First Time Auto Grow , any advice welcome :)

[nard420]

Make sure you feed with each watering, not just plain water. Try and shoot for 10-15% runoff each time once the plants are 3 weeks old or so. Keep the ph between 5.7-5.9 to keep the nutrient uptake in the sweet spot. Other then that, I stopped growing in coco because it grows too big of plants! It’s a great medium to master! :smoking:

Awesome thank you ! So no run off until plants are 3 weeks old or so ? But start with the nutrients ASAP ? Just confirming haha thank you !! I have ordered correct nutrients today express post so I should have them within 3 days max ! I hope she will be ok until then !

 

[Olderfart]

Awesome thank you ! So no run off until plants are 3 weeks old or so ? But start with the nutrients ASAP ? Just confirming haha thank you !! I have ordered correct nutrients today express post so I should have them within 3 days max ! I hope she will be ok until then !

The girls should be fine for a few more days, so you should be headed for a nice grow. But yes, as soon as you can start with the good nutes, do it. Start with no more than a third of the concentration suggested, and ramp it up slowly after the girls are well established. If you want to dial it tight, you can keep upping the concentration gradually until you see the first hint of nute burn, and then back off 10% or so. If you try to dial it tight, don't adjust further until the plants have had at least three days to respond. Patience, patience, one of the most important ingredients - a mantra that I still have to practice constantly. Sigh.

How about a journal? The blog option seems to work very nicely, and it is not as fussy as it seems before you dive in... It would allow us to keep track of how you are doing. Hint hint.

Good luck with it @nard420, keep us posted, and don't hesitate to shoot us more questions.

 

[nard420]

The girls should be fine for a few more days, so you should be headed for a nice grow. But yes, as soon as you can start with the good nutes, do it. Start with no more than a third of the concentration suggested, and ramp it up slowly after the girls are well established. If you want to dial it tight, you can keep upping the concentration gradually until you see the first hint of nute burn, and then back off 10% or so. If you try to dial it tight, don't adjust further until the plants have had at least three days to respond. Patience, patience, one of the most important ingredients - a mantra that I still have to practice constantly. Sigh.

How about a journal? The blog option seems to work very nicely, and it is not as fussy as it seems before you dive in... It would allow us to keep track of how you are doing. Hint hint.

Good luck with it @nard420, keep us posted, and don't hesitate to shoot us more questions.

haha ok I will start a journal on here and tag you in it ! It would be an absolute honor to have you by my side during my first grow lol !
Ok so these are just a few questions on my mind :

1. Because the seeding is in its final pot , am I right in just watering in a 2 inch radius around the seedling until it grows bigger ? The coco around the area that I’ve watered has never been watered
2. Should I have runoff water yet ? Or still just be spraying lightly ?
3. Do I use all of the nutes together ? Or will I essentially end up with 4 bottles of nutes to water with at each watering or use each bottle at different stages of the grow ?

Thank you in advance ! And I’ll get onto starting that journal asap !

 

[nard420]

haha ok I will start a journal on here and tag you in it ! It would be an absolute honor to have you by my side during my first grow lol !
Ok so these are just a few questions on my mind :

1. Because the seeding is in its final pot , am I right in just watering in a 2 inch radius around the seedling until it grows bigger ? The coco around the area that I’ve watered has never been watered
2. Should I have runoff water yet ? Or still just be spraying lightly ?
3. Do I use all of the nutes together ? Or will I essentially end up with 4 bottles of nutes to water with at each watering or use each bottle at different stages of the grow ?

Thank you in advance ! And I’ll get onto starting that journal asap !

 

[nard420]

The girls should be fine for a few more days, so you should be headed for a nice grow. But yes, as soon as you can start with the good nutes, do it. Start with no more than a third of the concentration suggested, and ramp it up slowly after the girls are well established. If you want to dial it tight, you can keep upping the concentration gradually until you see the first hint of nute burn, and then back off 10% or so. If you try to dial it tight, don't adjust further until the plants have had at least three days to respond. Patience, patience, one of the most important ingredients - a mantra that I still have to practice constantly. Sigh.

How about a journal? The blog option seems to work very nicely, and it is not as fussy as it seems before you dive in... It would allow us to keep track of how you are doing. Hint hint.

Good luck with it @nard420, keep us posted, and don't hesitate to shoot us more questions.

