Hello! I'm new to growing and would love any help that you could give!

[AdaminCO]

What do you think of my ladies flowers?

Getting there. Might start check trics soon.

 

[RandyMarshT]

I have recently ran out of soil and nutrients so while I'm waiting on all of my ladies to finish up I'm starting to plan what my next grow will be planned in. Could you guys offer some help? I don't think I picked the right nutrients for my soil last time.

Also in my current grow I have never brewed and organic teas or anything for the plants. Is that necessary or does it help increase yeilds?

 

[AdaminCO]

I have recently ran out of soil and nutrients so while I'm waiting on all of my ladies to finish up I'm starting to plan what my next grow will be planned in. Could you guys offer some help? I don't think I picked the right nutrients for my soil last time.

Also in my current grow I have never brewed and organic teas or anything for the plants. Is that necessary or does it help increase yeilds?

It really depends on what you want to do...
Soil, Soilless, Hydro
Organic, Bottled, Soluble
Water source
Auto, Photo, Growspace
Ease, Outcome

 

[RandyMarshT]

It really depends on what you want to do...
Soil, Soilless, Hydro
Organic, Bottled, Soluble
Water source
Auto, Photo, Growspace
Ease, Outcome

That's exactly what I was hoping you were going to ask lol!
I was looking into rdwc hydroponics because I wanted soiless but heard that it isn't worth the trouble and I'm starting to understand that. That being said I'm really open to anything now. I'm a beginner so something complicated like hydroponics or coco choir is probably too advanced for me.

You did respond to this thread earlier and said "
You really should not use dry nutes in coco. It’s not meant for that style of organics because it doesn’t support the microbial life required to break down the raw ingredients in the mix like soil does.

Id recommend getting a water soluble (Mega Crop) or liquid nutrient (Fox Farm Trio), and go from there." That really spiked my interest because I had no idea that I was wasting nutrients and the plants were growing all natural pretty much lol. So I'm trying to reset my grow probably continue to use soil and I don't really care if it's dry or chemical nutes.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[AdaminCO]

That's exactly what I was hoping you were going to ask lol!
I was looking into rdwc hydroponics because I wanted soiless but heard that it isn't worth the trouble and I'm starting to understand that. That being said I'm really open to anything now. I'm a beginner so something complicated like hydroponics or coco choir is probably too advanced for me.

You did respond to this thread earlier and said "
You really should not use dry nutes in coco. It’s not meant for that style of organics because it doesn’t support the microbial life required to break down the raw ingredients in the mix like soil does.

Id recommend getting a water soluble (Mega Crop) or liquid nutrient (Fox Farm Trio), and go from there." That really spiked my interest because I had no idea that I was wasting nutrients and the plants were growing all natural pretty much lol. So I'm trying to reset my grow probably continue to use soil and I don't really care if it's dry or chemical nutes.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Let me know if you’d like for me to give you some pointers on a good soil build. I love my soil. Ill try coco or DWC when I have time to build the proper setup for it. Once this current grow finished, I’m going to give it a break for a few months and really think about my next run. So far All I can say is that I’m not running more than two strains at a time.

 

[RandyMarshT]

Let me know if you’d like for me to give you some pointers on a good soil build. I love my soil. Ill try coco or DWC when I have time to build the proper setup for it. Once this current grow finished, I’m going to give it a break for a few months and really think about my next run. So far All I can say is that I’m not running more than two strains at a time.

That would be amazing! I would love some help on designing a good soil build. Knowing what works for what type of medium is completely foreign to me. I have never even done research into that because I didn't know that was a factor

 

[The Phantom]

How goes the progress for your grow? Have you started a grow journal yet?

 

[Anthony Suszko]

Hiya @RandyMarshT® we all started somewhere right? You got weed and have more cooking, you're on the right track to success! A perpetual grow is the way to go for sure! That light is 165w of less than top quality light, but the cheapest light is the light you own already right? You definitely need more, but it will fit fine next to a Mars Hydro white light, many people just keep adding. CHeers mate, gl to your grow!

