Jon's First Outdoor Grow: Sugar Breath Photoperiod & Strawberry Banana Autoflower

[7Dust2]

Most of Mephisto’s auto flowers have relatively the same time frame - and since they’re autos, theres no way to veg them for a certain amount of time and then flip them … they do it on their own

Really. I never changed anything on autos. I veg about 35-40 & sometimes 60 days then straight to flowering . I have few autos but I cropped them and LST training and keep them same light schedule. As always. Couldn't tell difference between auto and regular plant . But I never just let one grow and not change the light.. I start in same tent. Them move to flowering . Cause I want more than just growing straight up and not making more stems to get more nugs . I want most I can.

 

[cjsbabygirl313]

Really. I never changed anything on autos. I veg about 35-40 & sometimes 60 days then straight to flowering . I have few autos but I cropped them and LST training and keep them same light schedule. As always. Couldn't tell difference between auto and regular plant . But I never just let one grow and not change the light.. I start in same tent. Them move to flowering . Cause I want more than just growing straight up and not making more stems to get more nugs . I want most I can.

Mine stays in same tent, under same light with the same light schedule throughout the grow (only difference in lighting would be height and intensity)

 

[Jon]

Wow, lot's of discussion spawned by your questions, @BubbaKush909. Nice. I'll take my shot.

Seems you're asking about two things basically, when to harvest and how much light per day to give them.

On When to Harvest: For me, I will almost always, auto or photo, defer to my trichomes and go basically by them, harvesting when I have the amount of amber I want. My suggestion, on autos or photos, is to forget about what any of the seed sellers say about harvest times, other than having it in the back of your mind as a rough (VERY rough) estimate. The style of growing, latitude you're at, environment, amount of light, quality of light, nutes, etc....there are a million factors that determine when a plant is ready. In my experience, RARELY does a plant finish when the seller says it will. If I'm growing outside, I may go a bit less by trichomes just cuz in my very limited outdoor experience I found trichomes were less accurate an indicator than they were under LED in a tent grow. But trichomes will always be my first indicator. After that I go by the "look" and "feel" of the buds. Are there white hairs popping everywhere? Not ready. Are the red hairs all sticking up and not yet curled into the bud? Not ready. Are they still dense-ing up? Not ready. Etc.

So I use kind of a combination of those two, trichomes and observation. Example: right now the Strawberry Lemonade is done. All her trichomes are almost all white. I could take her tomorrow and likely pluck her right near the peak THC production, which is all white, no amber. But that's a bit too "coke-weed" for me, I like to go 10-20% amber. This plant is less than 1% amber. But she "looks" ready. It's an indoor tent grow under LED, I am deferring to her trichomes. If I went by observation alone I'd have harvested her and taken her way too early.

The other thing about autos in particular I've noticed is that they often will get a second wind right when you think they are getting done. Like, the next day you go out and suddenly they're covered with white pistils AGAIN. That seems to happen frequently if you don't take them too early. Autos and this "they're done so much faster" thing is largely bullshit truth be told. If you veg a photo for a month then flip it it takes the same amount of time as an auto.

And no, autos do not flower faster, they flower in normal time frames in my experience. The speed is all in veg.

On Light Amount: First, lemme clear this up for sure: YOU DO NOT CHANGE YOUR LIGHT HOURS ON AUTOS TO INDUCE FLOWERING. This is the single biggest difference between autos and photos. If you ae going down to 12/12 on autos to promote harvesting, no wonder you're having issues.

As far as how much per day, I've tried 18/6 with autos, 24/0, and 20/4. My opinion: 18/6 is too much rest, you are depriving them of light hours when they can be productive. 24/0 also doesn't work (generally, does with some strains and I suppose for some people, but I would argue they'd do better otherwise). Maybe you can go 24/0 until you start to see pistils and preflowers, but from that point forward the plant needs rest daily. SOME amount. For me I've found that 20/4 works best, and I run them that way start to finish every time.

