New Grower First Grow - Autopots - Fastbuds Gorilla Cookies

[DCLXVI]

Thanks for all of your help! And thanks for kicking me in the ass to post here lol.

I did buy a small humidifier and had it running in the tent, but it kept building up this white film on everything inside the tent pretty hardcore. From the limited research I did, it seems like it was calcium buildup from the hard water that we have in NY. I since moved it right outside the tent and have not had the same issues, but unfortunately it is not as effective. Maybe I need to run better water through it?

If it is an ultrasonic humidifier you need to run distilled or reverse osmosis water in them. If not they vaporize all the dissolved minerals in your water into the air. That is the white dust coating you are seeing.

I would advise watering/presoaking the entire pot. Those first few days the seedlings are putting down some long roots. I typically presoak and then let the seedlings alone for the first few days. I don't think you need to water to runoff but perhaps get the pot a bit more moist throughout. They may be small but if you learn each time and progress in your growing you'll get great plants. Germination went well and that's one of the hardest parts.

 

[warnd]

Hi bro welcome to afn and a few pointers I'm not a big soil grower coco is my main medium but with your girls they do not need feeding everyday especially not to run off at that age so I think from the beginning this may have slowed your progress by keeping your medium a little wet . and I will offer you a solution to help with future plants I start every plant I grow in solo cups as they make overwatering impossible and I still use them with coco or soil plants and repot them later with no ill effect

Yoo, thanks for checking in. Even though my medium is a mix of coco, perlite, and peat, can I still treat it as coco in regards to watering and nutrients? I definitely think I will take that advice and start my next run in solo cups or something smaller than what I am currently doing.

 

[warnd]

If it is an ultrasonic humidifier you need to run distilled or reverse osmosis water in them. If not they vaporize all the dissolved minerals in your water into the air. That is the white dust coating you are seeing.

I would advise watering/presoaking the entire pot. Those first few days the seedlings are putting down some long roots. I typically presoak and then let the seedlings alone for the first few days. I don't think you need to water to runoff but perhaps get the pot a bit more moist throughout. They may be small but if you learn each time and progress in your growing you'll get great plants. Germination went well and that's one of the hardest parts.

Thanks for clearing that up about the humidifier. I did read that on the packaging but didn't think much of it. Is there a different type of humidifier that I should look for that can handle regular tap water?

I did go ahead and take yours and PeaceLove&Buds advice to water the entire pot. I finally stopped being lazy and took the time to calibrate and learn how to use my PH pen. Mixed up a new batch of water/nutrients and had to PH down slightly to get to the recommended range. Makes me feel stupid for not checking since the beginning. Probably made it harder on the plants than necessary. I fertigated all 3 pots until I saw some runoff so that the medium had a good soak. Each pot took about a full gallon of water. Did this last night, checked them this afternoon and I think they already look happier. Will report back with more pictures tomorrow to check in how they are doing.

Thank you everyone for stopping by!

 

[PeaceLove&Buds]

Excellent! Happy New Year and Happy Growing!

 

[DCLXVI]

Great! I hope the plants turn the corner and start taking off for you.

The ultrasonics humidify the best. There are also the evaporative units, which use a fan/wick combination. They don't put out as much moisture but should be able to get enough in the air for your tent. Evap units can use tap water. The downside is the wicks have to be changed out as they get moldy and nasty. A dash of bleach in the reservoir helps a lot.

I have one of each style. I like the evap and I find a single wick/filter can last one grow. The ultrasonic is much stronger, I use it in my large tent, and a gallon of distilled from the store lasts pretty well. I have an RO system now so I am able to use that water. Much easier on me.

 

[St. Tom]

Yoo, thanks for checking in. Even though my medium is a mix of coco, perlite, and peat, can I still treat it as coco in regards to watering and nutrients? I definitely think I will take that advice and start my next run in solo cups or something smaller than what I am currently doing.

I've never used or seen many people using a mix of coco and peat also when your plants are very young if you always keep the media really wet the roots cannot breathe so I think solo cups would be a great way to start till you learn better watering techniques on your next adventure also after your next feed id lift the pots before feeding again just don't let them dry out

 

[DCLXVI]

These are the two units I use. I wanted top fill, just pour in water, no lugging tanks around. And also I wanted units with mechanical on/off switches. I control them with Inkbird humidity sensing power units.

Evaporative unit:

Honeywell HCM-710 Easy to Care Top Fill Humidifier White

The Honeywell Easy to Care Top Fill Humidifier is an excellent addition for those searching to secure a healthy and pleasant breathing environment for medium sized rooms. This humidifier by Honeywell is incredibly easy to use and utilizes a top fill design that allows for seamless filling. This...

www.honeywellstore.com

Ultrasonic:

Honeywell HUL570B Top Fill Cool Mist Humidifier in Black

With ultra quiet operation the HUL570 delivers soothing, cool visible moisture to effectively humidify medium to large size rooms making it ideal for bedroom use. It also features a wide tank opening and carry handle to make filling, emptying and cleaning convenient and easy.

www.honeywellstore.com

Inkbird controller: Set the rh% you want and it will cycle the unit on and off for you. Balance this against your exhaust fan and the environment should be well maintained

Amazon product


Some spendy bits. However, they last several grows and the ease of use more than makes up for it I feel.

