Indoor Indoor Auto Grow, Dutch Passion, Mephisto, Fast Buds

[Humanrob]

The Box
I've grown for years, indoors and out, but this will be my first complete grow of autos indoors. I retired the bigger setup I had in the detached garage, this one is small and simple and in the house. The structure is minimal, it's amazing to me that without the issue of "light leaks", there is a lot of flexibility with grow spaces. This "box" is more about keeping the light in, than keeping light out.

The Light
I'm using a cob setup I built for a 2x4 tent I had in the garage, and fits this space as well. The last time I used it I put tape over the dimmers because they are easy to bump into and accidentally reset -- I think I locked them in with it running at 350w or about 42w/sf. That was for photos, do autos like a similar intensity? I can get out the watt-o-meter and change it if that would be beneficial.

The Soil
I use a basic soil mix starting with OF, add perlite and worm castings and mostly use dry time release nutes (Marine Cuisine and HF Fruit and Flower). I've got some experiments going with nutes and nute delivery systems, we'll see how they do.

The Pots
I start the seeds in their final pots (most of the time), dropping them into about two cups of Light Warrior at the center of the pot. This run will all be in 5 gallon plastic pots. I spent a lot of time going back and forth about what kind of pot to use, and for various reasons settled on basic plastic ones this run. Next grow I might choose differently.

The Strains
This grow is an odd mix of strains that are actually not optimal... that's the short story. So far a Dutch Passion Critical Orange Punch, and a Mephisto Mango Smile have popped. This morning I started a DP Colorado Cookies, hopefully that one will also pop.

Concerns
My main challenge is low RH, hovering around 46%. There is really no way around that, I just have to work within it. The babes get jars over them to trap in some humidity, but when they outgrow those, they'll just have to do the best they can. I did question whether running three plants in 5 gallon pots in a 2x4x5 space would be too crowded... I guess time will tell. There will definitely be a LOT of training, especially for the Mango Smile which (of course) I read after it sprouted that Mephisto found they were getting too tall for their 7ft. ceilings. That will be interesting.

The Goals
We don't really need any more meds, my summer outdoor gets us through the year. Beyond another indoor hobby to carry me through Covid's mind-numbing restraints, I am curious to see the difference between autos grown indoors and out. The goal is to keep it simple, I'll never have record breaking plants, but decent yields and happy plants are all I'm after.

The pic is of the grow space, it's not the most elegant solution and it's a work in progress, but so far it's working. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to jump in.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

It looks like you have the bases covered!

You will probably want to turn the lights down a bit. If Photoperiod plants got enough light in 12 hours then autos would be getting more than needed in 18.

 

[Humanrob]

It looks like you have the bases covered!

You will probably want to turn the lights down a bit. If Photoperiod plants got enough light in 12 hours then autos would be getting more than needed in 18.

Thanks for that, I'll dial them down. The temps have settled in around 79º, so that'll probably knock a degree or two off. Having only grown autos outside until now, I don't have a sense of how they like the light intensity and heat balanced. I would imagine like with photos there's some variation between strains.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Thanks for that, I'll dial them down. The temps have settled in around 79º, so that'll probably knock a degree or two off. Having only grown autos outside until now, I don't have a sense of how they like the light intensity and heat balanced. I would imagine like with photos there's some variation between strains.

Running LEDs it is ok to run the ambient temperature it little higher than with HID lamps due to the cooler leaf temperature - little or no IR. So 80°F daytime 68°F night are good targets.

Oh yes, genetic variation and individual plant characteristics is ongoing. I always seem to get at least one girl in each grow that is fussy about something.

 

[Humanrob]

Running LEDs it is ok to run the ambient temperature it little higher than with HID lamps due to the cooler leaf temperature - little or no IR. So 80°F daytime 68°F night are good targets.

Oh yes, genetic variation and individual plant characteristics is ongoing. I always seem to get at least one girl in each grow that is fussy about something.

Thanks again. I'm definitely at the beginning of the learning curve for figuring out any subtle or not so subtle differences between growing autos and photos. Outdoors my autos took much less care than photos, needing significantly less leaf trimming and thinning, and less food. They are totally low maintenance outside.

For every person who says "you can't do that with autos" there's another who says "I do that all the time and it's fine". Depending on the strain, one or the other is probably right.

 

[Humanrob]

My girls are off to a bit of a strained start. Sorry the pics aren't better. They are sitting in about two handfuls of Light Warrier seed starter soil, never used it before, I used to just plop them right into OF, I thought this might be a gentler start.

The Critical Orange Punch is showing the first signs of leaf discoloration

And the Mango Smile's leaves are reverse-taco'ing, whatever that means

The pieces of wood are there because I put glass jars over them to build humidity around them, but occasionally put the jars up on the shims because it seems to get too humid under the jars, the shims let a little airflow through.

I just put a humidifier in the space, so far the RH has bumped up from 47% to 51%, we'll see if it builds any more.

 

[Humanrob]

I'm not sure this grow is interesting enough to deserve a thread... but since I started.