I like Pbass's outlook.. Plants need 3 things to be right.. Water, Food/soil, Light and agree that light source seems to be the culprit.. Id expiriment suplimenting with a couple extra omni directional LED Bulbs in spring loaded clamp on reflector hoods in the mean time while saving up for that Mars.. The bulbs are around $18.00 a pop and bright as hell.. If you get a noticeable increase in yield you've identified the problem and validate the upgrade..
GT Industrial 5000 Lumen E26 High LED Light Bulb
$17.99*

 

[RandyMarshT]

I like Pbass's outlook.. Plants need 3 things to be right.. Water, Food/soil, Light and agree that light source seems to be the culprit.. Id expiriment suplimenting with a couple extra omni directional LED Bulbs in spring loaded clamp on reflector hoods in the mean time while saving up for that Mars.. The bulbs are around $18.00 a pop and bright as hell.. If you get a noticeable increase in yield you've identified the problem and validate the upgrade..
GT Industrial 5000 Lumen E26 High LED Light Bulb
$17.99*

I really appreciate the input! I finally bought a Mars light and I think that was definitely the culprit! The three girls I have left that are finishing flower love it!

 

[RandyMarshT]

How goes the progress for your grow? Have you started a grow journal yet?

The grow is progressing very well! I'm starting to see some really good bud structure that I can be proud of. I have not started a grow journal even though I know I would benefit from using one. Tbh I've never taken the understand all the information I need to have for a grow journal.

As of right now what I'm working on understanding how long to grow my plants. For instance I have grown all autoflowers that have 60 day flowering times. Does that mean it'll be 60 days before they reach flower or does that mean they flower for 60 days or the plant will be ready to harvest 60 days from seed. I have heard so many different things that idk what to believe but I can tell you one thing. The 5 plants I've harvested so far definitely took longer than 60 days and the 3 I have growing right now are looking like they will as well

 

[The Phantom]

Generally autoflowering plants will be labeled as seed to harvest in xx days because with autos the entire grow time is set by the plants genetics and the amount of days are known by the seed producers. Photo seeds on the other hand are generally listed as xx days flowering time as referencing the number of days from the time the plants are flipped to the time of harvest, strictly the number of flowering days. This does not include the vegetative time of the plant under goes since each grower has their own preference on how long they will keep their plants in a vegetative grow state before flipping them to flower.

Clear as mud?

In your case do you keep them on 18/6 or similar lighting the entire grow? When you say take longer, how many days longer are we talking? It wouldn’t surprise me if a seed producer skews the truth about their product by using the fastest growing/largest growing plant from their strain to use as an unrealistic example of the entire seed strain they produced.

 

[Anthony Suszko]

Generally autoflowering plants will be labeled as seed to harvest in xx days because with autos the entire grow time is set by the plants genetics and the amount of days are known by the seed producers. Photo seeds on the other hand are generally listed as xx days flowering time as referencing the number of days from the time the plants are flipped to the time of harvest, strictly the number of flowering days. This does not include the vegetative time of the plant under goes since each grower has their own preference on how long they will keep their plants in a vegetative grow state before flipping them to flower.

Clear as mud?

In your case do you keep them on 18/6 or similar lighting the entire grow? When you say take longer, how many days longer are we talking? It wouldn’t surprise me if a seed producer skews the truth about their product by using the fastest growing/largest growing plant from their strain to use as an unrealistic example of the entire seed strain they produced.

In Laymans terms as I understand Auto flower like you said to have a genetic clock inside the seed flipping the switch into the flowering time on its own, not dependent on sunlight conditions verses just Feminized where the grower needs to make those decisions if the plant needs more veg time or is ready to go into flower 12/12 flip.. I'm using the 6-7 weeks Veg, and 7 week Flowering period as a suggested guideline but know three are other visual indicators, also Hydro growers are going to have faster or closer timelines to suggested parameters. Light and nutrients also play a big part in how slow or fast the plant develops.. I've noticed theres a smaller selection of Auto-Fem seeds in catalogs, and full or larger selection if choosing to go with just feminized.

 

[The Phantom]

Anthony, absolutely correct, most auto growers will keep their plants on 18/6 (some 20/4) light all throughout the grow to harvest and the plants will automatically start flower after a certain time period. Some people here theorize this amount of time is based on when the taproot hits the bottom the the pot. They believe this signals the plant to go from vegetative growth to flowering.

Photoperiod plants will need the grower to switch from the 18/6 lighting to 12/12 in order to “activate” the plant into flowering, just like nature intended. Unless they are planting outdoors in which case the season (12/13 hours darkness) will dictate when the plant starts to flower.

 

[Anthony Suszko]

Anthony, absolutely correct, most auto growers will keep their plants on 18/6 (some 20/4) light all throughout the grow to harvest and the plants will automatically start flower after a certain time period. Some people here theorize this amount of time is based on when the taproot hits the bottom the the pot. They believe this signals the plant to go from vegetative growth to flowering.

