From a fellow grower: they’re in tents in the basement. They have the fluorescent t5 grow lights from HTG Supply and the blower and phat filters. I have a seedling tent a veg tent and the flower tent is using 2 hps setups. I have misters , heaters at 78°F . Fluorescents are about 10-12 inches away on a 16 hr and HPS are about 2 ft away at least and on a 12 hr cycle. I have CO2 bags in the veg and flower tents. I’m using cloth bags after seedlings are ready to transplant. I’m getting correct pH near roots and nearly 8 on edges of pots. Using Lotus nutrients once a week according to directions. Using RO filtered water. The autoflowers only grew to about 5 or 6 inches and started flowering and never got any good yield. I’m using foxfarm ocean forest with some worm castings perlite cococoir all within pH norms. I’m watering about every 3 days with only slight run off. Allowing to mostly dry now since daily watering with no run off failed (too much) . Humidity around 70% .
What you are seeing sometimes happens. Autos can be the luck of the draw. Some simply flower too soon. The only suggestion I have is to consider growing photos instead of autos so that you have control over when they flower.
You’re not going to be able to get good yield with fluorescent lighting. Suggest a good cannabis light built with Samsung LM301 diodes.
Save your money on CO2 bags. Extra CO2 is useless without proper lighting.
Agree with @MidwestGuy autos are a crap shoot but you mite try next time going from the seedling tent to the HPS the stress from the low PPFD with the t5’s may have contributed to your problem
I had a grow long ago and used t5 in veg and hps for flower but on reg seeds. It was a super successful. I’m done with these autos.
Look at this. They’re 4 inches tall and flowering already. I’m more concerned about the dying leaves really at this point. I’ve already ordered all fem seeds this time. It just looks like every plant is having a different issue from pH to lack of N to N burn. I’ve tried everything from desert to mud ( not literally) I’m so frustrated I feel like trashing it all and starting over. Has anyone ever had a problem with just the atmosphere in an old basement being hard to control?? I mean every single thing is being monitored and measured daily. Moisture, temp, humidity, light, nutrients, pH …
How long was the veg time on these? Did they just sprout and and go into flower? I also see you have one of them in a 4” starter pot.Did you start all the seedlings in those pots? The reason i ask is because ive grown autos in 1 gallon pots. And they always ended up smaller then the others. If you did start them in the small pots. That would be a reason to kick into flower early. I feel like the tap root goes down and finds the bottom of the planter and once it does, the seedling knows how much soil it has to work with and reacts accordingly. I’m no expert but just what ive experienced. I also started with auto’s and have switched to photo’s! I will probably always have few Mephisto autos going as there selection and finished product are awesome. But……. The majority of my grow will be photo plants from now on! There just easier to work with and MUCH MORE FORGIVING!
You dont have to start them in there forever home but it does help! And if if i was going to transplant them from small to a bigger container. i would not them sit in the small 4” pots for longer than 5 days. As the tap root will most likely find the bottom of the pot in 4” planter VERY QUICKLY
Its my opinion that autoflowers have the ability to determine by this,(the roots hitting bottom/sides), how big to grow. If I start an auto in a solo cup and leave it there a while before transplanting into a 3 gal fabric pot it will stay small and produce poorly. The only only autos I ever could call successful were planted directly into the large final pot after soaking the seed for 24 hours. Like many others I have abandoned autos for photos and have seen far better results. Its a trap to think autos are easier. They are not by a longshot. If you want to keep it super simple then just grow the photos under 12/12 right from the start and you will still do better. The only thing you need for photos is 12 hours of darkness. It doesn’t have to be cave dark, but just no significant light for the dark time. I walk through the room every day while lights are out. Sometimes I use a flashlight and sometimes turn on the room tights for 30 seconds so I don’t trip on something. A flash of lightning outside does not harm the plants so a brief light occasionally wont mess up the tent grow either. I don’t even zip up the tent.
I’ve grown to dislike autos because of the problems we see posted here with early flowering. Here’s a sample of others’ similar experiences. Photoperiod plants are a much better option, especially for new growers.
It doesn’t happen all the time, but we’ve seen a fair number of autos that flower at 2.5 weeks. Some are better than others. The longest we’ve seen one go it 12 weeks.
The ones in the soil are autos. Mine grew tall as hell and skinny and has not produced a lot of flower. Two are gg one Girl Scout and one is Bruce banner. They are all in soil. In the ones in the water 3 are fems and one gg auto. The auto you can tell which one it is bc all the fems blew up and so did the gg but she stayed small. All the others are twice her size. I’m not buying autos anymore I tried it it’s cool for a small grow but that’s not what I’m in this for. I want the most I can get out of every grow. And with autos you can’t.
I’m the last pic the auto is in the left hand corner black hydro bucket look how small she is compared the the fems.
It’s my opinion that the nutes cycle was all wrong. I’m watering every 8 hours in Coco was appropriate nutrients and calmag. It’s sort of looks like they went into the phase of trying to survive. The entire purpose of flower is propagation. I’m no expert but it looks like they tried to flower in order to propagate. It is a natural state that we only have so much control over. The girls are just trying to make babies before the end of their life cycle hence early flowering and I also agree with the lighting but I’m no expert just a SoCal guy sitting on his ass growing.
Not all some started in 3 gal fabric. I just bought a lot of fem seeds from you guys. I’m finding out that autos are handled way diff. Some stuff I assumed, just common sense, like don’t top or FIM but didn’t realize nearly everything else is a little different. I’m gonna change to 5 gallon plastic pots and super soil in the bottom and promixHP on top half. Sound ok to you?
Myth. You can top autos you just have to time it right and your plant has to have a healthy start. Autos aren’t for beginners imo
This is one of the problems right here. They should be 18/6 under one light the whole grow. I don’t know anything about hps growing capabilities but basically the grower is at fault here. Never gave the autos enough light and if you were in a basement you definitely should have given them more light hours along with the added heat.
This is a gg auto she’s humongous but the ones I grew in soil where skinny and tall.
See how skinny and tall. The one I grew in water did so much better.
I gave up on autos because of the inconsistencies. Ive gown a handful and each were successful, but not enough yield or strength. My crappiest photo has produced more than my best auto… my last Banana Kush Auto…
It’s a nice one there. Pretty dang good for an auto. We’ve seen a slew of runt autos the past few weeks.
I personally run 20/4. I’m at the end of my last small grow White widow Auto and yeah you’re right stuff is different. I started five plants ended up with four and of the four I topped three. Just to see for myself how they would handle it all came out fine. Topped about 12 -14 days into grow. My biggest problem with the autos on this particular grow was the growth speed. All of them grew differently. I will add though, thinking of how quickly autos go through their stages which I’m sure it had to do with. I had to run till 12 week, not 10, before I started harvesting in fact I still have one running late which will probably be closer to 14 weeks. And wouldn’t you know the one that’s taking the longest is the only one that I did not top. I said all that to say this if the plants are healthy you can top them but also be prepared in case you have to go a longer amount of time due to the recovery process that autos go through.
