Dookie69

Hi Skunk Farm It’s from a local supplier. I assumed I was getting “overseas” genetics but when the seeds arrived they were packed into little plastic vials with tiny printed labels on the inside. Nicely done. I assumed maybe he got bulk and just re packed them. Anyway my first run of 6 seeds produced 6 massive plants, 3 x the normal Auto flower size I’m accustomed to. This raised my first suspicion that something was maybe off with the genetics. (However I hardly LST’d the 6 because of time constraints, so thought maybe they grew normally to about 1m high). Four of the plants are big and producing decent enough buds, and the remaining two seem to be stuck. The other “faulty” plant has stopped at pistols, no bud growth. I’m not going to mention (yet) who the supplier was, I haven’t tried contacting him yet.

I should have culled it ages ago but I’m curious to see what this plant does. It’s meant to be a Gorilla Glue auto. It’s on day 77 more or less. Not a single pistol in site and from what I can see, no male parts either. The others from the batch are already well into flower. Is this hemp? Is it a genetic photoperiod throwback that’s waiting for a 12/12? I’ve been running 18/6 for my auto’s.

You know all about it when you buy bud box. That tent weighs 4 x a normal tent maybe more. Good solid kit.

I’ve seen this sort “dangerous” UV being used in marine fish tanks, where the object is to run a completely sterile environment, ie no good bacteria and no bad bacteria. The light lives in a black tube which forms part of the under-tank filtration system. The tanks have a finite amount of water which pass at a high hourly rate through the UV filter.

The roots can’t be accessed without pulling the whole plant and coco out the pot. So not a good idea with auto’s. Besides, I do t think the root mass is a problem, auto’s only run for a max of 3 months so it doesn’t get much worse than that.

I have a 1,5 x 1,5 BUD Box Pro, a Secret Jardin 160 Lodge and a Mars Hydro 60cmx1,2m. My bud box is amazing especially because it has side windows, so unlike the others, you can partially open and access the inside without unzipping the entire frikkin tent. This is my major gripe about the SJ and Mars. ( in fairness they were cheaper) The Mars was bought just as a drying tent and I must say I’m impressed with the build quality. The bud box was replaced under warranty as the main front zip broke during my first grow. The supplier was very good about it and swapped it for a new one. The replacement is on its second grow and the main front zip on the new one is also a bit iffy so I mostly avoid unzipping it completely. I can’t speak to light leaks since my room is pitch black and I grow auto’s. Overall I really like the bud box pro, love the white interior and the side access windows.

It might be worth looking at diluting with RO water or getting some kind of home RO filter.

Wow that is an insanely high EC for tap water (or borehole water). From what I recall the highest I’ve ever heard of is .05 or .6 EC. Is there an explanation why it went so high so quickly? I’m concerned that there might be some other unwanted “salt” in your water pushing up the EX that much.

There is a way. You can toggle it’s “power-on” state to either on or off, however I don’t know if it compares this to what it was programmed for at the time. It’s fine for fans, heaters etc because they don’t impact on a plant like light does. One thing is for sure, the Sonoff will eventually continue with its schedule after a power fail and return, when a programmed or environmental state is reached.

I’ve seen two schools of thought on flushing to fix something (not the end of life flush, that’s another debate altogether). Some suggest flushing 3 x the volume of your pot with water or a product like GHE / TA Flashkleen. Theory is it will “strip” the media of all salts etc and allow a clean start. Newer thoughts are to flush with what the plant needs at that stage in its life, eg pre-flower, at the correct EC and pH for pre-flower. This serves to flush away excess but at the same time doesn’t shock the root system as much. After growing for a year, I don’t flush anymore. I would if I needed to. But as someone said above, less is more. Don’t overfeed, don’t over water, be ridiculously frugal with feeding and watering seedlings. Keep that coco damp. I’ve also adopted a supplement process to the TA Tri part. I use CalMag, Silica and Epsom salts (on rotation with each new reservoir). Sometimes Biodyne, sometimes Hydrogen Peroxide goes in. All at min (maintenance) dosages and running nutes at 70 to 80% of recommended strength, EC usually between 1.3 and 1.7. I have also started the occasional Epsom salts foliar spray on vegging plants, at a super low EC like 0,2 (that’s with the tap water contributing 0,1 to that) I do this before I see issues, it’s like prevention is better than cure.

