HYDRO Full Auto - Second Grow

[NickyChicks]

Germination has begun for my second grow and this time I am growing all auto-flowering strains. The seeds I'm popping are....
Blow Dream (auto blue dream) from Victory Seeds
Glueberry O.G. from Dutch Passion
Strawberry Cheesecake from Seedsman
Northern Lights from Seedsman
(2) Blue Cookies from Garden of Green.
I'm germinating 2 Blue Cookies because one of them will not be going in the tent with the others but into my DWC LED Strip PC Case grow. I will make a separate post for that at some point this week.
Nutrients will be GH Trio, Rapid Start, FloraliciousPlus, LKB, Armor Si, CaliMagic and pH down, Botanicare Sweet and Hydroguard.
T8s to start, hoping and praying that my LED strips and heatsinks ship early this week to me so I can finish my new LED strip fixtures. I'm building 2 4x2 8 strip fixtures that should total close to 600w. From what I've read, autos love light so I plan to run the lights 24/0.
Each plant will be grown in a 5gal top fed DWC bucket. I have individual pumps for the top feed which will be run for 15 every hour.

Seeds went into the germination station last night and the Blow Dream has popped open already, let's hope the rest follow suit shortly.

Let me know what you think or if you have some advice for a first time auto grower I would love to hear it. Thanks everyone, happy growing.

[Canuck147]

Looks great NickyChicks - I only grow autoflowers - as does D.A.A.S.69 - I'll tag him so he can help too - he has more experience.

If you are going to top and/or train - get your game cap on now and decide what and how you are planning on what to do. I top off the sixth node and the first nodes set of branches as they don't contribute much to the yield. Start training same time as topping.

Then pay attention to them and see how long they take to get back to growing - some strains don't miss a beat while others pout for days before restarting.

That's all for now - good luck with your grow.

[NickyChicks]

Right on!

[D.A.A.S.69]

Nice NickyChicks your gonna do fine, autos are super fun to grow.
The third week after I see pistils is when I remove leaves ,a bunch of them too, mostly the inside pointing ones, I leave the outside leaves on a little longer, since they aren't covering up anything, but by the last couple of weeks my autos have no leaves at all, on them. Just bud. Saves alot of trimming.
GoodLuck an have fun.
I top an lst,mine about the same time Canuck147 does his, but only if they are healthy an growing fast, or else you can stunt, or slow them dowm a bunch,
HappyGrowing your gonna love your autos!!

[NickyChicks]

Thanks D.A.A.S.69 , I'm looking forward to seeing these girls grow. All but the Glueberry OG have taproots now, I'll have them in their new homes this evening. Hopefully I won't have a ton of questions along the way but I know whose brains I'm gonna pick when I do 😅.

[NickyChicks]

Off to the races!

[NickyChicks]

Day 7 for all the girls except the Glueberry OG she's a day behind. I did a water change today, I noticed that the Northern Lights had small rusty spots which I'm thinking is because I hadn't added Calimagic until today's water change. The Blow Dream had small spots also, again I'm thinking CM. I know some people say you may not have to add CM to tap water, I learned from my last grow that I need to. The Strawberry Cheesecake from the start has been strong, when I germinated these seed the SC seed popped first, the tap root was longer and fatter than the others and she was the first one to come up, already she has a root an inch from the bottom of the bucket. I'm thinking she's gonna be a beauty. I fed her just a little extra today so hopefully she likes it.

[NickyChicks]

Well it's been quite the week for the girlies. Day 14, I changed the water again today, the Strawberry Cheesecake is a big girl but she has a leaf with some funky shit going on. It happened today right after the water change, she got really droopy maybe because of the cold water? As she perked up the strange formation that started as a faded patch turned into a large faded patch. Any thoughts?
One of the blueberry cookies is growing kinda odd too, not too worried yet. All in all the girls looks good but here's what went down this week....

I'm still trying to get an update on when I will get my LED strips from cutter.com I'm frustrated because I fully expected to have them up and running in the tent but it is what it is. I put my 600w MH in earlier this week and I have it running 24/0. Thoughts on 24/0 vs. 20/4 ??

On Wednesday I got a call that I my parents were coming from out of state for the weekend due to an unexpected death of a family friend. I don't live in a legal state and having a parent in law enforcement I don't want to jeopardize their position by having a grow in my house while their here. I respect my family a lot and they know I smoke weed but until my state becomes legal it's easier to avoid the conversation about growing. With that being said.... I took down my tent and brought it and all the plants to one of my good friends condos and set it up in their spare room. They spent thursday night through yesterday afternoon there and the first night the tent got up to 93 for a while but once he kick his a/c on the tent cooled down to 81. They def got a little heat stressed. Also I accidentally set the top feed to run continuous and not on the timer. They seemed to like it so I'm going to continue doing that. Happy mistake I suppose.

