Northern Lights Auto spring 2021

3/10-3/13 Hello again to all!! This week will be be used for blending and pre-watering soil in preparation for the start of the spring 2021 grow. I still lack about 5-7 days of finishing off the last plant of my winter grow, then a day to clean and sanitize the growing space. This go round will be switching to all Autflowering strains. The idea being about a 4 week faster turnover, and keeping the plants a bit shorter without having to employ the scrog method, which I find to be more labor intensive than I prefer. Being an older guy with ever increasing difficulty with working on the floor, I like taking the girls out of the tent a couple times a week and placing them on a table so I can sit with them at a comfortable level to work with them. This grow will be 3 different varieties, but each will be chronicled in their own individual diary.... I modified my soil blend just a little for this grow. I had some pH issues with both of my last 2 cycles. The first time I blamed it on lower seasonal water levels where our municipal water is drawn from causing it to run higher pH, and I had been blending dechlorinated tap water with purified by rev osmosis bottled water at 50/50. So this last run was given nothing but the bottled water (pH of 5.9), and the pH problem persisted. Soil pH after water/feeding was right at 6.4-6.6, but by the time for next watering it had consistently rebounded to 7.0. To me this indicated the water wasn't the issue since the rise in pH appeared to be time released as the soil moisture was being depleted. In the past I had always used 20% vermiculite in my soil blend, but the last 2 runs it wasn't anywhere to be found locally so I substituted perlite instead. So a little research shows that perlite is slightly alkaline where vermiculite runs neutral or even a tiny bit acidotic. So this time I'll buy the vermiculite and make a 50/50 blend of the 2 and use that mix into my typical soil blend. The strains we'll be growing this time will be Gorilla Glue Auto, Tangie Dream Auto, and Northern Lights Auto, all from Growers Choice. 3/21 sprouted and enjoying the artificial sun.