Illuminauto #60 Alien Grapes by Mephisto

distractedgrower After getting fed up with the labour intensive, extreme-budget route I chased in the past and giving up, I finally invested in more of a proper hobby grow setup. I have only ever grown in Promix with bottled nutrients, and for the small (although good) returns I was receiving it just wasn't worth it. So after a bunch of research (and help from a lot of great people) and actual planning this time around, I am going to attempt to run some quality autoflower genetics, in bottom-watered water only living soil under 24 hour light. My first attempt at living soil, first attempt at autos, first attempt with a real controllable environment, real light, basically my first attempt. 😅 I threw the 2 beans in a solo cup with non PH'd, non de-chlorinated tap water and put them in the cupboard above the fridge just before midnight. The following day I put the tent together and amended the soil and very lightly watered the top of the soil. 24 hours later, no taproots but both seeds have sunk to the bottom. Planted them both about 1/2" deep, misted the inside of of some clear plastic sups and placed them over top as humidity domes. Temperature seems to have settled at about 25C 68% rh with a bit of visual condensation on the cups. Exhaust fan isn't currently running although is set to come on at 27C or 80% rh, and it will be turned on at first sights of life as well, just want to keep it humid in there as my room is fairly dry. The recipe I received from an amazing person on reddit, the mix for each 5 gal pot was roughly: 5 gal Promix HP 2 cups Perlite 6 cups Worm Castings 7 tbsp GG All Purpose 4-4-4 3 tbsp GG Power Bloom 2-8-4 6 tbsp GG Glacial Rock Dust - hopefully this will start adding some beneficial silica after a couple of recycled runs I plan to top dress (worm casting, GG amendments) and top water every few weeks as well. I am keeping the feed light my first few runs as I've heard most autos can be pretty picky early on. The 300w light is currently about 28.5" above the soil running at 20%. Photone says the soil surface (current "canopy" level) are getting about 11 DLI in each pot. The coverage of this light in a 4x2 is super impressive, PPFD in corners is only about 100ish difference from the center, so so so much better than that old blurple I had. I plan on doing light lst, enough to get an even canopy. It's going to be hard because one of my favourite parts of growing is forms of hst. I will likely lollipop sometime around stretch. I have the cheapo Vivosun amazon special PH meter, after calibration it says my tap water seems to be somewhere around 6.6-7.1, so I am just going to let it off-gas the chlorine for 24 hours before watering and that's it. In about 2 weeks I will have a carbon filter and AC Infinity self wicking bases, which should be just about in time. I will switch back to top watering for a few days after every top dress, but will just keep the bases topped up all the time. July 23 Update: just over 48 hours after burying the beans they have both sprouted. Temps have been about 25C with 70%rh. Gave them a couple of minutes of air today, tomorrow I will likely prop the cups open slightly for the day and probably remove the following day. Sorry for the novel, I like details, and these are some of the things I look for in Diaries when I'm looking up cultivars. I am open to any and all criticism and feedback as well please, I appreciate it! Mind the canopy, see you in the garden!