Problems with Autoflowers in no till

Hello there...I'm a novice grower having only done one outdoor grow and 2 plants indoors.

For my indoor grow I mixed up my seeds so have no idea what strain they were. They were autos.

My light is an Electric Sky 180 v2. I have three pots under it in fabric pots (7g) and a complete soil that I bought from Black Swallow soils.

I have been incredibly busy (we live on a farm and spring/summer are crazy) so I just threw two seeds in and let them go. I only watered as I didn't have the time to research what else to add.

Both plants started off well and were beautiful until about a month in. Then the plant in the middle started to develop brown spots on the leaves then the leaves started to turn yellow and look crispy and curled. I was going to chop it and start over, but she was flowering so I thought I'd just let her go and see if she finished. Remarkably she did finish even though she looked dead at the end. She produced 45g dry(I know that's paltry) of fairly potent bud.

The second plant looked healthy until I put her in the middle under the light then she started to look sad and leaves started to change. She made it to harvest but only produced 36g dry.

Light burn was suggested so I moved my light. Over watering was suggested so I backed off on that.

In spite of those changes have a third plant that is also not doing well. She is mid flower and develops brown spots on some leaves. Other leaves just turn pale yellow and drop off and others turn brown and crispy.

I asked about nutrient deficiencies in the soil and they told me that they sell lots of this soil and have never had a complaint from another grower, so it has to be something I'm doing or not doing.

I have some things I ordered with my soil that I can add. I just haven't had time to focus as I've been very busy getting set up for turkeys. But now I have to pay attention or this lady is going to die and it's discouraging to have all of these sad plants barely surviving.

It was suggested that my soil may be too hot for autos and that I should dilute it with promix if I continue with them. But he also told me that autos are very finicky and difficult to grow so I should switch to photoperiod plants. I will probably do that but I have 4 auto seeds (Gorilla glue and Zkittlez) that I don't want to waste.

I'm hoping someone can help me figure out what is going on. I will include pictures. The first batch are the first plant that looked dead. She was a short, bushy plant. (Either Early Miss, Candy Cane, or Lamb's Breath).

The third plant I'm having problems with is a taller leaner plant (also one of the above mentioned strains). A very weird thing happened with that plant. I planted a seed in the middle of the pot and it didn't come up. I waited a week or two, gave up on it and planted another. It came up, but so did the other one, but not where I planted it. It was halfway between the middle and edge of the pot. I probably should have pulled it but decided to let it go and see what happened. So the third plant I'm having problems with is actually two.

I've included pictures of that one as well.

I'm hoping someone can help me figure this out. But I suspect there might be multiple issues.

TIA,

Lisa

It all falls on the medium used.
Autos are the EASIEST to grow. Plug and play .

Most good ammended bag soils ( FFOF / Dr. Earth / EB stone ) can run an auto completely to harvest with very little input. Watering at a ph close to match the medium. 6.5-6.7 for most peat based mixes ( they are prebuffered ) sounds like cal mag was needed , as it sometimes in led grows.

Dump that mix. Autos need only a medium to run around 90 days ( average ) and by simply top dressing more fresh soil on top at intervals during grow is the only thing needed.

Edgar's Mom said:

Hello there...I'm a novice grower having only done one outdoor grow and 2 plants indoors.

For my indoor grow I mixed up my seeds so have no idea what strain they were. They were autos.

My light is an Electric Sky 180 v2. I have three pots under it in fabric pots (7g) and a complete soil that I bought from Black Swallow soils.

I have been incredibly busy (we live on a farm and spring/summer are crazy) so I just threw two seeds in and let them go. I only watered as I didn't have the time to research what else to add.

Both plants started off well and were beautiful until about a month in. Then the plant in the middle started to develop brown spots on the leaves then the leaves started to turn yellow and look crispy and curled. I was going to chop it and start over, but she was flowering so I thought I'd just let her go and see if she finished. Remarkably she did finish even though she looked dead at the end. She produced 45g dry(I know that's paltry) of fairly potent bud.

The second plant looked healthy until I put her in the middle under the light then she started to look sad and leaves started to change. She made it to harvest but only produced 36g dry.

Light burn was suggested so I moved my light. Over watering was suggested so I backed off on that.

In spite of those changes have a third plant that is also not doing well. She is mid flower and develops brown spots on some leaves. Other leaves just turn pale yellow and drop off and others turn brown and crispy.

