looking great,
now for auto info, ive been running tests with autos for a while,
do not use autos for a scrog its totally pointless, dont defol an auto either, any growth slow down will result in lower yield as it dont have time to recover before it flowers,
now ive been growing kc45 autos for a while, all the growers say grow them on 24-0 or 20-4, i even had top growers telling me they wont flower under 24-0, their wrong they do and they flower a lot earlier under 24-0, trust me i know ive grown a few,
i always grew autos during my veg schedule, so 20-4 or 24-0, all autos even different strains such as auto purple, auto purple cheese, blueberry auto, pyramids auto purple, plus a few more, these all started flowering around week 2 of growth and continued to flower until harvest, yields where tiny, i mean between 1/4 and 1/2 at the very most, got 1/2 off only 1 most where like 3/8 to below a 1/4,
so here is where i changed things around a bit and ill explain why after,
i tried an auto i had grown many times but this time i put it under 12-12 from start to finish,
it was a kc 45 from the same batch as the ones i grew under 24-0 and 20-4, so it was now under 12-12, i was expecting even smaller yields, but i was so wrong,
under 20-4 and 24-0 the yield was about the same each time, between 1/4 and 3/8ths at best, so under 12-12 i wasnt expecting much,
but this was my results,
under 24-0 and 20-4 my kc 45 started flowering at week 2 of growth,
under 12-12 they didnt start flowering till after week 3, the plant was also a lot taller and bushier than when grown under 20-4 and 24-0, which did shock me to be honest,
so it took an extra 2 weeks to start flowering, it took just under 4 weeks longer to grow and yield was around the 2oz mark with 4 buds 1ft in length and pretty fat, pics are on my journal,
so this is what i think is going on,
autos flower and are ready to harvest due to amount of light hours, so for example, lets say it takes 240 hours of light to reach harvest, we know they take much longer but its easier to explain if i keep it simple.
so it takes 240 hours of light to reach harvest,
under 24-0 this would take 10 days
under 12-12 it would be double this at 20 days,
now plants grow in the dark, they use the energy they stored during the day to grow roots and grow taller to find the light, this means the main stem grows taller meaning more nodes, all the side branches get longer again giving us more nodes,
so from the test i have run it seems that autos flower due to maximum light hours, under 20-4 and 24-0 they reach this age a lot quicker meaning less growth in days, now under 12-12 it takes twice as long and the plants are also growing when the lights are off, we know with regular plants that plants grown under 24-0 have very little stretch and are bushy plants, then when we flip 12-12 the plants stretch like crazy, the plants do this as their looking for the light again, then when the plants are in full flower the stretch stops as the plant is now used to the 12-12 cycle so no more stretch,
plants grown under 18-6 seem to do better than 24-0 because during the lighst off period the plant is using its stored energy to grow more root mass, repair any damage done during lights on and it also makes the plant stretch meaning more nodes and longer branches and bigger buds, more roots means it can support a bigger plant, it can give the plant more nutrients and will increase overall size and health of the plant, but its a c3 plant so it dont need dark and can be grown under 24-0 and will do ok under 24-0, but i know from my own experience that my plants grow better under 17-7 than 20-4, my plants all have bigger leaves, more growth, look a better shade of green, so i now use 17-7
anyways back to the autos,
autos need dark just as much as regular plants, more roots made in the dark means the plant will grow quicker as it has more roots to take in more nutrients and more water for the plant, the dark period also makes the plant stretch meaning longer stem and longer branches meaning more bud to harvest,
so autos would do better under 18-6 than they would under 20-4 and 24-0, im just speaking with a few growers to see if we can set up and auto grow journal where all auto growers can input their data and compare so we can all see what works well and what dont, but from my own experience autos grown under 20-4 and 24-0 will produce far less than they do under 12-12,
another grower has also found this to be true, he has got a monster auto growing under 12-12,
autos get big outdoors as well, outdoors their getting around 15 hours of light per day, so clearly they do well outdoors with just 15 hours of light,
what im working on now is which light schedule is best, i got around 2oz from kc45 under 12-12 and just over 1/4 under 20-4, but would i of got a bigger yield under something like 17-7, so this time round i got another 2 kc45 autos growing, they will be under 17-7 from start to finish then i can compare yield again and see what works best,
but it looks like autos do well with a dark period, it looks like they flower and reach harvest due to the amount of light hours they receive so giving them 20-4 and 24-0 makes them reach this earliy but gives poor yield, so giving them less light allows them to grow longer, my kc 45 finished about 3 to 4 weeks longer than they did under 20-4 and 24-0, the plant was also 3 times the size under 12-12, so making them grow longer by giving them less light seems to make them grow bigger and yield more,
this might not be the same for all strains but ive always got poor results under 24-0 and 20-4, never had a decent yield, but under 12-12 i had around 2oz and 4 1ft buds, i was lucky to get 2inch buds under 20-4, so clearly 12-12 is making the auto grow longer and yield more, so the night period also plays a big roll in autos, constant light seems to make them flower around week 2, and growth stops and they continue to flower, under 12-12 they flowered around week 4 and took between 3 and 4 weeks longer to reach harvest but this mean a much bigger plant and a much bigger yield,
so i would not scrog or even defol an auto, its pointless, any stress will stunt growth and limit the amount of growing time the plant has, but its really up to you what schedule you use, it might be 20-4 that works with the auto you choose but both me and another grower are using 12-12 and i got amazing results and this other grower has got a huge auto under same schedule,
so grow them normally, limit any transplant shock by starting them in a big enough pot to start with it transplant them very early to reduce any transplant shock, 12-12 might not be the best schedule but giving them a dark period seems to increase yield, so ill try 17-7 while my other plants are in veg and ill see how the kc45 gets on, under 20-4 i got 1/4 under 12-12 i got just over 2oz and huge buds, so lets see what 17-7 does, ill have more results to go from then and can see what schedule gives best results, ill also be gowing kc45's again under 12-12 when i flip my lights to 12-12 so i can then have a bigger test to see for sure if 12-12 is the magic number with autos, i really dont think 20-4 or 24-0 is the magic number, id say 18-6 and below,