Guide Automatics Growing

nonick123 Inspired by the advice I give to my friend @MiyaguiOkPolilla and by the method of the great @TopShelfStealth23, I’m leaving you a little tutorial/guide for all those newbies who want to start growing Autoflowering plants and want to have a decent harvest in dry weight (grams). I don’t consider myself an expert, and I’m sure there are things that can be done differently, but I hope this can help newbies with Autoflowering (like I was a few years ago) in their first steps. Then, let everyone find their own way in growing... and in life! 💥 Seeds The foundation of your grow. Good genetics are essential. Without them, your yield will be low no matter what you do. Are you a newbie? Buy or get Gorilla Cookies Auto from FastBuds. Why? It’s a well-tested, resilient genetics with high yields, and it can better tolerate mistakes in your learning process. Are you a more experienced grower? You probably don’t need this guide, but if you keep reading, try other genetics if you want, but always from high-quality seed banks: Sweet Seeds, FastBuds, Royal Queen Seeds, Barney’s Farm, Dutch Passion, Mephisto... There are many banks, but only some are in the elite of delicate and complex autoflowering strains. Even with these banks, research statistically on GrowDiaries which strains are more productive and resistant through the Strains section. Substrate Autoflowering plants like light, fluffy, well-aerated (ventilated) substrates where the roots can grow easily and freely. NEVER use a nutrient-loaded substrate or SuperSoil. It will kill or severely limit your plant's growth. The approach is to use a light substrate so that large, free, and strong roots can form during the first 3-4 weeks, and then start fertilizing (we’ll get to that later in the guide!) Recommended substrates: Option 1: Light Mix from Biobizz Option 2: PRO-MIX HP MYCORRHIZAE (if you don’t have access to Biobizz) Option 3: 30% Light Mix of weed substrate (any specialized brand) + 35% pre-buffered Coco + 35% Perlite Be careful with the Coco in Option 3! DO NOT use coconut bricks, because they are NOT pre-buffered and you will have a pH in the substrate out of the optimal range. Buy pre-buffered Coco from Biobizz, Plagron, Canna... There is the option to grow in 100% coco substrates, but this is a more expert method and is outside the scope of this guide. Pots There’s not much to discuss: Fabric pots. The brand doesn’t matter, but you can use any from your trusted grow shop as long as you notice they have sufficient wall thickness (that they don’t deform easily). If you’re going to grow outdoors, pay attention to make sure they are thick enough so that sunlight doesn’t penetrate (you can check this by holding a side of the pot against the light) and preferably that they are light-colored (white, beige, light gray...) A second option is AirPots, but I don’t like them because the aeration is less, and often preferential pathways form in the substrate that cause watering to escape, complicating the watering process. In conclusion, the material for pots = Fabric. Pot size = 11.3 liters (3 Gallons). A smaller pot will limit the final size of your plant (and the yield). A larger pot can be useful for some 14-week Autos, but in general, it’s a waste of resources. A larger pot does NOT always mean more yield. (Everything in cannabis cultivation is balance, just like life itself.) Pre-Germination There are many options, but the basic concept is to germinate directly in the substrate. My recommendation is the following: 1. Fill half a glass with bottled or osmosis water (about 125 ml), add 3 drops of hydrogen peroxide, and drop your seed in. It should float. (Hydrogen peroxide is NOT essential if you don’t have it on hand.) 2. Place the glass in a dark place (like a cupboard or your pantry) at 22-25 ºC for 24 hours. 