I asked about nutrient deficiencies in the soil and they told me that they sell lots of this soil and have never had a complaint from another grower, so it has to be something I'm doing or not doing.

I have some things I ordered with my soil that I can add. I just haven't had time to focus as I've been very busy getting set up for turkeys. But now I have to pay attention or this lady is going to die and it's discouraging to have all of these sad plants barely surviving.

It was suggested that my soil may be too hot for autos and that I should dilute it with promix if I continue with them. But he also told me that autos are very finicky and difficult to grow so I should switch to photoperiod plants. I will probably do that but I have 4 auto seeds (Gorilla glue and Zkittlez) that I don't want to waste.

I'm hoping someone can help me figure out what is going on. I will include pictures. The first batch are the first plant that looked dead. She was a short, bushy plant. (Either Early Miss, Candy Cane, or Lamb's Breath).

The third plant I'm having problems with is a taller leaner plant (also one of the above mentioned strains). A very weird thing happened with that plant. I planted a seed in the middle of the pot and it didn't come up. I waited a week or two, gave up on it and planted another. It came up, but so did the other one, but not where I planted it. It was halfway between the middle and edge of the pot. I probably should have pulled it but decided to let it go and see what happened. So the third plant I'm having problems with is actually two.

I've included pictures of that one as well.

I'm hoping someone can help me figure this out. But I suspect there might be multiple issues.

TIA,

Lisa

Click to expand...

Probably just trash soil. Get Fox Farms Ocean Forrest. It's probably the beat pre-made soil there is in a bag.

Lurk autoflower grows on RIU .... you will see what auto growers use. Bagged soil grows are by far the easiest. Recharging the medium is ridiculously easy.

I think by now , You see that 3 plants went bust on same mix. Saw pic of soil and it looks like a bunch of scraps.

Get your ph right and then assess. I too live in a busy farming community and our ground water must be adjusted.
I only use soil less medium like bio bizz light mix/humboldt soil and stick to close to 6.4 ph.
I lurk around RIU and they are a little friendlier (sometimes) than they were 10 yrs ago about autos. Remember...grain of salt...

Budzbuddha said:

It all falls on the medium used.
Autos are the EASIEST to grow. Plug and play .

Click to expand...

Easiest to grow somehow, but if you want to grow autoflower well, it takes more than growing a photo. Autos dont leave room for mistakes, every mistake you make will be in reduction of flower. Photos you can easily just veg more if you fuck up topping or something. Fuck up an auto topping and you will lose half your yield(or maybe more) and nothing you can do about it afterwards. Give a nute burn to auto and it wont be able to recover like photo. If you give too little light for auto during veg, it will stay super small, photo you can just veg longer etc etc. But then again if you fuck up the light cycle of a photo, you might run into big problems and thats not an issue with autos unless you maybe if really try to fuck with them by flipping their lights on/off randomly.

But yea if you just put an auto seed in ground, it will make some bud easier than a photo.

Budzbuddha said:

It all falls on the medium used.
Autos are the EASIEST to grow. Plug and play .

Most good ammended bag soils ( FFOF / Dr. Earth / EB stone ) can run an auto completely to harvest with very little input. Watering at a ph close to match the medium. 6.5-6.7 for most peat based mixes ( they are prebuffered )

sounds like cal mag was needed , as it sometimes in led grows.



Dump that mix. Autos need only a medium to run around 90 days ( average ) and by simply top dressing more fresh soil on top at intervals during grow is the only thing needed.

Click to expand...

Budzbuddha said:

It all falls on the medium used.
Autos are the EASIEST to grow. Plug and play .

Most good ammended bag soils ( FFOF / Dr. Earth / EB stone ) can run an auto completely to harvest with very little input. Watering at a ph close to match the medium. 6.5-6.7 for most peat based mixes ( they are prebuffered ) sounds like cal mag was needed , as it sometimes in led grows.

Dump that mix. Autos need only a medium to run around 90 days ( average ) and by simply top dressing more fresh soil on top at intervals during grow is the only thing needed.

Click to expand...

Budzbuddha said:

It all falls on the medium used.
Autos are the EASIEST to grow. Plug and play .

Most good ammended bag soils ( FFOF / Dr. Earth / EB stone ) can run an auto completely to harvest with very little input. Watering at a ph close to match the medium. 6.5-6.7 for most peat based mixes ( they are prebuffered ) sounds like cal mag was needed , as it sometimes in led grows.

