Hello all. I am new here and new to growing as well. 6 days ago my 2 BB autos broke ground and I wanted to start a status thread for myself and others. I also wanted to get the opinions of any past and present growers of BB autos also. Thanks for your input in advanced!
So in pot 1 I am growing in a 3 Gal pot using a 3”x4” hole with Happy Frog dugout within Ocean Forrest. Pot 2 has the same hole of Happy Frog with Coco Loco around it. One week ago tomorrow these girls were just popping up. A fun journey already!
Thanks! I’m doin ok. Gotta be honest, I’m still leaning pretty hard on the boards and other growers. This B.Banner run was an education in nutrients and how to gently increase the dose. The GDP from my first grow took full dose nutes in stride, the Bruce Banner did not like that so much.
Good to know! Have been researching the exact same subject recently and was wondering how to approach nutrients with BB. When did you start feeding and I’m sure you pulled back on the dosage rate huh?
I will be getting runoff readings in the near future, but I am debating to just let the FFOF soil do its thing and not use extra nutrients. The FFCL is a different beast and I’m not sure how to approach that one just yet. At this point I am just concentrating on microbial activity using Recharge and Dynomyco. Got to admit, it’s hard to resist not giving them nutrients though. You want the best for them! Just don’t want to over do it though!
Welcome to the community ! your seedlings look great. Been a couple years since I had any blueberry autos, I do recommend to top or Fim at 4 or 5 nodes they Tend to grow tall. After you cure the buds truly do have a blueberry aroma. Good luck
Thanks so much! Great advise! I have noticed Bruce Banner autos do get leggy w/o FIM. Looking forward to that stage!
Probably helicopter parenting, but some leaf tips are curling slightly. I moved my fan away further and will scale back watering frequency and see how they respond. Trying to be as proactive as possible with them rather than being reactive when it’s too late…
Wise. I have read that in vegg you do not need to water as frequently (allowing for a cycle of wet to dry)
I started feeding in the 4th week. I was not keeping good track or I would have waited till the 5th week (using FFOF start to finish). I started at half dose for one feed then Full dose which burned Fialova hard not so much the others but I did give nitrogen toxicity to 2 out of 4. (Super dark green and leaves that bend downward half way up the finger. Untreated this turned into full clawed very narrow new growth. My light was also very close at 14 inches and I would later find my soil ph pretty low. Combined this reeked havoc on Fialova. Only just now getting her back on track. I’ve gathered from the boards here that most nute companies (not all) recomend double if not more then double the actual required level of nutes in order to sell you more nutes, on top of that, it is important to note that even Fox Farm, is NOT made just for Marijuana. It’s a fertilizer for all plants so it may be giving too much of one nute or another in the schedule at the wrong time so its a good practice to start low and work up. Especially with autoflowers. Most common advice for nutes and auto’s Less is more.
Lights too close and wind too strong and over/underwatering can cause leafs to curl up at the tips. Looking forward to more from your fine ladies.
Yeah, I raised the lights also. My gut tells me it’s too much water along with the fan being too close. I had a fixed fan only 20” away constantly blowing make them dance a jig. I moved the fan back to around 40” which now creates a gentle wind on them every now and then vs the tropical storm winds that they were experiencing before. Then with the water, in one week I watered them 4-5x. Again, learning that less is more was hard for me to grasp in the beginning. I am learning quickly now though. The nature of the game no doubt!
So I would love to get anyone’s opinion on something. So with nutrients ppm is obviously important. If my tap water reads 102 ppm, I add nutrients and that 102 is calculated in to the desired target ppm correct? So from my understanding, that 102 ppm is a mystery as to what it contains. Am I right?
Today I collected rain water and out of curiosity I measured the ppm. I got a reading of only 4. Would it be advantageous to use rain water for nutrients since the ppm is so low? In other words, their is less margin for error and the added nutrients will be more accounted for and accurate. I know exactly what I am feeding my plants vs using tap with higher ppm. To boot the pH of the rain water came in at 6.4 which is way better than my 13-14 pH tap water! Of course I am lower the tap pH, but the rain water could really save me some time at 6.4.
I hope I have a grasp on this and don’t come across as a complete moron. Any enlightenment would be great!
Some helpful info, I found along the way. Not from ILGM (although I’m sure you can find this info there as well.) Not sure if it’s cool to link or not but in the name of helping you be successful mods will lemme know if I gotta pull it, by then, you will likely have read it.
As for excess watering (I get it, water = Love right?) go with the lift a pot method. Lift the pot after filling with soil, lift the pot after fully watered, the difference is crystal and you can use that feeling to determine if now is the time to add liquid. As they get bigger, anytime that the buds make the pot feel too heavy (flower heavy plant weighs more then 5 gallons of dry soil) I used a cheap 3 in 1 soil monitor probe. Started comparing my feelings of a dry pot vs the metered readings and found after a short time my “feelings” are as accurate as the probe.
Yes, however you can have a sample of your tap water tested to tell you specifics about its chemical makeup. Standard ppm meters won’t tell you any specifics. (Look into 500 scale 650 scale and 700 scale ppm meters) not all tds/ppm meters read the sample the same. It’s important to know what scale your pen is and what scale your nute regimen uses.
I have read lots of people who use rain water, so it can be used. Advantageous? I can’t answer that. Not enough knowledge in that department. (Wanna be sure about what’s in the rain water right?)
I use RO water throughout. Get it for 0.30 cents a gallon at Wallymart fill station. Use about 2-5 gallons a watering depending on pot size, over 4 plants during flower. A tip about PH and ppm’s- water containing underneath 150-200 ppm will not keep its own PH. To clarify, it will adopt the ph of whatever medium (your soil) you pour it in when the ppm’s are that low. You will want to have the ph of ANY liquid you put in to be ph’d to 6.5-6.8 (for soil)
You are good here, morons are the ones who don’t ask for help.
I recommend you check out Dr.Bruce Bugbee on YouTube.
Watching his video’s is a literal college level course on all things Marijuana. Here is a good one to wet your whistle-
Wow, invaluable information! All of it! Thanks SO much! Looking forward to watching the docs video! Can’t thank you enough for taking the time out to help me!
Still a bit perplexed by the leaves. The over all leaf contour is crooked and no longer straight. Still have not watered and will probably wait a few more days. Also, their growth seems to have slowed. No longer REALLY noticeable growth like days pryer.
Thats normal work being done underground. They will take off before you know it. Don’t sweat the ruffles too much just yet. Part of the reason its light watering in the beginning is if the soil is too damp its more work for the roots to grow through. Be sure to water in a ring an inch or so around the plant. Make the roots hunt the water a lil.
Thanks so much! Seems the ruffles are slowly getting better. A result of the medium drying out and not being so wet I am guessing.
Side note, I’ve scrolled passed Dr. Bruce a thousand times because his videos looked stale and boring. I think the class room environment turned me off a bit, but WOW! This is a whole new level! Such valuable information!!! I am going to start brushing up on more of his stuff now. Thanks so much for the suggestion!!!
So over all, everything is going well with the Bruce Banner auto grow. Finally watered last night after letting them dry out a bit. The few ruffle spots still remain. Would love to know what causes this, but over all I am happy with them so far!
As she gets bigger you will want to not water directly at the stem.
See how this watering ring sits around the stem? Water in a ring somewhere around center space between the stem and the side of the pot.
This will promote root growth, makes the roots look for the water and inhabit more of the pot. Lotsa long strong roots = lotsa strong and wide tops
Side note- the roots directly beneath the plant are considered air roots. When you water at the stem it compacts the soil around those roots essentially smothering the plant. When she is big that spot directly under the plant will stay dry.
