Indoor Dwarf auto grow using Fero864

[littlebopeep]

When I first received my first LED I thought it would be a good idea to try a few random auto seeds using the FeroLed 864. One of the things I wanted to establish was:

Could a led produce weight and quality to match the maximum recommended by the seed companies for a dwarf auto strain?

When I've started seedlings under HID grow lights in the past they often shriveled or stretched way more than I liked, so to give me a feel for this new light I planted 8 auto seeds donated by original- ssc.com:

3 x blackjack (sweet seeds)
3 x cream caramel (sweet seeds)
2 x white dwarf (buddha seeds)

I'll call the day the seeds sprouted Day 1. It took 36 hours for all seeds to germinate.
On day 1 I potted the 8 seeds into 10cm (4") pots with a mixture of 50:50 compost/perlite, and watered with a 6.3pH water.
From this point I proceeded to over love my babies . I was so fascinated by the new FeroLed 864 LED grow light that I spent all my spare time with the plants. This, combined with the slower rate of transpiration and evaporation under a led to me over watering them .... hmmmpph. Enough said about that: I should have known better! Still, its all a learning curve ... At first I couldn't believe the problem was as simple as over watering and continued to mistreat the plants for a few days while I worked out the problem.
Here's a photo of an over watered seedling (Cream Caramel, day 13), where the over watering led to a nutrient lock out: ouch!

After running a few experiments to determine exactly what the issue was, once I knew it, it was time to treat the problem.


I needed to encourage the roots to start to take up water again .. and yet the difficulty was the roots were already soaked. The answer? More watering! However this time the water was loaded with 3% H2O2 at 3mm/litre. This mix was poured over the pots until water started running out the bottom (flushing): this drives stale air out of the root system.
After a few days I started to see new and healthy growth emerging from the tips. To be honest the wait was agony - I couldn't believe I'd f*****d it up! As you know once a leaf is damaged like this it will continue to deteriorate, and we need new leaves to keep the plant going. Also on a short-lived plant like a dwarf auto, all vegetative growth is essential.
By day 14 there was new growth, so I transferred one of the white dwarfs into a 4.5L (1 gallon) smartpot, the others into 10L pots. I used a coco/perlite mix instead of soil. Every two days I watered the plants with a half strength feed, pHd to 6.0 and kept watering until there was at least a 25% run off. The nutrient I'm using just now is Agua Vega by Canna. I would use their coco mix solution but am having a hard time sourcing it locally.
You can see from the photos that now, at day 28. they've fully recovered and are doing well under the LED grow lights. Over watering is obviously an issue that needs to be considered when growing marijuana using this lighting - its not a fault of the LED, just something to be aware of.

Cream caramel (Sweet seeds) day 28

Black Jack (Sweet seeds) day 28

White Dwarf (Budda seeds) day 28

 

[sticky pipez]

looking good now mate, that l.e.d seems to keep the nodes nice and tight:thumbs: hopfully your litte mishap with the watering hasnt stunted the plants too much cause autos dont have a long veg time so dont have long to recover. what wattage is your light? and are they 2w or 3w diodes?
they will really start to kick off after flowering kicks in fully (in the next week or so)

anyway, good luck with the grow mate and hopfully you'll be kicking back with some quality bud in no time
pipez

 

[littlebopeep]

looking good now mate, that l.e.d seems to keep the nodes nice and tight:thumbs: hopfully your litte mishap with the watering hasnt stunted the plants too much cause autos dont have a long veg time so dont have long to recover. what wattage is your light? and are they 2w or 3w diodes?
they will really start to kick off after flowering kicks in fully (in the next week or so)

anyway, good luck with the grow mate and hopfully you'll be kicking back with some quality bud in no time
pipez

ty for taking interest
yes this is a worry for me as well autos dont have a long veg time and I hope they aren't stunted to much by it
the light draws 300w and is part of Feros 3g series they carry a 3w diode
i'll be testing the 4g series which draw is much closer to the advertised 3 w diodes but this one seems to be doing good over a 3"x3" area
I would normally be using a min off a 400w hid but I guess the test will be in the amount and quality of bud produced
Take a seat and lets see what happens

 

[littlebopeep]

isn't it just I love growing and my poor partner just has this blank look as soon as I mention the subject
I guess I will just have to boor you lot with my rantings tx for watching

 

[littlebopeep]

Hey everyone
I was wondering if any of you people who have some experience growing AF's indoors could nudge me (a AF newbie) in the right direction?
Firstly, I made a mistake before how old they are - actually they are 28 days today.

