2x400 watt CRAWL SPACE AUTOFLOWER GROW...1st TIMERS HELP APPRECIATED!!!!

[dennisxgreene]

The roomie and I started a little project. So we got everything up and running 2 weeks, and our first seed broke the soil 11 days ago. Unknown autoflower strain, received from an old friend. We have 32 in the ground right now, hoping for 10-15 healthy females. We were having heating issues the first week, its a pretty small space. We had open air reflectors but now we replaced them with air-cooled. On temps hover in the low 80s with a max of about 85. Night temps (4 hours off) about 66. Excellent ventilation. We live in a cold climate, so we use the discharge to heat the main floor of the house with a little clever ducting =). Also we are extremely paranoid so we did NOT want to vent hot air out the roof. Humidity fluctuates from 30-50 with added cool mist humidifier. We planted these in 2 waves about a week apart, since we realized we weren't going to have enough after some of the first seeds didn't germ. Medium is 4 parts soil-less mix to 1 part earthworm castings. Overall everything is looking great, the room turned out to be a lot more expensive than we had originally planned, but exceeded our expectations. PIC 1


We fed the bigger ones a very diluted FOXFARM Big Bloom a few days ago, they seemed to like it. Will feed again tomorrow.

Wondering if anyone may be able to help...Most of the plants look green and lush like this.


2 or 3 look a little more like this, kind of a bright greenish yellow color, and not growing quite as big, although all of them are definitely variable in size and growth rate. Also 1 or 2 look kind of strange and asymmetrical.


The medium does dry out pretty quick due to the warmth, but we've been keeping it moist. I'm fairly certain they aren't being under-watered.

Also, in general when do the autos start to show sex? Any advice or help or feedback from anyone is greatly appreciated, Thanks in advance!!! I look forward to talking to all. Will keep updated regularly, time seems to be going so incredibly slowly!

I also threw 2 in my closet to do a little experiment with cfls, hoping for a girl!

 

[eastcoastmo]

Hey man, sounds like a pretty good setup you have all your plants look great, the ones with slight yellowing may be due to over watering but only slightly. How often are you watering? Mine in soil I water every 2 days tops, was every 3-4 during veg but that's in 10L pots under a 600w hps. don't stress too much though they look pretty healthy keep us updated hey!

 

[dennisxgreene]

Hey man, sounds like a pretty good setup you have all your plants look great, the ones with slight yellowing may be due to over watering but only slightly. How often are you watering? Mine in soil I water every 2 days tops, was every 3-4 during veg but that's in 10L pots under a 600w hps. don't stress too much though they look pretty healthy keep us updated hey!

We had crazy heat issues before we got the air cooled reflectors with the small enclosed nature of the space, also our fan speed controller shit out on us almost instantly...so we weren't able to get a good watering pattern down right away. The top of the soil would get almost crispy really fast, plus this is our first time so we had no idea how often to water, we just tried to keep the soil's surface damp at all times. I'm going to chalk up the deformities to heat stress and possible over watering!

 

[eastcoastmo]

Oh damn mate the heat issues doesnt sound good hey! Glad you
got them sorted! The yellowing plants may just be in recovery mode still then, give them a few days and they'll shoot off too

 

[dennisxgreene]

The latest: Plants are doing well, a lot of them turned yellowish during past week, changed the exhaust fan timer and raised the lights a little bit, finally heat down to high 70s at most points, I believe we finally got a decent watering pattern down. All the yellow plants now have new green growth on them, hard to see in the picture. Growth was definitely stunted while we were learning about watering techniques and getting the room dialed in a bit more properly. Live and learn, hopefully we will have enough health females to fill up the room when we transplant to bigger pots after signs of sex are shown. Fed a weak mix of micro and veg nutes earlier this week. Great learning process! Hopefully they will recover ok!



Not sure why pics are going in sideways...oh well

 

[eastcoastmo]

Definitely looks like they are recovering well mate, glad to hear

I'd also put it down to over watering, you'd be surprised how long they can go without water! Keep the nute feeding to once a week for the next two weeks and plain water in between and they should pick up even more!

