I am a serial Auto stunter/killer

[Hombre Robusto]

Seriously. I stunt and or kill every auto I try to grow. My photos turn out fine, my autos, pffft. I have three finishing up now, and I'll be lucky to get a weekends worth of smoke out of them. My last three grown, which were ILGM white widows, I got about a half of an oz off of all three combined. I've since spent a king's ransom on what seem to be considered 'high quality' genetics; Mephisto, Nightowl, Fastbuds, Mabdalorian, ect.......rest assured, I stunt and kill them with the best of them, too.

my setup:

4x4 tent
three fans
4'' inline fan and carbon filter
3 gal/5 gal cloth pots. Doesn't matter, one dies as fast as the other.
water, always ph'd between 6.2-6.5
Down to Earth nutes. 4-4-4, and 2-8-4 preflower and flower, with a molasses tea every once in a while. I also use some worm castings here and ther.
Pro Mix HP.
two (2), Mars hydro TSL2000, controls mounted outside the tent for heat control.

I think it might be my medium. The Pro HP. It dries out so fast, I think I might be under or overwatering, or a combination of both. Temps vary from high 70's to low 80's, with rh in the 50-60% range. I have four that I started on 7/15, and they are currently still maybe three inches tall, but healthy looking nonetheless. I've started them directly in the dirt, and I've done the glass of water-paper towel method. They do fine until I drop them in the soil, then it's all over but thew shouting/killing. I use humidity domes, too.

Since thinking it was the medium, I went out yesterday and purchased some new stuff. I got Roots Original, and also some Happy Frog. I mixed 2 1/2 gallons of the Roots with the appropriate amount of Daz's super amendment mixture, then 2 1/2 gallons of the Roots soil mixed with Happy Frog, (no amendments), on top of that. I put four seeds in a cup of unchlorinated water overnight. They sprouted tap roots by the next day, so I put them about 1/4" deep, and moistened them with water. I have them about 26" under one of the lights, which is at 100 watts, according to the wattage meter at the plug. Lux is reading about 12-13K. The top of the soil under the humidity dome was still damp this morning, which it never was with the Promix the next day.

I'm hoping these new four give me some of those kodak moments like I see in pics of autos, with large plants oozing the nectar of the Godz. Any and all help is highly appreciated.

 

[blue]

Seriously. I stunt and or kill every auto I try to grow. My photos turn out fine, my autos, pffft. I have three finishing up now, and I'll be lucky to get a weekends worth of smoke out of them. My last three grown, which were ILGM white widows, I got about a half of an oz off of all three combined. I've since spent a king's ransom on what seem to be considered 'high quality' genetics; Mephisto, Nightowl, Fastbuds, Mabdalorian, ect.......rest assured, I stunt and kill them with the best of them, too.

my setup:

4x4 tent
three fans
4'' inline fan and carbon filter
3 gal/5 gal cloth pots. Doesn't matter, one dies as fast as the other.
water, always ph'd between 6.2-6.5
Down to Earth nutes. 4-4-4, and 2-8-4 preflower and flower, with a molasses tea every once in a while. I also use some worm castings here and ther.
Pro Mix HP.
two (2), Mars hydro TSL2000, controls mounted outside the tent for heat control.

I think it might be my medium. The Pro HP. It dries out so fast, I think I might be under or overwatering, or a combination of both. Temps vary from high 70's to low 80's, with rh in the 50-60% range. I have four that I started on 7/15, and they are currently still maybe three inches tall, but healthy looking nonetheless. I've started them directly in the dirt, and I've done the glass of water-paper towel method. They do fine until I drop them in the soil, then it's all over but thew shouting/killing. I use humidity domes, too.

Since thinking it was the medium, I went out yesterday and purchased some new stuff. I got Roots Original, and also some Happy Frog. I mixed 2 1/2 gallons of the Roots with the appropriate amount of Daz's super amendment mixture, then 2 1/2 gallons of the Roots soil mixed with Happy Frog, (no amendments), on top of that. I put four seeds in a cup of unchlorinated water overnight. They sprouted tap roots by the next day, so I put them about 1/4" deep, and moistened them with water. I have them about 26" under one of the lights, which is at 100 watts, according to the wattage meter at the plug. Lux is reading about 12-13K. The top of the soil under the humidity dome was still damp this morning, which it never was with the Promix the next day.

I'm hoping these new four give me some of those kodak moments like I see in pics of autos, with large plants oozing the nectar of the Godz. Any and all help is highly appreciated.

Welcome to AFN Hombre!! ^_^



A serial stunter eh?? .. I'm sure we've all done it at some point!

Coming from a photoperiod background and looking at your setup (which all looks good and sounds like you know your gardening), I can only suggest that they are perhaps not liking the strength to start off with

..It's only a guess, because i've not seen your journals, but I think it's a pretty good one!!

The most important part of the autos life (In my very humble opinion) is the first 20 days .. where most of the work is being done underground (roots) .. but in my pots, i gauge a good start by the fan leaves reaching the edge of my pot in those 20 days. If it's far off that, it's worth me reconsidering taking it forward. (not that it hardly ever happens these days)

I use a light mix soil (biobizz lighmix) and hand water for the first 20 days (autopot from then on), with a very light (canna start) nute addition .. very light!! ^_^

I think if you nail those 20 days .. the rest will fall into place like a photoperiod, just with less nutes and no light change.

Looking froward to seeing you rock the next batch!!

Happy growing
Blue ^_^

 

[Bob's Auto's]

I was thinking the same as @blue. My first thought was the EC value. Try to stay under 600 µS/cm or 300PPM when they are seedlings and go from there

 

[Hombre Robusto]

Thanks, guys. Much appreciated. This batch, started yesterday, I did not add any amendments to the top half of the pot. It is a 50/50 mix of Roots original and Happy Frog. I hope this is the turnaround batch. My wallet can't take anymore, lol.