The student finally attempts to grow.

Right, I have been thinking about growing for a while now. I finally decided to take the plunge. I have planned two separate grow areas (one with autoflowers and the other with photoperiod). I've grown shrooms before, but other than that I have no experience in growing anything. Due to the short time left on my apartment tenancy (12 weeks) I decided to go with autoflowers for my space. I have also planned my friend's space with photoperiods. I have created this journal, for both purposes of having a log, and to get advice and opinions from people. Especially if I run into problems, considering its my first grow.

Set up 1:

Space-

They will be in open air in my bedroom for the first 3 or so weeks whilst they are in veg phase and not too smelly. Since I am now pretty much broke for the next 3 weeks, I will buy a 3ft x 3ft or 4x4 tent once they start to flower properly. Space is not much of an issue so I may go for 4x4 as I imagine heat control will be easier.

I plan on using a 6 inch exhaust fan with carbon filter, and a 4inch active intake fan. I'm also considering an 8 inch exhaust but operating slower using a plug in speed controller, as ive heard this could be quieter than a 6 inch. Currently I don't know if I will intake/exhaust fresh air from outside, or just let it circulate in my bedroom and open windows when the temperatures are too high.

When I will be flowering, it will be around 17-20C or 62-68F ambient outdoor temperature so it will likely be warmer at about 24C or 75F inside my house without any lights running.

Strains- 3 x Fast Buds Girl Scout Cookies Auto
3 x Gorilla Glue Auto also by Fast Buds
2 x Short Sweet Auto by Heavyweight seeds
2 x Northern Lights Auto from Royal Queen Seeds

I plan to keep 9 plants, but Ive planted one extra incase I run into nutrient problems or watering issues and end up stunting any of the plants. I also plan to experiment with some light LST with a couple of plants so Ill have one extra just in case.

Lights-

Veg:
For the seedling stage I have one 125W CFL (6400k), one 40W (8000k spectrum) CFL and one 30W (6400k spectrum) CFL. Giving a total of 195W CFL. Im hoping these lights will be enough for the seedling phase aka the first week or so of growth from emergence out of the soil.

Following on from the first week under CFL, I also have a blue spectrum 600W Metal Halide bulb which I plan to use through week 2 until flowering. If I find the 195W of CFL is not enough for my seedlings I may switch from CFL to the Metal halide earlier. Any advice is appreciated.

Flowering:
For the flowering stage I have a 600W HPS red spectrum bulb, which I may supplement with the 195W of CFL if heat is not presenting an issue in the grow tent later.


Nutrients-

VEG: The medium I have chosen to grow in is soil due to my first time. I have used 5 Gallon fabric / smart pots, filled with a mixture of 12L Canna Terra Professional + 1.5 L worm castings + 1.5L of cheap Westlands compost with added John Innes. I figure that the nutrients contained within this mixture should be enough to sustain the plant during veg so I dont plan on adding anything else in particular at this stage. I will be adding some mycorrhizal fungi to innoculate the soil with symbiotic life for root health. May add some Advanced nutrients Voodoo juice for some bacterial life too. These Autos have been planted in their final pots.

I will add Canna Rhizotonic every time I water, and from week 2 onwards I will also add Canna Cannazym to help break down dead roots. If I start seeing any nutrient deficiency signs, I have some Canna Start one part nutrient which is specialy formulated for seedlings. I imagine this is just a more dilute/weaker version of the feed they sell for vegging purposes so i'm hoping if the soil runs out during veg I can top it up with this.

FLOWER: I was originally thinking of using Canna Boost, Canna PK 13/14 and Canna Terra Flores. However I am now thinking of this instead:

Advanced nutrients Connosiuer A + B base nutrient, throughout flower. (Canna Flores substitute)
AN Big Bud for most of flower, until the last few weeks. (supposedly similar to PK 13/14)
AN Bud Candy, probably throughout flower, the carbs will feed my soil life.
Canna Boost, (as far as i'm aware it will not clash with the AN nutes listed above.)
Some sort of Silicate product.
AN Overdrive to finish off the last couple weeks of flower.

Set up 2:

Space-

They will be in a 4ft x 4ft grow tent. I plan on using an 8 inch exhaust fan with carbon filter, and a 4inch active intake fan. Because I plan to use ALOT of light, I think I will be safe and go for a 8inch exhaust fan with speed controller. Air will circulate within the large room containing grow tent, with occasional opening of windows, and if its still too hot during flower I will get a portable AC unit.