3. After 24 hours, whether the primary root has emerged or NOT, move on to the next step. (The seed may have sunk or not to the bottom of the glass, it doesn’t matter, just keep going!) Germination 24 hours before starting, fill a jug or container with 3 liters (3 liters per plant you’re going to grow) of tap water and leave it uncovered (resting) so that the chlorine evaporates. You can use bottled water (skipping this step) if you forgot to do it and need to continue. Grab your 11.3-liter (3 Gallon) pot. Put a bottom layer of 2 cm of clay pebbles (Tip: You don’t need grow shop clay pebbles which are very expensive. Go to a construction materials store and buy clay pebbles with a diameter of 10-20 mm; they serve the same drainage function.) Grab a hose (if you can do this step outdoors) or go to your bathtub/shower at home, and wash the clay pebbles until they are clean of dust and small pieces. Fill with substrate all the way to the top without pressing it, just lightly settling it so that there are no gaps ("air pockets") as you fill. Be careful with the sides of the fabric pots, which are prone to leaving "gaps" without substrate. Break apart the "balls" that form in the commercial substrate naturally with your hands. STOP! Let’s take a break in this process to "learn" to water by weight the pot. Once you’ve done the previous step, grab your pot with both hands, lift it off the ground, and weigh it. Do this several times until you notice its weight while doing it. This weight will be what I call "dry weight." Another way to do this more expertly is to take a body weight scale (which you probably have at home), weigh the pot, and note the weight of the pot in kg, but you need it to weigh at least the first decimal of kg (Example: 10.1 kg). Let’s continue! 😁 Prepare 3 liters of tap water rested for 24 hours + 4 ml Voodoo Juice Advanced Nutrients + 4 ml Piranha Liquid Advanced Nutrients. You do NOT need to adjust the pH of the watering water, just make sure that the pH of the tap water is in the range of 4.8 - 8.7 (the drinking water in cities and towns is around pH 7.0 - Be careful if you use well water or spring water that may be out of range). Soak the entire substrate slowly and steadily so that it moistens evenly. Another STOP! 😁 Right after watering this first time. Weigh your pot again. Can you notice the difference in weight before and after watering? Retain this "feeling" of different weight between the two states (before and after the 1st watering). Or weigh the newly watered pot on your body weight scale and note the data. Make a hole 0.5 - 1 cm deep (you can use the back of a pencil or similar). Place the seed randomly in the hole if the root hasn’t emerged (it will orient itself to germinate). If the root has emerged, place it downwards, but if it turns around, it doesn’t matter, it will reorient itself. Cover with a bit of substrate without pressing and mist with water, without soaking. Keep the pot at 20 - 25 ºC and 70-80% relative humidity. You can place the pot in the grow cabinet with the lights off until you see the seedling emerge. If the seedling hasn’t appeared after 48 hours, you should turn on the lights as it will be about to emerge. Tip: Cover the area of the pot where you placed the seed with the top of a propagator or the top of a half water bottle WITHOUT the cap to maintain high relative humidity. IMPORTANT: Be patient! When we are newbies, we get anxious for the seed to sprout, so we might feel tempted to "dig" in the area where we put the seed. DON’T do it! This can damage the primary root, which is extremely sensitive. After germination (it will take 24 to 72 hours, be patient!), leave the half bottle for 7-10 days to keep the seedling with high relative humidity! Watering Basic concept in the first weeks: Don’t water or water very little! The roots should focus on growing and trying to reach the bottom of the pot in search of moisture. If you water too often or the substrate remains too moist, the roots DON’T grow because they don’t need to seek moisture, and in autoflowering plants, small roots = small plant. And we don’t want that! When to water again? You’ve already done the 1st watering according to the previous steps, and you should ONLY water again when (two options): Option 1. Do you remember the "trick" of weighing the pot with your hands BEFORE and AFTER the first watering? (Or using the scale) Lift your pot with both hands and assess its weight. Don’t water again until the substrate is at the initial "dry" weight. In the first weeks, the plant will grow little, so the weight of the seedling + roots is negligible. Moreover, as you repeat and repeat the method of lifting the pot and weighing it, you will come to appreciate what I call the pot "weighing down." Since the pot usually retains more moisture at the bottom of the substrate than at the top (due to evaporation), you will notice that as the days go by, the weight "concentrates" at the bottom. I insist, only water when you have the weight "dry." Option 2. Insert your index finger into the substrate up to the knuckle and water again when you feel it is "dry." "Dry" means that the substrate has the same moisture as when you took the Light Mix substrate out of the bag. That is the minimum moisture value you should have in your substrate (you can go to your leftover substrate bag to evaluate and compare it). This method is simpler when you’re a newbie and more useful when the plant is larger and it becomes complicated to weigh it, but I like it less because you don’t evaluate the moisture in the substrate as a whole, only up to where your knuckle reaches. There are more pro options like moisture sensors for the substrate, but this is a guide for newbies, right? 