How much to water?

[BlackBear]

Hey guys, doing my first grow ever (newbie) in a tent 1.2x1.2x2.0 with 3 autos, only have 2 sprouted so far had trouble with the 3rd so I germed another seed and planted it today and we will see how it goes. One white widow, one purple and one Pandora, all autos. Now the question is how much should I water them, I put them straight into big pots after germ they are 20L I know big but its what I had to work with. Hand watering run to waste system, substrate is coco 60% worm castings 30% perlite 10%. As its a big pot, by the time the top is dry the bottom will still be wet and as they are only sprouts their roots wont go down that far yet, should I just water enough for the top half or wait till its fairly dry and do the whole 20% run of at watering as to clear all the deposits left by nutes, salts etc which will be bad one the roots go down that far where they are not being flushed out?

 

I watered the substrate before I put the seeds in wasn't any run of but I thought it would be enough to get seedlings going but where do I go from now? 20% run of and wait for coco to dry a little, concern here is overwatering, or just top up as required, concern there is build up of nutes not being flushed out by fresh stuff?

 

Also lighting is 600w HPS Son-t

 

First pic is white widow day one, second is purple day one, then white widow day 2,  widow day 3 and purple day 2, widow sprouted a day before purple. They look skinny but they are days old and have since put a small fan to blow on them.

 

Any advice would be great cheers.

Edited March 25, 2014 by BlackBear

[herby]

Should have started in smaller pots! You can transplant them now if you want... If you dont want to though i would just water around the area instead of the whole thing and see how it goes. I always thought a HPS was for flowering not vegging , or maybe if they are auto-flower it doesn't matter? i could be wrong though... But i wouldn't run a HPS on seedlings to be , to much heat, it will also dry out your pot mix quicker as well..

 

As for flushing maybe you can feed them with nutes , and then just use plain or PH'd water the next time, and then back to nutes, and keep switching so it doesn't build up.

 

If i was you though i would just go to bunnings and buy some 50 cent pots and transplant now, it will make the watering 10x easier.

[BlackBear]

Hey herby, after reading through heaps of autoflower grow diaries and buzzos auto grow guide and his own grows, it is advised to start them of straight away under a hps as it doesn't waste time because there's not much to play with autos as most of them are done in 2 months or so. And from what I have seen they seem to love it, same as the starting them of in small pots they say start in what they will finish in as stressing the plant takes away from what little time it has to grow and bud, I know if I could do it again I would definitely go no more than 15l pots.

 

In regards to heat I spent a bit of coin on my tent set up so I could do it once and do it right I have the light in a cool tube attached to a centri fan which at this time of year keeps temps down to 20min 29 max which is not too bad and on colder days doesn't go above 27 and the light is about 4ft from the plants.

 

But like you said that's what im here to find out, wait to dry and then do a water with 20% run of or just water a little at a time and risk salt etc build up? Only issue I can see with what you have said and correct me if im wrong just going by what I have read when flushing with just ph water you are taking all the good things out of the substrate as well as the bad and will need to add cal mag and other nutes to counteract??

[billygoat]

Hi BB... at that size i was watering mine every 2-3 days under a 135W CFL.

 

in the tent under 600W HPS was doing every 2 days, but when i checked em yesterday they were dry as a bone and very droopy... will now be upping to daily.

 

glad you have read Buzzo's thread, it has worked for me so far.... until yesterday !

 

cheers,

 

BG

[BlackBear]

Hey billygoat, yeah after reading buzzos threads and diaries its safe to say following his guide is a sure bet obviously with variation for your set-up and variables that each person does differently. My question to you is are you watering them with nutes and if so are you watering till you see run off or just as much as the seeds will need?

[billygoat]

I was watering with some run off, put your pots are huge so may be a waste this early....im not sure to be honest. I started on nutes at day 13 from when the seed cracked. Full strength nutes. ,i would have started a bit earlier, but was circumstance of waiting for nutes to arrive. Check out my thread in my sig. Im no expert but they are going ok at the moment. The two biggest must be near one metre tall, will measure em when i get some update pics for this weeks update today... And will post in the morning.

[pegz]

Massive waste of power running that HPS over a 3 seedlings............................................................ all you need is a 40w CFL placed 2 inch away from those little sprouts for the first couple of weeks, with CFLs you don't have to worry about fans (noise, energy consumption) and heat management either.

[billygoat]

They are autos pegz, so can be a bit different in the way you approach them.... Particularly i am learning if you want them to finish quickly which seems to the point of them.... I reckon mine will go a hundred days or so in total, would have been better off with photoperiods..

[BlackBear]

Pegz I am just going by what I have read from others posts and research through the forum. Reffering back to Buzzo, he starts and finishes with a 250w HPS in his grow fridge, I have a tent which is at least double the size so I just doubled the light, I could have put in a 400W bulb as I have one and my ballast is adjustable but the cool tube is taped up at both ends to ducting and it would be a stuff around to swap them out.

 

Billygoat im going the route of watering each plant about 150-200ml of 1/4 strength canna a+b and 1/2 rhizo which I did today and they seem fine I did the same a few days ago and they don't seem to care too much as they get bigger I will start watering enough for run of as now it seems like a bit of a waste. Like you said learn as you go and see what is right and what is wrong as you can only follow a guide so much.

 

3rd seed I germed for 24h in water and planted is poking the ground up just a day after should be up by tomorrow, this was the Pandora Auto, hopefully will have 3 different flavours to try by the end of all of this. Turning into a bit of a diary but hey why not. New pics.

[BlackBear]

3 Pots together, Plastic covering the Pandora which I will remove if she is above ground tomorrow. White widow 5 days, Purple 4 days, Purple is much taller, don't think its a light issue maybe strain is different. temp outside today was 27 so 30 max in tent was pretty good! They are fairly skiiny, is that because they are a few days old or do they look ok for now? Only put in fan day before yesterday so hopefully they thicken up!