Are white widow autos harder to grow or something?

S

shiva

Well-Known Member
Well if you've read my latest journal you'll know the issues I've been having. I just re read my first grow and compared my latest 26 day old ww's against my 4 week old Shivas and I'm just gob smacked how small these WW are after this time period. I'm guilty... I overwatered, think the soil mix wasn't quite right but I can't explain why one plant is now doing better than the others.... All comments welcome....

For some reason images not posting here so check latest post on my journal for pics. See journal on my signature.
 
bf80255

bf80255

Well-Known Member
the repot was not a good idea, in the future if this happens again, adjust your watering technique and schedule before considering a transplant especially into a smaller pot.

what light cycle they on?

have you fed them at all? they dont look like they had time to get well established in that pot yet, what kind of soil are you using?

WWautos are pretty much the same as other autos, if you can grow 1 you can grow the other.
 
S

shiva

Well-Known Member
bf80255 said:
the repot was not a good idea, in the future if this happens again, adjust your watering technique and schedule before considering a transplant especially into a smaller pot.

what light cycle they on?

have you fed them at all? they dont look like they had time to get well established in that pot yet, what kind of soil are you using?

WWautos are pretty much the same as other autos, if you can grow 1 you can grow the other.
Click to expand...
The repot was maybe not a good idea, however, the larger pots despite me thinking I hadn't overwatered were obviously not helping that scenario. Let's remember I have grown some decent plants before, just never tried autos and still not convinced. They're currently running 20/4 and have been for some time. I agree, for some reason they've not established a decent root. The soil was just a garden centre all purpose variety called jacks magic, mixed with perlite and vermiculite. It's almost as if there's too much water retention in the soil for these plants. In terms of feed, not yet, no.

Thanks for at least the heads up on that they shouldn't be any different in terms of growth compared to others. Any ideas at all on what I can do to speed up growth or improve the situation? It's not
convincing me that autos are even worth it. I had a decent yield of my Shivas within 5 months and those weren't autos. These are growing at a slower rate than those.

Any ideas welcome.

Cheers

)shiva(
 
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Choo

Choo

Well-Known Member
It may have been the vermiculite. Autos like good drainage, they don't like to sit in water soaked soil for very long. It's not so much the over watering that stunts is the water retention of the soil. If you have good drainage you almost don't have to worry about over watering, the soil can be moist but it won't stay wet if the drainage is good.. A mix of sand with the perlite helps immensely and then a layer of some large gravel in the bottom of the pot with sand filling in the voids helps loads. Vermiculite tends to hold water and some of the ready mix potting and garden soils have too much peat in them for cannabis. Peat is like a sponge and retains water and cannabis, especially autos, do not like WET soil. I had to learn this the hard way myself. I had several stunted autos that were outside and we had a lot of rain. The pots weren't draining well. As a temporary fix I punched holes to the bottom of the pots with a broom handle and filled them with perlite, that allowed the pots to drain well and the plants perked up and shot right up.
I used to test my pots for drainage years ago and somehow I just neglected to do so later on. Rest assured all my grows will be in pre tested pots with excellent drainage now.
 
S

shiva

Well-Known Member
Choo said:
It may have been the vermiculite. Autos like good drainage, they don't like to sit in water soaked soil for very long. It's not so much the over watering that stunts is the water retention of the soil. If you have good drainage you almost don't have to worry about over watering, the soil can be moist but it won't stay wet if the drainage is good.. A mix of sand with the perlite helps immensely and then a layer of some large gravel in the bottom of the pot with sand filling in the voids helps loads. Vermiculite tends to hold water and some of the ready mix potting and garden soils have too much peat in them for cannabis. Peat is like a sponge and retains water and cannabis, especially autos, do not like WET soil. I had to learn this the hard way myself. I had several stunted autos that were outside and we had a lot of rain. The pots weren't draining well. As a temporary fix I punched holes to the bottom of the pots with a broom handle and filled them with perlite, that allowed the pots to drain well and the plants perked up and shot right up.
I used to test my pots for drainage years ago and somehow I just neglected to do so later on. Rest assured all my grows will be in pre tested pots with excellent drainage now.
Click to expand...
Really helpful, thanks. Okay will avoid vermiculite in future for autos. I think this is a big problem because now I have four plants in this mix of soil and everytime I water (even a little), so much of it is gettig soaked up and retained.... Not good. A part of me wants to change the soil mix but not sure if this will ruin them even more. I don't want to throw them and start again as they're not looking completely unhealthy... It's just they are growing at less than half the speed you'd expect. This is a really useful post, thanks bud. Just out of curiosity... In my position, what would you do?

)shiva(
 
D

DogKnot

Member
Use a fabric pot and something like Fox Farm Ocean Forest mixed with 30% coco coir. Check DinaFems website about supplementing coco coir. My first auto doing that produced over 200 grams trimmed and dried.
 
S

shiva

Well-Known Member
DogKnot said:
Use a fabric pot and something like Fox Farm Ocean Forest mixed with 30% coco coir. Check DinaFems website about supplementing coco coir. My first auto doing that produced over 200 grams trimmed and dried.
Click to expand...
Cheers, thanks!
 
S

shiva

Well-Known Member
Ah... I'm a UK grower and fox farm is not available over here... Looks like everyone recommends our very own b and q john innes no.3 mixed with perlite.... Alternatively the more expensive BioBizz from hydro stores. Have used john innes previously with my Shivas and it did the trick. I was a fool to switch soils...
 
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