When I will be flowering, it will be around 17-20C or 62-68F ambient outdoor temperature so it will likely be warmer at about 24C or 75F inside without any lights running.

Strains- 3 x Special Queen by Royal Queen Seeds
3 x White Widow from RQS
3 x Honey Cream from RQS
1 x Critical from Royal Queen Seeds

I plan to keep 9 plants, but Ive planted one extra again. I plan to experiment with topping/FIM with some LST.

Lights-

Veg:
For the seedling stage I have one 125W CFL (6400k), one 40W (8000k spectrum) CFL and one 30W (6400k spectrum) CFL. Giving a total of 195W CFL. Im hoping these lights will be enough for the seedling phase aka the first week or so of growth from emergence out of the soil.

Following on from the first week under CFL,they will go under a 1200W LED panel. Although the advertised watts are bullshit probably, the True Watts is 500W.

Flowering:

For the flowering stage I plan to add a second identical panel, giving a total of 1050 true watts or 2400W advertised. I already have a feeling like the heat in the 4x4 tent will be a big problem with these two panels. From what I hear, the yield from these two panels of 1000W true, will be similar to a 1K HPS and heat produced will be the same. Does 1k HPS in 4x4 create crazy amounts of heat? Im already thinking of buying a cheap AC unit when it comes to flower, or supplementing with a smaller panel (maybe a 300 true Watt reflector series panel).


Nutrients-

The medium I have chosen to grow in is soil due to my first time. I will germinate these seeds in small 1L pots, and after a week or 2 will transplant to their final pots. I will transplant to 5 gallon fabric / smart pots, filled with a mixture of 12L Plagron All mix + 2L worm castings + 2L of cheap Westlands compost with added John Innes. I figure that the nutrients contained within this mixture should be enough to sustain the plant during veg so I dont plan on adding anything else in particular at this stage. I will be adding some mycorrhizal fungi to innoculate the soil with symbiotic life for root health. May add some Advanced nutrients Voodoo juice for some bacteria.

The nutrients used will be much the same as the other grow area with autoflowers.


Anyone got any input to my ideas?

Current progress:

All 9 autoflower seeds have been germinated in paper towels after soaking in Canna Rhizotonic for 24 hours until they sank. When the tap roots were about 1cm long, I planted the seeds about 1/2 inch deep in soil that had been pre-soaked and allowed to drain for a day. Current PH Levels of my soil is around 7, maybe I should lower it. But Im not sure how I should do it, maybe adding some vinegar to water? Current temperatures around 25C in the room, and around 20C in the soil itself.

So far, after 24 hours of soaking and 24 hours in the soil, one Gorilla Glue Auto seedling has emerged from the soil, Showing two small but pale Cotyledons. Im hoping they are only pale because they are freshly emerged, or because they had never received any light before. I now have that seedling under both the 40W and 30W CFL bulbs about 4 inches away from. Im also slightly worried that the soil may be too "hot" for the seedling. I think Canna professional has some nutrients, but there is also another one called Canna professional plus. So im not sure which one is the hot soil!

The Photoperiod seeds have all been soaked and are now sitting between two damp cotton wool pads. Around half of them are showing early taproots. How quickly do you think these will become root bound in small 1L pots? I may not be able to transplant these into bigger pots until about 10 days after planting them.

Nice work mate, I am interested to see how this goes as I just started my first ever indoor grow today also.
Best of luck and be safe

Update-

Autoflowers:

3 Gorilla glue germinated and sprouted, one looks really weird. Its Cotyledons are dark yellow and tiny, about 0.5cm long. The whole sprout is just very very tiny, the cotyledons remained yellow for two days now, and it has the beginnings of two very tiny first leaves, although they appeared lime/bright green and do not appear to be growing anymore, and neither are its cotyledons. Think this one is probably a goner. Other 2 are doing fine.

3 Girl scout cookied- All germinated, sprouted and doing fine.

2 Short Sweet - One didnt germinate at all, One germinated and sprouted, but it came out with the seed still attached and I broke off one of its Cotyledons with a tweezer as I was removing the shell. I seemed to have alot of them unable to lose their seeds, im figuring I plant them too shallow. Still, the missing Cotyledon didnt seem to stunt its growth that much at all. It seemed to shrug it off and continue growing, its now probably only a day behind the others (judged by the size of its first set of non Cotyledon leaves).

