Cream Mandarine XL Auto & Jack 47 Auto in coco & compost under 315w CMH

[delagdo]

Introduction and Aims

Hello, welcome to my second UK420 diary!

 

I am growing Jack 47 Auto and Cream Mandarine XL Auto. These seeds were generously given to me as a prize in the monthly photo contest so I wanted to share the grow with the forum anyway. This amazing competition is a fabulous coinicidence. I started this originally on 9th September in the Sweet Seeds forum but I have restarted it here as a competition diary, as allowed in the small print. Thank you Sweet Seeds!!

I chose these varieties as I wanted to grow Sweet Seeds autoflowers again. I have grown photoperiods from different breeders before, and I switched to autoflowers recently. I liked their shorter structure of autos which worked well for my limited headroom. The short time to complete a grow cycle also appeals since the site of the grow is otherwise used as a guest space, and must be out of action for the duration of a grow. I have tried several different autoflower breeders and Sweet Seeds have alway given great quality, consistent results.

I chose Jack 47 Auto and Cream Mandarine XL Auto as I wanted to try something new, and was looking for more sativa type plants. These are varieties I have not grown before. I tend to like stronger varieties and Jack 47 Auto has a reputation for strength. I previously grew three Killer Kush Auto plants and one was an orange-tasting and delicious phenotype, and it was a photo from that grow which won the seeds for this diary, so that inspired my choice of Cream Mandarine XL Auto.

This will be a comparison grow, with two different growing mediums. I will grow two of the plants in coco with Blumat drippers. My last two grows have used these and I am hoping to make this style of growing work a little better for me than it has done previously. When researching I do not find many examples of people using Blumats with autoflowering varieties so I wanted to see if and how it could be done. Previously I have suffered with salt build-up so I have taken a number of steps to try to improve this, including reducing the pot size. I am not sure whether it will work but I am willing to try.

I will also grow two plants in compost. I am hoping to have a relatively easy, low stress and productive grow with these. They function as a kind of insurance and control for the coco experiment. I'm interested in differences in the growth of the plants and the end results between the mediums, but it's not a scientific comparison and it's not meant to draw any conclusions about coco, drippers, compost or handwatering, besides my own skills (or lack thereof!).

I started keeping a diary as I have found it a useful thing to have personally, as a record of what I did and what happened at each stage. I have found it to be a valuable tool for learning so that I can make improvements. If you want to see my first diary it is here:

I also want to share my grow with UK420 again, which has been a fantastic resource for me in the past decade, and with Sweet Seeds for their kindness. I like reading other people's diaries and I hope others can enjoy mine. I am really looking forward to seeing the inspiring things other people post here, good luck everyone!

 

[delagdo]

Location, Equipment, Style of Grow

 

This is an indoor grow cited in a guest bedroom ensuite. There's a sloping ceiling in a narrow L-shaped room so I have selected the Hydrolab 120 SX which is narrow (120 cm x 60 cm) and short (160 cm) and fits perfectly in the space. This is my second time using this tent. My earlier grows were in a smaller tent (DR60) in a different location, or a smaller Ikea wardrobe before then.

I am using my 315w CMH to light the space, which is also the second time I am using it. I had 150w and 250w HPS prior to this. I love this light and the plants seem to too. It is a Philips 3100K Agro bulb in a Maxibright Daylight reflector, with a remote Maxibright ballast.

I am ventilating the tent with an extractor fan hung inside the tent. It's a very old Chaysol 125mm centrufgal fan. I have owned it for a full decade though I don't grow full time, and it was already well used when I got it. I keep it clean with an old toothbrush between grows. There's a short ducting run out of the top of the tent. The hole for the regular bathroom extractor fan provides a convenient place to run my new and very effective Phonic Trap ducting:

The fan is controlled by my cheap SMS fan controller. It has a built in thermostat but I usually leave it outside the tent set on maximum temperature, so that it stays on the set rate and doesn't ever kick in up to 100%:

The extractor fan pulls air through a large 125 x 600 Mountain Air filter hanging at the top of the tent. I also have a couple of small USB fans for air circulation in the tent, but just one is hung up to start with. I've set it pointing slightly downwards across the far side of the tent - the idea is that it can push the wet air from the humdifier down and circulate the moisture around the plants. This is everything set up at the top of the tent:

Temperature is maintained with the house central heating, underfloor heating in the ensuite and a small oil-filled radiator next to one of the tent air intakes:

A major problem last time was low humidity in the tent. I hope to solve this with my new Levoit humidifier, and work towards getting my VPD badge. Testing it out:

I will grow four plants in total. I will grow one Cream Mandarine XL Auto in coco, and one in compost. I'll grow one Jack 47 Auto in each medium too. In both cases they are being started in 4 inch pots before being potted up to their final pots.

