New Grower Second Auto Grow in the Auto Garage.

[Auto Garage]

Hello,
I'm about to grow some auto flowers so I thought I'd start a blog to share the journey. I've grown autos once over winter just to see what it was all about. I've been growing weed for like, I don't really know, off and on for 20 years now. I really enjoyed watching autos grow and they put off some decent stuff so I thought I'd try a spring crop with more thought and consideration than my last attempt. I know everybody is busy so I'll try and keep it to bullet points with a little commentary here and there. Thank you for your time in reading this. Any comments, questions or moral support would be much appreciated.

Soil Mix :
4 parts OF
1 Part Perlite
.5 Parts Rice Hulls
1 TBLSP Down To Earth Bio-Live 5-4-2 per 5 gallons of mixed dirt.
4 Cups Build a Flower per 5 Gallons of mixed dirt.

Top Fed Soil Amendments:
Build A Flower - 1 handful at pre flower, another aprox 4 weeks in This should be an inch or so spread across the pot's surface. I'll start my first layering when adding mulch after transplanting from solo cups.

*This soil mix is a bastardization of the mix @Tom Bombadil recommended. I basically looked at his mix, then looked at what I had on-hand and came up with this. I'm not sure about the addition of the 5-4-2 at 1 TBSP per 5 Gallon. I think it should be fine and the mix won't be too hot considering the amount of Perlite and Rice Hulls I'm adding to get the soil airy enough for the Autos.

**I've never used the Build-A-Flower soil amendment. Is "about a handful" enough for a 4 or 5 gallon pot?

What's in the drink:
Water for the first 3-4 weeks
Water with Kelp extract at pre flower
Water with molasses mid flower
Teas if I'm feeling crazy here and there around the beginning of flower.
A sip of CalMag every so often in flower
I pH to 6.420

Mulch:
Yeah I'm going to get some hay or something.

Cover Crop:
I've got clover but I'm not certain if necessary? Seems like something better used outdoors? Does anybody know if my fungus gnat larval buddies will go after a cover crops roots instead of the ladies bits?
*So many questions.

Other stuff about the grow:

Tents/Lights
3x4 with Migro Aray 4 (I only cover like 2x4 but I like air flow)
4x4 with ROI-E420 (I'm only covering like 3x3..)

Fans:
Yeah I got em, some suck, some blow.
*It's a party in here.

Pots:
4 Gallon smart pots in the 2x4
5 Gallon fabric pots in the 3x3

Genetics:
Mandalorian: Alf#5
Meph: Double Grape, Grape Walker Kush, Samsquanch OG
Binary Selections: Landlocked Funk
Fast Buds: Mexican Airlines

*I'm not sure what to grow or what combination. I usually mono crop each area to keep canopy stuff pretty easy to deal with.

Sooooo that's the basics I guess. I've got about 2 weeks to hash out any quirks or kinks. I've got time, but not much more money to throw at it so omitting items will be much easier than adding. I'll start adding pictures of the grow and all the nerdy little bits as time goes by.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

Double grape is the only one of those Ive grown, (ill see if I can find a pic of one)it can get pretty big.. like 36+ inches so be prepared for that if you run those seeds.
Ive never used the bio thrive stuff so i have no idea what effect that will have on the mix. Shouldnt hurt any.

Your mix is different than mine, so I cant guarantee it will react the same way so take all this advice with a grain of salt:


Ive been adding 15% volume of the build a flower into my mix so I dont have to top dress so aggressively(im basically lazy).
Whether or not thats a good idea with your mix is a guessing game so I cant recommend or not recommend doing so. Youll ave to experiment and get it dialed in.
I would probably top dress at least an inch layer of the build a flower 2-3 times throughout the grow minimum (strain dependent larger, more , smaller, less.) with a mulch to keep it hydrated.
A handful in a 5 gallon pot is nowhere near enough.
Make sure you have the build a a flower down early and have been watering it in for a couple weeks so it has a chance to kick in and is available to the plants when they need it. If you time it too late, you will tend to see deficiencies in early flower.
If you put down the build a flower and allow it to dry out at all, it wont do its job anywhere near its potential if at all.. So make sure it stays hydrated. I cant stress that enough. Its a bit of a challenge. sometimes you just have to pour a couple cups of water over the top of your pots to keep them wet without over watering. Once you figure it out it will become second nature.

also important:
You could start adding organic black strap molasses earlier than that. I use it from 3 weeks on every other or every third watering .5-1 tbsp per gallon.. It seems to help the build-a-flower work better and faster and provides a bit of calcium i believe. Ive not seen any negative effects from doing so.

Ill be watching, hope it goes well and you have a stress free healthy grow.
GL!

 

[Tom Bombadil]

This ones sitting in the middle of my 4x4.

 

[Zer0]

I like your soil setup and will be running something similar my next grow so I'll be watching and learning :smoking:

 

[Auto Garage]

Yeah, I see where you're adding the BaF into the mix. I'll do the same when I mix in the other fertilizer. ~4 cups of BaF sounds about right to me. Sounds like I should add my first layer of BAF as an amendment right after transplant when I add mulch? That plant is gorgeous. Looks like I'm busting out the trellis net and training like crazy.

