First grow - auto 60 grapefruit

Day 8 Getting slight leaf curl but solid green and good daily growth, not sure what the slight curl is and my first pH meter sucked ass so getting a new digi one, then again organic soil so should really matter too much...I hope!

Two weeks since sprouting. Apart from slightly burning her first 2 leaves (pic 4) from a combination of misting and the light being too close about a week ago, she seems to be doing pretty well, and the 2 damaged leaves seem to be doing alright with some modest growth there too. Shes in about 50% organic soil and I'm not watering to much flush (probably 5% or so). Soil bag says enough nutes for 5-6 weeks but shes only in 50% soil and 50% non nutritional so going to get her a tiny 0.5ml / L of biobizz grow in the next week or so and keep it organic. Apart from my oversized and slightly temperamental humidifier and the CFL which is clearly too heavy for the reflector, I think I'm doing alright for a first timer. Thoughts or suggestions anyone?

So, found a couple of yellow bits on my leaves a couple days ago which I thought was a nute deficiency so I gave her her first nute drink which didnt go down badly. Then I found a few fungus gnats over the last week, maybe 10 in all which were promptly squashed, from reading it seems like they come from overwatering and can be in your soil at purchase which is a bit of a bummer (and munching larvae can present nute deficiency synptoms). I didnt think i was overwstering as I felt quite tight on liquid for the size of the pot and always had some run-off with about 1L a week. Then again, rookie error #1 eh? Letting her dry out a few days now and will be adding some peroxide 3% @ 1:4 with water to get rid of the gnats, will add some nutes to that too for her second proper feed, hoping the root O2 boost from the peroxide and some nutes will do her some good. Started LST which seems to be going alright even if its a bit fiddly, not sure if im over doing it but ive spread her wide and got a few nice budsites appearing so dont think I'm doing her any harm and everything seems to be growing happy. Just need to make sure I'm feeding & watering her right now as shes growing a LOT at the moment, seems to be related to LST but I could be wrong, coupled with the fungus gnats and a need for nutes its a balance i'm gonna have to establish quickly this coming week. Was hoping to do this one organic but since finding the fungus gnats pretty sure the peroxide is going to ruin my organic soil cultures so will be sticking with mineral nutes at 1/4 - 1/2 dose for this one now. Going mineral nutes as im under the impression organic nutes wont do much after I peroxide the soil. She hit preflower too which I'm not sad about, looking forward to some mega growth this next couple of weeks :) Thoughts and suggestions anyone?

Well, true week 3 of veg today - week 1 on diary was actually germ / seedling of about 6 days old. I think Fungus gnats gave me some root damage (as seen by the random yellowing bits, dont think thisnis a nute issue as shes being fed unless shes a really hungry girl) so I got nematodes SF and the number of adults has dropped with thanks to some yellow stickies. Diatomaceous earth has turned up today so going to give her a dusting shortly to nip these gnats in the bud. Gave her a nice drink of Grow, Bloom & CalMag and she seems to have liked it very much - her leaves and colour perked right up after the few odd yellow spots around which I am assuming was fungus gnat larvae damage - I slowed down even further on the water which she doesnt seem to mind even though I was following the let her dry rules - maybe she likes it drier than imI thought even though I was o ly giving her about 1L/wk in a big 11L pot Either way, daily growth remains noticeable even if she may habe stunted a bit with the gnat larvae giving her roots a munch and she seems to be responding well to the LST but i definitely need to clean up my technique with future grows, bit all over the show I think! Swapping out this CFL for a Mars Hydro TS600 this week so we will see if she does any better under that, not sure if these jumbo CFLs are a bit of a fad - shouldda done more reasearch before taking the plunge. Looking forward to a lower energy bill too!

Well, got rid of the fungus gnats within a couple of days, DE top dressing and nematodes clered them up in a couple of days but the damage was done, pretty sure they came in the bag soil as Ive been pretty anal about keeping nasties away. Going alright but she's no where near as big as I was hoping although she does seem to be getting a stretch on now shes started flowering. New light never showed up thanks to a useless seller so not sure if my Mars Hydro will be here to max her out before harvest although I am going straight to them directly once the refund clears, definitely not keen on the CFL - shouldda done a bit more research and spent an extra $50. Got what I believe to be a nitrogen def which does not seem to be clearing even though I'm increasing nutes every water, I read about foliar feed and the community seems divided abiut foliar feed when theh start flowering. I'm not disheartened that I'm expecting a small harvest, joining an encouraging community is definitely setting me up to succeed - already planning my next grow (thinking biobizz lightmix and advanced nutes under the new LED) and going to check out fast buds rather than this unknown seed which I got cause I wanted a lil something to grow fast enough to take on a holiday next month, it will be a little something, but better than nothing. As ever, any tips and advice gratefully welcomed! See you next week!

