Hey there friend. 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.
One more thing, Autoflowers may not need a change in light cycle to begin to flower. But they are still cannabis plants which during the lights on phase, Photosynthesize & store energy in the leafs then do the majority of their growth when lights go off. Id recommend 20/4 at the least. They really benefit from that dark period.
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. Also check out SUNGRIP light pulleys to help adjust your light to plant distance. 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.
Happy growing friend!
@BonzaiFirstTimer, Honestly if you are getting like 200ppm out the tap it is inconsequential. We had a very big elaborate RO filtration setup at the big facility I managed & grew for but when all of it was used up late in flower on 1 floor we would have to just use regular water for the upstairs & there was no major difference whatsoever. Obviously its not great to have any impurities but when we are talking about such miniscule amounts I really dont think it matters. If your water out the tap is upwards of like 500-700 PPM then yeah, You would for sure need to deal with that before using it on your crop. I am glad to help! If you ever need help just follow my profile & DM me, Also our tutorial series live on youtube might really be something you would be interested in, Check it out and subscribe for future episodes. Our youtube is linked off of our grow diaries main profile.
@LegacyMarketFarm, i got my temps down to a 4-5 degree variation, were still in spring weather here so far so temps staying consistently 68/70-70-73/74 and humidity at 55-60% max, i have another fan coming for in before flowering starts. I've noticed some really tight inter noding on a few of these and I'm glad for that and the knowledge you have provided me. My ph has been 6.5 and I, with a max 500ppm of ff grow big 6-4-4 npk with 100ppm of that coming from water impurities. I use a mix of super boiled water and distilled water to conserve money on the water (not much) your probably gonna say something about cholrine and heavy metals which is fine just a lesson I may have to learn the hard way and experiment on next time in a more controlled enviorment. I'm ranting at this point, reguardless thank you for you time! much gratitude, happy growing