Do You Grow Like I Grow?

[Nverinder716]

I’m about 6 months into my journey as a home cultivator, and about to finish up my second successful grow. I’m looking for input from other growers using practically the same setup as I am. I understand that might be a hard thing to pin down, but I’m hoping at least a few folks are out there using almost the same setup anyway.

Both of my successful grows were planted in Fox Farms Happy Frog medium, with a little extra perlite mixed in.

I pH balance my local tap water to around 6.0.

I use an inexpensive LED grow light from Amazon, in the white/blue mode only, 18/6 cycle, set about 24” from the floor of the 4’ tent. I play around with that height from time to time, but I've never really figured out a good location for it throughout the growing cycle. Info on the light says it’s “1000w” equivalent. I know that could be really off, but it’s all I can afford at the moment.

Temps are a consistent 74F on average, peaking at 80 and dropping no lower than 72.

Humidity ranges between 45-55%.

Both grows have been autoflowers. The first, a Gorilla Glue Auto, was grown for three weeks in seed starting pellet before transferred to the 3 gallon pot with Happy Frog. Light LST, no other training, but I never had much veg to train in the first place. Didn’t start feeding nutrients until a week or so after that. She capped out at only 9” tall, and yielded about 3g dry weight after cure.

Grow no. 2 is a AK420 Auto, exactly as above but grown exclusively in a solo cup. Now, I know that environment can wreak havoc on growth, but I wanted to give it go anyway. This one’s a week or two away from harvest now, at 8.5 weeks. This one responded really well to nutrients early on, right up until I overdid it and burned it a little bit. No training of any kind. She seems to have stopped gaining any height, and caps out at 11” tall. Looks a bit thicker than her previous sister, but just not going to yield much at all.

I’m mostly curious about how to get a bigger plant. I’m not interested in breaking records with harvest weight and I don’t have any need for POUNDS of green. I just really enjoy the process, not to mention the fruits of my labors. I see folks getting the massive plants with multiple stems and huge fan leaves at only 21-28 days. Mine have both been under 3” at that point.I see a lot of folks getting massive harvest from a single auto, more weed than I’ve ever seen in my lifetime, and I’m just getting small nugs and piddly weight.

Any and all help is appreciated, TIA!!!

 

[St. Tom]

I’m about 6 months into my journey as a home cultivator, and about to finish up my second successful grow. I’m looking for input from other growers using practically the same setup as I am. I understand that might be a hard thing to pin down, but I’m hoping at least a few folks are out there using almost the same setup anyway.

Both of my successful grows were planted in Fox Farms Happy Frog medium, with a little extra perlite mixed in.

I pH balance my local tap water to around 6.0.

I use an inexpensive LED grow light from Amazon, in the white/blue mode only, 18/6 cycle, set about 24” from the floor of the 4’ tent. I play around with that height from time to time, but I've never really figured out a good location for it throughout the growing cycle. Info on the light says it’s “1000w” equivalent. I know that could be really off, but it’s all I can afford at the moment.

Temps are a consistent 74F on average, peaking at 80 and dropping no lower than 72.

Humidity ranges between 45-55%.

Both grows have been autoflowers. The first, a Gorilla Glue Auto, was grown for three weeks in seed starting pellet before transferred to the 3 gallon pot with Happy Frog. Light LST, no other training, but I never had much veg to train in the first place. Didn’t start feeding nutrients until a week or so after that. She capped out at only 9” tall, and yielded about 3g dry weight after cure.

Grow no. 2 is a AK420 Auto, exactly as above but grown exclusively in a solo cup. Now, I know that environment can wreak havoc on growth, but I wanted to give it go anyway. This one’s a week or two away from harvest now, at 8.5 weeks. This one responded really well to nutrients early on, right up until I overdid it and burned it a little bit. No training of any kind. She seems to have stopped gaining any height, and caps out at 11” tall. Looks a bit thicker than her previous sister, but just not going to yield much at all.

