First Time Grower - 3 Auto Strains

ISmokes,
Your so close with the Diva! That salt build up with the Siberian looks convincing. Looks like my ball cap after yard work! Your gonna make it just keep doing your thing man!

Great info from the this page.
 
Hey ismokes just a heads up I have my journal going if you and any one else would like to take a look at it. She's a different girl than the ones I asked about earlier. My brother and I are both growing and I was asking for his. Thanks again and you girls are looking awesome. I'm thinking of maybe doing some autos after my girl now.

Here's my journal link
Outragedpluto's Journal
 
iSmokes said:
I hope you're feeling well and fluffy again! Your girls look great, Ruby looks awesome preparing to flower :)
About the autos, don't worry about a thing, they all look small (sometimes a little weak) in the begining. They even show sex before they actually start to grow. From my very limited experience with a few autos, week 4 is auto madness. My Flash Babylon doubled in size in one week. I woke up to a whole new set of leaves today lol! She's now taller than Diva. This strain actually has many good traits, if the bud is good, I think I'll get some more Babylon beans :)
I'll be posting much more photos of the younger ones. I just don't post much the first 3 weeks because they all look pretty much the same. It's so cool having other plants to compare to :)
Click to expand...

Hi my Super Smokey! :ciao:

Thank you so much for the encouragement for The Fluffy Clan, they wouldn't be as happy and healthy without your kindness!

I caught up with a post by DP elsewhere earlier saying about the slow growth in the autos, I don't know why I thought they grew faster really. Perhaps because of the overall shorter time, but I kept forgetting about the fact they are just smaller plants.

I'm so glad to receive the benefit of your experience...I am excited for week 4 now! The Twins have picked up a bit in the last few days so hopefully they will take off soon too.

Keep up the good work, brilliant job my friend!

:cheer: :hug:
 
I think DP was talking more on the Flower growth after quick veg? My experience has been close to ISmokes with Auto's.
 
Thanks fluffy :) I'm glad that I'm a source of encouragement :grinjoint:
They'll surprise you in week 4. I felt that babylon needed an update every day this week lol! She is the biggest in the garden now. These autos are rather unpredictable. I have most of them in flower, ranging from 9" to 30" lol. They're fun :)
 
from my experience autos grow slow and flower around 2 weeks, although this would change with each strain, but i have grown 3 strains all auto and all flowered between week 2 and 3, they was also only about 6 inches high, i thought they was just showing sex but they wasnt they carried out to flower,

now with autos we are not sure whats best for them, what i read said they prefer moist soil all the time and weak nutes, how true this is i just dont know, i am breeding autos at the moment to try and increase the yield, ive crossed an auto that yielded around 20g dry with a big hitting ak cross cheese strain that produces big buds and is fast growing, so im hoping the results seeds with the auto trait will produce more.

another thing i want to try is growing autos in a dwc set up, soil seems to restrict growth but im not using the best compost, some autos get huge and can produce 4oz plus dry, but the most i got was just over an oz, and this was by harvesting the plant 3 times, i harvested the top then put it back under the lights and so on,
im averaging around 20g dry per auto, im ordering some more tonight to add to my stock and ill be breeding these to try and gain as much yield as possible.

now autos grow in places like russia, where its cold and have more light than needed, so this is why autos flower due to age and not due to light schedule, i was told they wont start to flower if you give them 24-0 of light, but i did this and they started to flower at week 2, so clearly this info was not correct, this brings me on to something im trying to sort out, now ruderalis flowers due to age, so they dont need any night to flower, but we are not growing just ruderalis, we are growing ruderalis cross with usually an indica dominant strain, so now its crossed with a plant that reacts to light and dark, so which lighting schedule is the best to use.
i have tried 24-0 and got the same 20g per plant, so im thinking as the auto is crossed with a none auto to give us the buds we want, then does this mean that an auto will also sort of respond to light, im only wondering this due to what i seen happen when i had a power cut about a month ago,
the power was off for 24 hours and when the lights came back on all of my plants had grown more in the dark than they had all week, so clearly none autos benefit from this night and day and this is possibly why glr works so well, so im wondering if autos will also respond to some dark time, such as an 18-6 schedule, now im thinking that giving it 24 hours of light makes it reach maturity sooner, so would giving it 18-6 drag out the veg period a bit longer and get us some bigger autos.

