Complete beginner: no buds

[CroQ]

Hi all,

I'm having problems with my first autoflowering 'tests'. First time grower here, learned a few tricks from the internet and started with (what I thought) were some easy to grow autoflowering seeds.
Got them at the beginning of August and now it's December and they still haven't flowered.
3 of them got very tall, 1 is smaller and has more leaves but none are actually producing anything.

I don't know what more to do with them, even after reading all I could find, so, please, share your thoughts. Should I throw them away and start anew or is there a way to 'save' them?

I switched for 1 week to the 600W HPS light, but so far I had 7 of the other bulbs. Using a soil with everything needed in it from the beginning and from time to time, I put some nutrients in their water too. Kept them on a 20/4 timer, but now I'm thinking to switch to 12/12, even if they are autoflowering, same people said it worked for them.

Thank you.

 

[nickeluring]

Hi CroQ,
On the second pic it looks like a male or a hermie. I see pollen sacks. Do you have that on the other plants as well?
A better light would be good for your grow room. How come you don't use that HPS light?

 

[vyserage]

Omg the stretch on those is intense lol. You require a better light! That's your first step in improvement and it'll make a huge impact. Look around for a good led light that has good coverage. What's your money situation?

 

[vyserage]

That 600w hps will do but looks like you had it too far away from plants so they really stretched for the light.

 

[CroQ]

Hi CroQ,
On the second pic it looks like a male or a hermie. I see pollen sacks. Do you have that on the other plants as well?
A better light would be good for your grow room. How come you don't use that HPS light?

Yes, I saw those "pollen sacks" on all the tall ones. And there was also a lot of polen flying around
I am surely not a master at identifying them, are they males or hermies ?
The one in the middle looks more like it should, it's smaller and denser and it never had those 'flowers'

That 600w hps will do but looks like you had it too far away from plants so they really stretched for the light.

I just installed the 600W one 1 week ago, trying to save them, before that, used the other bulbs you see in the image (7 of them at the moment).

Do you think I should get rid of the tall ones, try again to save the small one in the center and get some need seeds and try again ? Hopefully now with the 600W HPS they will work better.

Thank you.

 

[vyserage]

Tbh that's what I would do. Treat it like a good learning experience and start over from clones or seeds. If you have anymore reputable seeds, use those. Always good to run a well known strain that's been bread through all the not so great ones to get to a great one.
If you don't have seeds, is getting a few clones from a dispensary an option?
If both of those are a no go, go ahead and finish your fertilized female plant to get some seeds.

 

[nickeluring]

What seeds did you use? Regular autos? If you used feminised auto seeds, those plants are hermies. If the seeds were regular they might just be males. Hermaphrodites can occur when a plant gets very unhappy about something.
If you keep the female plant, she'll give you lots of auto seeds if you let her finish happily. That could be good for practice. But keep in mind you'll get males and females from those seeds, and you need to remove all males before any pollen sack has a chance to burst.

 

[CroQ]

yes, regular autos (feminised). Or so it said on the website I got them from.

So I'll remove the tall ones, but no chance to get anything from the 'female' one ? (except seeds).
If so, I'd better just buy again some auto feminized ones and try again.

Good soil, the 600W HPS now and ... fingers crossed.

 

[nickeluring]

You'll get buds. The seeds will be inside the buds.

 

[nickeluring]

But unless trying to get seeds, the buds are better without.

 

[vyserage]

It'll be buds full of seeds so the THC is gonna be considerably lower because the plant focused on seed production instead of bud

 

[Dwight Monk]

Can you get a closer pic of the one you think a lady? Hard to tell from distance but that other one looks more like a full blown male than a hermie.

 

[Dwight Monk]

In my experience pollinated buds not much different in effect, just the flowers don't grow as big as it puts a lot of energy into the seeds, that and the old school having to find the seeds first so they don't blow up your bowl or your doobie that and the seeds taste nasty if you miss one . At least the ones we have tried we really couldn't tell much difference in high or taste when we tried the ones that I let get pollinated compared to mother/other clones of same strain.

 

[Dwight Monk]

And you wouldn't be the first person to get wrong seeds from somewhere, that or just poor genetics as some "breeders" not really breeders and more of a "money grab" than trying to do it right/correctly. Same as some Distributors more ethical/reputable than others and check their breeders better than others (or go with more reputable breeders mainly).

