New Grower First grow, First post - Royal Queen Northern Light auto & SAGARMATHA SEEDS AK48 Automatic

[dontcheckmywardrobe]

Gday everyone,

Awesome community you have here. Has helped alot with my research. Hope I can be a valued contributor some day soon!

A quick post compiling what I know so far before I finish acquiring everything for my first grow and (a couple of final questions)

Grow space - 0.5x0.9x1.6m (0.45m or 5ft squared)
Lighting - 250w HPS with cool vent, supplemented by 130w CFL, 2x24w CFL side lighting - will change out 6400k CFL for 2700k during flower
Plants - 2 Autos (NL, AK48) in 15L (4 gallon) square pots
Odour control - 150mm (6 inch) 250cfm fan/carbon filter

1) Is that an optimal use of the space and lighting for max yield? (would 1 plant be better in that space or more than 2?)
2) Am I likely to need more ventilation? both from a temp perspective and odour control. I read the AK48's get stinky

I'll be growing it in potting mix with 25% perlite and an infrequently applied 12.4 - 3 - 6.2 fertiliser after a few weeks / until after first 2 weeks of flower
I'm still reading about other supplements. I understand calcium/magnesium is a good one

PH kept at 6.5 to 7.0, 5.7 to 6.4 for nutrient solution/water
Temp between 21 - 26c and humidity 40-60% pre flower, 30% during flower

Thanks for the sanity check everybody

 

[blue]

Welcome

Hi DCMW ^_^

Welcome to AFN, glad you like it here!

1) Is that an optimal use of the space and lighting for max yield? (would 1 plant be better in that space or more than 2?)

Sounds like a great plan - far too many people try to cram too many plants in for a first grow and cause more problems than they can cope with! - 2 will be fine in there.

2) Am I likely to need more ventilation? both from a temp perspective and odour control. I read the AK48's get stinky

That level of ventillation looks fine to me - there is a formular for air exchange, but i don't remember it for the life of me.

I'll be growing it in potting mix with 25% perlite and an infrequently applied 12.4 - 3 - 6.2 fertiliser after a few weeks / until after first 2 weeks of flower

Sorry for the dim question - is the other 75% of the medium soil or coco? It will have a bearing on where you want your ph to sit.

PH kept at 6.5 to 7.0, 5.7 to 6.4 for nutrient solution/water

If using soil, you want the "Soil PH" to be sat between 6.2-6.5
If using coco or soiless you'll want a lower ph swinging upwards from 5.6-6.1

To calculate your soil (or coco) PH you'll need a ph pen to check the ph of the water going in, and the water coming out. You can work out the middle bit with this formula

Rough Calculation Guide by GoAuto6

Here's some good info on ph.....
If your runoff pH is higher than your starting pH, use this equation to determine your soil pH:*
Soil pH = Runoff pH + Difference

If your runoff pH is lower than your starting pH, us this equation:
Soil pH = Runoff pH - Difference.

For example, say your the starting pH of your solution before it goes in is 6.5 and the pH of your runoff is 7.0. The difference is +0.5, so using the above equation:
Soil pH = 7.0 + 0.5*
Soil pH = 7.5

If your starting pH is 6.5 and your runoff is 6.0, your difference is -0.5 and using the above equation:
Soil pH = 6.0 - 0.5
Soil pH = 5.5

Temp between 21 - 26c and humidity 40-60% pre flower, 30% during flower
​

Sounds spot on!

Happy growing!

All the best
Blue ^_^
​

 

[CGR]

love the name :five: and welcome when you get a chance stop over here https://www.autoflower.org/f35/ and say hi to the rest of the family:tiphat:

 

[dontcheckmywardrobe]

Thanks for the quick replies guys!!

blue - my favourite colour (apart from green !). Thanks for the tips on the correct PH's - I'm using soil for the other 75%. I hadnt seen that equation yet in my research
Test the water coming out - because during a post seedling water, the pot should be watered till theres a bit of overflow into the tray right?

CGR - thanks for the welcome. I will check in there soon and post a thread!!

 

[blue]

(apart from green !)

ahh, green's my second favorite (no genius here unfortunately ^_^)

Test the water coming out - because during a post seedling water, the pot should be watered till theres a bit of overflow into the tray right?