 

[dennisxgreene]

Thanks fella!

Yeah that's the plan, feed every other water and switch to the bloom nutes once they show some sex. The older ones I'm hoping will start to show within the next week.

 

[eastcoastmo]

No wuckas mate, hope the rest of the grow goes without a hitch and you get some dank smoke out of it

 

[hmasonb34]

Good grow looking forward to watching them grow. I as well have watering issues (as far as how much and how often) So glad im subed in for learning.



HMB......

 

[dennisxgreene]

Good grow looking forward to watching them grow. I as well have watering issues (as far as how much and how often) So glad im subed in for learning.



HMB......

Thx man, yeah we just started yanking males yesterday...bout 4 down and another weakling died...7 confirmed females so far! Our space will allow us for about 12-15 females...so anything we get above 15 will probs be discarded. Starting from 32 germed seeds, doing well. Will switch out one of the lights from MH to HPS as soon as we make the first transplants to the big pots, probably monday...hopefully not too much stress on the ladies. I want to stress that they are doing GREAT in the past week and a half since we stopped watering them so much and we got the heat under control. Runoff pH is sitting pretty at 6.2, and the ones that were completely yellow are forming awesome new green growths at the top! Lights off right now so no pics, but will post soon!

Hope everyone had a ballin' ass weekend, Mine has unfortunately been filled with busy ass days at work...back to work today then back to school monday...sigh. Oh well, almost winter break!

 

[dennisxgreene]

They have been going crazy the past few days! We hit our goal of 15 females, some left undeclared still, extremely high female/male ratio. Here are the 15 girls, looks yellow cuz we just swapped MH for HPS.



Now I need a little advice from seasoned pros...

They are all the same strain, all the same climate/space, all the same pot size, and all on the same watering schedule(just watered them 2 days ago, soil still moist under surface of all pots). Why do some of them look nice and perky like this...



and some of them look droopy and sad like this...?



They almost look thirsty, but like I said the soil is still moist underneath. Kinda confused.

Overall all of them look really nice and green compared to what we were dealing with before, overall super happy with how its going so far. Transplanting them to final pots at next water. Can't wait to watch the buds grow!

EDIT: Not sure why pics keep going in sideways...sorry guys.

 

[eastcoastmo]

Leaves drooping is usually a sign of overwatering if anything. Maybe hold off an extra day when waterig those ones and see how they go. Also the transition to hps can also affect them so they may be in a bit of recovery mode. Are the droopy ones on the outside of where the light goes or right under the light?

 

[dennisxgreene]

Leaves drooping is usually a sign of overwatering if anything. Maybe hold off an extra day when waterig those ones and see how they go. Also the transition to hps can also affect them so they may be in a bit of recovery mode. Are the droopy ones on the outside of where the light goes or right under the light?

today they all looked really good actually, I may have spoken too soon. All the droop was gone when I looked at them this afternoon. Woo!

I noticed that most of the droopy ones were directly under the light, all except one that was the tallest of all. So you're probs right man...Cheers! If I recall correctly, the ones that were drooping were the same ones that were really stressed early on also.

Mo...Any transplanting tips? Never done any of this before haha. Also, our buddy (who we got the beans from) says he usually pulls around 1 oz per plant...since this is our first go and we stressed em out a bit do you think that would be an unreasonable goal? If we can even get 1/2 oz per I'd be happy and we would be able to easily recoup the money we put into the room and electricity costs, which was our goal.

Also btw we hooked up an extra inline fan so our passive intake is now active, and its been nice and cold outside, around 15-25 F. Our temps haven't gotten over 81 since!!! The girls are loving it I can tell. And I think they'll love the first flowering nutes this week as well.

Thanks again for the advice...you're the only one willing to help! haha

 

[eastcoastmo]

today they all looked really good actually, I may have spoken too soon. All the droop was gone when I looked at them this afternoon. Woo!

I noticed that most of the droopy ones were directly under the light, all except one that was the tallest of all. So you're probs right man...Cheers! If I recall correctly, the ones that were drooping were the same ones that were really stressed early on also.

