Grow Mediums Newbie Autoflower Grow (autopot)

Every grower does things differently LOL! That’s one of the best things about growing for me, so many philosophies and viewpoints. I’ve used floralicious plus in my dwc buckets without a problem. I also use an air pump in my reservoir because a grower with far more experience than I suggested it. I figure I have to muck with the pH anyway LOL.

@St. Tom, not to hijack the diary, but I just built a top-off reservoir for my dwc buckets, do you recommend a line cleaner?

if it has any tubing ect it would help and stop blockages and salt build up
Try it but be prepared to check your pH levels in the reservoir at least once a day because the air pump is probably going to raise the pH levels on you. Most people do not use a air pump or a circulating pump in the autopot reservoir because of pH levels. And if you are using are domes you will find that the air from their domes oxygenates the feed water in that Auto Parts trays so why bother doing it in the reservoir
lots suggest a small pump for the res just to keep your feed mixed and my ph never really alters it says dont use airstones for that reason this is were i found my pump
 

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Thank you everyone for your thoughts and advice … When it comes to the rez .. I think with this grow I am not going to use the aquarium pump inside the res .. as I am newbie and don't want to play with the PH a lot if I don't have to .. but I think the next grow I am going to use it just to compare the difference... I know I will become more brave once I feel more comfortable with this new hobbie …

Well I just checked in on the girls and look what I found...… Samara (aka Dark Devil 1) and Lilith (aka Dark Devil 2) both have popped out of the soil … The lemon Haze isn't showing up yet but that's okay she is stretching her root... I have them under 8 CFL lights and they seem to be loving it right how ….

I am wondering though .. when should I start using my LED lights? .. I have a Optic 6 Led
 

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It’s my understanding that

Air stone messes with ph because of the oxygen being pumped into the solution

Submersible pump just moves the solution and doesn’t inject any air so I can’t see why that would affect ph. I though the problem people had with those was that they put off some heat and raised the temp of the res. A solution to that would be to put the pump on a timer. Something I’m actually considering doing so it kicks on to mix things up once a day. Maybe have it turn on and run for 15 minutes to a half hour daily.

:shrug:
 
Thank you everyone for your thoughts and advice … When it comes to the rez .. I think with this grow I am not going to use the aquarium pump inside the res .. as I am newbie and don't want to play with the PH a lot if I don't have to .. but I think the next grow I am going to use it just to compare the difference... I know I will become more brave once I feel more comfortable with this new hobbie …

Well I just checked in on the girls and look what I found...… Samara (aka Dark Devil 1) and Lilith (aka Dark Devil 2) both have popped out of the soil … The lemon Haze isn't showing up yet but that's okay she is stretching her root... I have them under 8 CFL lights and they seem to be loving it right how ….

I am wondering though .. when should I start using my LED lights? .. I have a Optic 6 Led

Nicely done! That is a great start. The coco looks much too wet though. Might have been ok to get them above ground, but the upcoming roots will not do well if you keep it like that. Over watering is the plague for seedlings. How much does one of those cups weigh right now?
 
That Optic 6 looks like a beast of a light! I’d turn that on as soon as lemon haze pops her head out. Looks like you need to keep the light about 4 feet from your seedlings. Brighter than the sun! :bow:
 
Thank you everyone for your thoughts and advice … When it comes to the rez .. I think with this grow I am not going to use the aquarium pump inside the res .. as I am newbie and don't want to play with the PH a lot if I don't have to .. but I think the next grow I am going to use it just to compare the difference... I know I will become more brave once I feel more comfortable with this new hobbie …

Well I just checked in on the girls and look what I found...… Samara (aka Dark Devil 1) and Lilith (aka Dark Devil 2) both have popped out of the soil … The lemon Haze isn't showing up yet but that's okay she is stretching her root... I have them under 8 CFL lights and they seem to be loving it right how ….

I am wondering though .. when should I start using my LED lights? .. I have a Optic 6 Led
Looking good although, I have to agree with @lunarman they look a little wet or your coco is really dark. If wet, just be sure they dry out over the next few days or risk them damping off. I usually start mine directly in the Autopots and don’t hand feed them until day 5. Of course it could vary a little based on your humidity/temps.

As for the LED, I’m a big believer in getting those babies under the real light right away. I pop my seeds under a COB, now mind you it’s smashed against the ceiling of my tent to keep it as far away as possible, but it’s under it. Then a little bit at a time I start to ratchet it down closer never getting closer than 32 inches for a while. But that’s me and I’m kind of crazy with trying new things. I used to keep them under a starter light only till they all showed their true leaves and looked sturdy, then start high and work your way closer. Don’t rush the waterings or the light intensity and you will be good.

It’s my understanding that

Air stone messes with ph because of the oxygen being pumped into the solution

Submersible pump just moves the solution and doesn’t inject any air so I can’t see why that would affect ph. I though the problem people had with those was that they put off some heat and raised the temp of the res. A solution to that would be to put the pump on a timer. Something I’m actually considering doing so it kicks on to mix things up once a day. Maybe have it turn on and run for 15 minutes to a half hour daily.

:shrug:
:yeahthat: Agreed on all the above points, except perhaps for the need for mixing at all, depending on the nutrients used and your water. When home I check my girls usually nightly, which includes stirring the rez with a yardstick, measuring its depth, and pH. That’s all I do to that rez. Since switching to MegaCrop I have even gone, heaven forbid, two nights without stirring and it doesn’t seem to matter. When I travel for a week or more, the girls get loaded up with the full rez of nutrients and they are on their own for the week. Guess what, when I get home the girls look even better than if I had been there and no stirring. I’ve used an air stone and pump both on and off a timer, it’s just one more thing that can go wrong. Never really had a problem with AN Sensi Grow, Technaflora or MegaCrop, barring using anything from their lineups that might grow in the rez. I have a friend that uses GH products for hand watering but after seeing that stuff mixed up, I’m not sure I want it in my rez.

