OK. First post. Got the tent set up two weeks ago. Mixed up my super soil mix (FFOF, Compost, Perlite, 4-8-4, and dolomite) via Cali green. Started soaking seeds...dam they all popped. 4 seeds cracked...put them in my manure based cups, and three went on to never pop. Have PH soil tester, and PH water...what the hell. Went for another round of germinations..think it was the ILGM seeds. Did some GSC from ILGM, Froot the foot from atlas, and went for some 420 seeds Blue Haze auto 2.0. two for two on the GSC..one out of 5 for the Blue Haze, and froot bee soil a few days ago.
First attempt was paper towel in a baggy. then moved on to soaking seeds till they cracked, then paper towel with mycorisia putting them on top of the LED to get temps in the 80s. Now putting them in a crown royal bag on the LED for darkness. Hoping my gummy bears (3ea) all come up and I will halt the seedlings for a month or so. Plan on trying to get a continuous Auto grow going till September.
Recap: Currently the Bruce Banner auto from the first run is on its 5th node (day 17), and topped. The GSC (day 12) will be topped this week...The one blue haze and one Froot the foot (day 5) are are seedlings...have three Gummy bear from atlas that cracked and are in soil waiting for them to breach. Hard time getting going...I think the soil might be too hot for the seedlings. Other than the blue auto seeds have cracked with a tail, but not made it out the soil.
Meanwhile loaded the 4x4 with some basil plants, and growing peppers from seeds.
Plan to follow Caligreen organic method via Youtube. Have added liquid seaweed to my water, and will be adding Molasses. Also he makes a tea from worm castings and compost...not there yet.
Hey there friend looking at your diary, Would you be alright with me offering some pointers? So cannabis plants LOVE heat and humidity. It is the buds that hate it. In veg we want to take advantage of this fact to help our plants grow along much quicker and more vigorously. In veg we can look for temps of 79-84 MAX with lights on & no more than 9 degrees less with lights off. If we allow for too much temperature swing between lights on and lights off while the plant is still growing vertically up to day 20 of flower, We will cause the plant to stretch ALOT which we do not want. So in veg & early flower, Keeping our temperature gaps nice and close between lights on and off is key. Utilizing humidity in our rooms during veg will also help out a lot with more rapid growth but we must introduce it properly. In our rooms we have our temperature and humidity set-points, But when we combine those 2 it forms a third set-point which is the most important & that is called VPD, Vapor pressure deficit.
I strongly recommend every new grower or old grower who has not learned it yet, To study and understand it & implement it into your room, Logging your numbers daily.
https://cerescann.com/importance-of-measuring-vpd/
For soil, We generally want to go for a PH of 6.1.
This website does a GREAT job of illustrating it with a nice graph & very good detailed explanation for soil.
https://autoflowerseedshop.com/cannabis-ph-chart-guide/
As we briefly touched on before, During veg & early flower we want our temperature gap's nice and tight to avoid stretch. Why exactly our plants stretch in response to this is a genetic trigger being activated by the environmental stress essentially telling the plant the end of the season is closer than it really is. In veg & early flower the plant is still in its first stage of development which is to grow up wide and tall so when it produces seed, It can cast them out nicely. Remember, Whether we are growing our plants for seed or bud their genetic responses do not change as they gh sidedo not know any different. Once the plant has finished that first stage of growth by weeks 4-6 of flower with most strains, It is by day 20 of flower. Autoflowers you have to watch for it, But once the plant has finished this goal its new mission is to focus 100% on producing nice big flower clusters & to get very sticky so it can attract pollen to it successfully.
So once that vertical growth is finished, We actually now want to begin to expose our plants to larger temperature swings between lights on and lights off. This will help activate that genetic response and allow us to draw out the most potential from the strain utilizing the plants genetic triggers to environmental stresses at the right times. We can also take this a step further with doing light deprivation in the last 2 weeks using less light to simulate cloud cover. Very cold feed temps on the last flush is very good too. If you do not have them already, Get yourself a good PAR meter & thermal laser temp gun to monitor your plant top temperatures & optimize how much light your plants are getting. We are currently in the middle of producing a very comprehensive tutorial series for everybody to learn from & understand how to grow the highest level craft cannabis all on their own. If this interests you please check out our youtube and subscribe. The first 2 episodes are out the next one is coming in a few days. If you should ever have any questions or need any help, Please feel free to follow my profile and shoot me a DM. I will gladly help you with the pull down & make sure you get the best quality harvest possible as it is the most important step of the entire process.
Good luck my friend!
@LegacyMarketFarm,
Thanks for the info. just saw this today...will check out the links. Always learning. My soil Ph is 6.8, have been watering in at 6.0-64 to compensate. Not sure how to change the PH in soil. Had heat issues, and finally got that under control, but had some days in the 90s. Looks like I have passed up the stretch, and headed for some bulk. I changed the fans out as they were dying, so Now the plants are a bit stronger to hold up the buds.