Hi Jon! I'm just skimming to catch up but it looks like you are rapidly mastering your skills. I'm so impressed and you should give yourself a big pat on the back. I can't believe the colors on the Ghost Haze! When I saw the bee I thought the same thing, hope it's not carrying pollen but hopefully it's too far along for any harm even if it was.
Sorry to be awol, busy times here playing nurse for the gf. We were supposed to go to Vegas this weekend as a reward for all her pain and suffering but instead she's having back surgery on Monday so we aren't going anywhere.
I've also not been around because my grow was so depressing. Out of 7 plants 4 were total crap, 1 was ok and the last 2 ended up a solid B but with much room for improvement. My last auto went 14 weeks of flower with no amber. I finally just chopped it and it's pretty good but not great. Last was the only photo I grew, I chopped it at 65 days with almost no amber showing but it's a bit better than any of the autos, and it's the only one that was actually dank and pretty sticky. To steal from U2 I still haven't found what I'm looking for.
Most frustrating of all is I'm still not sure about my lights. Thanks to your advice I replaced the Bestva 10w led's with the viparspectra's. I believe the 10w's really damaged the buds. The last 2 (and best) plants in my grow spent the least amount of time under them. I also supplemented the new lights with a few 9w GE red led bulbs towards the end of flower when I wasn't seeing any amber. At least I'm now confident the new lights won't hurt the plants. I hope so, I've now dropped around $700 on lights and really don't want to spend any more. I'm hoping worst case I'll just need some better red lights. (you warned me the red spectrum on the vipars looked deficient).
Since the Vegas trip is off I'm gonna try again. A small grow of 3 autos - Gelato, Zkittles & Wedding Cake. I don't think I've ever had any of them.
This finally brings me to my question, were you happy with the sohum soil? I have a whole lot of your journal to go through but was hoping you'd summarize your thoughts for me. The GF will have to look after things for a week when I'm away for Xmas, so things need to be as simple as possible. Like just add ph'd water and calmag if needed.
There's no way she'd be able to mix conventional nutes like I did last grow.
Thanks my friend, take care and keep up the great growing!
Yo BK909, good to hear from you. Sorry about Vegas. Hope the girl is okay with the back surgery. You're a good man, Charlie Brown. Way to take care of those you love.
First, I wouldn't worry too much about your lights at this point. The VSs with those reds you have will do just fine. Especially for three autos, it's perfect. If it were me, I would engage those red bulbs the first day you start to see actual buds, and run them both and the VSs the entirety of flower. You will most likely get significantly more resin and terpenes that way.
I have a Gelato auto now I'm almost ready to harvest, she and the others are on Day 67. The Gelato is very productive and largish auto. She's stinky. Dense buds. Good solid plant that eats more calmag than most, so watch that with her. I also have a Zkittlez auto growing now, in a 7, outdoors. (it's Gorilla Zkittlez, but same thing). Also a largish plant with dense, super sweet tasting, fruity buds that get super colorful and make big, indica-like colas. You will LOVE the Zkittlez, and it's a high THC auto too. My first one came out okay, it was my first ever auto. This one is crushing life in the Sohum and outdoors. Can't speak yet to Wedding Cake, it's on the list.
Which brings me to Sohum. YES, USE IT. It's amazing for autos. Photos too, my Slurricane is in Sohum. But the autos do exceptionally well in it. And it couldn't be easier. Just water at 6.3 ph. That's it. They'll stay green the whole grow, get very frosty, and grow at a great rate. They'll also stink in Sohum and be very tasty. I just harvested two Sour Apples recently, one was the outdoor spent soil one and the other in Sohum. The Sohum plant tasted much better. No nutes. Just an occasional cal mag shot. I just read the plants with the calmag. If they need it, give it. If they don't, don't. It's easy to tell, you will see yellowing and not as green as the leaves should be, maybe with some spotting that looks like rust kind of. But that's it. I give a few "boosts" which I can suggest and help you with when the time comes if you like, but they're not necessary, the Sohum will do just fine.
Your other SUPER EASY option is to go GeoFlora. That's painfully easy too, just top dress the soil every two weeks and keep them watered at 6.3. The Geo nutes are amazing and I'm sold for life on them already, check out my two big outdoor photos in bud, they're both in FF soil with Geo nutes. SO EASY.
Either of those will give you amazing results compared to what you described in this last try.
One thing, and this is very important - You can NOT plant your seedlings into straight Sohum. You have to use a system that's super easy where you use a regular soil/Sohum blend up top, straight Sohum on the bottom, and a cylinder of regular soil down the center of the pot. I got it off of an experienced grower on youtube after watching about a dozen different videos on ways around the not planting directly in the Sohum thing. I've used it since and it works amazingly well. I can also coach/talk/guide you through that if you like, and there's also a demo of it in the very beginning of the journal somewhere.
So I hope that answers your questions and is somewhat helpful. I'm here if there's anything I can help you with, and don't forget that almost everyone (the few, lol) who you see commenting on my stuff is someone who dwarfs me as a grower, and you might benefit a lot from checking out some of these guy's magic too.