Dump that mix. Autos need only a medium to run around 90 days ( average ) and by simply top dressing more fresh soil on top at intervals during grow is the only thing needed.

Click to expand...

Hi there and thank you for the reply. When you talk about autos only needing 90 days, do you mean to just use Promix or something then dump it? What I was hoping to do is to do organic grows with no till soil that I would keep using. That's why I bought this mix...I was told that it's a complete soil with all necessary amendments for doing no till. That being said, if the no till isn't going to work out I'm definitely open to ideas, I just didn't want to get caught in the cycle I got caught in with my potted photos outside last year where I was chasing nutrient deficiencies and constantly stressing about the plants. The stuff I read about no till seemed so easy and it sounded like other than some compost tea, no additives were needed.

But regarding the problems, everything I googled about the one plant seemed resemble a calcium deficiency. The guys at the soil store said it couldn't be that and that nobody else has had a problem. I paid a lot for the soil so this is really frustrating. The one guy told me after the fact that this mix isn't ideal for autos and that it should be mixed with promix or something similar. Since I was very clear that i was going to be growing autos before I bought the soil I'm disappointed that nobody told me that then. That was the same guy that told me autos are very finicky and difficult to grow and recommended that I grow photos instead as he said that the soil was designed for them.

If the soil is the problem I have to find something available in Canada.

Is Cal mag suitable for an organic grow or will it kill the microbes in the soil?

Thank you so much for your help

MATTYMATT726 said:

Probably just trash soil. Get Fox Farms Ocean Forrest. It's probably the beat pre-made soil there is in a bag.

Click to expand...

Is this soil a complete soil that is suitable for consecutive grows doing no till? I would love to just buy something premade because it's daunting to try to source all of the ingredients to make it. Those recipes contain some hard to find ingredients

Budzbuddha said:

Lurk autoflower grows on RIU .... you will see what auto growers use. Bagged soil grows are by far the easiest. Recharging the medium is ridiculously easy.

I think by now , You see that 3 plants went bust on same mix. Saw pic of soil and it looks like a bunch of scraps.

Click to expand...

The soil looks just like any other but what you were seeing is a layer of straw mulch on top.

When you say recharging the soil, do you mean between grows? Could you please share how this is done? I'd really love to use the same soil and avoid artificial fertilizers.

Edgar's Mom said:

Is this soil a complete soil that is suitable for consecutive grows doing no till? I would love to just buy something premade because it's daunting to try to source all of the ingredients to make it. Those recipes contain some hard to find ingredients

Click to expand...

This is Buddahs thread on Fox Farms Ocean Forrest. I grow in Coco, but aside from outside planting, it's probably the only soil I'd use if i did.

So I just looked it up and it will cost me $80/bag off of Amazon.ca for the Fox Farms soil. That seems prohibitively expensive since I would need more than one bag. I am doing my autos in 7 g pots which was the recommended size I saw on the no till threads I was reading. Any other ideas?

I read that thread and I'm a little confused... It sounds like there are pelleted fertilizers that are required. Are they suitable for organic no till grows? Also, when top dressing just add an inch of the same soil? Wouldn't you run out of room in the pot?

I really appreciate the time you've all taken to help me and I apologize if I'm asking questions you've all answered countless times. When I read some of these threads there seems to be a lot of expertise and people speak in shorthand a lot so it is difficult for a newbie to get the most out of some posts.

What I'm really confused about is if the advice to use the Fox Farms soil is with the intention of me dumping and starting over each grow or if it pertains to doing a no till grow and using the soil for several consecutive grows. I'm also confused about top dressing... If I keep adding an inch of soil the pot would quickly get too full wouldn't it?

My goal if possible is to only use organic amendments and reuse the same soil over and over as people do in the no till grows. So is the FF soil suitable for that or are chemical fertilizers required? I did find a Canadian supplier who sells it for something like $42/bag plus shipping.

Edgar's Mom said:

So I just looked it up and it will cost me $80/bag off of Amazon.ca for the Fox Farms soil. That seems prohibitively expensive since I would need more than one bag. I am doing my autos in 7 g pots which was the recommended size I saw on the no till threads I was reading. Any other ideas?

Click to expand...

7 gal are too much for autos. They just won't ever grow that big. You can give all the nutes and lights and size pots you want. Auto is still an auto. Some can get big, but most are all medium sized plants. I think you should re-think what you want to achieve and decide on an "end" goal than maybe people can help you with a plan. Good luck on the growing.

