s62’s Grow #2 - Auto Mania!

[Farmall]

Sucks don’t it.... once I got a bit too ambitious and added an extra 500ml of water and none of it stayed in the pot. And I have noticed on occasion, what looks like nute burn and I am thinking that the roots are deep in the “hot soil” and getting a dose of high levels of nutrient. Just a theory.

But I would not complain about supersoil... whenever I think about it, I realize I am not spending more time mixing and measuring or even buying extra stuff for that matter

 

[RagWeedDWC]

Great looking plants and awesome pictures.

 

[s62]

Thank you kindly!

 

[s62]

Day 63 Update:

Well, this isn’t a happy update, but it is what it is! I have confirmed my girls have stopped growing upward (except maybe the GSC, day 55). They are now in the stacking bud phase for sure. The colas are getting fatter and smellier. Unfortunately, they’re smaller than my hand It would appear that I’ve grown bonsai cannabis!

I’m definitely a bit put out. I was hoping to get ~3oz from each plant, but now it looks as though I’ll be lucky to get 1. The girls are tiny. I just don’t understand what I did wrong, but evidently something. These look like joke plants, lol. Maturing and looking just like a legit cannabis plant, only 1/5th the size!

I’ve decided that I’m going to compensate for the small size of my plants by planting a boatload of them. Sea of Green time. If I only get 1oz per plant, than I may as well have 9 plants lol. So I’m starting my third grow this week, right alongside my second. I’ll have autos going at different phases, so hopefully I’ll get a perpetual system going.

As you can see in the picture, I went out and bought smaller saucers plus 5 more Smart Pots. I can now run 9 plants at a time. My plan? Once my KindSoil comes in, I’m going to plant 5x more plants. Only this time, I won’t train them. I’m going to leave them the hell alone and will let them grow out one bigass single cola each. Hopefully it’ll get to be more than 4 inches. Thoughts?

I hate that quadlining wasn’t a success for me, but I’m going to try it again someday with photos. I really wanted it to work. I’m just afraid that it was all of my training and topping and defoliation that stunted them. So I’ll be going au natural for awhile.

Thoughts?

 

[Spidermite]

I'm at a loss to explain why yours stayed small but are healthy. I've grown those strains many times with massive success. However dont count out your yield yet. I have grown many plants that stayed under 15 inches tall yet made 80 or more grams each.

 

[Canuck147]

s62 - I feel for ya man - to start with, your plants look great - good job in getting them to where they are. My guess is your plants look like they are good for 60 grams or more each - that's a quarter pounder.

I admire you for being brave enough to post - even though you think you did a bad job - it is hard to admit to everyone that you made errors along the way - and show them.

I'm in the same boat as you - the 2 autos that I have been training seem to have stopped growing vertically - and then I was stupid enough to spray something on them that I have never used before - now all my small leaves are all clawing inwards like they didn't want the spray. I think they are stunted for sure now.

I was seriously looking for an excuse not to continue my journal that I started - but you have changed my mind. I might as well keep posting - mistakes or not.

But - I'm pissed off at myself for being dumb - so I'm starting a couple more seeds today. Starting over - I'll let the other 2 grow, maybe they will surprise me in the end . We'll see.

I really wanted to say - thanks for posting.

 

[Farmall]

Hey s62 ...just wondering... which bulbs did you use in the lamp housing? by the way: they do look great.... no issues any where except size?

 

[s62]

Man, thank you too! You just made me feel a lot better about the whole situation. I’m really glad that you’re going to continue your journal, and I’m really glad you were able to take something away from my journal. I’m going to dedicate a post here very soon to explore plausible causes of my shortcomings in the hopes that people can weigh in and we can learn as a community. Maybe someone will avoid my mistakes by seeing them!
I hate to hear that you’re have stalled out too. That sucks We’re in very similar situations, it would seem, regarding our current grows. I look forward to following your journal(s). If you figure out a good way to catalogue a perpetual grow (one mega thread? separate threads?), I’m stealing the idea! Not sure how to proceed from here yet.
Anyway, thanks again for the kind words and the optimism. I needed a dash of that!

 

[s62]

I definitely won’t count them out yet. I’m just ready to try again, now. I appreciate your support on this grow, and even if it turned out small, I learned a lot and am looking forward to trying again. Plus, whatever yield I do get, it seems like it’s going to be a frosty good smoke! Can’t complain about that, at least!

 

[Farmall]

s62 during the class that Nebula and Sirius did, we discussed the timing for perpetual grows and concluded that 8 weeks of separation would be about right. I fail to recall whether or not the plan was for strictly photos or included autos...

 

[Spidermite]

s62 You have grown some beautiful plants. Again not sure what happened to the size. But I actually would love to find good strains that size so I could run 12 at a time per tent. In a 4x4 you could run 12 of those. Assuming 2 ounces each thays 24ounces. At 3 ounces each that's 36. But my plants always get big so never been able to do that.

 

[Doubledealing72]

There are just a couple differences in your grow than mine, but they could be of some significance.

