HELP autos took turn for worse

So I’m new to the forum but since I purchased my seeds here I figured I’d look here for advice. Indoor growing is new to me and honesty this is my first indoor grow and I’ve already had several setbacks. Here is a little background for my grow. I’ve got a 5x5 tent with a 6” inline fan that moves 350CFM. I’ve got 10 gorilla glue auto’s. I’ve also got a few sour diesel seeds a friend gave me that are suppose to be fem autos, but they aren’t doing well at all. There are 3 different germination stages in the tent. They are about 10 days apart. The biggest plants where put in pots on 11/7. I jumped into the grow without doing enough homework. I realize the pots were 2 large to start in and I also didn’t completely understand super soil. I’m using an autuflowering SuperSoil mixed with coco and perlite. The supersoil said it makes 25gal of medium. I mixed my pots a little bit light compared to the instructions and I have been adding nutrients every third water and the plants seem to respond well to the nuts but I’m not sure what’s going on now. My lights might be 2 bright, it simply might be but burn or it might be excessive heat. My girlfriend told me yesterday the tent got up to around 84degrees F. I realize that’s not tragic hot but you don’t want it to stay that hot. I know with coco you want to water till run off and I’ve learned to do it daily. I also understand how I’m going to contradict what the super soil recomendactions and in future probably not best idea to use supersoil with stricktly coco/perlite. My light is a 400W LED quantum board. It is rated to cover a 5 x 5 veg tent and I actually have two of them but I’ve only had one in the tent up until now. I have it running at about 90% and it is approximately 26 inches from the canopy. Please help and let me know what’s going on the plants and take a turn for the worse in the last 48 hours here are some pictures from about a week ago along with pictures from today let me know what you think. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.!
The following images attached are in this order: first five are approximately 1 to 2 weeks ago. Second five are from today. Last two are the driver on my light.
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First off…84 degrees is fine. What do you mean by super soil? Cuz if your in a real “super soil”. You really don’t need to be feeding this early…or at all. And again…with true super soil, if you are watering to runoff…then you are washing away valuable nutrients. In most living or super soils…you don’t want to water to runoff. And just exactly how much are you watering…or more importantly, how often? The first five pics…the top of soil look pretty wet. And I also noticed water droplets on the leaves, are you spritzing the leaves? How’s your air movement? Any fans to beside your exhaust? They look over watered…like their roots are suffocating.

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It’s waaaaaaaay better to under water than over water.

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Agrees with above statement. Looks to be over watered. And the leaves are wet? Probably shouldn’t spray them when lights on

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Thanks for the quick responses. It could be overwatering, originally I was watering every other day and only like 1/3 gal per plant. Then I read how with coco and perlite you can’t hardly overwater. And began to worry about nutrient buildup because I wasn’t flushing daily so I increased watering to everyday and try to stop just as I get run off. Honestly I think my problem is a mix of over watering and not having the pots raised off the ground. When I increased the amount to allow run off I think I also allowed the water that ran off to be absorbed back into the plants. I’ve recently added styrofoam trays under each pot to allow any excess to run off and not allow the plant to reabsorb that water. Is it ok to use a super soil concentrate without adding actual soil. I replaced soil with coco and perlite. I guess what I’m asking is will the coco provide the concentrate with what it needs to properly sustain the plant? Or is there something In Soil ( worms, natural nutrients, etc) that is necessary to assist super soil?
This is what I used? It says to makes approx 25g once mixed with org pot soil. But I did what I explained instead. Any advice would be appreciated. I realize there are so many small things to learn and I didn’t expect the best results first time around. Just trying to figure it all out I guess. Thanks again for the help, I’ll let you know how progress goes from here forward!

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Sorry forgot the pics here’s what I used.
Thanks again!

Looks like over watering to me also. I did this last time :woman_facepalming: And couldn’t understand why they looked droopy so gave them more water! :woman_facepalming::woman_facepalming::woman_facepalming: Agree with everyone. Let them go a few days without water and see if that helps :blush::sunflower:

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Thanks for the advice I will let them go a couple days and see. It just seems like the top soil dries out so quickly before watering today I had actually missed yesterday. And they seemed to have gotten worse…I’m not sure I honestly think it could have more to do with allowing them to re absorb the stagnant water. When it comes to ppm and e-cigarettes should my readings be before feeding and what should run off read?
I realize this is a general question I’m just trying to get an idea where I should be.
Also is it possible to add too much PH buffer? What if my water (after running through a filter) still requires a large amount of biller to achieve a ph of 5.5-6.5) could I be hurting myself there ? I usually hve to add a couple ml minimum of ph reducer to my water. I know this probably isn’t my actual problem I just did t know if I was hurting anything by doing so. Thanks again I’m going to put every bit of advice into action.