I plan to top the strawberry cheesecake, probably tomorrow. I'll be watching the others closely this week to figure out if I'm going to top any others or just LST.

[JohnEmad]

Plants looking good except for that 1 funky leaf. i wouldn't worry too much about it if it doesn't spread. Funny what we do to keep our grows going. nice you had a good neighbor. We had our property appraised but due to covid they did only the outside so they relied on my pictures for their comparables. Sometimes bad things can work in your favor. GL with the auto grow.

[NickyChicks]

Yeah it was a minor bump in the road even though it was inconvenient having to break down the tent and set it up twice. You're right though sometimes the bad things can turn out for the better.

[NickyChicks]

Ok so the patch on the Strawberry Cheesecake leaf spread and it also on the other fan leaf on this node. I was planning on topping and defol on this one anyways so I went ahead and did that. Topped at the 3rd, 1st and 2nd nodes cleaned off. I will tie it down either later tonight or tomorrow depending on how much it grows.

As far as the patches on the leaves. The faded patch is super dry and crispy and the rest of the fan leave was glossy and felt pretty normal. Not sure what's going on.

[NickyChicks]

Hey alltatup, my fellow hydro grower, I'd love to see if you would weigh in on what I have going on here? Have you seen anything like this before?

[Canuck147]

Sorry but I haven't seen leaves do that.

[NickyChicks]

I actually think I found the problem. Possibly. Water temp was about 77°F , looked like I had some root rot starting to form. The roots looked great yesterday during the water change, I just noticed it as I checked the pH which is 5.95. I threw a couple ice packs in there for now and I just installed the AC window unit into the basement window so I can keep it cooler down here. Other than a warm tent, I think the true root cause of the problem is the water pumps I have inside the buckets for the top feed. No more continuous feeding, either back to the timer or I may about to kabash the top feed all together.

[alltatup]

Hi Nicky, I have never seen anything like that on the two fan leaves.

The one you topped: you left very little energy for her to work and grow with. I think it may take her some time to recover. I would never do that because now she has no strong growth going on, so it will take longer for her to pick up steam. When I top, I leave six or eight bud sites and attendant fan leaves.
I hope your girl prooves me wrong!! :-}

[NickyChicks]

Thanks for your insight, I'm going to chalk it up as warm res temp/root issue. As for the topping and defol, she was the strongest/fastest growing out of the bunch (up until yesterday when she drooped right after the water change). I figured screw it those leaves were shot and grabbed the shears. Also, I had seen a lot of Green75's journals and I've wanted to try his rather aggressive approach to autos. Maybe I should have waited a couple of days but trial and error right? Maybe I'll start a couple more seeds, just in case. However, I truly hope she does prove you wrong😅🙏

[alltatup]

NickyChicks I forgot to write yesterday: when the plants are quite young, I've learned that in my grow room environment, it's very important that I change the reservoir with the least amount of disturbance to the young roots. A couple of years back my plants and their roots would go into shock when I left the reservoir lid open too long or disturbed the roots in any way; so I stopped trying to clean the sediment out of the res and just made the water change as fast as possible. The roots have been much happier without any light or disturbance.

[alltatup]

Nicky, I went and watched some of Green75's tutorials on YouTube on defoliation and tying down. For one thing, he's growing in soil and you're in hydro: we can't tie down the way he does because his technique is dependent on soil for a firm anchoring of each bud site. So you have to modify your technique to suit your grow environment.

Secondly, his plants were in strong and vigorous growth, super-healthy. His branches were all strong from gentle manipulation and budsites growing fast.
He wouldn't do what he's doing if the plant were not in full health and strength. You won't get results like his unless your plants are likewise strong and healthy.

I've been working for a while now on finding ideal ways to tie down bud sites in my grow boxes: it's a challenge to find the right technique for each grow environment.

[NickyChicks]

Yeah I realize I probably topped her too early. 😔However I do have a plan in place for tying down branches, all of my lids have several eye hooks on them that that I use to anchor down the branches. I can add more eye hooks at anytime and anywhere on the lid. I got the idea from Obi Wan during my first grow and it worked really well. What you said about disturbing the roots while they're young makes sense. Though I was pretty quick during the water change, I did have the lids popped open longer than I probably needed. I really do think it had something to do with the temperature or my res but I've remedied that issue. It could have been a combo of things. All I can do now is hope for the best, show her some love, and learn from my mistakes good or bad. I definitely appreciate your input so keep an eye out when I update this grow next week!

[NickyChicks]

Oh fudge! Except I didn't say fudge.

