First grow ever! [Critical Purple Auto]

@@Athos, thank you for helping! Sounds good.

@najo91, it's like this. 3 gallon of soil, lasts me 6 to 7 weeks before needing liquid feedings. 5 gallons could last you to mid flowering or even all the way to the end. I would stop feeding until you start seeing the first signs of deficiencies.

@@@Athos, we just began feeding nutrients in week 4 at 1/2 the recommended strength (Fox Farm Grow Big). We are using Ocean Forest soil which we know is already very hot for autoflowers so that's why we left them alone for the first 3 weeks with just pH balanced water. I will probably reduce to 1/4 the recommended strength, then.

@najo91, That's fantastic news!!! FYI, you don't have to flush, you don't have to do darkness, both of those are bro science. You can go straight from chop to dry, wet trim/dry trim is also totally preference. I prefer to leave on all the leaves and do a first trim after 3 days and let it continue drying if it needs to. Some of the smaller branches on my critical purple were already ready, so they're in a jar, while the larger branches are still drying. I'm pretty new to this also, so feel free to do some more research! One of the big problems is it's incredibly difficult to separate the grower bro science from actual science, and you'll have people who've been growing for 40 years telling you some silly Santeria magic shit 😂. But darkness and flush are about as effective as sacrificing a goat over a copper bowl. This is a heavy Indica strain, you can chop now on the 5% amber and you'll be happy with the effects (it reached close enough to full potential at 90% cloudy). You could chop anytime between now and 5-20% amber on the other plant. The more amber you let it get, the more sedated the high. Slightly different for hybrids, slightly different for Sativas (some of which will never amber). It's partially due to the terps levels in the strain, it's also partially related to how much THC you have over CBN (highly simplified). That happens as the trichomes color to amber. So much to learn, you never stop!

@AWistfulNihilist, thank you so much for your comment. I didn't know about not looking at the trichomes on the leaves. It's pretty difficult to take decent pics with the crappy loupe we have, but I took a look at the trichomes on the calyxes and for one of my plants, you're right, it's pretty much 100% cloudy with 5% amber or so, and for my other plant, like 90% cloudy 10% glassy. I think I'm gonna give them one more week because I haven't flushed yet :( I honestly thought we had a long way to go.

@Mr_Weeds_Autos, thank you so much! Trying our best as first timers.

@Weird_Jimmy, I've done as you suggested, I pushed the light to the side and angled it sharply and I honestly think that's better. Thank you for all your advice, this is gold!

@Growboss1234, definitely! Will be fun.