That's my experience. Hope that's helpful.

 

[7Dust2]

Wow, lot's of discussion spawned by your questions, @BubbaKush909. Nice. I'll take my shot.

Seems you're asking about two things basically, when to harvest and how much light per day to give them.

On When to Harvest: For me, I will almost always, auto or photo, defer to my trichomes and go basically by them, harvesting when I have the amount of amber I want. My suggestion, on autos or photos, is to forget about what any of the seed sellers say about harvest times, other than having it in the back of your mind as a rough (VERY rough) estimate. The style of growing, latitude you're at, environment, amount of light, quality of light, nutes, etc....there are a million factors that determine when a plant is ready. In my experience, RARELY does a plant finish when the seller says it will. If I'm growing outside, I may go a bit less by trichomes just cuz in my very limited outdoor experience I found trichomes were less accurate an indicator than they were under LED in a tent grow. But trichomes will always be my first indicator. After that I go by the "look" and "feel" of the buds. Are there white hairs popping everywhere? Not ready. Are the red hairs all sticking up and not yet curled into the bud? Not ready. Are they still dense-ing up? Not ready. Etc.

So I use kind of a combination of those two, trichomes and observation. Example: right now the Strawberry Lemonade is done. All her trichomes are almost all white. I could take her tomorrow and likely pluck her right near the peak THC production, which is all white, no amber. But that's a bit too "coke-weed" for me, I like to go 10-20% amber. This plant is less than 1% amber. But she "looks" ready. It's an indoor tent grow under LED, I am deferring to her trichomes. If I went by observation alone I'd have harvested her and taken her way too early.

The other thing about autos in particular I've noticed is that they often will get a second wind right when you think they are getting done. Like, the next day you go out and suddenly they're covered with white pistils AGAIN. That seems to happen frequently if you don't take them too early. Autos and this "they're done so much faster" thing is largely bullshit truth be told. If you veg a photo for a month then flip it it takes the same amount of time as an auto.

And no, autos do not flower faster, they flower in normal time frames in my experience. The speed is all in veg.

On Light Amount: First, lemme clear this up for sure: YOU DO NOT CHANGE YOUR LIGHT HOURS ON AUTOS TO INDUCE FLOWERING. This is the single biggest difference between autos and photos. If you ae going down to 12/12 on autos to promote harvesting, no wonder you're having issues.

As far as how much per day, I've tried 18/6 with autos, 24/0, and 20/4. My opinion: 18/6 is too much rest, you are depriving them of light hours when they can be productive. 24/0 also doesn't work (generally, does with some strains and I suppose for some people, but I would argue they'd do better otherwise). Maybe you can go 24/0 until you start to see pistils and preflowers, but from that point forward the plant needs rest daily. SOME amount. For me I've found that 20/4 works best, and I run them that way start to finish every time.

That's my experience. Hope that's helpful.

I second what jon said . I'm running. 22/2 right now. I believe in rest also. Autos idk. Never pay that much attention and never really had bunch autos.. I particularly like the regular ones. So I can get more

 

[Jon]

Oh, I'll add one other idea for you, @BubbaKush909 - on nutes and feeding schedule with autos. Whether you're using Fox Farms, Canna, Blue Planet, Prescription Blend, or any other type of nute, whether it is chemical or organic - you should be able to find and download an AUTO feeding chart for said nute. I know Canna has one cuz I'm looking at it. Geo and PB also mention how to handle autos in their instructions. Fox Farms would be the exception. So how do you know when a week is for autos? Shouldn't it be shorter if they finish faster?

This is true enough times that what I do is think of an auto week as 5 days. A photo week is 7 days. So if I want to adapt a feed chart of a nute to auto time, all I do is consider the week 5 days and go to the next week of the chart on the sixth day.

I have had good success with that approach.

