First Grow - White Widow Autoflower

Hello from Northern Virginia. This is my first grow. I started germinating my White Widow Autoflower seeds from ILGM on Friday, April 22, 2022. My setup looks like this:

  1. Indoor grow. Spider Farmer tent 2x4 (28" x 55" x 80")
  2. Two White Widow Autoflower Seeds from ILGM, soaked 12 hours in tap water, then in jiffy pellets. Also one Gorilla Glue Autoflower, seed bank unknown because it was a gift
  3. autoflower
  4. Tap water, left in open container one day or more. Fairfax County Virginia says they’re adding free chlorine March 21, 2022 to June 13, 2022 and chloramine rest of year. I used water from rain barrel initially but have stopped after seeing wiggly mosquito larvae in it. Distilled water from grocery store costs $1.39/gallon.
  5. Tap water initially PH 7.5 and 137 PPM. Ph’d with 1 tsp white vinegar per 3 gallons to PH 6.5.
  6. Soil. FF Happy Frog + 20% perlite.
  7. Nutrients: Fox Farm trio purchased
  8. Lighting: Mars Hydro TSL2000 dimmable LED (300 true max watts) initially 18” above seedlings, mechanical timer 18/6
  9. Temps: April 25 Day 74F with light at 40%/ Night 69F with light off
  10. RH: April 25 Day 66%/ Night 71%
  11. Humidifier: DIY two microfiber towels hanging in two buckets of water
  12. Ventilation system: AC Infinity cloudline T4, 4", lovely controls with iPhone app, no name carbon canister, flex duct to hone exterior thru wall. Since I was a carpenter 35 years ago, and I own my home, I used a sawzall to cut the 4” hole through the exterior wall band board and vinyl siding. Finished with 4” clothes dryer vent cover.
  13. Co2: No
  14. This is my first grow
  15. Budget: I think I’ve spent $1,000 to date for this setup. I like being cheap but don’t need to be.
  16. hydro method: Not applicable
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Welcome to the forum.

It’s clear that you’ve done your homework. Good stuff. Pictures?

Happy growing.

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That list certainly doesn’t read like it’s your first go. Nice

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Here’s the grow tent. Here’s a closeup of White Widow #1 in its Jiffy pellet. Seed in tap water Friday morning, into wet pellet that evening, sprout broke out Sunday morning, today, Tuesday, a tail is visible on bottom of pellet. So I moved them to soil this afternoon

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Welcome to the community, I’m sure you can tell this is a great place. Set up looks good, you did your homework. 1 thing my tap water close to yours comes out mid 7, I’ll fill a 5 gallon bucket and let it set in the sun for 48 hrs and that will help dissipate all the chemicals in the water to make it better for you plants. Keeps from having to buy water, also normally ph will drop to around 6.5 just letting in sit out. Try to save some $ when can, good luck happy growing

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Nicely done Growmie and like all else have mentioned on the homework. Only suggestion I have is to get your fabric pots on some risers so they don’t sit in the run off when that time comes. Still a little young for that :love_you_gesture:

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If you can get a screen for the top of your rain barrel, you can probably swap back to the rain water. If the bugs can’t get in to lay the eggs, you won’t have larvae. :v:

Happy growing.

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Drop a couple of fish in there to eat the mosquitoes and bingo…fish :poop: for cannabis :love_you_gesture:

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@Isleofdogs Welcome to the Class neighbor!! Drop one of these in your rain barrel and you’ll be fine. Works on gnats in your tent as well. They’re next lol.

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Hello and welcome to the neighborhood.
You sure have been doing the reading. your set up is nice and the ladies are lovely.

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I remember seeing risers/elevators at a bricks and mortar store I visited: Nova Hydro in Chantilly, Virginia. The proprietor was very cool. I felt a little guilty about having bought most of my equipment from Amazon and the light direct from Mars Hydro online. And their FF Happy Frog was cheap, compared to what I’d paid at Merrifield Garden Center in Fairfax, VA. So I will go back there and get risers. Thanks!

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Welcome to this awesome community! Will tag along :grinning:

You gonna love it here!

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Perfect Brother. I learned this the hard way. The plant and medium will wick the run off back in essentially putting the unused salts and fertilizer that you just rinsed out during the feeding or watering back into the root mass potentially locking out nutrient uptake :love_you_gesture:

Wow, makes sense to use vinegar to pH down…but can’t help to ask can you smell the vinegar?

Thanks for sharing and happy growing!

Not bad tap water readings. I’m at 7.1 and 60 PPMs. I grow in coco and use jacks 321 and get 5.7-5.8 after mixing. Maybe I can talk ya into coco for your next grow, you have all control and feed to run off daily essentially avoiding a lot of root/medium issues :love_you_gesture:

I thought I needed to buy “official” bottles of Ph up and Ph down. I asked the very helpful bricks and mortar proprietor at Nova Hydro. He said just use white vinegar for Ph down. I didn’t realize until I tried it how little it took. No, I can’t smell it after mixing.

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I read that soil is forgiving of the dumb mistakes I will make as a beginner. So it was soil for me!

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RIght on my growmie! Thanks for the information :+1:t3:


Day 8 seedling. Removed humidity dome yesterday. 77 degrees 68% RH. My light has been 50% and 19 inches from soil surface. Some brown spots on leaves. What should I change?

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Just avoid the temptation to water her right own. Usually I see discoloration in my seedlings like that because the roots are struggling to get oxygen. If you let the soil dry out and then water in a wide ring around her next time you need to water, I think she should self-correct. Browning is atypical that young because the little round cotyledon leaves are providing the nutrients she needs.

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