JMystery
Active Member
Morning! (Long post alert - but good for noobs thinking about growing. If you can't be arsed to read the background, you can skip to the questions at the bottom).
I joined this community recently because I started having issues with my first grow. I made a shed-load of mistakes along the way, learned a reasonable amount and want to give it another go with everything adjusted based on what I know. I have some more questions that I hope you can help me with, but first here is a little background on the journey and the setup.
I started the first grow in a cupboard (mistake 1), with a reasonably small plant pot and a cheap unbranded/unknown Chinese "1000w" LED light (mistake 2). I went with White Widow Auto. I was only feeding the seedling water because the first time, I put it in some miracle grow soil (mistake 3). Despite good growth from seedling to mid-veg, I quickly learned that a cupboard wasn't going to let me easily control air flow. So I invested in a small 60 x 60 x 140 cm grow tent (mistake 4) and transplanted her into a large plant plastic 2 gallon plant pot (mistake 5). I bought some bio grow and bio bloom for feeding.
I then realised that the air needed to move around the tent, so I bought a 120 inline fan that seemed to work well. The heat from the LED lights and the fan worked to keep a good temperature and for a while she seemed really happy, despite the fact I broke some roots during the transplant (mistake 6). At this stage I was switching lights on first thing in the morning and off last thing at night, giving her about 14 - 16 hours of light per day but not starting / ending at the same time (mistake 7). The problem here was that the LED had internal fans and the tent is where I sleep! (mistake 8).
She started flowering after about 9 weeks and looked good but at this stage, lots of stuff started going sideways. First, I saw droopy leaves especially last thing at night but this seemed to be fine by morning again. I tried to keep an eye on how often and how much I was feeding her but found this pretty difficult (mistake 9). It was around this time I also started seeing fungus gnats in the tent which originally I thought were passive (mistake 10), but the numbers grew so I tried to take action with neem oil but it seemed to have no effect with either spraying lower leaves or soil drench. A couple of weeks later, leaves start dying. Earlier in the flowering, the lower leaves were dying which I thought may be fairly normal - but later on, the top leaves started with the same and additional brown spots / edges. Wasn't sure if this was because of the light, the size of pot she was in, fungus gnats at the root or other. At this stage, the top cola was only around 25cm from the light. Mid flowering, I also saw a single patch of webbing on one of the lower buds. To counter this, the fan was left on all the time which I hadn't previously been doing (mistake 11) and it never got any worse. I sprayed the affected one with a mix of water and ISO. Didn't see the problem reoccur.
Deterioration started getting pretty fast, so I decided to cut her down about 6 weeks into flowering - probably about 3 - 4 weeks early. I didn't really want to, but she was dying fast and the fungus gnats were getting on my tits. She's now hanging in the tent with no light, fans still running to keep air flow. She's dried out pretty well and the cola smells wonderful but I think the rest of the buds are going to be useless.
I learned a lot from this but still have some questions. The next seed is going to be Auto Kryptonite (dwarf). This time I have fabric pots ranging from tiny to 3 gallon. Going to use standard soil with a mix of perlite. I've invested in a Spider Farm 1000w led for the tent, which I will leave on for 18 hours regular time each day. And now some questions:
Q1. As a seedling and during veg, the plant doesn't seem to drink as much. I'm confused about how often to water at this stage because the soil seems to stay pretty moist for a really long time (which then draws fungus gnats!). Maybe the fabric pots will help, but how often should I be looking to feed during mid - late veg stage?
Q2. Is there anything preventative I can do, to avoid fungus gnats in advance. I know that over-watering is probably the biggest factor. I have mesh to cover any of the vent holes in the tent but they seemed to get in regardless of this. SO, is there a way to prevent then in advance? I heard some strains are more resistant to gnats but I'm limited to what I can grow in such a small tent.
Q3. For an auto-flowering plant, I've read all kinds of advice on the amount of light they should get ranging from 18/6 to 'leave it on 24/7'. What's actually correct?
Q4. I'm going to make a massive effort to feed the plants only when the top inch of soil is dry - but in situations where the soil isn't dry but the plant shows signs of needing fed - what do I do? Wait it out till it's dry? Or feed and probably attract fungus gnats?
Q5. With the Spiderfarm light, for early growth - how much light and how far away should the light be from the plant? I read that this light allows dimming too, so this adds a new level of confusion for me! In fact, how much light at each stage and how far away should the light be?
Q6. The browning I saw in leaves before she was cut down, I believed was root damage from the gnats because it didn't seem to be fixable regardless of what I did. I was feeding her Bio Bloom (and sometimes a little Bio Grow) during flowering - should this be enough nutrient? Is it likely that the browning was another issue?
I've got SO many more questions. Apologise for the length of this (for those who read it all) but I'm really interested in getting it right. I felt so proud of my girl last time and this time I want to do everything as well as I can. Any tips/tricks/advice is greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
JM
A quick edit to explain why I believe my 'mistakes' were mistakes:
I joined this community recently because I started having issues with my first grow. I made a shed-load of mistakes along the way, learned a reasonable amount and want to give it another go with everything adjusted based on what I know. I have some more questions that I hope you can help me with, but first here is a little background on the journey and the setup.
I started the first grow in a cupboard (mistake 1), with a reasonably small plant pot and a cheap unbranded/unknown Chinese "1000w" LED light (mistake 2). I went with White Widow Auto. I was only feeding the seedling water because the first time, I put it in some miracle grow soil (mistake 3). Despite good growth from seedling to mid-veg, I quickly learned that a cupboard wasn't going to let me easily control air flow. So I invested in a small 60 x 60 x 140 cm grow tent (mistake 4) and transplanted her into a large plant plastic 2 gallon plant pot (mistake 5). I bought some bio grow and bio bloom for feeding.
