I just finished my first auto grow and one thing I’m doing differently than the first round is I started them in cups like I’d do if they were regular seeds. The first round I started them in their final pot since most say not to transplant autos and they were extremely slow going to start. My new sprouts are 4 days old, healthy and growing like they should. I expect to be moving them out of their cups into 2 gallon pots within a week.
Also you have to LST them. I grew two of each strain, let one grow natural and LST’d the other. The ones I LST’d will end up producing close to twice as much as the ones I let grow natural. The Indica strains were quick, last Wednesday was week 8 and they’ll all be done within the next week so I wouldn’t top them but the Sativa strains all still have another 3-4 wks and should have all been topped once.