Auto-flowers won’t flower

[MarkMariMan]

Here’s the story:
(3) Autoflower seeds, Red Congolese
All purchased together
All germinated at the same time
All in the same soil, same nutes, same location
All grown outdoors

One went to autoflower around week 4, the other two are just in veg. All three look very healthy but no flowers on 2 of 3. Thoughts?

[SoOrbudgal]

How old are they all, seed in soil till now how old? I've had slow autos

[panalilies]

My CPs have a 70-80 day flowering time and my oldest just hit 70 days on Sunday. Physically tho, the oldest CP is like 2-3 weeks behind the younger plant. #1 is just now starting to beef up her buds while #2 will be ready to harvest in the next couple weeks

[MarkMariMan]

All seeds were placed in the soil on June 04. The two that are not flowering were a little weaker than the one that is flowered, they had a hard time getting going, but as you can see, they got their footing and are coming along quite well. By week 4 the first plant was flowering but now we are coming up the the end of week 8 and nothing on the other two.

[Ckbrew]

The leaves of plant #1&2 are mostly 5 lobed with wide lobes. The leaves on plant #3 are mostly 3 lobed with narrower lobes than the first two. They look like different plants, but they do go through changes when they go to bloom. When #3 was younger, did the leaves look like the first two? If not, then you may have a case of the wrong seeds being sent in your order. Just go with the flow and see what they grow into.

[MarkMariMan]

I've trimmed the big fan leaves off of the flowering plant, that explains the greatest difference. The fan leaves were quite large. That said, the leaves on the non-flowering plants do appear to be somewhat different than the flowering one. All theree have some three-, five- and seven lobed leaves.

[MarkMariMan]

On closer look today, the two non-flowers have 9-lobe, wider leaves than the flowering one. I think there may be a lot more Indica in these two than expected while the other has narrower lobes, likely more sativa. As I said in one of my other comments, I do this all for fun and don't even smoke the stuff myself. The apparent grab-bag of purchased seed isn't what I expected but the outcome may be an unexpected surprise. Just hoping the size remains compact.

[TOKABIGONE]

Yeah Ckbrew and MarkMariMan buying seeds is like buying a box of chocolates...ya never know.... That's why I decided to keep with a select few strains of regular seeds and really Grow My Own. Properly kept, pollen will last quite awhile. Create my own private strains and stop buying who knows what ?!! Kind of a long range goal but what else have I got to do. Do try this at home!

[MarkMariMan]

I do this all for fun, I don't actually partake in my own grow. I buy the autoflowers due to a short growing season and a desire to keep this all outdoors, so photos aren't a good option for me but I love the thought of it.

[Rwise]

I luv doing my own hybrids, even strains.

[Rwise]

Me thinks you know have some photo plants and they will flower as the days grow shorter. This is happening more, kinda like they put the floor sweep back into the seed bin.

[george66]

Ive got some autos on the go that were supposed to take between 70-85 days and im currently on day 137 with maybe a week or 2 left so id just be patient.You could put them on 12/12 to get them flowering or with a little training you could just keep them in veg till the others are done.Good luck.

[jamesphoto]

How would you put outside plants on a 12 and 12 schedule? Not quite sure I understand how that would be done...

[homegrown]

Hey jamesphoto, unless your outside plants are in pots..your outta luck, mother nature has to switch the time for you. I have 2 outside in pots that i forced into flower by bringing them into my garage at night(12hrs of darkness) then back out to the sunshine for the day. Only problem with this is..i have to do this every night now till harvest Or until we have 12 hrs of natural darkness. And moving the 8 foot monster every day is a pain in the arse.

[Dannyboy58]

Afghani autos I'm growing now took 8 weeks to begin flower. Northern Lights autos started flowering in 5 weeks.

[MarkMariMan]

I'm going to keep these around for the rest of the season. If they flower - great. If not, well I'll just have to rethink my seed supplier for next year. I did contact the supplier and, in theory, they will be sending replacement seeds but I'm not holding my breath.

[TOKABIGONE]

I believe the issue of long flowering autos and short flowering photos has a lot to do with the ruderalis genetics being unstable in the hybrid. It's a crap shoot and what you get is just that.

[Ckbrew]

Is ruderalis a strain of cannabis or a completely different plant?

[MarkMariMan]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_ruderalis

[TOKABIGONE]

Hey Ckbrew sorry I missed your post here. Ruderalis is a genre like Sativa and Indica with origin in Siberia so a very short grow period. It is the origin of Autos by crossing it with Ind and Sat and stabilize it for shorter grow plants. As I said above some new hybrids may have unstable genetics which is why shorter and longer grows. Just my opinion.

[jamesphoto]

homegrown okay, now I get it. Yes my outdoor plants are in pots. They are autos and half the size of yours. I can see where moving your plants everyday would be a pain. But once you get to harvest time you'll have enough to make your eyes red...

Happy growing!

[MarkMariMan]

Thanks to all for the comments. I really thinking two of the three seeds are a different strain than I bought but, cest la vie. I'll continue them on their journey and see what I get. They are outdoors and in pots but dragging them in and out of the garage isn't going to be workable. Gunna let them run their natural course and see what happens.

[Ckbrew]

My motto, don't worry, be happy. They r weeds after all. They will grow into their own destiny.

[SoOrbudgal]

Well it's a disappointment but hopefully a reward later down the road on your grow. Do they have any sign of pre flower on them MarkMariMan?

[MarkMariMan]

@SoOrgbudgal, no sign of flowering yet. Being as it's early August they're running out of time to start. I guess I'll just keep them around as pretty ornamentals until they start to wither on their own.