Second grow - Sour 60

[ZBeebs]

I will be starting my sour 60 grow on Wednesday. I have ten regular autoflowering sour 60 seeds. I am hoping for 50% females, if I get more than that it's a bonus. I have read that a couple ounces per plant should be easy. We will see. I will be using the same setup as before, 4 x 4 tent, 600watt light, etc...but this time I have the setup dialed in from the start and won't have the heat issues I had before. I will be using 3 gallon pots and fox farm ocean forest soil. The seeds will go right into the moist soil. I had 100% germination doing it that way last time, so I don't see a reason to change. Not sure what to do about feeding...was thinking I'd go right to bloom nutes after about 20 days or so.

I will post pics as I go...this time I will try my best to keep them labeled so you can follow each individual plant.

I am very curious to see for myself if you can really go from seed to harvest in 60 days...

[ZBeebs]

I also expect to have lots of questions, just like last time. I want to thank everyone in advance for all their insight.

I have a question already - would setting my ballast at 400w and putting the lamp 3 or 4 feet above the pots/seedlings be ok? Last time I had the light much closer and people suggested I shouldn't use the big light for seedlings and that, combined with heat issues, stunted the growth. I expect to be able to keep temps under 80 degrees this time, no problem, so can I use the big light and reflector?

If I really shouldn't use it, what are the alternatives? Hang some extension cords with cfl's?

[USbongLord]

hold em up..stake the fuckers and they will catch up...dont be wooried..they are strong...afs need light so they can dissapoint you with the harvest later mine go right under the 440 and other then a little stretching they always figure it out and adjust

[Cisco]

Good luck wi the Sour60 I quite fancied that one myself I can't remember off hand what feed schedule I gave Autos when I done them , I will check my diary and get back to you

[ZBeebs]

Going to have to delay a few days. The gas meter is in that room, and they want to get in and do a reading...have to make an appointment...damn them...I tell them the actual usage and pay on time every month...I got a nasty letter from them threatening that they can shut off my gas if I don't let them in since they haven't gotten a reading in person in 12 months. The letter went on to say they want to ensure that I am paying the correct amount...Why not come right out and say what they mean? That they think I might be stealing gas...Fuckers...

[Taylor]

We had something like this at home. My dad never got charged for water for 6 years and he just accepted it as luck. Then they hit him for 6 years of water.....

[TwoCanucks]

Going to have to delay a few days. The gas meter is in that room, and they want to get in and do a reading...have to make an appointment...damn them...I tell them the actual usage and pay on time every month...I got a nasty letter from them threatening that they can shut off my gas if I don't let them in since they haven't gotten a reading in person in 12 months. The letter went on to say they want to ensure that I am paying the correct amount...Why not come right out and say what they mean? That they think I might be stealing gas...Fuckers...

This is paranoia... and even though you're probably wrong about their reasons, you have a sound mind to sniff out potentially suspicious people... good on ya... now stop being so paranoid... if they thought you were stealing hydro they wouldn't call for an appointment, they'd try to catch you in the act.

[ZBeebs]

Going to have to delay a few days. The gas meter is in that room, and they want to get in and do a reading...have to make an appointment...damn them...I tell them the actual usage and pay on time every month...I got a nasty letter from them threatening that they can shut off my gas if I don't let them in since they haven't gotten a reading in person in 12 months. The letter went on to say they want to ensure that I am paying the correct amount...Why not come right out and say what they mean? That they think I might be stealing gas...Fuckers...

This is paranoia... and even though you're probably wrong about their reasons, you have a sound mind to sniff out potentially suspicious people... good on ya... now stop being so paranoid... if they thought you were stealing hydro they wouldn't call for an appointment, they'd try to catch you in the act.

Oh no, their letter specifically stated they wanted to make sure I wasn't underreporting usage, and that if i was, penalties and fines may apply. This is for natural gas (our heat and gas stove, so their are no spikes related to grow lights or anything) so it's not paranoia. It's a long story actually, the usage for my home looks very strange...when we moved in, we discovered that the previous owners overpaid and the meter was way behind the bill. When I alerted the gas company, they made an adjustment and we paid $0 for almost a full year of gas...then, since their computers thought we weren't using gas, the automatic system wasn't billing us, so then we fell behind on gas which I discovered and admitted and then sent them over $700 to make it up and began reporting usage monthly, but that's not enough. They want one of their own to read the meter. The part that bothers me is that if I was trying to steal it why would I have told them about the problem in the first place?

Regardless, the guy will be here between 7am and 9am this Friday. The night before I will put the seeds in soil in another room, and then when the guy gets his reading the tent goes up and the pots will go into the tent.

Going to run the lights 24/0 for the length of the grow.

[Boner]

Someone on icmag who breeds autos says they grow better with a dark period, he recommends 20/4.

[Panog]

Yeah a lot of people on the internet say that they will grow on 24/0 but. 20/4 is the best

[Cisco]

Defo go either 20/4 or 18/6

As for your meters , dude that's common here you can give them readings but they need in to read your meter once a year and the worst thing is in Scotland they have the power to kick yer door in to read the meter (if your never in / refusing entry) so imo it's always better to comply

[Boner]

Are we the only place that have the meters outside the property?

[ZBeebs]

20/4 it is. I won't mind saving 1/6th the electricity.

[Uncle Ron]

Hey Z,
Good luck with your second grow.
Your experience with growing auto's will be interesting to read.

My few cents worth of opinions of what you have written so far.
- Gas Company
I'm surprised they don't send someone to read meters at least once a year. Our gas rep. reads our meters once a year, the same month every year. Easy for me to plan around if I were growing...
With the information that you have given, I don't see the surprise that they want to read the meter(s). As you stated, the previous tenants were overpaying. Let them read the meter(s) so they can see for themselves that you have been paying the correct amount. After this "in-person reading", you might want to read the gas companies policy as to the frequency of readings. Work it out...

- Light distance and hours
Auto's are cannabis plants, correct? The main differences are the introduction of Ruderalis, a shortened vegetation period, the plant is considerably shorter, the yield is also considerably less, and the potency is yet to be on par with other strains. Did I miss anything?
So, given my little bit above, why would one change the distance of the light or the hours from other strains? If I were growing auto's, I would probably use a 18/6 light cycle, and maintain a distance of approximately 16-18 inches from the top of the plant. Remember to control temps so the tops don't get burnt. I've read (that's right, no experience growing auto's ) that you don't even need lighting systems to grow auto's. People have written that they've put their auto's on a windowsill that provided the most sunlight during the day. What seems to be amazing is that windowsill auto's go from seed to harvest in about a week or two longer. This of course is good for those able to do so, as for others, either gorilla farming or indoor grow.

Why the fook did you buy non-feminized seeds? Planting 10 in the hopes that 5 will be female? If you bought feminized, the only concerns would be will they germinate (same as non-feminized) and hermies, which are easy enough to deal with - cut the sacks.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Happy farming...

[ZBeebs]

The reason I went with autoflowering is because I have had to take the grow stuff down for the past few months, and now that I'm going to get started again I wanted something that would be fast from start to finish. If I wait another 3 or 4 months for a harvest, I will have to go and buy smoke...and I don't want to do that again.

I read a lot about the different autoflowering strains, and Sour 60 fit the bill for speed, yield and quality of smoke. I would have liked feminized seeds, but there were none to be had. I had to either choose a different strain or buy regular seeds. It will be a good learning experience to separate out the males from the females.

I am excited to get started again, the journey begins anew...This time tomorrow the tent will be up, and I will be waiting impatiently for the seeds to germinate...