New Grower: Auto Youngsters Not Showing Much Progress: Need Help

[MajorTom]

Thanks for inviting me into your community.

I grew up among the last of the 60’s holdouts, Austin 70’s (good times), now after xx many years of being too busy to slow down, finally starting my first grow.

The challenges with this grow; a) very tiny space and limited plant headroom, b) lack of direct access to fresh air, c) having to leave them unattended for 7-12 days at a time, d) my utter lack of any experience with this whatsoever, and e) truth be told not a very good history with plants in general. See complete setup below.

I haven’t killed them yet but they don’t seem to be doing very much either. I saw a brown spot on one and thought it was light burn so I moved the LED up to 24”; then I thought it might be nutrient burn but then after not changing the reservoir for 5 days I’m not seeing any more of these dark brown spots. Now I’m seeing a) not much growth, and b) noticing some general lightening in the color of one of them. The leaves have gotten slightly bigger on both but they’re still very short and only barely working on their 3rd set of leaves - after 12 days since sprouting. Is that where they’re supposed to be??

Just thinking: on the slight lightening (yellowing?) in color could holding a steady ph at 6.1 be causing a zinc deficiency in hydro??

I’m guessing here that my problem is not enough good light (or at least a light issue) and not enough good air.. Is that close? Most of the other specs (temp, ph, water temp) have been doing pretty well, except the humidity looks a bit low at 38.

I’m also not giving them much water thru the drip either since their roots have reached the reservoir. Do I need to keep using the drip at this point?

And I can’t figure out what’s up with the super high 2720 ppm reading from my Blue Lab monitor. Is this coming from the clay pebbles or rapid rooters? Any ideas? I’ll run some tests on this tomorrow.

My current plan is to:

• add a set of cfl lights total 298 cfl watts (about 150/plant) (per instructions from the website) arriving tomorrow,
• work on air circulation by adding a stronger exhaust fan setup
• I also put a bag of Exhale CO2 in the box tonight in case I’ve been starving them from CO2. The bag, however, takes up a lot of space. Is this a good idea?
• change the reservoir with the nutrients at 1/2t per gallon instead of 1t per gallon.

Eventually planning to do some low stress training to keep them low, but since they seem to be growing so slowly, will probably not try topping them..

Do these steps sound good? Any more ideas?

I’d really like to see this effort turn out to be a success but I’m getting concerned that they’re not making enough progress, and considering they’re auto’s wondering if they’re going to be developed enough when the budding starts...

I’ll try to add some pics tomorrow.

3/19 specs:
Temp=78
Hum=38
Ph=6.1
Water temp=63
Ppm=2720


SYSTEM:
(GROWBOX) 3 x 1.5 x 1.5
(SITUATION) 7-12 days unattended; super short space
(MAX HEIGHT DWC TO TOP) 27”
(MAX HEIGHT DWC TO BOTTOM OF CURRENT LIGHT) 23”
(STRAIN) 1 B_Berry Auto; 1 N_Lights Auto
(DWC) 3gal; w/drip 6x/day; 15m each
(MEDIUM) Rooters in Clay Pebbles
(NUTRIENTS) Gen Hydro; FloraDuo A/B
(LED) 18/6; 180W (36x5w); Act/0HID 90w/150w;
(PH AUTO SYSTEM) set 5.6-6.2; ave 6.0 to 6.1
(BACKUP H20 RES) 1.5g; ph balanced
(CHILLER) 30-45m every other hour; goal=62-68
(BUBBLER) very bubbly 24/day
(INTERNAL FAN) runs when lights on
(INTAKE/EXHAUST FANS) 3-4” PC not very strong fans continuously
(PH/PPM/WATER TEMP MONITOR) Blue Lab Guardian
(WATER SUPPLY) Ph adj Spring Water from Whole Foods (ph usually around 6.0)

ENVIRONMENT:
⁃ Upstairs room with no outside window, no central a/c
⁃ Portable a/c and heater units in room
⁃ Fans and high end Austin Air purifier circulating in room

ISSUES:
- Access to fresh air / enough CO2?
- Super short space for maintaining proper lighting distance / heat
- Plants must be managed to stay short
- Other…?