 

[vyserage]

In my experience pollinated buds not much different in effect, just the flowers don't grow as big as it puts a lot of energy into the seeds, that and the old school having to find the seeds first so they don't blow up your bowl or your doobie that and the seeds taste nasty if you miss one . At least the ones we have tried we really couldn't tell much difference in high or taste when we tried the ones that I let get pollinated compared to mother/other clones of same strain.

Thats good to know! Never heard someone say it from experience, just from speculation

 

[CroQ]

So, I took out the big ones, nothing coming out of them I guess.
I'm left with this one, do you guys think it's worth the electricity to try and see what happens with it ?

Gonna try to find some good seeds and repeat the experiment . Here's a quick list of what I know I need to do, please correct me if I'm wrong:

- get good seeds and put them in the soil when appropriate. I think I got this part OK, last time all 5 seeds I had turned into plants.
- i'll use the 600W HPS light from the beginning on a 20/4 cycle ? How far from the plants should I keep it ? I can lower it as I want. I don't want it to raise the temperature too much, read that they don't like too much heat. I have a small cooling fan blowing air in the tents (and also over the discharge unit for the HPS, which is frikkin' hot.)
- soil with everything in it, like Biobizz All-Miz or close to that.
- as they grow... move the light up ? Stop at some height and trim their tops so they don't grow up ?
- use some nutrients when they grow enough.
- keep them on 20/4 ?

I know I'm not a gardener and this is just for me, so I'd like to keep it as simple as possible and get some good results. One of the reasons I'm going with autofeminized autoflowering ones, as easy as I can, at least for the 1st time (well, 2nd)
Thanks!

 

[vyserage]

looks like you've got some pretty good calcium deficiency going on with that plant. If i recal you correctly you havent fed them any nutrients yourself right? If thats the case, you need to get some calimagic and add 1 tsp per 1 gallon of water, that'll solve the calcium deficiency UNLESS its being caused from incorrect pH in which case you may have calcium there its just not being taken up by the roots because your soil's pH is wrong.

 

[CroQ]

No, I got the soil with everything needed and I wanted to give them nutrients when the started flowering. Seemed like the easiest thing to do for someone who didn't know much, like myself. I used the attached one from time to time in their water.
I also got a pH tester and most of the times the water was OK, but I didn't always checked it.
Should I try to use those nutrients everytime when I water it now? Would that help?

 

[vyserage]

i'll use the 600W HPS light from the beginning on a 20/4 cycle ? How far from the plants should I keep it ? I can lower it as I want. I don't want it to raise the temperature too much, read that they don't like too much heat. I have a small cooling fan blowing air in the tents (and also over the discharge unit for the HPS, which is frikkin' hot.)

20/4 is fine for auto's. I have zero experience with lights other than LED's so i cant say for sure but the general way to go is for the first 2 weeks of the plants life, keep it at 32" to start and let them grow into it. Then after 2 weeks if the plant has some nice fan leaves going on, you can move it closer to 24". Now this is where its different for LED cause little to no heat from LED's compared to your light. From 24" and on you can just slowly move the light closer and closer each day by like an inch or 2 until 16" IF your leaves arent showing any signs of heat/light damage. Leaf's will taco inwards form heat, burnt tips and margins from light intensity or otherwise known as light bleaching ( google cannabis light bleaching for examples). From there its just about knowing how your light reacts to the plants you grow, once you get a few grows in you will know where your light hanging limit is or at what hight it starts causing burn or heat stress.

 

[vyserage]

No, I got the soil with everything needed and I wanted to give them nutrients when the started flowering. Seemed like the easiest thing to do for someone who didn't know much, like myself. I used the attached one from time to time in their water.
I also got a pH tester and most of the times the water was OK, but I didn't always checked it.
Should I try to use those nutrients everytime when I water it now? Would that help?

That is a 0-0-1 (NPK - Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium), calimagic is a 1-0-0. yours is a small flower booster from the looks of it, its the 1-0-0 you want for extra calcium & magnesium. Its less than 20 bucks on amazon, i would recommend getting it as you are highly likely to run into plants that are very hungry for extra calcium or magnesium and this is what MANY of us common growers use.

You should be testing ALL water in to make sure its in the ph range you need for coco (5.8 to 6.2 i think it was?) and if its not, you can use ph up or ph down to adjust it to where you want, then read it again until you've nailed that range. This could easily be why calcium deficiencies are popping up cause there are only 2 possible reasons and thats a lockout from incorrect pH for too long, or a lack of calcium.