Double grape is the only one of those Ive grown, (ill see if I can find a pic of one)it can get pretty big.. like 36+ inches so be prepared for that if you run those seeds.
Ive never used the bio thrive stuff so i have no idea what effect that will have on the mix. Shouldnt hurt any.

Your mix is different than mine, so I cant guarantee it will react the same way so take all this advice with a grain of salt:


Ive been adding 15% volume of the build a flower into my mix so I dont have to top dress so aggressively(im basically lazy).
Whether or not thats a good idea with your mix is a guessing game so I cant recommend or not recommend doing so. Youll ave to experiment and get it dialed in.
I would probably top dress at least an inch layer of the build a flower 2-3 times throughout the grow minimum (strain dependent larger, more , smaller, less.) with a mulch to keep it hydrated.
A handful in a 5 gallon pot is nowhere near enough.
Make sure you have the build a a flower down early and have been watering it in for a couple weeks so it has a chance to kick in and is available to the plants when they need it. If you time it too late, you will tend to see deficiencies in early flower.
If you put down the build a flower and allow it to dry out at all, it wont do its job anywhere near its potential if at all.. So make sure it stays hydrated. I cant stress that enough. Its a bit of a challenge. sometimes you just have to pour a couple cups of water over the top of your pots to keep them wet without over watering. Once you figure it out it will become second nature.

also important:
You could start adding organic black strap molasses earlier than that. I use it from 3 weeks on every other or every third watering .5-1 tbsp per gallon.. It seems to help the build-a-flower work better and faster and provides a bit of calcium i believe. Ive not seen any negative effects from doing so.

Ill be watching, hope it goes well and you have a stress free healthy grow.
GL!

 

[Auto Garage]

I like your soil setup and will be running something similar my next grow so I'll be watching and learning :smoking:

Sounds good. It's evolving a little bit as I find out more information. Looks Like I'm now adding the BaF to the mix as well. Thanks for stopping by. Have a good weekend.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

Yeah, I see where you're adding the BaF into the mix. I'll do the same when I mix in the other fertilizer. ~4 cups of BaF sounds about right to me. Sounds like I should add my first layer of BAF as an amendment right after transplant when I add mulch? That plant is gorgeous. Looks like I'm busting out the trellis net and training like crazy.

What container are you starting in? You want the seedlings to have a good amount of roots prior to transplant, enough to hold the soil together a little, but not be terribly root bound (ideally not root bound at all). If its a 4 inch pot, ide let the plants at least get big enough to reach out over the edges of the pot an inch or so before putting into their final pot. Make sure to put some seed starting mix in the transplant holes so the roots can ease their way into the new soil.. maybe a couple inches of seed mix around the hole and a sprinkling of mycorrhizae granules if you have any. If you dont have it, its not a huge issue.


If you're going to add b-a-f to the soil you can use a lighter top dress and/ or wait a week before you add it. You can still put the mulch down at transplant, then just pull it off and top dress then put it back. no problem.

 

[Auto Garage]

What container are you starting in? You want the seedlings to have a good amount of roots prior to transplant, enough to hold the soil together a little, but not be terribly root bound (ideally not root bound at all). If its a 4 inch pot, ide let the plants at least get big enough to reach out over the edges of the pot an inch or so before putting into their final pot. Make sure to put some seed starting mix in the transplant holes so the roots can easy their way into the new soil.. maybe a couple inches of seed mix around the hole and a sprinkling of mycorrhizae granules if you have any. If you dont have it, its not a huge issue.


If you're going to add b-a-f to the soil you can use a lighter top dress and/ or wait a week before you add it. You can still put the mulch down at transplant, then just pull it off and top dress then put it back. no problem.

I was going to use solo cups to start. I was shooting for transplant around week 2 based of what I've read. Sounds like they should at least put on a couple nodes and have a little over-hang, so perhaps even longer on the solo cup veg? I'll be uploading pics so hopefully I can get some help there, because all the FUD that's created around this topic has created some doubt in my own abilities. I'm contemplating using one of the various double cup methods to hedge my bets.

 

[Zer0]

I had to transplant out of my solos at day 7, roots were poking out my drain holes. The roots had not grown enough to hold the soil together as well as i liked but others agreed it was time to get out of solos. My mistake was not prepping my solo cups, to make life easier cut a solo in half and put another around it so u just slide the soil/plant out of the solo into its new home. i had to razor knife my single uncut solo cup lol was a nightmare but my plants lived, i used some mycorrhizae granules as @Tom Bombadil said above but its not life or death not using them just insurance that the roots get going faster

 

[Auto Garage]

I had to transplant out of my solos at day 7, roots were poking out my drain holes. The roots had not grown enough to hold the soil together as well as i liked but others agreed it was time to get out of solos. My mistake was not prepping my solo cups, to make life easier cut a solo in half and put another around it so u just slide the soil/plant out of the solo into its new home. i had to razor knife my single uncut solo cup lol was a nightmare but my plants lived, i used some mycorrhizae granules as @Tom Bombadil said above but its not life or death not using them just insurance that the roots get going faster

I could see that happening to me as well so I'm trying to plan for that. Did you just split a cup in half and insert it in another cup for your current grow or go with the net pot style?