[Auto-Flower] A few questions about medium, feeding, and growing.

[Growth]

The first autos we grew did not go too well. We either overwatered or our medium was delivered with gnats. We had a flan blowing directly on a plant causing wind burn. We had the lights too strong causing light burn. We had one plant that looked like a tiny little bush. It was a very strange grow.

I'm hoping you guys could give me some tips and answer some questions.

For my next grow I plan to grow six Purple Lemonade auto-flowers. It will be my second attempt at auto-flower growing.

My plan is to grow 6 in a 4x4 tent.

First Question
Is this medium and feeding going to work well?

1. Royal Gold Tupur Fertilizer in 5 gallon pots.
2. Worm Castings mixed in.
3. Fox Farms feeding for each stage by foliar spray.

Second Question
How do I make sure my seedlings sprout and survive?

Each time I grow I directly into soil I lose about half of the seeds. On top of that, often the seedlings become tall and fall over, even with the light right above them.

So how do I ensure the seeds sprout and how do I keep them green, healthy, and not tall and fall over?

Third Question
How much do I water at each stage?

Last time I watered 10% of the volume of the bag, which is .5 gallons per plant. At the start with the seedlings of course I did less. Though I'm not sure how to water a tiny seedling in a large pot. This is still only my second time with autos and I know it's hard on them for transplants so I start them in the bag they'll grow in.

So how much should I water a plant in a 5 gallon bag from seedling to flowering?

Fourth Question
How do I know how close and how much light to give at each stage?

The AC Inf. tent kit I bought doesn't tell you how strong each "level" is and there are 10 levels.

I don't have a light meter and don't really have the money to buy one because they're expensive. So how do I know how much light to give at each stage and how close the light should be?

---

Questions aside, does anyone have tips for me? This will be my 6th grow ever and 2nd auto-flower. The first autos didn't go too well. The buds came out amazing (low yield sadly) but the plants looked horrible.

I'd love any information you guys can give me. I'd really just love to finally grow nice perfectly green healthy plants like I see the more experienced growers do. I'm really trying to learn.

 

[Gmix]

I will give you a few tip and ask a couple of questions as there’s a lot of information I will find it easier to figure a few things

Soil has organic stuff that breaks down and leaves a smell that gnats love

If your room isn’t sealed and you introduce any organic matter it’s heven for gnats inc worm castings ect ect

Leaving dead foliage around will attract them.

Gnats don’t just appear because of overwatering

Gnats are easy to get rid off however there are various methods out there that claim to work that in real life end up only control a small infection

The only way I’ve found to totally get rid off them are to use nematodes

Onto the question I ask and that’s your light what wattage is it

Are you germinating before you put them in soil and are you feeding the seedlings

About the light you can get a lux meter from your App Store should be one that’s free and convert lux to par ( I know some know how to do it I don’t ) or buy a cheap par meter

I go by eye and don’t know loads about par readings and what’s good for each stage if someone doesn’t tell you then just Google it allbeit someone probably will.

Now I need a joint

 

[Growth]

I will give you a few tip and ask a couple of questions as there’s a lot of information I will find it easier to figure a few things

Soil has organic stuff that breaks down and leaves a smell that gnats love

If your room isn’t sealed and you introduce any organic matter it’s heven for gnats inc worm castings ect ect

Leaving dead foliage around will attract them.

Gnats don’t just appear because of overwatering

Gnats are easy to get rid off however there are various methods out there that claim to work that in real life end up only control a small infection

The only way I’ve found to totally get rid off them are to use nematodes

Onto the question I ask and that’s your light what wattage is it

Are you germinating before you put them in soil and are you feeding the seedlings

About the light you can get a lux meter from your App Store should be one that’s free and convert lux to par ( I know some know how to do it I don’t ) or buy a cheap par meter

I go by eye and don’t know loads about par readings and what’s good for each stage if someone doesn’t tell you then just Google it allbeit someone probably will.

Now I need a joint

We did in fact leave lots of the trimmings on the ground and leave one of the tent holes open for airflow, so maybe that is what caused the gnats. But they were ferocious. It was like opening a tent to a swarm of locusts the first time we found them. Though... out of 6 grows this was the first one to ever have them. Others said the soil could've come with eggs in it, but I guess we can never be sure. They were really hard to deal with though.

We use the "IONBOARD S44 – LED Grow Light Board 400W" that comes with the AC infinity tent kit as our light. We started it at 5/6-10 and realized that's way too strong even at flowering stage, so I'm not sure why they have that high of a setting, but I'll try the lux meter.

