Winging It In Winter By The Window: Soil Auto Grow

[Carmen Ray]

Cool. I wasn't suggesting you had any issues, I was just wondering about it. Sohum needs the extra perlite, for example, in my opinion, or it binds up a bit.

I do have issues with both plants at the moment and both are to do with my lack of experience with watering cannabis potted in soil. I over-stressed the bigger plant yesterday and may have unwittingly starved her of water. I hope I haven't drowned her today. The seedling is looking like I have over watered it. I'm in despair today.

 

[InTheShed]

If you can see roots then you haven't overwatered it as long as it drains well out of the holes in the bottom.

 

[Carmen Ray]

If you can see roots then you haven't overwatered it as long as it drains well out of the holes in the bottom.

Thank you Shed. I can see roots and the cup has good drainage. I tried the paper towel solution and there was no excess moisture at all, which leads me to wonder if there really is enough water for the plant. It is a week old. It looks crisp in places. When I compared two same cups, one with dry soil and the one with the seedling, the seedling weighed 100g more than the cup of dry soil.

 

[InTheShed]

When I saw roots I was giving my solo cups about 350-400ml at a time down the sides in well-draining ProMix HP.

 

[Carmen Ray]

When I saw roots I was giving my solo cups about 350-400ml at a time down the sides in well-draining ProMix HP.

That is feels like a lot but there would be a difference between soil and ProMix HP wouldn't there? I just started syringing in water and the medium had been dry. I could see the difference immediately. I've watered down the sides and then a squirt down the middle. I think in my effort not to over water I may have dehydrated the seedling. Thanks Shed.

 

[InTheShed]

Soil is denser than ProMix, but I don't know by how much. And I never water down the middle since capillary action will eventually distribute the water evenly without getting water anywhere near the stem.

I also never spray since that's wetting the top where there are no roots and won't be for weeks.

 

[TorturedSoul]

TS this is the medium below. It took the water which I poured gradually in circles until there was a run off. It's winter so the sun doesn't really heat the spot up. It only shines on the plants for a couple of hours in the late afternoon.

While I did have a bit of a chuckle about cannabis-specific soil (and the thought of farmers hauling in many dump truck loads of tomato-specific soil, potato-specific soil, squash-specific soil, cabbage-specific...), it does seem like it's probably better than most (all?) of the soil products I've used, when I did soil grows instead of hydroponics. I don't have much (successful) experience at feeding anything other than the plants, unless you want to count the populations of red spider mites that I've successfully raised upon occasion. That whole "feed the microbial life, so that it can defecate out plant food" is, to me, not magic - but still somewhat beyond my ken, lol.

 

[Jon]

Carmen, here's the best idea to help you I can think of, and I think I've mentioned it before. Find a Dixie cup that is 100% dry. Weigh it. Mark that down. Dry weight = X. Now water it. Let the extra run off, and when it's done running off, weigh it again. Mark that down. Wet weight = Y. Now, don't water again until the DIxie cup is back to weighing X. That takes all the when to water guesswork out of it, and was one of @Emilya's very original suggestions to me when I was trying to get the hang of it and having a similar quandry to you. You'll be okay, man, don't stress. Right now your very worst case scenario is you begin new seedlings. WORST case. Big deal, you can live with that, right? But I think if you can get comfortable with watering you'll be able to save these.

 

[Carmen Ray]

While I did have a bit of a chuckle about cannabis-specific soil (and the thought of farmers hauling in many dump truck loads of tomato-specific soil, potato-specific soil, squash-specific soil, cabbage-specific...), it does seem like it's probably better than most (all?) of the soil products I've used, when I did soil grows instead of hydroponics. I don't have much (successful) experience at feeding anything other than the plants, unless you want to count the populations of red spider mites that I've successfully raised upon occasion. That whole "feed the microbial life, so that it can defecate out plant food" is, to me, not magic - but still somewhat beyond my ken, lol.

Lol! Cool, so you grow in hydro. What medium do you use TS? I chose the soil grow because I think it is should be easier for me than hydro, with it pre-mixed and all I have to do is add water (rofl). I grew in coco-perlite previously and I liked that I'd do it again.

