Hey everyone I am planning my next grow and I am debating what I want to do. I have 4 strains of autoflower seeds and 10 white widow feminized photoperiods. My first grow in a 4x4 tent was with two plants and it was challenging at times as I did not have a quality environment for them… too hot, too humid was most of the issue but also had some pH and malnutrition. I’ve lived and I’ve learned and I’m ready for round two! I want to run 4 autoflowers in my 4x4 can I get away with running four different strains or will this be harder than I’m thinking?! I have three seeds of each strain so I could run 3 plants of one strain at a time. I guess I was thinking having diversity in my smoke would be nice, but does this make it difficult to try and grow?!
Or should I take a break from autoflowers and try my photoperiod white widows out?!
First of all, good luck!
Now for my thoughts on your question… If you grow autos together, no matter if they are all the same strain or all different strains, they will, by the very nature of being autos, all finish at different times, All of the same might be closer to finishing together, but you don’t have that kind of control.
If them finishing together isn’t an issue, have fun! If however, you need them to finish at the same time, because you use your growing environment to dry in (for example), then it is much more convenient to grow photoperiod plants, all of the same strain, as they should all finish together. If you want them to finish together and they are different strains of photos, then try to grow them together based on the breeder’s (or seed bank’s) estimated flower information.
Hope this helps a little, and doesn’t further make it a harder decision!
Do your research as to what each strain will offer you in the form of challenges to commingling. Height and width is important. I just did 4 GSCA in my 4x4 and they even gave me different looks.
Good advice. I wasn’t even considering space issues. I only dream of having a 4x4.
Yup 4 x 4 should be enough space. Operable word being should… id go for variety myself. I enjoy having multiple strains at harvest for different needs.
3 in a 4 x 4 leaves room for error and training. But 4 is doable
Well I’m hoping that by the time we make it to finish I’ll have a whole new room setup for drying! I grew up on an old dairy farm and I’m working to repurpose the milking parlor as a insulated room that I could use to dry/cure and store my bud in! I’m using this as my learning opportunity because one day I truly would love to get more into breeding and genetics. I have a degree in agronomy and a minor in soil science so I’m trying to tie it all together!
Awesome! In that case, I’d probably grow 4 different. Variety is the spice of life!
I’m leaning more towards doing a variety, 4 plants 4 strains. I’ll have to look into the specs on the strains I have and see if they are somewhat compatible to run together. I have a floor ac unit set up in the room housing my 4x4 tent. The ac unit exhausts out the window and I also have an exhaust fan in the tent which is also vented out the window, but know this isn’t the most energy efficient but it helps keep a pretty solid control of my environment now! I also have a humidifier which can be ran based on my RH. I also have a 6” cyclone fan pointed at the wall of the tent for air circulation and two small fans toward the top of the tent blowing in opposite directions.
I did multistrain once. I hax two fast autos. 8 weeks seed to harvest and two ilgm Bruce Banner auto’s. It was a nightmare trying to give everyo e the right light for their stage of growth. The 8 weekers ended up super foxtailed and wispy. Since I have only done one strain at a time.
Thanks for giving me your opinion and experience! I think this might be something I try and will probably do until I have an issue myself 
My current tent (a 4x4) was supposed to have 4 in it. I germed 2 Bruce Banner autos, a Dutch Treat photo and a 9Pound Hammer photo. One of the BB died and the DT didn’t pop up, so re-germed another of each. The BBa didn’t pop. So my tent consists of 1 BBa, 1 9LbHammer photo and a Dutch Treat photo about 2weeks behind the other 2.
The BBa comes down tonite, she’s about 15" tall and raised up on a stand. The DT is a short plant, about 18" tall and raised on a stand, 5 weeks into flower (lights flipped May 15th). The 9pounder is about 36" tall, lanky plant she is, not on a stand! She takes up half the tent herself, altho tonite I have to add some support poles to the outside of the pot and run a wire ring around the outside to keep her limbs supported (they are starting to fall over from the weight of the buds!).
So, mixing strains IS doable, you just have work at maintaining the canopy height the same. Autos “tend” to be shorter since they flower sooner, and if I were running nothing but autos, I’d do 5 in a 4x4 if I were allowed. Nice thing is you can keep the lights at 20/4 or 18/6 for the duration, an as you harvest one or 2, you can replace them with more autos.
Running photos is fine since you control when they go into flower. If you do different photo strains, you may have some different sized plants to deal with tho! And even tho you control the lights and their flowering schedule, you may still have one finish weeks before the others, and being on a 12/12 schedule, you can’t really start anything in its place once one finishes. Something to think about if you run different photo strains.
So I decided I am going to run 4 different autoflower strains! Like you all said autoflowers all have their own time frame anyways so might as well just get some real diversity. So I started my germination today, got all four seeds in separate cups of water and labeled. After they sink or max 48 hours I’ll put them into a paper towel to get their tails. I used this method last time and germinated 2/2. The strains I’m growing are LSD-25, Wedding Cake, Blue Dream, and GSC. Like I said these are all autoflowers so I’ll be harvesting November-December. At that point I’m thinking I might run some photoperiods but only time will tell. For now here’s to the next 5 months of growing these babies! (No picture because I had the seed packaging in the picture and sadly I didn’t know ILGM sold seeds till last week).
Excellent choices, all!
Hey everyone just and update I started all my seeds by soaking for 18 hours, then I planted them straight into my 5 gallon pots. I used Buildasoil 3.0 in the bottom half and BuildASoil light in the top half. I had a little bit left from a seed starting soil mix that I placed in the center of the pot just to give it a nice seed bed. I had two strains (LSD-25 and Blue dream) pop above ground within 48 hours. the other two (GSC and Wedding Cake) I waited another two days without any sign of them making their way to the surface. so I investigated and found both seeds sitting exactly how I left them, cracked but not showing a tap root now. Gave them another couple days with no luck so I tried to find them again but unfortunately I could find them at all now (must’ve got lost in the five gallon pot). I soaked another GSC and wedding cake for 18 hours again. I planted them adding a little more of the seed starting potting soil into the center of the pot, same way as before. At this point LSD-25 is leading the pack in initial vigor! Can’t wait for the others to show their heads above ground!
We’re chugging along just a morning spritz to rewet the top of the soil to keep it alive. Not soaking them like a normal watering.
Moving right along. Just top dressed these girls with Build a Soil craft blend, clover cover crop mix, Buildafower top dress, and watered it in with the three microbial amendments. Trying to give ‘em a good start but the LSD-25 is chugging right along.
Little ladies are growing and the LSD-25 is still chugging!!! The wedding cake and GSC seem to be on track as well. My blue dream on the other hand seems to be looking a little gnarly, I wanted to get some second opinions. The last three photos are of the blue dream plant, any suggestions on what’s going on?