Ok…it’s starting to come together. So let me make sure I understand. You got natures living soil 5 pounds. If it’s like kind soil. Which I believe it is. You usually mix it with 20 pounds of a good organic soil. (Happy frog, bushmaster coco loco, roots organics, etc.) That gives you the 25#. Add perlite as needed. Then use that soil to fill your pots, recommend to do a plug or small layer of just the organic soil minus the super soil stuff at top of pot. It’s too hot for seedlings. Let them grow into it.
For two…you definitely should not be watering to runoff, it’s very easy to over water in supersoil. And you shouldn’t be adding nutes.as it says on the bag. “Just water seed to harvest”. That’s why you paid so much for natures living. The benefit is “supposedly”…you’ll never need nutes. But if I’m understanding correctly, instead of mixing in organic soil, you mixed it all with coco and perlite.? Now I’m not a chemist or a botanist, but if that’s the case. Then I’m afraid that could be an issue. And I’d hate to give you too much advice cuz I’m not sure how things would react mix like that. My coworker grows in kind soil, which is same theory as natures living. He mixes his with roots organic. Never water to runoff and never feeds his autos in a 4 month grow. Oh that reminds me, let me tag an old friend I met on here. He did a killer grow in kind soil. He’s got a grow journal, let me nudge him and see if he could give some input. Lol. Poke poke @OldTimeRockAndGrow. Hope your doing well my friend. I’m here trying to help @hudson.philip15623. Was hoping you had some thoughts. Thanks🙋🏻‍♂️

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And if your using e-cigarettes to check ppms…that could be a problem as well. :joy: lmao. Sorry bro not trying to make light of your issues. I just couldn’t pass the opportunity to be a smart ass. Lol. All In good fun. Stick around here, plenty of people to get ya pointed in right direction. Everyone makes mistakes, nobody grows cannabis cup winning buds in their first grow. Well get it figured out. Lifting them up will help them dry out better, maybe get a small fan to oscillate on your pots. Well see if @OldTimeRockAndGrow has anything to add.

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A lot of growers just use the super soil in a layer on the bottom 1/3 of pot and fill rest with good organic soil

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Ok, so many things to discuss. Fist off spell check changed my “ec” to e-cigarette lol didn’t proof read, will do in future though.
So I realize I’ve made a mistake ( that’s what happens when you get a late start and jump in in prepared) but I’m learning and will chalk it up as a lesson learned. That being said I’ve got some 5 gal fabric pots that are unused. Would it be beneficial to try a transplant this far into the grow? Or would the risk outweigh the reward? And if I did such thing I assume just mix a good or organic potting soil in the pots as a bed to transplant into?
Always nervous transplanting especially this far along, and I don’t even know if it would help…

Forgot to mention. I’m currently growing in 3gal fabric pots. Now realize these could be a little small, but considering the stunted growth the 3 gal’s might be suffice…who has an input on the thought of transplanting at this stage in this situation?

Thanks for the tag @NugFlush. I am still fairly new to the growing game but I will do my best here to try to help. So first off 3 gallon bags for autos in living soil should be fine. I have one that is finishing up in a 3 gallon bag and it has been no issue. Watering is the key I have found with living soil and I have done it wrong myself a few times. But I am getting the hang of it now. With living soil you want to water about 7-10 % of you soil volume every 2-3 days. So for a 3 gallon bag that would be 3-5 cups of water. When they are small I water one day then wait 2 days and water again. And depending on conditions in the tent if the soil gets too dry I will water and they wait 1 day and water again. Following this amount will make sure you never over or under water. As the plants get bigger you slowly add more water so maybe 6-8 cups once they start flowering. And with living soil you never want to water to run off. As stated above it will cause all those nutrients in the soil to run off with the water. I am assuming that your soil has some dolomite lime in it as most living soils do. So you don’t have to worry about Ph as much. I do adjust mine occasionally as my tap water is over 8 but I don’t adjust every time. Only when the plants look a little off. From what I can see in the pictures above I would give them a day or 2 to dry out and then give them 3 cups of water and wait 2 days and repeat. you have been over watering them it seems. The plants should bounce back and take off once this is corrected. And you don’t want to get water on the plants when watering also. If you do try to gently wipe the water off the leaves. Your lights will act like magnifying glass and burn holes in the leaves. I would not transplant at this point I think they will bounce back once the watering is corrected. And lastly when watering make sure to water all the soil surface, get the whole bag area watered. That will help the roots spread out and be healthy. I will tag along in your journal and try to help any way I can. Keep it green. :beers:

