@AnneBonny Totally get patience, but you are right. It is hard to have patience. There is a good chance they will still come to surface. What makes it particularly hard is deciding if I should start another seed. If number three and four both sprout, it is a waste of a seed. If they don’t sprout, another seed would help and everyday I wait is a day longer a new seed has to go. Oh the dilemmas!
Also, on the topic of number of plants. How many autos should I try to grow in a 3" x 3" x 69" tent?
I suspect this is why so many people use paper towel sprouting: You can see exactly what the seed is doing. You just have to be very gentle when you plant the new sprout.
Comfortably I would say 4 (in 5 gal pots), this will give them room on all sides for growth. That being said, you could do 9 (in 3 gal pots) uncomfortably, which would be very crowded and fighting for light, wouldn’t recommend for a beginner.
For that size tent I honesty wouldn’t do more than 3 or 4 plants because I believe that if the plants get too crowded in the tent you end up having to fight stuff that you might not have to in a less crowded tent. I started out with 6, harvested the 2 smaller WW Autos and 4 in 5 gal pots was about all the tent could handle without doing all kinds of crazy plant acrobatics to ensure adequate light to the whole plant
I have two plants in my 39"x39"x79" tent, I think 4 would be really tight.you would be fighting to access your back plants once they matured.with the info I learned from this site I should be able to make my plants quite abit wider on my second grow, so I don’t have to worry about height. I have to tie one of my plants now because of height
@AnneBonny I couldn’t stand it any longer and very, very, very carefully unearthed number three and number four. One showed no sign of sprouting and the other had a slightly raised bump that was a light in color. It looked like it might be starting to sprout. So, I put the one that looked like it might be sprouting carefully back in the ground. The other one I put in a container with a new seed and moist paper towel to see if I could sprout one or both.
@1BigFella I wanted to start them in their final pot so they would never get stressed from being moved. However, I will now germinate in paper towel so I can see what is happening. I don’t suspect moving from the paper towel to dirt will stress them at all and I will be able to monitor what is going on.
@Ron330 Thank you for your reply. It is consistent with my thoughts, but I appreciate the input.
@BobD1 Are those autos? I am guessing not. My understanding is that autos don’t grow as big. I am only doing autos this grow because I want a quick harvest. And since I don’t want to grow over the summer, I will likely do autos again after this. Then I plan on doing SCROG with two feminized regulars.
You can get away with a bit more with autos, DEPENDING ON THE STRAIN. My grow space is 4 X 6 feet and IMHO is room enough for 3 photo period plants. But I’ll get 1/2 to 3/4 pound from each.
@Myfriendis410 Nice yield! Regarding your comment on strain: I understand. However, I can’t seem to get any definitive info on height and width of AK47 or Jackpot autos. It would appear that Jackpot gets a little taller than AK47 as the AK47 it would seem tends to be a bit on the smaller side.
Regarding photo-period plants, I am thinking the size can be dependent on when you flower. This is actually a great feature. You can sort of size your plants to the grow space. I read and saw pictures of a someone that used sixteen plants in a relatively small space (don’t remember size, but I think 2’x4’) to make a really nice SOG. If my memory serves me, they went into flower after only one month. It seems like a great way to go if you have a lot of seeds and your local law doesn’t involve the number of plants grown. Since I don’t have many seeds and the law here is affected by plant numbers, two under SCROG seems to me the best way to make a nice bed of buds.
In your case, it would seem you are growing your 3 plants fairly large before putting them into flower. How long do you let them go between first leaves to flowering? Do you do anything to them or just let them grow?
Also, I find it interesting that one of your plants would get almost the same square feet as my tent and I was hoping when I do photo-period plants to get 200g to 250g of bud. So, just under what you have been getting, but with two plants.
@Medforme, I have a home built 4 X 6 X 6 foot Styrofoam grow box in my garage because I wanted a rigid structure that was easier to maintain in the garage. Lighting is 1,300 watts of led’s at the plug of a variety of different units bought over time. In fairness though, I supplement my light every chance I get by putting them outside for free sunlight.
If you are interested, I’ll tag you in on my journal. I’m currently running a Jack Herer and 2 Gold Leaf in coco.
I’ve got no experience with autos because I like having more control, and generally the potency is higher with photos.
