Is this deficiency? Day 16 soil grow.

DocofRock

Well-Known Member
Greetings all. I’m presently on my first grow. I’ll spare all the details on this post, as I have a journal here. It goes into exhaustive detail. A quick summary:

I’m using QB288x4 (2 x HLG 260 kits) at 40” and about 50% intensity. It’s a soil (FFHF/Perlite) grow. Autoflowers, on day 16. Temps and humidity have been well controlled. The airflow is adequate (2x small fans + 6” Carbon filter exhaust). I am growing in smart pots (in retrospect, too big of pots). Watering has been appropriate and infrequent. I tested the soil today with RO water calibrated to 7.0 in a jar 1/3rd full of soil. Shook vigorously, let it sit. pH went to 6.6, PPM around 220. Not being overwatered.

Now, to the point. I’m just wandering if I’m spotting some initial signs of deficiency. Notice the light green new growth. The plants have been minimally fed so far. Here are the pics, for those with an eye for this!

P.S., in this close-up pic, is this plant showing sex? I think I can see little hairs poking out (sorry, still learning the terminology).

38A0EF78-8F2C-46D8-8EB2-150601D27770.jpeg 5257ED97-1D9A-4540-9283-D89617CA1EF8.jpeg C8DC1CAC-F38F-4B75-B91F-456E48475EA9.jpeg 32F3E033-8F4F-433B-99E7-5E8E4101EBF3.jpeg

 

DocofRock

Well-Known Member
I’m wondering if this is an iron deficiency secondary to cal/mag deficiency (I am using R.O. Water and have been going VERY easy on the nutes. I’m wondering if this is due to the R.O. water and not adding ENOUGH cal/mag.
 

DocofRock

Well-Known Member
I feel like I’ve been pretty sparse in my watering. My pots were all nearly bone dry today. I hadn’t watered for maybe 2.5 days prior, they are up on racks, there is a fan circulating under them, they are smart pots and there is 30% Perlite in them. Though, I still feel you may be right...

What do you think? Let dry completely again and then flush with 6.0-6.5 pH R.O. water in several days? Should I try to accelerate drying?
 

DocofRock

Well-Known Member
I’ve turned the exhaust fan on continuously now, and lowered the humidity target to about 45-50% for the night (and next couple of days if necessary) to get those pots dry.
 

3rd Monkey

Well-Known Member
I feel like I’ve been pretty sparse in my watering. My pots were all nearly bone dry today. I hadn’t watered for maybe 2.5 days prior, they are up on racks, there is a fan circulating under them, they are smart pots and there is 30% Perlite in them. Though, I still feel you may be right...

What do you think? Let dry completely again and then flush with 6.0-6.5 pH R.O. water in several days? Should I try to accelerate drying?
First off, slow down lol. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

They're young plants, they grow slow. 3 days in those pots is probably too soon. Go by weight.

No flush. No accelerated drying. Just let them go a few days and they'll pick back up. Roots need oxygen, lots of it at this stage.

They look fine and they'll be ok as long as you don't love them to death lol. This is the slowest part, I promise. After 12", you'll be in heaven because you can mess with them all the time lol.
 

DocofRock

Well-Known Member
Hahah, I know, I know. I think I need to stop screwing with them for a bit haha. Probably an all too common problem... I’m paying TOO much attention. This is all still a big learning curve for me. I’m already making more thought out preparations for my next grow to prevent this very thing. I’ve always wanted to grow, so I’m pumped, but also my head is spinning with all the information. I never realized how much there is to know (and yet if you prepare, how little you need to do).

This is all in my grow journal for me to laugh at down the road.
 

3rd Monkey

Well-Known Member
Hahah, I know, I know. I think I need to stop screwing with them for a bit haha. Probably an all too common problem... I’m paying TOO much attention. This is all still a big learning curve for me. I’m already making more thought out preparations for my next grow to prevent this very thing. I’ve always wanted to grow, so I’m pumped, but also my head is spinning with all the information. I never realized how much there is to know (and yet if you prepare, how little you need to do).

This is all in my grow journal for me to laugh at down the road.
You'll get it. I'm OCD as well lol.

That OCD pays off in the long run, but right now it'll get the best of you.
 