i got some seeds out the blueberry auto i grew, i planted 2 and 1 has sprouted, now ill be growing this under 18-6 from the time it has got leaves, this will then allow me to test this theory that some night time is a benefit to these plants.

dont get me wrong their are some amazing autos out their and some produce oz's, but i have not come across them yet, the best strain for yield is the big bang auto, another grower on here grew some and got over 4oz and so did another grower, so clearly that auto is more stable, if it was a problem with my grow set up then my none auto plants would be slow to grow and not get very big, now my set up is not the best but my other plants do ok, so clearly it has something to do with either the strain or the lights, now i cant see a breeder selling seeds from a plant that he knows wont produce much, so either they are ripping us off or their is more to this.

i think their is more to it than that, such as growing conditions, light schedule, where the ruderalis grows its pretty damn cold most the year and they got lots of hours of light each day, so this suggests they would benefit from the extended light period, but we are not growing ruderalis, we are growing ruderalis cross with an indica dominant strain, so we are crossing a plant that flowers due to age with a plant that flowers due to light schedule, so we need something in between, it might be possible that they would grow well using 12-12 from day 1, im ordering 10 seeds tonight so ill be able to run some tests with the different light schedules.

but what i did find out is that they prefer a more moist soil than regular plants, and they prefer weak nutes, so start weak and work your way up, i use bpn and started weak and kept upping the dose, and the plant took it ok,
i also read that its best just to give them 1 feed with the veg feed then let the plant use all that up, so when you notice the leaves going a light green colour then your suppose to give the flower nutes at this point.

theirs just to many unknowns, are we giving them the wrong temps, as they grow in cool to cold climates, are we giving them to much light, are we giving them to much nutes, are we keeping the soil to dry for them to have the best conditions, we the answer is that its hard to know, each strain would be different, if we get the conditions right for a ruderalis then it might not be right for the indica its crossed with.
they would not sell all these autos if the yielded low all the time, so their must be something wrong with the method of growing, so im going to rule out soil as the issue, ill try some autos in a dwc set up so then i can monitor the exact nutes and can see how much nutes the plant is using, i am breeding autos to try and find a good mix,.

so far ive got 2 seeds from an auto i did not put pollen on, i did not even have a male in my grow at the time, but out of the bud it produced their was 2 seeds in the very middle of the plant, i planted these and one has sprouted, the auto it came from was a blueberry auto.
now the auto i have pollenated is a royal queens bluematic, i crossed this with a big hitting and fast growing ak47 cross uk cherry cheese, so once these seeds are ready ill be growing them out and only 1/4 will turn out auto, so ill pick the strongest male and female that is auto and cross them back with each other, this should then give me 100% auto seeds,
 
DP,
Just copied and pasted your post to my private notes! There a keeper!
 
damn, i didnt mean it to be that long, if its helpful to you then copy and paste away,

im just trying to be a bit logical and look at the background of the autos, something is clearly now right, their needs to be some testing to find out what the best method is for growing an auto, if their was a way of making them veg longer even if it was just an extra week then this would increase yield by around 1/4, or their abouts.

i like the idea of autos but if its only going to produce 20g dry per auto then its not worth all the effort to grow, clearly their are big hitting auto strains, but finding them is the hard part, you would need to try lots of strains to find the auto that worked the best, put it this way off the bluematic i got about an 1/8th, and thats at the most, and out of that i got the main bud which is 3 inches long, then the other 3 buds are about an inch and full of seeds, so its not good really but it was a seed project and hopefully the seeds will be viable,

so ill rule out soil been an issue and go with a dwc, even if its a 2ltr dwc i get about an oz off a 2ltr dwc without lolly popping it, so thats the method ill stick to for now, plus it will give me a sort of base line of what i need to beat, so that would rule out soil been the issue, so then i can play around with the nutes and lighting schedule, the temps will have to be for another day because that would mean id need to set up another grow room or possibly have fans blowing directly onto the auto.

