When should I swap to flowering with autos

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Hi, first post so please bear with me :joy: First time grower & they certainly have had to cope with a lot but they’re 3 weeks in now. When should I swap my maxibright cfl 125w bulb from blue to red? Are there things I should look for on the plants & when is the best time to try training with autos?

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Soon as you see flowers start to form. I’ve had autos start to flower 3 weeks in clear up to 2.5 months before it flowered

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@Lesley , Welcome to the ILGM community of stoners.

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Can you run both blue and red at once? That light is a bit anemic to begin with, so I’d give it everything you can.

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Welcome to the forums Lesley

As horn head said once you see flowers, when the stretch is over is ideal.
Do you only have 1 fixture and bought 2 bulbs?
I’m vegging mine on the 200w 6400k’s right now as well.

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Welcome to ILGM! :v:

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I’d get the humidity a little higher in the dome.

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Thanks! Gonna enjoy this forum haha, hopefully you guys don’t get too fed up with me asking silly questions in the meantime.

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Thanks, gonna get onto setting both up today.

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Hey @KeystoneCops, took your advice and got both the bulbs on the girls. Gonna try upload a few pics now so persevere with me if it goes wrong :joy: Like these popped 16-12 but things went pear shaped Christmas Eve and they’d barely any heat or light for nearly 4 days. Luckily they’re in biomix (light) running both red and blue maxibright cfl’s and when I get more ratchets through I also have a marshydro TS 600 to go in alongside them. The ones in the pic on the left are Pineapple Express and the right are zkittles autos. They’ve been through a lot of stress for my first grow so firstly I’d like to know if they’re looking alright and also are the Pineapple Express ready to start feeding some blooming nutrients too?

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They look pretty good considering they’re less than a month old and they spend 4 days without light!

Why medium are they in? Soilless?

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They’re in soil, light biobizz mix that I got online. Tried hydro a couple of times and failed so this is my third attempt.

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I don’t know that brand, but I’d be cautious about adding a “bloom fertilizer” in soil. The plants seem ready to use more phosphorus, but shouldn’t it already be available in the soil?

I’m coming around on the idea of applying a microbial boost like Recharge in soil. The nutrients are already in the soil, but without microbial processes they aren’t bio-available. I only just picked up Jeff Lowenfeld’s Teeming with Microbes, but I like the idea of boosting microbes instead of applying fertilizers.

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So I just search back my purchases on eBay and found this on the soil @KeystoneCops, CANNA Terra Professional is a nitrogen-rich potting mix for plant cultivation. Your plants grow best in a nitrogen-rich potting mix. CANNA Terra Professional potting mix is unlike anything you will find in a garden centre. It contains a blend of upgraded black peat, granulated peat moss and perlite. If you are going to grow indoors or outdoors, this is the potting mix you want to use.

Advantages of CANNA Terra Professional

  • Exclusive, high value organic ingredients such as airy peat moss free from diseases
  • These ingredients also promote exceptional root development and the formation of thicker stems
  • Higher yields. Faster metabolism combined with low sickness rates ensure an increased production

These characteristics and more make CANNA Terra Professional highly suitable for growing plants.

From what I’m reading it seems you’re correct about the phosphorus, I’ll have to go get some today if this is what you’ve said :grimacing: Eek!

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I’ve never used Canna, but I believe it’s a cannabis-specific soil. I was saying I wouldn’t add phosphorus. Instead I’d add a microbe-rich tea.

The book I mentioned before was actually Teaming with Microbes by Jeff Lowenfels.

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Thanks for the advice! I guess that’s my newest read! Thanks for the help, after all they’ve been through already I’m still pretty proud they’re still alive. :blush:

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Read your run off it will tell you if the plants are hungry.
You don’t want to feed bloom nutrients until week 6 on an autoflower, until then it would be grow and micro nutrients but your in soil so should be fine until week 4-6 depending on how healthy and hungry the plants are.