The coco plants are grown in Canna Coco Professional, in 10 litre airpots (yellow base) with Blumat drippers. This is my third time using the Blumat drippers. I have suffered from salt buildup with previous efforts and I am trying to improve with this grow. This is an experiment to try and find some parameters that work for growing autoflowers in coco with Blumats, something I do not see very much of when researching online. This time I am going to raise the base of the airpot to about half way so I only use about 5 litres of coco in each pot. I have General Hydroponics Flora to feed with.

The compost plants are grown in Westland Multipurpose with added John Innes. These will be in the 10 litre airports with the bases down low, with 10 litres of compost in each. For later on, when they need feeding I have a bottle of Biobizz Bio Bloom. I also have some Plant Magic Plus Root Stimulant to add to both the compost and coco grows at the start.

The grow is being watched from the beginning by our mascot, Ganesha, on top of the tent:

[delagdo]

Germination to Day 1

The first thing to note is the difference in the seeds. The Cream Mandarine XL Auto seeds might well be the smallest seeds I have ever seen, and the Jack 47 Auto are among the largest:

I put the seeds in Root Riot cubes in the airing cupboard, where the temperature was about 24°C. After 3 days the seeds had popped up, so the cubes were placed in their initial 4 inch pots. Two went in coco, and two went in a 50/50 mix of coco and compost. It was nice and sunny on the windowsill that evening (11 September, now known as Day 0). They were all watered in with tapwater with 2.5ml/l of Root Stimulator added.

On Day 1 they went into the tent under the CMH with the humidifier running. The Cream Mandarine XL Auto  in coco is front and centre. Behind it, from left to right, is the CMXL in compost, the Jack 47 Auto in compost, and the J47 in coco:

[delagdo]

Day 2 to Day 9

 

The plants started off growing nicely. Here they were on day 5:

The compost plants are the larger ones on the left. They only look so dry as they'd just been topped up with a bit of coco, they were moist underneath.

The coco plants were not given any food until day 4 besides the seaweed-based root stim, which is why they are smaller. Eventually I gave them food and they started to grow. Hopefully they will just be delayed a little and not more permanently affected by the slow start.

 

The coco plants were hand watered on days 4 and 7,  EC 0.8. My base EC is 0.4, and I added 0.25ml/l of Gro, Micro and Bloom plus 2.5ml/l of Root Stimulator, and a little bit of phosphoric acid-based pH Down to give a pH reading of 6.2. The compost plants were watered on days 5 and 8, tapwater with 2.5ml/l of Root Stimulator.

 

Here's a pic from day 9:

I had been moving them from the tent to the windowsill each day, but they will soon be left in the tent permanently once potted up. The environment in the tent seems really nice with the new humidifier. I have been trying different settings, and I like the tent set up like this:

The black USB fan (top left) blows the cloud down and across, circulating the wet air around the bottom of the tent. I am keeping it with the mist level set at 2/3, and without heating the vapour, and my extraction on at 55%. The sensors measure around 24-26°C with humidity of 50-60% where they are placed (in front of the plants, shaded by the shoe box lid). Using heat level 1/3 makes the temperature more like 25-28°C, 50-60% RH. This is much better than last grow where temperature was 25°C and the meter stopped measuring humidity because it was too low.

I had blasted the vapour directly out at the plants for the first few days, they seemed to like it, but I wasn't sure if it was too much. I was still getting similar readings on the sensors but there was obviously a lot more water in the air directly around the plants:

[delagdo]

Day 10 to Day 15

On day 10 I potted up the compost seedlings, both into 100% Weslands Multipurpose with added John Innes. Here's the Jack 47 Auto:

And the Jack 47 Auto compost roots:

Here's the Cream Mandarine XL Auto in compost on day 10:

And the Cream Mandarine XL Auto compost roots:

On Day 11, I potted up the seedlings in coco. Here they were, Jack 47 Auto on the left and Cream Mandarine XL on the right:

 

Jack 47 Auto coco roots:

 

Cream Mandarine XL Auto coco roots:

 

I put them into airpots set at different heights, with the compost going into about 10 litres shown below on the left and the coco going into about 5/6 litres, on the right. The original 4 inch pots are shown for scale:

The compost plants went into pots more than twice as deep, whereas the coco airpots have only added a couple of inches depth.

