First Time Grower - 3 Auto Strains

spring2012 said:
Looking Good! The older ones are looking awesome and bushy!! Keep it up man! I'm waiting for new babies to arrive any time now!
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Sounds good man, what strain do you have on the way :)?
The siberian is insane Spring. She got so bushy I couldn't see a stem for about a week. Now look at her in the middle, all that bushiness just sort of expanded into a mini sativa-like plant. I have a strong feeling she's going to be a good yielder. SO MANY side branches with flower sites, and most importantly, all tall and exposed to light. Give your girl a week, you're going to be amazed. Their genetics seem to be fairly stable because every time you upload pictures I compare. Your plant looks almost exactly like mine did a week ago :laughtwo:. I couldn't find any good reviews on the strain from somebody who actually grew it, did you?
 
iSmokes said:
You're too kind! :) Thank you so much. I'm glad I encouraged you to go with autos, I'm sure you'll LOVE them. When I was first debating what to do, this is what tipped the scale over to the auto deicsion:
1- FAST, I'm so impatient it's ridiculous.
2- Autoflowering, so that's one less thing to worry about as a first timer.
3- They take the same mixed spectrum throughout they're cycle. << This is one of the biggest advantages for me. You can have seedlings, young ones, and full on blooms, all in the same tent, under the same lights, same photoperiod.

I'll tell you the story behind La Diva lol. It shows how our impatience is not always a bad thing. I only had 3 seeds and 2 of them popped up looking great. La Diva stayed underground for over 5 days. She was buried a couple inches so it was too deep for her. During one of my "peeking sessions", I noticed the sprout already broke through the seed and half opened her leaves. But she was stuck and dying about an inch under the soil. I always called her the c-section lol. I dug around her and made room for her leaves. She was always the runt (if you follow pictures from earlier on). Ironically she turned out to be the fastest strain (I had no idea up until a few days ago). I'm going to give her all the time she needs, but by the looks of it, she looks like a real 45-day seed --> flower. She has blueberry in her genetics, I'm hoping for that light blue hue and a hint of sweetness. . Long story.. I know
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Nowt wrong with long stories when they explain a point Smokey ;)

Your reasons 1 and 2 are the same as mine, but I actually didn't know that about the spectrum. Thank you for my new fact for the day!

And I love your Diva story. To think she almost died before she started, what a job you did saving her. Awesome! See, it's good we peek! Don't care what anyone else says :)
 
iSmokes said:
Sounds good man, what strain do you have on the way :)?
The siberian is insane Spring. She got so bushy I couldn't see a stem for about a week. Now look at her in the middle, all that bushiness just sort of expanded into a mini sativa-like plant. I have a strong feeling she's going to be a good yielder. SO MANY side branches with flower sites, and most importantly, all tall and exposed to light. Give your girl a week, you're going to be amazed. Their genetics seem to be fairly stable because every time you upload pictures I compare. Your plant looks almost exactly like mine did a week ago :laughtwo:. I couldn't find any good reviews on the strain from somebody who actually grew it, did you?
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You and I have the only reviews!! Cant wait till she gets taller! I have 4 Big Bang Autos, and FREE: 1 X Royal Queen Fruit Spirit Feminised Seed, 2 X Seedsman Sleestack x Skunk#1 Regular Seeds. Im gonna grow the regs 12/12.
 
spring2012 said:
You and I have the only reviews!! Cant wait till she gets taller! I have 4 Big Bang Autos, and FREE: 1 X Royal Queen Fruit Spirit Feminised Seed, 2 X Seedsman Sleestack x Skunk#1 Regular Seeds. Im gonna grow the regs 12/12.
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I got those freebies too Spring! I like the sound of the Fruit Spirit. I'm still a bit reluctant to play around with non feminised seeds in case I make an almighty balls up of everything :bigblush:

I'm having to stop myself germinating them all now :)
 
Hey Spring, that sounds so great! big bang autos ey? I see you're looking for that yield :laughtwo:
I was thinking about doing the same thing with some regulars too.. maybe veg them for a week or 10 days under 24/0 or 20/4 then to 12/12.. I'm not sure, we'll see :)!
Good luck with everything!

Fluffy you have such an energetic positive presence everywhere I see you :Namaste: you seem like such a good person.
 
