New Grower Second Auto Grow in the Auto Garage.

[Auto Garage]

Yeah im confused.. I thought you used build a flower in the soil mix.. I dont know whats going on anymore

I started them in 12oz cups with:
2/3s FFOF
1/3rd Peat Moss and Perlite mixed 70/30
1 teaspoon Mycho Bliss

And then was going to transplant into:
4 parts FFOF
1 Part Perlite
.5 Parts Rice Hulls
1 TBLSP Down To Earth Bio-Live 5-4-2 per 5 gallons of mixed dirt.
4 Cups Build a Flower per 5 Gallons of mixed dirt.

The problem was with the double cups. The tap roots just kept growing and growing with no growth above ground. They went through the split in the bottom cup and just kept growing in circles in the outer cup. Those tiny plants have like 10-12 inch tap roots.

I'm not too sure on what to try next. Either replace some of the super soil with a less hot mix and let em grow into the other stuff like WildBill had mention above or just transplant normally without the double cup method. Thanks for all the help.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I started them in 12oz cups with:
2/3s FFOF
1/3rd Peat Moss and Perlite mixed 70/30
1 teaspoon Mycho Bliss

And then was going to transplant into:
4 parts FFOF
1 Part Perlite
.5 Parts Rice Hulls
1 TBLSP Down To Earth Bio-Live 5-4-2 per 5 gallons of mixed dirt.
4 Cups Build a Flower per 5 Gallons of mixed dirt.

The problem was with the double cups. The tap roots just kept growing and growing with no growth above ground. They went through the split in the bottom cup and just kept growing in circles in the outer cup. Those tiny plants have like 10-12 inch tap roots.

I'm not too sure on what to try next. Either replace some of the super soil with a less hot mix and let em grow into the other stuff like WildBill had mention above or just transplant normally without the double cup method. Thanks for all the help.

Pretty normal for young plants to focus on root growth... the long root thing is a little odd.. probably some pockets of water between the cups and they just went to town. I usually make sure to line my drain holes up and make the cut in cup split precise so there isnt a big gap.

 

[Auto Garage]

Pretty normal for young plants to focus on root growth... the long root thing is a little odd.. probably some pockets of water between the cups and they just went to town. I usually make sure to line my drain holes up and make the cut in cup split precise so there isnt a big gap.

Yeah, but we're in week 3 and that's all they are doing which is pretty unusual. I'm not sure if they could even pull out of it if I could figure out how to transplant them. I probably just messed up the double cups. I dunno what else to do/try. Kinda just run out of ideas other than start over.

 

[Zer0]

Man i suck too at following directions and steps with this stuff i think i just got lucky withonly 1 runted stunted, this is a learning process and an expensive one at that but we are here to help smooth out the rough spots :smoking: I'm more of a cheerleader as i'm just going off what i did and read so far.

Why not try planting your seed in its final pot, i am doing that from now on.

And for buildaflower i thought that was a top dress. Are we suppose to be mixing that in fresh soils?

 

[Auto Garage]

Man i suck too at following directions and steps with this stuff i think i just got lucky withonly 1 runted stunted, this is a learning process and an expensive one at that but we are here to help smooth out the rough spots :smoking: I'm more of a cheerleader as i'm just going off what i did and read so far.

Why not try planting your seed in its final pot, i am doing that from now on.

And for buildaflower i thought that was a top dress. Are we suppose to be mixing that in fresh soils?

I blended some Build a Flower in with my FFOF so I won't have to top dress too crazy. I'll probably plant directly into the final pot, but I'll do the method where you scoop out some dirt and replace it with less "hot" soil. The first time I grew autos i used a pretty hot soil and that's how I did it and it worked okay. I had read transplanting leads to bigger final plants so I was attempting to go that route with the split cups. You live and learn! I'm a little bummed but it's nobody's fault but my own.

 

[Zer0]

I blended some Build a Flower in with my FFOF so I won't have to top dress too crazy. I'll probably plant directly into the final pot, but I'll do the method where you scoop out some dirt and replace it with less "hot" soil. The first time I grew autos i used a pretty hot soil and that's how I did it and it worked okay. I had read transplanting leads to bigger final plants so I was attempting to go that route with the split cups. You live and learn! I'm a little bummed but it's nobody's fault but my own.

I'll do the same thing next time, i got lucky and ffof did not affect my seeds but i will not chance it again. i'll dig out a baseball size or smaller and stuff peatmoss in there for the seed.

Live and learn for sure its just a bean and time.
Keep trying and improving :smoking:

 

[Tom Bombadil]

And for buildaflower i thought that was a top dress. Are we suppose to be mixing that in fresh soils?

its a really rich compost... as long as you dont put too much, it works really well mixed into your soil... it also makes the mix a little more dense, so it helps to add a bit off aeration when you add it to your mix, but not too much! Trial and error! Ive found that about 15% baf works pretty well with additional top dressings periodically... it just helps buffer any bad timing with the top dressings in my mind.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

Semi-related story:
I used beneficial nematodes as a soil drench once to take care of fungus gnats and they worked great, the only downside was that the soil/compost mite population exploded by feasting on the left over dead nematodes after they had eaten all the fungus gnat larva (not a bad thing really). When I tried planting directly into that mix without using a bit of seedling mix in the middle like you spoke of above my two seedlings were mostly decapitated by the soil mites by the time they pushed through the soil! I was watching the seedlings wondering why they weren't growing new sets of leaves, unaware that the growth tips had been destroyed. I pulled out my jewelers loupe and could see those little peckers still in and around the growing tips.. I was scraping thousands of those bastards of the inside walls of my soil storage container for some time... Now its all back in balance.. Everything is a learning experience. llolololooololl

 

[Auto Garage]

I'll do the same thing next time, i got lucky and ffof did not affect my seeds but i will not chance it again. i'll dig out a baseball size or smaller and stuff peatmoss in there for the seed.

Live and learn for sure its just a bean and time.
Keep trying and improving :smoking:

Yup, I'm still interested in the double cup method for autos down the road. I'll practice on some regulars and try and get that down. I have a lot of freebies that I've been wanting to try and see what happens.

its a really rich compost... as long as you dont put too much, it works really well mixed into your soil... it also makes the mix a little more dense, so it helps to add a bit off aeration when you add it to your mix, but not too much! Trial and error! Ive found that about 15% baf works pretty well with additional top dressings... it just helps buffer any bad timing in my mind.

I ended up putting 10% in which really upped the moisture content and density. I've never used something that contains bio char. I've was listening to a podcast on it and it seems like a good home for microbes and what not. Thanks again for showing me the stuff. IF i can get some plants going, I might try out that gro kashi stuff as well . I'd like to move away from salts for the regs as well so this is all just kinda an experiment into something different.