 

[BubbaKush909]

I'm thinking same as you Jon, 8-10 weeks of flower with autos sounds much more like it. I don't like coke weed either and that's what I keep getting. Since I've got that water only soil, I only supplement with calmag and tea and I'll continue with them both until I think I'm getting really close. I won't change the lights this grow but next time I'll try 20-4 and see how that works. I'm very pleased with the results so far, especially the wedding cake & gelato autos. They're going to be big yielders and smell amazing. Thanks to everyone else who answered I really appreciate it!

 

[7Dust2]

I'm thinking same as you Jon, 8-10 weeks of flower with autos sounds much more like it. I don't like coke weed either and that's what I keep getting. Since I've got that water only soil, I only supplement with calmag and tea and I'll continue with them both until I think I'm getting really close. I won't change the lights this grow but next time I'll try 20-4 and see how that works. I'm very pleased with the results so far, especially the wedding cake & gelato autos. They're going to be big yielders and smell amazing. Thanks to everyone else who answered I really appreciate it!

Sure hope my getalos are not auto . They need to kick it in but if they are. Cause 12 days they not even 5 inches tall so compact not even funny.

 

[7Dust2]

Can you convert auto or vice versa from reg to auto or auto to reg. How they make an auto plant. What how . They make them or whatever they do

 

[Jon]

Can you convert auto or vice versa from reg to auto or auto to reg. How they make an auto plant. What how . They make them or whatever they do

Hey 7Dust2. No, you can't convert an auto to a reg or vice versa. An autoflower is basically some strain of photoperiod weed crossed with a strain called Ruderalis, which grows naturally in a place where light is constant pretty much. So for whatever reasons, the result of crossing photo weed with Ruderalis is you get an autoflower. It's called AUTOflower because it begins to flower when it wants to, regardless of light cycle or anything else. You can't stop it, you can't change it, you can't delay it, you can't speed it up. It will begin to flower between say 24-35 days usually. From there it flowers normally. The other result of the cross of photo and Ruderalis is that the plants generally are smaller than photos, and less potent, ie, a photo Blueberry will be higher THC than an auto Blueberry, and the auto will be smaller.

That's as brief a primer on autos as I can provide. These are fairly basic questions, you might do well to check out some standard fare on these questions, there's actually decent information out there everywhere on what autos actually ARE. The info on growing them is iffy at best and largely b.s. When you get to wondering why they tell you to grow autos in threes or you're wasting soil that won't get used, spit on that website and come here and I'll help set you straight on auto myths. I love doing that, there are many of them and they ruin people's grows.

 

[Jon]

CJS Apple Blossom
Grow Day 68
Flower/Stretch Day 8

This girl is simply kicking ass all over this tent. I feel something special in this one, and I believe that is the first time I have ever said or felt that. Just a feeling, but between how she's growing, how she's staying effortlessly even in her site growth/production, and the fact that there's not one slight blemish on one leaf of this plant (thank you @Prescription Blend nutrients!) and her color is perfect - I'm just feeling it with this one.

Today we can see that by tomorrow or Saturday we will have budlets! Let's see what she's got in flower.

Here's her overhead canopy shot and side shot from this morning. The last picture is what a bud looks like in the womb a few days before delivery. Our girl woke up strong today. Also, my expensive chair is getting it's bad motor replaced today, which will return me to "able to raise up" status (yay!). I apologize for the same crappy angle on this plant in every picture update, that ends today.

 

[StoneOtter]

I'm feeling it too! That Apple Blossom's looking sweet!

 

[Jon]

Cocotown
Blueberry
Flower Day 55

I'll be the first to admit that I've gotten fairly lucky this entire extended 19 plant grow. Other than a bit of loss to bud rot and a few branches to seed plus just one plant that went true hermie on me, it's been pretty successful and definitely pretty lucky. I didn't get bug problems, for example. Maybe cuz that is a seasonal thing, but I had no idea, nor any idea what I would do if such a problem presented itself. Dumb luck. Same with various forms of other crap I don't want, like white mildew or thrips or whatever. Dumb luck. I did nothing to prevent any of these things. Lol.

