New Grower First Grow - Iranian Autoflower (fem) in hydro

[Jerseyfunk]

you will get to know the weight of your properly watered plants in cup or pot .a good thing to use is weight i pick up my pot before and after watering before long you will just know if you have to water or not

 

[Alter Ego]

Hey man, nice grow you got going. You're a lot like me from what it seems, lol. You are trying to give your plants the very best by loving them, but like me, don't get too eager and love them to death. I am a newb too but have learned quite a bit but "jumping in feet first".

My only advice is that soak them an let them dry out. The roots will grow faster by reaching out looking for water. Don't get hasty like I did. When my plants were seedlings in 20 oz cups I would water every 7-10 days with about 8 oz of distilled or Aquafina bottled water. That seems to provide the most explosive growth. My seedling mix consisted of LW and wormcastings, then I would cut that mix with 40%-50% perlite. This gives us newbs a little more leeway from the overwatering issue. Trust me on this. Compacted soils suck for root growth.

Best of luck to ya brother!

 

[low_and_slow]

The Iranians continue to truck along...spotted leaves, droopy, sorta whatever looking. They're growing new nodes and certainly doing "okay" but overall I'd probably get a D- if someone were to grade me...not dead, but as close to as possible.

The Purple JEMS; however, boy that's a different story! I saw the first signs of their little heads possibly breaking soil last night. This evening, they're about 2" tall and dark green, with their first true leaves starting to pop out. At this rate, they'll be autoflowering by the time I'm ready to switch the Iranians to 12/12 to get them to "autoflower". I think my new plan is to leave the Iranians in their party cups, MAYBE tier them into something a little larger, but basically give up on them.

The 2 Pjems (sex dependant, of course) will go in my 5 gallon pots and I'll try to make them turn out a bumper crop. If the Iranians don't auto, I'll leave them at 18/6 until the Pjems are done. If they get too large for my space, I'll try to put them somewhere stealthy outside, but basically I'm writing them off as a total loss/waste of time. I'll allow them to surprise me...

 

[low_and_slow]

Long time no update...My little troopers have been doing really well since they were put in larger pots. The 2 IAFs are still pre-sex, about 5 nodes high now...still very frail and whispy, I'm wondering if that's going to remain throughout the grow. The spotting is greatly reduced, not gone, but it looks like the new growth is as of yet unaffected.

The PJEMs ended up 50/50 male female, so I pulled the little dude just now and shredded him for the wormies. I'm going throw another bean or two into his pot, just have to decide what I want to do...I have purple AK, Pjem, and some Magic Dragon seeds on hand. I'm thinking of trying the AK for the sativa-ish qualities, plus I want to see how she compares to her progenitor, the Pjem. Dang, typing this high is tricky...

Anyway, things I'm stoked on:

-Sexing my first mmj plants
-My autoflower seeds are already to sex whereas my semi-auto/early photo seeds aren't showing the first signs...that's neat, it's interesting to watch the different genetics compete.
-The Blackstar is amazing...TONS of light and no problems with excess heat
-Got my hands on some really good, light, sativa buds through a friend:dance:

Whichever new beans I drop, I'm going to use Sunshine mix #4 and my nifty new Hanna PH meter, so hopefully I won't have any stunting/burning/spotting/wilting/withering/twisting/curling/browning problems...hopefully *fingers crossed*

 

[Killijin]

Sunshine mix number 4 is a good grow medium, the only problem is you will need to flush it with ph'd water to get the ph up. It has a predisposition for being on the acidic side due to the high content of pine. I would suggest to either have dolomite lime on hand, if not at least get some hydrated.

 

[low_and_slow]

Lime on hand already; however, it was damn near perfect when I filled a pot and checked runoff with my Hanna digital: 6.7. I have 3 PAK beans soaking, as soon as they pop they're all going in the pot. Intend to yank any males after sexing and grow 1 or 2 together.

 

[low_and_slow]

The 3 PAK seeds all cracked and showed tap roots, but as of today there's only 1 above ground with leaves. She's been up since the 24th, so either her sisters are a few days slow or I only got 1 good seed out of 3 OR the other 2 are digging for china and didn't get the message to come UP versus go DOWN.

The PJEM is taking significantly more nutes than the IAF's...I've been doing a full dose of veg nutes per the directions on the GO Box. This week I gave them the "week 4" schedule and the PJEM has now surpassed the IAF in height and overall health. The IAF are both showing just the tiniest tiniest little bit of tip burn, so I'll probably scale back their feedings below what the JEM gets. I'll be interested to see how the PAK(s) do(es) given that she's half PJEM...

Already shopping for more seeds...I want to try out a Strawberry cough and see if I can't breed her with a PJEM and get something sticky-icky

 

[low_and_slow]

Found another little head trying to poke up above soil today in the PAK pot...hopefully she pulls through and I get a 2/3 return.

I also dropped 2 PJEM into water to soak, intend to do those in hydro...I think I've figured out how to grow in hydro at this point (I'm doing 2 strains of strawberries...like actual berries). I have 2 hydro recirc/top drip setups from Gen Hydro that I can use, so I'm going to give it a whirl with cannabis. I need to slow down at this point though, I have 3 strains going at once, 2 in organic soil, 1 in soil less, and potentially 2 in hydro...Great "first grow", lol.

Oh, AND, I just saw that my new tent setup just shipped today. I'm going to upgrade from the "overcluttered closet" setup to a real grow space. Here's what I'm getting:

Secret Jardin DR90 II
Phresh Filter 4" x 12" 200 CFM
ProGrip Ratchet Light Hanger
Perma Duct with clamps- 25' - 6" Diameter
2 Active Air In-Line Booster Fan - 6"
2 Duct Reducer 6" - 4"
Hydrofarm Dual Outlet Digital Timer 7 Day
2 Clip on Fan 6"
Phresh Intake Filter - 4"x6", 140 CFM

So...yeah...pretty much throwing myself into this full speed.

 

[low_and_slow]

Saturday update:
PJEM got 1 gallon of PH 7 water followed by 1/2 gallon of week 5 GO nutes, mixed at full strength. Nutes going in were 6.5, runoff was 6.7. The two IAFs got 1 gallon of PH 7 water which came out the bottom in the 4's...yikes. I top dressed with about 3 tbspn of Dolomite Lime, topped her again at her new growth, supercropped the main stem, then added 1/2 gallon of GO week 4 veg nutes, full strength. Nute PH was about 7.0 going in, Runoff PH was still in the low 5's, so it's really no wonder they're struggling.

I'm not really sure what the plan is anymore for the 2 IAF...they first popped above ground on 05/09, so they're almost 2 months old now. There's not a single pre-flower in sight, as is expected with an early photo, so I'm thinking I'll have to create a 12/12 flowering setup if I want them to yield. That being said, I'm actually leaning towards letting them veg, getting them properly grown out, trained, trimmed, etc. while my autoflowers finish, then just screw with them once I can drop down to 12/12.

IAF = 52 days old
PJEM = 35 days old

 

[low_and_slow]

1st PJEM is "above ground," aka her head is out of the rapid rooter. Hopefully they don't grow legs and walk right out of the rooters like last time; I put a little plug of rooter material into the hole on top of the seed to force them to grow roots INTO the plug, instead of OUT.

Edit: ^this is in reference to the 2 PJEM seeds I have planted in rapid-rooters for the sake of running in the GenHydro growers.