We were not germinating the seeds before putting them into soil at first. Then we did the shot glass/paper towel method for the last few seeds and those seemed to have higher survival rate.

and finally, yes we are feeding them with Dr Earth mixed into the medium and sprayed some water on them and kept it really humid.

 

[Gmix]

If you brought the soil from a garden centre they’re store the soil outside well at least in the uk they do that’s the reason I stopped buying from garden centres as they can come with bugs and mushroom spores.

I got away with it years ago for a while wondering why on earth folks would pay £8 a bag from the hydro when I could get it for £3 a bag from the g.c then I brought a bag of soil filled with gnat eggs. now know why it’s worth the extra as the hydro stores store it inside.

Still even then you can get gnats especially when if grow with organically witch I do. my last grow room i would get them all the time and tried everything under the sun bar chemicals I tried nematodes and they got muched right up within days

Lucky in my new room I haven’t had any.

It seems like you understand we’re you went wrong and have made changes to correct them

The dr earth I need to read about more however you shouldn’t feed seedlings
Did you mean you were adding it once they were in veg and not seedling stage.

You have enough light so the seeds shouldn’t be stretching and falling over
Sometimes the odd ones not anchored itself well enough and will in that case I just pile a bit of extra soil around it still that’s only the odd one and shouldn’t be happening to them all.

There’s two possibilities I can figure that are leading to then stretching and falling over one is when your watering the seedlings are getting up rooted, some here use misting bottles to water instead of a jug on seedlings to water the soil so that doesn’t happen
The other would be your keeping the temp to high as stems will stretch if the temperature exceeds 85f

As your growing only autos you need to be on top of them from day one as you probably know any stress at all and the end result is a low yeild

Overwatering is one of the biggest problems however when we say overwatering we are more talking about the frequency than the amount if that helps you figure the watering side

Lift the pots dry get used to how light it feels when the soil is actually dry use a finger if it feels moist Then there’s probably enough water to last till the next day

I would say try photo periods as there much more forgiving but I guess there’s a reason to only grow autos

 

[Growth]

If you brought the soil from a garden centre they’re store the soil outside well at least in the uk they do that’s the reason I stopped buying from garden centres as they can come with bugs and mushroom spores.

I got away with it years ago for a while wondering why on earth folks would pay £8 a bag from the hydro when I could get it for £3 a bag from the g.c then I brought a bag of soil filled with gnat eggs. now know why it’s worth the extra as the hydro stores store it inside.

Still even then you can get gnats especially when if grow with organically witch I do. my last grow room i would get them all the time and tried everything under the sun bar chemicals I tried nematodes and they got muched right up within days

Lucky in my new room I haven’t had any.

It seems like you understand we’re you went wrong and have made changes to correct them

The dr earth I need to read about more however you shouldn’t feed seedlings
Did you mean you were adding it once they were in veg and not seedling stage.

You have enough light so the seeds shouldn’t be stretching and falling over
Sometimes the odd ones not anchored itself well enough and will in that case I just pile a bit of extra soil around it still that’s only the odd one and shouldn’t be happening to them all.

There’s two possibilities I can figure that are leading to then stretching and falling over one is when your watering the seedlings are getting up rooted, some here use misting bottles to water instead of a jug on seedlings to water the soil so that doesn’t happen
The other would be your keeping the temp to high as stems will stretch if the temperature exceeds 85f

As your growing only autos you need to be on top of them from day one as you probably know any stress at all and the end result is a low yeild

Overwatering is one of the biggest problems however when we say overwatering we are more talking about the frequency than the amount if that helps you figure the watering side

Lift the pots dry get used to how light it feels when the soil is actually dry use a finger if it feels moist Then there’s probably enough water to last till the next day

I would say try photo periods as there much more forgiving but I guess there’s a reason to only grow autos

Well we add the Dr Earth with the soil which I forgot to mention. So we germinate in a paper towel, and then put them in the 5 gallon pot.
We lower the light and it stays about 75-80F and we do water with a misting bottle and keep the humidity high.

We have been lifting to see if they need watering. Once they leave the seedling stage we start watering .5 gallon until flowering where we give them about a gallon. Watering has always been an issue for us. Not knowing how often or how much at each stage.

Watering and light seem to be our issue. Unless the fact that we put the seedling inside soil mixed with nutrients is a bad thing. Then we didn't know that, but we were told to start growing them in the 5 gallon pot instead of transplanting from a smaller pot because autos don't do well with the stress.

We actually followed a guide that told us how to make our medium and grow the seedling in the final pot. Which has nutrients mixed in.

I'm surprised how difficult this still is after 6 grows. I see people with 6 perfectly green plants shoved into a 4x4 and we can't keep 3 plants from yellowing all over and looking sickly.