New Grower First grow - indoor; double cabinet; soil; 100W CFL (grow); 250W HPS (bloom); auto AK47 from GRASS-O

[jisus stardust]

So as I've promised in the opening post, I'll try to make my first serious grow and report it, hoping you guys can give me some feedback and deeper insight in to the growing process, so maybe someday I'll be able to do the same while smoking my own buds

I've made two cabinets, one with CFLs and the other with HPS. I've planted 3 auto AK47 seeds from GRASS-O-MATIC seed bank. This is actually the second grow with same seeds. First one is still on flowering and waiting to finish, but I screw with the first grow since I added pH down based on my "feeling". So when I finally got the tester after 26 days I realized I've been watering with way too low pH (somewhere around 4.2). I'll post some pictures of them and maybe you can tell me how bad I screwed up. They look more like bonsai based on their age and one of them has serious traits of nut lock out due to low pH. They are 38 days old right now, on 20/4 250W HPS regime and got their share of bloom nuts so they finish as early as possible.

Growing specifications:
1. cabinet
30/50/70cm (12/20/27in)
5 20W CFLs, 4x6500K and 1x2700K

2. cabinet
40/80/160cm (16/31/63in)
250W HPS with cooltube

I started with paper and destilled water to germinate the seeds which I then moved to root riot cubes inside a propagator with around 28.5'C and 95% humidity. And here is my first question - for how long should they be left inside or what are the indicators they are ready for lower humidity and temperature outside propagator?

So it's DAY 4, they are in the propagator and all three seedlings are popping out. Today I also switched distilled water with old tap water balanced to 6.2 pH. Oh, and I'll be using Plagron LightMix soil for the whole process. I also have Plagrons Alga Grow and Alga Bloom.

Also made an order for BigBud and Bio Root Plus. I was also thinking about replacing the CFLs with one big 125W 6500K CFL and maybe leave one or two 20W 2700K CFLs in there. What do you guys think about the lumen covrage in the small cabinet? It's about 5000L all together from 20W CFLs. I'm also sceptical about the 250W HPS, would 400W be any better given the small place?

And for the last but not least - this is a really neat community. I've been through a lot of threads and posts already and you guys seem very connected and friendly which is quite a rare "commodity" and I'm glad i can at least try to be a part of it

Big up!

 

[herbal.experience]

plants are looking great bro.

im subbed in and ready for this beauty.

are you planning on perpetual?

i think 400w light would be good if you can control the heat.

with a small space tho -- 250 should be enough.

 

[jisus stardust]

Thanks for the support and yes, I did the setup for perpetual growing. It will take some time to get the rotation perfect, but having all the troubles I did (heat being one of them, so I think I'll stick to 250W) this shouldn't be considered a problem.

I checked your PC grow, it looks great. It kinda made me want to have one myself, just for kicks. I had some questions tho, but i think you already anwerd them, I'll just have to read it more carefully.

 

[greenthumper]

Looks like you have a great grow going stardust. I'll be curious to see how your auto ak47 turns out :smokebuds:

 

[herbal.experience]

Thanks for the support and yes, I did the setup for perpetual growing. It will take some time to get the rotation perfect, but having all the troubles I did (heat being one of them, so I think I'll stick to 250W) this shouldn't be considered a problem.

I checked your PC grow, it looks great. It kinda made me want to have one myself, just for kicks. I had some questions tho, but i think you already anwerd them, I'll just have to read it more carefully.

heat seems to be everyones problems. -- i know it was one of my biggest as well.

thanks for checking out the grow bro -- you should start one as well! ill be sure to follow.

jjust ask away with what questions you may have -- im sure you will get an answer.

 

[jisus stardust]

So it's DAY 9. I transplanted all three in small 1.5L/0.4gal pots. How much time do I have before the roots get to big for this pot size? All three seem to be doing fine, despite the low humidity (35-40% Rh) and somewhat high temperature (28'C/82.4F). They have their second set of leaves developing nicely. During this time I managed to burn two outtake computer fans, but was able to replace them in a day, so no harm was done. And I also lowered them to about 40cm/15in from cfls. No matter what anybody says, cfls can heat up small places really fast. Still not sure if I have enough lumen output from my five 20W cfls (about 5000L) - what do you guys think?

Oh, and sorry for the crappy focus on photos. They were taken with a phone camera, but it's mostly my incompetence

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*I use Plagrons Lightmix soil

 

[KindredSpirit]

Hey js, welcome to AFN :smokebuds:

The babies look happy and healthy. :thumbs: It's tough to say how long it will take for them to outgrow that pot size. It's usually best to transplant them into their final pot size as soon as possible, if not starting your seeds right in the pot they will finish in. Transplanting can sometimes cause stress and with autos, any stress during veg time could significantly lower your final yield. However, if you're careful and confident in what you're doing, transplanting can go smooth as butter without a hiccup in the growth rate.

I think you have enough lumens on them for now. Cervantes recommends 4000 lumens for seedlings, so seems like you're in the right zone. Once they throw out their second and third set of leaves, you'll want to increase the lumens for the veg phase.

:smokebuds:

 

[jisus stardust]

Here we go, it's DAY 14 start of the third week and still looking nice. Im doing a bit of research on pH, water and soil, but shit goes to deep for my fried brains. Using advanced hydroponics pH downer with drops tester, which I suspect is unbelivably unreliable and inaccurate. But if things go smooth I'll leave it at that. So I'm still feeding them just old pH'd tap water. As suggested I ordered two stronger 6500K CFLs (75W), which I'll combine with two weaker (20W) 2700K CFLs for vegging. But I have to wait at least two more weeks till I can move them to grow box with 250W HPS. I have my first experimental grow in there (did a lot fo mistakes and they will make it to the end but not with any kind of impressive results). What do you guys think? Babies looking normal or did I miss something?

Big up! View attachment 143756View attachment 143757View attachment 143758View attachment 143759View attachment 143760View attachment 143761

 

[jisus stardust]

Oh and seeing other grow reports, looks like all other grower have their plants a lot bigger by day 14. Tho I suspect them of cheating by counting since the day the seed made it through the soil and not since germination... Are my plants too small?

 

[jisus stardust]

DAY 16. One has shown signs of phosphorous deficiency, at least I think it is. It seems like I have an overall problem with too low pH. My older plants are also showing signs of calcium and magnesium deficiency (very late stages) - look at pictures. I have two testers (drops and litmus paper) and so far I only know that they both suck. Will I really need a digital meter?? Anyway, I used to calibrate water to 6.5 pH but it caused a lot of troubles (calcium, magnesium and phosphorous - all indicators of too low pH), so I've raised it to 7.0 (based on the drops meter scale - dark green), still no visible improvements. And today I had an idea to test run off water after watering. It showed 6.0 (yellow on drops meter scale), does my soil lower the pH of water? I'm using plagron light mix soil. This was alo the first watering to include 2ml plagron alga grow to 1l of water.

Please guys help me out, I'm going nuts over here!
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