Hey everyone! This is my first time ever growing an auto flower plant. I was in many other sections of this forum getting started and I wanted to start a new thread showing the progress of the plant. I can not stress how helpful it has been asking questions and receiving answers on here. Even most common questions have been answered with courtesy. Much thanks to all who have helped me on my journey so far! So just a basic break down from the beginning.... Purchased Auto Flower Seeds from ilovegrowingmarijuana Seeds purchased was Amnesia Haze. I germinated the seed using the paper towel method inside a plastic baggy inside a humidity dome. After 2 days the seed showed it's tail (about 1" long). I placed the seed into a 3 gallon smart pot using Fox Farms Happy Frog Soil (60% mix) and Fox Farms Ocean Forest (40% mix). Also added in perlite. Very light watering from start (pH water 6.3-6.6 NO nutrients just water) After 3 days plant showed itself on March 19th The first 9 days I had the plant under 2 Ecosmart GP19 daylight 5000K bulbs... No nutes..... On the end of the 9th day I moved the plant into my grow tent. My grow tent is just a beginners set up as follows... Grow Sun Tent 24" x 24" x 56" iPower 4Inch High CFM Inline Exhausting Fan & Carbon Air Filter VIPARSPECTRA Reflector-Series 300W LED Grow Light Full Spectrum 2 Outlet Light Timer Cheap 6" Fan Misc. Items.....Air Duct Silencer....Insulated 4" Ducting....Surge Protector....Fans speed controller....etc... Nutrients: Maxicrop Liquid Seaweed Botanicare Cal Mag Plus Canna Cannazym General Hydroponics Flora Nova Grow and Bloom General Hydroponics pH Up and Down So this is how my set up is. I am running the exhaust fan just below 50% (24 hrs.) 6" fan running (24 hrs.) LED Light (18/6). From the start I placed the pot on top of the basket to keep it closer to the LED light (around 22"). Here are some pics 3 days after inside the tent. 12 days...no nutes just pH water.... Here is 14 days no nutes just pH water...as far as how much water...its touch and go...I try to every 5 hours check the soil with a 2 knuckle deep test and if its dry I would add some water. Here is 16 days...no nutes just pH water.... Here is 19 days with no nutes and just pH water. I notice some purple stems today and will keep on eye on them the next couple days. Is this a serious problem? The first two pics were with the LED on... Here is 20 days with no nutes...I try to show the purple stems... Any kind of help and info would be greatly appreciated with my first grow! I will try to update every 3 days or so to show the progress. Just to show some of the stuff I purchased here are the links: Seeds: ilovegrowingmarijuana CFL Lights: ie=UTF8&psc=1 Cannazym: Cal Mag: Seaweed Extract: Fox Farm happy Frog Soil: Fox Farms Ocean Forest Soil: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CJJ8N3G/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 3 Gallon Smart Pot: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002JUY9I8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Humidity Dome: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BOY6Y2I/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Seedling Heat Mat: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00P7U259C/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Noise Reducer Silencer: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CTM0H1S/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Exhaust Fan & Carbon Filter: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D7M6692/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Exhaust Fan Air Speed Controller: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007TFTITS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 LED Light: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01B4GQ6MO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 General Hydroponics Nutrients: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0031FFFEW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Surge Protector: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017VXU6GG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s03?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Grow Tent: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H8JK6YK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s04?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Hi...and welcome to the wonderful world of growing your own. Your plant is very healthy just the way it should be. I don't grow autos, but from what I read, they don't like to be transplanted....which is fine, but IF your plant needs nutrients at all (you're using excellent quality grow soil which is jam packed with the nutrients needed to feed this plant), it will be toward the end of it's life. However, the plant will always tell you when it needs something and the way a plant lets you know it's hungry is by it's overall color fading out from that rich blue/green we associate with a healthy plant, to a more yellowish/green. You'll see this happening on new growth...where you always look to to decide whether you actually have an issue with your plant or not. The purple stems are nothing to be alarmed about...very common. Since you're growing an auto strain, might as well keep that light on as strong as it will burn for 24 hrs a day. Nothing you do as far as light schedule has an effect on that plant (auto strains are genetically programmed to cycle on their time frame regardless of hours of light, etc.), and the more light you give a plant, the better plant you will grow. Bump that thing up as high as it will go and keep it going 24 hours a day. Looks like you've got the not watering too much thing down pat...your plant is lovely at this point. Not sure how long it takes these plants to go into flower, but once yours does and enters the flower cycle, know that the last few weeks of the flower cycle the plant stops sending nutrition to the foliage and devotes it all