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iSmokes said:
Hey Spring, that sounds so great! big bang autos ey? I see you're looking for that yield :laughtwo:
I was thinking about doing the same thing with some regulars too.. maybe veg them for a week or 10 days under 24/0 or 20/4 then to 12/12.. I'm not sure, we'll see :)!
Good luck with everything!

Fluffy you have such an energetic positive presence everywhere I see you :Namaste: you seem like such a good person.
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Ismokes,
Yep I am researching yield with autos! Its been done by Xlr8 with the big bang auto. 4oz. Some of the veterans have suggested exactly as you have with regard to light cycles while mixing in regulars. I feel good about 7 to 10 days veg at 20/4 then 12/12. Can always move the autos before lights out and give them more.
 
Fluffy Haze said:
I got those freebies too Spring! I like the sound of the Fruit Spirit. I'm still a bit reluctant to play around with non feminised seeds in case I make an almighty balls up of everything :bigblush:

I'm having to stop myself germinating them all now :)
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Good deal! I am curious as well with the fruit spirit. I am a bit reluctant with non feminized as well but..... Growing my first set of autos has given me a fast look at what a female plant looks like. I feel somewhat comfortable with sexing. I just need to get the males out quick. I do not have the room to separate them. I really want to make seeds but I need to slow down!
 
Jfault20 said:
Your girls are looking great are you feeding them any nutes?
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Hey Jfault, thanks man I'm glad you like them. 2 of the girls were fed once (and another time that was followed immediately by a flush). They're VERY sensitive to nutrients. So I would say they were fed once last week as a test, and it didn't go so well. I held off and I'm planning to start feeding at the beginning of week 5 for the 2Gal girls (which is in 2 days). And I'm waiting till the beginning of week 6 for the Siberian. This FFOF is better than I expected. La Diva is already grown and flowering and she still won't take nutes. I know everybody reads a lot about how FFOF stays hot for 5 weeks (with autos especially). It really does. I always thought that would be an exaggeration, but it's not. They're burning at 1/4th strengths.
 
Xlr8's big bang was HUGE lol.. It looks so tasty too!
I've been giving this a lot of thought, and I think my next step is going to be a fast auto grow (I'm thinking 5 La Divas if she smokes good) just because she's small and fast. The reason I'm going in that direction, is because I'm thinking about vegging regulars alongside Diva. I'll veg them for a month (by planting them 2 weeks after the divas). And when I harvest divas, I switch to 12/12 and have 4 vegged regulars ready to flower in there. I'm not sure about this yet, but I think that's the direction I'm headed in. Also, I posted a comment earlier that I was getting another tent, slightly bigger, and my post got deleted? I guess they're not a holy sponsor? So there's that too, I'm gona have slightly more room to to work with.
 
iSmokes said:
Hey Jfault, thanks man I'm glad you like them. 2 of the girls were fed once (and another time that was followed immediately by a flush). They're VERY sensitive to nutrients. So I would say they were fed once last week as a test, and it didn't go so well. I held off and I'm planning to start feeding at the beginning of week 5 for the 2Gal girls (which is in 2 days). And I'm waiting till the beginning of week 6 for the Siberian. This FFOF is better than I expected. La Diva is already grown and flowering and she still won't take nutes. I know everybody reads a lot about how FFOF stays hot for 5 weeks (with autos especially). It really does. I always thought that would be an exaggeration, but it's not. They're burning at 1/4th strengths.
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I was wondering because I will be starting a grow next week and both are autos.. I've read in some forums that it's ok to use Nutes with autos but others say not so much.. But I've read on here the way to start is the 1/4th to see if they can handle it (Just like your're doing now) I think I'm going to wait until the 3rd or 4th week to try it but thanks for the reply
 
The reason I'm going in that direction, is because I'm thinking about vegging regulars alongside Diva. I'll veg them for a month (by planting them 2 weeks after the divas). And when I harvest divas, I switch to 12/12 and have 4 vegged regulars ready to flower in there. I'm not sure about this yet, but I think that's the direction I'm headed in.
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That's a very good idea mate
 
Jfault20 said:
Also what size pots did you start your girls in? (This is my first grow) I've read that autos don't like to be transplanted
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What kind of soil are you using Jfault? FFOF will still be too hot even at week 3 and 4 for an auto trust me. I'm a new grower too but this just happened to me last week (that was my week 4). They burn so quick.
I started most of them in 2 gallon pots that I'm planning to finish them in except for 2:
1-Siberian: she was very carefully transplanted from a 2gal to a 3gal and she made it, in fact, she exploded in growth after I did that, which made me regret not having more in 3 gallons.. oh well, this first time thing teaches us so much.
2-Big devil, which is barely a week old, but she was started in a 3 gallon to see how that goes.

