My First Grow

One day I was out front and saw a funny little plant growing in the gutter debris on the side of the road. A pot plant?! Now, I know it was probably just some wild ditch weed, but I scooped it up and threw it in a pot. It did pretty well for what little attention I gave it. Turned out to be a male, but it sparked an idea. "What if I just grow my own?". I've known people who have attempted, and it always ended in failure. I always thought it was difficult to grow, but after looking online I found out there are plenty of people doing it and they're (for the most part) very happy to help. Here goes! So this is my FIRST EVER GROW! I am a broke veterinary student so my setup isn't fancy. I originally planned to grow in a spare shower I have, but the bathroom it's in is getting too hot with the recent weather. I'm hoping once it starts to cool off I can relocate into the shower. For now, I'm starting out in a greenhouse frame that I have wrapped in mylar emergency blankets. I have it set up over the top of the AC vent in a spare room, and have a fan laying directly on the vent to help pull cool air from the vent and push it into the "tent". I have been able to maintain temps fairly well in the low to mid 70's up to low 80's. It's not pretty, but should work. I am growing in Fox Farm Ocean Forest (FFOF) soil, in a 7 gallon trashcan that I have drilled holes in the bottom for drainage, and holes around the rim for future LST. I had some gravel in the bottom of the pot to try and take up some space but the weight was just too much for my little greenhouse. I ditched the gravel and got some gutter leaf guard foam and cut it down and put it in the bottom. It's super light and gives great drainage. I checked the SDS on the foam and it says it isn't bad, but I still hope my roots don't get into it and fuck up the plant with some chemical. We'll see how it goes. Like I said, this is my first grow and I have spent a lot of time researching in hopes of doing it right. One thing I came across is people having issues with FFOF being too acidic right out of the bag. I took the time to check by mixing equal parts soil and pH'd water and testing the pH of the water after I filtered it. Sure enough, it was reading around pH 5! To combat this, I added 5-6 Tbsp of lime to the soil, mixed it well, and retested it. This time it came out right around pH 6.5 and should be good to go now. I have also added perlite, about 3:1 soil to perlite, for increased drainage as recommended. I'm also on a learning curve using General Hydroponics pH Up/Down, but getting the hang of it and realizing very little goes a long way. I am using distilled water as I don't trust my local tap water, but when testing it by itself, it runs a little high in pH (~8), so I have to bring it down a little before using. For my first grow, I'm growing a Barney Farms Zkittlez OG Auto. I germinated it using a damp paper towel in a ziplock and putting it on top of my deep freeze for the radiant heat. In 24 hours the seed was cracked open, and about 12 hours later it has a small growth. I placed it in a prepared coco disc that had been expanded with pH'd water, then placed the coco into the soil. I went this route because I have heard stories of FFOF being too hot for young seedlings and it made me nervous. I'm hoping the coco will help it get established before the roots get to the FFOF. Once in, I covered the seed with a cut water bottle to help trap some humidity. I am using an HLG 100 V2 quantum board light, and currently have it set about 24" above the top of the can. Once it sprouts and gets some true leaves, I'll probably lower it a little. Initially I'm running the light 24 hours until the seed shell comes off my seedling, then I will be switching to an 18/6 light cycle. After monitoring temps several days before planting, I'm going to have the dark time from 2pm-8pm to help maintain temps during the hottest part of the day. I also want to give a shout out to Lyndon Walker (sales extraordinaire) over at House and Garden Premium Plant Nutrients and Additives. I shot them an email just asking about some samples and he HOOKED me up! Like wow, was not expecting all of this! Definitely appreciate it! He sent base nutrients, a bunch of additives, and some swag to boot. Since I'm growing autos, I won't be using much, but am still excited to have them. Maybe if this all goes well I'll try some photoperiod plants and hit them hard with everything. Anyway, for those who read all of this, thanks! I'm just trying to get as much info in as possible so that if I have any issues, everything is out there. Any tips, advice, etc. is appreciated, I'm just a new guy getting his feet wet. Gutter foam used: https://www.menards.com/main/building-materials/roofing-soffits-gutters/gutters-accessories/gutter-accessories/future-foam-5-x-4-gutter-filter/1585107/p-1444430783374-c-5812.htm Lime used: https://www.menards.com/main/outdoors/gardening/lawn-plant-care/compost-soils-amendments/pulverized-lime-50-lbs/2667740/p-1444439323615-c-1463608034794.htm Seed used: https://www.barneysfarm.com/zkittlez-og-auto-472 Nutrient line to be used: https://www.house-garden.us/ Day 1 (7/17) Woke up this morning to my sprout just breaking through the soil. Overnight temps were pretty decent, so my AC wasn't running as much overnight. In the tent the temps stayed in the mid 70's to low 80's which is what I wanted for sprouting. I'll probably take another pic tonight and see how it has grown. I have also mixed up some Roots Excelurator Gold into a spray bottle. I wasn't planning on this, as I have seen so many posts saying with FFOF soil and autoflowers to not add any nutrients for 3-4 weeks. Concerning the Roots Excelurator, I've seen several posts specifically about autoflowers saying to use the root nutrient at recommended strength. The feed schedule says 1 mL/gal, and my spray bottle is 0.25 gal so I filled it with pH'd water and 0.25 mL of Roots Excelurator. That stuff is thick, brown, and stanky but mixed right in. I carefully & lightly sprayed the soil surrounding the sprout, making sure to not spray the sprout. At the end of the day, the sprout has grown some but the seed shell is still attached. From looking online, I'm not too worried at this point and hope it falls off on its own. Day 2 (7/18) Today starts with my little seedling having grown a bit overnight. The seed shell is still attached, as well as the inner membrane. The membrane is holding the cotyledons together, so I don't know if I should try and remove it or just wait and see. I may take some advice I've seen in a few forums about misting it to soften the shell and membrane. Some have said it can take a few days, but with an autoflower idk if this will inhibit