Auto Grow

[Rootsruler]

Got some free Femmed Auto seeds so I thought I'd try them out while I prepare the tent for the photos.

Temp - 74°
Humidity - 51%
DLI - 17.2
Leaf Temp - No leaves yet
VPD - 1.21 kPa

Running hardware store potting mix. Kellogs Patio Plus Organic with 30% Perlite mixed in. I added a horizon of some compost our local community garden uses near the bottom of the pot. Curious to see what happens when the roots hit it.

Cultivars are:

Scarlet Runtz
Scarlet Grapes
Bessies Hotcakes
Razzbergers

Two of each. We'll see if they germinate. I just used what I had laying around as far as pots. The gallon pots I want to try out multiple feeds a day. Like Fertigation.

 

[kaw900r]

Is that the highest the temp gets? I shoot for around 80 for seedlings to leaves. I tried my first auto and it's a little boring. Nice size tent

 

[Skinnypuppy80]

I was under the impression that RH should be like 70-80%? I would not take my word for it though lol! Of 9 seeds, I got 5 to germ. Out of those, I got 2 to survive. The pictured one below is the lone survivor, the other got thrown cuz wasn't gonna have room for it. Using the VG though, w my photos, I got 5/5 to germ w ease!

That thing survived crown rot and all around stupid bad husbandry lol. My first attempts, so yeah, I wouldn't go by anything I think except the exceptional germ method of the VG. Stupid easy, even I didn't mess it up! Best of wishes to a spectacular grow!!

 

[Rootsruler]

Is that the highest the temp gets? I shoot for around 80 for seedlings to leaves. I tried my first auto and it's a little boring. Nice size tent

I have 4 lights hanging in the tent for the photo grow but currently have only 2 running at around 25% for the autos so not enough heat generation from the lights to get temp higher. If I turn off the exhaust fan the temp rises to around 75° and right now I don't have any leaves that air exchanges in the tent would benefit so once I have sprouts I'll turn on the tent heater and readjust exhaust fan speed so that I can both raise the temp in the tent and get more air exchange. For seedlings and sprouts I like to keep the temp a little lower than when I'm in mid veg.

Spring is the time the seeds that last year's flowers dropped will begin to germinate due to warmer temps. Average high temps in the spring are around 65° - 70° so me and Ma Nature are right in line!

I was under the impression that RH should be like 70-80%? I would not take my word for it though lol! Of 9 seeds, I got 5 to germ. Out of those, I got 2 to survive. The pictured one below is the lone survivor, the other got thrown cuz wasn't gonna have room for it. Using the VG though, w my photos, I got 5/5 to germ w ease!
View attachment 88291
That thing survived crown rot and all around stupid bad husbandry lol. My first attempts, so yeah, I wouldn't go by anything I think except the exceptional germ method of the VG. Stupid easy, even I didn't mess it up! Best of wishes to a spectacular grow!!

Humidity where I live rarely breaks 30%. Once they sprout I can turn up the humidity a bit more. I like to shoot for around 65% at seedling/sprout stage. I've been following your grow. Nice setup.

 

[Skinnypuppy80]

I have 4 lights hanging in the tent for the photo grow but currently have only 2 running at around 25% for the autos so not enough heat generation from the lights to get temp higher. If I turn off the exhaust fan the temp rises to around 75° and right now I don't have any leaves that air exchanges in the tent would benefit so once I have sprouts I'll turn on the tent heater and readjust exhaust fan speed so that I can both raise the temp in the tent and get more air exchange. For seedlings and sprouts I like to keep the temp a little lower than when I'm in mid veg.

Spring is the time the seeds that last year's flowers dropped will begin to germinate due to warmer temps. Average high temps in the spring are around 65° - 70° so me and Ma Nature are right in line!


Humidity where I live rarely breaks 30%. Once they sprout I can turn up the humidity a bit more. I like to shoot for around 65% at seedling/sprout stage. I've been following your grow. Nice setup.

I'm in a 2nd floor apartment in northern mn, so it's like 12% here. Dunno, I shouldn't have chimed in w my .02$ that's worth like 1/100 of that lol
Thank you man, I appreciate it! PLEASE feel free to give me any advice/opinions
I'm gonna start a new thread documenting/asking for advice on the grow as it has turned from getting advice from getting set up to getting advice/documentation of the grow

 

[Rootsruler]

So this went to shit real quick. The media has shown to not be workable in the form I thought it would. The wood chip based media compacts much like clayish dirt so a 30% perlite mix is not sufficient if you want to use this media. I would go 50% media/50% perlite or, better yet 40% media and 60% perlite.

