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    Autoflower Pruning... Yay or Nay?

    Hey everyone, I've been working on growing my first autoflower plant. I haven't seen many mentions of trimming/pruning autoflowering plants during their vegetative stage, so I wanted to see what everyone thinks. Please chime in if you can, especially if you have grown autoflower varieties before. And ESPECIALLY ESPECIALLY if you have grown autoflowers and have pruned them and have results you can elaborate on.

    As I said, this is my first autoflower grow. I'm growing one feminized, autoflowering Jock Horror plant that I got from Nirvana. I haven't been able to find any grow journals on this strain and it's pretty frustrating! LOL but you can't always get what you want, so yeah... I'm asking you guys here ! I'm currently 23 days into my grow, counting from when I went from "dry seed" to "wet seed". My plant is looking great so far (if I do say so myself), and I'm using LST to keep it shorter. I'm planning on tying the main stem down along the ring of my bucket lid, and I've done one tie-down already. I'm planning on doing the second tie-down tomorrow or Saturday, depending on her height in the morning. But on my plant, I've got a pretty short bush so far, with quite a bit of undergrowth that is getting limited light. I know that with photoperiod plants, I would prune away a lot of this undergrowth, but since this is an autoflower, I don't want to stunt its growth or to somehow shock it or hurt it in any way. As you'll see from the pictures, I have a few sets of leaves down at the bottom of the plant that have nutrient deficiency spots. This happened when I was feeding it at 1/4 strength of GH Flora standard feeding schedule, but when I did my week 2 reservoir change, I moved up to 1/2 strength nutrients, and she's loving it. So should I trim away any of this undergrowth? If so, how much do I cut away? I'm kind of assuming that I can cut away the few leaves that have nutrient def. spots and not have any real problems from doing so. But as you can see, there's actually a big fan leaf towards the bottom that was pushed against the lid of the reservoir. This leaf has bent itself around the twisty-tie, so it can get better light. If it's working to get more light, it can't be completely useless... Right? I know that I've rambled on for quite a while so far, but I'd really appreciate your opinions on how I should proceed. My "bottom line" thought on my own situation is that I can't really "hurt" the plant by NOT trimming anything away, so I'm pretty OK with just letting it grow naturally (plus a spiral LST backbone, as I move forward) and see what I get in the end... But if trimming her up will help me substantially grow my yield, then I want to know now, while I can still do something about it.

    Just an FYI, my grow setup includes:
    400W COB LED Roleadro light
    20"-32"-62" no-name tent.
    Bubbleponics DWC in a 5 gallon bucket (water pump removed after roots touch water for 3 days)
    2 port air pump with 2 medium air stones in a single bucket
    General Hydroponics Flora Trio (1/2 strength), GH CalMag, GH Rapid Rooter (1/2 strength), HydroGuard, and GH Down as needed
    Exhaust fan and carbon air filter
    9
    Don't prune anything, let it grow freely
    22.22%
    2
    Extremely light pruning, only leaves completely in shadow
    22.22%
    2
    Prune as needed, just like pruning a photoperiod
    33.33%
    3
    No experience with autoflowering plants
    22.22%
    2
    No idea what autoflower or photoperiod means...
    0%
    0
    Last edited by anotherfrigginnewbie; 07-06-2017, 01:29 PM.

    #2
    I could be wrong, but I couldn't post a poll and pictures at the same time... Maybe I did it in the wrong order or something, but I couldn't upload pictures to my original post. I'm working on them now.

    Comment


    • St.buds
      St.buds commented
      Editing a comment
      Alot of ppl have to re size there photos to post them luckly dnt cuz I dnt no how but I'm sure someone will chime in soon on how to do so as for your questions I'm sry I dnt have a fosure answer because i dnt grow autos but I would assume some defoliation for the first few weeks would be a positive thing again I'm sure a auto grower will chime in soon. Whares green75 been hiding????

    #3
    Howdy anotherfrigginnewbie, I think that You should have a vote choice of : No experience with Auto flowering plants. Other wise, I would select option number 2.
    Good luck with the auto, sounds like the plan that You are on (LST) is, most likely, the best.
    Smoke weed,.....grow peace!

    Comment


    • anotherfrigginnewbie
      anotherfrigginnewbie commented
      Editing a comment
      Thanks DW2, I added your choice to the poll. Thanks for your input and support

    • DW2
      DW2 commented
      Editing a comment
      Thank You AFN, I placed my vote (no surprise), but, I am amazed that there have not been more votes!