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Yea definitely looks over watered to me. Thing that sucks is u lose close to a week of new growth depending on how waterlogged it is and with autos u have very little room for error. Its easy to overwater thinkin itll be beneficial but i learned the hard way how to let it dry out more before watering

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@OldTimeRockAndGrow @NugFlush first off I don’t grow in coco or use “super soil”. My question is, isn’t using Nature’s Living Soil mix in coco totally counterproductive. One of the reasons to use coco is the requirement to water / feed frequently. Depending on how much of the mix has been lost, I imagine at some point you may need to add the necessary nutrients since coco has none.
Also, @hudson.philip15623 I would be a little more aware of personal information on a public forum.

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Like @OldTimeRockAndGrow and @NugFlush have mentioned living soil has a bit of a learning curve to it. It’s very easy to overwater. I’ve done two grows using kind soil and the one thing I’ve noticed is that the Kind soil holds water for a longer period than something like FFOF. Mixing a super soil with straight coco might not be what you want to do because coco is so porous you might wind up flushing a lot of nutrients out when you water. Something like Coco Loco would be a better choice as a medium with a super soil. Growing in soil can be challenging, what I’ve learned so far is that it’s critical to keep your PH in check and you need to understand how much nutrient is available. It’s pretty hard to underwater and what you need to do is get a feel for how heavy the pot is when wet and dry. If the pot has weight to it don’t water if it feels very light water. You’ll get the hang of it in time. We all have to crawl before we walk.

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New grower here. Looks over watered to me.

When I see or feel a plant is not drinking and the pot is heavy. I poke holes in the soil to get some fresh air down into the soil to help dry faster and get oxygen to the roots.

I find that plant roots need more air in the soil then water.

Top soil will dry faster Just spray the topsoil if it looks dry. it will help to keep the soil alive at the top. I cover the top soil with old roots to keep the top soil from drying to fast.

This NORTHERN LIGHTS was drink but didn’t show it was drinking. So I decided to do a flush and after a couple of hours it’s nice and perky again.

I hope you find your solution

That was my thought. Others may have better input…but that’s what I meant by I’d be afraid to give him advice at this point. Ive never done or seen it done where someone mixes super soil with coco. Don’t know for sure if it will work out not. So yes I kind of agree @beardless. Watering would be difficult with the coco and eventually you would probably be overwatering at some point…or lose all the benefits of the supersoil. So a also have to agree with @registereduser when he said

Thanks @OldTimeRockAndGrow appreciate your input. We all had help at some point, just hoping we can do the same and get @hudson.philip15623 on the right track. Stay safe all…and of course say medicated :exploding_head:

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So a little update. I do realize the mistake i made using the living soil with coco but my question at this point is, would you try to gently transplant from 3 to 5 gal fabric pots but bed in a nice organic soil like cocoloco? would it help r is it too big a risk. I think they are turning around. I just don’t think I will have much if any yield do to the loss of growth early on. The nutrients were to much for the seedlings and the oversized pots just exaggerated the problems. The larger plants have been in dirt since 11/7. I guess a few will make something but it will be nothing like it should have been. So now let me ask you another question? This is for the LED growers. Currently I’ve got a single quantum board it’s a bloomspect sf4000 I believe it’s a 400w full spectrum quantum board with 301b meanwrll driver. Is this light for sure enough light or would it beneficial to hook up my second quantium board I have. It is a different brand but still a 400w with Samsung diodes and 301b meanwell driver. I just feel it would be too much light. If there is such a thing I’ve heard there is. So if you had the exes light laying around would you install both I. The tent at flower or just run the single light? Thanks again guys trying to get things u see control