Noob Diary(Blue Dream Autos...maybe?)

[msm187]

Strain
Blue Dream Auto(3 seeds)

Equipment
Mars Hydro 32x32x63 Tent
Maxsisun MF2000 Light
VIVOSUN 4 Inch 190 CFM and Carbon Filter
OPULENT SYSTEMS 5-Pack 5 Gallon Grow Bags
Vicks Ultrasonic Hunidifier + 8 Feet - Washing Machine Drain Discharge Hose
Inkbird IHC200 Humidity Controller

Soil Mix
20% Fox Farms Strawberry Fields(Layered in the bottom of bags)
40% Fox Farms Ocean Forest*
40% Fox Farms Happy Frog*
(All with extra perlite mixed in)
*Mixed evenly to fill bags

Nutes
House + Garden Starter Kit

Notes
This is my first solo grow. 22yrs ago I helped a neighbor turn a hidden basement room into a grow room and we grew several pounds, but he was in charge of it and I did very little outside of some watering and helping to burn up the final product over the next few months. I have limited experience with plants but am very experienced growing psilocybin cubensis mushrooms, not sure if they are harder to maintain than cannabis but I’ll be sure to give my thoughts post grow. I suspect cannabis will be tougher as most of the work with shrooms happens at the beginning, then it’s wait for the mycelium to cover the grains, then transfer to pasteurized coco and wait again. Gnats and mold are the enemies that can ruin a grow. Don’t have to worry about nutrients, burn, PH, lockout, etc.

Diary
4/23/2022: Tent setup

4/24/2022: Seeds Soaked in tap water and h202 for 24hrs then into a paper towel. Only 1 showed tap root.

4/27/2022: Taproot at 2.3cm. Put in final pot, watered and covered with solo cup. Tent temp at 77f and 68% humidity.

4/29/2022: Still no tap roots on other 2 seeds. Starting to think they are DOA. Have photo seeds on the way so might be taking a hard turn on this grow.

4/29/2022: Took the cup off the baby to see if it had done anything. Saw a little bit of a seedling that’s trying to get itself upright. Should I leave the cup on it for now or give it some light to stretch towards?

4/29/2022: Replaced the solo cup with a wet glass(gonna go pick up some clear plastic cups later today). She stood up after a few hours.

4/30/2022: Leaves on the seedling still haven’t spread out yet. She’s looking fine otherwise. Humidity in the tent up to 78%(Probably higher under the clear cup that’s still covering it), temp at 76F, light at 5200lux about 24" away.

5/1/2022: humidity holding >80% in the tent, and she’s doubled in height over the past two days. Leaves still haven’t stretched out though.

5/1/2022: Took a pair of tweezers and very gently touched the leaves and they sprung out. looks like part of the seed shell was still stuck to them both keeping them together.

5/2/2022: Checked on her this morning and the leaves are curling down on the edges. Should I be concerned? Is this a water issue or light? Normal?

5/52022: New beans arrived in the mail today. Dropped 2 in water to hopefully get them in dirt within a couple days to use the other two pots I had prepped. These two are photo seeds from a breeder here. (Strawberry Diesel x Space Dude) x White cherry Truffle. Hoping they catch up with the auto quickly since they’re all going in the same tent.

5/6/2022: Auto still growing with no visible issues.

5/7/2022: Got tails on the two SD x SD x WCT beans.

5/8/2022: Put the two beans in dirt and in a germination kit I bought.

5/10/2022: Looks like the little ones are stretching because this kits light is weak AF. Put them in the tent.

5/11/2022: Blue Dream Auto is looking good after two weeks in dirt.

5/11/2022: The two little seedlings are struggling a bit I think. Maybe the shift to the tent light is stressing them, the round leaves are curling down.

5/17/2022: Been a few days since my last update. I started giving the auto a proper watering and nutrients as it is officially in veg. I may have waited too long as the leaves were starting to yellow, but after a good watering and a couple days she started to get some color back. The seedlings are doing well too.

5/21/2022: Been having some issue this week. With the increase of light now that I’m in veg, and the feeding I think I either overdid it on the nutes or it was too hot, or both. The tent was in the high 80’s and the humidity was down to 35% after kicking the fan on. I had the fan on high and it wasn’t cooling the tent well. I had the vivosun fan and filter. So I ordered the AC Infinity Cloudline setup and installed it today.

As far as the possible nutrient burn, I didn’t get pics but I trimmed the two early leaves from my auto, they were all miscolored and curling up bad. I didn’t do a full flush but the past two waterings have been just PH’d tap water, nothing extra, and they seem to be doing better. The auto is still drooping bad though. You can see some of the similar markings on the leaves of the photo plant on the left as well.

5/22/2022: With the changes in temp and humidity it looks like the auto is starting to perk back up. the soil was pretty dry so I gave them all a watering with toned down nutes a few minutes ago so time to see how they react to that.

5/24/2022: She’s very short and bushy. Not sure how I’m going to LST it if there’s no vertical growth. Being an auto I know pruning isn’t recommended, but with as big as the fan leaves are I might have to.

5/24/2022: Went ahead and snipped 2 of the big fan leaves from one of the early nodes. Then I started LST. Seems there’s a pretty big mix of opinions on pruning autos, but the leaves were so big and the plant so short that I didn’t want a big mess of leaves touching the substrate and blocking air flow. Might have to take a couple more in the next few days. 5/24/2022: She’s very short and bushy. Not sure how I’m going to LST it if there’s no vertical growth. Being an auto I know pruning isn’t recommended, but with as big as the fan leaves are I might have to.

