Noob's Second Attempt At First Grow - Tangerine Dream Autos.

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Fangthane

Fangthane

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After having to abort my previous grow, I'm ready to make my triumphant return. I've upgraded my setup a bit: I got a 39"x39"x79" mylar-lined grow tent; a pH meter to try to make my water a bit more palatable to the plants; also picked up some off-brand Pro-tekt silica supplement to try to battle the high temps here. Still using FFOF soil (mixed with some Miracle Gro soil to make it go a bit further. For now, still going with the Dyna-Gro nutes from the aborted grow. After some research, I also decided to get some 3-gallon fabric grow pots to help avoid root binding.

I picked up some Flawless Finish flush solution, since my nutes aren't organic. After reading a bit, it seems there's a bit of a schism over whether or not the epsom salt flush is effective; whether flushing itself is even necessary. Wouldn't mind some current opinions on that. If I can reasonably avoid flushing, while avoiding the horrible taste that supposedly comes when you don't flush the accumulated salts out, I'd love to cut that step out - assuming I can get the little ladies to the point where there's actually something to harvest.

Instead of just using garbage seeds I had laying around, I decided to try to produce something worth consuming. I dropped $40 on 3 Tangerine Dream "auto" seeds from another site. They broke through the soil on 8/15. After about 5 days, they were roughly 3" tall, but the stalks were alarmingly thin and weak. If I'd accidentally pour some water directly on the leaves, the whole damn thing would just flop over and lay along the soil. Not really sure if it would qualify as stretching, since if anything I probably had the lighting closer than I should have. Although I didn't really like the idea of transplanting 5-day-old seedlings, I figured I had to do something. I moved them to a cooler closet and put them in the fabric pots, sprinkled a bit of rooting hormone around the stalks and buried them to within 1/2" of the leaves. In the 5 days since doing that, they seem to have really rallied VERY nicely - I'd say they at least tripled the amount of leaves since transplanting and the stalks are MUCH thicker now.

So, 10 days after going topside, here's what I have today. Compared to 10-day-old plants you guys have dealt with, how do they look?
Noobs second attempt at first grow   tangerine dream autos
Noobs second attempt at first grow   tangerine dream autos 2
Noobs second attempt at first grow   tangerine dream autos 3


P.S. I know I'm long-winded - sorry. I've just generally found that more information is preferable to less.
 
Fangthane

Fangthane

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Your pot seems slightly big for the size of the plant
Do you mean that 3-gallon pots would be too big for adult autoflower plants in general, or that they're too big for the babies that are currently in them? If it's the latter, it wasn't really my intention to transplant them while they're still so small, but the spindly stalks kind of made that decision for me. Considering that autos supposedly don't take the stress of transplanting very well, I didn't want to put them in an intermediate pot and later stress them yet again with a second transplant into the 3-gal pots. If you're saying 3-gal is just too big in general, that would surprise me. It was my understanding that more root room is always better than less.
 
Fangthane

Fangthane

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Most gardeners prefer a small pot so that Roots can reach all the water in the pot
Living in a dry desert region, I'd already become resigned to having to give 2-3 light waterings a day. If nothing else, I'm fairly confident that they're not gonna go thirsty.
 
JWM2

JWM2

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No he meant that the soil might remain too wet and cause root rot or promote fungus growth. You can manage with larger pots but it’s a fine line you have to toe between being too wet and dry.

This is why I’ve created a product called The Growing Pot. It allows you to expand the pot as your plant grows so you don’t need to put the plant through the shock of transplanting. It has numerous other benefits as well. I’m trying to secure funding for it now so wish me luck.
 
Fangthane

Fangthane

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It’s about all the empty soil staying wet while the roots fill in the pot. Wet cold soil is not good for roots
Ah, now I see where you're coming from. At this point, it seems like I'm pretty much stuck with the decision I'd made. They have grown noticably since I took those pics on Saturday, so it would seem there's no obvious damage yet. I'll have to make it a point to concentrate my watering right at the stem; maybe that will help limit water availability to the currently extraneous soil?
 
newh

newh

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If your using FFOF you should be letting the pots get fairly dry before watering.They dont need any nutrients for 30 days at least the FF has plenty.ph your water 6.3-6.5 you should be good.A little protekt wont hurt if your fighting environmental conditions.They look good so far,autos are fun to grow they grow fast if your on point
 
Fangthane

Fangthane

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They look good so far,autos are fun to grow they grow fast if your on point
That's kind of one of my main questions - for being 12 days old, are they roughly the size they should be? Their first week, before I transplanted them, they were getting taller, but not filling out at all. After the transplant, they really seemed to take off. Not sure if that's just how autos work - do shit for a week then go crazy afterward - or if their little change of scenery was the kick in the ass that they needed. I'm thinking (hoping) that the worst of the heat is past, so I moved them back into their tent today.

Anyway, figured I may as well snap some pics and update the thread. Here are the little ladies, as well as all the supplies I have to work with. Gotta do as much as I can with the little I got.