I’m still learning the art of growing. From what I’ve learned so far, I would say maybe that bud in your hand is ‘Foxtailing’. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I’m just trying to hone my observational skills. If I’m wrong, then is this how buds fatten up?

No the plants are good, I think. Always room for improvement though.

Yes it is a bit like DWC with that aerated root ball. I think the top layer being dry must “air-prune” or discourage root development there. I’m wondering IF the wicking goes all the way up, would there be roots in that layer, and if there were, would they be significantly useful to the plant. I’m also wondering if having dry coco is in any way detrimental to the lower layers of moist coco especially in terms of Calcium demand…

The roots completely cram into the air dome space. I don’t suppose there is much root activity at the top.

This is a side view of the F1 pulled out of the pot. It was harvested and left in the pot for around 3 or 4 days so it probably dried a bit more in that time before I pulled it out to inspect.

I use Freedom Farms F1 as it comes out the bag. I’m might be wrong but I think the substrate is ok. The plants seem happy with the F1. I have layered the clay pebbles and coco correctly according to Autopot instructions. I have a bag of perlite now, will try it out to see if it helps or not. I’ll also try checking the damp coco level in a late veg pot, maybe the thirsty plant pulls moisture up high as opposed to a harvest- ready mature plant.

I can’t influence the watering, it’s a self regulating bottom feed wicking system. The top third of coco is bone dry, I think having the moisture wick higher in the pot will allow more root development.

My autopot trays in a 1,5m x 1,5m space. Even this is crowded and I’ll probably run 6 pots in future.

Not sure about the nutes etc but some observations on your Autopot setup. It’s very neat, well done. However you are going to need more space between the pots for you plants as they grow well beyond the pot dimensions. Secondly if you intend LST’ing you should consider drilling holes along the outer rim of the pots. Makes it easy to attach training wire. You should also use one of the holes to cable-tie your air pipe securely so it doesn’t get ripped out accidentally when you need to move a pot and forget about the attached air line.

The coco/perlite media in my autopots tends to dry up at the top because the system wicks from the bottom. It was suggested that I use a layer of perlite on top to help retain moisture in the upper layer of coco. The issue with that is since it is so light, it might sort of float away if I need to do a top flush. Whatever I use it can’t be organic, and since I don’t use the media twice, it doesn’t matter if it gets mixed with the coco over time. Has anyone tried fish tank gravel? I refer to the whitish quartz type gravel which has a diameter of 1-2mm. It’s also been suggested to use clay balls (hydraton?) Another idea is a plastic square with a cut-out for the main stem. This worries me a bit as it might not breathe as well as a gravel would. Any suggestions?thanks

Epsom salts is not for treating Calcium deficiency. It’s Magnesium Sulphate, made up of Magnesium, Sulphur and Oxygen.

Dr MJ Coco has a brilliant article and video about this exact topic and more. https://www.cocoforcannabis.com/mixnutes/

I was listening to a podcast the other day featuring the American Autopot rep and he said it’s recommended to keep the layer of clay pebbles to no more than an inch at the bottom of the pot. Any more and your wicking is affected adversely. Mine current pots are all double that, which I will address in future grows. The air domes are great, bring extra air to the root zone.

@marzcanna what medium are you using? Soil or coco?

One of my major concerns with my Autopot watering system is that the top layer of coco is always dry. You read all about how bad it is for coco to dry out, yet Autopot doesn’t recommend top watering in Autopots because they are a bottom-up wicking system, and salts that concentrate in the upper strata are best not flushed downwards towards the root zone. Each 11 litre pot has an air dome to feed air to the root zone. The air dome gets partially buried in clay pebbles between 2.5 and 5cm deep. Then the rest is the medium, in my case Freedom farms F1 which is a craft “soil”, mostly coco perlite with some amendments. Anyway after my last grow I carefully lifted the medium out of one of the pots for some analysis. Here are some pics: This is a side view. The pot had been out of the watering tray for a couple of days, so may have dried out a bit already. Nevertheless you can see three distinct zones, the dry top, the middle being moist coco, and then the bottom layer which is almost always permanently in feed water, this layer is dominated by wet clay pebbles and roots. This is what happens inside the air dome. The roots are almost in a deep water culture here, almost always submerged in liquid with air bubbles from an air pump. Here you see the bottom of the pot with the air dome still in place. I have to say this system seems to work. There is a healthy root mass and surely that’s what matters most. A last fun pic. See how the stem has grown out of the jiffy pellet.