1st grow evar thread - hydro, autopot, tent and autoflowers

[schmeghead]

Hey guys, one seedlings shell is still stuck and the little leaves haven't come out yet?  Should I remove the shell?

[Stix87]

iv done it a few times with no dramas but if you do be very very gentle

[schmeghead]

G'day everyone, here's an update.

I've ordered and received my seeds. I ordered a few auto fems but got some freebies, here's what all I got now:

1 Cheese Regular
2 Auto Green Poison Auto Fem
1 Bomb Ice Fem
2 Auto Blueberry Auto Fem
3 Auto 60 Day Wonder Auto Fem
3 Auto Jack 47 Auto Fem
3 Kandy Kush Fem


I germinated 1 60 Day Wonder and 1 Green Poison and they are now 10 days old in the Autopots. The 60 day wonder already has 2 leaves and 2 more baby leaves coming out. The GP is just starting to show it's 2nd set of leaves. I started them in 2 separate shot glasses of tap water for 2 days, then wet tissue for 36hrs. They had about an inch and a half size tap roots so I popped them into the ground.

I spray watered for the 1st week then gave 2 good waterings with about 64oz of water each pot then read a thread here to only water seedlings every other day with 32oz water. So, I cut back and didn't water today. It's still moist up to my first knuckle. Now, here's the setup:

• 2x 4 gallon autopots
• 2 inches of Growstones at the bottom
• 2:1:1 of Phat coco buffered and cal/mag enriched/perlite/growstones
• 600w HPS at max height from the seedlings
• 2 growlush fans blowing on the seedlings
• CF filter on the ground and growlush fan pushing up thru the cooltube and exit exhaust coming out the top of the robe
• Temps were over 85F so I put an air conditioner in the room to keep it at 77F
• I have lights on 24/7 but I did try one day at 18/6 but it got too cold in the room, so I'm going to go 24/7 until they show sex then cut back to 20/4 with the 4hrs of darkness during the afternoon so it doesn't get so cold

I want to post pics but don't want to attach them to the website but link them to a host so I can delete them later if I need to.

Questions are:

How much should I be watering (top down) until I turn on the Autopots?
Does my lighting plan sound OK?

[Naycha]

I've never used that medium so all i can say about watering is don't overdo it. I sometimes let my plants get to the droopy stage just so I know how long it takes for them to use up the moisture in the pot.

 

I like to get plants as close to the light asap so I'd gradually drop the light bit by bit keeping an eye on them to make sure they're not getting too hot.

 

We don't allow images hosted offsite for that very reason. It ruins threads and makes the forum messy when ppl decide to delete all their pics.

 

Naycha

[schmeghead]

Here's a pic of my sad autoflowering fem green poison.  she's looking droopy.  am I overwatering?  

 

My 60 day wonder autoflowering fem is looking better.

 

I have a journal on the autoflower network and some say it's not humid enough and i'm overwatering.  should i not water for a few days and let her recover?  some say to put a humidity dome on top of her.  what i did is buy a cheap humidifier to get RH up to 70%.

 

any advise on helping to save my seedlings?

Edited November 26, 2013 by schmeghead

[See]

You can cut clear plastic drink bottles down to to use as a humidity domes and place them over your plants while they are young.

[Frank Reynolds]

If you have the auto pot system switch it off! Otherwise coco will just be sitting water. Hand water plants until they fill pots with roots

[schmeghead]

If you have the auto pot system switch it off! Otherwise coco will just be sitting water. Hand water plants until they fill pots with roots

 

I haven't switched it on yet but I'm going on 12 days now in the ground and they are tiny for this stage.  See the above pics, they are tiny right?

 

I put a cut 1L soda bottle, the top cut off, on top with holes drilled on the bottom.  I also have a humidfier on the way by mail order.

 

How long do I hand water so the roots will get to the bottom of the pot with the growstones and when do I turn the system on?  When do I start to water top down with nutes and how much water do I use and how much nutes do I use?  How often do I water?

 

Some have said 1L every 5 days at 1/4th strength nutes.  Is that right?

[Sir PsychoHashy]

Hey Schmeg, love the Red Dwarf reference. 

 

They do seem a little underdeveloped for near 2 weeks, if I was to hazard a guess I'd say they're possibly getting bogged down from over watering.  One problem you may have with this is the size of the pots.  Even as the plants use up the water they need, which isn't much at this stage, all the moisture in the rest of the medium will just keep wicking into the root zone, keeping it permanently wet.  If you need to stick to that size pot it may be worth letting them dry out for longer until the plants grow some more.  Also with the auto, might be worth pushing the boundaries with nutrient strength a little more, Buzzo has a good tute on growing/feeding autos, might be worth having a look.

 

Not sure what those temps convert to in celcius, but maybe the AC isn't necessary.  As for the humidity dome, I would urge you to wait for more knowlegeable advice, but it is my understanding that seedlings do not need high humidity, and that it may even be detrimental or cause problems.  My understanding may be wrong though.

 

Aside from that the best advice I can give you is be patient, once they get a good rootball developed, and a bit of leafy solar panel action, they will take off, it's always a little slow up to that point.

[schmeghead]

Here's a quick update.  I put some chicken poo fertilizer around the top of the AGP and she seemed to take off with the ferts and humidity dome.  Then I turned on the Autopot system and the 60 day wonder seems to be drinking water, the AGP isn't drinking yet.  The rez is 45L and I used about 15ml of grow A + B along with some seasol.

 

Now, the main leaves on the AGP are showing some yellow signs.  

 

The AGP is the 4 leaf one, the 60 day wonder is the slightly bigger one with maybe 5 or 6 leaves out now.

 

Here's their new home now.  I'm going to start another one I think.  Airdome at the bottom, 1/3rd growstones at the bottom and 2/3rds perlite and phat cocos.  I'm not confident in the first 2 grows.  I'll try another AGP as the advertised yield is 400-500g's.