New Grower SPZ's Sour Livers Triple Automatic Grow

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It's my understanding that above 75 with water can damage roots. Now I've never done auto flower or Hydro. Where I live we lose power way too often for Hydro. Does anybody know what the ideal temperature for water is inside the pot I was under the impression that 70 was great

 

[SPZ]

It's my understanding that above 75 with water can damage roots. Now I've never done auto flower or Hydro. Where I live we lose power way too often for Hydro. Does anybody know what the ideal temperature for water is inside the pot I was under the impression that 70 was great

Hey it's Smiley Face, my main toad!!!!

What up man?! You guys may not know him on the forum but Smiles knows what he's talking about I promise!

Yeah I'm sure I'm over-fixating on my babies, I ought to just leave them alone until their next scheduled feeding, maybe a day past then, and stop poking at them. I'll figure something out for a little additional heat in the winter. One ingenious guy I saw was able to divert air from his furnace into the grow tent as needed during the winter. I have forced hot air that runs right next to the tent so I could probably do that, or introduce 100-200 watts of heat and I think I'll be set in the winter, no use worrying about it now.I think you're right shit is in range, if it is a tiny bit cool for seedlings we're getting past that anyway.

Oh by the way... here's a rep slap for a lurker turned poster, honored to have your first post on my thread I got another one for any other NE growers who want to come out of the shadows, looking at you @MAflowers

 

[SPZ]

Hey all, some more good news this morning! Astute observers will note that I germ'ed all five seeds that came in my Mephisto seed pack, but only four plants are present in the tent Well that is because I planted the fifth seed in a seedling size peat pot, saturated it, and left it under a germination dome in a protected spot in the garden. I honestly wrote it off when it didn't sprout at the same time as the others, but this morning I noticed that the germination lid had blown away in the wind this morning, so I checked and found this little princess hiding behind a hosta!

So if any of my little ladies in the tent have a problem in the seedling stage, I've got a backup ready step in! Assuming they all make it then I will have to figure out what to do with this girl, either an outdoor guerrilla grow (it's legal in my state but it is supposed to be in a fenced/locked area which I don't have), make room in my tent or give it to someone who can take care of it. I figure I'll leave her tucked in where she is until the third set of leaves develop anyway. I haven't watered her since day one so I put literally a few drops of water on her and left the germ box open since it is supposed to be hella hot and humid today anyway.

 

[SPZ]

Hey guys, I think I've figured out why three of the four girls are getting a slow start and the one is taking off. The reason being over-watering on my part.

I was trying to figure out what, if anything, could possibly be different about the environment in one corner of the tent vs the other, when I've worked so hard to make the environment consistent. Ventilation? Lights at different height? It was during my commute that I remembered something... In order to heat up and germ the seeds, I had one cob hanging at 16" over one of the autopots for three days. Coincidentally, that is the pot with the plant that is doing great! I'm thinking that the rinsed coco in that pot got quite a bit more dried out than the others, and that is why that lady is doing great and the others lagging behind. And I think there are some other signs of over-watering, my runt has sort of sagging but not wilting leaves. I'm going to let the medium get much drier and lighter before the next feeding, which would be due today but I'm putting it off until either the top inch feels completely dry or I see signs of under-watering, whichever comes first.

 

[SPZ]

And another problem this morning... I noticed some yellow bits on the edges of the first leaves of Audry I. Here's a zoomed in pic that shows it well. Another symptom of overwatering? Nute or light burn? pH? S, this is hard, but I'm learning shit so ever day, so I'm trying to keep a positive outlook! Plus I'm soon going to be the proud owner of a digital pH meter. Any help is welcome if this looks familiar:

:

On a positive note the girl outdoors is looking great and it's going to be hot and humid the next few days so I'm just going to leave the germ dome off so she hardens off.

 

[SPZ]

Took this pic this morning. The problem with Audrey II seems to be progressing. I figure it is related to the overwatering since that is the only thing I can think of that is substantially different from Audrey IV who is still thriving. I've read overwatering can cause yellowing and nute lockout and stuff. It could be pH but you'd think all the ladies would have the same problem. I'm going to test the ph of the runnoff from all the pots tonight. I moved the light a couple of inches away just in case it is light burn. Here's a pic from this morning

 

[jelly0]

Oh man it does seem like an overwatering issue causing lockout... I hope they grow out of it

 

[SPZ]

Oh man it does seem like an overwatering issue causing lockout... I hope they grow out of it

Thanks for weighing in, Jelly. I'm kicking myself but it is all a learning experience. I figure just don't water them and see what happens is all I can do at this point.

Checking out your grows, btw, looking good!

 

[SPZ]

It's early in the grow but sadly I had a bit of an emergency intervention with the ladies tonight. The disorder with Audrey I has progressed further, and there's no visable improvement with the other affected plants. In order to take a pH sample I checked for any runoff from the pot. The trays looked dry with the pots in them, but I found that there is a feed channel in the tray, right under the pot, and they were all full of brown coco soaked water that had clearly been stewing for a while Also the pot socks, which fit snuggly right onto the pot and into the tray, were totally saturated. More bad news, I pH tested this highly concentrated liquid and I read 7-7.5 with the test drops.

I was a bit reassured when I made a tea with some coco from the top of the pot and tested it, that water reads 6.0, so the whole pot isn't full of 7.5 water or anything. I think that concentrated water is filled with the silicate I used to precharge the coco plus any salts that remained in the coco rinse water. Also Audrey IV continues to thrive and even grew a bit today, so I'm concerned about the pH but more concerned about the overwatering. I'm realizing that the autopots just weren't made to drain (the opposite, really), and that they had way too much water in them.

To attempt to accelerate the drying, I've removed the trays (and cleaned out the brown water), put the pots on shims, left the tent door opened, and aimed a fan on low so it's not really blowing on the plants but circulating the air under the pots. Here's a pic

I'll leave it like that overnight, I hope it accelerates the drying.

 

[SPZ]

Hi all, I've got sad news to share. The overwatering and pH problems have only gotten worse and I don't think I'm going to be able to salvage this grow

My theory is that as I attempted to dry out the autopots (which are still quite moist at the bottom despite my best efforts), the remaining water became more and more concentrated, raising the pH and EC to unacceptable levels. Audrey I, II, and III still look like seedlings after two full weeks of life, and the yellowing of the leaves that started on Audrey I is now apparent on all three of these plants. Audrey IV, whose pot had less moisture to begin with, grew to the size of a one week old plant and essentially stopped growing. There is some waviness to her leaves which I believe is a symptom of pH problems, but not yellowing or other trauma.

SO I made some executive decisions.



Rather than trying to keep these girls on life support to see if they develop further, I transplanted Audrey IV outside to a secret garden with her fifth sibling who was started outside. I know autos don't like to be transplanted but they obviously don't sitting in stagnant alkaline water either, and I feel like she's too young to withstand aggressive flushing. I'm trying to salvage the other three by putting them in small containers and flushing them with properly pH'd water, but I'm not hopeful. At this point I'm going to call it a win if I can grow out two of the five Sour Livers and quickly reset the indoor operation for the next run.