Run off PH and average grow times.

[SK123]

First time grower. Everything seems to be going okay. LST training my four plants from about 3 weeks into veg. I realized to late I should not have started photo period with auto’s. I read somewhere that I should be able to leave autos on 18-6 until my photos are ready to flip. I have been watering to run off, 6.6 ph with nutes going in but runoff is only 5.3, plants are not showing any signs of issues.. should I increase PH when I water?

Separate question, what is the timeline of four phases normally: germination ( I have been 38 hours from seed in water to pop up out of soil) seedling? average veg? average flower ( the auto seed package said 7-8 weeks). Funny thing when I bought seeds it said 7-8 weeks, lol, I thought that was the whole time from seed to harvest. Now that shows how much of a newbie I am 🤣🤣.

[dhll999]

I am also a first time grower white widow autoflower and I do LST also Im at week 5 and thay are starting flower my ph6.0-6.5 I do not ph my run off.My seeds said 10week but I will add a week or two so around 12week total I run my lights 20-4 and will do that till end of grow. I think the 7-8 week is a estimated time i would add a week or so to that. you should see the start of flower at week 4-5 I would think but some autos are fast growers. In this pic she is a little bushy and needs to be defoliated I will do that in the next day

[SK123]

Plant looks awesome! How long was it from seed to when they went into flower? I see you are going 20-4 right to harvest... I read that was possible.

[dhll999]

It was around 35 days Your plant look nice not far from the start of flower The light 18-6 or 20-4 or even 24 is all good for autoflower I just wanted to save a little on my electric bill. She popped out of the dirt on Oct 24 and just started to flower in the last few days

[Rwise]

Seeds can sprout in hours, or days even weeks or next year.
Genetics of the strain or hybrid you are growing determines time lines, check with the breeder.
Most autos are from sprout to harvest on their time line again check with the breeder, short time being 56 days and long around 130 days (strain dependent), with many hitting around 90 days. Now feeding things like coffee will stunt them and make them take far longer, 90 days became 130+ days when feed coffee. (do not use coffee for PH down LOL) Autos will start to flower under 24/0 at 3 - 5 weeks old.
Photos you switch the lights to flower when you are ready, the shorter the veg the smaller the yield. Genetics are still in play here for flower time!
The autos may slow down with shorter light times, but they will handle it if you need to flip to 12/12s for the photos.