First Grow. Lots of ?? LOL

[Engelstine]

I am moving over my conversation from the Intro Section because I am feeling my Posts are more journal like, filled with questions. This grow is for personal use and really more of just a Quarantine Hobby LOL!

Here is where I stand on day 20. Auto's

10 Total plants right now. All in solo cups(3 holes in the bottom). I have a "1200watt" Grow light from Amazon. Up until today I can it only on Veggie mode, approx 2-3 inches about the tallest plant. There very minimal heat off it. 24/7 Light.

Currently they are in a pan in a back room in the basement. I am in a Temp home while we build our house. These plants were meant just to start in this house and I was intending on planting outside on my new property once the weather turns. I live in Michigan (Near detroitish). The weather has sucked so they are still inside. Temp is a steady 70F, 30-32% Humidity.

I have attached a few pictures at where I am now. I am having what I think is a few problems but maybe it isnt lol.

1) I seem to be having some color problems with a few leaves, not sure that is normal or if I am seeing a different problem. I have had concerns this whole time with Water. I am watering it in the AM and it seems that by the evening the soil is dry and starting to crack on top. I am using MG Potting Mix. and between the 10 plants I am only using 1 full 20oz bottle of water.
Should I be using more water?
Water until I see drainage come out of the Drain holes?

2) Today I switched the Light to Flower and Veg as I was reading for Autos that more light the better. I think this will be ok. How far away should I have the light? Keep in mind right now this is ju st a fun hobby, so buying a ton of crazy equipment isnt something I am wanting to do. Already bought the light lol.

3) I am leaving on Friday for a 7 day camping trip. Currently I am setup for Wicking (see in Pic) so Im going to test that this week to see if I can make it until Friday without water. I will only be 15min from my house camping so if things get really bad (I have a Web cam on it) I can drive home and water.

Looking at them tonight I started to notice they are starting to weep a little more, I raise the light to see if I can get them to stretch a little bit because they seem short. Maybe this is just the strain and its short. I am also trying to figure out how long I can get with them in the Solo cups. I would like the weather really turn the corner before I move them. I already moved them last week from Seedpods to the cups. What are your thoughts on length in the cups.

OK well thats a good start for post one I think! If you really want to follow my travel, head over to the Introduction section and see my 4 pages of Introduction lol. https://www.marijuanapassion.com/threads/newbie-here.77820/page-4#post-1086440

 

[Caw]

Go by the manufacturer recommendations on light distance. For veg, usually 18-24" away I believe. And yes, I cant see how more light would hurt anything.

If you are growing autos, you are not supposed to transplant them! They stay in their same pot from start to finish. My guess is because they dont have much time to "recover" from stress.

Another guess is the change in the color of new growth is due to them about to go into flower. My concern with that is they are super small right now.

I've toyed with the idea of trying autos, but just too many horror stories...they would be ideal for a quick outdoor grow though.

 

[Engelstine]

Yeah, Honestly I didnt know what I was getting into when starting Autos. They are new to me but I got my hands on 25 seeds so I said what the hell I will give it a go. I will see how it goes and change it up if I need. Ill bring up the light and see if I can stretch them. Being only 20 days in, I am not sure that they should be flowering yet. I believe its at least 4-5 weeks for flower from what I have read.

 

[WeedHopper]

Nothing wrong with growing different types of Weed. Whats great about it,,,is it's yours.

 

[Engelstine]

This plant is starting to scare me a little. Getting yellow leaves. Also I Wicked for like half the day and almost went through 1/2 gallon of water between the 10 plants. I feel like that is a lot. The soil seemed really wet. I pulled out the lines and I’ll see how long it takes to dry the plants out. Any advice on the leaves issue is appreciated the first picture is edited some to try to reduce the red. It doesn’t look quite that sad lol

 

[Engelstine]

Male? I’m not seeing alternating nodes yet but this looks like balls to me.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

Your soil is looking a bit dense to me and it makes me wonder about the drainage properties. In general, MG is not a good soil to use (even discounting that they are an evil company, I would never use their soil). Does it have anything like perlite in it for drainage?

Cannabis likes to go through wet and dry periods. This means that you water them well--until water comes out the bottom and then let them go until they dry out some. I can tell you though that 20 oz of water for 10 plants is not enough--two ounces for each cup is not nearly enough water to do much other than just get the top part of the soil damp.

As you are growing autos, they are going to start flowering this early. You might want to read up on autos, it seems that you are expecting them to grow like photoperiod plants (like where you mentioned 4-5 weeks for preflowers).

I do have real concern about them surviving for 7 days on their own at this point though.

 

[Engelstine]

OK so I will elaborate some on your questions.

- The soil is so damp because I ran Wick lines to them and they soaked up almost a half gallon between the 10 plants so I think they were filling up. In the past the soil usually cracked at the top by the night.
- No perlite or anything in the soil. I thought by now Id have them in the ground (before learning about what Autos were lol) so I put them in Solo cups to get them a month or so.

