Grow 2 - Trio of 4 Assed Monkey autos

[willistoned]

I started my second grow a couple weeks ago and wanted to do a journal on here since everyone was super helpful during my last grow. I am growing three 4 Assed Monkey autos from Mephisto. Four seeds were started in rapid rooters on 1/27/19, and one of them didn't make it past the first week, so I'm down to three. I grew two of this strain in the fall and wanted to do a run with the same strain to dial in my environment more since I was already familiar with the plants.

Environment

• Basement in northern New England that averages 55℉ and 20-30% RH this time of year
• 2'x4'x5' Vivosun grow tent
• 3 different lights: 55W 3500K Autocob + (136W) DS350 VIPAR LED + 150W HPS
• Boneco U200 Ultrasonic humidifier
• Oscillating fan + non-oscillating clip on fans
• Hydrologic Stealth-RO 150 reverse osmosis filter (for humidifier and watering)
• Light schedule 20/4

Grow medium

• 3 gal fabric Vivosun pots
• 70% Vermont Compost Fort Lite, 15% perlite, 15% FF Ocean Forest (bottom of pots only)

I'm doing a few unscientific experiments with this grow. My last grow only had a 150W HPS and the VIPAR LED, and the HPS blew the LED out of the water. I added a 3500K Autocob to the tent to balance things out and hopefully get a little more yield. Last time I did the FF trio + FF Cha Ching and was mostly happy with the results. This time I'm doing the same FF schedule for two of the plants, and Greenleaf Nutrients Mega Crop for the other plant.

I'm also changing up the soil and using Vermont Compost Company Fort Lite instead of FF Happy Frog and Ocean Forest. I had some FFOF left over from my last grow, so I mixed that with some perlite and filled the bottom of the pots, but the rest is Fort Lite with a little extra perlite. The soil is peat-based, and is very hydrophobic, so if the results aren't significantly better, I might go back to FF soil next time since it's a bit easier to water.

So far the grow seems to be going well. It's tough growing in a cold, dry basement, so most of the work has been filling a humidifier and tweaking the exhaust schedule to keep temps and humidity up. Plants are on day 17 from seed and are tracking pretty closely with my last grow in terms of size.

[WizardsNThings]

I use compost from Grow Vermont in my regular veggie garden, not sure why I didn't think about using their soils for my grows! My grows are in the last 3 weeks then I am gonna take a short break before getting ready for the outdoor season. Did you grow outdoors at all last year? A lot of people had trouble with bud rot, including me. Had to chop down early. Good luck with the grow!

[willistoned]

Bummer about the bud rot! My last grow was indoors too. I probably won't do an outdoor grow now that I've invested in lighting and grow equipment. It's a lot more expensive to get started, but you have way more control over the environment and it's way more private.

[willistoned]

Just a quick update on the 4AMs. Today is day 21 from seed and the plants are very happy. They are a little bigger than my last group of 4AMs at the same day, so I'm really happy about that. I've been keeping the humidity and temps a little higher than last time (75-80℉ / 50-60%). I'm hoping they get a little taller to make it easier to do LST.

I started giving them each 8oz RO water w/ Botanicare Cal-Mag+ at around 150 ppm. My last grow was pH'd tap water that measured about 115 ppm from the tap, so I'm curious to see how they respond to the RO + Cal-Mag.

[willistoned]

Today is day 28 from seed. I've been noticing signs of N toxicity for the past week and it's now affecting all three plants. This happened on my last grow and I was hoping switching to a different soil would help, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

The soil I'm using is a locally made peat-perlite mix called Fort Lite. The grow supply store recommended it for autos after I mentioned that I had N-tox last grow. I did put some FF Ocean Forest at the very bottom of the pots mixed heavily with perlite, but I'd be very surprised if that was the cause.

The only nitrogen I'm adding is in the Botanicare Cal-Mag+, which is 2%. I had been watering with pure RO until last week. I noticed some light patches on the older leaves so I added 3 ml Cal-Mag+ to the gal of RO I mixed up on 2/18 and then 4 ml to the gal of RO I mixed up on Thursday 2/21. I gave the plants 16oz on 2/18 and 24oz each on 2/21. pH was 6.4 on 2/18 and 6.8 on 2/21.