Carmen, here's the best idea to help you I can think of, and I think I've mentioned it before. Find a Dixie cup that is 100% dry. Weigh it. Mark that down. Dry weight = X. Now water it. Let the extra run off, and when it's done running off, weigh it again. Mark that down. Wet weight = Y. Now, don't water again until the DIxie cup is back to weighing X. That takes all the when to water guesswork out of it, and was one of @Emilya's very original suggestions to me when I was trying to get the hang of it and having a similar quandry to you. You'll be okay, man, don't stress. Right now your very worst case scenario is you begin new seedlings. WORST case. Big deal, you can live with that, right? But I think if you can get comfortable with watering you'll be able to save these.

Thank you for reminding me. I weighed a dry cup against the cup with the seedling which wasn't the right way to go about it. My memory is so bad. I have made a note for myself to do this tomorrow morning. It's bed time now. Ta Jon

 

[TorturedSoul]

Lol! Cool, so you grow in hydro. What medium do you use TS? I chose the soil grow because I think it is should be easier for me than hydro, with it pre-mixed and all I have to do is add water (rofl). I grew in coco-perlite previously and I liked that I'd do it again.

At present, I am not even growing a sprig of parsley. My favorite grows were DWC hydroponics, maintaining enough dissolved oxygen in the nutrient solution (or at least trying to) that a mouse would find it difficult to drown in it, one plant per 20- to 25-gallon reservoir (often one plant per garden space), SCROG style, with a plant that had a good bit of sativa in its genetics. I don't know whether I'd be able find the patience - or the resources, really - to do it now, but it was fun. Frustrating, at times, when a shoot had gotten long enough to require moving to a different hole... realizing that the nearest free space was all the way over there, it was basically forming a loose three-dimensional cat's cradle knot with 100 other ones - and that this was the first of dozens that would need to be repositioned. Which, sort of described an average day, lol, after the plant got some size (and more limbs than a small forest, it felt like) on it. To do it halfway correctly, you either needed to be able to access the area from at least two opposite sides (all four was best), because you had to regularly get your arm pretty much everywhere under the screen - and a straight-line path was often not available.

But fun. That "WtF have I gotten myself into, and WHY AM I STILL STICKING WITH IT?!?" feeling goes away after your first SCROG harvest, when you have to saw through the main trunk below where the branching starts, unhook the screen from the walls, and get someone to help you carry it to the dining room table. Because, at that point, you know why .

Besides that, something simple, with inert media. Hand watered passive hydroponics with small onboard reservoirs and perlite (or a perlite mix) - aka "hempy" - works. You give up some of the advantage of actively-aerated hydroponics. But you can use just about anything that'll hold water for your containers, you can grow large plants in five-gallon (or larger) ones... or stick rooted clones into two-liter soda bottles, immediately flower them, and cram them in at four per square foot or so. The latter sort of makes keeping a mother (or two) a requirement, but that's just another house plant. Actually, I think I still have a link to an old soda bottle hempy journal, one that shows "simple" can still be productive. I'll just fetch it for you...

Come SOG With Me: 112 Plants, 2 Liter, Hempy SOG

Hello everyone, It's been a long time since I've ran a journal here. I just started a large SOG grow today so I've decided to journal it here for you. I have 3 Snow White(NLXCinderella99) mothers in my veg room along with a 50 site aero cloner. I just transplanted the first 16 rooted clones...

www.420magazine.com

 

[BubbaKush909]

Thanks for sharing that TS... wow, that's an enormous, record breaking bag of weed off one auto plant

Shed is a legend

Thanks Azi I followed your suggestion, and then I did the following...

Hi Boo, am I glad to see you! Thanks for the advice. I have now watered to run off and the bag feels very heavy. I will wait a few hours to see if she perks up or droops further. I hope it's the former I weighed the baby next to a dry cup and she weighs 100g more, so perhaps it is over-watering causing the issues with the baby. It's really hard to tell.