to finishing out the buds. So around the last 3 weeks or so, you'll start to see lots of leaves begin to yellow and die off. Most people freak out when this starts to happen because they immediately assume there is a problem, but it's just the way the plant cycles. Until that time, your foliage should stay that night bright blue/green rich color. If you start seeing things change color wise on your new growth, then something is off. I suggest you stick with the water you've been giving and just watch your plant. Normally, nutritional deficiencies go along with a plant that has become root bound. It uses up the nutrition in the soil and the roots grow to the point of taking up the majority of the room in the pot. When yours gets like this, if you have enough room left in the container, just top it off with fresh soil. As you water fresh soil, it will compact down and you can fit quite a bit into a container doing it a little at a time. This will up the food for your plant and keep you from having to worry with adding a bunch of nutrients your first time around. Nutrients are just plain old plant food...nothing special. And you do not have to have tons of the stuff to grow out a nice plant. The key to getting a good harvest and a big healthy plant is light. We use soil, tap water and light...and that's it. But we don't grow auto strains....just the normal old phenos. They don't have issues with repotting and when mine get hungry, I just toss them in a slightly larger container...regardless of where they are in their life cycles (I've even repotted a couple of weeks before harvest when they got root bound and I was having to water every day) and done right, never had them show any stress. These things are weeds and are hardy as heck. If you keep the basic conditions right for the plant and give each one you flower killer good light, you'll be just fine. When you see good bud development all over your plant....mark the date and start counting your weeks. Each strain has a recommended flowering time and you start the count once you see the plant has clearly started flowering. But you've done a great job so far. You've bought a lot of stuff you're probably not going to need, but I think everybody does that starting out. The nute makers want you to think you can't grow a plant without the stuff and, if you're doing a hydro setup, you can't. But if you grow in soil, it's a much more relaxed situation and the soil will do 90% of the work if you'll just let it. Good luck. TWW
Excellent write up! I agree I do have quite of bit of extra stuff I probably wont need but I tried a hydro grow and failed twice with that and now I switched to soil. Some people have told me to maybe start adding some cal mag my next watering and to start giving the plant more water until I see run off on the bottom. I am nervous about over watering my plant so I am not sure if I should start doing that now. I am basically only giving this plant around 16 ounces of water a day.
From the looks of your last pic it looks like nutrient burn. Unless you have a more recent pic? If you havnt given them any nutrients, then its just from the soil you have them in. The plant will get past it nothing to worry about. If you are giving them nutes back off or stop using them till you notice the burnt tips go away.
Ok, yea I haven't been feeding any nutes yet just water. Maybe I am not giving the plant enough water then since it oculd be nute buildup in the soil?
Ok so I have a question. In about 1 -1/2 weeks I am thinking about starting to add nutrients to my grow (General Hydroponics Flora Nova Grow). I understand that I should only mix 1/4 of the recommended dosage per gallon of water. My question is, how often should I feed the plant the nutrients? Should I just give nutrient water to the plant for 1 day a week or every other day or everyday? Apologies if this is considered a dumb question.
Update: 31 days No nutrients just water...also ordered a larger grow tent...this tent is not tall enough.
i noticed in this picture you had the light WAY too far away. I assume at this point you have it a few inches off the top of the plant right?
No the light is about 15 inches away. I thought the light needed to be atleast that far away from the light manuf. said. They recommend 24" in Veg stage and 12" in Flower stage.
i would have it about 6" max away from the plant. I have 6 seedlings under a "600w" right now and its about 6" from their tops. Also you should have tried to train that thing a bit but i guess its a bit late for that.
Yea since this is my first (so far successful grow) I didn't want to train her just wanted to get a hang of growing for the first time. My other attempt before this one I had the light about 12inches from a 1 week old plant and she developed light burn from what others have said. Maybe different LED lights require a different distance from the plant? Here is a pic I just took to show the distance. I don't notice the leaves stretching for light do you? View attachment 2282420
Yea since this is my first (so far successful grow) I didn't want to train her just wanted to get a hang of growing for the first time. My other attempt before this one I had the light about 12inches from a 1 week old plant and she developed light burn from what others have said. Maybe different LED lights require a different distance from the plant? Here is a pic I just took to show the distance. I don't notice the leaves stretching for light do you? View attachment 2282420
Yea since this is my first (so far successful grow) I didn't want to train her just wanted to get a hang of growing for the first time. My other attempt before this one I had the light about 12inches from a 1 week old plant and she developed light burn from what others have said. Maybe different LED lights require a different distance from the plant? Here is a pic I just took to show the distance. I don't notice the leaves stretching for light do you?