Growth is super slow and root development is hindered greatly by the compaction and lack of a comparable O² exchange we get from the coir/peat/perlite mixes I typically use.

The media is cheap to start with as a base. $7 a bag at HD. I would still be messing with it to see if I could get it to work but I just found a spot not to far from me that has Roots Organic Original for $14 for a 1.75 bag. I stocked up and bought 15 bags. That should last me for at least a couple years.

So...verdict....

The wood chip based media could work but would take some experimentation to get there. If you don't have a source of cannabis specific media cheap enough near you this may be a possible alternative. That was my dilemma until I found a good supplier close. As much as I like to DIY this is one of those times where buying it rather than DIYing it is the best option for me.

As far as the plants, I was merciful and killed them off. After 10 weeks in the sun and you're only a foot tall? Bye bye..............

 

[Stoneyluv]

whats next Roots?

 

[Tremojem]

Keep us posted RR...

 

[Rootsruler]

whats next Roots?

Keep us posted RR...

I have some femmed White Widow x Sour D sprouts going in the 5 x 5. Five total but 3 are blowing up while the fourth from the original batch just woke up and is starting to go. The other was a re seed as the first sprout died in the transplant so she's way behind but we'll see if I can catch her up some.

The 3 that are blowing up are coming into their 5th node so I'll probably top them in the next few days, let them run for a couple more weeks so they can sprout more lateral branching and see where I am with the others. After that I'll transplant the 3 into 7 gal cloth pots while I wait for the other 2 to catch up some. I may FIM the 3 while I wait for the other 2 to catch up to even them up some. Once I get them around 18" -24" I'll drop the net over them and start setting up the irrigation system.

The stragglers kind of play into my hands as on this run I'm going to run the "veg to the edge" so that I get taller colas. Last run I kept the light on/off temps within a few degrees of each other and I didn't get much stretch so I feel better about running them to the edge as I'll be doing the same thing keeping the lights on/off temps as close as I can. Last time I left around 10" of space for the plants to stretch into and got 8" colas for the most part at harvest. Growing out to the edge of the screen before flip should yield me 12" - 15" colas conservatively. I'm not running the same genetics as last time so there is that but from the leaf structure it looks like the strain is more indica dominant than sativa so that also makes me feel better about vegging to the edge of the screen.

I have a 2 x 2 that I'm probably going to turn into a mother tent when I start taking clippings off of these plants. I prefer running clones than seeds. Way faster turnaround and hardier on transplant.

I was going to start a journal but I've been super busy with work so not much energy left at the end of the day. I may do an abbreviated version where I'm not posting practically every day but that depends on if I get approved for a government contract that I'm trying to get. I'm up as a sub for a new building the county is taking bids on.

 

[Rootsruler]

 

[Rootsruler]

Final Home transplant. Setting up the irrigation. Gonna let them chill for a few days after transplant so that they get comfortable in their new home.

Good news is when I was transplanting I saw lots of good root development. I dusted the transplant holes with Myco and watered the plants in with water only. These last few feeds I've had to give them nutrient as I was seeing a lot of the new growth starting to lime up in color. As soon as I started dosing them with nutrient they started greening up but it's going to take a second before they get good and green because most of the nutrient seems to be dedicated to growth for the most part. The larger ones are really sucking up water so I'll be doing another feed in a few days. I should have the res, pump and lines all setup to test it. Once I've got the feed volume dialed in I can drop the net over them and start plant training. The main stem on this cultivar is getting pretty stout so I need to start training soon. I already topped them once. 7 gal cloth pots.

Final pot position will probably look more like them in the corner with all the branches splayed out, shooting towards the center in a fan shape.

The storage bins I was using as catch plates fell apart in the move so I got some real catch plates. Might do the golf ball thing to get them up off the floor. Or not.......

Some of the first large leaves are showing signs of dying off. Should I trim them or just let them die naturally?