20180827 163704
20180827 163715
20180827 163725
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20180827 164028
 
newh

newh

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They look right on for 12 days.I dont transplant autos they go right in their finishing pots.The autos days are numbered everyday they dont have growth you lose out in the end.When I did autos in soil i soaked the pot when I started then once they got going did the wet dry cycle.Some plants drink faster then others get used to how much your pots weigh wet to dry.You should see hairs by day 30 or so then you can feed them a little,maybe half what it says on your nutes
 
Fangthane

Fangthane

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You should see hairs by day 30 or so then you can feed them a little,maybe half what it says on your nutes
I'm thinking day 30 would be into their flowering phase. When using a soil as "hot" as FFOF for autos, should I just figure on letting the soil do all the work in veg phase, and then go right into my "Bloom" nutes when I finally do start feeding - cutting the "Grow" stuff out completely?

Also, what are your thoughts on LST for autos? The big one is looking like it's getting about the right size to start, if I'm going to try it at all. I'm kinda sketchy on the idea of getting too hands-on with them.
 
newh

newh

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Im not sure how Dyna grow works,you might be missing something if you only use one part.Thats why I said use half what the feeding schedule says and with that just once a week unless they get really big.You probably want to go with a water,water then feed cycle or something like that which might take 10 or 12 days or more,Im not sure of your situation and how quick your pots are gonna dry.After doing the lifting thing for a bit you will get a feel for it
 
newh

newh

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whats this Phototron Protect in the pic?I thought you had Dynagrow Protekt to go with the Dynagrow nutes.I use Protekt its works good for me
 
newh

newh

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yeah,that protect will raise your ph.If you use it with your nutes add it first and mix it well before adding the nutes.You can add it to just your water but watch your ph .You have ph drops to back up your meter?I gave up on meters cheap ones suck and will fuck your plants before you know what happened, drops dont lie lol.
 
Fangthane

Fangthane

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.You have ph drops to back up your meter?I gave up on meters cheap ones suck and will fuck your plants before you know what happened, drops dont lie lol.
At the moment, that meter is all I have, and I have my doubts about just how accurate it is. Last time I used it, I'm thinking it said my tap water is around 7.6. Considering that my last aborted grow flourished (until I had to kill them) and I put zero effort into dealing with pH, I'm thinking that my tapwater's pH can't be that high. Could you link me up with some info about these drops you mentioned?

I've just been using 1.5mL per gallon of the Protect with my water.
 
JWM2

JWM2

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Organic nutes will bring your ph down considerably. My tap water is the same way. It starts in the 7.5-.6 range and once I add in my nutes it goes down to about 6.8. Which is perfectly fine. Let your nutrient solution settle for a day or so before measuring it. If it’s still high then make adjustments from there.
 
Fangthane

Fangthane

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Last edited:
Fangthane

Fangthane

251
63
Organic nutes will bring your ph down considerably. My tap water is the same way. It starts in the 7.5-.6 range and once I add in my nutes it goes down to about 6.8.
I'm thinking my pH meter has to be kinda fucked. It told me that my distilled water was something like 7.8. Next time, I intend to go fully organic, even if just to avoid having to do serious flushing. I'm thinking I saw a certain company that claimed their nutes were "pH perfect" or something like that, so I'm probably gonna go that route for my next attempted grow. By then, I hope to be able to afford something like this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07F1GBRB1/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=A7UNQQ5PZMKZ&psc=1
Soil is looking more and more like a needless expense without any real benefits.
 
sixstring

sixstring

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Welcome fang,please refrain from posting links in each post until you have been here a while and get your post count up.it generates reports the moderation team then has to approve.hard to tell if a new member is just posting a honest link or spamming.thanks.
Thanks. Now I see what you're talking about. I found an 8 oz bottle of the test solution for under , so it's now saved to my Amazon cart. Hopefully, in the next month or so I should have some spare cash to play with. I've been eyeing the Optic 2 LED light, so with a little luck I'll be able to get that also. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075CSX7PL/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?smid=A3TCBWWFZLS3V0&psc=1

I'm thinking my pH meter has to be kinda fucked. It told me that my distilled water was something like 7.8. Next time, I intend to go fully organic, even if just to avoid having to do serious flushing. I'm thinking I saw a certain company that claimed their nutes were "pH perfect" or something like that, so I'm probably gonna go that route for my next attempted grow. By then, I hope to be able to afford something like this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07F1GBRB1/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=A7UNQQ5PZMKZ&psc=1
Soil is looking more and more like a needless expense without any real benefits.
 
JWM2

JWM2

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Soil is actually great. I’ve never had an inkling to do anything hydro related. Other than some aero cloned that turned out to be a huge waste of time and money. I did use a dwc style cloner for a while with decent luck but I don’t think it was necessary. You just need a good soil mix that you can replicate consistently and a good organic fert. I love biobizz personally. Their entire line does a great job. I’ve tried numerous organic ferts with varied degrees of success over the years and settled on biobizz about 10 years ago and have never looked back. But that’s me and my experience with the nutes I’ve tried.
 

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