1st grow, COTC Cash Crop Auto

I germ'd 3 seeds on 4/10. Plants 2 and 3 sprouted on 4/12, and plant #1 sprouted on 4/14. They are under 3 dual 48" bulb fixtures with t8 bulbs, total of 224 watts. All 3 are in 3gal pots.

Cabinet is about 4 1/2 ft wide, 2 ft deep, and about 3 1/2 ft tall. Small fan to keep them fluttering. Temps stays around 73-75, humidity was around 50% for the 1st week, but has dropped to 37% now.

Need some help with my girls. It was a slow start for all 3 plants, and just starting to show real growth over the last few days. Today when I checked on them, I noticed some yellowing. I'll give info for each plant, the post pics.

Plant #1
Burpee Organic Coco Coir seed starting mix
.06 N
.03 P
.03 K

4/19


4/22


Plant # 2
MG Organic Choice soil mixed w/30% vermiculite
.10 N
.05 P
.05 K

4/19


4/22



Plant #3
MG all purpose soil mixed w/30% vermiculite
.09 N
.05 P
.07 K

4/19


4/22

Anyone?

I found one of my ph testers. The kind where you gauge the color of the water. I'd say that my water, that's sat out for a day, is between 7.5-8.

What should I try? Distilled vinegar, lemon juice? I'd mix my nutes in, but I don't think they should need it yet, and I don't want to burn the girls.

I just use PH down. Would only need a drop or 2 per gallon in your case.

Otherwise your seedlings look good. Fresh growth being a little yellow is normal. When the Cotyledons (the round baby leaves) start to yellow, that's when you need to start adding nutes. Well, ideally, just before then but we aren't that intuitive. lol

Off to a good start.

Thank you. Makes me feel much better.

I've been slowly upping water amounts, and spreading out from the stalk more each watering, but when is a good time to start watering the whole pot? One of my biggest concerns as a new grower is over/under watering. I want to make sure the root system is strong, but never know how much to water.

Also I've read that lights being too close can cause yellowing on the areas closest to the lights. My lights are in the same position over the pots as when the grow started, about an inch and a half. The top of the soil is about an inch below the lip of the pots. Id say that plants 1 and 3 are about an inch from the bulbs, and plant 2 is 1/2" to 3/4" away. When's a good time to raise the lights a bit?

A little under-watered is better than too much. It makes them shoot out roots in search of moisture. I don't fully water until I have 5 finger leaves and it's worked out good for me.

As for your lights, I'd try and maintain that distance. But, I've never used them so.. Grain of salt and all that.

Thanks Creature. Plant's 2 and 3 went straight from 3 blade leaves to 7 blade leaves, and each got a full watering and their 1st feeding last night of 12-4-8.

Pictures from this morning. You can see plant 1 is still the runt, but plant 3 is catching up to plant 2 in size.

Plant 1



Plant 2



Plant 3



Humidity is back up, and hanging right at 50% for the past couple days. Temps are at 77. I'm hoping they start growing more soon. They're about 2 weeks from seed, and should start flowering before long, and they seem way too small to me. I know they'll pick up speed and stretch during flower, but the two biggest plants are only about 4" tall.

Also thinking about trying my hand at some lst. When would be a good time to start? Unless it's not a good idea with these autos. I've read mixed opinions.

Looking good @chuey . You're runt could just be a late starter. MY runt from the last grow ended up being larger than the rest come chop time. LST on auto's is fine. Just do it in such a way that doesn't affect the roots at all. IE: support the lower stem before you yank her over. The Bubblicious auto I LST'd produced 2x the weight of my non LST and 4x as much as the violent LST I did to another that stunted her pretty bad. Never got over 10" tall (yanked over 90° with no stem support must have disturbed the roots). If you have enough stem to gently do it now, do it.

I wouldn't recommend this but I topped an auto cheese and she's doing incredibly well with it. She was under 6" tall when she hit stretch but had a ton branching ( I suspect is from switching from HPS to COB lighting). I didn't expect much outta her so I topped her for science. Here she is 3 weeks later. Absolute shrubbery!


I'm a little concerned with the sheer number of bud sites she has and her finite life span. We'll see how this plays out. If she still produces good weight, more topping will be in my future. Wishing I topped the Amnesia auto's I'm growing too as they're in coco hempy buckets and growing at an alarming rate. ( I'm LOVING coco right now)

Auto's aren't quite as delicate as people still make them out to be. It seems they've come a long way in the last couple years. I did everything wrong on my last grow and still harvested 7.25oz from 4 small, screwed up plants.

Nice girls Creature. I'm hoping to get an Oz or 2 dried per plant. Thought I'd set a low goal since it's my 1st grow. I know the strain is capable of much more.

Just a quick update on the girls. They've shown sex, and have each put on growth, but vertical growth has been very slow. They got their 1st dose of veg nutes 5-6 days ago.

Plant 1


Plant 2


Plant 3

Anybody know about what week the stretch stops with this strain, and when to switch to flower nutes?

Some pics of the girls from today, and the carbon filter I made for em. There 1st feeding was at about 20% strength, then stepped up to 25%. No signs of burn, or yellowing. Gonna step it up to around 35%, unless anyone thinks I can go higher like 40-50%.

Plant 1


Plant 2


Plant 3

Went ahead with 40% strength today. They're starting to smell a little, but haven't had to start using the filter yet.

Weather has been cold here lately, not getting over 50° most days. When it starts getting warmer, hopefully soon, I may switch over to a 20/4 schedule. If i do it now the temp in the cabinet would likely drop down to around 60°. Even have the doors open for 10 minutes drops it around 3°.

If anyone see's anything I'm doing wrong, or could be doing better just let me know. I'm here to learn so I can make each grow better than my last, and keep myself supplied with meds.

All 3 girls are starting to stretch more now. Growing an inch or two each day. Gonna try to start getting a screen set up for a scrog soon. All 3 took well to the last feeding at 40% strength as well. Next feeding will be 50%.

Not sure if anyone is reading this, but here's an update from yesterday. Plant 1 is still way behind in size, but she's in it for the haul. I installed a screen, and have begun tucking.

Plant 1




Plant 2




Plant 3

Sorry for the hiatus. Back with the end results. All three plants were stunted, one being the smallest, at about half the size of the other two. I chopped them at different times, and trich development. Chopped plant 1 at 10 weeks, with trich's 80-90% cloudy, a couple amber, and some cloudy/clear ones. Yield was 25g dry.

The colas from plants 2 and 3 were cut at 12 1/2 weeks with 25-30% amber trhic's, and the rest of the plant was less than 5% amber so I left them under the lights. The cola's came in at 55g dry.

Both remaining plants were chopped at week 13. I don't remember the thrich's, but I want to say they where around the 40-45%% amber mark. Yield from both plants combined was another 55g dry for a final yield of 135g.

Plant 2 at 10 weeks



I just may grow this strain again in the future when I have more experience, and can obtain better yields. I can't see any reason why even an average grow of 3 of these wouldn't yield a good 10oz or more. Any other grows I could find of this strain, the plants were at least double the size of my 2 bigger girls.

As far as the smoke goes, I've mainly smoked from plant 1, but I have rolled a couple from the rest of the yield, and I honestly cant tell any real difference the the effects from any of the harvest points. The high is a nice cerebral high, and you can be up doing things, although maybe not focused, but is nice before bed as well. That said, it's definitely not the pain reliever I was looking for.

Next grow will be 3 Auto #1's from auto seeds.