3 Northern lights auto- 2 have not yet germinated, I dont think they will but will wait. One germinated, and is now planted. Remains to be seen if it will sprout.

Photoperiod-

3 White widow- One did not germinate. 2 germinated and sprouted. I broke a Cotyledon off one of them, when removing the seed. It doesnt seem to have responded as well to it as the short sweet. Its remaining Cotyledon remains pale, but well see if it pulls through, I figure if it does, ill just veg it for longer to make up for the slowed growth. Or I will top/ FIM other plants which are further ahead and leave this one out. The second one to germinate has only freshly broken ground, I hope it pulls through!

3 Special Queen-
All Germinated and sprouted, they seem fine although a little small/slow in growth.

3 Honey Cream-
One with a singular Cotyledon due to the seed, appears to be growing slowly. 2 sprouts doing fine.

1 Critical - It was a very abnormally small seed. But it germinated and sprouted and appears to be growing .


I have the single cotyledon white widow, and honey cream under the 30W 6400K CFL and 40W 8000k Cfl respectively. I find that when they are broken and small/weak, the close-up light of a mild CFL about 2" away to themselves seems to help them not die out. Out of all the damaged and weak sprouts I think only the gorilla glue wont make it. That one just came out like that without me damaging it too. Its Lime green first single leaves appear to be wilting now.

All the other seedlings are now sharing a 600W Metal Halide bulb in a 80cm by 60cm space, from 3 ft away. I hope this is okay for 2 and 3 day old sprouts, including some which have been stressed/shocked.

Looks like i'll have 6-7 Autos, and 9 Photos in a few days from now. So quite a high failure rate from seed. 4 that just wouldnt germinate, and one weird sproutling, and a few damaged but I think theyll make it. Will add photos when I get a chance

420student said:

Update-

Autoflowers:

3 Gorilla glue germinated and sprouted, one looks really weird. Its Cotyledons are dark yellow and tiny, about 0.5cm long. The whole sprout is just very very tiny, the cotyledons remained yellow for two days now, and it has the beginnings of two very tiny first leaves, although they appeared lime/bright green and do not appear to be growing anymore, and neither are its cotyledons. Think this one is probably a goner. Other 2 are doing fine.

3 Girl scout cookied- All germinated, sprouted and doing fine.

2 Short Sweet - One didnt germinate at all, One germinated and sprouted, but it came out with the seed still attached and I broke off one of its Cotyledons with a tweezer as I was removing the shell. I seemed to have alot of them unable to lose their seeds, im figuring I plant them too shallow. Still, the missing Cotyledon didnt seem to stunt its growth that much at all. It seemed to shrug it off and continue growing, its now probably only a day behind the others (judged by the size of its first set of non Cotyledon leaves).

3 Northern lights auto- 2 have not yet germinated, I dont think they will but will wait. One germinated, and is now planted. Remains to be seen if it will sprout.

Photoperiod-

3 White widow- One did not germinate. 2 germinated and sprouted. I broke a Cotyledon off one of them, when removing the seed. It doesnt seem to have responded as well to it as the short sweet. Its remaining Cotyledon remains pale, but well see if it pulls through, I figure if it does, ill just veg it for longer to make up for the slowed growth. Or I will top/ FIM other plants which are further ahead and leave this one out. The second one to germinate has only freshly broken ground, I hope it pulls through!

3 Special Queen-
All Germinated and sprouted, they seem fine although a little small/slow in growth.

3 Honey Cream-
One with a singular Cotyledon due to the seed, appears to be growing slowly. 2 sprouts doing fine.

1 Critical - It was a very abnormally small seed. But it germinated and sprouted and appears to be growing .


I have the single cotyledon white widow, and honey cream under the 30W 6400K CFL and 40W 8000k Cfl respectively. I find that when they are broken and small/weak, the close-up light of a mild CFL about 2" away to themselves seems to help them not die out. Out of all the damaged and weak sprouts I think only the gorilla glue wont make it. That one just came out like that without me damaging it too. Its Lime green first single leaves appear to be wilting now.

All the other seedlings are now sharing a 600W Metal Halide bulb in a 80cm by 60cm space, from 3 ft away. I hope this is okay for 2 and 3 day old sprouts, including some which have been stressed/shocked.