😁 (Personally, in my 25 years of growing, I haven’t seen the need for this level of technicality in this part.) Watering and Nutrients Your plant does NOT need additional nutrients until week 4. Are you a newbie and tempted to give your seedling a good dose of nutrients? WRONG! 😁 Would you give a 1 kg beef steak to a human baby? You can give it to them. Will they use it for their growth? = NO. Can you kill them? = YES, or at least cause them an indigestion that will delay their growth... And you don’t want that in your Autoflowering plants! Your seedling has the nutrients it needs for the first days (5-7) of life, and your Light Mix substrate has 2 weeks of nutrients... Adding it up, we start feeding at the beginning of week 4 (Day 22 from germination). The nutrient plan approach is as varied as nature and the specialized fertilizer brands that exist, but our growmie @TopShelfStealth23’s plan with Advanced Nutrients seems spectacular to me (and check out his diaries!) Below I’m attaching a summary, and in the photos, I’m putting the plan in a table for 12-week Autoflowering plants (which is usually the norm). Week 1 Let the top layer of soil dry before the first watering. After 4 to 5 days, the top layer of soil should be dry (you can test by inserting your index finger up to the knuckle). Then, water 250 ml of tap water around the plant's stem. Week 2 When the top layer of soil is dry (knuckle test), water between 300 and 350 ml of tap water in the circumference that is in the midpoint between the plant's stem and the edge of the pot. Week 3 Try to water 750 - 1,000 ml of tap water per day. If the top isn’t dry, just skip a day, but keep watering intensely and try to be consistent! We are forcing a high water consumption vs. oxygenated roots (here lies the importance of fabric pots). Week 4 Feeding: 1.5 Liters + 2 ml of Sensi Grow pH Perfect A&B twice a week. Water 1.5 liters of tap water per day in between. Week 5 Feeding: 1.5 Liters + 3 ml of Sensi Grow pH Perfect A&B twice a week. Water 1.5 liters of tap water per day in between. Milestone! Sometimes, the stretch stops at the end of week 5 or the beginning of week 6, as long as the stretching stops: feeding for flowering should begin! See Week 7. Week 6 If your plant is still stretching or is a long strain of more than 10 weeks: Feeding: 1.5 Liters + 4 ml of Sensi Grow pH Perfect A&B twice a week. Water 1.5 liters of tap water per day in between. Week 7 - 12 (until harvest) As soon as the stretching stops: start with flowering nutrients! 1.5 Liters + 5 ml Sensi Bloom A&B + 1.5 ml Sensi Cal-Mag Xtra + 2 ml Bud Candy twice a week. Water 1.5 liters of tap water per day in between. Keep this up until harvest! Another option for the watering and nutrition plan is the following: When your substrate is "dry" (knuckle method or pot lifting method), water with 10% or 15% of the pot volume (10% = 1.1 liters of watering water / 15% = 1.7 liters of watering water). You don’t need the substrate to get soaked to runoff (water coming out from the bottom). If a few drops come out, that’s fine, but if a lot of watering water escapes from the bottom, two things might be happening (and neither is good because we are removing nutrients from the substrate!) 