Now I'm starting to thinking my plants have TMV. It's really an uneducated guess at this point but one of my Blue Cookies is now droopy and has the same markings as the Strawberry Cheesecake. I also noticed some very faint markings on some of the other plants. From what I've read there's a few ways a plant could get TMV, one of which is from contact with tobacco. Now I wonder if the fact that my friend, who babysat my girls for the weekend at his condo, smokes blunts in his condo would be a way of getting TMV, if that's even what happening. I'm not one to give up easily but I'm not sure what to do. I counted yesterday, I have 85 feminized seeds 41 of which are autos. Should I pop a couple more seeds and cut my losses? I know time is of the essence when it comes to autos so I'd hate to waste time and effort in salvaging a plant that's going to yield poorly because it had a shitty start.

[NickyChicks]

Thanks Tat. My head is spinning a little but believe me, I've read the root rot article. So many different variables in this grow compared to my previous/first grow and my inexperience is definitely showing. I removed the water pumps for the top feed to eliminate any heat they would generate. I think tonight when I get home I will do a water change and sterilize the buckets. I'm running out of thoughts and I really don't want to waste my time growing stunted plants. What do you do to ensure your roots stay healthy? I know I've seen you use a chiller to maintain temp, and I'm guessing you use some sort of root inoculant like hydroguard.

[RagWeedDWC]

Not sure if this is on point, but one hard lesson I did learn was keep things clean in hydro. I use hospital grade hydrogen peroxide 3% on anything that goes into my totes. including test probes. I have seen the leaves droop like that when there was not enough air for the roots, but do not recall the color change. Heck of a nice grow and setup!

[NickyChicks]

RagWeedDWC thanks! You're probably on point with that. The water pumps I had in each bucket were not sterile in any way and I imagine that generate heat as well. Between that, the warm temps, and they light leaks I had a recipe for disaster is seems. I believe I have remedied all of the issues, after my water change last night, all of the girls are looking pretty happy today.

[alltatup]

NickyChicks Here's my journal on my root rot grow, and I got some decent bud out of harvest because I didn't ignore the problem: I focused all my energies on it and resolved it. If you THINK you have root rot, you better make sure if you do or not and act on it.

The problems start on the bottom of page 9:
https://forum.growweedeasy.com/forum...strains/page10

Have you done these things?
1. Know the water temp in your reservoir every day, at different times, to know just how high the temp gets w/ lights on.
2. Check the water temp after you add frozen bottles to cool it down.
3. Know how long the chill lasts.
4. Get a good look at or smell from your roots at least once a week to make sure they're going strong. If they're good, they'll have a nice veggie smell. My reservoir has all kind of sediment in it that makes it look very funky, but it always smells good. (See https://forum.growweedeasy.com/forum...he-driven-snow

It all depends on what you want to get out of growing. If you want top shelf potency bud, with wonderful aroma, body and color, you will study your ass off so that you can learn what to do when a problem begins and what to do to grow the best bud. I don't find it easy at all to grow really excellent weed: I've done a lot of reading, tons of studying tutorials, doing research to find solutions to problems, and of course, lots of practice. I have files on my computer on each grow phase, problems, temp/humid/light, curing, etc. I print stuff out and post it in my grow room to remind me of best practices. And I keep a grow journal.

This is what works for me in my grow room: maybe you have a photographic memory or don't need the same stuff I do; I don't know. This is what I do as I'm learning to grow really excellent week.

[NickyChicks]

Thanks I'm going to check it out when I get a little break today at work. We definitely share the same goals as far as wanting to grow high quality weed. My ppm meter reads temp and as of yesterday res temp was 21.2°C which should be right about 70°F. I would prefer to regulate the temp in my basement to keep temps low in the grow tent and in the reservoirs vs using frozen bottles or a chiller. They smell ok no funk, but I will take a pic tonight. I think I got off to a bad start and didn't give my girls the best environment to thrive in. Sorry if I sounded dismissive of your suggestion of the root rot article, that was not my intention. I know that growing great weed takes a lot of time and effort, what you put into it is what you get for sure. My memory is pretty good but not photographic, the GWE site is always an open tab on my phone. Hopefully now that I have the basement/grow tent temp regulated and the water pumps have become a thing of the past, I will be on the right path.

[alltatup]

NickyChicks And I don't mean to come off sounding like I'm lecturing you!! ;-}

[NickyChicks]

I truly appreciate the insight and advice of those who are more experienced and knowledgeable. I'll take it however I can get it 😁. Theres a lot to learn but I'm up for the challenge. I had a pretty successful first grow so I've set the bar for myself already but there's always going to be room for improvement.