ill keep you all informed on what happens anyway,
im just doing my bit to try and find out how to improve these autos,
 
donpaul you put in words what I keep thinking about autos. There's so many unknowns I don't think an "ideal" state could be achieved. Most autos are crosses with canadian/russian ruderalis (sp?). But some are mixed with mexican ruderalis. I have some of each growing side by side. I figured an -indica / cold ruderalis- would definitely need different temps than a -sativa / mexican ruderalis- would need. But then I smoked a joint and just watched them grow lol :grinjoint:
I think if you narrow down to a good strain and figure out it's ideal conditions, then auto growing can be a very promising mini perpetual harvest kind of grow. I don't think I can grow regulars for now because I can't have more than one tent. I really don't want to be in either veg or flower for my whole group. I want some at different ages, that's why I'm really digging this auto thing.
 
I must admit Smokey that's why I went with The Twins. I would really like to just grow photos but like you I just don't have the space. At least with the autos I can pretty much leave them to get one with it while they piggyback on the main grow. If they don't yield much they don't, it will still be more than I would have had, plus I get the excitement of growing them too.

I'm trying to think of a way to get a small seedling/young veg box going to try and move closer to perpetual but not sure if I am going to be able to do that. My autos really aren't any effort to grow, they sit in with Ruby for the light period then have a little bit of time upstairs with the CFL on until we go to bed. Sure, there is the extra soil and nutes but those costs to me are negligible to the benefit of even getting an extra 1/8th. The patchy availability of smoke here, and the so called quality which is in the gutter, I figure my autos are fab little extras.

What I like about them is they can be whatever you want or need them to be because you do just very much leave them to it, so for you and I they are ideal, but I can totally see where DP is coming from and that is right too.
 
I rep when I can :)
BTW, donpaul, did you come across any hermies in autos?
I noticed a few growers who got a few seeds here and there in their autos. I caught my diva going hermie overnight, but luckily that was her only phase, she's been full fem since that day. I also clipped 5 premature nuts off Babylon this morning :-/.. Having a tendency to hermie could be an explanation for the few seeds in a lot of autos. Just wondering.. is it the plants? or is it me? Having 2 go hermie in a group of 7 plants suggests it's ME and not the plants lol.. any thoughts?
 
i tried my hardest to get an auto to go hermie, i was hoping i could get it to go hermie then i could collect the pollen from the hermie then put this pollen on a fem plant, this would give me 100% femenised seeds, but i could not get it to go hermie, i messed with light schedules, temps and it did not happen, i think its because they dont worry about light schedule.

i got to agree its hard to get a good base for all autos, but if i can work with my own autos and get my own strain dialed in then it might throw up some useful info for other strains, i mean some ruderalis grows in the mountains where its freezing cold, this is why autos work well in european climates out doors, so their is a lot to learn and a lot to test, i need to rule soil out the way to make sure its not causing any problems with the slow growth and early flowering, once i know its not the soil i can then try other things, such as different lighting schedules, this is why im trying to get a stable batch of seeds, so thats what im in the middle of doing now, but just in case i dont have much look with the plants i crossed then im going to order some cheap autos from herbies, he is doing packs of 10 for just over £10 per pack, plus the free seeds on top as well so its more than worth it, plus their regular seeds so it will give me the chance to cross a male and female and get me a few hundred seeds, then i can start some long term testing,

im also very interested in the autos, this is due to the fact that they will grow under any light schedule, so if my none auto plants are in veg then i can still grow and flower an auto while im waiting for the other plants to finish, their are autos that reach 5ft tall so they do get big if you get the right strain and a good cross, but its a bit hit and miss at the moment, im working on it so ill do what i can to try and get an auto to produce well under any light schedule, if they only grow well under 12-12 then its not worth it, as we can grow femenised or regular seeds under 12-12 from day 1 and get around an oz per plant, so if autos dont produce that much then id say use femenised seeds and go 12-12 from start to finish,

but if i can get an auto to produce well under any lighting schedule then ill be more than happy, plus it will give me the chance to keep crossing autos with none autos so produce not just a big yield but some top shelf bud as well
 
if you had 2 go hermie then id say its something in the method of grow, or the seeds could be from a hermie plant, this then would carry the hermie gene, which is what im looking for, id do anything at the minute to get an auto to go hermie, id be very happy indeed if i got an auto to go hermie, it would mean id have enough pollen to put on as many plants as i like, plus the resulting seeds would all be femenised.