    • anotherfrigginnewbie
      anotherfrigginnewbie commented
      Editing a comment
      Yeah, I'm pretty surprised by it, too... Hopefully it heats up as people see it.

    #4
    Autos grow fast and die young. I believe (buy can not support with facts) that their plan is to store energy in the leaves in their short vegetative state and then suck those leaves dry at the end of their life while making buds. Just my thoughts on the matter. Peace
    completed 7 grows
    what I have learned so far:
    environment maters more than nutrients
    at least a dab of nutrients in every watering
    effective flushing before harvest is critical to quality

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    #5
    Post with 0 views. Set 1 of 5

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              #10
              Alright already! LOL
              Sorry for posting 5 links, I couldn't get them to upload and appear correctly here... But these pics show you where my plant started and where it is today. They are in order, from the first set to the 5th, going by time stamps... Unfortunately they don't show date and time stamps on Imgur.... Hopefully you can make out the details in the pics... Let me know what you think, and if there are any issues.

              Comment


              • DW2
                DW2 commented
                Editing a comment
                Looks like it should work to me!

              #11
              So I don't know anything about growing this is my first grow but I was wondering don't u get light into your buckets from the wHite plastic or did u just paid them? I am in treated because I am thinking about making a 20 site outdoor sog hydro system ant white pvc is easy to come by but I was worried about light and algy
              It's 4:19 u got a minute?

              Comment


              • anotherfrigginnewbie
                anotherfrigginnewbie commented
                Editing a comment
                Hey abadtrip, you are VERY correct! The white buckets will let light in, and I can swear by that... This is my first auto grow, but I actually started a different grow about 2 months back. I ended up stopping that grow so I could take those plants out of my tent, so I could get this auto going (better strain choice for my needs). That grow was of 3 different strains in 3 different 5 gallon buckets, and just by sheer dumb luck, all 3 had different light levels.

                I had one bucket that I wrapped in foil and then duct tape, so it was completely dark from the bucket (but I forgot about the lid). Then the second one was in a corner of the tent and had regular, silver duct tape wrapped around it (FYI, not good enough to block out light), so 1/2 of it was basically "shaded" in the tent corner... And finally the third bucket was completely white and the light was basically able to flood in from the white bucket sides.

                The first bucket had almost no algae...
                The second bucket had an algae problem that looked like it was between the first bucket and the third. It was a problem, but it was "save-able".
                The third bucket was just "holy $hit" plagued by algae... I actually made another post, asking about my algae problem. I'll try and see if I can figure out how to add a link that will point to that chain... Dunno if I can figure it out when I'm high... Which I currently am! LOL

                Anyways, Yes, I have spray painted this bucket. In my other post, I had help from others here. They pointed out my white bucket/light leak issue and told me that spray painting the bucket black, and then white, would block the light and also not attract/retain heat in the water. I have also had to battle heat issues, so the white paint layer was very important. I "highly" recommend this approach for your application! (LMAO I have the giggles right now, and typing "highly" just keeps making me laugh!)

              #12
              Hello AFN. I am currently growing my first auto ,she is 80 days old today and all I did was tie her down past 90 degrees when she was couple weeks old ,about to harvest the rest of her in a week or so.already harvested a couple that were ready, I think she has still got 20 nice, long heads left to harvest. I cut every leaf that got in the way , but that is just me ,some don't. Check out Automechanic on GWE you can get more info there.Plus this is my first auto ,but I can't see that it stunts them any. Nice healthy plant with nice color you are growing. Hope this helps some. Good Luck
              Cfls for a week or two
              315lec for everything else
              Dug up Ms.topsoil, with perlite added
              36x36x63 inch tent.
              6inch - exaust - intake fans an scrubber
              Smart pots
              Molasses
              Autoflowers

              Comment


              • anotherfrigginnewbie
                anotherfrigginnewbie commented
                Editing a comment
                Thanks for the input DAAS, I'm interested to know what your yields are like... Do you have any pictures up? What light and grow setup are you using?

                This is Jack Horror AF, so it's a sativa dominant strain. I'm kinda surprised at how short she is staying, so I'm wondering what others are facing. So much is new, and I am DYING to smoke my very own crop!!!!!!! Thanks for the help!

              #13
              🌱 There's a page on training an auto-flowering plant on the website if you wanted to check it out! Congrats on growing!

              I notice you have spots on your leaves and they look droopy. Are you having some trouble with your roots being brown or twisted? That is a sign of root rot, which can cause symptoms similar to what you're seeing in the lower leaves. In the few pics that you can see natural color, the leaves look very dark green, almost like they have a Nitrogen toxicity, but it may just be because of the LED lighting. Is it possible to post a picture of your garden in natural light?