-I thought that I was watering to little. I was just afraid to soak them because of root rot and other issues. I will now start to load up the water until they leak out of the bottom.

- I read a lot since I started regarding the Autos and everywhere I read was the Autos end veg state and enter preflower around 3-5 weeks and the Females usually *** toward the end of that stage (why I said 4-5weeks) I wasnt saying they are in preflower for 4-5 weeks.

- I think I am going restart the Wicking method as it seemed to worked well to keep the soil moist.

At the end of the day this was just a fun hobby/experience. I have another 10 seeds that I can start (probably soon) with better knowledge of what to do. I was hoping to be in my new house before I started that but with Covid thats all delayed. On a good note the plants seem too look better this morning, I think a full day of good water has helped.

 

[WeedHopper]

My method for when to water potted plants is to pick the pot up while its dry. Now you know what that feels like,,water that plant untill you have good runoff. Now pick that pot up. Now you know how it feels watered corectly. Like they said above,,let the soil dry before you water again.
Ive used this method for yrs with potted plants and it has worked for me.
Some plants drink more water then others so watering them at the same time doesnt always work.

 

[Engelstine]

Yep. I do have a scale that if I got really precise I could weight dry and sharpie it on the cup. I don’t plan on watering again until they are dry. At the latest it will be Friday afternoon when i leave for camping.

 

[Engelstine]

Well I think found at lease 3 females lol. I have taken out three males and put them under a different light in a different room for now until frost is done. Then I’ll go plants them somewhere.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

THROW THE MALES AWAY!

Okay, I will elaborate on your elaborations. The soil is so wet because your soil has nothing in it to aid drainage. With a good soil mixture, you should be able to just soak them and the excess water will collect into a drip tray. As you have no perlite in the soil, I have great concerns over the soil staying too wet and you getting root rot or other problems that can crop up with dense soil (it should never crack on the surface from going without water for a day) if you use a wicking system with the soil mixture you have now.

Even if you only plan on plants being in a container for a short period of time, it is important for them to have a proper soil mixture.

 

[WeedHopper]

Totally agree with the post above.

 

[Engelstine]

Well I made the call to switch them into larger pots just before I left for vacation. I also added the wicking system. Went home to check them out yesterday and they wicked the whole amount of water in one day. The bottom of the pots were sitting in water for a few days. I think I lucked out though because I newly potted so the roots weren’t down there. I emptied the water and now I’m just letting them go the next 3 days without water. The soil was plenty damp. I’m keeping an eye on them with my webcam and they are still growing up and the leaves look great.

On a side note I have my males still in solo cups and in a different room and they look beautiful. I know they say males are the devil but there has to be some use away from my females.

 

[Growdude]

I know they say males are the devil but there has to be some use away from my females.

They are of no use whatsoever

 

[Kyfarmerb]

Makes will just ruin your girls bro.i mean it's a chance to take but a unnecessary one if you have no plans or application for the male.just think of it like this.you chop him, you save on electric and guarantee that he won't seed your girls.or you keep him just to grow him out and you end up with seeded bud and a higher electric bill all the while.you know what I'm saying bro?.but none the less keep your hands in the dirt or water or maybe coco.ive learned atleast half of what I know thru trial and error.so keep it trucking and take notes.happy growing bro.

 

[Engelstine]

Thanks for the info. My thought was plant outside with one female and get a collection of seeds this time around. So i can continue to grow without having to purchase more seeds.

 

[Engelstine]

I have three acres so my thoughts are the all will go outside. Just in a separate areas so the electric savings isn’t there. But I do get what you mean. I just only have 10 seeds left and my last group of 15 seeds only 11 germinated and 6 were male, one runt. So out of that I got 4 females.

 

[Engelstine]

Well I’m back home after 7 days. All my plants made it and no surprise males in my group of 5. So that was good. I moved all the males out of the house now that it’s getting much warmer at night. I also moved on female out there for an attempt to get some seeds. I took a female that seemed like it had a little less growth and pistols. A few of the hanging flower dropped pollen on the female when I moved her out with the males. What has to happen for that magic to happen. Shack them ever once in a while on the female?

the females look good. One has a ton of pistols shooting out all over. I’m going to have to read up on what to expect next. I just read on getting to the flowering point.
I have one that doesn’t seem to want to grow. It is still producing pistols and it’s still looks healthy other than growing lol. I put it under its own grow light to see if i can get it back to life but I’m guessing now. Attached are a half full of
pictures from all the i just takes about.

 

[Kyfarmerb]

Hey bro.that growing medium looks to be very thick just for future reference it's greatly beneficial and pivotal to cut your medium with perlite.i run a 35 pct Coco,35 pct promix and 30 pct perlite ratio and the girls roots love it.very nice lite and airated.well I'll stick around and see how your autos turn out.happy growing bro.