Looks like i'll have 6-7 Autos, and 9 Photos in a few days from now. So quite a high failure rate from seed. 4 that just wouldnt germinate, and one weird sproutling, and a few damaged but I think theyll make it. Will add photos when I get a chance

Click to expand...

Where did you get your Northern Light Seeds from? I'm germinating mine but they are taking forever, I water cupped for about 10 hours and now 2 nights in paper towel and it's literally just poked the taproot through the seed so I can just see it. Maybe they are all like this

I got my Northern light auto seeds from Royal Queen Seeds, did you too? They were 3 free seeds, so I was thinking maybe they dont store the freebies properly or something? But since you seem to have the same problem as me then I reckon it could just be NL auto in general if you bought them from somewhere else. I have also soaked them for 24-36 hours then had them in the paper towel method for 2 days and only 1 of the 3 germinated. MIm hoping they are just slow germers.

One thing that is worrying me though, I bought a used MH and HPS light, 600W. The ballast came with what looks like scorch marks on it already. And I left it running for about 6 hours, on my wooden table. Its a magnetic ballast , and it started to scorch the table. If I had actually been at uni where I was supposed to be, it would have caught the table on fire I reckon. Are these ballasts supposed to get this hot?!

420student said:

I got my Northern light auto seeds from Royal Queen Seeds, did you too? They were 3 free seeds, so I was thinking maybe they dont store the freebies properly or something? But since you seem to have the same problem as me then I reckon it could just be NL auto in general if you bought them from somewhere else. I have also soaked them for 24-36 hours then had them in the paper towel method for 2 days and only 1 of the 3 germinated. MIm hoping they are just slow germers.

One thing that is worrying me though, I bought a used MH and HPS light, 600W. The ballast came with what looks like scorch marks on it already. And I left it running for about 6 hours, on my wooden table. Its a magnetic ballast , and it started to scorch the table. If I had actually been at uni where I was supposed to be, it would have caught the table on fire I reckon. Are these ballasts supposed to get this hot?!

Click to expand...

I got mine from BonzaSeeds (I paid for it) along with a Blue Mammoth Auto and White Widow Auto which are BOTH germinated while the Northern Lights Auto's Tap Root is JUST visible, hmm... This is probably day three of northern lights aswell.

I personally use LED's so I cannot help you out with MH/HPS, sorry But that doesn't sound right at all, are they new globes? Was the scorch in one spot or a large area?

Yeah the scorch was in one area. One half of it gets crazy hot and the table that part was sat on got scorched. I could smell burning then I noticed it. It came with burn marks already on it that I didn't see until I got home :/

Just trying to run with my CFL for now until my led panels come in. It's a shame, I'm trying to squash them in, under only 190W total of CFL at the moment. And some of them aren't getting enough light. But I've tried to stack them for maximal exposure haha.

I did have another 125W CFL Bulb which u broke by accidentally knocking it over :/ Still though, they seem to be responding fine at the moment. One with no Cotyledons seems to be surviving! But that and the weird looking gorilla glue are still tiny, they're really stunted. Oh well, in a week or so I'm going to move over all the photoperiods (ones in the small pots) elsewhere and transplant them. I'm scared they may get root bound in these little 1L kinda sized pots.

I think these seedlings look too small for 3-4 days old. Probs cos I stunted and shocked alot of them , or maybe they need more Light to grow faster.

I dunno whether I should bin that tiny gorilla glue in the top right corner area with yellow cotyledons. It's 4 days old now and its first leaves are not even half their full size yet. It's an autoflower so by the time it starts flowering it could be tiny, giving me like only 7g or something lol.


The seedlings are also stretching quite a bit because I can't get them all closer to the bulbs either.

Put a few more bulbs in there, even if they are just 23 watt CFL's. Every little bit helps. Remember to keep the air moving with a fan.

420student said:

I think these seedlings look too small for 3-4 days old. Probs cos I stunted and shocked alot of them , or maybe they need more Light to grow faster.

I dunno whether I should bin that tiny gorilla glue in the top right corner area with yellow cotyledons. It's 4 days old now and its first leaves are not even half their full size yet. It's an autoflower so by the time it starts flowering it could be tiny, giving me like only 7g or something lol.


The seedlings are also stretching quite a bit because I can't get them all closer to the bulbs either.

Click to expand...