Do you have a journal?
 
iSmokes said:
What kind of soil are you using Jfault? FFOF will still be too hot even at week 3 and 4 for an auto trust me. I'm a new grower too but this just happened to me last week (that was my week 4). They burn so quick.
I started most of them in 2 gallon pots that I'm planning to finish them in except for 2:
1-Siberian: she was very carefully transplanted from a 2gal to a 3gal and she made it, in fact, she exploded in growth after I did that, which made me regret not having more in 3 gallons.. oh well, this first time thing teaches us so much.
2-Big devil, which is barely a week old, but she was started in a 3 gallon to see how that goes.

Do you have a journal?
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Not yet Im waiting on everything to get here.. My tent comes in tomorrow I already have the seeds and yes it will be FFOF so holding off on the nutes sounds like the plan.. The strains will be auto blue mystic and auto bubbalicious.. I'll start one as soon as my setup is ready and my seeds pop
 
Jfault20 said:
Not yet Im waiting on everything to get here.. My tent comes in tomorrow I already have the seeds and yes it will be FFOF so holding off on the nutes sounds like the plan.. The strains will be auto blue mystic and auto bubbalicious.. I'll start one as soon as my setup is ready and my seeds pop
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Sounds good man, I'll grab a front seat a soon as you do.
I just replied to another thread which I'm assuming is old :laughtwo:?
:lot-o-toke:
 
iSmokes said:
Thanks man, I know I want to switch to regular photoperiods, and I figured this would make the transition smooth :grinjoint:
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Agree; it will cut time down and make the best productive use of the photo veg time so you'll get a decent amount of bud to keep you going until the photos flower; go for it.

I think photos are still the ones tbh; I'm finding the auto I'm growing is so nute sensitive and there's very little you can do to try and maximise yield, they just do what they do and you get what you get, the whole time trying not to burn them! They're good fun and quick, and I think given their sensitivity they're a good learning curve for recognising nute issues (particularly burn!), but they're otherwise very limited. And you don't really learn anything because you can't really force anything, or manipulate them like you would a regular, so you never quite learn what the limits of this wonderful plant are and what's possible - it's like track driving a dual-controlled Ferrari with a paranoid driving instructor; every time you try and push things and see what it can do the bastard slams the brakes on and makes you slow down.

I don't think I'll grow another one, even though I've thoroughly enjoyed growing the Auto Bomb at the moment. They have their place and are good fun but they just seem a bit too restrictive overall and, well.... I hate to say it, but possibly even a bit boring.....!
 
haha, good analogy with the ferrari. Autos really just do their thing you're right. It feels like a crash course in growing. Quick, sensitive, and there's isn't much you can do beside observe and learn. Which is priceless about these fast plants. Other than that, I'm very sure I want to grow regulars for my next grow. I started learning about different methods and reading up on everything. It's funny how much we learn (and how fast) about something when we're really interested in it. A good 4 or 5 plant scrog grow is very appealing. I'm also considering switching to HID instead of all the mess. I'm loving the CFL/LED combo, but I think I'd love it more if I can replace all this with one good HID reflector :laughtwo:
 
I know what you mean - the time and study people put in to something they're really interested in is amazing, and often gets overlooked. The trick to any kind of learning is it has to be practical, interesting, and have a tangible result at the end. Most school, uni and work training courses completely miss this, but growing pot nails it all!

I'd be tempted to stick with the led (purely from a selfish curiosity point of view and seeing how it turns out for you - I wanted to get one myself but the one I wanted was sold out so I opted for a cfl). I'd like to get an HPS going but heat will be a major issue in the space I've got, so if it's not a cfl it's an led, or an HPS with a headache!
 
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