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Growing Without Bloom Nutes By Farside05
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- #3,182
I do the first part of the drying process on a rack in the corner. After a couple days I'll move them into turkey bags for the second part of drying. The rh usually goes above 62%, I open the bag and fluff it until it's under 60%, then close the bag again. Once they settle in around 58%, I pull them out of the turkey bags and put them in 2 gallon lidded buckets with 62% humidity control packs for the cure. If I had a hygrometer that said 54% it may have been that I just fluffed the bag and was waiting for it to climb back up again. But I do think there was also one crop that did get down to 54% before going into the buckets with humi packs due to other obligations that had to be tended to first.
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- #3,183
peddler420
420 Member
the plan is goodWelcome! I plan on keeping this thread an ongoing journal of my grows. In the past I've made a separate journal for every grow and left buts of pieces of information all over the site. Since there isn't a blog feature anymore, I thought I'd make a journal where I can store all my favorite articles, pod casts, videos, etc.. I'll probably clutter up the first page or two with a lot of links and such so I can refer back to them. Lets get started. For my first grow of this journal I'll be growing Girl Scout Cookies and Gorilla Glue, both autos from FastBuds. As the title suggests, I do not use traditional Bloom nutes. I use Dyna Gro Foliage Pro and a Silica supplement from start to finish and adjust the ratios slightly as flowering kicks in. My growing medium will be standard Pro Mix BX with mycorrhizae. Lighting is courtesy of a DIY 300 watt LED strip build, 3500k spectrum. Ventilation is a 6" fan and carbon filter and 2 clip on fans to keep things moving inside the tent. Tent dimensions are 32"x32"x63".
Tent & Light
Fan & Filter
Exhaust. Currently since its cold here, thefan and filter are in scrubber mode scrubber. When it gets warmer, I have a piece or drywall I replace the attic door with. I have a 6" whole cut in it that I vent out of the closet.
I use the closets shelves to hang drying bud and store supplies.
I decorated the inside of the tent door with some stickers I got as part of a prize pack from The Vault.
I'll call today Day 1. All the seeds sprouted in Jiffy plugs and I transplanted them into 5 gallon pots. Normally I'd fill the pots a bit more but I was a hair short on Pro Mix and didn't feel like buying a whole new bale for just a tad bit more per pot.
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- #3,185
Day 16
Noticable difference in 23 hours since upping them to the 6's. Turned the light back up to 17k lux again.
Noticable difference in 23 hours since upping them to the 6's. Turned the light back up to 17k lux again.
Noice!
Nice plants far
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- #3,188
Day 17
Still growing. I like to top around day 23 and 5 nodes. They need to put it in some good growth in the next 6 days but they seem to be kicking it in gear now.
Still growing. I like to top around day 23 and 5 nodes. They need to put it in some good growth in the next 6 days but they seem to be kicking it in gear now.
HappyHazmat88
Inhale Confidence, Exhale Doubt
Super late....but I'll start here.
Nice garden you have going...nice color ..and theyre definitely moving along....awesome job so far growmie.
So when you top at 5th do you count the cotyledons as 1st? I've heard varying answers on this.
Nice garden you have going...nice color ..and theyre definitely moving along....awesome job so far growmie.
So when you top at 5th do you count the cotyledons as 1st? I've heard varying answers on this.
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- #3,190
Happy AF! I bet they grow into monsters!
Good looking plants and dirt . Lmao.
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- #3,193
DV8
Well-Known Member
Subbing in. Your 90 approx day turn arounds are legit. Im going to sit here humble and learning. Obviously doing a lot of things right.
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- #3,195
Thanks!
Without going through all my grows to find the true arithmetic average (excluding the Non-Auto flowering Auto seed I had), I'd say 82 days is about my average. So I can get in 4 crops a year in a tent. Multiply by 2 tents, that's 8 crops a year or a crop every month and a half. Keeps the flow of bud fairly steady. My other thread is currently on day 75. It's getting close to harvest.
Hi farside 
I hope you don’t mind the intrusion. I’ve received a whisper that you grow autos like a boss. I’m very new to autos, and I want to learn how to make an auto sing. My first attempt I accidentally tore off two arms when training, my second I decided not to train - HUGE rookie error.
I have a few questions, if you don’t mind me posting here I will, or I have a journal which I can tag you in, or I can just shut the fuck up if you can’t be bothered lollinggg!
I hope you don’t mind the intrusion. I’ve received a whisper that you grow autos like a boss. I’m very new to autos, and I want to learn how to make an auto sing. My first attempt I accidentally tore off two arms when training, my second I decided not to train - HUGE rookie error.
I have a few questions, if you don’t mind me posting here I will, or I have a journal which I can tag you in, or I can just shut the fuck up if you can’t be bothered lollinggg!
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- #3,197
Hi farside
I hope you don’t mind the intrusion. I’ve received a whisper that you grow autos like a boss. I’m very new to autos, and I want to learn how to make an auto sing. My first attempt I accidentally tore off two arms when training, my second I decided not to train - HUGE rookie error.
I have a few questions, if you don’t mind me posting here I will, or I have a journal which I can tag you in
Go ahead and ask away here. I have no issue sharing. I work night shift 10:45PM to 6;45AM EST (GMT -4) so that's when I do most of my replies and have my most time.
Thank you
Oh night shift, my old friend, and when I say my old friend I mean mortal enemy… lolling
So what I should do is research autos, read your thread from start to finish and work it out myself, however what I will do is just ask you instead.
First and foremost, your autos are a-fucking-mazing! If I can grow one half as good I’ll be stoked!
I am currently growing one auto. It’s a special sauce home brew strain which was gifted to me. She has only just started growing her forth node, I can get a pic if you like. She is 23 days old, and a good colour, however due to it being winter here my plants growth is slow, so I would put her at day 16 growth wise.
