Indoor Autos in Organic Soil with Tap Water

[Mozzy]

Growing a few of my oldest seeds:

• (CC) Humboldt Seed Company’s Caramel Cream F2 feminized autoflower
• (LMZ) Dessert Seeds’ Lemonz feminized autoflower
• (SH) Dessert Seeds’ Sour Headz feminized autoflower

Used the paper towel method, two germinated in <24hrs (the third will likely be one more day) and then:
- Roots Organics Lush soil
- 3 x 5 gallon food-safe buckets with GroBucket inserts-
- 7w 254gph aerator pump (to keep the water reservoirs from stagnating, and the roots seem to love it).
- Tap water as needed (that doesn't appear to have chromium, based on local water quality reports), but aired-out ~24-48hrs for chlorine reasons, and roughly PH’d to the mid 6s based on the periodic testing color/using GH drops.
- 2’x4’x6’ tent
- 4 inch inline extraction fan and carbon filter, 6” clip fan, and 6” oscillating fan (all off to start, to help with environment)
- 300w LED: 24/7, ~25%, ~20” from the soil to start, until there are leaves and the humidity domes come off (then 18/6 and % as appropriate):

 

[Mozzy]

The CC, LMZ, and SH have been above soil for 1 day now. Domes come off, light going to 18/6, ~25%, ~20” from the seedlings. Temp/RH are ~mid 70sF/% :

 

[Mozzy]

Day 3 and folks are a little leggy, so I moved the light a few clicks up to keep it ~20” from the seedlings, and increased the dimmer to ~38%, so the middle should be getting ~400 PPFD/25 DLI. I also have the upper fan at ~20% and the extraction fan on ~10-20%, 24/7 now .

 

[Mozzy]

Day 7 :

 

[Mozzy]

Day 10; slowly top-watered about a quart each with a sprayer, around the outer rim:

 

[Mozzy]

Day 11; turned up the dimmer to ~50%, so the middle one should be getting ~500 PPFD/~32 DLI:

 

[Mozzy]

Day 14, top-watered by sprayer, ~1 gallon between the three with 1 tblsp of unsulphured Molasses mixed in for the soil microbes; and adjusted the light so the middle guy should be getting ~620 ppfd/ ~40 DLI…

 

[Mozzy]

Day 18, topped-off the the reservoirs with ~1 gallon between them, and moved the light up a few clicks :

 

[Mozzy]

Day 21, watered and decided to top (for the first time) the whole tent :

 

[Mozzy]

Day 29…didn’t get a chance to tend to these guys for a while due to family things but they were still alive, and a little thirsty with the SH looking the roughest of the three. I topped off the water reservoirs last night and raised the light a few clicks:

Trying to keep the plants small this grow so I did some significant pruning of the lower stuff touching the soil, as well as ~4 large fan leaves each that blocked a lot of flowering sites, and the bottom 2 branches of the LMZ. After which I added enough new soil to help stabilize trunks, and top-watered in with the sprayer a pint or two of water each with some molasses to get the new topsoil involved :