their is another option to make a plant hermie, their is some silver stuff you can use, im not sure on the spelling but its something like coliadol silver, some growers have used it, and you spray it on the buds and they then start growing male flowers, then all you do is collect the pollen from this and use that to pollenate other plants and get fem seeds,
 
Yep, I thought about that a lot. I figured I'll just leave a couple of pollen sacks to mature and collect some fem seeds. But I don't know, I have no way of isolating the plant so I would have to risk a lot by leaving pollen sacks between 7 females. I just spray them with water and pick them while still very immature. If you're interested in the ones that went hermie they are: La Diva and Flash Babylon Automatic. Flash babylon is a big girl too. I'm waiting for her to stop vertical growth to measure and report. She's officially 5 weeks today, I'm expecting her to stop growing and start packing any day now. As an estimate, I'd say she's around 80cm already.
 
thanks for the hermie info, if you cant isolate the plant then dont keep a hermie or a male, pollen becomes air born very easy and will travel a far way, it only takes an open window or draft from a door opening and the pollen will be everywhere, even going near a male or hermie will mean you have pollen on your clothes and hands, then you go touch your plants or near your plants then the pollen spreads to them very easy, if you dont get these male pollen sacs in time then they will produce pollen very quick, one of these pollen sacs is enough to ruin a room full of plants, so id make sure you have checked the whole of the plant properly, some of the pollen sacs are tiny and easy to miss, so keep an eye on things and check it as often as you can, a pollen sac can open very quick so within 24 hours your plants could be covered in pollen,

i isolate my males and leave them in a sealed room, then when they are about to open i take some black shiny paper and hold it under the male pollen sac, then i tap the plant and the pollen falls onto the paper, i then scrape this into a sealed pot and destroy the male, i then spray everything with water to stop the pollen, i spray myself all over the best i can then when i go out the room i get changed into other clothes, the room with the males in gets a good spray on all surfaces and that ensures i have no further viable pollen, then i take a female into this room and open the tub with the pollen in, i then get a fine paint brush and dip it in the pollen, i then tap off any loose pollen before taking the brush out the tub, once ive done that i brush over a few bud sites that i want seeds from,

this has worked fine for me, but their is always the risk of pollen becoming air born, its easily done, so when i have got a male i remove all the branches and leave just one on the plant to get pollen from, this means i can keep checking just this one part of the plant, then im sure im only risking pollen from that one part of the plant, if i kept the rest of the pollen sacs on the plant then id risk my whole crop as it would be easy to mess up, so by removing all the branches from a male early on means i only have 1 branch to take a risk with, so far its paid off.

the only mistake i think i have made is with the ak47 cross uk cherry cheese, i had a male and female of this strain and want to keep the strain, so i put pollen on 2 of the buds on this plant, but now its nearly done and the seeds are pretty much popping out the plant i can clearly see their is just 1 seed in the bud bellow these 2, so clearly their was some pollen air born or some dropped onto that bud, luckily its only 1 seed in the whole bud so ill still be able to smoke the rest of the plant
 
Damn great info today. I reference any material I copy and paste so you will always get credit DP. I borrowed a few bits from ISmokes as well. keep up the research we are all learning! I hope to find a few seeds in my girls as well! Probably not but 2 or 3 would be cool!
 
ISmokes,
Here are a couple of pics Showing a friends Trans Siberian at day 60.

temp_bmp_file_11.png
temp_bmp_file_9.png
 
Thank you for sharing this spring, I really appreciate it! I've been looking around for siberian photos. She looks great! If only my colas would fill up like that, I have like 9 of them lol. I noticed the phenotypes are quite different. The overall shape of my siberian does not resemble this, or yours. Weird.
 
I noticed this as well. Gonna do some more peaking into his log book. Maybe he topped it? My girl is starting to fill in slowly. Still time though.
 

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