One week later, and things are moving along. I'm new to growing autos indoors, and this 'enclosure' is a new grow space, so lots of tweaking and testing going on. Currently I have the exhaust fan on/off in 15 minute increments, to allow humidity and temps to build some. Not sure if that's going to wear out the timer or the fan first, maybe it'll be fine. Once the plants are fully established, they'll have to just tough out the lack of humidity. The humidifier I have in there dumps it's moisture in a matter of hours, I put a gallon in it once a day, that's all they get.

After popping the Mango Smile I found a Mephisto Strain Guide and learned that they often grow too tall for a 7' ceiling. When I bought them during the panic shopping of a seed drop, I only had a one paragraph description that did not mention that. That temporarily freaked me out. Given my 5' tall space, I moved it to a smaller 2 gallon fabric pot, thinking that would stunt it. I later regretted that because it's a pain to feed and water a big plant stuffed into a small pot (been there, done that). Currently I intend to both top and LST it, and in a week or two move it into a 5 gallon like the others. I have a lot of those 2 gallon pots from when I was playing around with breeding, I'll sacrifice this one and carefully cut it away when I transplant to minimize root shock.

I set this grow up the way I've grown for years, but as happens in life I'm learning new things. I was focused on my perceived benefits of time release nutes, mostly that they are low maintenance, rarely burn plants, and have always worked for me. The new insights are around root mass and even nutrient distribution for more efficient uptake. Depending on how this grow goes, I may make some changes moving forward. Which is another reason doing a perpetual appeals to me -- approximately every 30 days I start another plant, and that means I can start another experiment or incorporate something new I've learned more fluidly. As it stands, these are the last indoor plants I'll grow until next winter.

(I start counting days when the seed 'pops')

Critical Orange Punch 15 days

Mango Smile 12 days

Colorado Cookies 5 days

Please tag me if you start a grow journal!

 

[Humanrob]

EDIT: LOL, looked at the wrong date on the calendar when I posted this... D'oh!!! So I just redid the plant days, they are not 29/26/19, they are actually 22/19/12!!! So chalk up all of my comments about them growing so slowly to Covid induced brain fog...

Another week gone by. At first I was training the (older) plants at least daily, and then things slowed down. So I took another look at my setup, and realized I had the light set for sprouting. I turned it up and lowered it, up from 200w to 250w (approx. 30w/sf) and lowered it from 30" to 24". My intention was to raise the temps, and they went from around 75/76º to 79/80º (it's lower in the picture because that's taken before the space had a chance to heat up). I also moved from 18/6 to 19/5, and next week I'll probably bump it to 20/4. I won't go further than that.

Even though my light was on the weak side and my temps were on the low side, my inter-nodal spacing was tight. So I'd say that while my balance was not optimal for quick growth, my light intensity to temperature balance was good for plant health. I hope to keep them in a sweet spot, if I gauged it correctly the uptick in light intensity and temps will remain balanced.

I'm still learning about autos. So far I'd say they are way more sensitive to temps than photos. I'm not sure what impact it would have on things like bud size and trichome production, but I've come to realize that if I want to keep my plants smaller for my small grow space, I don't have to train them, all I have to do is run the grow at around 73º. They will take a little longer to finish, but they will remain small (like in the aborted pollen grow I did). I like to keep my light 16" from the canopy during flower, so in a 2x4x5 with the light as high as it can go, I've found that the actual grow space from the soil line to the 16" mark is about 28". That's the plant height limits.

Some pictures and notes from the week:

The Critical Orange Punch @29 @22 days. I usually top after the 4th node, I'm thinking about letting this one go to the fifth. I purposefully did not fill the pot all the way for two reasons, one was for fear the plant would get too big for the space, and the other was to leave lots of room to top dress. I left a little too much room, the plant being this low in the pot may interfere with training a bit.

Mango Smile @26 @19 days. She didn't seem to shock much if at all from the transplant from the 2gal to the 5gal pot. I was so concerned with the plants over-growing my space, but they all seem on the small size (for their ages) so far.

And finally the Colorado Cookies @19 @12 days. I've seen pictures of other grows where the plants are much bigger than mine at a given age, like 19 day old plants that look like little bushes. I'm guessing temps are holding mine back. When I get up to 20/4, we'll see if that helps move them along. Dark temps are around 65º, and it takes a couple of hours to build the temps up to 79/80º, so I'm guessing that's the issue.

I'm really enjoying that light leaks are not an issue, and that I was able to easily DIY a 'grow box' that seems to function well. The way things evolved, I built this for the desk/table where I had the 'out in the open' grow going. It's the first time I've grown where I'm not doing all the work on my hands and knees. I'm liking it. I'm giving up some vertical space, but it looks like that may not be an issue.

 

[WildBill]

I like it! Interesting grow!

 

[Humanrob]

I like it! Interesting grow!

Thanks WildBill

I'm fortunate, this grow is all hobby and experimenting. I've compared growing pot on the hobby level to fish tanks -- I'm more of a living plants and goldfish guy, not so much salt water, coral reefs and exotic fish. There are a million ways to grow pot, just gotta find the shoe that fits.