Also 5th question haha ... can I start a journal on this website ? Thank you !

 

[420Forever]

Also 5th question haha ... can I start a journal on this website ? Thank you !

that'z a sillee ques, lol journalz are the literal backbone of the site jus click the link below, then click on "post thread" up at the top...give ur thread a title & away u grow! ppp

https://www.autoflower.org/forums/new-growers-grow-journals.44/

 

[nard420]

that'z a sillee ques, lol journalz are the literal backbone of the site jus click the link below, then click on "post thread" up at the top...give ur thread a title & away u grow! ppp

https://www.autoflower.org/forums/new-growers-grow-journals.44/

haha you’re the best ! thank you !

 

[Olderfart]

haha ok I will start a journal on here and tag you in it ! It would be an absolute honor to have you by my side during my first grow lol !
Ok so these are just a few questions on my mind :

1. Because the seeding is in its final pot , am I right in just watering in a 2 inch radius around the seedling until it grows bigger ? The coco around the area that I’ve watered has never been watered
2. Should I have runoff water yet ? Or still just be spraying lightly ?
3. Do I use all of the nutes together ? Or will I essentially end up with 4 bottles of nutes to water with at each watering or use each bottle at different stages of the grow ?

Thank you in advance ! And I’ll get onto starting that journal asap !

Re. watering, I would water the whole pot except within a few inches of the plants. The problem is that you do not want the coco to dry out. If it dries out, it can become hydrophobic and be very difficult to wet again. Otoh, you want the plants to grow roots, so make them search for water. A wetting agent like yucca powder is good insurance against coco drying out.

You don’t need to worry about runoff yet, work into that once you are fertigating with the new nutes.

You will be mixing the nutes in the instructed ratios, different ratios at different stages of the grow. The nute manufacturer will provide instructions, but mix to only about 1/3 strength initially.

Good luck with it.

 

[nard420]

Re. watering, I would water the whole pot except within a few inches of the plants. The problem is that you do not want the coco to dry out. If it dries out, it can become hydrophobic and be very difficult to wet again. Otoh, you want the plants to grow roots, so make them search for water. A wetting agent like yucca powder is good insurance against coco drying out.

You don’t need to worry about runoff yet, work into that once you are fertigating with the new nutes.

You will be mixing the nutes in the instructed ratios, different ratios at different stages of the grow. The nute manufacturer will provide instructions, but mix to only about 1/3 strength initially.

Good luck with it.

Amazing thank you so so much ! So this morning when I woke and read your advice , I filled a 1litre bottle , brought the PH down to 5.7 and watered about 500ml except for around the plant where it’s already wet from watering yesterday ! It’s a 12L pot , would 500ml have been enough ?
Thank you in advance ! I might as well have sent you the seeds as you’re pretty much growing this for me haha !!

 

[Olderfart]

Amazing thank you so so much ! So this morning when I woke and read your advice , I filled a 1litre bottle , brought the PH down to 5.7 and watered about 500ml except for around the plant where it’s already wet from watering yesterday ! It’s a 12L pot , would 500ml have been enough ?
Thank you in advance ! I might as well have sent you the seeds as you’re pretty much growing this for me haha !!

Hey @nard420, I'm glad to help. However, you never know when following my advice might get you into deeper trouble. I too am new at this my friend, so pay attention to contrary advice if any comes up.

As to the pH thing, I tend to be closer to pH 6 for coco, but different strokes. I certainly would not go any lower than pH5.7. Keep in mind that seemingly small differences in pH are bigger than the numbers suggest. PH5.7 is actually twice as acid as pH6. A change of one on the pH scale is a ten fold change, and change of 2 is a hundred fold change. This would be one of the reasons that a good pen is better than the drops or strips - the latter are bloody difficult to interpret with decent accuracy.

For watering quantity, I would probably give each pot at least a liter. You can concentrate much of it around the edges. For now, most of it will just be trying to make sure the deeper stuff and the stuff near the sides does not dry out and become hydrophobic. Put it on slowly, or even in a couple applications to let it soak in rather than leaking out the sides. Coco is pretty tolerant of watering, a lot more so than soil, because it drains very readily but retains moisture nontheless. It is a lot harder to overwater than soil is. It is a great medium if you treat it appropriately and can grow some monsters if you get it right. Definitely have a look at the cocoforcannabis site, there is some decent information on there. You might find yourself converted to coco long term.