I’m still not sure why some users see buildup and sediment when using the same nutrients, except it has to be the water, right? This one has always confused me. :shrug:
 
Looking good although, I have to agree with @lunarman they look a little wet or your coco is really dark. If wet, just be sure they dry out over the next few days or risk them damping off. I usually start mine directly in the Autopots and don’t hand feed them until day 5. Of course it could vary a little based on your humidity/temps.

As for the LED, I’m a big believer in getting those babies under the real light right away. I pop my seeds under a COB, now mind you it’s smashed against the ceiling of my tent to keep it as far away as possible, but it’s under it. Then a little bit at a time I start to ratchet it down closer never getting closer than 32 inches for a while. But that’s me and I’m kind of crazy with trying new things. I used to keep them under a starter light only till they all showed their true leaves and looked sturdy, then start high and work your way closer. Don’t rush the waterings or the light intensity and you will be good.


:yeahthat: Agreed on all the above points, except perhaps for the need for mixing at all, depending on the nutrients used and your water. When home I check my girls usually nightly, which includes stirring the rez with a yardstick, measuring its depth, and pH. That’s all I do to that rez. Since switching to MegaCrop I have even gone, heaven forbid, two nights without stirring and it doesn’t seem to matter. When I travel for a week or more, the girls get loaded up with the full rez of nutrients and they are on their own for the week. Guess what, when I get home the girls look even better than if I had been there and no stirring. I’ve used an air stone and pump both on and off a timer, it’s just one more thing that can go wrong. Never really had a problem with AN Sensi Grow, Technaflora or MegaCrop, barring using anything from their lineups that might grow in the rez. I have a friend that uses GH products for hand watering but after seeing that stuff mixed up, I’m not sure I want it in my rez.

I’m still not sure why some users see buildup and sediment when using the same nutrients, except it has to be the water, right? This one has always confused me. :shrug:

Hey Hemi. Not surprised this subject has come up again and we cross paths. You remember the nasty build up I was getting? Well its gone now. I bought an RO Buddie 4 stage filter (including de ionization) for $50 and rigged up a system in the laundry room to keep a 50 gallon tote full. The tap water here is over 200 ppm (glacier fed) and my newly filtered water is 0 ppm. For a while I was mixing my tap water 50/50 with bottled RO water (which gave me about 120 ppm) and was still getting that nasty build up.

So I think its the hardness that causes this but also the composition of the tap water. Calcium etc. I ran 10 plants for 6+ weeks using megacrop, calmagpro, sweet candy and had hardly any build up. Now I'm using Advanced Bloom A/B (Tangs Easy) for flowering and again no build up happening. The RO buddie ranks up in the top tools I have bought for growing.
 
Hey Hemi. Not surprised this subject has come up again and we cross paths. You remember the nasty build up I was getting? Well its gone now. I bought an RO Buddie 4 stage filter (including de ionization) for $50 and rigged up a system in the laundry room to keep a 50 gallon tote full. The tap water here is over 200 ppm (glacier fed) and my newly filtered water is 0 ppm. For a while I was mixing my tap water 50/50 with bottled RO water (which gave me about 120 ppm) and was still getting that nasty build up.

So I think its the hardness that causes this but also the composition of the tap water. Calcium etc. I ran 10 plants for 6+ weeks using megacrop, calmagpro, sweet candy and had hardly any build up. Now I'm using Advanced Bloom A/B (Tangs Easy) for flowering and again no build up happening. The RO buddie ranks up in the top tools I have bought for growing.
I missed the first part of this convo but I just switched to MC etc. and my first fill of the res developed nasty brown gunk. I have super hard water - 330 ppm. Someone mentioned to premix the MC in hot water so in the second go around I did, so far so good.
 
I missed the first part of this convo but I just switched to MC etc. and my first fill of the res developed nasty brown gunk. I have super hard water - 330 ppm. Someone mentioned to premix the MC in hot water so in the second go around I did, so far so good.

That was @pop22 I think. I bought a single burner and a cheap pot and would heat up a couple liters of water and dump in all the powder and I also used a fast hand blender. I had totally dissolved the megacrop doing that method or so I thought. But I still had the exact same build up. I read that same post and checked the mentioned temp and then measured how hot I was usually heating the water and it was not nearly as hot as mentioned. But by then I moved to RO water so I wasn't get any more build up so I didn't increase the temp to see what that did. If you have hard water like yours and that hot water method is working then that's awesome. It must be the heat does something.
 
That was @pop22 I think. I bought a single burner and a cheap pot and would heat up a couple liters of water and dump in all the powder and I also used a fast hand blender. I had totally dissolved the megacrop doing that method or so I thought. But I still had the exact same build up. I read that same post and checked the mentioned temp and then measured how hot I was usually heating the water and it was not nearly as hot as mentioned. But by then I moved to RO water so I wasn't get any more build up so I didn't increase the temp to see what that did. If you have hard water like yours and that hot water method is working then that's awesome. It must be the heat does something.
I have my fingers crossed. My second res had the solution at only 25% and I only made up 4 gallons, still setting things up, so taking baby steps. I’ve got the air pump in there and there is quite a bit of pH drift, I have to keep reminding myself to order more pH down.
 
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