I’m mostly curious about how to get a bigger plant. I’m not interested in breaking records with harvest weight and I don’t have any need for POUNDS of green. I just really enjoy the process, not to mention the fruits of my labors. I see folks getting the massive plants with multiple stems and huge fan leaves at only 21-28 days. Mine have both been under 3” at that point.I see a lot of folks getting massive harvest from a single auto, more weed than I’ve ever seen in my lifetime, and I’m just getting small nugs and piddly weight.

Any and all help is appreciated, TIA!!!
View attachment 1384904
View attachment 1384905

Theres a lot of soil growers and lots of folks do well with cheap light i started out with them but im thinking they may be small with the soil your using or bad watering practices. But you can only do better after learning as you go and i loved your little solo as i grow them in coco and its king of my specialty

 

[Boomer80]

I’m in a very similar place as you as I started my first grow also about 6 months ago. I’m also close to the end of my second grow. Here is my journal on it. https://www.autoflower.org/threads/grow-2-the-education-continues.85070/
What I didn’t do was a solo cup grow and I put my seedling in the starter cube into the final pot as soon as I get a root showing at the bottom of the pellet.

The biggest difference for me might be the light. I invested a little more on my first light from Amazon and paid about $150 for it. I am slowly upgrading everything as I think I’ll continue this little hobby for awhile. I now have 2 Atreum Hydra 1000 lights and a 2x4x60 tent. I will still only grow 2 plants at a time, but I can now have dedicated lights for them

But, by far the best thing I did on the 2nd grow was to get get better beans!!!!!!!! The first grow were 2 different auto strains from unknown origin. I tried 2 each from both and one of them wound up being a runt and I tossed it and the other 2 from the other strain I wound up with a Herme that i didn’t find out about until I harvested.

Going with Mephisto this time has sold me on their genetics and I am now in the process of compiling a library of their strains that I will grow exclusively from now on.

 

[DONTON]

I like alot of those inexpensive grow lights.I really like the Viparspectra brand and of course Mars Hydro.1000 watts probably pulls in 80-132w from the wall with a lot of those.Hey,not bad as they do grow plants and if that is all you can afford better than nothing.That is why I went with the MH TS 600 tent kit.I am broke as a joke.Like on the verge of homeless broke lol.So I know ''broke.''
I am on my second attempt as I killed my first plant by overwatering her.So 15 days later I am off to a great start and I used FFOF and that is it.A PH pen,nah,you will never see one in my hand and no offense to those who use them.For me it is all organic with just the live soil,top dress and other NPK products in various amounts for different stages of grow.I figure if I can get 3-5oz out of a plant I am good and then repeat.I have mad respect for those who make charts,graphs and such who really get into this.It is like any other hobby as there are all different user levels and various grow mediums.

Temp wise a humidifier does the trick.I have one and need to use different water in it so it doesn't give the girl dandruff but these weeds are so resilient.I added the kit,followed some instructions and the plant is doing all the work.I got lucky and the soil didn't eat her and she took off.From here out I expect some ruff stages but not much and all I have to do is add water.

Your off to a good start.Just gotta dial it in.The only thing different I plan on doing is getting a bigger tent/light so I can grow 3-4 plants all organically and harvest a good 10oz or so at once in a shorter time frame.

 

[Suki]

I like alot of those inexpensive grow lights.I really like the Viparspectra brand and of course Mars Hydro.1000 watts probably pulls in 80-132w from the wall with a lot of those.Hey,not bad as they do grow plants and if that is all you can afford better than nothing.That is why I went with the MH TS 600 tent kit.I am broke as a joke.Like on the verge of homeless broke lol.So I know ''broke.''
I am on my second attempt as I killed my first plant by overwatering her.So 15 days later I am off to a great start and I used FFOF and that is it.A PH pen,nah,you will never see one in my hand and no offense to those who use them.For me it is all organic with just the live soil,top dress and other NPK products in various amounts for different stages of grow.I figure if I can get 3-5oz out of a plant I am good and then repeat.I have mad respect for those who make charts,graphs and such who really get into this.It is like any other hobby as there are all different user levels and various grow mediums.