And now it appears my luck is going to continue, if you think this is lucky. It works out nicely for me. It seems the Blueberry and the Strawberry Lemonade are both at almost the exact same point. I believe I can take them at the same time, and hang both plants in the same night. Sometime in the neighborhood of a couple days from now. This is lucky cuz I find it easier to monitor two drying times (these and the Dos Si Dos) rather than three (if all three finished at different times). Sounds like a small thing but not all luck is gigantic. You need some consistent "little luck" too. At least I do. Heh. I find finishing times is always a crapshoot with multiple strains in a tent grow, no matter how much you might try to pick strains that'll finish in the same time frame or whatever. Of course all three finishing together was too much to ask, lol. The Dos Si Dos will get to dry in the tent all by her lonesome. The BB and SL will have to be a house dry, which I like actually. I should get 7 or 8 days out of them. Dense buds, gonna take a while to dry.

So here's some Blueberry trichomes and Blueberry buds. Noteworthy of the buds is that not one of these is one of the three gigantic cola buds, they are all lower buds. Holy productivity Batman! What a strain. World famous and multiple cup wins for a reason. Damn.

Enjoy!!

 

[StoneOtter]

Gorgeous Jon!

 

[cjsbabygirl313]

CJS Apple Blossom
Grow Day 68
Flower/Stretch Day 8

This girl is simply kicking ass all over this tent. I feel something special in this one, and I believe that is the first time I have ever said or felt that. Just a feeling, but between how she's growing, how she's staying effortlessly even in her site growth/production, and the fact that there's not one slight blemish on one leaf of this plant (thank you @Prescription Blend nutrients!) and her color is perfect - I'm just feeling it with this one.

Today we can see that by tomorrow or Saturday we will have budlets! Let's see what she's got in flower.

Here's her overhead canopy shot and side shot from this morning. The last picture is what a bud looks like in the womb a few days before delivery. Our girl woke up strong today. Also, my expensive chair is getting it's bad motor replaced today, which will return me to "able to raise up" status (yay!). I apologize for the same crappy angle on this plant in every picture update, that ends today.

Boy is she a beaut! And yeah, those nutes look like they’re giving her the best possible life!

Glad to hear your chair is getting fixed! Wish my sis could have one that she could stand in - would make it so much easier to do her job!

 

[Jon]

Boy is she a beaut! And yeah, those nutes look like they’re giving her the best possible life!

Glad to hear your chair is getting fixed! Wish my sis could have one that she could stand in - would make it so much easier to do her job!

Thanks! Yeah, if only I could afford a sit to stand, but they're WAY expensive. This one raises me enough and has enough other movement functionality that I can be fully independent. Have to wait on my dream of playing my bass standing up again until I can afford a sit to stand. They're the holy grail.

 

[Bill284]

Cocotown
Blueberry
Flower Day 55

I'll be the first to admit that I've gotten fairly lucky this entire extended 19 plant grow. Other than a bit of loss to bud rot and a few branches to seed plus just one plant that went true hermie on me, it's been pretty successful and definitely pretty lucky. I didn't get bug problems, for example. Maybe cuz that is a seasonal thing, but I had no idea, nor any idea what I would do if such a problem presented itself. Dumb luck. Same with various forms of other crap I don't want, like white mildew or thrips or whatever. Dumb luck. I did nothing to prevent any of these things. Lol.

And now it appears my luck is going to continue, if you think this is lucky. It works out nicely for me. It seems the Blueberry and the Strawberry Lemonade are both at almost the exact same point. I believe I can take them at the same time, and hang both plants in the same night. Sometime in the neighborhood of a couple days from now. This is lucky cuz I find it easier to monitor two drying times (these and the Dos Si Dos) rather than three (if all three finished at different times). Sounds like a small thing but not all luck is gigantic. You need some consistent "little luck" too. At least I do. Heh. I find finishing times is always a crapshoot with multiple strains in a tent grow, no matter how much you might try to pick strains that'll finish in the same time frame or whatever. Of course all three finishing together was too much to ask, lol. The Dos Si Dos will get to dry in the tent all by her lonesome. The BB and SL will have to be a house dry, which I like actually. I should get 7 or 8 days out of them. Dense buds, gonna take a while to dry.

