Indoor 4x Auto Cinderella Jack + (I think) 1x Auto Mimosa Punch + 1x Sweet Bourbon Kush

[AutoflowerChief]

Hi folks,

greetings from Germany (near Cologne)!

I'm new here and I want to show you my first indoor grow.

I did a grow with different strains before, but that was semi-outdoor (greenhouse). And luck had it, that in the critical phase, the weather f...ed up real bad... several weeks in a row, with humidity levels of 70-90%... budrot ahoy! So my first outdoor grow ended in an emergency slaughter, harvesting a little before time, to save at least as much as possible. A little frustrating... ^^

So I decided to start a new grow indoors.

I try to grow organic as far as possible, yet I also used mineral fertilizers and chelates in cases of emergency.

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My setup:

At first I started in my kitchen, using a telescope pole for hanging shower curtains to hang the lamp.

After a while I came to the conclusion: yes, a tent would come in handy. And then I spiraled into the money spending vortex... finally I ended up with following setup:
-grow tent 4x4 by SF (6" inline fan + carbon filter, 1 clip fan, GGS AC5 power strip, all SF sensors)
-2x Hortione 600 Full Spectrum LED (220 Watt) - manufacturer's product sheet -
-Hortione Bluetooth and Knob-Dimmer 0-10V controlled via Tuya app

Supplemental lighting:
-1x SF UV60 & IR30 (IR not in use, too lazy to install)
-2x Ralight Under Canopy LED 120W

Pots:
I started to grow in cheap plastic pots, 14l (3.7 gallons)... at later stages I transplanted the ladies into Superoot Air Pot 7 20l (5.3 gallon).

As you see in the picture above I placed the lamps uneven, for following reason:
3 of the plant grew a bit higher than the other 3. Those 3 plants also don't need as much light, as they're either in early flowering or late flowering stage.

So I decided to move the 3 bigger ones into the "backrow". Then I hanged the lamp so, that there is ~600ppfd at the back wall of the tent. The front lamp hangs lower, because the plants are smaller in height. Further I moved the lamp in the back a bit more than the manual says towards the front light.

Works perfect for me: because of the height difference the lower lamp doesn't not really add light to the backrow's canopy. But the higher lamp adds massively to ppfd above the front row's canopy. Exactly as intended.

So I have ppfd reaching from 600 (back wall) over 900-1000 (space between front and backrow) up to 1196 ppfd above front row.
(All measurements taken approx. 1" above the height of the highest buds in each row)

CO2-Supplementation (LOW budget!!!):
I'm using "natural" CO2 supplementation. 1 to 2 humans + 2 large dogs breath a lot of CO2 into a living room.

CO2-Control-Kit (LOW budget!!!):
Analogue hand-driven controller for CO2 level [technical term: "balcony door"].
3 settings possible:
1. "Door wide open" -> stabilizes at 800-900ppm
2. "Door open, just a little" -> stabilizes at 1,100-1,200ppm
3. "Door closed" -> raises CO2 to 1,600ppm+

My soil:
I used a self-mixed soil, ingredients:
-topsoil
-potting soil (from DIY market chain of french origin with biber mascot)
-Seramis granulate (like vermiculite but with a little nutrients)
-cocos fibre
-lots of soil enhancers: fish meal, rock powder, epsom salt, organic fertilizer with guano (7-4-5), horn shavings, organic potassium fertilizer, mykhorriza, sulfur powder for long term pH reduction (tap water comes at pH 8-8.5)
(there might have been other ingredients I have forgotten by now)

My sorrow:
Since week 4 or 5 of the grow a battle takes place between me and what should become a f...ing massive FUNGUS GNAT invasion.

Conflict escalated into full-scale all-out war, that goes on at time of writing... that would be around ten weeks. -.-

Over several weeks now those little pests have received full treatments with: BTI followed by SF nematodes followed by Azadirachtin (Neem). I thought I had won, but obviously the enemy hid in the jungle to rise again... now my 2nd Azadirachtin batallion is leading a new offensive.

(Depiction below is slightly over exaggerated for educational purposes!)

 

[AutoflowerChief]

Week #1

Starting out in my kitchen on the floor... yet too stingy for a tent xD

The "big" plant on the left is the last of my outdoor grow - a Glamour Automatic, rescued from my greenhouse because of bad weather period (with 100.0% budrot guarantee).

I planted 7x Auto Cinderella Jack directly into my probably too hot soil, what may be the reason only 4 of 7 germinated (3 given up after around 2 weeks).

 

[AutoflowerChief]

Week #2
4 of my Princesses did a good job so far... 3 of them no job at all.

 

[AutoflowerChief]

Week #3

Going into week #3 the non-performers still do not perform. (They went in the trash and were replaced by 1x Auto Mimosa Punch and 2x Auto Sweet Bourboun Kush seeds)

The 4 Auto Cinderella Jack's growth was compact. VERY compact. For some time I feared, if they grew any more compact, they might form a micro black hole in my kitchen.

Found some white boards left from an old wardrobe.... tadaa: reflective surfaces for free xD

Two of the 4 Princesses got decapitated above node #3 and lacking alternatives I attached some clothespins to pull leaves down, so the branches below would receive more light.

 

[AutoflowerChief]

Week #4

Day 23:

Day 25 afternoon, next experiment:
-remove the nasty green stuff coming out of those branches on 2
-LST on nodes 1+2 of one of the defoliated plants

First proof of the fight against the fungus gnats (improvised water trap):

 

[AutoflowerChief]

Week #5

Just one photo, the war against the f-gnats escalates slightly, now a bigger improvised water trap. ^^
On the right edge of the photo you can see the 2 of 3 seeds that germinated in between.

 

[AutoflowerChief]

Week #6

Un-f...ing-believable I stripped them naked, I cut them, I bent them, f-gnats gnagging on their roots... seems those Cinderella Jacks can take lots, looooots of pain.
Real resilient princesses.

 

[AutoflowerChief]

Week #7

Decided to get rid of a lot of that nasty green flappy thingies coming out of those plants. AGAIN.

Yes, Mommy. I know Mommy. Not too much stress on autoflowers. They have no time to recover. Yeah yeah... (blabla?) No, Mommy, 'course I would never even dare to stress autos in flowering.
PS: first preflowers appeared between weeks 3 and 4

 

[AutoflowerChief]

Week #8

Plants showing some diffuse symptoms. Light stress? Nutriant burn? F-Gnats terror? All combined?

Decided to end guesswork and to buy some good pH and EC soil sensors.

Model: Aqua Master Tools H600 Pro Substrate
Price: a shit load of Euro bucks compared to that cheap China shit... never trust cheap China shit!

Then: SHOCK! pH too high, ECs in runoff measured between 8 and 12. So time for some therapies...

The camera on my handy does some really shitty color balancing on fotos... diffuse symptoms: yellowing leaves, curling leaf tips, spots on leaves...

Under given circumstances there was no choice but to administer them all some rounds on the Cannabis Enema Stool:

Quiet effortsome work to correct pH and EC levels.

Positive this week:
They still seem to have plans, slightly above 20cm of height, yet they build an infrastructure capable of supporting the weight of an apple tree. xD

And my new friend for weeks to come:

 

[AutoflowerChief]

Week #9

Symptoms manifest themselves more, especially on the plant in the top left.

YET I am facing a god damn JUNGLE... AGAIN! We know what to do... xD

In the back: a 1kg (2 pounds) bag of sugar as measurement

At this point I have cut hundreds and hundreds of leaves... on one single plant ALONE.

As you can see in this picture war with Fungus-Gnatsistan escalates further, now I use those yellow sticky traps...