Welcome to my world Carmen. Sometimes it's so hard to tell what the right thing to do is with watering. We'll get there.

 

[Carmen Ray]

At present, I am not even growing a sprig of parsley. My favorite grows were DWC hydroponics, maintaining enough dissolved oxygen in the nutrient solution (or at least trying to) that a mouse would find it difficult to drown in it, one plant per 20- to 25-gallon reservoir (often one plant per garden space), SCROG style, with a plant that had a good bit of sativa in its genetics. I don't know whether I'd be able find the patience - or the resources, really - to do it now, but it was fun. Frustrating, at times, when a shoot had gotten long enough to require moving to a different hole... realizing that the nearest free space was all the way over there, it was basically forming a loose three-dimensional cat's cradle knot with 100 other ones - and that this was the first of dozens that would need to be repositioned. Which, sort of described an average day, lol, after the plant got some size (and more limbs than a small forest, it felt like) on it. To do it halfway correctly, you either needed to be able to access the area from at least two opposite sides (all four was best), because you had to regularly get your arm pretty much everywhere under the screen - and a straight-line path was often not available.

But fun. That "WtF have I gotten myself into, and WHY AM I STILL STICKING WITH IT?!?" feeling goes away after your first SCROG harvest, when you have to saw through the main trunk below where the branching starts, unhook the screen from the walls, and get someone to help you carry it to the dining room table. Because, at that point, you know why .

Besides that, something simple, with inert media. Hand watered passive hydroponics with small onboard reservoirs and perlite (or a perlite mix) - aka "hempy" - works. You give up some of the advantage of actively-aerated hydroponics. But you can use just about anything that'll hold water for your containers, you can grow large plants in five-gallon (or larger) ones... or stick rooted clones into two-liter soda bottles, immediately flower them, and cram them in at four per square foot or so. The latter sort of makes keeping a mother (or two) a requirement, but that's just another house plant. Actually, I think I still have a link to an old soda bottle hempy journal, one that shows "simple" can still be productive. I'll just fetch it for you...

Come SOG With Me: 112 Plants, 2 Liter, Hempy SOG

Hello everyone, It's been a long time since I've ran a journal here. I just started a large SOG grow today so I've decided to journal it here for you. I have 3 Snow White(NLXCinderella99) mothers in my veg room along with a 50 site aero cloner. I just transplanted the first 16 rooted clones...

www.420magazine.com

Scrogging sounds adventurous and I like the look of what Koolkat was doing there. It's all very interesting. So many different ways of growing great weed.

Welcome to my world Carmen. Sometimes it's so hard to tell what the right thing to do is with watering. We'll get there.

Hey BK thanks for the encouraging words. How are your plants getting along now?

 

[Carmen Ray]

Update on the condition of the flowering Caramel King and the Lavender Best Seedling
This seedling looks worse than yesterday. There is growth but the leaves look horrible.

CK is still droopy and small

I'm feeling pretty miserable. I am scared that I have damaged the seedling and it won't grow a decent plant, and afraid that the CK will not recover from my efforts to tame her. It's been 2 days already.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Scrogging sounds adventurous and I like the look of what Koolkat was doing there. It's all very interesting. So many different ways of growing great weed.

Hey BK thanks for the encouraging words. How are your plants getting along now?

Yeah, it's just a plant. When you force the top of a plant down, so that it is no longer the uppermost part, it promotes branching; it's basic light-seeking behavior that plants evolved many millions of years ago. As the entire SCROG concept is based on forcing the plant into a configuration that is basically a flat plane (until you're in the stretch portion of the flowering phase), you end up with branches that produce branches that produce branches that produce... well, you get the picture. I used to like 2" hole poultry netting, although it required some care when pulling the tips back down through their holes and positioning them up through more distant ones (to keep the overall height at just a tiny tip above the screen). There was no need to do so after the buds formed, so it was fine. And amounted to a LOT of holes to fill. In a perfect world, end up with a 6" to 8" bud sticking up through each and every one of them (although it was normal to have a few that didn't get filled, and better than not having enough holes). But it more or less required a longer growth phase than many people bother to produce, and one plant power screen was best, or else using clones from the same mother. That was, you could harvest the entire screen at the same time. Plus, it meant that the cannot height stayed even. While you were still training, of course, because the gardener's actions ensured it (meaning you installed your light above the screen and didn't have to raise it at all until the plant was in its flowering phase, you stopped training, and allowed its tips (bud sites) to begin growing upward. At that point, you started raising the light the minimum amount required to not bleach out the chlorophyll, and when the stretch ended, you - again - could stop moving the light source.