When you start your seedling and it's broken ground, you'll probably only be feeding 100ml every few days so you wont be getting run off with that, in that case watering with water at 6.2 to start with should see you right.
.. and yes, when your girl has grown a bit (20 days or so) watering to run off will be fine, and then watering when the pot is light is good practice

there's a lovely show and grow in the sweet seeds forums by sweet seeds. They break their watering/ph/feeding guide down really well - i'll come back and edit this post with a link to it when i find it (in the next couple of minutes)

Well worth checking out! ^_^

so here's the beauty

https://www.autoflower.org/f142/big-devil-2-%AE-%7C-fast-bud-2-%AE-test-grow-22165.html

great pictures, great guide! They say 6.4 PH for seedlings (i think if you follow their guide you wont go too far wrong!)

 

[dontcheckmywardrobe]

Hi,

Thanks very much! That's a great guide!! I will definitely refer back to it!

Well, my seeds cracked today 24hrs after I left them in wet paper towel.

I ended up going with Advanced Biodiesel Mass rather than 1 NL and 1 AK48 as initially planned. They arrived before my other seeds and what can I say, I haven't yet developed the patience im going to need before this is over

I placed them about 2-3cm deep in my soil (which is 75% potting mix with time release fertiliser, and 25% perlite).

I'm a bit worried about temp! it's coming up on a week of 30+ degree max weather where I live. I tested my 250w HPS during the day today and even with my 6" extraction fan running at full blast the grow tent got above 30 degrees (86f).

So I've ordered an additional 130w CFL and im going to go with 2 CFL's instead of the HPS

Question to the wise, I have the 6" exhaust fan ducting exiting the top of the tent.. there are multiple rectangular vents at the bottom of the tent. Should I leave one of these open for inflow? Would it assist to have a small desk fan moving air through those vents? would it be optimal to have that fan outside of the tent blowing air in, or inside of the vent circulating air?

My temp at night is 26 degrees. Hope it doesnt get too much hotter with the CFL's in!

Thanks very much for your help all

 

[dontcheckmywardrobe]

Timeline so far:

Day 1 - Began germination of Seeds using paper towel method on top of fridge
Day 2 - Seeds had germinated and were showing a little tap root (one larger than the other)
- Planted both seeds, a 15L pot each filled with 75% Potting soil, 25% Perlite (I had prewatered)
Day 3 - Nothing
Day 4 - I watered the surface a little this morning and came home this evening to one of my seeds having sprouted above the surface.. woohoo!!



But not the other one yet !

The soil is still visibly damp so I will not water again until it is not

Currently I have 20w CFL's applied. I Should get 4x130w CFL's in the post on day 5 or 6 (2 for veg, 2 for flower)

 

[dontcheckmywardrobe]

Day 5 - I watered both pots just a touch as I left to work this morning. It seems with the perlite in the soil the top layer doesn't stay damp for longer than 24 hours (although I am not actually adding too much water at all!)





Happily when I came home today, my second seedling was above the ground!

I've installed a 6400k 130w CFL about 11 inches from the plants.

The temp of my grow tent is about 28 degrees right now with no ventilation running but we're forecast for a max of 24 degrees for the next 2 weeks

So exciting!

How big would the plants need to be before they benefit from a second 130w 6400k cfl?

 

[dontcheckmywardrobe]

Day 6 (since seed germination began) / 3 (since first sprout)




The smaller girl is half bent over which is a little concerning, but I read that they straighten themselves up so not too worried!

I didn't water them at all this morning, and gave them a touch of water tonight making it about 36 hours between watering.

I will now not water them until 2 nights time from now unless the soil becomes very dry

 

[dontcheckmywardrobe]

Day 7 (since seed germination began) / 4 (first sprout)

- No water today
- I have adjusted the 6400k 130w CFL to be about 1.5-2 inches away from the seedlings. Happily this is causing more water evaporation and my RH is up to 42-43%



Girl #1 does not seem to be getting much bigger day by day at the moment. Is this as she is putting down roots?



Girl #2 has almost as well a developed set of first leaves but is still stooped over



Do they self correct or should I stake it? The light is right above it. No reason it shouldnt be stretching upwards