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Grow Making do with what I have pt 1

The airpots need a slow watering, I found. I've fed a gallon of water as fast as I could and had water coming out the sides, but if you go a bit slower with the flow it'll soak in better and drench the pot with the majority of runoff coming out the bottom. That doesn't surprise me on the roots going through the fabric pots into the ground. These air pots promote light/root pruning when they reach the outside of the pot and make contact with air or light. It's supposed to promote more root growth.

I'm still on the fence if I like these air pots more than standard pots. I do like how easy they are to fold up and put away lol
 
QUOTE="psychonaut, post: 30429, member: 188"]The airpots need a slow watering[/QUOTE]

Good point! I used a twostep process, wetting soil on first pass, then a second drench a few minutes later.

I wound up with a spare 40 gallon pressure tank, and in the spirit of using what i have I'm looking at ways to connect it to an auto watering system similar to one posted a few days ago (link below), but going to try making one instead.

https://www.blumat.com/index.php/classic/uber-classic

Edit - the stakes are easy to find. Thanks to OP for sharing :wave: Maybe these will work in the 45 gallon planters, which are currently in highdea format, awaiting fabrication...

- https://www.amazon.ca/Blumat-Wateri...ing+system&dpPl=1&dpID=41mCruwZFJL&ref=plSrch
 
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Killick said:
I wound up with a spare 40 gallon pressure tank, and in the spirit of using what i have I'm looking at ways to connect it to an auto watering system similar to one posted a few days ago (link below), but going to try making one instead.
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Highly recommend Blumats, but suggest buying them from Sustainable Village. Steve Troy is an old-time cannabis grower and provides great support and advice.
 
@Disrupt I always appreciate a good vendor, but try to group my US purchases into as few trips as possible, because some of your border guys are decidedly grumpy.

Ps - I'm close to one of your borders. I'll let you guess which one :)

Pps - i *almost* tagged you as the OP on the watering system, but couldn't find the post on my own. It was your One Plant thread, which is both timely and brilliant. Thanks for sharing your adventure and advice!

Ppps - the same Thanks could also go to @psychonaut for this thread. I'm a big fan of build instead of buy. It's like growing instead of buying. Having said that, those ceramic plant spikes look like a cost effective purchase tho...
 
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I have some of those ceramic plant spikes except they hold 2L bottles for feeding. Havent used them yet but may give them a test run on some tomato plants outside.

@Killick I'm trying not to buy anything this time, but I had no choice with my lights and the nutrient change, I think was a bonus, as I had some lockouts last time and even though I had a nice harvest. I wanna make sure these buds are grown as close to perfect as I can get. So far I've only had to buy nutrients and replacement LED's, the most expensive parts =/

Oh, I also bought this hand siphon to empty my DTW reservoir below the plastic shelving, much easier than sliding it out and emptying it.

I have some plastic tomato cages I may use this time, trying to decide if I wanna build a PVC scrog net and trellis, or just cage them.

I don't plan on topping or cropping these autoflowers. I do hope to do some LST though but wanna grow these natural so I can see how they do. My last couple of autos had nice tall side branching with quite a lot of tops so hoping these will behave the same. I may not even need a trellis or caging, we'll see how the buds swell up and start flopping over?
 
PH perfect nutrients are certainly not PH adjusting of my well water. Added in 1/2 strength dose of nutrients per the recommendation, water is now 7.1 PH. It only dropped 0.1. I then added in another half strength, dropped another 0.1. PH was too high so added in 5ml of PH down, now sitting at 5.9 PH.

My well water is around 300 ppm, quite high. The nutrients levels just dont adjust this PH good enough, so I suppose I will be back to PH'ing my water prior to feeding. These nutrients are a lot like the floranova line, chelated where they are apparently able to be taken up by the plant even at higher PH's. I'm not onboard with that completely, I've seen some people growing with the PH Perfect Sensi Coco line and I saw what looked like nutrient lockouts marked on the leaves. For now, I'm going to maintain a healthy % of runoff and watch for issues then adjust the feeding. I think I'll also need to start checking my EC since my well water's so hard, make sure I'm not pushing EC too and create my own lockouts.
 
The root-ball in the 5 gallon air-pot. Could probably use a smaller pot.

full
 
3 gallons looks to be the right size, nice root ball there @Disrupt :thumbsup: Though I dunno, maybe my eyes are deceiving but that looks pretty dense.

So Mars hydro is still not sent me my tracking number, the seedlings are in need of a larger light now so the 100W T5 fixture was replaced with my 600W MH. Have the balast at 100%, and the light about 34" above the tops with between 6000-6500 lux reading.

I may just run this MH through veg and flip it to LED for bloom, I really don't wanna stress the plants but maybe as long as I keep the spectrum and lux the same range it should be fine?

For now exhausting the heat into the house for added warmth :lol:

Have an 8" intake and 8" exhaust.

whRoUMM.jpg
 
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The number of pumps this thing took to fill a 5 gallon bucket was far too many to count, and quite a chore. I guess if you're super cheap it'll get you by, it took about 5 mins to fill. I think I'll look for a larger siphon down the road after this gets a good run. I had about 3 feedings worth of waste water in the trays, so if I just keep up with it it'll likely be an easy chore.

