HempKnite's First Grow w/ Auto #1 (auto-flowering, feminised seeds)

HempKnite

HempKnite

Member
Well, welcome to my first growing thread everyone and hope you can learn from my posts! I am a research fanatic and have done hours upon hours of extensive research for every aspect of the indoors growing process. But other than this, I've never successfully grown a thing in my life lol. Now, I suppose I will begin by explaining my setup and everything I have thus far.

So, in my possession is a 400W metal halide/HPS fixture with the ballast. I'll upload pics, but it's the one with a 6" tube around the bulb, so you can attach an exhaust fan and ducting to push the heat out of my grow area. I bought the fan encased in 6" ducting as well...now I still need to get some footage of flexible ducting to finish that setup off. I have both a MH and a HPS bulb....MH for vegetative/growth phase, and HPS for flowering phase. I am using FFOF (Fox Farm Ocean Forest) as my growing medium from beginning to end, with probably about 25% perlite mixed in. So what is that, a 4:1 ratio of FFOF to perlite? I also bought the trio-pack of Fox Farm fertilizers...it contains the "Grow Big", "Big Bloom", and "Tiger Bloom". You can look them up for their specs. So, I figure this is enough for soil/fertilizer. My lighting kit also came with a light timer...just like the ones people use for having their X-mas lights on timers. This will ensure the perfect lighting schedule. I also bought 2 2-gallon planting pots...simple plastic with holes in the bottom and an attached tray. I didn't like these type, but it's what they had at the store. Probably going to put a few more holes into them so I can stick my pinky finger in and feel the soil for moisture at the bottom. Don't have a pH meter yet, but I'll be grabbing one. And last but least, the area I'm growing in is a small room closet...about 2.5 feet deep, 7 feet wide. I don't need much because I'm only growing 2 plants and they're auto-flowering that shouldn't get much bigger than 2 feet....hoping to still get a decent yield by forming the branches and all that jazz. I'm not using anything for the smell as it is my own house, not an apartment building, and this specific strain I've heard is very low odor.

Ok, all that out of the way...I just put my 2 seeds in paper towels double-folded over...1 entire folded towel on bottom, one folded towel on top and placed this inside a small tupperware. I wanted to scar the seeds to quicken the germination process, but forgot to. Maybe it's still ok even though they've been germinating for about 12 hours? Not sure, I'll read up on that. I'm going right from the paper towels to the 2 gallon pots, as it seems less transplanting is best. Why put it through more stress for no reason, right?? Ok, I will go take some pictures of my grow area and my seeds. But if you look up Auto #1 (received from seaofseeds.com, and they were great btw for discreetness), you will basically see what I'm expecting. See yall soon, I'm pretty PUMPED!!

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HempKnite

HempKnite

Member
Oh, and I have some mylar (in the form of an 84"x52" space/emergency blanket...I'll provide the link at the bottom. It is on its way today or tomorrow. I bought it cheap online and with very cheap shipping compared to so many other places I looked. It seems from the description that it is real mylar material, not the aluminum stuff that is awesome used in place of mylar....although, that material likey works just fine, I wanted to go with straight mylar. I read up on the stuff and it's a unique material that REALLY keeps in the light. Here's a link to the exact item I bought...use my hours of google searching to find the quality stuff for the lowest price online/shipped.

http://www.firstaidmonster.com/misc-medical-supplies/space-blanket-emergency-blanket-silver-each/

I bought 3 packages, and will have pretty much every surface that will be in line of sight of my plants covered with that amount. It will all depend on your grow room/area.

On my first thread, you can see my setup. Here's a link to the 400W HPS/MH lighting kit I bought...very affordable for what you get...included is a timer to keep your lights on schedule...forgot it even came with my lights! Also included was 1 metal halide bulb, and 1 high pressure sodium bulb. The light spectrum from the metal halide bulb is supposed to be good for the vegetative phase (upon planting seedlings in soil), and the HPS bulb's light spectrum is supposed to be best for the flowering phase. You'll notice the light is suspended with strings....those strings have very easy-to-use mechanisms to slide the light higher and lower, so as the plants frow it takes about 5 seconds to reposition the light higher. This specific Auto #1 strain I've heard growing between only 12" and 24"...and it seems even higher than 20" is fairly rare. Their autoflowering trait makes it somewhat predetermined how tall they will get, but I've heard of some techniques you can do to get them taller or even shorter. There's a popular link all over of a plant that actually produced budz and it only got to about 6"...fully grow in a small, styrofoam cup.

Link to 400W light kit: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0054LURGM/ref=ox_ya_os_product

Oh, additionally, in my initial post pictures, you might see the ducting coming out of the side of the light...that is an exhaust fan I'll use to keep the high heat the lights put off...I still need to go to the store and buy some 6" flexible ducting to make a longer stretch of it coming out and I think I'll let it flex up towards the ceiling, near the closet door to be let out into my room. Hope this is sufficient cooling...it should work fine since my rooms in this big house run a little chilly.

