First Grow, Auto Flower Plant care

FNG101v2 · May 24, 2018, 1:08pm

Greetings all,

This is my first grow and I’m on day 14 from sprout of my cheese Autoflower strain from ILGM.

I’ve been browsing through a lot of plant care topics lately trying to get an understanding of all the different methods people use to increase yields, utilize space, etc etc.

A lot of the different methods I’m coming across like super cropping, monster cropping, super this or monster that, I’m seeing a lot of them which say that it doesn’t apply to auto flower strains…

With that being said, does anyone have a direction they can point me in for proper autoflower care? Is there a specific grow technique geared towards maximizing Auto flowers? Should I just focus on slight “pruning and trimming”?

I’m lost in the ocean of information with no compass . Thanks in advance!

elheffe702 · May 24, 2018, 1:18pm

Welcome, @FNG101v2! I’ll start by saying you’re in the right place. There are lots of friendly folks to steer you in the right direction.

All that said, I’ve never grown an auto, myself. However, I’ve read a lot about it. Kind of like playing a doctor on tv, I guess lol! Most recommend very little training or topping of autos, as they can be stunted. Since you have no control over the grow cycle, this can greatly reduce your yield.

All THAT said, there are growers on this very forum who have successfully topped, fimmed, lst’d, and even cloned autos, if you consider a single cola clone a success, anyway.

I would recommend searching for your strain on the forum, and find some journals of folks who have grown the same strain, maybe even in a similar setup to yours! And then start your own journal as well, tag folks using the @ followed by their name, like @FNG101v2 and they’ll be notified, and come running to your rescue! Okay, maybe that’s overdoing it.

MattyBear · May 24, 2018, 1:41pm

I just finished up a Cheese auto around a month ago. I only LST my auto plants, but some autos have a long enough veg time to top. If this is your first time growing autos, I’d probably just LST.

FNG101v2 · May 24, 2018, 1:48pm

Really appreciate the feedback!!!

I’ve already started a grow journal, I’ll need to find some fellow Auto Flower growers

FNG101v2 · May 24, 2018, 1:50pm

I think we just became friends, You’re the unicorn I’ve been looking for!

You don’t have a grow journal on here do you?

MattyBear · May 24, 2018, 1:54pm

I do. I have 3 actually. I can tag you into the journal that had the Cheese auto. It’s lengthy and there’s a lot of BS, but you’re more than welcome to scroll through and ask questions. I’ll tag you over

elheffe702 · May 24, 2018, 2:11pm

This makes me so happy.

blackthumbbetty · May 24, 2018, 2:55pm

You can check out my grow journal, too. I just harvested 6 different auto strains. It was my first grow with autos. Definitely not a pro, but I had great success this time, around.

mountainman1 · May 24, 2018, 8:33pm

In my experience its best not to stress autos by topping or fimming. I have had great success by training the top stem of the plant in a horizontal plane. The main growing tip of a plant contains hormones that will not let the side branches grow as tall or thick as main stem. By bending the main stem down below the side branches it allows the build up of the hormone in the main stem to dissipate and move to the side branches, letting them become mainstems as well. This also makes all your new tops bud around the same size as opposed to 1 big main cola and several smaller side colas. It also helps keep your plants small and compact so you can have better light penetration over the whole plant.

FNG101v2 · May 24, 2018, 9:44pm

Really good information thank you! It kind of sounds like your explaining Low Stress training is that correct? That’s my current plan if that’s what you are referring to. I need to watch some videos or something so I can physically see how it’s done. I’m worried about screwing up