My First Grow. Comments welcome

[Axeman88]

My First Grow​

Equipment

1. Vivosun 2x4x5 grow tent.​
2. 3- 7 gallon fabric pots.​
3. 4 inch vivosun ventilation fan and carbon filter.​
4. 1 spider farmer 2000 LED light about 200 watt draw.​
5. 2 t8 florescent lights two bulb fixtures.​
6. 1 cyclone fan for led cooling and general air flow.
7. 1 clip fan for air flow for plants.

Medium​

1. Plant A with red tag planted in 100% kelloggs brand organic raised bed and potting mix. Perlite added eyeballed amount. No amendments added to pot.
2. Plant B with blue tag planted in 100% Ace hardware brand potting mix. No added amendments in it. Added perlite and vermiculite eyeballed amount less vermiculite. Added one quarter cup of epsoma organic fertilizer citrus bag 5-2-6 supposed to be slow release.
3. Plant C with yellow tag planted in 50-50 mix of kelloggs and Ace hardware brand potting mix. Perlite and vermiculite added eyeballed amount. Added one quarter cup epsoma organic fertilizer citrus bag.

Fertilizer.​

1. Epsoma organic fertilizer citrus-tone 5-2-6.
2. Epsoma organic fertilizer bulb-tone 3-5-3.
3. Earthworm castings omri from HD.
4. General hydroponics FloraGro 2-1-6
5. General hydroponics FloraMicro 5-0-1
6. General hydroponics FloraBloom 0-5-4
7. Botanicare CAL-MAG PLUS 2-0-0

Plants.​

1. Seed from ILGM.COM.
2. Strain White Widow Autoflower

Germination​

1. 3 seeds white paper towel non fragrance or color. placed on plastic plate. Seeds placed about two inches apart paper towel folded over. Bottled water used to dampen the towel excess water dumped place plate with paper towel and seeds in one gallon zip lock bag. Done on July 21st
2. Seeds popped on 23rd. Placed into final pots tap root down on 23rd.
3. 24th first plant popped out to surface.
4. 25th all plants popped to surface with leaves.

All comments or questions are welcome​

 

[Axeman88]

Photos of the girls almost one week since they first got wet.

 

[Gjames0531]

With the Epsoma in the soil be very careful of nutrient burn and nutrient lock out, down the line. Dry, long-term release fertilizers like that can become very unpredictable and hard to control. Just a heads up, otherwise best of luck and looking good so far.

 

[Axeman88]

With the Epsoma in the soil be very careful of nutrient burn and nutrient lock out, down the line. Dry, long-term release fertilizers like that can become very unpredictable and hard to control. Just a heads up, otherwise best of luck and looking good so far.

I figured as much. That's why I only added a little bit to a very large pot. Kind hope it will sustain them for a bit till they get big enough to start getting liquid fertilizer

 

[Lockedin]

Sub'd - gl with your grow!

7 gal. pots should carry your plants for quite a while.
I've been curious about diff. soils and using nutes.

Just a heads up - if you read the plant prob section often, you'll find nute burn / deficiency seems to be among the most common issues.

 

[Axeman88]

Sub'd - gl with your grow!

7 gal. pots should carry your plants for quite a while.
I've been curious about diff. soils and using nutes.

Just a heads up - if you read the plant prob section often, you'll find nute burn / deficiency seems to be among the most common issues.

The 7gallon pot are what I plan on taking them to term. as I have read with Autoflowers it's best to put them in the container you plan on finishing them with (as to not stunt their growth).

 

[Lockedin]

Sounds solid.

I'm in 5g fabric - I'll be interested to see what my root balls look like at the end - I thought 7g would be too large for my grow-plan (7 in a 4x4).

 

[Axeman88]

Sounds solid.

I'm in 5g fabric - I'll be interested to see what my root balls look like at the end - I thought 7g would be too large for my grow-plan (7 in a 4x4).

Well I can tell you three in a 4x2 is pretty full not super tight but tight enough to where you wouldn't want to put another . I'm sure with 5 gallon I might be able to squeeze a 4th.. I might try that in the future. As most have suggested 3 gallon pots as the autos won't need anything bigger since they will finish fast. But I went with 7 as I will probably grow photos in the future

 

[Lockedin]

As it's your first grow (mine too) - the larger pots make sense to buffer rookie issues:
More forgiveness over/underwatering, more intrinsic nutes in soil - less rookie tinkering on my end.

I had one herm - so I now have six plants mostly filling my tent - if the rootballs look good at the end, I might try 8 the same way.

 

[Axeman88]

Well it's July 30 and it's been a week since I put them in pots from germinating them on paper towels.they have double in size from sprout leaves are green not super dark but green. I started them on ph'd water in-between 6.5 and 6.8 and have added the smallest recommend dosage of nutes by general hydroponics 1 ml per gallon of FloraMicro and FloraGro. I'll post some pics when the lights come on soon. They seem to be happy girls. Question if anyone wants to chime in should I be completely drenching the entire pot with water and nutes or just focus around my girls say 4 or 5 inch circle? Anyway comments appreciated thanks.

 

[Lockedin]

What size pots?
I found my seedlings didn't need a lot of water until about week 2 (IIRC) when they really get into veg.

If you're in 7g - just water roughly the root-ball - and then a tad more - your 4-5 in. circle.

edit -- they'll want more soon, but they don't need too much now.

 

[Axeman88]

What size pots?
I found my seedlings didn't need a lot of water until about week 2 (IIRC) when they really get into veg.

If you're in 7g - just water roughly the root-ball - and then a tad more - your 4-5 in. circle.

edit -- they'll want more soon, but they don't need too much now.

7 gallon pots brother and yes I'm pretty much just focusing around the girls 4-5 inches or so want their roots to stretch a little for water as I figure they are building their root system right now before they kick in into high gear with the veg. I just glad I'm not the only one doing that.. lol

 

[Axeman88]

Lights are on so here is the ladies

 

[Lockedin]

IMHO - you're on track.
Maybe even a bit less until they have enough roots / foliage to support more watering.

 

[Axeman88]

Well an update on the grow... And I fudged up a bit with my lighting. Turns out I wasn't giving them enough intensity, but thanks to some awesome seasoned growers I got the schooling I needed and they seem to be responding. So I dropped my t8 lights to one inch from the plants as they were 4 inches or so from the tops originally. I flipped from 18/6 to 24 straight. And this afternoon they look better darker green and more foliage than yesterday. Unfortunately my girl that sits in just kelloggs organic potting mix isn't fairing as well as her sisters. I gave them all a worm casting shake for water tonight hopefully the girl will perk up and catch up to her sisters. I think one quarter cup of epsoma organic fertilizer citrus blend is helping the other too. Or it's the potting mix who knows too early to tell. Anyway I swapped lights out for my spider farmer 2000 it's sitting 24 inches above the ladies right now. As they grow I think the next watering I'll start to feed a small amount of nutes. Anyway here are a few pics of them from yesterday.

 

[Axeman88]

Today photos compared to a little over 24 hours ago. Yellow girl is in the 50/50 mix kelloggs organic and Ace hardware brand potting mix with perlite and vermiculite added with epsoma organic fertilizer. Blue is the 100% Ace hardware brand potting mix with perlite and vermiculite added with epsoma organic fertilizer. And red is 100% kelloggs organic potting mix with perlite and vermiculite added no nutes added.