[SoOrbudgal]

NickyChicks even though I grow in soil I have seen the same symptom on my plants when it gets to warm to quickly and dry wind.

[NickyChicks]

Water change, gave the buckets a good cleaning, rinsed the roots, doubled up on Hydroguard. I also checked for light leaks, low and behold all of the net pot were allowing light in because the reflective covers I have cover the net pots but not completely. Aluminum foil and duct tape to the rescue. The Strawberry Cheesecake had a large clump of idk what but it wasnt looking nice, I trimmed the roots right above it. It's funny how things can muck up so fast. Fingers crossed things start to look up from here on out. I did put 3 new seeds in my germination station this morning. 1 of those seeds will be going into my PC case which I swear will be operating by this weekend. The other two will join the tent, possibly as replacements.

[alltatup]

Don't give up on the girls yet!!!

[NickyChicks]

Not giving up but I have my doubts about how big the plant will grow or how much I will yield from the Strawberry Cheesecake and one of the Blue Cookies. They aren't going anywhere yet but they're on my short list lol. I'm glad you shared the link for your previous grow that had your experience with root rot. I thought I had no light leaks but your journal prompted me to look and good thing I did.

[NickyChicks]

Day 23. Things are shaping up in the tent. The Strawberry Cheesecake is trying to live it's best life but I've made it tough. I partially snapped on of it's branches, one of it's two. I let it be, it healed, but it starting showing pistils. Looks like she isn't going to be a big girl by any means. The Blue Cookies that was looking kinda suspect seems to have come around. It's now been topped but it's growing pretty low so I haven't tied it down at all. The Blow Dream is the only one that I didn't top, I've been trying down the main stem on an angle and all of its branches. The rest have all been topped and tied down.

I didn't use any FloraliciousPlus in the last water change and I noticed a great improvement in the water. No sludge or sediment. Roots are looking sooo much better.

My LED light fixtures are almost done, hoping they'll be up and running by the weekend. Just waiting on getting five of the eight heatsinks machined so I can mount them to the frame. I got a little taste of the LED life now that I have my PC case micro grow up and running. It's only been two days since the seedling went in, if she lives I'll make a separate post.

Happy growing everyone, stay safe, spread love.

[alltatup]

They look fabulous, Nicky!!! Everyone's humming along! ;-}

I keep adhesive tape in the growroom and immediately make a tight splint when I snap a stem; so far this grow, they all bounced back.

[SoOrbudgal]

I look at my tower I have a Lenovo desk top and I can not see how a grow would work in it?

[NickyChicks]

Thanks alltatup! I'm really pleased with how they're doing. I was going to tape that branch but i feared really snapping it off if it attempted to wrap it with tape. Scotch tape served me great during my first grow a couple of times I must say.

SoOrbudgal google PC case micro grow. I'm not saying it's going to work lol. I was bored, quarantined and scrolling the forum, someone made a post about a PC grow and they were using cfls and long shallow planter that fit in the case. The plant looked like it got kinda torched at one point but they did successfully grow a flowering plant. My thought was to get a large enough case (mine is ~20" tall, 17" long, 8" wide) , build an LED strip fixture that would be slim and use minimal space, also be able to adjust it's height and it's fully dimmable, I plopped it on top of a DWC bucket to allow for the base of the plant to be flush with the base of the case. I really don't know how it's going to work out but my goal is to produce 1oz. I figure I need a goal, even if it's a stretch 🙃.

[SoOrbudgal]

Yes I remember the post LOL ahhh a " shits & giggles grow " yes I kinda did that with my folgers coffee growing autos. Maybe hopefully you'll get that oz. That's what i'm shooting for with autos and hopefully more. Well i'll be tuned it when you start this mini grow

[NickyChicks]

Day 36 for everyone except New York Diesel, it's Day 17. She was going to be a backup because I had little faith in a couple of the girls early on but now here I am with 7 plants in the tent. The Strawberry Cheesecake is looking great, she and both Blue Cookies are showing pistils, one of the Blue Cookies is about a week ahead of the other. The rest of the girls are just doing their thing, I expect to see pistils from the rest of them in the next couple weeks.

[RagWeedDWC]

I hate killing one for room, sucks, I try to squeeze them in somewhere. Kind of like unexpected company. However, the plants look awesome.

[NickyChicks]

RagWeedDWC if you look back you can see a few weeks ago my strawberry cheesecake and 1 of the blue cookies were having some issues, that I've since resolved, and I was certain that I had stunted them or they just straight up weren't going to make it. I'm not mad that I'm wrong and I'll be happy to have more bud in the end but having 7 plants in the tent wasn't part of the plan lol. I'm ok with squeezing them in there tight. My first grow was 9 plants and that was a tight squeeze for sure!