Mo...Any transplanting tips? Never done any of this before haha. Also, our buddy (who we got the beans from) says he usually pulls around 1 oz per plant...since this is our first go and we stressed em out a bit do you think that would be an unreasonable goal? If we can even get 1/2 oz per I'd be happy and we would be able to easily recoup the money we put into the room and electricity costs, which was our goal.

Also btw we hooked up an extra inline fan so our passive intake is now active, and its been nice and cold outside, around 15-25 F. Our temps haven't gotten over 81 since!!! The girls are loving it I can tell. And I think they'll love the first flowering nutes this week as well.

Thanks again for the advice...you're the only one willing to help! haha

Hey man, thats awesome to hear they have picked up, there's nothing worse than having issues and not being able to fix them, glad they're doing well with the bloom nutes, start them at half dose for the first two feeds and then up it, i find they will transition a bit better.

With transplanting the only thing i do is make sure everything is done really quickly. Its also good to shake off some of the dirt around the root ball so they can breathe i wouldnt transplant in flower but i know people that do and havent seen any dramas.

An oz per plant isnt unreasonable if they were vegged for longer and screened out to get the most from the smaller branches. I was always told by my mate at the hydro shop to expect 4-6 oz per 400w light and i always got in that range somewhere. In saying that i know a lot more now so could probably push it a bit more. Being your first attempt and some minor issues, i'd probably go more for the 5oz per light so around the 10oz mark. But i'm willing to be proven wrong

You'll notice a massive difference now you have the active intake, the more circulation the better! Also good to hear the temp is now good too, that will also greatly help the flowering process!! Good stuff mate

 

[dennisxgreene]

Hey man, thats awesome to hear they have picked up, there's nothing worse than having issues and not being able to fix them, glad they're doing well with the bloom nutes, start them at half dose for the first two feeds and then up it, i find they will transition a bit better.

With transplanting the only thing i do is make sure everything is done really quickly. Its also good to shake off some of the dirt around the root ball so they can breathe i wouldnt transplant in flower but i know people that do and havent seen any dramas.

An oz per plant isnt unreasonable if they were vegged for longer and screened out to get the most from the smaller branches. I was always told by my mate at the hydro shop to expect 4-6 oz per 400w light and i always got in that range somewhere. In saying that i know a lot more now so could probably push it a bit more. Being your first attempt and some minor issues, i'd probably go more for the 5oz per light so around the 10oz mark. But i'm willing to be proven wrong

You'll notice a massive difference now you have the active intake, the more circulation the better! Also good to hear the temp is now good too, that will also greatly help the flowering process!! Good stuff mate

Thanks again man! 10 oz is a reasonable goal methinks...We've done no training or anything we are just planning on letting them do their own thing haha. Ill put some more pictures up with the good camera up this week sometime, some of them are really starting to get bigger...And its fun to see the buds just starting to form. Some of the ones from the 2nd wave look really really nice and symmetrical with big sturdy stalks...I can already tell they will be some decent producers. I guess We aren;t sure if we can fit 15 or 18 with the size of our pots and the limitations of our room...Just gonna play it by ear! You're the shit man thanks for reassuring me throughout there have definitely been days when I've had my doubts.

 

[eastcoastmo]

No probs dude, always good to see people having success! Hope they produce well for you mate

cant wait to see the pics hey!!

 

[dennisxgreene]

Transplanting was a major success...quick recovery! Sorry Its been a while, busy times with finals and work...most of these girls are about a month out from seed right now, some older some younger...18 total in here, some stunted due to being left in solo cups too long...just thrown in to maximize space.

 

[eastcoastmo]

They're looking real good dude the transplanting has worked wonders!! Well done mate

 

[dennisxgreene]

All the girls are between 30 and 40 days from seed in these pics =) looking good!

 

[dennisxgreene]

Getting kinda close! Definitely a lot of things that could have gone better but overall really happy with the way things are going right now. They're so stinky and sticky!