it or not at this point. Might give it a few days but we'll see. The plastic cover is holding in moisture and humidity, so I won't add any water to the soil as it is still damp. I did give a spritz to the inside of the cover to keep humidity up. Today is going to get hot af outside, mid 90's with heat index of like 106. Living in a tin box (mobile home), temp control may be an issue today. I'm hoping it stays fairly decent in my tent, as I have it over an AC vent with one fan over the vent blowing air in, another blowing across that fan to circulate the air around instead of straight up, and a 3rd clip fan hanging up top pulling air from inside out in an attempt to vent warmer air. Update: after misting the seed shell and membrane, both popped off within an hour! My cotyledons are out as well as 2 new leaf growths. The seed shell is still hanging onto one of the cotyledons, but barely. I have removed the dome and will add in a small oscillating fan. Today has gotten hot af and I'm having trouble keeping it cool. Temps in the stand hit almost 90F and really had me worried. I raised my light a few more inches (~38") hoping it would help but it really didn't. Come to find out in my mobile home I have a large duct that crosses over to supply the other side of the house, where my plant is. Inspection showed that this duct was full of holes! I've been running the AC nonstop to cool the underneath of my home apparently 😡. Got it patched up and it REALLY helped the air flow into the tent. Temp started to go down almost immediately and maintained around 80F the rest of the evening and overnight to about 77F. I was really worried about my seedling, it started looking a little wilty, but it seems to have perked back up. Tomorrow I will replace the entire duct and that should be a big help. Daytime temps outside should be cooler the next few days, so I'm hoping that it gives it what it needs. I now have a total of 5 fans going in the tent and room to try and get the cool air in and circulating. Honestly could use a few more to get air out of the room. Day 3 (7/19) This morning my seedling looks back to normal (hopefully). The seed shell is still hanging around on one of the cotyledons and a small bit of membrane is on the leaf. The cotyledons look rough, but the new leaves look okay as far as I know, which isn't much. I lightly squirted some water/roots excelurator around the coco base, just enough to dampen it because humidity is a little low. I also have a bowl of water sitting on the floor to try and supplement some humidity. Tonight I am going to lower my light some and try and see if it kicks her into high gear. I also was able to gently remove the seed shell and membrane from the one cotyledon. It was nerve wracking but it came off without any issues. Day 4 (7/20) Nothing much to say early on. Today will be cooler but rainy, so the AC won't run much. Overnight it didn't run much and stayed around 80 in the tent. I started to second guess myself with lowering the light. I have it about 18" above. I decided to ask on thcfarmer.com forum and after several responses I decided it would be better to raise the light back up to around 24". Day 5 (7/21) Today I started to get a little leery about my seedling. I have looked at many other seedling pics from forums and diaries and I think mine is a little behind. I feel that it is tiny compared to most of the other pics I've seen. Though a lot have been thin and stretchy, and mine is short and thick. Maybe it's the strain difference, but I'm hoping the excessive heat didn't stunt her or anything. So I took some pics and asked around the forums on thcfarmer.com and autoflower.net. Everyone who responded said it looked great! It was definitely a relief that they think it looks good. I feel like between those two forums, they would let me know if they saw something wrong. I'll give it a full week or so before I lower it some more and hit her hard. I started putting to damp washcloths hanging in the tent to try and keep humidity up because with the AC, it is sitting around 58-60%. Not bad, but a little more would be better. I spritzed around the seedling with the water/roots excelurator. Not much, but like 4-5 squirts. I also gave a decent watering of the whole pot in case the roots were extending out into some dry soil. I used about 4.5 cups of pH'd water, staying about 2" way from my seedling and the starter it is in. I've been skipping the dark cycle most days this week, hoping the extra light time will be helpful. May keep it up a few more days but once more leaves start coming in I will cut back to the 18/6. Day 6 (7/22) Last night it cooled off nicely, so I opened up the windows. It had rained a bit a few hours before and the humidity was high (~78%). The watering yesterday and the cooler humid temps last night seem to have boosted this little lady, or at least that is what I want to tell myself. It's a daily struggle not to constantly check in on her, I know it takes time but I just want to see her prosper. I'm going to hold off on any watering/roots excelurator for a couple of days. She still seems short, compared to other grow pics, but that I can live with as long as she's happy and healthy. I think it will only be an advantage. So far, I haven't maintained the 18/6 light schedule. As a seedling, I assumed that the more light the better. Today I set the timer and am allowing the 6 hours of "dark". I closed the tent up for the dark period, and just checked the temp (4pm) and its at ~75F, which is a nice little drop from around 80F. I will continue to maintain this light cycle. Overnight it will cool off, I opened all the windows for the night. Day 7 (7/23) As the first week comes to a close, I'm feeling better about where she's at. From what I can tell, she's looking happy and healthy. Saw her leaves stretching up last night for the first time. I think after today, I'll lower the light a couple inches a day until I'm around 18" (currently 24"). Got hold of a sample bottle of Mammoth P today, look forward to trying it. After looking online, it was recommended to start using it in the seedling phase in order to build up the microbe population and food web. This puts in microbes that help with phosphorus, which is needed in bloom. It's mixed in at 0.6 mL/gal and I think I will add some molasses and let it sit overnight when it gets closer to watering time. I saw an experiment that showed it helped with feeding the microbes. I won't have high hopes, as the sample is dated Nov 26, 2018 and it is pretty dark compared to fresh, which a lot of people said = dead microbes. Oh well, free is free and it can't hurt anything, right? Worth a shot. Well it's the end of week 1. She's got a long way to go but she's going!