I also need to get in there and do a preliminary clean up of the tent walls and gear. The fan in the pic got a quick wipe but you can see that there is still extensive calcium phosphate dusting throughout from the tap water I've been using in the humidifiers. I've been too tired to be hauling 5 gal jugs of distilled water but if I want to keep the tent free of calcium dusting I guess I'm going to have to suck it up.
BTW it's been so dry out these parts that I had to employ the busted T3 humi that ACI replaced for me along with the one that still works with the probe. The busted one runs constantly and the probed one I use to keep Humi levels where I want them when the busted one runs out of water. Running the busted one at full vapor volume constantly maintains a 60% humidity level. Once I flip the tent I'll lower the Humi level to 55%. As soon as I see pistils I'll drop it to 50% and once flowers have set in I'll drop it to 45% and let it cruise to the end at that level. PPFD is currently set to around 565. I'll adjust the lighting to be more in accordance to the DLI strategy I like to use.

 

[Tremojem]

Curious about temps when your target rh is 45%?

 

[Rootsruler]

Curious about temps when your target rh is 45%?

When the humidity gets that low I like to run my temps a little cooler to keep evaporation down along with improving the VPD. Currently, at lights on, the tent runs at a steady 81° air temp/77° leaf temp 60% humidity with just the lights heating the tent. At lights off I'm working on getting the tent heater dialed in to try and maintain a 5° temp swing from lights on. The heater has an internal thermostat but uses a rotary dial to set the on point so it's a little tougher figuring out where it turns on. Currently, at lights off, the heater will kick on at 72° and shut off at 80°. Humidity will fluctuate between 55% at high temp and 60% at low temp. I'm curious what these lights off temp fluctuations do to the plant in regard to stress. Will the cyclical rise and fall of temp and humidity stress them out to a noticeable point?

I was taught that minor fluctuations are normal and that what is most important is the 24 hr averages but how much fluctuation can there be before the plant starts to stress out? How do the repeated cycles of the plant going in and out of stress affect its overall growth? The fluctuation periods are short, 3 minutes to rise 8° and 7 to cool down to when the heater activates at 72°, so I would imagine the plant can't respond fast enough. AC Infinity's Thermoforge T3 is supposed to be able to fine tune the fluctuations so that the hills and valleys on the chart are much longer. I'm sure this is better than short spikes of heat and cool but I'm curious if the short intervals are detrimental to lights off plant development.

 

[Bandit420]

Final Home transplant. Setting up the irrigation. Gonna let them chill for a few days after transplant so that they get comfortable in their new home.

Good news is when I was transplanting I saw lots of good root development. I dusted the transplant holes with Myco and watered the plants in with water only. These last few feeds I've had to give them nutrient as I was seeing a lot of the new growth starting to lime up in color. As soon as I started dosing them with nutrient they started greening up but it's going to take a second before they get good and green because most of the nutrient seems to be dedicated to growth for the most part. The larger ones are really sucking up water so I'll be doing another feed in a few days. I should have the res, pump and lines all setup to test it. Once I've got the feed volume dialed in I can drop the net over them and start plant training. The main stem on this cultivar is getting pretty stout so I need to start training soon. I already topped them once. 7 gal cloth pots.

Final pot position will probably look more like them in the corner with all the branches splayed out, shooting towards the center in a fan shape.

The storage bins I was using as catch plates fell apart in the move so I got some real catch plates. Might do the golf ball thing to get them up off the floor. Or not.......

Some of the first large leaves are showing signs of dying off. Should I trim them or just let them die naturally?

I also need to get in there and do a preliminary clean up of the tent walls and gear. The fan in the pic got a quick wipe but you can see that there is still extensive calcium phosphate dusting throughout from the tap water I've been using in the humidifiers. I've been too tired to be hauling 5 gal jugs of distilled water but if I want to keep the tent free of calcium dusting I guess I'm going to have to suck it up.
BTW it's been so dry out these parts that I had to employ the busted T3 humi that ACI replaced for me along with the one that still works with the probe. The busted one runs constantly and the probed one I use to keep Humi levels where I want them when the busted one runs out of water. Running the busted one at full vapor volume constantly maintains a 60% humidity level. Once I flip the tent I'll lower the Humi level to 55%. As soon as I see pistils I'll drop it to 50% and once flowers have set in I'll drop it to 45% and let it cruise to the end at that level. PPFD is currently set to around 565. I'll adjust the lighting to be more in accordance to the DLI strategy I like to use.

View attachment 101368

Good to see you around again and growing some weed Dude!