Temp wise a humidifier does the trick.I have one and need to use different water in it so it doesn't give the girl dandruff but these weeds are so resilient.I added the kit,followed some instructions and the plant is doing all the work.I got lucky and the soil didn't eat her and she took off.From here out I expect some ruff stages but not much and all I have to do is add water.

Your off to a good start.Just gotta dial it in.The only thing different I plan on doing is getting a bigger tent/light so I can grow 3-4 plants all organically and harvest a good 10oz or so at once in a shorter time frame.

You know, I said the same thing through my first grow regarding the PH meter, but now that I have a good one and I'm seeing just how all over the place my nutes take the PH in my feeds, I'm glad to have it.

Can you grow great smoke without it? 100%, I'm genuinely thoroughly impressed with myself regarding the herb I've grown. Did they grow to their potential? Definitely not! They most definitely showed signs of deficiencies caused by incorrect PH, and as we all know the healthier the plants, the better the yields.

Is the ph of your water as important in soil as it is in hydro setups (including coco)? No, definitely not. Soil is going to give you a PH buffer in your root zone that doesn't exist in other medias. But consistently feeding/watering at an incorrect ph can absolutely affect the PH of your soil and cause problems with your plants.

If you're using dry organic amendments your ph should in theory be minimally affected by that, but its not guaranteed. You have to figure, even dry ammendments each have their own ph and will affect your soil ph in different ways. Different nutrients are best accessible in different PH ranges, and being able to test the input of your water helps to make sure that you are giving optimal nutrient availability to your plants.

 

[DONTON]

A quote from Proph:

''But in a realistic situation using drinkable water whether it's RO, tap, distilled, rain water, well water etc.. When growing "organic", none of those water sources need to be ph'd. And it will never cause a lock out or effect the soils ph. I grow in no till organic pots and don't ph anything. That's why you may have heard people say that you don't need to ph when growing organic. Ph'ing of any liquid has to with the nutrients in that liquid.. Anything with an npk value that You mix with water, should be ph'd.. You don't feed liquid nutes when growing in a true organic style. It's mostly water only like in nature. And that water doesn't need ph'ng..''

'' If you are using a nutrient line of any kind, you aren't growing organically, you may be using organic nutrients from a bottle, but organic growers don't feed their plants bottled nutrients. You should always ph your final mixes when using any bottled nutrient line. And that ph'ing as zero to do with the soil.. When you feed the soil, ph doesn't matter.. When you feed the plant, ph always matters. When you mix your nutrients and it has a ph of 5.. You have to raise that ph because the bulk of the nutrients in that mixture aren't available for uptake with a ph of 5. You're raising the ph to benefit the nutrient availability, not to benefit the soil, if that makes sense.. But soil ph and nutrient/water ph are completely separate things.''

I used a lot of info I read from Proph to understand organic growing and is why I do not use a ph pen.If I have to use a ph pen i'll switch to some form of hydro where it is needed.Not needed at all with organic growing using dry amendments.I have seen too many grows on here and elsewhere that were all water that did not appear as they were short on final results.

 

[DONTON]

I’m about 6 months into my journey as a home cultivator, and about to finish up my second successful grow. I’m looking for input from other growers using practically the same setup as I am. I understand that might be a hard thing to pin down, but I’m hoping at least a few folks are out there using almost the same setup anyway.

Both of my successful grows were planted in Fox Farms Happy Frog medium, with a little extra perlite mixed in.

I pH balance my local tap water to around 6.0.

I use an inexpensive LED grow light from Amazon, in the white/blue mode only, 18/6 cycle, set about 24” from the floor of the 4’ tent. I play around with that height from time to time, but I've never really figured out a good location for it throughout the growing cycle. Info on the light says it’s “1000w” equivalent. I know that could be really off, but it’s all I can afford at the moment.

Temps are a consistent 74F on average, peaking at 80 and dropping no lower than 72.

Humidity ranges between 45-55%.

