Grow Mediums Mr and Mrs AutoOtto's medical cannabis Autoflower grow diary
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Still early in the season, so it'll be more fun here in a week or 2 when there's an abundance, but there are some to be found. My trip today ended up getting canceled due to my alarm not going off, I really don't like to get a late start, i like to be up on the mountain by sunup, and perhaps it was for the best, my knee and ankle were giving me troubles this morn, should feel better by tomorrow.
7/14/13: The girls are doing okay. Really slow progress for the moment, due to some factors most of you already may be aware of, but I'll break it down here in a bit. I, for one, don't usually care to read rants about how everything seems to be a challenge at the moment, so I will spare you all a detailed breakdown of recent events, but suffice it to say, Murphy's Law seems to be working overtime in my general vicinity at the moment. But rather than focus a lot of thought and energy on things beyond my control, I decided now would be a good time to do a detailed breakdown of what I've done wrong so far that we CAN avoid in our future endeavors. Not to mention to give any of the other first time growers out there surfing the Hydro forum the benefit of our trial and error to help make sure your starts don't lag too long in the seedling stage, like ours have. And hopefully benefit from the knowledge of some of you autoflower experts out there with a question I would like to pose at the end of this post. So I would say that now, at 23 days, our plants potentially could be 2-4 times their current size, perhaps even more. Here's a few pics:
Some of the Northern Lights auto (on a couple you can clearly see the nute burn at the leaf tip)
Best one first, NL auto#2
I like the leaves on this one, they look the most indica out of all our plants,
Lemon juice express#3
The only plant showing no signs of any deficiency is the Sour D
G13 labs Sour Diesel Auto:
Another couple of the NL autos:
So I'd say our biggest mistake was planting in our final medium. Theoretically this was supposed to eliminate the stress of transplanting and make the plants get a swift start out of the gate and in many mediums, such as soil or rockwool, that would've worked just fine. But unlike those more stable mediums, perlite, our chosen medium, is very airy and unstable. Established roots have no problem gaining purchase in it, but seedlings seem to have a very difficult time rooting properly in it. So to solve this, in the future, all our starts will be planted in jiffy pellets and allowed to root well before dropping the roots through the netpot so we can get roots in the reservoir and buckets bubbling right away to get a major jumpstart on our vegetative growth. The second major mistake we made, as I see it, was not properly flushing our medium before use. Although I have subsequently learned that I can expect to be fighting ph issues, flushed medium or no, but I do believe our failure to observe this simple step has made it extra hard to flush the alkalinity out of the medium, and may have been responsible, in part or in whole for our nutrient burn/iron deficiency problem and despite subsequent flushing has definitely left some of the unwashed-out "sludge" that is in unflushed perlite, something which is difficult for the roots to deal with. The simple solution to this in the future will be to thoroughly flush and soak all growing medium with water ph'd on the low side for 24 hours prior to use. So I guess I would like to leave one final query to the forum. Are autoflowers on a biological clock? By this I mean, if I delayed my plants start, and they're supposed to finish in say, 85 days for example, will they still finish in that time but just as smaller plants, or if they spent a few weeks extra in the seedling stage due to a poor start, will that, if corrected, simply add to the finish time without stunting the plant too much. Would greatly appreciate some knowledge from you autoflower aficionados out there
stylez rasta smoke
Some of the Northern Lights auto (on a couple you can clearly see the nute burn at the leaf tip)
Best one first, NL auto#2
I like the leaves on this one, they look the most indica out of all our plants,
Lemon juice express#3
The only plant showing no signs of any deficiency is the Sour D
G13 labs Sour Diesel Auto:
Another couple of the NL autos:
So I'd say our biggest mistake was planting in our final medium. Theoretically this was supposed to eliminate the stress of transplanting and make the plants get a swift start out of the gate and in many mediums, such as soil or rockwool, that would've worked just fine. But unlike those more stable mediums, perlite, our chosen medium, is very airy and unstable. Established roots have no problem gaining purchase in it, but seedlings seem to have a very difficult time rooting properly in it. So to solve this, in the future, all our starts will be planted in jiffy pellets and allowed to root well before dropping the roots through the netpot so we can get roots in the reservoir and buckets bubbling right away to get a major jumpstart on our vegetative growth. The second major mistake we made, as I see it, was not properly flushing our medium before use. Although I have subsequently learned that I can expect to be fighting ph issues, flushed medium or no, but I do believe our failure to observe this simple step has made it extra hard to flush the alkalinity out of the medium, and may have been responsible, in part or in whole for our nutrient burn/iron deficiency problem and despite subsequent flushing has definitely left some of the unwashed-out "sludge" that is in unflushed perlite, something which is difficult for the roots to deal with. The simple solution to this in the future will be to thoroughly flush and soak all growing medium with water ph'd on the low side for 24 hours prior to use. So I guess I would like to leave one final query to the forum. Are autoflowers on a biological clock? By this I mean, if I delayed my plants start, and they're supposed to finish in say, 85 days for example, will they still finish in that time but just as smaller plants, or if they spent a few weeks extra in the seedling stage due to a poor start, will that, if corrected, simply add to the finish time without stunting the plant too much. Would greatly appreciate some knowledge from you autoflower aficionados out there
stylez rasta smoke
Last edited:
Roark
Knight of the Scrog
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Well autoOtto friends, I have learned that those estimates, are just that. In ideal situations from the breeders. You have seen my grow. Four of those girls "should" be done. But, I stunted them, I prefer to think they went into hibernation. For two weeks atleast. I am going to run them as long as I can. Harvest as ready. Trans Siberian will be first then widow. I think atleast two more weeks. That puts them at 77days new count but real count 91. Hope that helps.