It may look a little bit like my soil is a bit over on perlite mix, but it's not that way all through the soil. I went heavy on the perlite, than went out and remixed it to a much lesser amount before I just planted the seeds in them. Just the top of one pot looks hefty on the perlite, but that's just the very top...throughout the whole pot, there's much less. The pots are 8-quart (7.6 liter, 2 gallons). I've made a single 1/2"-3/4" hole cut into each pot on the sides only 1-2 inches above the bottom because the holes in this pot are only on the bottom and don't allow for easy pH/water checking. With these holes, I can stick my finger in there to check, or a pH meter, right?

I think I'm going to start off with a 20/4 light cycle for its first 1-2 weeks during its initial growth spurt. Then, I've heard it very effective to let it dry out pretty well after the initial watering, then give it a good fairly heavy watering and it gets an amazing growth spurt. By letting it get close to "too dry", you're making the roots very thirsty and when they get that water, they shoot up! And I'm looking to grow mine to at least 20"...maybe 24", which is high for this strain, but we can somewhat force it....it's all just for more yield!

So, any questions or advice? This is my first time growing and although I did lots of research, I'm always open to advice and help from more experienced fellas!

Thanks for reading/viewing!
 
HempKnite

HempKnite

Member
Ok, so I've explained a bunch of my techniques and ideas. And I'm very open to anyone's comments, suggestions, etc.! But from all my reading, and watching another grow journal of the same strain, I think I've got a good hold on it.

So, my seeds took about 48 hours to germinate (I transplanted them to pots at exactly 51.5 hours). I checked on them every 12 hours, and found the paper towels to be pretty cold in temperature, but still a good heavy moisture. If you read back, I had them in about a 5" diameter round tupperware, with one paper towel folded up on bottom and 1 paper towel folded up on top. I did not initially have them near anything putting out heat, they were just in a dark room on a shelf at room temperature (68-70 degrees in the room). So, the paper towels got pretty cold, so I started using my very small electric space heater. I just put the tupperware about 18" away from the heater, let it heat up the tupperware for about 30 minutes to 1hr, and that warmed the paper towels with the seeds back up to lukewarm temperature. I did that a couple times as I did not want constant heat on it and didn't wanna heat up the room to 100 degrees, as I kinda did the first night...left the heater on and the room was a sauna lol. Ok, so those are the details...So at 11am this morning (Saturday, 2/23/13), I put the seeds with the root tip facing down about 1/4"-1/2" below the dirt and started up the 400watter!

I had pre-watered the soil about 8 hours before planting the seeds...kinda long, I know, but it was 3am and bed time. Just knew the seeds would be ready in the mornin. Then upon placing the seeds, I poured about 48 ounces in each 2 gallon pot, I believe. Now, I wish I would have measured exactly how much water I used, so I can track it. Whatever the case, that dried up pretty quick, so I used a spray bottle (didn't wanna agitate the seeds by straight pour) to spray/mist on another 6 ounces water in each pot.

Now, if I were to do this over again (which I will in 2 months!), I would use BARELY any perlite with the FFOF potting soil. It's already a very airy, light soil mix and I added about a 3-1 or 4-1 ratio as you can see in my pics, and water just seeped to the bottom so fast, even after remixing it. I'd only do 10-15% added perlite...the FFOF already has some perlite in it, you can see. Who knows though, maybe a SUPER airy soil will be good for this specific strain....I kinda heard that somewhere I was reading. Anyways, I just realize I have to water more often, which is fine since I don't work and I'm just going to school 1 day a week :). At least I know I'm not overwatering!

Well, that's it for now... updates to come once I get a sprout!
 
HempKnite

HempKnite

Member
Ugh, it's been 3.5 days now and seedling still hasn't broken the soil. I used tweezers and gently poked the soil to get a peek at the seeds and they're still just lookin like when I put them in there! I'm thinking maybe it's taking longer because I put them in the soil when the root tips were BARELY showing out of the seed. Most people said not to wait...once you see the root tip, plant it or it could experience shock. I think I'm a bit over on perlite too, and I'm having to water quite often...thinking at the beginning when I didn't notice this, I may not have watered enough.

Well, whatever the case, I'm still confident they're gonna sprout, I mean I'm doin everything right. As stated, I've got a metal halide light about 12" away from the pots...the fixture uses the cool tube, and I've got a 6" ducting exhaust fan cooling that down, so I've done the hand test, and it's perfect temperature on the topsoil...just can barely feel warmth on my hand. Figure that's just above room temperature...maybe 75.

Anyone able to confirm a long wait for seedlings to sprout above the soil???
 
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