Now that I’ve dated myself with the REM reference I can get down to business…
I’m a newer amateur grower with lots of new found ideas and (possibly) knowledge. I’ve just wrapped up my 4 plant outdoor grow, as well as 2 clones I took from the outdoor girls and grew in my 2/4/6 tent.
My next step is AUTO! I have 5 northen lights auto seeds coming and I’m pretty excited. I’ve read up quite a bit and was sad to see that they do have their limitations, specifically, cloning isn’t great and they aren’t fans of scrogging. I did see that they’re good for sog’ing but I just learned about that.
So, long story short, I’m looking for any tips, best practices, corrections (lol), warnings, etc for my first auto seed grow. As mentioned, I have 2’ x 4’ x 6’ tent (pic below with one of two lights). I will be using soil and green planet nutes, homemade light x2, 6” exhuast, and two fans.
I’m nearly done with my first ever grow and I’m calling it a success as it has been fast paced with these autos,started purchasing grow room equipment and hope to kick it up a notch early next year . Many hours spent here picking the simpler methods to increase yield,so that said I can safely say start with small feeding after first week , LST , weigh main top growth down when plants reach appropriate height ,later pin down new growth to allow maximum light in on bud sites and promote more,tuck larger leaves under smaller ones to expose bud sites,as the picture will put some perspective on this,you can see the struggle you might have depending on what size tent your setup has. Hopefully I will get four plants in a 4ft x 4ft with tomato coil in each to give some control, thinking of making a single fitted scrog to each pot as important to me to have access and ability to remove from tent for maintenance etc. Do not worry about using quality soil with existing fertiliser added as you will be chucking the ferts at these plants with amazing growth rates (sorry not sure if you using soil) but I have to keep it simple, the pots in picture are 300mm square, watering / fertilising should saturate 80% of soil for optimum effect but think around 4-5 weeks I started flooding pots as very thirsty. All the best with your next grow, I’m just loving every minute of self rehabilitation, nothing better than home grown!
Ok. Welcome to ILGM. Beautiful ladies. But on the auto tip… I think u have it backwards. They’d rather scrog then sog. I dont think u can have a true sog of autos. Cant clone them… cant control when they flower so cant have 15-20 all on same timing and same size (ish) and make them all flower at once. Autos do what they want.
They WILL usually scrog. N now. Meet my friend. Mrs Autoflower of ILGM @blackthumbbetty
@talkintobob Autos are wonderful! You’ve got to treat them right, though, b/c they don’t have time to recover if you stress them out. This means they don’t care too much for transplanting or high stress training. A lot of autos also don’t like too many nutes.
If you’re doing all one strain & the breeders recommend SOG, I’d say you’re good to go. The best plants to sog tend to have one huge main cola w/o too much side branching. Sog truly depends on uniformity for filling up your grow space with an even canopy. You’ll want 1 plant per sq foot, or so.
You can scrog an auto, w/o topping, but you have to start early, say by day 21-28, before they start throwing out too many pistils & before the stem hardens off. Autos do seem to respond well to lst training, you just have to time it right.
As far as nutes, keep pushing grow nutes, even once you start seeing pistils. If you switch to bloom nutes right away, you’ll miss out on quite a bit of growth.
You’re no slouch either. All great tips here and I suspect, @TALKINTOBOB will do great. Tag me into the conversation anytime!!
What Betty says is my motto, maximize those first 4-6 weeks and you will reap rewards.
I spread this around quite a bit, it’s not mine just something I found in my research
LIFECYCLE OF AN AUTO
A common question I see is when to switch autos from veg to bloom. Many people are under the impression that as soon as they see the first flowers it’s time to switch. Perhaps a little explanation of the life cycle of autos will help to clarify this.
Weeks 1 - 3. Once you’ve started your seeds and they break the surface of the soil, they are in their seedling stage. The first set of leaves to appear will usually single fingered, followed by a second set that may still be single fingered or perhaps 3 fingered. Once that second set appears growth will start to accelerate as the new leaves provide more photosynthesis. This process will continue, more new leaves, faster growth. Depending on the type of soil in use, mild vegetative nutes can be introduced at week 2. By week 3 most plants will start to show their sex. Males will start to produce pollen sacks and females will display pistils.
