New auto grow

[ZigZag]

Greetings fellow growers, just started a new auto grow. Usually do photoperiods but have to have this one dried and cured by late March, so its autos this time. Going to try a few experiments with these girls.
Planted 8 seeds about 25 days ago in 4" cups. Four days ago I transplanted four of them into the 2 gallon pots and four into the 5 gallon pots. Two strains: Blackberry Kush and Zkittlez. Two of each in each size planter.
Two days ago I toped two of each strain, one in each size pot. Am a little concerned I may have waited a day or so too late but we'll see. Two of the ones I toped had a few tiny pistils already visible.
Just going to use LST for the remainder of the grow. Plan is to start that tomorrow.
Hopefully it will be interesting to compare the size of the plants in the 2 and 5 gallon pots and those that were topped or not.
Depending on the growth configuration of the plants in the 2 gallon pots I may train 2 of them so they only have about 5 colas at the tops, trim everything else, see how that might affect the final size of the colas in the small planters.
Here are a few photos of them right before transplant and again from yesterday, 2 days after toppling.
Fingers crossed!
PS: anyone have any suggestions on when to switch to flowering nutrients with autos? Maybe wait until they begin showing pistils at most junctions?
Thanks for any suggestions.

[ZigZag]

Just noticed something about the post above_ Even though I updated my grow info it doesn't seem to have worked. Gotta figure that out.

Anyway_ grow info for current grow is:
medium: coco, perlite and pumice.
Nutrients: Emerald Harvest.
Lights; Fluence VYPR, two 4' lights mounted 16" apart, 1600 ppfd at 24".
Currently hanging at 36" above canopy. Variable output from 200-1600 ppfd. At 36" its about 400 ppfd.
Strains: Blackberry Kush and Zkittlez.

[SoOrbudgal]

Yes it's good to have you back i've not edited my grow info to the present either guess i should LOL if i can figure it out

[ZigZag]

I tried again and it still didn't seem to transfer. Good luck with yours, let me know how that turns out!

[Mr.furley]

Somethings up, I'm having account editing issues too.
Count this as a tag in!

[ZigZag]

Will Do! My posts have also been loading pretty slow. ?

[golfnrl]

Hi ZigZag

" PS: anyone have any suggestions on when to switch to flowering nutrients with autos? Maybe wait until they begin showing pistils at most junctions?"

I'm interested the answer to this as well. My next auto grow my plan is pay better attention to the start of the flowering period. I thought I'd try and time it to when I first started seeing pistils, but I'd like to know if there's a better way.

[ZigZag]

Yah, me too! about half of my youngsters have pistils emerging in at least a few junctions and two have them appearing at three nodes or so. Not much but its starting to happen. If I were growing photoperiods I'd start the flowering nutrients very soon. But these girls aren't even a month old yet so i'm on the fence about when to start.
Maybe I'll start in about 5 days? find anything on this please keep me up to date and thanks for the reply!

[ponzi314]

My auto grow went 125 days lol so might not be ready by march

[ZigZag]

Yeah, the drain to waste method is a lot of work, wish my space was larger then I could at least put in a circular system.
Cold can be a big factor. I tried growing some small seedlings in a friends greenhouse in the Spring ( temps were 45-50 at night and 60-65 daytime)- It took them 2 months to get 1 ft tall and then it was too cold again in the Fall. Didn’t work out well.

As for the bubble hash it’s really not that much work. Nebulas tutorial offers 3 different methods. I didn’t want to buy the washing machine so I just use 3 five gallon buckets and a paint mixer (long shaft model) and a dowel to stir. I just use 4 bags, the 220, 160, 73 and 25. The hash from the 73 is always the best. Once you get the hang of it all goes pretty fast. One thing I do that’s different is I freeze my weed for 2 weeks in a freezer first or in a cooler in 1 gallon baggies with dry ice for a few hours.
The advantage is you don’t have to wait for the trichomes to freeze in the icy water for 10 minutes, they are at their best soon as you get them in the icy slurry. Advantage is very little chlorophyll leaches out of the weed because you can start the agitation right away. I usually cure my buds for 6 months in jars and then freeze them. No chance of mold and it takes years before the cannabinoids begin to turn. If and when those buds are 2 years old I make bubble hash with them. Otherwise I freeze all my smaller buds, popcorn buds and frosty trim right away after I take them down, no drying or curing.. If you try this for making bubble hash then keep it all frozen right up to when you put them in the ice bath. I don’t make a second run with this “ live resin” method, the first run is so clean and so blond and the second run is a lot greener and doesn’t taste near as good. People are always blown away by the first run from the live plant material.

[Franklin]

Sorry to hijack, but zig zag you say you use both dry ice and do a bubble hash, why is that? I made hash using only dry ice and it was fantastic, best part was it wasn't goopy at all and didn't require any sort of drying, and you could basically start shaking the hash out within a few seconds of adding the dry ice. Just curious if there is some benefit of the water ice bath that I'm missing

[ZigZag]

Franklin- sounds like you made dry ice hash. I’ve done that too and the product can be awesome. Sometimes a little to dry/ harsh for me but really great for edibles or extracts. I like the bubble hash cuz the flavor is awesome, the smoke is smooth, and the high seems more.....complete. I don’t use the dry ice if the weed has been frozen for two weeks but I do keep it in the freezer until seconds before I put it in the ice water. If it hasn’t been frozen really well and I want to make it within six hours I use the dry ice to make sure it’s frozen really well. If I’m using live stuff, hasn’t been dried or cured, then the dry ice works best for bubble hash, I just get better results that way. Never tried dry ice hash with live material. Cool thing about using the live green stuff is you have product as soon as you want it- no waiting for a dry and cure!

[Mr.furley]

Most nutrient schedules are written in a 12 week chart, this is really close to the feeding of autos. Most states "for longer grows repeat week xxx till harvest" this is the Photoperiod claus for the schedule. This is a basic "idea" how to follow the feeding, just remember to take an account most people can cut the nutrient dose recommended in half so it is just a guideline.

Me personally when I see the first set of pistals form I look at it as the start of my " waiting week" of the nonexistent flip and then I'm moving to a more flowering attitude as the stretch and formation of budlets are happening over the next two weeks. Make sense?

[ZigZag]

Mr. Furley, thanks for the info. I’m going to go with your suggestion, I’ll start the bloom nutrients in 5 days, that should time out well as more pistils are showing each morning and half of the plants have begun their stretch. I might have topped one too late, the nodes that should be dividing aren’t, guess I’ll just LST the two branches below if nothing develops.

[Going2fast]

Hello ZIgZag. I don't do coco and nutes but would agree with MrFurley. I don't consider flowering till the top growth tip has pistols. Here's a gummy bears auto from atlas seeds at 33 days. I do not consider this flowering yet. She's got another week maybe before shes there.

[ZigZag]

Going2fast, thanks for the reply. Yeah,I’m going to go with what’s been suggested. One of my plants is showing about as many pistils as your photo, one is even starting to develop multiple pistils from some of the calyx’s, most of the others are just showing a few pistils here and there. Just noticed one is getting multiple pistils that are starting to get pretty close to a tiny bud on its growth tip. I’ll wait 5 days and start the change in nutes, Thanks!