Challenging the "Don't transplant autos" rule!

Hey all, I’m going to be starting another run of autos sometime next week, and I’m going to start them in solo cups instead of 5 gallon containers. There’s a chance I’m wrong, I often am, lol, but I have a lot of confidence in this. I’ve now grown autos for about 8 months after growing photo period plants for a year. There is no doubt in my mind that my autos have never gotten off to the same kind of great start that my photos used to, and it’s definitely because of the big containers. I’ve tried several different watering methods, but there’s just no way to easily take care of tiny seedlings in big pots.
My theory is if you’re good at transplanting and gentle enough not to disturb the roots any more than necessary, whatever growth you lose from the possibility of transplant shock will still be better than getting off to a pretty much guaranteed slow start.
Well, either way, right or wrong, I’ll have my answer in a few weeks.
I’ll start a new journal once the seeds are germinating, but what do you all think?

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You should spend time in @Not2SureYet’s journals. He does everything you aren’t supposed to and pulls small yields from autos: 11 oz or so lol.

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One way to minimize shock from transplanting is to use a starter pot like cow pots or jiffy pots made of compressed peat for the seedlings. I have done it this way with all of the autos I have grown. When they are big enough I simply place the entire pot directly in the final grow pot.This is photo seedling so it is going into a 6" pot before the final 5 gallon bag.
I guess I don’t even consider how I do it as transplanting since it doesn’t leave its original “pot”.

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That’s what I have been doing with my autos all a long. Germinating them, putting into a solo cup and when the leaves get to the edges of the solo cup, transplanting into a 5 gal pot. My Blackberry Gum auto, I actually had to up pot from a 5gal to a 10gal. It’s loving life and just recently started to flower. @Myfriendis410 is correct, @Not2SureYet has really great success with autos :v:

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All good suggestions, thank you! I’m open to trying new ideas for sure, I just didn’t want to continue doing it the way I was.

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For my self. I start every thing in solo cups or the nursery pots. I have a Durban thai going into a nursery pot tonight. I go fro there to the final pot. I will use a 1 gallon as a go between if I don’t have the space for a final pot ready. If I go gr say a solo cup to a final pot. The plants grow faster. When I use a 1 gallon in between. It will slow things down for me. I normally don’t loose any veg time that way.
If you want an auto to grow fast. Use a 3 gallon pot. It will make a difference. I use 5s for most and 3 now and then. Both yield about the same sized plant. I use the 5s for easy of watering most. I have done a 9oz plant in a 3 gallon before. So I know you can grow big in them. A soft pot that is. I haven’t tried in a hard pot. Other than that. These are pretty much like photos. Don’t over water when they are young and they do great.
And I am not gental when I transplant lol. Survival of the fittest lol

Will you be growing this one right here?

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Hmmm that method doesn’t work nearly that well for me. Maybe a little more experience at it will get me there :wilted_flower:

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I’m trying an experiment to see what odds I can defy this time two plants one pot LOL 5gal. Gorilla Glue Autos by ILGM.

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@BRFarming420, do you have a journal for this? I would watch it :grin: You may wish you used a 7 gallon pot. I a all for pushing the limits :+1:

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I just started this couple days ago I’ll probably start a journal on it and post.

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I haven’t set up a journal for it yet, but I will as soon as I decide on what strains it’s going to be. I have a pretty huge selection of seeds at the moment thanks to some very generous friends in Canada!
I can make it an all Girl Scout cookie grow if I want. I have GSCE from ILGM, GSC from Fast Buds, GSC from Lineage Genetics, and GSC from Garden of Green. But I also have some Six Shooter and Green Crack from Fast Buds that I really want to try, and also a ton more ILGM and Fast Buds Gorilla Glue. I’m a terrible decision maker, so this isn’t going to be easy, lol
Any suggestions? It’s going to be a 10 plant grow in a 4x6 closet under a Nextlight Mega!

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@BRFarming420 Do you think the roots are going to grow out through the holes in the pot? And do you have a plan if they do?

I have wanted the 6 shooter seeds for a while. Every time I order. They are out.
If you are going to try 10 in that area. I have to watch. :grin: If I could get to both side of my tent. I could only get 8 in my 4x8. I would train early to get them into shape early and maybe take up a little less room. The six shooter can get big from what I have seen. The reason I want one :grin: Lineage genetics makes big plants too. That is what my TXL is. GSC is big fro what I have seen. For me, fast buds normally have the small plants.

If the roots grow out. once they hit the air. They will stop and self prune, similar to a soft pot :grin:

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@Not2SureYet, I have a run of 12 in there right now getting ready to finish up, lol. It’s been a bad grow for me, my worst yet, but it wasn’t because of overcrowding, it’s because I made a ridiculously stupid mistake and didn’t realize it for a few weeks.

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It looks good nice and full. Were those all autos too?

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Yes, all autos. There’s 3 GDPxGumberry by Garden of Green, 3 Green Poison XL by Sweet Seeds, 3 Caramelinos by Victory Seeds, and 3 Extreme Impact by Heavyweight Seeds.
You are right on about Fast Buds plants being smaller in general. All of mine have been smaller than most, but with really big and dense buds.
I have a lot of catching up to do on your threads and journals. I’ll be reading into the night, lol. As of now, I haven’t done much training at all since I switched to autos, but I used to train the hell out of my photo periods. I have a feeling I’m going to want to try some training on autos after I go through your journals.

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Just scroll through to the pictures. I always put all the info in the first post there. After that. it is normally just a little side talk. I have been pretty relaxed on the training. I think it was the she loves me journal where I was multi topping like crazy. more so to show that not every thing you read about autos is true all the time.

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On my first grow here with Girl Scout Cookies Extreme Auto. I started in a 4" clay pot. Big mistake. The transplant couldn’t have gone worse. By the time I got the plant out of the pot there was very little soil attached to the roots. I went to a 5 gal Smart Pot and this is what my plant looks like at 36 days above soil!

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This was my same closet back when I had 5 Godzilla Glues by Dr Underground and 1 GDP from Ken Estes in there. They were all trained. At the same time I had 3 more of the GDP’s and 1 more Godzilla Glue in one of my tents and I left those ones untrained. I definitely yielded considerably more from the trained plants in the closet, but my favorite smoke came from the top colas from the untrained plants in the tent. So I’m kind of caught not sure how much training I should do. Thanks for the advice, I’m really looking forward to checking out your journals.

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Not hard to pick out Ken’s GDP in there, lol.

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