Temps have been 75-80℉ during the day and 60℉ during lights out (still running lights 19/5). Humidity has been 50-60%.

The lights are about 28" from the tops of plants.

Maybe the roots have reached the FFOF at the bottom or maybe I'm worrying about nothing, but none of the other 4AMs I've seen in diaries show signs of N-tox. Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[willistoned]

The trio is now a duo. I happened to notice a few "bananas" coming out the top of my healthiest plant and decided not to risk it with the other two, and chop her down.

Pretty bummed about this since the environment has been almost perfect. I remember a few weeks ago seeing something near the base of this plant that looked like a male pre-flower and said "nah" and just pulled it off. This is only my second grow so I didn't really think anything off it and thought maybe it was just a weird female calyx or something. Nope. I'm going to chalk this one up to genetics and bad luck and hope the other two thrive.

On the plus side, I'm in Vermont and we can only legally have two flowering plants so maybe it's a higher power keeping me out of trouble

[KTM690]

Good looking grow and hello fellow vermonter. I'm assuming by your name your up north lol I'm a southern vermonter. I've switched to autos as well great plants to grow. Your grow looks great. Good call on your soil mix I would just mix in all your soils together though by putting that layer at bottom when roots hit it they will fed get a fist full. I've been mixing my own compost from uncles pile about 40 yrs old and great shit with pro mix and a lot of perlite. I've found the autos like more air and room to root. Watering is harder during flower but worth it imo. Good luck and happy growing

[KTM690]

I'm also going to do a sand grow with super sandy soil ill mix with compost and a bunch of #2 topdressing sand used on golf course greens hehe. I'm curious if they will root like grass does. I haven't seen to many post about growing in sand. Of course ill wash out the sand before using it. I have a northern lights just coming out of soil now I'm gonna plant in this mix

[willistoned]

KTM690 I've never heard of anyone using sand either so I'm curious how that works out. Autos like good drainage so maybe they'd do well if it's a cactus-like soil mix.

[KTM690]

I'm gonna post it when I try. Prolly do it sat gonna mix with my soil perlite mix like 70 sand 30 soul mix

[willistoned]

I've been seeing signs of a calcium deficiency on both plants that has been getting worse over the past week. It began on the lower fan leaves and has been making its way to the middle fan leaves. I'm watering with RO water and adding 4ml/gal of Cal-Mag+ with each watering, which is in the middle of Botanicare's recommended 3-5ml/gal. When I tested the runoff a few days ago, it was 6.4-6.5, but when I watered yesterday the runoff was 6.0-6.2. I'm not sure if I should increase the Cal-Mag next time I water or if this is being caused by low pH since calcium is best absorbed at pH > 6.2. When I water, I try to give it a range between 6.2-6.7 and have it fluctuate a little each watering.

[willistoned]

I did a little more research on Ca and plant deficiencies and now I'm not convinced that's what it is. Ca def is supposed to affect newer growth higher on the plant, but my issues started on the lowest, oldest fan leaves and worked its way up. The leaf issues combined with purple stems makes me wonder if it's actually a phosphorus deficiency.

I have been measuring pH runoff and it's been 5.8-6.0. I can't find any definitive info on whether runoff is worth checking in soil though. Some say it's a good way to assess what's going on, others say it's inaccurate and does not provide a good reading of what is actually happening in the soil. Yet others say you should take an average of what goes in and what comes out to get a good pH number. One of the aspects that I hate about growing is that everyone has a different opinion about things that seem like they should have a definitive answer. In my case, since I'm seeing issues and I haven't been over-feeding, I'll assume the pH is low and adjust closer to 7.0 for a while since P is best absorbed > 6.2.

I decided not to do any training this grow and so far I am really happy with the results. The plants stretched about 2x after flowering started and stopped stretching at 16" tall. They're a great height for a 5' tall tent with LEDs that are 20" from the top of the plants. I can't wait to measure the final yield so I can do a comparison with my last 4AM grow where did LST.