My question, what are your Top 5 tips when growing an auto?
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- #3,199
First and foremost, I don't treat my autos any differently than I do my photos. So what is my process?
I grow in a soil-less peat based medium, either store bought or homemade. This is probably of little consequence because I believe that it can be done in any medium. The reason I choose peat based is that it's pre-buffered and I don't have to worry about pH adjusting my nutrient solution. 5 gallon fabric pots is my preference.
i mainly sprout my seeds in Jiffy plugs and transplant them directly into the 5 gallon bags once the sprout has been above ground for a day. I used to remove the little mesh wrapper on the Jiffy plug but discontinued that process and didn't see a difference. Lately I've forgone the jiffy plug and have soaked my seeds in a week nutrient solution for 24 hours and then planted them in Solo cups filled with my growing medium. It seems to cut a couple days off the germination process vs Jiffy plugs. If I'm doing the Solo cup routine, I let them go until the leaves are able to reach the outside edge of the cups before I transplant. Again I don't think whichever method used has much to do with final size.
Here is where I see myself differing from the mainstream. I have very specific ppm targets for the macro elements when it comes to feeding. That and I do not significantly alter my feed blend from the growth stage to the bloom stage. The ratios remain constant, I just feed higher doses as the plant matures. My full strength fertilizer blend looks close to:
150 ppm N
30 ppm P
200 ppm K
30 ppm Mg
80 ppm Ca
30 ppm S
50 ppm Si
Obviously I don't start a seedling at 100%, but I taper in the feed as they age. For seed sprouting, and their first 5 days above ground, they get 1/5 of the full strength dose, or 30 ppm of N. Every 5 days or so above ground thereafter, I increase by another 1/5. So if I'm watering on day 6 or so, I'm upping their feed to 60 ppm N. Day 11, 90 ppm N, and so on. By around Day 26 I'm finally at 100%, or 150 ppm of N.
Currently I am using my own blend that I call Farside Nutrients Fertilizer, or FN Fertilizer ™, but I have successfully used those targets with various nutrient lines with varying supplements to reach those goals. I've used Dyna Gro Foliage Pro, Mega Crop, Orchidgain, MSU Orchid Fertilizer, and Jacks for tap Water, as a base, all with good results. I've created my own spreadsheet to make calculations so I can tweak the base nutrients with additives to get to my goals. There's other calculators available that will do the same but I find some of them cumbersome to operate.
While I'm increasing their feed, I'm also increasing their light intensity. I use a lux meter for my measurements. Beware, light meter apps for cell phones aren't very accurate. They're better on iPhones but horrible for Androids. For the first 5 days above ground I'll be around 8-10k lux. Day 6-10 around 12k, Day 11-15 20k, Day 16-20 25k, Day 21-26 35k, Day 26+ 50k.
So we've talked about feed and light, how about training. I try to top around node 5, which typically is around Day 21-23. I've had one get to node 6 but basically I want to have my topping done no more than 3 days after I see they've declared sex. I do not remove any of the lower nodes at this time, like one would do if quadlining. I may remove node 1 later if I see it's not going to account for much. From there I bowl train. Using pipe cleaners and binder clips that are attached to the edges of the fabric pot. Lately I've been using some of the red 90 degree plant benders but you have to use extreme caution with them or you can easily break a stem. They do make it easier to water though since you don't have all the wires in the way. I've never been able to get super aggressive on training because I typically have 4 plants in the tent and run out of horizontal space.
As far as defoliation, I might take off a few bottom leaves to make it easier to water, but otherwise leave them go until several weeks after bloom. Then I'll clean up the bottoms good and de-larf them. If I need to thin the middle of the plant, I'll take off some inner fan leaves for better light penetration. Lately after topping, I may take off the top two upper fan leaves too for better light penetration to the lower nodes.
So all of the above applies to any thing I grow, photo or auto. The only thing that I would say is auto specific is genetics. Sometimes the difference between a small, average, and exceptional auto is out of your control. Probably not what you wanted to hear. With a photo, if you have a smaller plant, you can always choose to veg it longer until it gets the size you want, then flip it. With autos, that's not the case since you aren't in control of when the plant switches itself to bloom. Not all auto strains are created equal. Some breeders may have better auto genetics than others, and some breeders may have some strains that produce fantastic plants consistently, while other strains may be average or sub par. Growing autos is a hunt for finding those breeder/strain combos that get you great yields in a short timeframe. Some of my hunting results.... Personally I find Fastbuds Blue Dream and Girl Scout Cookies to be big yielders. Many of Fastbuds strains are above average in size and weight, but they're damn pricey! I don't like paying $13 a seed. Nirvana's Original Glue has been incredibly uniform, plant to plant, yields great, and requires very little training. A personal favorite. A couple of their other strains, although good quality bud, just don't tip the scales as much. I grew two strains from Weedseed Express and both were disappointing. Plenty of members have had success with their photos, but for me and their autos, I'll pass. They may have a good strain or two in there somewhere, but I spent too much time and effort for lackluster yields (did 2 crops of them or 8 plants total). I grew about 6 strains from Sweet Seeds and never got anything of size or weight either. I'm currently weeding my way (see what I did there) through some of the catalog of @Expert Seedbank. Their Tropicana Cookies Purple looks solid. The Bruce Banner should be fine. It's a late developer. I was worried about them a couple weeks ago since the colas we're so spindly. The Blueberry Glues are to young to guage yet and I just ordered 4 more of their strains.
Hopefully some of my ramblings answered a question or two, or at least gave you a synopsis of my threads so far so that you don't have to wade through the many pages.
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