Other than it being almost a given that you'd be spending time in your garden each day, repositioning the tips, the only real issue was if you were growing in a DWC reservoir "of some size," because, well, you weren't going to pull the plant out of the garden, lol. Mine went into the big red plastic Solo cups, that had (if I'm remembering correctly) Geolite beans expanded clay media (aka "clay balls"). I put a many 1/4" holes in the side and bottom of the cup as was possible, so the roots could easily grow into the nutrient solution. Well before harvest, the plant usually destroyed its cup, lol. And my 23-gallon reservoir might only hold seven to ten gallons of solution by the time it was all said and done, with the remaining volume being a huge root system. Anyway, it was possible to pull the lid loose from the reservoir, and - carefully - slide the reservoir or from under the screen. It was a RPITA because of the root system because of all those roots, but could be done - the plant would just hang from the screen. I made sure to have one of those simple little hand-bulb siphon pumps that people buy for a couple dollars in order to transfer kerosene from the fuel can into a heater, which worked great. Or a hose could be used, if the reservoir was elevated and the drain receptacle was lower.

Yes, it was fun - and productive . A densely-pkanted SOG (with mother plants to supply clones when needed) would net more grams per watt per day, though, because it's all flowering time.

 

[TorturedSoul]

The second plant looks fine. I'd be doing some light bondage, however, unless you don't expect to have any free time on harvest day.

 

[Melville Hobbes]

I'd give them some time. Let them recover. It can take a while, especially in soil.

 

[InTheShed]

If your plants aren't turning out like you expected, don't get discouraged. You are venturing into completely new territory with new soil, pots, light, and flowering type. You surely know how to grow amazing photoperiod plants outside, so this is all just part of the learning curve.

I'm with Melville that you should give them time to settle in and then see how they look.

 

[Carmen Ray]

I'd be doing some light bondage

I think I went too heavy with the bondage too soon, and that's why the plant is drooping, or else I messed up the watering or both. If you look closely you'll see a couple of skewers with hooks on them, pulling down branches.

I'd give them some time. Let them recover. It can take a while, especially in soil.

Thank you Mel. I don't like seeing unhappy plants.

If your plants aren't turning out like you expected, don't get discouraged. You are venturing into completely new territory with new soil, pots, light, and flowering type. You surely know how to grow amazing photoperiod plants outside, so this is all just part of the learning curve.

I'm with Melville that you should give them time to settle in and then see how they look.

Shed, thank you for saying that. I so miss growing outside and it is not something I can do where I am. I have to get this right, even if I don't do any training until I am confident with autos. Maybe I need to dial back my enthusiasm... we'll see.

 

[Carcass]

I think the CK will probably straighten herself out, but like Mel & Shed said, stuff happens slowly in soil.

I am scared that I have damaged the seedling

I doubt if it's damaged- it takes more to hurt them than you'd think...
I would tend to err on the side of more water, as opposed to less water, though...I usually give my seedlings what seems like a little too much water, and they do ok.
She should still be living off the cotyledons, so those marks on her leaves (rusty spots) are a little distressing, but I'm not a good enough diagnostician to know why they're there ...hopefully, we can get her growing, then worry about those spots...they may even go away (or stop progressing) once she starts growing a bit...

 

[BubbaKush909]

Hi Carmen don't get discouraged! I've decided that autos require quite a bit of skill to grow well. I thought after growing clones in perlite for years I knew all I needed to know but that was a pipe dream. You only have a few weeks before flower, so to grow them well you need to have everything dialed in from day 1. It takes some doing, and we'll get there!