Photoperiod plants will need the grower to switch from the 18/6 lighting to 12/12 in order to “activate” the plant into flowering, just like nature intended. Unless they are planting outdoors in which case the season (12/13 hours darkness) will dictate when the plant starts to flower.

Dude / Phantom your knowledge on this shit rocks .. love reading your insights..

 

[The Phantom]

Ha thanks. I’ve actually just did a bit of research of auto flowering plants a few months back as a friend is growing some and last month I ended up with some freebie auto seeds from Seedsman that I’m currently growing in my Ginger Punch Auto grow. After I planted the seed I went off the deep end Memorial weekend, after a few drinks and way too much smoke, with a few hundred in auto seeds from Seedsman. I’m by far an expert but definitely done the research.

 

[Zeus2000]

What do you think of my ladies flowers?

They look really good

 

[Oz3]

Hello I have 7 autoflowers growing right now and have harvested and smoked 1 plant so far! My first plant that I harvested was afghan mass and it yielded 19.8 grams. I was pretty dissapointed with this yield (I know I'm still learning so the yield was to be expected) but this is the main reason I joined the forum to help grow healthier larger plants! I currently have an lsd and northern lights in flower only a few weeks from harvest and the closest next set is a caramel cream and sweet soma they went into flower alittle over a week ago.

They are planted in 3 gallons pots (I think that's part of the yield problem) in Coco loco potting mix by foxfarms using down to earth organic nutrients 4-4-4 and 4-8-4. I am pH-ing the water and have started to pay attention to over watering, I believe that could be a problem as well, but I am not using reverse osmosis on the water.

The plants were moved to a new environment in the past month to remove the smell from the house. The environment before was perfect but this one has some flaws. They are in an uninsulated 11x22 basement right now and is the only thing down there but I am planning on doing alot of the work to the room in the near future to turn into a full size grow environment. The temp is consistent between 64-71° and humidity is in the higher range of 70-80% I am monitoring for bud rought and have a dehumidifier on the way. So all flaws should be fixed soon.

The light that I am using is a sunraise 1000W LED that is rated at 165w draw from the wall. I know that I was alittle ambitious with how many plants I have with such a small and underpowered light. I have realized that I made a mistake and have stopped planting until the girls finish. I am also planning on buying a Mars hydro tsw2000 hoping that it's at a good price and can add more lights to the grow as I start to expand. Is this a good budget light that scales well? Or should I go with the Mars hydro 300 and spend the extra money.

Thanks in advance for all of your help!

Get the mats!!! Your buds will dense up!

 

[Oz3]

Do you re-use your soil? The cost of soil is really what spikes my interest in hydroponics (I heard yield is also better)

You don't reuse soil. And if you haven't grower a lot you might want to make sure you know what your getting into. Hydro is a little more advanced

 

[RandyMarshT]

Generally autoflowering plants will be labeled as seed to harvest in xx days because with autos the entire grow time is set by the plants genetics and the amount of days are known by the seed producers. Photo seeds on the other hand are generally listed as xx days flowering time as referencing the number of days from the time the plants are flipped to the time of harvest, strictly the number of flowering days. This does not include the vegetative time of the plant under goes since each grower has their own preference on how long they will keep their plants in a vegetative grow state before flipping them to flower.

Clear as mud?

In your case do you keep them on 18/6 or similar lighting the entire grow? When you say take longer, how many days longer are we talking? It wouldn’t surprise me if a seed producer skews the truth about their product by using the fastest growing/largest growing plant from their strain to use as an unrealistic example of the entire seed strain they produced.

I am using a 18/6 light schedule and my girls were cut down and we're flipped to dry around the 75 or 80 day mark. According to the breeder they're 60 day autoflowers

 

[The Phantom]

Perhaps they do not include the germination and seedling phase which would be about 2 weeks? This would still leave them off somewhere on the count. Sometimes it’s a pain in the A trying to figure out when breeders start counting days. Ever think about trying to contact the breeder directly and telling them this? I find myself calling companies a lot now to just give input on a product, good or bad, and sometimes I get free stuff or a discount as a thank you for providing feedback. Most companies want to hear what their customers think of their products but don’t get the feedback so they go unaware of things like this. They may just come back and say that they count days starting at the first set of true leaves, blah, blah, blah, or could say hey we’re sorry these didn’t perform as advertised here’s some freebies to give a try. If they tell you to piss off, well I think you know what to do with your business.