Hey everyone!
Just setting up a “grow log”, if you will. It’s my first time growing and my first post on this forum. Looking forward hearing from you all, any tips and criticisms are welcomed here.
To start off, I’m using this first grow as an experiment and I decided to grow 2 different strains at once; NYC Diesel and Skunk Kush.
The NYC is an auto-feminized seed and the Kush is just feminized and will go through a photo-period. I planted 2 auto Diesels and 1 photo-period Kush. I didn’t germinate the autos at all, and the Kush I let soak until it sank (7 hours) and then used the paper towel method until it pops. I see it’s an even debate on whether or not to germinate at all, so I’m giving both a try. Without knowing much about plants or growing, my current opinion is: I want to find a healthy medium between “growing is an art” and “let nature do it’s thing”.
I started the ungerminated seeds in 6inch diameter pots, and I intend to move them to 15L (3ish gallon) pots once they break the surface. I heard autos don’t do very well when transplanting, so I’m hoping if I catch them before they make a solid root base it won’t harm them as much?
My soaked seed has not yet popped (it hasn’t even been 24 hours yet and I’m not concerned), but I am going to put that right into a 3gal. pot. I am doing this because I heard starting them in big pots is a waste of nutrients and sometimes harder to amend the soil under these conditions-- but I figured because this is a photo-period plant, I will have time to fix any problems that may occur with this.
Soil: I used a really standard potting soil, and I mixed 1/3 sea compost in with it. I then used Jobe’s organic soil fertilizer with a nutrient break down of (3-7-4). My plan right now is to wait until the seedlings reach about 2 weeks of age before applying Fish Emulsion, nutrient breakdown of (5-1-1). I will be applying the Fish Emulsion according to the bottle directions which says I should do it every 14 days, monthly.
Lighting: I’m tight on space, but I am starting my seeds in a cupboard where I can really contain the heat so they’re warm. I have a small 75W fixture that will ** i think** do the job until I move them to a closet. They will be moved once they get about 7 inches tall. Once in the closet, I will have 4 2ft full spectrum lights in each corner of the closet facing the plants, plus one 1ft full spectrum light hanging above. I have an idea to get bristol-board/project-board/plywood lined with aluminum foil and placed on the floor around the plants to direct light under the canopy. I will have 3 small fans going as well.
I will do a 24/0 light schedule for my autos, and an 18/6 — 12/12 for the Kush, I’m still working out how I will do both at the same time in the same space…may require some “wall” building or even finding a different space for them.
I’m afraid I’ll over-love the plants and kill them. Let me know what you guys think! Love what I’ve read in this community so far. Any warnings or advice would be awesome.
Thanks,
ahhscarynoises 
edits
The kush popped after 14 hours in the paper towel, and that was after the 7 hour soak. I decided to do a larger pot, yet one smaller than 3gal. because the lights for my closet don’t arrive until next week
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i appreciate this approach! just a little perspective id like to share… you may find that cannabis has such a high nutrient requirement and growth rate that many growers need to supplement nutrients and apply training techniques to maintain control over their grow. but many say autos need no intervention besides nutes… youll see 
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Just run the autos with the photos. They don’t care what the light time is.
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That actually sounds like a better idea than essentially rebuilding a closet, thanks! Do you think the 12/12 schedule would hurt the yield on the autos at all?
I was honestly worried I was over doing it already with just the 2 fertilizers. I’m interested to see how the autos go. Thanks for the words, I appreciate it!
I’m still new to growing as well. But lots of people here do it with no ill effects.
I run autos on 12/12 no issues usually yield between 2 and 4 oz
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Perfect! That’s really good to know. Puts it in perspective what I should be expecting under good conditions. Thanks for the tip. I knew this community was a good one.
I just switched my 6-7 week old autos to 12/12.
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DAY 4 – NYC Diesel, pretty proud of this one
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So after 35 ish days i am down to 2/3 plants. Around week 2, I mistook a nitrogen toxicity for a “microscopic infestation” and treated it naturally for that, instead of re-potting. I’ve been told not to re-pot autos but I did anyways since they were already stunted-- pretty sure I lost a couple weeks growth due to not realizing the toxicity sooner! I was so worried about not giving them enough nutrients, that I gave them way too many. After changing the soil they bounced back pretty well. Skunk Kush died because of the toxicity though, one NYC is pretty stunted, maybe 12 inches in height after a month, and my other NYC Diesel is a bit over a foot. I now realize the issue with autos; if my plants were photoperiods, I could just veg them longer and make back the growth I lost. I don’t have that option with autos, so I wish I had chosen photoperiod seeds. THEY ARE BOTH CURRENTLY BUDDING THOUGH so I’m pretty excited. I’m about 3 weeks (estimated) away from the end of the autos lifecycle so we’ll see where it goes. There is a decent amount of bud sites too, so I’m happy that I’ll be getting something out of this grow other than knowledge and a good lesson. I babied the plants wayyyyy too much and I paid for it in the end. The info I gathered from this grow will be helpful in my next NYC Diesel grow.
Check out this trooper at 35 days, after suffering from major nitrogen toxicity and 2 re-pottings. Definitely a resilient auto. I wish I took pictures of how bad the toxicity was because that really would have showcased how impressive her recovery has been.
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DAY 45,
really impressed with how this has turned out so far. I’m surprised I’ve managed to grow anything at all on my first grow. When I re-potted, I didn’t use fertilizers or add any nutrients, since my misuse of nutrients was the reason I was re-potting in the first place. I think I need to master basic growing before I start messing around with nutrients. I also will probably move on to using grow-bags for my next grow instead of these 3gal. recycled jugs, but we’ll see!
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Update on my first grow. NYC Diesel has proved to be a challenge, but I still think this looks pretty decent considering my mistakes! Lovin’ it!
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