Doc’s First Grow: Soil, Autos, 4x4, QB’s

Today is day 16 and I’m absolutely amazed by the progress of these girls. The plants are responding really well to fixing the lighting issue, so I delved in deeper to really do the best I could without a quantum meter.

I used the PPFD measurements as a rough guide that were shown on HLG YouTube video at different heights, spaces etc. Then I confirmed and played around with different heights and wattages using the manufacturer’s stated efficiency/spectrum/etc. I’ll attach the measurements that I’m using as a rough guide. Keep in mind, the PPFD stated is an approximation, and it’s also at the FLOOR of the grow space. The plants are many inches higher, thus will have higher PPFD.

Today, the plants got watered with about 3/4 of a gallon (between all pots) of roughly 250-275 ppm R.O. Water, SCD Bioag 4mL, Cal/Mag 2mL, FloraMicro 2mL, and MicroBloom 2.5mL. These were all per gallon, so it received about 75% of those measurements. I also broke up the mycelium in the eXhale bag. Tonight, at lights out, all the plants will receive a preventative treatment with a neem-based ready to use organocide. This will be discontinued upon the start of flower. Since these are autos, this could be one of their only treatments.

Here is today’s pics, day 16!

Good morning! Day 17 update, plus the new girls in the tent.

Super Skunk Auto x2, Amnesia Auto x3 all germinated using the soak then paper towel method. They all went into soil (in SOLO cups) last night (Roots Organic Original + Perlite). Used two cups, the first is see through, the second taped up for light protection so that I can check root progression. Included some mycorrhizae, a spritz of diluted neem on top. I also weighed the cups (dry and saturated) so that I can be more precise with watering. They will eventually get transplanted into 3 gallon pots with super soil on the bottom - with the plan to give no nutes at all (except for maybe cal/mag plus due to using RO water). This will be a 100% organic grow.

Alrighty then... day 17 coming to a close. These ladies are growing up fast. Still haven’t watered since yesterday, letting the pots dry out considerably more. I can see some Nitrogen toxicity symptoms in the back left plant, so I’ll be backing off on feeding. I’ve left the exhaust fan on constantly and humidity and temps have still been acceptable, so I may just leave it like that for a bit. Here’s some pics.

Grow #1 - Day 18

The ladies are looking fantastic this afternoon. I can really see the growth popppng off. The couple of plants that had some issues seem to be shaking them right off. The plants were tall enough and getting filled out enough that I did some gentle leaf tucking and even some LST. They look a little mangled, but I’m sure they will bounce back. It seems like every time I insult them, they just shake it off. I’ve done no watering or feeding for about 2.5 days.



Grow #2 - Day 1

My seedlings are doing well in their solo cups. All 5 have popped up to say hello, and seem to like their environment.

In other news:

Remember how I said I ordered some photoperiod seeds? Well I ordered them Friday night from D.C. Seed Exchange for a great price (10x Fem Useful Seeds “Double Dipped Strawberries” and 10x Fem Useful Seeds “Blueberries n Chocolate”. I can’t speak to the seeds themselves yet, but today is MONDAY and my seeds are out for delivery. Incredible speed. Glad I listened to you all about DCSE. I’ll update later on.

Grow #1 - Day 19

Plants are doing well, specifically 2-3 of them. They completely bounced back after the leaf tucking and some LST. They got watered today as the medium was nearly completely dry all the way to the bottom, with plain RO water with a tiny bit of cal/mag plus to bring ppm to ~80. Only watered maybe 1.5 liters between all plants.

So... I decided to do some more training today. I uh... well, let’s just say one of my plants got topped accidentally. I was a little bummed, but I’m good with it now. We’ll see if she bounces back and becomes one of the higher yielders, or she can’t recover due to life cycle and she’s a runt.

I’m raising the temp a little bit (back to around 80) just to see if maybe the increased heat/CO2/good lighting can help put me on top of that curve. I’m not sure what my CO2 levels are, however, with just the one extra large bag of EXhale.

Speaking of lighting, I really want to get some supplemental lights for penetration, but I already have quite a bit of output from my 4 288 QB’s (2 per driver). That said, I don’t want to give the plants TOO much light. What thoughts do you all have?

My leading ladies:



Rest of the tent:




Grow #2 - Day 3

Nothing much to say at this point. Still got plenty of water in their solo cups. These bastards seem to have exploded upward. I think they liked the makeshift humidome. The plan is to transplant maybe around day 8-9 to their final home, 3 gallon containers with supersoil on bottom layer. Plan is to do no nutes.



And.... I couldn’t resist.....

Grow #3 - Day T-1

I just couldn’t help it. 2 of my feminized photoperiod seeds went into the water to soak. I’m super pumped to grow photos, and they will be getting a lot of love from me. They’ll also be super soil organic grown. The best part? I chose Double Dipped Strawberries from Useful Seeds, and it looks absolutely dank. Shouts to @CoB_nUt for the inspiration.

Check out this sweet pickup too:

Looks good so far. good luck.