Its like this I guess....those days are guide lines.
Also, mine looked just like that, except deficient at 22 days I almost tossed um out. Sooo glad I just hung in there. You two hang in there. Their lookin great!
Its like this I guess....those days are guide lines.
Also, mine looked just like that, except deficient at 22 days I almost tossed um out. Sooo glad I just hung in there. You two hang in there. Their lookin great!
7/17/13: Just gave the girls with bubbling buckets a fresh res change, all with week 3 veg nutes
(as you may have seen, we're using Humboldt nutrients, here's all the ones I'm using so far, there will be more bottles to break out come flower time: CalMag, Verde, FlavorFul, Master A, Master B, also ph up and ph down there+soil and hydro feeding schedules)
Ph'd all the buckets to 5.5-5.8 (tending to ph on the low side because I know they have a tendency to bounce back quick, but I'm noticing way less bounceback of ph, 1-1.3 points less ph rebound than before which I'm mostly attributing to the fact that all our water is now RO water. I've always used distilled or filtered, never straight from the tap, but my tapwater ph is 8 and the distilled where I was getting it was close to the same. Now my tapwater, I know why. My wife checked the filter on the Pur pitcher and found white sludge, that combined with my knowledge of the waters high ph screams dissolved salts. When i was filtering my water, it must have not been getting them all out, because
now that my friend loaned me this 100 gallon a day RO machine,
my water comes out much more neutral, 7-7.2, after adding nutes (at least thus far in the feeding regimens) it comes out at a lovely 5.7-5.9 and as I mentioned, having to deal with less rebound in the res because of it.
Just noticed some green algae growing on top of the perlite this morning:
and was really concerned, but got online and got the lowdown on it and found that it's normal and mostly harmless though it can cause problems occasionally if left unchecked. The cure was easy enough, spray it with 1% Hydrogen Peroxide.
Had some 3% and diluted it 1/3 strength
sprayed the algae sparingly, should take care of it and when the plants grow big they should take all its light so it can't grow back, in the future we'll probably use covers to avoid it altogether. So far, just had the airstones floating at about mid-bucket height, their weight held them a few inches below the water, but I felt that deeper percolation would be a benefit, so decided to rig a sinker system to keep the airstones on the bottom. I read that if you use metal parts in a res, they should be stainless steel or titanium, so
I cleaned out some stainless sockets really well, and wired them to the airstones:
We are now much more satisfied with our percolation as a result of this.
Have continued topfeeding all the buckets without bubbles with the same nute mix as the bubblers are getting,
some seem to have snapped out of any deficency:
others seem no worse but no better:
and one has gotten a bit worse, showing a classic, semi-advanced iron deficiency:
But all in all they're looking good:
We had quarantined that Martian Kush off in the furnace room under a little cfl for a week (24 hr. light cycle) because it had a bug that ate our little Superbud auto, but now that the autos are in their room, I brought it out into the eventual mother/photoperiod strain room, and vegged it out a couple more days, still don't have my HID's figured out, gonna have to hire an electrician, but my friend who loaned us the RO machine also
loaned us a dual spectrum thousie in an air cooled tube:
and although Marsha (the name we finally decided on for her) had some light stressed leaves
(due to both changing photoperiods)
(and low light levels, much more pronounced yesterday, but the small new leaves are much lighter than the old growth)
Some of the tops I F.I.M'd the other day, are now pushing out 4 tops =)
Also pre-training her for the scrog, as you can tell in these pics, I bend her over every day (she likes it)
and another:
Going to go put her to bed now for her first 12 hr nap, Excited for the next nine weeks! Martain Kush trim party on the calendar
stylez rasta smoke
(as you may have seen, we're using Humboldt nutrients, here's all the ones I'm using so far, there will be more bottles to break out come flower time: CalMag, Verde, FlavorFul, Master A, Master B, also ph up and ph down there+soil and hydro feeding schedules)
Ph'd all the buckets to 5.5-5.8 (tending to ph on the low side because I know they have a tendency to bounce back quick, but I'm noticing way less bounceback of ph, 1-1.3 points less ph rebound than before which I'm mostly attributing to the fact that all our water is now RO water. I've always used distilled or filtered, never straight from the tap, but my tapwater ph is 8 and the distilled where I was getting it was close to the same. Now my tapwater, I know why. My wife checked the filter on the Pur pitcher and found white sludge, that combined with my knowledge of the waters high ph screams dissolved salts. When i was filtering my water, it must have not been getting them all out, because
now that my friend loaned me this 100 gallon a day RO machine,
my water comes out much more neutral, 7-7.2, after adding nutes (at least thus far in the feeding regimens) it comes out at a lovely 5.7-5.9 and as I mentioned, having to deal with less rebound in the res because of it.
