'm used to watering every 3-4 days max but 2 days was a surprise.

 

[ddj192d]

Day 19

Just a few photos, everything has been pretty much the same. The last watering really has done these ladies a solid.

I amended the soil with 1 tablespoon of Dr Earth veg and 1 tablespoon of Dr Earth Flower, per gallon. That's 5 tablespoons each which I think should nicely guide the plants into upcoming flowering. As a bonus each plant got one table spoon of earthworm castings. From what I know it roughly takes 2 weeks for the nutrients to become available. By then I should be seeing early signs of flower.

I will say that I have no idea why the 1 gallon plant is not thriving. It's way too small and should be much bigger at this point. My hunch is that the light was too intense, maybe I shouldn't have propped the container up on the box...

 

[ddj192d]

Day 21: Lift-off

Light: 19 in. at 50%. I measure the distance often so that the shorter plant has some opportunity to stretch.
Temp: 78F - 80F
RH: 60%

I mean, will ya look at that?! They're gorgeous - minus the small runt of the litter.. but even that tiny plant is coming along slowly.
I started some LST by tying down two branches each on the 3-gallon ladies. You can see in the picture that we will have some bud sites forming right underneath so I lightly twisted the stem clockwise to tie them down. More light, more bud