              How far away are you keeping your LED grow light?

              You are doing great! 🌱
              (ノ◕ヮ◕)ノ*:・゚✧*:・゚✧ Poof!

              Comment


              • anotherfrigginnewbie
                anotherfrigginnewbie commented
                Editing a comment
                Thanks for the post. My leaves are a very dark green, but they aren't any darker than some other plants I've seen on here... I don't know how to tell if I have a nitrogen toxicity, but I'm going to read the post you linked to now... Trying to catch up on this thread and respond to everyone with their help.
                As for your root rot question, I have VERY healthy and happy roots. I actually had a terrible algae issue with my last grow (photoperiod, this is my first auto grow), so I corrected the issues that caused all the light leaks. But holy cow are my roots rocking their socks off!!!!!! I'm actually going to take a picture now... I'm ridiculously proud of them, since I had such a bad problem last time around. I'll post another picture that shows the distance of my light... I think I'm about 2 ft away... As far as taking a "natural light" picture, I am in a cramped tent in a cramped closet... so I don't have much maneuverability. I'm taking pictures with flash, so it is helping to get more natural colors from the plant... I'll keep trying.

              • anotherfrigginnewbie
                anotherfrigginnewbie commented
                Editing a comment
                I just looked at the Nitrogen Toxicity link, and I don't think I have this problem happening. I'm still in the vegetative stage, and I'm not seeing any clawing, cupping, or abnormal yellowing... The leaves that are yellowing at the bottom are that way because I started out at 1/4 strength nutrients to begin with, because I didn't want the seedling to be shocked/killed. I've read from a lot of people and places that autoflowers are even more sensitive to nutrients (when compared to photoperiod plants, which everyone says you should start at half strength and move up from there). So I started at 1/4 strength, had a lot of yellowing, and then moved up to 1/2 of the strength that is specified on the GH feeding schedule from their feed chart generator. I'm going to keep giving the plant 1/2 strength, unless I see anything about the plant to change that...
                Anyways, thanks again for the input! I appreciate that you gave me something to look for, so I could rule it out.
                Have a good one!!!

              • berrypilot
                berrypilot commented
                Editing a comment
                🌱 No, it sounds like you are on top of everything! I have nothing to add. Beautiful roots is something to be proud of, can't wait to see pics! So for you, you found your biggest trigger for root rot was light leaks? I'm a successful DWC grower, but still struggle with occasional root rot and love to hear what works for other growers! 🌱

              #14
              Welcome to the wonderful world of autos! I love them for my indoor grows. Usually top them at 3rd or 4th node, then pull down growing shoots, then liberally remove fan leaves if they are not getting much light or block buds from light. I've grown under CFLS so far...check my previous grow journals if you're interested in results that I got. Good luck with your baby! 🐸
              Current grows...http://forum.growweedeasy.com/forum/...ime-collection
              Recent grows...
              http://forum.growweedeasy.com/forum/...n-og-haze-auto
              http://forum.growweedeasy.com/forum/...ss-cheese-auto
              http://forum.growweedeasy.com/forum/...-2-we-love-you

              Comment


              • anotherfrigginnewbie
                anotherfrigginnewbie commented
                Editing a comment
                Awesome! Thanks for the info! I'm really interested in looking through your journals. Thanks again! Because I'm growing Jock Horror Auto right now, but I also have Lemon OG Haze Auto from Nirvana, and I was wondering what I should be expecting from those seeds.

              • rockman
                rockman commented
                Editing a comment
                Hey there AFN! My Lemon OG Haze was interesting...she started out slow (named her Lazy😊), then she made up for lost time, and produced a great harvest quickly. What was special with her grow was that I topped at 2nd node, she was allowed 4 main branches, then I was able to stick a CFL bulb right into her center, giving great light coverage for all the developing buds. Looking forward to my Jock Horror currently growing outside...hope yours is a success!

              #15
              Welcome afn, my vote is for scissors
              Sand, sea, sun, sausages, and sinsemilla.

              About all you can do in life is be who you are. Some people will love you for you. Most will love you for what you can do for them, and some won't like you at all.

              -Rita Mae Brown

              My Small Tent, Monthly Harvest, Perpetual Auto Grow

              My IG

              Comment


              • anotherfrigginnewbie
                anotherfrigginnewbie commented
                Editing a comment
                Thanks BeachBrit, I'm thinking about getting them out... Thanks for your opinion

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