What I was hoping to find out was: with photo sensitive plants I would wait to change the nutes until they were 2 weeks into flower; however these strange creatures are telling me (I think) that they are a bit low on (P) or maybe a touch too much (N). They seem dark green and on some of them the new tips look very thin. Under the led I'm seeing quite a bit of purple on the stems.

They are starting to flower - just! - but haven't reached a bud formation yet.
OK, here's some info to help:

• light 300w led (3w diode's )
• temps good on the low side for me around 21ºc with fluctuations of less than 2 degrees
• Rh can fluctuate as it is a bit on the low side however the wonderful missus (weed widow as she likes to be known now) has started to hang her washing on the other side of the room (bless her cotton socks) and we are now hovering around 60%-70% depends how many loads she does a day I will be stopping that as they start to flower more)
• light distance around 22 inches at present (still need work to find the sweet spot for this light)
• I'm keeping them on a 21/3 light schedule now but for the first two weeks they were on 24/0
• I'm using a co-co/perlite medium watered every other day until flushed through with at least a 25% run off. Bit wasteful on the nutes I know - wish it was recirculating!
• nutes are Canna's Terra Vega for soil at half strength every watering
• I was adding H2o2 for a bit when I over watered them, but have discontinued this about a week ago as they didn't need it anymore
• node space is very compact.... too compact...... this cream caramel is 28 days today and stands at only seven inches tall and about 9' wide

ok boring bit out of the way
heres a pic:



so the big questions are "when should I change to flower nutes ?"....... and "am I seeing the first signs of (P) deficiency? "...... "is this a cal-mag prob ? " or even,
am I just being paranoid?

tx for any advice it will be apreciated
cheers LBP

 

[Muddy]

Good to see that you've started your grow log. As a LED grower myself, I'm very curious to see how these new lights do for you. First thing I thought when I saw your pics was that you need to raise your light up some, nodes are too tight. Otherwise, they look good.

Couple things we've learned about growing autos under LEDs that might help you out.

Cal/Mag is must, especially in a soil less mix like you are using. I generally start feeding it around week 2 or 3 and continue till flush.

Once autos flower they still continue strong veg growth for another 3 weeks or so. I usually feed veg nutes through week 6, then make the change. Some also like to start introducing some flowering nutes at week 5, along with the veg nutes. When you do switch to flowering nutes, lower your light. I generally have mine at about 12-14" during flower.

We're also seeing that a little more N may be beneficial during flower. The LEDs are putting out such a high amount of usable light that the plants seem to use more nutes than might be expected. We're still experimenting with this but it's showing positive results so far.

Additional P is also usually needed in flower. I keep some PK13.14 handy and usually end up giving them a couple feedings of it as well.

That's all I can think of right now.

 

[littlebopeep]

Tx for that muddy I've raised the light from 15' to 22' and the plants in only 24 hours have shot up an inch !!!!!!!
when you say to keep on the N until week 6 is that for a longer auto (10 to 12 weeks) ie: Mi5 ?
tx for the tips and I will give them a try I've used the pk 13/14 before back in the mid to late nineties
tx for chipping in
nice to have you watching
the grow goes on............

 

[Muddy]

That's what your looking for, that 1" a day growth. Keep feeding N as long as that growth continues. Once you see it slow or stop, then it's time for the bloom nutes. That should be around week 5 or 6, depending on the strain. IMO most dwarf auto strains should go 10-12 weeks. I know they are advertised as 8-9 weeks, and many people pick them then, but until the fan leaves are gone the buds are still growing.

As a LED grower myself I'm always interested in seeing grows done with new lights. I try and stay on top of this fast evolving technology the best I can. Contrary to what you may have heard, I'm always willing to share what I know and help out when I can.

 

[littlebopeep]

Day 31
That seems to have done the trick ! (tx muddy) The growth is gone into hyper drive now with the tips reaching for the sky, that is apart from the white dwarf which has decided it aint moving from 6 " no matter what and will now only put on bud awkward mare
Here a pic of half of the room you can see Cream caramel, Black jack white dwarf and a few of my WW autos (I seem to have a lost a lot of my auto trait on this batch I only had 20% return with the auto trait time to cross back to the lowryder me thinks shame because these ww that did auto are very strong and vigorous (aaaaaaaaa these breeding amateurs and there seed runs ) back to the drawing board

 

[littlebopeep]

Day 33

growth still good although not quite the magic inch a day I've seen on some of you boys threads I'm just going to have to accept the fact that they wont top out more than 12'-15'
but what is happening is that i'm starting to get some serious side branches popping out on the cream caramel I'm bending the big fan leaves down a couple of times a day to help them pop through..... things looking good....... I am thinking of bending the whole plant over (LST) to get as much coverage as possible and to encourage the side branches..... What do you guys think?
happy dog here