noob autoflower watering question/problem

[kronicking420]

Hi, I am reading alot about autoflowers because at the moment (my first grow) I have 3 that popped out of soil about a 7 days ago and are only on there second set of true leaves (one has barely begun producing the second set the other 2 have produced a decent sized set) . I cannot take pictures as I don't have a camera at the moment but I believe it is due to watering. I am reading a whole bunch online and it seems to be contradicting. I see people say soak the whole pot before planting and others say water a little bit around the seedling and to keep spraying the top to keep in moist and continue watering with a bigger and bigger circle as it is a big pot for a small seedling. Than I also read people saying to let the soil completely dry and others saying to not let the roots dry out and others say to water when only the top 2 inches are dry (which the bottom is usually damp still). I was wondering if anyone can clear it up as my plants I feel are pretty small from looking at other diaries. The strains I am growing is six shooter from fast buds (the two with the second set of true leaves appeared) and hds uk cheese (only the one set of true leaves are grown the second set are stubs) both 7 days out of the soilless sunshine mix 4. Lights 630watt cmh

 

[kronicking420]

nvm I think it is a heat issue. I have a 630watt CMH and it was 18 inches away. It seemed uncomfortable so I raised it to maybe 24 inches if not a little more. The leaves were also cupping on the sides which made me think it was too much heat.

 

[Moshmen]

Holy cow man move them up more!

 

[kronicking420]

Thanks for the reply. I was wondering if anybody has any suggestions for light height. I am using the powersun 630 watt CMH in the secret jardin 4x4x6.5

 

[MIMedGrower]

I needed my 315 cmh at least 40” away from my week old seedlings in a 3x3.

And for watering potting soil i like it very dry. Alarmingly light with maybe the lowest leaves starting to droop. With a probe style moisture meter reading dry zone 3/4 down the pot towards the root ball. In veg this causes roots to search out more for nutrients and moisture geowing a better denser root ball.

 

[kronicking420]

thank you very much for your replies. I lifted the light to a little over 30 inches and the plants seem to be liking it. I think they should maybe go higher because I see a little cupping but not nearly as bad as before. I also just checked the runoff and the ph is high. I water with 5.9-6.1ph and it came out at 6.9 and the ppm are way to high I believe (they are up in the 700's) so I will have to fix that. I am really lazy so I might skip doing it this time around and hopefully they can handle it. I will have to check out your perpetual grow thread as well. I am curious if anyone has suggestions for light height at the different stages for the powersun 630 watt cmh. Also I am using sunshine mix 4 so I am not sure if the watering technique is different than with soil.

 

[kronicking420]

hey, I just watered my plants and they all started drooping as if over watered. The soil was dry up too my whole pinky going in and there was some moisture under that but not too much but under that probably more. I see lot of people saying to water till runoff about 20% but I maybe got 5% runoff and my plants started drooping like crazy. The pot seems to dry up to the pinky in about 4-5 days (without getting runoff watering small circle around plant) but the bottom soil doesn't seem to dry up with a ambient temperature usually around 77F, Soil temp approx 1/3 down is 70F low RH around 40% using 5 gallon smart pots, powersun 630 watt cmh approx 32 inches from canopy

 

[Moshmen]

Can b normal to droop a little after watering c if she perks up

 

[kronicking420]

almost 2 hours later and they are still the same. I think one even has a burn mark on it that wasn't their before but I am not really sure. I don't really understand how you are supposed to water till 20% runoff but not drown the plant when it is small other than have a good medium which I was told sunshine mix 4 is. Also I wonder if the drooping was caused by me using water ph'd to 5.5ish because my runoff was high around 6.9 ph