[D.A.A.S.69]

Morning MajorTom, been to Austin, an hippiehollow, many times, best live music around,
Its not hard at all to grow autos, it's really easy if you keep it simple.
They are probably just growing roots right now, want be long before they take off though. Can't wait for your pictures.

[MajorTom]

Many lazy days at Lake Travis, and yes Austin has always had great music and music venues; case in point Armadillo World Headquarters. I was lucky to get in the last few years of this venue. The finest rock for $8.50 at the door. I really miss that place, but it was honestly more like a time capsule, only meant for that particular time (mid-late 70's early 80's). Not sure a venue like that could even exist in today's world.

You could be right about the roots; didn't check them last night but their tap root had just reached the water 4-5 days ago.

Here's the pics. At first they seemed a bit "leggy" so i did put them a little bit deeper into the pot - very careful with the tap root, and kept them in their rapid rooter. Expecting them to grow up and bush out a bit more.

Note just a slight "less than dark green" shading around the centers - maybe nothing but combined with the slower than expected growth...?

Thanks for your reply.

[farmerjim]

Hey Major - looking good! A few thoughts from a fellow newbie...

Light leakage - like Sonny mentioned with the top feed res, make sure you're covering the holes in your res cover to keep light out of there as well. I couldnt tell from the pics whether you were covering the holes you are running your pH and other (chiller?) tubes/sensors through.

Water level - where is your water level in relation to the net pot using that top feed res? I forgot to drop my water level after sprouting roots to allow them room to breathe and think I waterlogged my plant a bit slowing growth a bit. Mine was right at the bottom of the net pot and I noticed improvement after lowering about 1-1.5 inches.

Great setup! Side mount a cam on your light for a top down view of your grow if you have the web connection!

Ever figure out why ppm was reading 2200+? What is it at now?

[MajorTom]

Thanks FJ! I've since made more of an effort to cover up the light leaks, and the backup reservoir. I covered the backup with black tape, now thinking i should go back and cover it with something more reflective. My water levels have been pretty good at 1-1.5 inches. Been trying to setup a webcam but having trouble with my wifi connection. My box is metal, so I'm now thinking about the cam you're using with an antennae extension to get it out of the box.

On the PPM I believe this is caused by the PH solution being added by my auto ph system. When the reservoir is fresh, the ppm's look good but as soon as the PH solution is added the numbers go up. So the ppm readings aren't much help to me a little while after each change. Working with the settings and the PH solution dilution ratios is still something of a work in process for me. Every time I take readings ph is 5.9-6.1 but I think there are times in between when the system over-reacts releasing PH Down all the way to my minimum of 5.5, goes a little past it, and then releases the PH Up solution back up to the 5.8 mark. Can't say that I'd 100% recommend this system yet.

[farmerjim]

Hi Major, the cam I use can also be tethered to a router using a network cable so if your Wi-Fi is close by, that should work. after posting above, I realized that I wanted a top-down cam view pretty badly so I repurposed the one for the dog and now have two cams going. Check out my topping entry in my grow thread if youre interested, I edited it to show the app view of the 2 cams

[Canuck147]

Looks real good - patience is part of growing cannabis.

[MajorTom]

Glad to hear they're about where they should be. Thanks for your feedback!

[thefunkdrspot]

Hi there MajorTom. Im curious about your setup. What are those two mini zone valves in the back and what do they control? Is that something you put together or an off the shelf solution? Does your extra reservoir automatically supply the main?

[MajorTom]

Hi TFDS, sorry took so long - still getting used to this forum. Those are the ph dosers for the ph controller that I'm using. See link. The hoses are connected to 2 reservoirs (PH UP and DOWN) that I have outside of the box. I'm still getting used to it so I'm not sure if I'd recommend it yet.

It does a good job of maintaining the PH in my small 3 gal tank, BUT, the trick is finding the correct dilution rate with the GH UP and DOWN solutions. Sometimes the system "drinks" the solution when adjusting; and sometimes it remains well balanced only using a small amount of the Ph solutions. It's also a bit tricky to set up your PH Max and Min; and Average. For the price, I think it should be a bit better and easier to use; but having said that I've been able to leave my girls w/o ph issues for 5-7 days at a time and am currently on a 12 day stint, so....