 

[Cannaficionado]

Thanks for all of your help! And thanks for kicking me in the ass to post here lol.

I did buy a small humidifier and had it running in the tent, but it kept building up this white film on everything inside the tent pretty hardcore. From the limited research I did, it seems like it was calcium buildup from the hard water that we have in NY. I since moved it right outside the tent and have not had the same issues, but unfortunately it is not as effective. Maybe I need to run better water through it?

Hi, welcome bud. Like seeing new comers around. All these guys responding here are pretty seasoned growers.

Loving the set up. I have everything from ac infinity too. No autopots tho.

Looks like you're having a little issue that a lot of soil growers run into. I know I did. After you pop your germinated seed in your pot you only need to give it about 1/2 cup to 1 cup of water if the soil isnt very moist. You just really wanna saturate about 3 inches around the seed. Also soil and coco seems to be a weird blend. It might make it harder to water and feed correctly as peat holds on to fertilizer but coco does not so some of your feed will get washed out. I think most people find it easier in the long run to run either 1 or the other as long as it has plenty of aeration and drainage.

Dont keep watering it daily especially not to run off. After I give it that initial watering I only come back with a misting bottle and really mist the top to the point were the surface WET if the surface was almost completely dry.

Once it pops up and develops its first set of true leaves I start watering around the seedlings and misting heavy directly around the stem so Im not drowning the plant and theres still available water for the roots to find. But even here I dont water to runoff. Maybe 1/4 gallon in my 5 gallon pots. I only water again if the surface soil is completely dry.

Once the plant establishes about 5 nodes its usually developed enough to give it a real dousing, but doing it to early drowns the roots.

Also I thought I saw something about feeding. In soil you dont need to feed often. My suggestion is finding a simple easy soil nutrient line for flowering plants. Follow the recipe. You really only need to feed 1 time per week. Also most soil has a readily available source of nutrients capable of sustaining most plants for 2-4 weeks. I run fox farm amd I dont feed for about 3 weeks on my photos and I didnt even start feeding my auto till well into flowering. I think I gave it 1 half dose of veg feed about 1 week after it showed its sex. Soil holds on to a lot of nutrients and they are available for the plant longer.

Also although it can get pricey I like to use distilled water for pretty much everything. Your situation is different having a res and all but I like knowing my water is 100% void of everything. That way the only things going into the soil is what I put in there. This can cause issues too though as tap water has a lot of trace minerals that plants can use. But my nute line makes up for that and is meant to be used with distilled or ro water sources.

 

[warnd]

What's up everyone!

Thank you all for checking in and helping me out, all of the comments are much appreciated. It has been a few days since I reported back, but I think everything is starting to go in the right direction. Quick run down of what I did to bring them back:

-Learned how to use my PH pen lmao
-Fed all three plants until runoff with 1/8 of the nutrients.
-Removed the plants from the autopot bases for now so they can breathe

Here are the pics from the day after making those changes:

Even the stunted one uncurled its leaves a bit! More up to date pics in next post.

 

[warnd]

Here are some pics from today. Since the last post, I upped the nutrients to 1/4 strength and fed them until runoff again:

Very happy with the way things are starting to shape up. I know these tiny little seedlings are not impressive to anyone, but I can't tell you how happy it made me to open the tent and see positive progress lol. Im sure some of you guys can relate.

This brings me to my latest confusion which is in regards to my growing medium. Because this is a mix of coco, perlite, and peat, I am not sure if I am supposed to treat it as if it were regular soil, or more towards to coco side where it needs more feedings. On the bag it says "for the grower who feeds once or more a day" I will post a pic of the bag below:

The guy that owns the hydro store by me recommended this specifically because I was going to be using the autopots. He said that this has better drainage characteristics than soil, which would help the autopots feed the plants more often. Once I can turn the reservoir on, I am not worried about a thing as long as I can keep the PH and environment in check (I hope I don't regret these words later lol). However, until that time, I am still a little confused one my best practices for hand watering. I think maybe I should reach out to the company or hydro shop and ask their opinion. I can't seem to be able to find much information on this brand outside of it being used in more commercial applications.

All I know is that I fed the plants until run off two days in a row and they kept growing to the pics above. Perhaps if I give them some time in between watering they will grow faster? The second time I fed the plants until runoff, they took much less water. Probably like 30 ounces each, whereas they all took a gallon when the soil was dry. Either way, I am happy with the progress! Let me know what you guys think....thanks for stopping by!