Both grows have been autoflowers. The first, a Gorilla Glue Auto, was grown for three weeks in seed starting pellet before transferred to the 3 gallon pot with Happy Frog. Light LST, no other training, but I never had much veg to train in the first place. Didn’t start feeding nutrients until a week or so after that. She capped out at only 9” tall, and yielded about 3g dry weight after cure.

Grow no. 2 is a AK420 Auto, exactly as above but grown exclusively in a solo cup. Now, I know that environment can wreak havoc on growth, but I wanted to give it go anyway. This one’s a week or two away from harvest now, at 8.5 weeks. This one responded really well to nutrients early on, right up until I overdid it and burned it a little bit. No training of any kind. She seems to have stopped gaining any height, and caps out at 11” tall. Looks a bit thicker than her previous sister, but just not going to yield much at all.

I’m mostly curious about how to get a bigger plant. I’m not interested in breaking records with harvest weight and I don’t have any need for POUNDS of green. I just really enjoy the process, not to mention the fruits of my labors. I see folks getting the massive plants with multiple stems and huge fan leaves at only 21-28 days. Mine have both been under 3” at that point.I see a lot of folks getting massive harvest from a single auto, more weed than I’ve ever seen in my lifetime, and I’m just getting small nugs and piddly weight.

Any and all help is appreciated, TIA!!!
View attachment 1384904
View attachment 1384905

Lots of great advice here but don't get too mixed up in bro science either or the concept of these ''wonder nutes'' that are just $$$ making sugar water.Links like https://www.growweedeasy.com/topping-cannabis-guide-how-to-top-your-plants
https://2fast4buds.com/news/when-to-start-low-stress-training-your-autoflower have a lot more reliable info on them that are fact based.

Then you can get back to your regular life and bro science will remain where it belongs....on forums.Only thing I need to do is dial in my grows.I got the research from here and above links.A forum is nice but too much drama from people you don't even know or might not want to keep seeing pictures that are non relevant to growing cannabis,especially on a forum where there is no general section but yet is thrown in anyway...

For me I am out.It is like my job at the cultivation center....and my boss would say,''It is a fucking weed factory and if shit starts getting stressful and I take my work home with me....time to start steppin'.''

I replied and gave my factual statement and was still called out and then they contradicted themselves.Then I ended up having to add them to an ignore list.See?That is what I mean..someone with a lot of grows and calls me out on a first grow and is less intelligent...Best of luck to ya and a huge thanks to all who have helped...

 

[olbobcat]

There is enough good cheap lights out there. Look up Migro he rates them. you can get decent small light for $100-150.
You did not mention nutes you were using? I would say my plants would be bigger than yours before they even got their first feed.
PH seems low for soil will get lockout I would be more 6.3 to 6.7. I would not go smaller than a 3-gallon pot , I prefer 5 or 7 for bigger plants. Solo cup is for a more advanced grow, real easy to mess up. Make sure PH pen is calibrated. Learn to use a ppm/ec meter, they are cheap and worth it I don't use it but there is a lot of info on guys using mega crop and there is a thread on here. There is also autobeast guide to growing and another thread on training and Tang feed charts. If you are a rookie it is easier to go with a known system somebody is using so they can help advise you. You lessen the variables. You can always change later. I would advise on getting some cheaper seeds like twisted tree or some of the newer Fastbuds which grow bigger and yield well. Keep those Mephs for when you get a light. You should make sure your light is Okay first, before worrying about anything also some of the Mephs don't get that big. Learning to grow anything can be research and reading than anything.
There are 1000s of ways to grow and 1000 opinions on what is best. READ!

 

[Bill.de.Cat]

I use HF with extra perlite as well, 1st grow in 3 gal buckets. Started with 2 mars-hydro 600's in a 2x4 tent. Eventually figured out my water was too hard and switched to store bought distilled/RO with MegaCrop.....You'll refine it over time, add parts, take some out till you get it where you want. Seemed water quality then lights were my biggest limiting factor. Now have 3 x TS1000's in my tent.