hi, i have grown several autos and am experimenting with breeding autos to get a good auto that grows quick and yields loads, so ive been growing a few autos and crossing them with none autos,
ive also grown the auto bomb and it was some of the nicest tasting bud i have ever had, it had a really tangy taste, loved every bit of it, it was just a shame that it did not yield we at all, id say 20g dry.
some info on autos, you are right they do prefer weak nutes, how ever you can keep upping the dose till you get to full strength. so always start at 1/4 of what it says for seedling stage, all the autos ive grown so far start flowering at week 2 and they dont get much bigger after that, but im growing in soil so dwc or hydro would be quicker and possibly grow them a bit bigger, this is why im crossing autos with none autos that yield and grow well, so far its going ok and get some of the resulting seeds growing, problem is if you cross an auto with a none auto then only 1/4 of the seeds will turn out auto, so then i need to get the strongest male and female thats auto and cross them to get 100% auto seeds.
anyways back to the growth of autos, 1/4 strength nutes is a must, then up it slowly, i did this and managed to go full strength but im not sure if this was the best thing to do, an auto is a ruderalis cross with an indica, now the ruderalis grows in harsh climates, sometimes hot and sometimes freezing cold, so their pretty hardy, they also grow in crappy soil, so this is why they dont like nutes,
so weak nutes to start off with, use veg feed nutes till the plant shows sex, when it shows sex its starting to flower and will flower from that day onwards, i would not do any training as it stunts growth, the only thing id do is remove a few leaves towards the end of flowering to focus the growth on the buds.
i was told they prefer a moist soil which should not dry out to much, i have not tested this theory to much, but letting it dry out did stop growth, im also going to be testing the correct temps for these as ruderalis grows in cool climates as well as hot climates.
as their autos they dont flower due to light schedule, they flower due to age, so you can pretty much use any lighting schedule you like, i was told to go 24-0 as it would not start flowering till it got 1 night of dark, this was wrong info and even under 24-0 it still started to flower at week 2,
so start with 1/4 strength nutes and slowly work it up, use veg nutes till its starts to flower, i have grown autos under 24-0 and 20-4 and it made little difference in the results, but id say its best to give them some night time, so something like 20-4 or 18-6 would be the best option, id go with the 20-4 but its totally up to you as i have not tested enough plants and enough schedules to find out which works best.
as for the nutes your using i cant help with, ive not used them, but if the lucas formula gives different amounts for different stages of growth then go by what it says and just use a 1/4 of what it tells you to use, then you can see how the plant reacts to it, i dont think you will have nute burn at 1/4 strength, i have not had nute burn and start at 1/4 strength then i slowly up the dose and they can then take full strength, the problem is are we slowing growth by giving them to much nutes, their hardy plants and survive on very little in the wild, so im not sure whats best at this stage, till i have grown more autos and done more testing it would be to hard to say what is right and wrong
Lovely young Ladies