Just noticed some green algae growing on top of the perlite this morning:
and was really concerned, but got online and got the lowdown on it and found that it's normal and mostly harmless though it can cause problems occasionally if left unchecked. The cure was easy enough, spray it with 1% Hydrogen Peroxide.
Had some 3% and diluted it 1/3 strength
sprayed the algae sparingly, should take care of it and when the plants grow big they should take all its light so it can't grow back, in the future we'll probably use covers to avoid it altogether. So far, just had the airstones floating at about mid-bucket height, their weight held them a few inches below the water, but I felt that deeper percolation would be a benefit, so decided to rig a sinker system to keep the airstones on the bottom. I read that if you use metal parts in a res, they should be stainless steel or titanium, so
I cleaned out some stainless sockets really well, and wired them to the airstones:
We are now much more satisfied with our percolation as a result of this.
Have continued topfeeding all the buckets without bubbles with the same nute mix as the bubblers are getting,
some seem to have snapped out of any deficency:
others seem no worse but no better:
and one has gotten a bit worse, showing a classic, semi-advanced iron deficiency:
But all in all they're looking good:
We had quarantined that Martian Kush off in the furnace room under a little cfl for a week (24 hr. light cycle) because it had a bug that ate our little Superbud auto, but now that the autos are in their room, I brought it out into the eventual mother/photoperiod strain room, and vegged it out a couple more days, still don't have my HID's figured out, gonna have to hire an electrician, but my friend who loaned us the RO machine also
loaned us a dual spectrum thousie in an air cooled tube:
(due to both changing photoperiods)
(and low light levels, much more pronounced yesterday, but the small new leaves are much lighter than the old growth)
Some of the tops I F.I.M'd the other day, are now pushing out 4 tops =)
Also pre-training her for the scrog, as you can tell in these pics, I bend her over every day (she likes it)
and another:
Going to go put her to bed now for her first 12 hr nap, Excited for the next nine weeks! Martain Kush trim party on the calendar
stylez rasta smoke
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When you get rolling = a whole bunch of green.
Do you think res. water temp. might be affecting PH. I know there is a sweet spot temp. And have read that in winter or in cooler climates aquarium type heaters are used. In the summer, I know many growers have had to keep water temp. down.
Has the buffering worked out somewhat. That is less of a swing.
Do you think res. water temp. might be affecting PH. I know there is a sweet spot temp. And have read that in winter or in cooler climates aquarium type heaters are used. In the summer, I know many growers have had to keep water temp. down.
Has the buffering worked out somewhat. That is less of a swing.
Thanks, yeah, excited to see these girls really explode with some rapid growth! Yeah, definitely less ph swing and on the next round of plants we'll start, the medium will be properly flushed out beforehand and hopefully be even better yet. As far as my res temp, I think I'm pretty well in the sweet spot there, the buckets sit on a concrete floor and are lit by only T5's thus far, so while I haven't measured it (don't have a thermometer for measuring water temp) it feels cool to the touch but not ice cold, maybe 65 or so. I think our ph woes were due more to the salinity of my filtered water and a lack of proper medium flush. Don't think we'll have any issues with either of those henceforth, though =)
7/20/13: Corrected ph again in the auto room, and am very pleased to report that the ph swing on a couple of them remained in the acceptable hydro range, and the others were not too far off the mark, think we're getting that issue well under control. Update for our flowering martain kush: end of day 3 of flower, just mixed up 2 gallons of water with week 1 bloom nutrients and fed her and although I didn't have any fencing handy, I decided to make do with some extension cord, duct tape and thread and
tie her down instead of scrogging her, check it out:
Wherever the duct tape is touching the stalk, I doubled it up so no stickiness is touching the plant, already had been bending her over several times a day, so it was pretty easy to tie her down. Excited to see how she'll respond to the training! stylez rasta smoke
tie her down instead of scrogging her, check it out:
Wherever the duct tape is touching the stalk, I doubled it up so no stickiness is touching the plant, already had been bending her over several times a day, so it was pretty easy to tie her down. Excited to see how she'll respond to the training! stylez rasta smoke
Can you tell me about your RO system. Looks small and simple. Carrying 5 gallon jugs in ever week gets tiring.
Bright light ought to turn her into an Amazon woman. Looks like she is enjoying her training.
Bright light ought to turn her into an Amazon woman. Looks like she is enjoying her training.