The compost pots were watered through when I potted them up on day 10 which produced a very small amount of runoff.

The coco pots were wet thoroughly, but not completely to the point of runoff, when potted up on day 11 (EC 0.9). I put the blumats in that day too but didn't set the drip until day 13, when I set the blumats to cling to a drop. By day 15 they'd both received a small amount, about or just under 100mls each from the drippers.

Here's the tent on day 12:

On day 15  took a picture of the plants which I cropped into the two pictures below. First the compost plants, then coco; Jack 47 Auto on the right and Cream Mandarine XL Auto on the left:

With the plants in their larger pots, they are left permanently in the tent. The light is on a timer set for 20 hours of light and 4 hours of darkness each day. The temperature is maintained between 20°C and 27°C and the humidity around 50-60%, sometimes slightly higher during lights off.

 

Thank you for looking at my diary!

[H + H2O]

Nice! Good luck man, I`ve got a Cream Mandarin XL about a week behind yours so will keep tabs to get some pointers on her.

 

All the best, hope they do the business for ya

 

 

 

[Sweet Seeds-tommy]

Hi delagdo!

 

Welcome to the 5th Sweet Seeds® Grow Diary Competition

 

Nice start mate, all good so far, bring it on and good luck for the contest

 

Sweet smokes

 

tommy

[grotbags]

and he's away with the head down.....all the best with ur diary mate....,..

[Sweet Seeds -Jaypp]

Hi fella!

 

Welcome to the 5th Sweet Seeds® Grow Diary Competition!

I hope you enjoy it,

all the best!

 

jaypp

[delagdo]

Thank you @H + H2O @Sweet Seeds-tommy @grotbags @Sweet Seeds -Jaypp

[delagdo]

Day 16 to Day 24

 

The plants grew into their new pots and took to them well. The compost plants raced away in their new homes and leaves expanded rapidly. The coco plants grew healthily but slower. The Cream Mandarine XL Auto had paled a bit from the lack of food when it first germinated, and it slowly recovered its colour.

Here's a picture from day 18. Left to right is CMXL compost, J47 compost, CMXL coco, J47 coco:

The compost plants had a watering on day 19, which was 9 days after they were potted up and watered in. I continued to add Root Stimulator at 2.5ml/l. Here they are on day 21, Cream Mandarine XL Auto on the left and Jack 47 Auto on the right:

The mix for the coco plants since day 16 has been tapwater with 0.67ml/l Gro, 0.5ml/l Micro and 0.33ml/l Bloom, with Drip Clean. This gives an EC of 1.1 which is then pH'd to around 6.2. On day 21 they looked like this, Cream Mandarine XL Auto on the left and Jack 47 Auto on the right:

On day 23 I noticed the first preflowers. I spotted them across all the plants on the same day. Here's a  shot from the Cream Mandarine XL Auto in coco:

 

The compost plants were tied down for LST on day 23. Here's the preflowers on the Jack 47 Auto in compost:

Here's the plants on day 24 in two pictures. First the compost, then the coco; Cream Mandarine XL Auto on the left and Jack 47 Auto on the right:

 

[the lone deranger]

Nice start to your diary mate all looks very tidy, and on your way to a good crop.

 

I'd have expected the plants in coco to be ahead, but i've only ever used compost anyway  

 

Look forward to seeing this pan out. The comp's gonna be a good one!! Good luck.

 

Nice one

[delagdo]

I would normally expect that too, or not so much difference at least. The coco plants started so much slower this time compared to my last grow. They only need a tiny bit of food in the first few days but this diary shows that they really do need it. There is not enough NPK in seaweed to start them off even for a few days. I had thought they might be OK for that first watering in tiny pots, but this is a valuable learning point for me to take away for future grows.

[ratdog]

A nice comprehensive start you have here mate.

 

Good luck with the competition 

[McHazy]

J47 and Cream Mandarine both are lovely smokes good choice 

Aw the best