As for size, my last 3 plants were only 36" high but the SCROG on the Sour Diesel measured 29" X 36" and was completely populated with colas. I got 3/4 pound from her. Those were harvested at exactly 4 months. I’ve done 6 footers but they’re a pita lol. SCROG is king. I use it with supercropping and get more tops than anything else. One note: one SCROG per plant.
My seedlings are coming up on a week old and they are doing great. Right now I am running one 300w LED (135 tru) at about 20" (just lowered it from 26"). When should I turn on my second light (same light)?
Also, I plan to get one more light and am debating on getting a 250W HPS or 450W LED. Any thoughts?
@Medforme, you can run for the first 6 weeks on 1 of those led’s. I use a 300 watt Meizhi for my seedlings and veg. Once they’re about a foot tall I have to introduce a second light only because the canopy has spread out.
As they get into veg you can lower the lights quite a bit. I’ve had my plants 4 or 5 inches from those lower wattage led’s, later in veg.
I don’t have any experience with MH or HPS so I can’t really offer any advice. I like led’s and I’m getting good yields. Rule of thumb is 50 watts per square foot for MH/HPS and 35 for led’s.
@Myfriendis410 I am wondering if you are thinking regular photo-period plants and don’t mean to second guess you as I appreciate your input (and everyone else). However, mine are autos, so they will be almost half way through their life by 6 weeks. Seems I would need two earlier.
Now have a third sprouted seed in the ground. I am not sure if it is the new one or number 3 from the original plant, but it is a Jackpot. I dug-up number 4 (AK47) and it looks exactly the same, so I threw it into the moist paper towel with the other one. It is kinda funny because I was leaning towards all AK47, but thought it might be good to diversify. Now I have two Jackpot and one AK47. Hopefully, number 4 will sprout so I will have two of each, but at least I have three total.
I have gave up on #three and #four. #four even had a whitish color, like it is starting to rot. I did, however, sprout another AK47 in towel, which I just planted (#six). So, there are now four in the ground, but the last one is going to be eight days behind. #five has not popped the surface, but I can see the dirt bulging where it was planted. #one and #two are both doing well.
Damn! #6 poked through the soil this morning, but it has lost its head! The seed with the cotyledon inside snapped off. Now I am back to three (#1, #2, and #5). Given that I am now 13 days into the grow, it seems too late to start another one as it would be so far behind.
@Medforme, look closely at #6: it’s entirely possible that she carried the seed husk up with her.
The number of lights you will ultimately need will be dictated by your canopy. I get 6 weeks or so into the grow before they need more than 1 light.
Not exactly sure of the true definition of what the difference between seedling and veg is but for me it’s when I’ve got a good sized set of true leaves going. Usually the 3rd or 4th node or so.
@Myfriendis410 Unfortunately, I found the seed husk next to the protruding “headless” stem.
Also, I looked at definitions for seedling and veg. They vary, with some saying they are in veg from the time the first leaf appears, but that is not helpful. However, more related to what I am after, many definitions say it is when the first set of full leafs are out, which corresponds to the 3rd or fourth node as you indicated.
@Myfriendis410 Do you grow in pot stages, e.g. seedling pot and transplanted to a grow pot? Mine are in the grow pot, which means they are relatively far apart (about 15"). One light does not seem to cover this much area (or you could say the light directly above a seedling is much brighter than on the seedling next to it). So, I am rotating the lights so that the light above each one is on 9 of the total 18 hours. When the third light arrives I would switch to 6, 6, and 6 hours over each of the three seedlings I now have, unless it is better to have two or three going all the time. You can see my set-up in the pic posted previously.
Yes! Excellent point and I never thought of asking. It’s a good practice to transplant up as it helps to dry a smaller volume of soil out when they’re small, and you can crowd them in together. Solo cups work if you poke a gazillion holes in them first. A nifty trick is to nest a clear one inside of a red one and you can monitor root growth without digging. That tip thanks to @Wishingilivedina420state. There are many reasons why transplanting is safer than starting in big pots.
In your case a second light might be a good idea. @Medforme
@Myfriendis410 Always learning - hopefully. I would have done a progression for exactly the reasons you pointed out. However, I decided to go this route to minimize any stress on the autos. I will take the risk of stressing them from transplant if I grow autos in the future.
Regarding autos, I really no longer see much advantage to autos. There is so much more control with photo-period plants. If you want a fast harvest, just veg them for less time. It seems like the grow is more important with autos, not less, because you can’t afford any stress. So, the idea that autos are easier seems misguided - wow, you don’t have to change the light cycle. That is sooo hard.