Weeks 4 - 6. The plants are now entering a pre flowering stage. During this time the plants should exhibit explosive growth, often as much as a new set of nodes and 1" vertical growth a day. This is the time when they will gain most of their vertical height. Many people make the mistake of switching from vegetative to flowering nutrients at this point, assuming that since they see flowers it must be the proper time. This is incorrect. If the switch to flowering nutes is made at this time the vertical growth will stop and the plant will put it’s energy into producing buds. If you need to keep your plants small, or want them to finish earlier, they by all means switch nutes at this point. But if you want to get the most out of your plants continue feeding vegetative nutes until you see the vertical growth slow and stop. Depending on the strain that will usually be sometime during week 5 or 6.
Weeks 7 - 9. By now vertical growth has stopped and the switch to flowering nutrients has been made. The buds will start to fill out and put on weight, becoming hard and tight. Pistols will start to change from white to brown, orange, red, etc. By now the plants will also have developed a strong smell. Toward the end of this phase the large primary and smaller secondary fan leaves will begin to turn yellow. This is an indication that the plant is moving toward the end of it’s life.
Weeks 10 - 11. At this time flowering nutes should be discontinued and only plain pHed water fed to flush the remaining nutrients from the soil and improve the taste. Yellowing of the fan leaves will continue as the plant draws the stored energy from them. Eventually they will die and fall off. By the time that the smaller leaves that come from out of the buds will also start to turn yellow. Then it’s time to harvest.
I know that many of you are thinking that the seed bank said the plants will finish in 8-9 weeks, so why are you saying they take 10-11? The claims made by the seed banks are somewhat deceptive. If you switch to flowering nutes at week 3 or 4 the plants can finish in the times the seed banks say but they will remain small and not reach their full potential yield. Years of growing by myself and others has shown that autos do best if you follow this time line.
Of course, there will always be variations depending on the strain, the environment, nutrients, etc. This information is meant to only serve as a general guideline.
I’ve had spirited discussions on this board with very experienced growers who were advising others that you MUST start bloom nutes at week 4 with auto’s. There is no comparing our yields yet still, pushback. Oh well, live, grow, learn.
Thanks to all for input,your knowledge is gold. Have overdosed on information provided here and gained confidence but need to ask how long do these girls have before I need to start flush,will one week be sufficient? These first three haven’t had the professional upbringing that could have been applied and so I’m just worried about stuffing up my first grow.
Well I’m definitely going to follow your timeline. I think the proof is in the pudding… and you got enough pudding to keep Bill Cosby busy for years… lol to soon?
I think my best bet at this point is to kiss and tackle additional techniques next round.
So, if I’m keeping it simple, no SoG or ScrOG for now, how many plants would you recommend in a 2x4x6 tent? I had 2 photos in it for the maiden voyage and they were touching all 4 sides, am I best served running with 2 autos as well?
Here’s couple more pics of my diy light build, including learning to do the soldering, poorly, lol. I have to give all the credit to an ILGM member who’s since left (bigbananafeet, I think) as well as @dbrn32. They answered my questions and literally laid it out step by step for me, I definitely could not have come close to doing it myself, but I learned enough that I’m in the process of building another right now
Since I took the pics of the light I have raised the power supply about an inch off of the back for some airflow and to prolong the life. The metal panel of the light runs very hot to touch but once you get the fan on it cools right off and is slightly warm to the touch.
Hahaha its cool. Know that feeling. What type of driver is it? That would help a bit. But not super important. And i enjoy brass honesty more often then pillow soft political correctness
If you are limited in height i would definatly go for lst low stress training. If you use the method above and push grow nutes till the stretch is over you will get some nice hardy plants. Heres 2 white widow autos from ilgm genetics and what i like to call the @screwauger method
In a 2x4 with that light, you’re gonna rock anything you grow! I think 2 plants will be best. My old tent was that size. I could fit 2 plants comfortably. I did a sog grow of photoperiod plants in it & grew 6 plants.
Indeed nanafeet was a treat. I had to invoke the 24 hour rule in all reply’s to his posts, sometimes I just wanted to tear into him but then I would re-read his words and they were not as blunt as they could have been or that I thought initially. He was only suspended I thought through September but he was threatening lawsuits etc so it’s possible he may never be back.
He was back briefly under a name like anon with a series of numbers behind it. And suspended again.
I’m not as good at the cool down period, obviously lol. I think he had good intentions most of the time, as far as providing info on the lights. He was stubborn af too when he first joined. But I think he chilled out a little.
@TALKINTOBOB appears to be about a 360 watt driver, would need strip data and how many of them you have to see what it’s actually pulling.
its cool. Know that feeling. What type of driver is it? That would help a bit. But not super important. And i enjoy brass honesty more often then pillow soft political correctness
