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]

Thanks Canuck147, I was planning on topping and training for sure. Do you defoliate? If so do you defoliate at a certain time , heavy or light? I've seen some grow logs of growers who get massive yields from autos with LST and heavy defoliation and they start that when the plants are pretty young.

 

[Canuck147]

Once they get growing one can snip off leaves daily - so I guess I don't defoliate heavily - just constantly.

 

[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]

D.A.A.S.69 Canuck147 JohnEmad Farmall any thoughts on what may be going on with her?

 

[Canuck147]

Did you spray anything on her? Altatup is a hydro grower - tag her maybe it's a hydro thing?

 

[NickyChicks]

Canuck147 nope and I'm really careful to not splash nute water. Ok I'll do that thanks bud

 

[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!! :-}