Growlog link: https://growithjane.com/growlog/hk-eddy-fxdp
Auto fem Hindu Kush, first grow
LED lights, indoor, no nutrients but using miracle gro soil in 5 gallon bucket
heated room for 78F and 28-34% humidity (I can’t get the humidity up in the room or tent I even left a bowl of water so maybe it would do something to help but no luck, not sure how high humidity should be in general)
If you look at the most recent pictures I took just a bit ago, the plant is flowering growing bud but I have some issues? This is my first plant and I noticed that the amount of bud and size is really small, and the height of the plant is also rather short (though its a short plant in general but still) I just know that this is really a rather pitiful amount of bud and I’m not sure what to do or if anything can be done? I’m also noticing gnats which is really odd. I’m proud of myself for getting the plant this far but I was expecting more?
I’ve got a seedling of auto fem critical purple that is growing in the same tent in the same setup and I REALLY can’t have another measely grow especially when I have a limited amount of seeds (two or three of crit purple) left. I could use some advice on what to do to improve output and stuff.
Also I don’t really know how to harvest, is there a way to get maybe my plant to produce another round of bud to maybe make up for lack of product etc?
Try foxfarm soil it’s all organic you’ll love the taste after you flush& foxfarm nutrients too and you might want too have like a 315 or 600 metal hailde or another LEDs are only half the wattage like a 1000 led watt is 500 and a 500 led is only 250 watts good lucky buddy don’t give up it took me a few crop’s I’m up here in Alaska
Hi, she looks healthy but a little tall and slim.
Remember that a led lights efficiency is not good to far away, so if your top buds get right amount then the lower buds will get little and be small.
You should probably get som led-strips, small leds or cfl and give the plants lower canopy more light, to grow bigger buds (In addition to flower nutrients)
Also, I would remove the lovest node, but I would also get advice from more than me alone because I do not have much experience. Only alot of knowledge from reading and watching stuff over the years
@pink-hima, how much wattage are you pulling from that led or what type of led is it? You are giving it 24 hour lighting? Why? Plants need the dark to rest too.
Does your Miracle Grow have time release nutrients mixed in? Is that the reason why you were not giving it food?
I would recommend against any soil with time release nutrients as it makes it harder to judge when, what and why to feed. If you want to grow organic, choose a soil like Fox Farms or Blue Sky or even make your own. You can then make a choice between using nutrients (and controlling dosage) or building a soil that does not require anything other than water. But for beginners it is best with commercially available soil.
What pot size is it in? That has a relation to the size of the plant. Your plants look healthy with no obvious signs of distress so in my opinion your setup is working other than the lighting issue. The soil…well…
To answer your question, i read that for a lot of auto flowering plants people did 24hr to get maximum growth from their plant i checked my light and its a 1000watt full spectrum vivosun light, it doesn’t have a timer either so i opted to try the full 24hr go to see how that went but i had the light dimmed to 50% or 500watts for most of the plant life which could def be a factor…
miracle gro is time released for six months and honestly this is my first plant ever, they’re in five gallon buckets.
A lot of my issues I feel are just from lack of experience and not being able to get a straight answer from the internet bc everyone seems to say something different. i could really use some solid advice that i dont have to guess about bc my first grow for sure is disappointing in terms of production to what i had hoped for. i know a lot of it is on me but i dont have any clear experience to guide me i could really use a mentor lol
Fair enough. I don’t grow autos so don’t know too much of their growth characteristics and needs.
But for a basic grow, you actually have some options.
First is the drain-to-waste technique where you can use inert media (peat moss or coco is commonly used) and feed the plants from bottled nutes. This can be either organic or synthetic. Your call.
For soil growing there are better commercial soils available. Fox Farms, either Ocean Forest or Happy Frog comes to mind. A good thing about these products is that they also provide nutrients they engineered to work for their soil. I have read good reviews about them.
Then you have the living organic technique wherein you use a soil either commercially pre-mixed (pricey) or mix your own. There are sources available online where you can buy these pre-mixed soil. Just do a search for living organic soil.
The basic premise behind this soil is that you are relying on the decomposition of the amendments you mixed in. This decomposition feeds the microbes present in the soil and are then excreted into a form suitable for the plant’s uptake. Feed the soil to feed the microbes to feed the plants. That’s the reader’s digest version of it. It may sound complicated initially but once you have a mix you feel confident in, it actually becomes boring as the only thing you do is water and trim. No checking PH or PPMs, no mixing mess nothing other than maybe LST.
HTH. Feel free to tag me @canagen if you need any more info.
To address your other concerns, I’ll start with humidity. You definitely need to get that up in the 40-50% range.
With the 5G buckets you are using, the plant should have enough space. Gnats are an indication your soil was too wet at one point in time. You can use mulch like straw or hay to help deter them from getting into your soil. It will also minimize evaporation. You can also have a small fan blowing lightly across the surface of your soil. Gnats have a hard time to land in windy conditions.
Is that a VS1000 you have? If so, it’s 100w max so safe to use at 100%. Generally, recommended heights are 30"+ for seedlings dropping down to 24" for veg and further lower to 18" during flower.
Lastly I don’t know if autos can and will handle re-vegging after harvest. Try it and see. Cheers.
I feel like the downfall was your choice of soil and lack of light as well. In my experience miracle grow soil is great for rose buses and vegetable plants but is nothing but a headache for cannabis. I did a outdoor run with good soil and ran short for the last 3 plants and couldn’t get ahold of the same stuff so I used miracle grow for them, from seedling to harvest I had little to no issues with the grow except the 3 that were in miracle grow, they were also about 3 ft shorter than the other 17. Do some research on you light model and how to find a led lights sweet spot. I also advise what everyone else said, side lighting is very helpful when using a led light up top. @pink-hima
Don’t cut your power to 50% . I read in an article that all your doing is losing efficiency! A 1000w bulb on 50% don’t dive you 500 watts, it runs at half of what is made to do! I think that would help you out a lot!
Well on my other plant I’m growing I’m now on 100% lighting it’s a different strain so hopefully this one will go better but another thing I was wondering is how to harvest my plant? It’s an auto and it’s getting lots of amber hairs now I’ve got a jeweler thing to look at it but I don’t know how to harvest it, I’d like to try revegging it if at all possible but I’m so so in the dark on how to even harvest lol
It depends on the type of high your wanting from the flower, if harvested when all the thrichomes are milky which give you a moderate uplifting high, or when all the trichomes are milky and you see 15-25% of the trichomes have turned amber colored it will give that classic powerful punch that will lock you into the couch. Most growers harvest when they see 15-25% amber. With your jewelers loupe check the trichomes instead of the hairs. When most hairs are orange that’s when you know your close but the correct way to tell for sure are the trichomes themselves.the photo below breaks it down, photo 1 is not ready and will be small yield and weak effect photo 2 is ripe enough to give the uplifting high with larger yield and photo 3 is the heaviest yield and heavy hitting time to harvest. Photo 3 is what 90% of people what and like. Hope this helps @pink-hima
Wet or dry trim is preference but I fell wet trimming is faster and easier. When harvest comes you can cut off all the large fan leaves before hand and then whole branches off and trim the sugar leaves off and save em for concentrates or edibles the hang them upside down on a line or cut the buds off and lay them on a drying net ( I feel nets make flat spots myself) On this site check out posts about drying techniques and curing techniques, we’ve had multiple topics breaks by them down by experience and preference. @pink-hima
(In addition to flower nutrients)