I use coco rather than a soil coco mix (I believe that's what you're using if I read correctly.)

I use megacrop nutrients

My lights are autocobs.

These seem to be the main differences between our grows. I'm pretty sure the lights aren't the issue. The LEC lights seem to have a pretty good following so I dont think it's that. I know that growing in soil is a slower method than coco. So maybe because of the soil they never got a chance to recover from the training.

How often were you were watering? When I started, i watered every 24 hours for the entire grow. Lately, I've only been watering 24 hours about a month in to the grow. With coco, I've read that it should always be damp.

I really hope you find the answers you're looking for man. It's a bummer when stuff doesn't go as planned.

 

[Spidermite]

Here are the differences in my last grow of autos. I used supersoil for both sets of plants and used nothing but molasses and earthworm/batguano teas. I grew 3 in 3 gallon air pots and 3 in 10 gallon air (cloth) pots. I did transplant but in what they call peat pots.

The 3 plants in 3 gallon pots netted 182grams. I had a six shooter in a 10 gallon pot go to almost 300 grams. The GSC is still going but is way past her timetable in the 10 gallon pot and I'm guessing 200 grams. The Stardawg in 10 gallon made almost 200 grams.

Now that was just a test of supersoil and no nutrients. In 3 gallon pots using fox farms soil and full nutrients I averaged over 200grams per plant in the past and have had some hit over 350grams.

If you are using fast buds seeds those are the same I used in all the above. I'm sure you can find pictures of all my plants if you look around here.

So saying that I'm not saying you need bigger pots, or you need to change nutrients or your soil. I'm just telling you my experience with fast buds seeds. And it is a very positive experience.

 

[Obi-Wan]

First things first....your plants look great....happy, healthy, and full of bud sites!!!! I’ve never grown in super soil so take what I’m about to say with a grain of kief😉. Some of the best soil growers I know swear by the process of potting up their plants as they grow. Something about growing in soil just demands that you have the right sized pot for the plant size. This creates a dilemma for most Auto growers because conventional wisdom says not to transplant Autos. I’ve seen some growers that transplant Autos without slowing them down and I’ve seen some that have ruined there harvests because they botched the transplant. The soil growers that I’ve talked to say that the smaller pots allow the soil to dry out quicker giving the roots greater access to oxygen sooner than they would in a larger pot. If done the right way and at the right time, transplanting shouldn’t lead to any shock. As a matter of fact the plant should explode with growth given its new roomy environment. As I said earlier I’ve never grown in soil so I’m just throwing ideas out there.....

I have grown some rather large plants using FB seeds but they were all in DWC and my hunch is that by controlling what nutrients are available at what times, I may have been able to delay the plants desire to flower, allowing it to Veg a bit longer. Generally speaking my FB plants started to show pistils between day 40-50. Some of those seeds were supposed to be 60 days from seed to harvest.

 

[Spidermite]

I always repot my plants. Even autos and I grow in soil. However I've even gone so far as to replant a whole 3 gallon cloth pot with the plant still in the pot in 10 gallon pots. To date replanting a whole 3 gallon pot into a 10gallon pot has netted my best yields on autos. Photos I go all the way to 50 gallon cloth pots.

 

[Spidermite]

Oh I left out the part about the supersoil grows have so far netted far far better smoke. Quality over quantity. The GSC and Statdawg grown in supersoil cant be beat for flavor anywhere. So I'll take 50grams of that over 200 grams of just good smoke.

 

[RagWeedDWC]

I'm a DWC grower, but your plants look awesome, would love to have a set of those.

 

[s62]

Yeah, I don’t mistrust the genetics at all. FastBuds and Dinafem are high-quality breeders. I’ve got a few pet theories as to their small stature that I want to run by you.
Also, might try my 18-gallon pots out next if the Sea of Green fails. Maybe I need to go big!

 

[s62]

Thanks for the info and thoughts, so Obi-Wan! I’ve been wondering my soil approach is one of the variables that slowed me down, but when I see Spidermite succeeding with supersoil, I’m less inclined to think so.
Regarding transplanting, I wanted to avoid the risk of slowdown due to shock, so I just started my seeds in their final location. I’ve wondered if that played a role as well? I’ll be making a post soon to explore notions more, but thanks for the insights.

 

[s62]

I think you water a lot less frequently with supersoil. I’ve seen 5-7 days thrown around, though I’m finding 3/4 of my girls like to drink a little faster than that. So I’ve been averaging 3-5!days in between, with 3-4 being more often.
I am tempted to try coco as my next grow medium. I wondered if I would have had different results with it. Truth is, I think I stunted my plants, to be honest. I think it may have to do with the extreme angle I was training my quadlines down to. I ended reading that you can majorly slow down the growth of a plant by bending it to horizontal (or further). Gonna post more about that later, but hard to say.
All that being said, I’m still convinced I’m going to get autos to work for me. Once I grow some successfully, I’m sure I’ll be back to quadlining. I’m a tinkerer and I enjoyed the process.