I then realised that the air needed to move around the tent, so I bought a 120 inline fan that seemed to work well. The heat from the LED lights and the fan worked to keep a good temperature and for a while she seemed really happy, despite the fact I broke some roots during the transplant (mistake 6). At this stage I was switching lights on first thing in the morning and off last thing at night, giving her about 14 - 16 hours of light per day but not starting / ending at the same time (mistake 7). The problem here was that the LED had internal fans and the tent is where I sleep! (mistake 8).
She started flowering after about 9 weeks and looked good but at this stage, lots of stuff started going sideways. First, I saw droopy leaves especially last thing at night but this seemed to be fine by morning again. I tried to keep an eye on how often and how much I was feeding her but found this pretty difficult (mistake 9). It was around this time I also started seeing fungus gnats in the tent which originally I thought were passive (mistake 10), but the numbers grew so I tried to take action with neem oil but it seemed to have no effect with either spraying lower leaves or soil drench. A couple of weeks later, leaves start dying. Earlier in the flowering, the lower leaves were dying which I thought may be fairly normal - but later on, the top leaves started with the same and additional brown spots / edges. Wasn't sure if this was because of the light, the size of pot she was in, fungus gnats at the root or other. At this stage, the top cola was only around 25cm from the light. Mid flowering, I also saw a single patch of webbing on one of the lower buds. To counter this, the fan was left on all the time which I hadn't previously been doing (mistake 11) and it never got any worse. I sprayed the affected one with a mix of water and ISO. Didn't see the problem reoccur.
Deterioration started getting pretty fast, so I decided to cut her down about 6 weeks into flowering - probably about 3 - 4 weeks early. I didn't really want to, but she was dying fast and the fungus gnats were getting on my tits. She's now hanging in the tent with no light, fans still running to keep air flow. She's dried out pretty well and the cola smells wonderful but I think the rest of the buds are going to be useless.
I learned a lot from this but still have some questions. The next seed is going to be Auto Kryptonite (dwarf). This time I have fabric pots ranging from tiny to 3 gallon. Going to use standard soil with a mix of perlite. I've invested in a Spider Farm 1000w led for the tent, which I will leave on for 18 hours regular time each day. And now some questions:
Q1. As a seedling and during veg, the plant doesn't seem to drink as much. I'm confused about how often to water at this stage because the soil seems to stay pretty moist for a really long time (which then draws fungus gnats!). Maybe the fabric pots will help, but how often should I be looking to feed during mid - late veg stage?
Q2. Is there anything preventative I can do, to avoid fungus gnats in advance. I know that over-watering is probably the biggest factor. I have mesh to cover any of the vent holes in the tent but they seemed to get in regardless of this. SO, is there a way to prevent then in advance? I heard some strains are more resistant to gnats but I'm limited to what I can grow in such a small tent.
Q3. For an auto-flowering plant, I've read all kinds of advice on the amount of light they should get ranging from 18/6 to 'leave it on 24/7'. What's actually correct?
Q4. I'm going to make a massive effort to feed the plants only when the top inch of soil is dry - but in situations where the soil isn't dry but the plant shows signs of needing fed - what do I do? Wait it out till it's dry? Or feed and probably attract fungus gnats?
Q5. With the Spiderfarm light, for early growth - how much light and how far away should the light be from the plant? I read that this light allows dimming too, so this adds a new level of confusion for me! In fact, how much light at each stage and how far away should the light be?
Q6. The browning I saw in leaves before she was cut down, I believed was root damage from the gnats because it didn't seem to be fixable regardless of what I did. I was feeding her Bio Bloom (and sometimes a little Bio Grow) during flowering - should this be enough nutrient? Is it likely that the browning was another issue?
I've got SO many more questions. Apologise for the length of this (for those who read it all) but I'm really interested in getting it right. I felt so proud of my girl last time and this time I want to do everything as well as I can. Any tips/tricks/advice is greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
JM
A quick edit to explain why I believe my 'mistakes' were mistakes:
- Mistake 1: In hindsight, the cupboard had no real airflow and no way to really control temperature.
- Mistake 2: Buy cheap. Pay dear. I should have researched (a) better quality lights and (b) lights with no noise!
- Mistake 3: Miracle grow probably contains loads of crap I don't want to ingest. In my defence, there wasn't much option in the place I bought it.
- Mistake 4: The tent was too small. I should have gone for a 160 or 180 height tent and possibly a bit wider too. 80 x 80 x 160 would have been better.
- Mistake 5: 2 gallon pot wasn't big enough I don't think. She got pretty big.
- Mistake 6: I didn't do the transplant very well at all really. This was my bad.
- Mistake 7: A regular light schedule must surely be better than switching on and off when I go to bed / get up in the morning. This was largely due to the noise of the lights (see mistake 2).
- Mistake 8: Really noisy lights. Bad purchase. See mistake 7 and 2!
- Mistake 9: I read numerous times to water when the top inch of soil is dry but I got too paranoid about her being hungry. By the time I learned this lesson, the gnats had struck.
- Mistake 10: Even the presence of 1 fungus gnat should have been an indicator to get tough with counter-measures. Stupid stupid.
- Mistake 11: Airflow was critical and leaving the fans on all the time was the biggest positive step I probably took. If I'd left fans on, there would have been no mould webbing and switching them on did prevent the spread of that.
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You know... I only started all of this growing malarkey because I found a seed in a bag of weed. Then bought a seed to grow. Now I find myself getting all serious about doing it right at least once! 