Budzbuddha

Well-Known Member
1. Overwatering .... ( can see the wide area around plant ) .... plant of this size needs very little and
only around base. You want it to SEEK water with the roots , not swim in it.

2. Medium : FFOF is highly amended on its own and needs No other Nutes.
It will carry an auto easily for weeks on water only. Let the plant “ grow into “ it
WITHOUT dumping more Nutes on top of it. Some minor burn can occur but it will grow
out of it as it becomes accustomed to the soil.

3. PH : Target 6.3 - 6.5 .... nothing more .... nothing less. FFOF is prebuffered at 6.3.

4. Water : Unnecessary to run RO with this medium. Quantums as with other LEDS may
require CALMAG from time to time as plants don’t transpire as effectively as with other
lights like HPS. Which sometimes causes uptake issues. Plus autos under leds can have
more spaced out watering because of the slower evaporation. You can run tap , just ph it

5. Sex : Autos will ( normally ) show sex round about wk 5 ( day 30 - 35 ish ) some a little
faster ( had one throw pistils) at day 22. At this point it is going to transition to preflower.
It will begin to stretch and branch for the next 10-14 days after sex out. Whatever screw
up that happened in veg is showing now.


She looks pretty good .... but it is too easy to overthink an auto and end up with a dumpster fire.
Water it with plain water and let it do it’s thing.
 

DocofRock

Well-Known Member
1. Overwatering .... ( can see the wide area around plant ) .... plant of this size needs very little and
only around base. You want it to SEEK water with the roots , not swim in it.

2. Medium : FFOF is highly amended on its own and needs No other Nutes.
It will carry an auto easily for weeks on water only. Let the plant “ grow into “ it
WITHOUT dumping more Nutes on top of it. Some minor burn can occur but it will grow
out of it as it becomes accustomed to the soil.

3. PH : Target 6.3 - 6.5 .... nothing more .... nothing less. FFOF is prebuffered at 6.3.

4. Water : Unnecessary to run RO with this medium. Quantums as with other LEDS may
require CALMAG from time to time as plants don’t transpire as effectively as with other
lights like HPS. Which sometimes causes uptake issues. Plus autos under leds can have
more spaced out watering because of the slower evaporation. You can run tap , just ph it

5. Sex : Autos will ( normally ) show sex round about wk 5 ( day 30 - 35 ish ) some a little
faster ( had one throw pistils) at day 22. At this point it is going to transition to preflower.
It will begin to stretch and branch for the next 10-14 days after sex out. Whatever screw
up that happened in veg is showing now.


She looks pretty good .... but it is too easy to overthink an auto and end up with a dumpster fire.
Water it with plain water and let it do it’s thing.
Thank you for the response! It’s actually Happy Frog (not OF). I think you all are right though. Gonna just let them be for a bit ;) I do LIKE the idea of RO water simply for no other reason than to filter out things like chromium-6 and all that junk. While I know it’s minuscule amounts, I don’t dig the thought of smoking that stuff.
 

DocofRock

Well-Known Member
FFHF, not ocean forest... but yeah the size of the pot was just a rookie mistake. I just put 5 more autos (100% germ with soak/paper towel method) in Roots Organic original + Perlite in SOLO cups. I will leave them there until they are ready for transplant, then they will go in 3gal pots with super soil on the bottom of the pots and stay there until harvest. Plan is for NO feeding. All organic grow. I’ll have pics in my grow journal.
 

turbobuzz

Well-Known Member
I used to think the fox farm soil was the bees knees because of all the hype about it, but after about 3 straight grows in a row with problems, I've changed my mind. I've got a grow going now using Nature for the Gods soil, and the plants are doing amazing, way better than fox farm soil. Agree with others, your plants look good, just step back and watch. I might suggest getting one of those cheap moisture checkers on eBay. Works for me.
 

3rd Monkey

Well-Known Member
I used to think the fox farm soil was the bees knees because of all the hype about it, but after about 3 straight grows in a row with problems, I've changed my mind. I've got a grow going now using Nature for the Gods soil, and the plants are doing amazing, way better than fox farm soil. Agree with others, your plants look good, just step back and watch. I might suggest getting one of those cheap moisture checkers on eBay. Works for me.
God gave you 2 moisture checkers... A left and a right lol.

Just bustin.
 
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