Auto Sea O' Green: 4 Strain Mean Machine

Bathtub_Budha This is my first attempt growing autoflowers! After research, I decided to go with "light touch" low, stress training and a "sea of green" approach. I planted my seeds directly into the soil in their "final" container. I know other germination methods have higher success rates, and that smaller containers makes it easier to water. But I have a pretty high success rate with soil (12/14 in this case), I like avoiding the work and risk to the plant of transplanting from one container to another, and in my experience thus far if you water correctly using a bigger container seems to work just fine. For the soil, I used 2 gallon bags filled with Happy Frog organic soil enriched with a cup each of a living soil made specifically for autoflowers. I then added lime to get the PH to the right level. Finally, I dug out 1 cup holes in the middle of the surface of each bag, filled these holes with seedling starter soil, and planted the seeds in these "soil inserts" to avoid nutrient burn on the seedlings. I plan to add a little more of the enriched living soil as a top treatment once into flowering, but otherwise I'm not planning on adding any nutrients, using any fertilizers in the water, etc. For LST, my research suggests that autos go into flower quickly enough that you have to be careful with aggressive training and high stress training is a bad idea. After planting--I'm starting this diary halfway thru the grow--I discovered evidence seemingly suggesting I could have trained a more aggressively than I did. Certainly I've now seen videos of some very well trained autos. For the sea of green, I planted the seeds in 2 gallon bags in a bathtub sized space with a single Spider Farmer 200 light. I'm worried I have them too tightly spaced but my research suggests that the plants growing into each other is part of the plan, that you're accepting each plant may not reach it's potential, and hoping that overall the production for the space is better than it would have been had you given each individual plant more space. (As I'm now in Week 7 as of the time of starting this diary and writing this comment, I'm just beginning to see how this is working out and I'm still crossing my fingers.) This is my fifth grow -- all in my bathtub. But the first four were photoperiods. I used the screen of green technique and a mix of topping techniques for those grows, and thought they went great IMO. Two of the strains I'm growing now as autos are strains I've just grown as photos -- the Northern Lights and the Strawberry Cheesecake. I'm looking forward to the blind tasting to see if I can tell the difference!