MATTYMATT726 said:

7 gal are too much for autos. They just won't ever grow that big. You can give all the nutes and lights and size pots you want. Auto is still an auto. Some can get big, but most are all medium sized plants. I think you should re-think what you want to achieve and decide on an "end" goal than maybe people can help you with a plan. Good luck on the growing.

Click to expand...

The 7 gallon recommendation was from reading the posts about no till who say bigger is always better for doing no till and that is a minimum. They say bigger is better...

My goal is to grow 2.5 oz/month of organic weed using the no till approach. I've only got the one light (does a 2X4 area) so may not be able to do this with autos anyway, judging from my little harvests so far (45g dry and 36g dry).

So I'm open to doing either autos or photos, as long as I can do organic no till.

If that isn't possible, then I'm looking for the easiest way to produce 2.5oz/month.

Edgar's Mom said:

The 7 gallon recommendation was from reading the posts about no till who say bigger is always better for doing no till and that is a minimum. They say bigger is better...

My goal is to grow 2.5 oz/month of organic weed using the no till approach. I've only got the one light (does a 2X4 area) so may not be able to do this with autos anyway, judging from my little harvests so far (45g dry and 36g dry).

So I'm open to doing either autos or photos, as long as I can do organic no till.

If that isn't possible, then I'm looking for the easiest way to produce 2.5oz/month.

Click to expand...

You want to go through the trouble and expanses of a no till garden for 2.5 oz a month? Plants(even autos take close to 90 days. Some WAY longer.) We'll count that at 8 oz for 3 months total. You can get a 5 gal of that FFOF, get good genetics and grow 1 plant and get that harvest and maybe more. That bag of $80 FFOF should grow 4-5 5 gal plants I'd guess? Way cheaper than what you are trying to do.

MATTYMATT726 said:

You want to go through the trouble and expanses of a no till garden for 2.5 oz a month? Plants(even autos take close to 90 days. Some WAY longer.) We'll count that at 8 oz for 3 months total. You can get a 5 gal of that FFOF, get good genetics and grow 1 plant and get that harvest and maybe more. That bag of $80 FFOF should grow 4-5 5 gal plants I'd guess? Way cheaper than what you are trying to do.

Click to expand...

So with this method I would buy that soil, use 5 gallon pots and be able to use it 4-5 times then replace and start over? I can't imagine being able to grow an autoflower that produces so much! if I scrap the no-till idea and just do this what would I need to do to keep the soil going for those five grows? When people talk about top-dressing I'm not sure what they mean. Is it a layer of earth worm compost, a layer of soil or something else? I love the idea of no till and it really interests me but the bottom line is that I need to grow enough medicine for myself. If this soil method is simpler and it will be easier to grow then I'm in. I can switch to no till down the road once I get a few successful harvests under my belt.

So what all do I need in terms of amendments or additives if I do it this way? Will the plants thrive on the FFOF soil on its own?

I do hope this link will answer most of you're questions on no till and auto potential for single plant yeilds.

Edgar's Mom said:

Is this soil a complete soil that is suitable for consecutive grows doing no till? I would love to just buy something premade because it's daunting to try to source all of the ingredients to make it. Those recipes contain some hard to find ingredients

Click to expand...

I'd suggest looking up recipe 420 soil. I used mother earth groundswell not to bad.. Ive used ff ocean forest really good. But nothing and I mean nothing has compared to recipe 420 potting soil.

Mother earth my autos flowered early.

Fox farms they stayed short.

Recipe 420 4 Weeks into an auto still no flowers and 2xs the size of fox farms ocean forest.

All the same strain of White Widdow. Major differences in growth.

I have 3gal smart pots and I use ffhf and it take 1 1/2 bags of dirt to fill the pot completely

Wizzlebiz said:

I'd suggest looking up recipe 420 soil. I used mother earth groundswell not to bad.. Ive used ff ocean forest really good. But nothing and I mean nothing has compared to recipe 420 potting soil.

Mother earth my autos flowered early.

Fox farms they stayed short.

Recipe 420 4 Weeks into an auto still no flowers and 2xs the size of fox farms ocean forest.

All the same strain of White Widdle. Major differences in growth.

Click to expand...

Thank you for your reply... Do you do no till with that soil or do you use it for a period of time and then dump it? Is it complete or do you need to add fertilizers and amendments?

Thank you

Lisa