[DrGonzo13]

Along for the ride,

[msm187]

Added a pic of progress, need advice on whether I should leave the cup on it or give it some light to stretch up towards. Currently have the light raised to the top of the tent

[Maddawg]

Glad to see your going for it!

Definitely leave the cup off.
There are a few schools of thought here. Some growers cover their seedlings when they sprout to keep the humidity up. I get it! I have been there and done that…
I can tell you from experimenting and experience you don’t need to cover your sprouted seedlings. You just need to make sure they are moist not wet.

This may not always be the case as there are environmental issues that might force one to create humidity for the plant.

[msm187]

the humidity in the tent is holding steady at 68%, and I have a hose running from a humidifier into the tent with the controller set to kick it on if it drops to 55%. I assume it wouldn’t hurt too much to have it higher than 68%, but I don’t want that moisture on the walls and floor of the tent unless absolutely needed.

[Maddawg]

Sounds like your humidity is not an issue.
I would leave the cup off.

I am seeing you are placing the auto seeds directly into their final pot after germination. This can be tricky to gauge water needs of a seedling in a big pot.

I have only grown out One auto. I moved that thing from a solo cup to a one gallon pot. From their it went out to 9x9 pot and then into a 5 gal grow bag. I know they say don’t move autos but… I always test everything I am told not to do… Have been doing that since I was a wee boy!

Do you have any mycorrhiza on hand?

Anyway, I used Myco when I up potted the auto every time. I never once saw the leaves drop or any stress on the plant. Plus that plants finished nicely. I will try to post a pic if I can find the pic.

Edit: I am with @Foreigner “Give it light”

[Foreigner]

Give them light.

I expect the lights should be about 24” from the plant but double check the specs.

[PineScented]

You shouldn’t need the cup at all for germinating, that looks in range for VPD

[AzSeaindooin420]

@Maddawg

Some growers cover their seedlings when they sprout to keep the humidity up. I get it! I have been there and done that…

This is an old growers trick for plants that don’t wanna root in the soil that great and look like they are drying out and dying off, I’ve save ALOT of seedlings putting a dome over em for a few days to stay alive till they successfully root, one of the jacks from my seed run was under a dome for 3 weeks till I got it to take, didn’t matter cuz it got so far behind the others and never showed gender after 2 months I ended up just culling it.

Generally once u see the cotelydons ur best just letting it get light but watch it checking on it every few hours that first day or two if it’s continuing to open and grow then let it get light, if it looks like it’s drying and shriveling then throw a splash of water in the top of a water bottle and dome the seedling for another day or two but still under light

[tiocranius]

Hi, @msm187

Very good initiative to grow your own plant.

Pulling the chair to see your cultivation.

Here in the seedling phase, sometimes the humidity is very low and I make a cupula, but I usually do it with a transparent cup, because that way it still passes light to the plant, in addition to keeping the humidity and ‘‘protected’’ from some pests, in case this is a problem…

[AzSeaindooin420]

I would also be suggesting 3-5 gallon for final grow bag size.

I germinate mine in a solo cup and as soon as it pops do my transplant into a 3 gallon like this.
Dig a hole, insert cup, shake grow bag to level soil, pull cup and will have a perfect mold of what ur gonna drop in, dump cup, drop in the hole, shake bag to level, water the top and some cayenne to ward off ants and a label so u know what it is and the date it came up. Doing it like this I bet u will never have a disturbed root ever again

Autos are on a timer, ain’t nobody got time for transplant shock in those first few weeks that’s gonna set the tone for the rest of the grow, best keeping it rolling in soil without it noticing anything changing

Depends on the lights @Foreigner, across the board most suggest 18-24 inches though, I’m usually closer to 18 on my indoor stuff

[Foreigner]

I looked at the specs and they were maxing 1000 in the middle at 18” and took a guess.

[AzSeaindooin420]

Forgot to upload the pics, got it updated lol

[msm187]

Thanks everyone, she’s standing up now

[Rogue]

@msm187

Soil Mix
20% Fox Farms Strawberry Fields(Layered in the bottom of bags)
40% Fox Farms Ocean Forest*
40% Fox Farms Happy Frog*
(All with extra perlite mixed in)
*Mixed evenly to fill bags

Nutes
House + Garden Starter Kit

Notes
Don’t have to worry about nutrients, burn, PH, lockout, etc.

Bit confused here.
Seems like a decent soil mix that really doesn’t need nutes.
You can replenish your soil with kitchenscraps and covercrops.
Doesn’t get any cheaper or easier than that.

[msm187]

Probably won’t use most of the nutes that I got in that kit. The rep who gave them to me is supposed to be sending me a feeding schedule for autos with some edits for what I don’t need with this soil mix. It was free also. I’m not into composting and don’t have any cover crops, I’m in a duplex, lol. The video I got this soil mix from said that by the time the plant hits flowering it will need some amendments, I’ll have to go back and rewatch it because I can’t remember what they added but they mentioned it several times.

[msm187]

Morning update: Leaves on the seedling still haven’t spread out yet. She’s looking fine otherwise. Humidity in the tent up to 78%(Probably higher under the clear cup that’s still covering it), temp at 76F, light at 5200lux about 24" away.

[msm187]

She’s getting taller, but the leaves are still stuck together. Took the cup off since the humidity in the tent is up to 83%.

[msm187]

Are the leaves kinda curling a concern?

[msm187]

5/6/2022: Auto still growing with no visible issues.