She had a bit if a growth spurt this last week and I think I finally figured out the watering technique - I took to spraying with the bottle you can see over a period of say 10 minutes and it seems to have picked her right up whereas before I was just chucking some water in there. I can't believe it made such a difference but it changed the game over night. I had a good read of 2 watering guides on 420mag written by a user called Emilya and watched the Jorge Cervantes dvd and I definitely learned a thing or two. Nice colour improvement, I did lose a couple of leaves which I thinks was a cross between the fungus gnats and a poor watering technique giving me some deficiencies as the water & nutes was basically just finding the quickest way out of the pot rather than actually getting drawn into the soil and feeding the roots. Her lil buds are chunking up and even though I'm not expecting a mega harvest I'm definitely happy with my first attempt, steep learning curve but I'll be going for better soil, better light and stronger genetics next time (Auto Mazar I think). New light should be here tomorrow - Mars Hydro TS600 so I'm looking forward to finishing her off under that for her last few weeks, hoping she gets a bit of a boost from a better light. As ever, tips and tricks appreciated! See you next week.

Week 7 now... Definitely some deficiencies accumulating even though I've been upping the feeds...pH problem related maybe, or slow drying substrate in that plastic pot? I've not been buffering (went into this a bit blind to be honest) but the runoff and dipstick are saying that the pH is alright around 6.3-6.5 Shes small, but she smells good and she's slowly getting a bit fatter where it matters. Already planning my next grow but at the 'err, which nutes do I go for?' stage. Not much else to report. See ya next week!

Well, interesting week. Gave her a 5ml feed with Plagron bloom which I was alternating with a clean water feed and err...she seemed to hate one feed I gave her even though the concentration was the same as before and I'd been watering to runoff as it's a synthetic nute so she got a bit burned! Following the burn I gave her a bit of a gradual flush and she's since defoliated herself of some fan leaves. Won't be feeding her with nutes again. She's definitely chunked up since replacing the CFL with the Mars Hydro, thats for sure. Starting to smell really nice too. Starting to see some pistils brown off so she may yet be ready for the chop come end of next week when I go on holiday...hopefully. See ya next week!

Well. She's coming down tonight she looks like she could do with another weekish but I'm gonna be away for two weeks so I can't leave her unattended for so long and defo cant trust the neighbours with this. It's been a blast. I've learned a lot. I can not thank the community enough for your kindness and words of wisdom throughout this first indoor grow. I never thought I would read so much about gardening in such a short space of time, nor did I realise that there are so many specific details to attend to - temperatures, humidity, soil amendments & watering habits, pests (not forgetting my minor fungus gnat attack - the nematodes and DE got well rid of them), even a little bit of nute burn in the final stretch. Thanks for being such a great community and seeing me through it all, I'm much more prepared for my next grow, and I'm looking forward to growing with you all long into the future! Thanks and Praise to all. PS. If you smell some nice stinky bud on the beach the next couple of weeks, it could well be me, MrStinky! 😁

Well, I was definitely timid with the nutrients after my initial autoflower research. I will have made some newb mistakes I'm sure but for my first indoor I cannot complain at all. Shame she didn't get bigger (in this hobby I am certain the size matters) but I'll put that down to being a rookie and underfeeding along with crappy soil which appeared to have come with a few different pests pre-loaded (lol). This indoor stuff is much more complex than growing in the desert in sheepmuck and all due credit and respect to all the closet-monster growers out there, I'll get there, one day. The scales saying 23g but they havent been calibrated in a looong time (struggled to even find a battery) and I'm hoping maybe 10-12g (ish) when its dry... if I'm lucky - I've seen a lot of dried bud so don't think my estimate will be a million miles off ;) Had to chop her slightly early cause I'm going on holiday and just can't leave unattended for so long - seed packet said 60 days, she's had 64 or so, but I think about another week would have been perfect. Already looking forward to my next grow, see you in a few weeks for the 2nd adventure of MrStinky!