Light shouldn't really matter a whole lot as seedlings, just try and get them under that LED asap, I grew seedlings in my shed with almost no sunlight and they worked perfectly! But atm I have my Auto seedlings under 18/6 and seeing the same results second time around.

Can I keep an open door for now for air instead of using a fan? Although ive now broken the stem of one honey cream while trying to bury it because it had stretched quite a bit and was off center of the pot. Well ive taped her up with electrical tape and the snap site, but I dont think she will make it, her leaves appear to be darkening a lot and she has basically gone limp. Maybeee, just maybe she will recover but now im thinking even if she does, how will I get the electrical tape off before it starts constricting the stem growth and kills her later. But, for now its looking like shes dead Perhaps a fan would have helped with strengthening their stems.

My northern lights never germinated in the end Ordered a couple of royal haze autos to replace the few sprouts that didnt make it and the seeds that didnt germinate. Looks like I have 14 healthy plants and one stunted sprout at the moment. Ideally id like 16-18 split between both grow set ups.

They seem to be verging along nicely now, developing their second set of one fingered leaves. Although another plant stem broken, this one stretched over itself and bent. I think it's dying now it's just going limp. I tried to tape it together but it doesn't seem to be helping. The one I broke while burying is definitely dead now.

Others seem to be doing okay although they all seem to be getting some light green / mild yellow tint to the middles of their first set of single fingered leaves. And the newly appearing second set seem a little light green. I think it's because I gave them half strength canna start. I shouldn't have done that. I'm just going to stick with water only for a week or 2. Ive also given them some seaweed / algae extract I made up for them myself. I saw that seaweed extract was a main ingredient in rhizotonic.

Another pic

Update:
They are vegging along nicely! I accidentally killed one Honey cream and one special queen. The SQ I noticed had just wilted and started going limp, when i checked her, her stem below the top of the soil was actually bent and broken. I taped her up and hoped for the best but she didnt make it.

The HC I killed while trying to bury the stem emerging from the pot, up to its cotyledons, I realised early and taped it up. The wound actually seemed to be healing two days later, although the stem was as thin as a thread above where it had semi-broken before. I read about using straws as a stem support, and tried it with some rubber tubing. but unfortunately that string thin stem fully broke off while i attempted it. I dont think i will bury the protruding stem between the top of the soil and cotyledons anymore, its not worth it.

I probably killed the SQ by burying the stem and then pressing down on the top of the soil to compact it, so she had a nice stable support in the new position i had tried to bury her stem into.

So now I have 13 little ones all on their second set of true leaves, ( I think so anyway, they grew two opposites, then two more opposites, now 4 all together at one are developing). I have just germinated a Royal Haze Auto I bought online aswell to join the mix. So should have 14 decent ones. They are looking and lush, and healthy. Some of them with wider leaves and some with longer, but they all have nice big leaves which are a healthy shade of green, and relatively short height so far. Most are within 1-2", now at 1 week old and developing their first set of 4 single fingered leaves together.


will be adding some more pics soon.

I water them sparingly, probably 30ml in a little pyrex beaker every 2 or 3 days. I am currently only feeding with my self made algae extract. Fuck rhizotonic,I think they are loving my version. I added 8 different species of Algae, from the lab i study and work at. Some microalgae, some green n some brown macroalgae (seaweed and kelp type) to get a nice good variety. The only thing is, I just dont know how much of this stuff to add. I wonder if the vitamin extract can be too strong? I just go by like 1ml of the extract to 50ml water and check if the ph is okay. Maybe i should be giving them more/less , I dont know.

Done some reading about plant growth regulators. Ordered some brassinolide and triacontanol.. Think I will try them on my runt / stunted plants. I have one auto that still on its first set of leaves and they're still really small. So she will get some experiment with the growth hormones. Rest of them look okay.

So I haven't posted in a while. Been extremely busy with my masters thesis.

Anyway. I've since bought a digital ballast, and have them back under the 600w metal halide. I could not deal with the noise and heat of crappy magnetic ones. Here is a pic of them about 1 and a half weeks ago. (they were just under 2 weeks old).

Well since then I've moved the photo plants to their permanent home. They're only under 300w total of CFL, until our led panels arrive. And the autos are under the 600w metal halide. Here's a pic of them all at around 2 weeks old.

Here are the photos at 2 and a half weeks old. Thinking about topping them soon.