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Not a first timer but this is the first time i try autoflowering. I have been growing my own stuff for some years now. Started outdoors but temperatures in these latitudes get brutal in the summer which makes choise of seeds rather small and the apropriate ones have a tendency to make big tree-like plants which complicate the procedure for obvius reasons. So I got a lamp and Im not really going back. Got these seeds from a souvenir shop because there was nothing else left never mind my favourites. Germinated after 2 days no problems there and after 10 days planted in my custom made soil (3parts coco 2 part pearlite and the rest organic matter with some vermiculite) in 50 lt breathing bags, they had become proper young plants growing their third node of true leaves. Thought it was a bit fast but I was told it is normal for auto plants. Light was 18/6 half power very close to the plant bacause sativa dominants tend to stretch. Fresh air blowing 24h and the temperature was barely under 28C. I consider this an achievement because outside was 35. Sorry but no pics at this stage.
The shortest vegetation stage I have EVER seen!!!! Popped the first true leaves 14 september and this pic was shot 12 october. I was away for 3 days and I got home to this. And immediately started showing calcium deficiency. Up till tis time I was giving them a solution of 12/5/12 plus micro elements since I have farmers in my extended family and I use the commercial s**t they use customised to my plants needs. I mix them with water from my RO system and a couple drops of vinegar for that tasty 6.5 PH. I also did a stupid mistake. One plant has her own bag but I left the other two sharing the other one. Big mistake!!! Auto flowers behave like parasite weeds in the wild. They release a stream of surface roots to strangle any other plant threatening to their existence (dog I love parasites) and so the are left in a quite smaller stature. I should have done my research before saying the immortal words ''what can possibly go wrong''. Anyways Im changing my feeding to something like 12/5/24 plus calmag as we enter the flowering period. I have done a very careful opening of the branches so that all buds have a more or less even light and air but nothing more stresing because autos dont have time to recover and dog forbit you do a trimming on them... but it is what it is. Keeping the temperature under 28 has been a bitch untill this point, but from now on theyre getting full power 24/7.
15 days into flowering and all the buds look like this. Changed the food to a more flowering oriented. More potassium that is. Smell is geting stronger
18/11 They will be ready pretty soon. I would guess acouple of weeks. Two of the three have decent amount of buds on them but nothing close to what I have done with regular plants. Usually I veg them for a couple of months and train them to grow in a way that they cover all the usefull area of the lamp and then after a good triming I let them flower and it takes 4-5 months to harvest. But autos dont even live that long. On the other hand with these ones Im harvesting in 3 months, and that is the reason I decided to share my grow diary. I am actually amazed by the speed of the particular grow. I also thought to ask if any of you had experience with this strain. I mean should I harvest with the trichomes amber or should I leave them get darker? I usually harvest when there is a 20% browny but I have never grown a sativa dominant strain. Any income would be appreciated muchly.
13 weeks now and the ladies start showing end of life signs. But they still do not look like they are ready to harvest. Still a lot of clear little mushroom heads. And yet I noticed some of them started yellowing. Dont really know what to do. Im thinkin of picking the top ones and let the rest a bit more. Opinions wellcome especially if someone has dealt with the same problem.
Comparing to what I have been growing untill now it was a bit harder because of the short life time of autos. Any problem must be identified and dealt with swiftly otherwise you are risking the quantity of the harvest. As I just discovered you should not put 2 plants in the same bag no matter how big because autoflower pseudo roots roam just under the surface and will get entangled with each other. Grow bag n1 with one plant gave allmost 400g of product while grow bag n2 with two plants harvested a little more than half of n1 at 235g both bags being 50 litres. My hesitation to take action compromised the harvest. I should have taken out the weaker plant of the two at once. The plants prove to be calmag suckers. Coco based soils do not hold much salts so you have to add more to your feed schedule than in other soils but for this grow i think I used 3 times more than with photos. The plants reacted very good to low stress training which was not expected and the short time in wich you can get a decent amount of bud is astonishing. A week prior I cut the taller colas becuse thay started to amber their trichomes and dried them in a food dehydrator tinkered with so that it would blow at 25C instead of the 35 it is supposed to. Smokin it gets you really high in a very energising way no couch lock or body stone Cerebral is the word some new age jobless hippies would use. Even my girl who is not a real smoker liked it. And the acts of intimacy were really and deeply intimate This weed makes you feel things. If you are looking for a more sedative effect this strain is not for you
I have to say that despite what is freely circulated, I dont think that autos are as newbie-friendly as advertised. You have to be able to identify any problems and act fairly fast. I also didnt like the loss of control of certain aspects of the grow compared to photos. The yield was also smallest compared to a same sized photo plant but it takes longer grow season. In the end I am quite happy with the result vs time and effort invested. Definitely reccomended strain better in the hands of someone with a bit of experience.
Looking great buddy! I'm a beginner myself, so take my words with care. But i chopped my autos like i chopped my photos and it was fine (as soon as all are cloudy and there is a sprinkle of amber). So i'd say do the same as you like your photos.
dont let them go to the amber side too much. i put mine to the dryer with 10% amber and when it was dry after 6 days the trichomes were half amber half cream and it had more of a stone than a high.
polpotoflove