 

[Tremojem]

When the humidity gets that low I like to run my temps a little cooler to keep evaporation down along with improving the VPD. Currently, at lights on, the tent runs at a steady 81° air temp/77° leaf temp 60% humidity with just the lights heating the tent. At lights off I'm working on getting the tent heater dialed in to try and maintain a 5° temp swing from lights on. The heater has an internal thermostat but uses a rotary dial to set the on point so it's a little tougher figuring out where it turns on. Currently, at lights off, the heater will kick on at 72° and shut off at 80°. Humidity will fluctuate between 55% at high temp and 60% at low temp. I'm curious what these lights off temp fluctuations do to the plant in regard to stress. Will the cyclical rise and fall of temp and humidity stress them out to a noticeable point?

I was taught that minor fluctuations are normal and that what is most important is the 24 hr averages but how much fluctuation can there be before the plant starts to stress out? How do the repeated cycles of the plant going in and out of stress affect its overall growth? The fluctuation periods are short, 3 minutes to rise 8° and 7 to cool down to when the heater activates at 72°, so I would imagine the plant can't respond fast enough. AC Infinity's Thermoforge T3 is supposed to be able to fine tune the fluctuations so that the hills and valleys on the chart are much longer. I'm sure this is better than short spikes of heat and cool but I'm curious if the short intervals are detrimental to lights off plant development.

So when you get to mid/late flowering stage, and your target rh is 45%, what is the temperature target. I understand the need to reduce the temperature and that is why I am asking. Pulse VPD chart says right around 72/73 Fahrenheit for a 1.3ish VPD. I was just wondering if you pushed the envelope at all. I get it too, alot of literature out there suggesting lower temps/rh, lower DLI, etc. Trying to mimic Fall or Autumn season.

 

[Stoneyluv]

yeah great to see you back in action Roots!!! i'l be following along for sure!!!!

Some of the first large leaves are showing signs of dying off. Should I trim them or just let them die naturally?

if leaves aren't producing chlorophyll and not giving any energy to the plant i consider it dead weight and cut it free. some folks don't and wait until they fall from a slight touch.

i really feel it just comes down to personal preference and one is not worse than the other.

 

[Rootsruler]

So when you get to mid/late flowering stage, and your target rh is 45%, what is the temperature target. I understand the need to reduce the temperature and that is why I am asking. Pulse VPD chart says right around 72/73 Fahrenheit for a 1.3ish VPD. I was just wondering if you pushed the envelope at all. I get it too, alot of literature out there suggesting lower temps/rh, lower DLI, etc. Trying to mimic Fall or Autumn season.

I usually hover around 75° - 77°. My VPD depends on what the leaf temp is so air temp minus leaf temp differential chart numbers are the VPD range I'm shooting for. Dimlux has VPD charts for differentials up to 5° difference.

Right before I posted this message I heard a weird sputtering sound going off intermittently. It was my power center going on and off. I guess over time the tent heater wore it down and now it's overloading so I removed the power center and switched it to higher amperage power center so it's running but I need to keep an eye on that. The power center was getting slightly warm so I wasn't all that worried but it must've hit a tipping point. The power center was an old UPS I had lying around. I wanted to see if it could handle the power load. Guess not.

 

[Rootsruler]

Good to see you around again and growing some weed Dude!

Finally ran out of the last harvest. I've been super busy and Cali weed is cheap so I figured I could bridge it with some dispo weed until I had a chance to get the tent up. After a couple of visits I got so disgusted with the dispo weed I decided to just bite the bullet and set it all up again regardless of how busy I am. Locating a cheap source for media helped that along also.

You know the dispo weed is crap when even salting it with diamonds doesn't do the trick.........

I'm one of those people who's never satisfied with my setups and I'm always messing or experimenting with something trying to improve it but I forgot how time consuming it is to set up and try and dial in your gear. I had a nice little setup going at the old house but this is the first time I'm setting up in a new house with completely different weather to contend with.

I know I'm just being a whiny bitch so I'll shut up now......

 

[Tremojem]

I usually hover around 75° - 77°. My VPD depends on what the leaf temp is so air temp minus leaf temp differential chart numbers are the VPD range I'm shooting for. Dimlux has VPD charts for differentials up to 5° difference.

Right before I posted this message I heard a weird sputtering sound going off intermittently. It was my power center going on and off. I guess over time the tent heater wore it down and now it's overloading so I removed the power center and switched it to higher amperage power center so it's running but I need to keep an eye on that. The power center was getting slightly warm so I wasn't all that worried but it must've hit a tipping point. The power center was an old UPS I had lying around. I wanted to see if it could handle the power load. Guess not.

For sure...I used the standard -2 degrees differential. It makes sense RR. Good plan indeed.

 

[Rootsruler]

Training begins......