9BU0qlO.jpg


On my last feeding, I dropped the nutes back down to half strength, PH'd the water to 6.0 prior to adding the ph perfect sensi coco 2 parts, the final PH after nutes were added was 5.8. Getting about 25% runoff right now, gonna keep that going. Ambient temps at the pot is 68F, RH is 58%. First set of fan leafs have started. So far the Auto Blueberry had the most stretch out of the seedlings, the Auto Daiquiri Lime's had the least. Possibly due to a difference in light while under the small 100W T5 lamp designed for 2x2' space.

On another note, the 2x2' tent is going up with the 100W T5 to start some cilantro, basil, flat leaf parsley and marigolds. Hope to have that done sometime today or tomorrow. Starting in light warrior, will be feeding organically with ocean forest soil and happy frog fruit and flower fertilizer.
 
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I've been a little ashamed of my seedlings the past week so didn't get any pictures, it seems like the Auto Daiquiri Lime's have either been drowning a little bit from the watering, or have too much nutrients. They both haven't been perky all week, IDK what it is I am using half strength nutrients now on week 3 dosage. So far the seedlings don't seem to be too far off in growth from what I've seen on grow journals.

Anyhow, here's where they are at.

L-R (front)
Auto Orange Bud, Auto Daiquiri Lime x2
L-R (back)
Auto Skunk #1 x2, Auto Blueberry
xXMKbRt.jpg


Sad looking Auto Daiquiri Lime
WIh5aql.jpg

7P0MedA.jpg


Most healthy looking, Auto Blueberry
kKVopwd.jpg

ZTmUzdO.jpg


Auto Orange Bud
cOZQVha.jpg


Auto Skunk #1
9QkmiI2.jpg


Been feeding 2/3 a gallon of 1/2 str nutrient water per 3ga pot. Runoff is very good. Watering every other day at the moment, allowing the pot to dry a little and promote the roots searching for moisture.

They are about to start exploding with growth now, 18/6 with 600W MH balast on 100%, about 28" above the plants. RH is very low, 30's, temps haven't got over 78F.
 
psychonaut said:
RH is very low, 30's
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The RH is very low indeed for this stage. Before the roots develop, seedlings need to absorb water through their leaves. They're probably taking in as much as they can through their roots but losing it to the punishingly dry environment, resulting in wilting. If you don't have a humidifier, you could try covering them with large plastic humidity domes.
 
Disrupt said:
The RH is very low indeed for this stage. Before the roots develop, seedlings need to absorb water through their leaves. They're probably taking in as much as they can through their roots but losing it to the punishingly dry environment, resulting in wilting. If you don't have a humidifier, you could try covering them with large plastic humidity domes.
Click to expand...

I have a spray bottle, I think I'll mix up some really light nutrient water to spray on the foliage. I should have done that sooner, just hope I didn't stunt their growth much =/ Autos really gotta be tended to properly from start to finish due to their bloom. Really hoping they get another week or two vegging before pre-flowering.
 
I will sit trays/buckets filled with water in with the plants and spray the walls of the grow room with water to get the RH higher when first transplanting clones\seedlings from my humidity controlled cloning tent. As said 30% is way too low for babies.:thumbsup:
 
Thanks everyone for your expertise, indeed, the punishing RH were being cruel to my babies =( I started misting them with really light nutrient water, like 0.2ml of part A & B per 300ml of tap for foliar. They have perked up some, the wilted leaves still look sad, but the new growth looks lush and green. The side branches are starting to form, and I expect by the end of the week they'll be baby bushes.

I am going to invest in some 12" domes or so, to help the babies with extra humidity in my next run. For this go, I am just hoping there wasn't much stress and stunting, the stalk is starting to get wider so I believe the roots should be drinking more now.

JTzpLyd.jpg
 
NP @Kurtdigglur I have a fairly harsh environment where I am so there are generally struggles at different parts of the year that I have to make accommodations for. This year I failed to keep the RH level in the right range, a problem we don't have to the same degree during the summer where it rains more regularly during our monsoon season. I'm still learning too! Thankfully the mistakes are happening less compared to the first grows.

Autos are fun as they have their own schedule and you can keep the lights on 24/0 if you want. I am not a huge fan of the lack of resin compared to photo period plants, but IMO it's all worth understanding and experimenting.

There are some autos out there that are as potent as photos, but I dont think we'll see many auto strains, if any, reach 25%+

One that I plan on growing again is Nirvana Swiss Cheese Auto, I yielded about 2.5oz of dried flower from 1 plant. Highly recommended if you wanna try out an auto. It's an Indica dominant but TBH, it feels very uplifting. I can use it all day long and I normally medicate with sativa dominants.
 
Kurtdigglur said:
Thanks for the link. I was thinking about ordering from Nirvana or Ilovegrowing. How is the shopping experience with Nirvana? I guess it would come down to strains available too.
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I've never used them, I am loyal to seedsman.com due to their selection and customer service. In fact that swiss cheese auto bean was a freebie from an order, I had very little expectations but that strain I'd put up against my white widow photo as far as effects go.
 
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