Why are my auto's always so tiny?

[Greenpassion]

Hi everyone. I've been growing now for 2 years, both auto's and photos, in soil, using botanicare nutirents on the photos and kindsoil on the autos. I am frustrated because literally none of my autos ever get taller than 15" or so. I train them (LST) but was advised to never top them. I've seen pics of some autos here that are SO much larger. My plants are healthy, and come harvest time they are often solid bud, rather than branches off to the side. But why are they so small? Is it the strain?
Generally I grow AK48's, with a few other strains such as Tangie, Northern Lights, and Big Bud. None of which get anywhere close to what I see on this board. The Big Bud was really pathetic !Seedsman is who I get my seeds from...is it the Kindsoil? My photos get quite large, to where I have to sometimes raise my lights all the way up to the ceiling. Viparspector 450's are the lights. Humidity around 50%, fans moving air all through the rooms. What's up here?

[vostok]

Any plant that falls to flower 30 days(often 14 days now) from seed ain't gonna get very big pushing 15 inches for any low-ryder pheno of which most current autos are deritives off is typical

you can cheat and use just warm whites during veg to try and stretch some, the good news is super autos are on the way

or better make your own simply by crossing an auto with a photo making a first generation (F1) that combine the best of both worlds but be warned it takes practice ...lol
and naturally stability is an issue at least .....longterm

good luck

[Greenpassion]

Thanks for the reply vostok, but that's a little out of my league. But about super auto's, I had thought they would only really be suitable for outside growing? I'd love to have some giant autos!

[Jordann]

In the veg and bloom room, how many total lights do you have in each? I'd start with that. I've never tried living soil. I prefer my own soil mix with lots of chemicals lol and a good flush at the end. That's where I think. Has to be the light or the soil. The wider you train the more energy it puts into growing the trained branches than it does with overall height. If they grow healthy through out then it could be strain or genitics, which might be the same thing but different breeders make the same strains but they grow different results.

[CaptainWiese91]

How big are your pots ??
I would say - light, nutrients and the medium play’s a good factor - along with genetics also.
My outdoors auto don’t grow as big as the feminized in my tent - But I tend to care a lot more for my photos strain than my auto. Unless the autos are in my tent - then I have almost the same in yield. But I don’t like the buds so much from an auto - as I do for a feminized.

[JDU]

Ok 😅 ya had me worried there.

[CaptainWiese91]

I could see that 😅. Not my intention mate. 🤣
Or else I wouldn’t have encourage you to do the outdoor grow😆. I have more autos than feminized because of the little maintaining they need, more easy 😁

[JDU]

🤠🤠👍Gotcha!

[vostok]

Hi everyone. I've been growing now for 2 years, both auto's and photos, in soil, using botanicare nutirents on the photos and kindsoil on the autos. I am frustrated because literally none of my autos ever get taller than 15" or so. I train them (LST) but was advised to never top them. I've seen pics of some autos here that are SO much larger. My plants are healthy, and come harvest time they are often solid bud, rather than branches off to the side. But why are they so small? Is it the strain?
Generally I grow AK48's, with a few other strains such as Tangie, Northern Lights, and Big Bud. None of which get anywhere close to what I see on this board. The Big Bud was really pathetic !Seedsman is who I get my seeds from...is it the Kindsoil? My photos get quite large, to where I have to sometimes raise my lights all the way up to the ceiling. Viparspector 450's are the lights. Humidity around 50%, fans moving air all through the rooms. What's up here?

I confess I'm most curious of your Power Plant, I've had my African Sativa in my collection since the mid 1980s, now hybridized even alclimatized to my locale, and crossed with an old long forgotten indica,
do note Power plant its well known for its vitality...so will power ahead of the others, indeed right now my 30 days? Power plant is inches above an Exodox Cheese by 6 inches or so ..lol

post a pic if you get a minute

cheers

[Canuck147]

Just my observations - some autoflowers I top tend to grow out of control - sometimes zooming up to 4 feet - node spacing is crazy cuz they are like 6 inches apart. They they don't grow long colas but lots of smaller buds. And sometimes they pout for so long their pistils start shooting up when she's only a foot tall.

And sometimes - wishful thinking - they grow the way you want them to grow.

Quite honestly I think it's your soil - if they are tiny - your roots aren't filling out totally before she starts shooting up pistils.

[Canuck147]

I use 2 gallon geopots

[Greenpassion]

I use 3 or 5 gallon cloth pots. 6 (each 450 w) total lights in each room. Maybe I will try just going coast of Maine and use the botanicare line rather than putting them in kindsoil.

[CaptainWiese91]

5 gallon it’s 18 liter.
My smallest pot for an auto is 20 liter. My biggest pot for my autos are 40 liter/ 10,59 gallon. In my experience bigger the pot - bigger the plant gets.
I have 6 fat banana auto in week 1 only now, but all six are in 10,59 gallon from the start. And it should make a huge difference, from the 5-6 gallons pots. Can’t wait to see the comparison.
My autos now in my 5,3 gallons pots are like 50-60 cm in height it’s about 23-24 inches. (I don’t top or nothing, because they are outside)
Maybe try another soil and a bigger pot ? Of course if you have room for it.

I use the cheapest tomato soil in the garden store. But I think nutrients and water schedule is a key to autos.

[BR2K]

First of all - CONGRATULATIONS FOR SUCCESSFULLY GROWING FOR TWO YEARS!!!


It's kind of strange, that you don't top, yet the plants are so short. Your photos grow tall/bushy/wonderous.

It looks like you're using adequate grow bags, which would be my first concern.

It seems you have an ideal set up.

Are you keeping the autos in the veg room or moving them with your photos? If so, I'd leave them in the veg room. That could be the cause of your height factor...if it ain't that, I'm all outta suggestions.




FWIW - My first crop was four autos, in 3 gallon smart pots. I DID top two of the four. The resulting topped autos were roughly half the size of the non-topped autos. They were approximately 12" compared to the 24" of the other two. The topped plants produced pretty well, especially compared to my one untopped/untrained Royal Cheese auto.

[CaptainWiese91]

Royal cheese auto is one of my favorite autos strains 😎.
I had some really excellent yield on that strain . And it’s grow really big actually 👍🏻

[Greenpassion]

BR2K, when I first started growing it was strongly suggested that I do not top Autos as it would slow them down too much. And yes I figured three or five gallon pots were a good size. I keep them in the veg room on18-6 lighting from start to finish.