Wil's 2025 Winter Auto Grow

[wil2279]

Nice n healthy!

Thanks... the environment has been staying in the 70's for temps and humidity. Except when I open the ,tent. Then the humidity drops. Tonight i bumped up the power on the lights in the small tent and then raised them to keep my DLI between 25 & 30 for now. Tomorrow I mighty do the same in the bigger tent.

 

[WeedHopper]

Looking good brother

 

[wil2279]

Everything in the small tent is in 3 gallon pots and no matter if it's in peat or coco, it has grow dots. So the only thing I will be adding to these plays is a watering with recharge occasionally before it goes into flower. And then possibly a microbe supplement to help in flower. In the big tent, the runts in the bag with grommets is also in coco with grow dots and will be treated the same as the plants in the small tent. However the other 3 plants in the big tent are all in plain ocean forest with nothing added. So when they start to stretch in early flower, I will start watering once each week with Neptune's Harvest liquid nutrients. These plants will also get the same microbes as the grow dots plants. This is my current plan for these girls.

 

[wil2279]

Today the girls in the big tent started butt chugging. I don't think the ac infinity self watering bases hold as much water as advertised. I will have to check again but i thought they were supposed to hold about 2 gallons of water, and mine are pretty full after about 1 gallon.

 

[wil2279]

Well after looking again they only advertise 1 gallon capacity.

 

[wil2279]

Girls in the small tent are officially butt chugging as well. That blackberry kush is looking like a little beast in the tent right now.

 

[MariJan]

Girls in the small tent are officially butt chugging as well. That blackberry kush is looking like a little beast in the tent right now.

I love a good beast

 

[wil2279]

Oh man, my girls are starting to take off. They still seem pretty small though. But they are showing sex and some of them are definitely starting to stretch. I will post update pics tomorrow. With my lights getting bumped up in power due to the girls no longer being seedlings, I have been able to drop the thermostat setting the heater in the lung room. The highest temps I've seen so far were 79° in the small tent and 80° in the big tent. Today we are back down around 77°. And around 70% humidity.

 

[wil2279]

Ok so last night I noticed something that i saw the last time I grew in fabric pots that I didn't see in my earthbox grow. I noticed a couple leaf tips on a couple of plants starting to curl down. So before in previous grows, I saw this, it never happened in the seedling stage or veg. It happened when the plants started to stretch. In the past I assumed I was over watering. Now I believe I was underwatering. I haven't watered the girls for a while now. I filled the self watering bases and assumed that would be enough, but last night I went ahead and watered with recharge 1 last time. I may need to water again but I don't know if I will be using the recharge again as you are only supposed to use it during veg and maybe the stretch. So far the Critical Orange Punch, Purple Punch OG, and 1 of the runts have been living off the ocean forest soil. Next week I plan to water using the Neptune's Harvest liquid nutrients, just in those 3 pots. Everything else is water only due to the grow dots.

 

[wil2279]

Ok quick update.. I went ahead and ordered a few digital moisture meters so I can better water when needed. OK, so here is the 2x4 at week 3. I did a little leaf tucking on a few of the plants today.

Blackberry Kush in soil with grow dots.

Cookies Kush in coco loco and grow dots.

Red Gorilla Girl in coco loco and grow dots.

Then we have the big tent

First we have our little deformed Critical Orange Punch in ocean forest without grow dots that is looking more normally now.

Next is the Purple Punch OG also in ocean forest without grow dots.

The Runts in ocean forest without grow dots.

And lastly the runts in coco loco with grow dots

 

[wil2279]

So up until now i am still running my tents without an air exhaust fan or intake fan of any kind. Just the exhale bag and circulation fans. I am actually waiting for a couple of 4" ac infinity inline fans. I will run those to help maintain temps and humidity only. They should be here in a few days. The lung room will get a 6" fan and carbon filter. Next year i will switch that to an 8" fan and filter. I will keep the 6" as a backup in case of emergency. The small tent is pretty much exactly where I'm trying to keep it. Around 75° and 65%. I know these are not optimal numbers. Optimal for veg would probably be around 82° and maybe 70-75%. I'm not shooting for optimal, I'm shooting for the low end of optimal. When I am in flower I will try for more optimal conditions. Maybe 73-75° and between 45 & 55%. I don't want to run my heater of humidifiers harder than I need to. Keep in mind I'm not a heavy smoker. I smoke occasionally on my days off. So I'm going for quality over quantity.

The big tent was running a little high on temps and humidity. Closer to 80° and 75-85%. So i did open up one of the openings towards the top of the tent and point a fan at it, in an attempt to bring those numbers down a little. After a little tucking and a very light defoliation of a handful of leaves blocking prime bud sites yesterday , the girls are looking healthy and happy today. I took a handful of leaves from the very bottom of some plants that were basically laying on the soil, as well as a few that were laying right on top of some other bud sites. After watching some videos from guys who grow a ton of autos, they said a lot of their best plants came from just light defoliation and letting the plants do their thing. This is what I am shooting for in this grow. Hopefully no topping or supercropping. Just some light defoliation for airflow purposes.

 

[wil2279]

Ok so unless some of my plants take an unexpected long time to start flowering, I will not be using recharge again this grow. The manufacturer only recommends use during veg because the microbes are mostly for vegetative growth. I was planning on using the mammoth P microbes for flower, but I am having a hard time locating a smaller bottle and the large bottles are crazy expensive. So I am going to give this a try in flower.

It's not a big brand and I don't have a lot of faith, but it was priced reasonably and options were oddly limited for microbes specifically for the flower cycle. So I'm giving it a shot. I will try to top water lightly with these microbes once every week or 2 during flower. We are well into this grow and im starting to get excited now that plants are showing sex and starting to stretch a little. Still nothing compares to the flower phase and watching your buds form and get fat.

 

[Oscarzuma]

I use recharge thru veg and flower. Their website doesn't say to stop during bloom. Talking about Real Growers Recharge.

 

[wil2279]

I use recharge thru veg and flower. Their website doesn't say to stop during bloom. Talking about Real Growers Recharge.

Well for the life of me, I can't say where I heard to only use it in veg. I listen to so many podcasts and YouTube grow channels, it's hard to say. I will say that wherever I heard it, it had to be from someone who's opinion I value. And since I already ordered and have the RAW bloom microbes, I'm going to give them a shot.

 

[wil2279]

We will see what happens in the fall. I am not sure how crazy I am about the ac infinity self watering bases. Being totally honest here. I am pretty good when it comes to germinating seeds, growing seedlings, most aspects of growing, I do well with, but I am horrible at watering full grown, or growing plants past the seedling stage. That probably why I am so good at the seedling stage. I tend to under water... even when I know I under water. I may have to go back to my earthboxes or, give the auto pots a try. I do like the looks of the tray to grow with the large 36" wide bed. I like the idea of autos in 3-5 gallon grow bags with grow dots.

I guess I have always been looking to be more hands off with my grow. Earthboxes are great, my plants just got so big last time. Maybe I just need to accept bigger plants. I grew some pretty good sized cherry tomatoes and early girls in earthboxes outdoors last summer. Also the pepper and squash plants. Maybe I just need to acknowledge what I am good at and just go with that and stop trying to grow other ways.