Starting my 2nd grow with auto PE and auto NL..Pro advice please!!

I'm getting close to finishing up my first grow and decided to go ahead and pop the seeds on my 2nd attempt. Still going for semi-small in a pantry and going to use the same strains again, 1 NL auto from Nirvana and 1 PE auto from Barney's. I've already harvested and dried my PE, got a little over 1.5 oz dried, not counting a few grams worth of popcorns I took along the way for samples. I'm still letting my NL go a bit, so far I've dried and tested .75 oz from her.

I'm going to do some changing around this time around and would like some thoughts.

1. I'm still going to use CFLs from start to finish, but I think I'm going to add a 150 watt HPS when they start to flower. With my limited space(and funds) I can't really go much bigger, especially because of the heat. Will this help me get denser, heavier buds?

2. I'm going to up my bucket size. My first grow, I used 1 1/2 gallon pots, I'm thinking of going all the way up to 5 gallon this time, but at least 3gal. Is the yield gain from 3 to 5 worth the loss of space?

3. Nutes....Believe it or not, I used MG bloom nutes for my first grow. I had some cal/mag deficiencies, but that was really all. I'm thinking that I'm probably going to use that go box kit for this grow. Any thoughts there?

4. Medium....I used a mix of approximately 45% seedling starter from dollar general 45% MG brand Perlite and about 10% MG potting mix for my first grow. I really had no problems with the dirt mix, I know I can get a lot better, but I don't have a local grow store, and would have to order online. It's one thing to order nutes, lights, even beans online, but getting enough medium delivered might be problematic. So, I may just grab some organic MG and not feed them until week 3 or 4 like I did the first time.

I'm guessing with what's still on my NL, I'll end up with around 3 oz dried combined from both plants. For my second grow, I'd like to double that. I know that may sound like I'm reaching, but I'm thinking that with bigger pots, better lighting and better nutes, it's doable. I've learned tons from this site so far and I'm really grateful for all the advice and I would appreciate some more input on the adjustments I'm planning. Thanks guys and gals!

#1 A 250 HPS would be better suited as you'd loose less lumen's per watt
#2 More root more fruit
#3 Stick to the miracle gro and get some epsom salt which can be found anywhere
#4 Stick to what works for you

BSD0621 said:

#1 A 250 HPS would be better suited as you'd loose less lumen's per watt
#2 More root more fruit
#3 Stick to the miracle gro and get some epsom salt which can be found anywhere
#4 Stick to what works for you

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Thanks for the reply.
Epsom salt mixed in the soil, or used as a foiliar spray?

new2420grow said:

Thanks for the reply.
Epsom salt mixed in the soil, or used as a foiliar spray?

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No jacking intended but I mix in warm water and dissolve it first then pour into soil or light foliage sprays whenever needed. The epsoms will only work on the mag def tho as it has very little calcium in it. Stick to what you know and works for you,find your grow zone lol ,the soil mix sounds good the hps in there would be very nice indeed and the bigger the pot the better I'm growing autos in 22llt pots and very happy.. GL with your grow

brotes grandes said:

No jacking intended but I mix in warm water and dissolve it first then pour into soil or light foliage sprays whenever needed. The epsoms will only work on the mag def tho as it has very little calcium in it. Stick to what you know and works for you,find your grow zone lol ,the soil mix sounds good the hps in there would be very nice indeed and the bigger the pot the better I'm growing autos in 22llt pots and very happy.. GL with your grow

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Thanks! I've used it as a spray before, but wasn't sure if you could add it to the soil and it would help

the yellow/tan bag of seed starter from the dollar store has dolomite in it
so the calcium is covered IMO just lacks the extra mag
i buy that starter by the case when it goes on sale this time of year
they were half price a few weeks ago so i bought like 10 of them
get to the register and they rang up as $ 0.01 and the chick didnt even think twice about it
my old lady's eyes got big and said ma'am do you have anymore of this in the back ?
she come back with a box of it
lol 30+ bags

tekdc911 said:

the yellow/tan bag of seed starter from the dollar store has dolomite in it
so the calcium is covered IMO just lacks the extra mag
i buy that starter by the case when it goes on sale this time of year
they were half price a few weeks ago so i bought like 10 of them
get to the register and they rang up as $ 0.01 and the chick didnt even think twice about it
my old lady's eyes got big and said ma'am do you have anymore of this in the back ?
she come back with a box of it
lol 30+ bags

Click to expand...

lol...I used to date a chick that is the store manager of our local DG and unfortunately, she is on top of that .01 priced stuff and gets it off her shelves before the price hits the system. I didn't even think about that soil being one of those items, I'll have to check around the stores in my area this weekend and see if I can score some more. Thanks for the tip!

I have my seeds germinating in solo cups in my grow cabinet and I was moving some stuff around and like an idiot, I knocked over the cup with my PE seed in it. It was at at the point where it was just starting to push the seed through the soil. I scooped up the dirt and laid the seed with the taproot laying on the side, kinda down, and put just a hair of soil over it, then I misted the top with water. Any chance she'll survive? Do I need to just go ahead and pop another seed? Thanks everyone!