1. You watered with too much water. Solution: Start watering with 8% of the pot volume (900 ml), and try to gradually increase if the substrate absorbs it. 2. The substrate was too dry or you watered too quickly, and the watering water escaped through preferential pathways. Solution: Water more slowly (and more often if it was too dry). If you want to use nutrients from Biobizz, Plagron, or another reputable brand, use the nutrition plans they recommend, BUT start giving nutrients in week 4 (Day 22). Also, I recommend starting with 50% of the recommended dose, and always alternating one watering with nutrients and one watering without nutrients (and watering frequently marked by the "dry weight" or knuckle method). After a couple of waterings with nutrients and observing that your plant accepts the nutrition plan well (no nutrient burn, like burnt tips), you can increase to 100% of the recommended dose, but ALWAYS alternating one watering with nutrients and one watering without nutrients. With these nutrition plans, you need to control the pH (with a pH meter, strips, or drops) and the EC (with an EC/TDS meter), which complicates the process a bit more, so I recommend considering using @TopShelfStealth23’s plan with Advanced Nutrients. How to water? Your pots are fabric, so if you water suddenly or too quickly, the water can take preferential pathways and end up escaping from the sides... Always water very slowly in the circumference that is in the midpoint between the plant's stem and the edge of the pot. This optimizes the distribution of watering and forces the roots to seek moisture. If the top of the substrate is very dry, you can "stir" the top (2-3 cm) with your fingers or poke it with a fork to break the preferential pathways. If you start watering and the watering water pools on top (the substrate doesn’t absorb it), stop watering for 30-60 seconds until the substrate starts to soak. Then continue watering very slowly. Transplants DO NOT do transplants! 😁 You lose 4-5 days of root growth due to transplant stress. Germinate directly in the final pot as explained above (back). You will see very experienced people in the forum doing transplants, but you are a newbie and these people have a lot of control over the process and can overcome this stress without impacting the plant. Will you someday be like them and consider doing it? Of course, but leave that for a few more growing cycles down the line when you have everything else under control. Environmental Conditions (Light, Temperature, and Relative Humidity) Indoor I’m putting the summary table in the photos, but the basic parameters by stage are: Seedling: PPFD 200-300 / 18 hours of light (6 hours of darkness) / Relative humidity 70-80% Vegetative: PPFD 300-500 / 18 hours of light (6 hours of darkness) / Relative humidity 60-70% Flowering: PPFD 600-1000 / 20 hours of light (4 hours of darkness) / Relative humidity 50-60% Late flowering (last 2 weeks): PPFD 600-1000 / 20 hours of light (4 hours of darkness) / Relative humidity 40-50% WTF is PPFD? 😁 Basically, it’s a measure of the amount of light your plant receives. You can have equipment like a lux meter to measure it, but... Do you have a smartphone? Probably yes. Download the "PHOTONE" App on your smartphone, set the app for full spectrum light, and measure the light right at the height of the highest part of the plant. It won’t be a perfectly exact value, but it will tell you whether you are within the desired range or not. As with nutrients, more light does NOT equal a bigger or faster-growing plant. What happens to your skin if you sunbathe for 10 hours in the summer in southern Europe? You get burned, NOT tanned. Your plant is the same; give it the light it needs at each stage. Outdoor Whenever possible, do the germination indoors with artificial light and the "Indoor" parameters explained just above (back) and after 15 days, take the plant outside. The outdoor temperature should be in the range of 20 - 30 ºC for optimal conditions. If it’s going to be hotter during the central hours of the day (12:00 - 16:00), make sure the plants are in partial shade during those hours. If the temperature is below 18 ºC at night, bring the plants indoors to protect them. Once the plants are 22 - 25 days old, they can better withstand high and low temperatures, but Autos are still delicate, and any stress they suffer can reduce the harvest... Although you can grow Autoflowering plants all year round, I recommend NOT doing it in winter. Autoflowering plants need as many hours of light as possible and to be in 18 - 28 ºC to give their best performance. So depending on your climatic zone, start growing in early to mid-spring, and you can do 2 growing cycles if your summer is somewhat long and warm. For example, in the northern hemisphere, you can have two consecutive harvests: 1st From early April to the end of June 2nd From early July to the end of September Or plant in the month you want, but a harvest date beyond mid-October may not be very productive.