Note: Soil is fairly dry, it looks wet as they were misted before taking the picture.
Setup Details:
-2x Viparspectra 1200w equivalent LED lights on veg settings hung ~30” above plants
-8x4 Grow Tent
-440CFM inline duct fan pushing air out of the tent
-40-60% RH, occasionally dipping above or below
-High 70s during day, low 70s at night
-Germinated in peat pellets transplanted into Fox Farms Happy Frog / Perlite mix 80:20 ratio
-Oscillating fan for air movement
-20/4 light schedule
Seeds are:
-ILGM White Widow Auto
-ILGM Afghan Kush Auto
-ILGM Wedding Cake Auto
They were lightly misted for the first 8 days, and got their first real watering 2 days ago. About 3fl-oz of water for each, so very little.
I’m getting frustrated and dejected as this is how my wife and I are planning on eating come May. We’re both more than full-time students living in California so our choice is between this and giving up on our degrees and moving out of state.
Please help us out. What is wrong with our setup? I know they’re not overwatered as they literally got their first watering 2 days ago, I don’t think they’re underwatered as they’re not showing any signs of dropping or dryness, grow conditions are ideal, etc. I have no idea what could be stunting all of my plants. This is my second attempt at a grow, the first one having been ripped up at day 21 with plants even smaller than these.
If this means you plan to earn money you need to grow photo period plants. You cannot count on Autos to provide any level of consistent harvest. Photos are far easier and way more productive.
Actually for 10 days those dont look terrible.
Do you have anyway to measure your light intensity? Also have you tried 18/6 light cycle? I don’t count the first 10 days from seed in my grow time. In the “seedling phase” you should be shooting for a DLI of 12-16, too much or too little can stunt them. This DLI chart is pretty spot on.
This is some from my last grow, the one in yellow is 4 weeks, blue is 3 weeks, red is 10ish days. You aren’t too far off. You should be ready to put them in their final home soon. Also, I water my seedlings 30ml at a time around the edge of the cup, that encourages outward root growth.
Yeah I regret going with autos from the get go, if I’d known what I know now I would never have bought them. A lot of sites out there recommend autos for first-time growers, and having some experience them now, I’m really not sure why. They seem exceptionally sensitive to growing conditions, and the fact that they’re constantly on a limited schedule means there’s not much room for mistakes.
Oh well, you live you learn, I’ll be picking up some photo seeds for next time though.
Thanks for posting this! I don’t currently have a way to measure light, what would you recommend for it?
I should be right around 600-700 PAR value based on the information provided by Viparspectra, which I’ve read is right around ideal for this stage of growth.
“A lot of sites out there recommend autos for first-time growers,”
I think its because you don’t have to worry about providing 12hrs of darkness. You can grow them under a grow light in your bathtub with a skylight above it.
But providing darkness is not that hard. And you actually don’t have to have “Perfect” darkness" even though some make it seem that way.
I use the Photone app on my phone. It’s only like $6 and you choose the light type you have and you have a instant light meter that seems to be pretty spot on.
Also here’s another chart meant for photos but it still gives you a pretty good baseline measured in PAR. The second one is VPD, it gives you a pretty good general idea of where your humidity in your grow space needs to hang out for each stage of life at each temperature Happy growing brother!
This is very true. They can even start flowering at 3 weeks or so and you think its a total bust and then they go mad and grow like crazy. Don’t give up on them.
@TinyMeatGang If I may I’d like to go in a different direction-yield & profits.
Autos tend to be on the smaller side albeit they turn around faster but with smaller plants comes smaller harvests therefore less plant to market. With a photo you can fill your available grow area completely then force the plant to flower with reduced lighting but ultimately the real issue is whether it’s 3 autos or 3 photos what are your realistic financial needs? If you plan on supporting 2 adults with your pharming imho you need a much larger grow. Even if you had a fantastic grow with a yield of 20 zips would that suffice? What’s an ounce go for in your area currently?
I agree 100% with this statement.
“ If I may I’d like to go in a different direction-yield & profits.
Autos tend to be on the smaller side albeit they turn around faster but with smaller plants comes smaller harvests therefore less plant to market. With a photo you can fill your available grow area completely then force the plant to flower with reduced lighting but ultimately the real issue is whether it’s 3 autos or 3 photos what are your realistic financial needs? If you plan on supporting 2 adults with your pharming imho you need a much larger grow. Even if you had a fantastic grow with a yield of 20 zips would that suffice? What’s an ounce go for in your area currently?”
My 1st thoughts for 10 days you’re in the ballpark. I do recommend fabric 5 gallon pots for a transplant in about a week. With Cannabis friendly soil. They will take off. Good luck
Here’s a thought to consider. Large grows use clones. If you bought a 10 pack of seeds tonight then plant 1 of the seeds immediately upon arrival, while you get your feet under you with your autos, in 5-6 wks you could snip dozens of clones form this ‘mother’ and reduce overhead even more. What space are you utilizing? Tent or do you have a room?
Thanks for all the advice so far guys! Downloaded/paid for the Photone app and took some measurements. With the light on the veg setting only, I was showing 60DLI with the diffuser on the phone - presumably WAY too much for plants this young. I adjusted their lights to their maximum possible height and I’m getting ~300PPFD and 20DLI now.
Could this have been the cause of the stunted growth? Blasting them with way too much light? Most of the resources I read said that too much never hurt unless it’s burning the plants. I never saw any signs of burn so I assumed my setup was fine the way it was.
I’ve thought about this as well - my biggest hangup with using photos is that I don’t have anywhere to “store” a mother plant while the clones grow and flower. If I were to use a mother and clones, I would essentially always have a month of downtime while a new mother grows to the point where it can support having clippings taken from it. But yes, it would financially make more sense, it just comes down to having to buy a second grow setup for the sake of sustaining the mother.
In regards to grow area, I’m using an 8’x4’x6.5’ Vivosun tent right now. I also have more than 3 plants, I just used those ones for the picture - one of each strain that’s currently growing.
Too much light can make them short with small internodes and generally all around slow them down when they are really young. Now that you can measure you should be able to dial in your lights. I have heard from quite a few people here that 18/6 light schedule seems to do better for autos, something about 4 hours not being quite enough for the plants to rest…. Idk, 18/6 seems to be the gold standard for autos though. In the future you should be able to skip the whole peat pellet and just plant straight into happy frog. I seem to remember reading something somewhere on here about the peat pellets sometimes needing to be broken down or loosened up after hydration, I have tried them for several non pot seeds and have had better results straight into seedling soil or happy frog soil. I tend to try to keep things as simple as possible with the least amount of steps/transplants.