So here's some Blueberry trichomes and Blueberry buds. Noteworthy of the buds is that not one of these is one of the three gigantic cola buds, they are all lower buds. Holy productivity Batman! What a strain. World famous and multiple cup wins for a reason. Damn.

Enjoy!!

Good morning Mucker.
Cocotown is lovely as usual.
Back to your topic, I find the harder I work the luckier I am.
Nice work.

Stay safe
Bill

 

[Jon]

Good morning Mucker.
Cocotown is lovely as usual.
Back to your topic, I find the harder I work the luckier I am.
Nice work.

Stay safe
Bill

That's the single best response to the topic there can possibly be. I completely, 100% agree. Luck is directly proportional to work put in.

 

[Kanno26]

Wow, lot's of discussion spawned by your questions, @BubbaKush909. Nice. I'll take my shot.

Seems you're asking about two things basically, when to harvest and how much light per day to give them.

On When to Harvest: For me, I will almost always, auto or photo, defer to my trichomes and go basically by them, harvesting when I have the amount of amber I want. My suggestion, on autos or photos, is to forget about what any of the seed sellers say about harvest times, other than having it in the back of your mind as a rough (VERY rough) estimate. The style of growing, latitude you're at, environment, amount of light, quality of light, nutes, etc....there are a million factors that determine when a plant is ready. In my experience, RARELY does a plant finish when the seller says it will. If I'm growing outside, I may go a bit less by trichomes just cuz in my very limited outdoor experience I found trichomes were less accurate an indicator than they were under LED in a tent grow. But trichomes will always be my first indicator. After that I go by the "look" and "feel" of the buds. Are there white hairs popping everywhere? Not ready. Are the red hairs all sticking up and not yet curled into the bud? Not ready. Are they still dense-ing up? Not ready. Etc.

So I use kind of a combination of those two, trichomes and observation. Example: right now the Strawberry Lemonade is done. All her trichomes are almost all white. I could take her tomorrow and likely pluck her right near the peak THC production, which is all white, no amber. But that's a bit too "coke-weed" for me, I like to go 10-20% amber. This plant is less than 1% amber. But she "looks" ready. It's an indoor tent grow under LED, I am deferring to her trichomes. If I went by observation alone I'd have harvested her and taken her way too early.

The other thing about autos in particular I've noticed is that they often will get a second wind right when you think they are getting done. Like, the next day you go out and suddenly they're covered with white pistils AGAIN. That seems to happen frequently if you don't take them too early. Autos and this "they're done so much faster" thing is largely bullshit truth be told. If you veg a photo for a month then flip it it takes the same amount of time as an auto.

And no, autos do not flower faster, they flower in normal time frames in my experience. The speed is all in veg.

On Light Amount: First, lemme clear this up for sure: YOU DO NOT CHANGE YOUR LIGHT HOURS ON AUTOS TO INDUCE FLOWERING. This is the single biggest difference between autos and photos. If you ae going down to 12/12 on autos to promote harvesting, no wonder you're having issues.

As far as how much per day, I've tried 18/6 with autos, 24/0, and 20/4. My opinion: 18/6 is too much rest, you are depriving them of light hours when they can be productive. 24/0 also doesn't work (generally, does with some strains and I suppose for some people, but I would argue they'd do better otherwise). Maybe you can go 24/0 until you start to see pistils and preflowers, but from that point forward the plant needs rest daily. SOME amount. For me I've found that 20/4 works best, and I run them that way start to finish every time.

That's my experience. Hope that's helpful.

Hi @Jon, how are you? I'm done and that's how my Hulkberry turned out

 

[Jon]

Hi @Jon, how are you? I'm done and that's how my Hulkberry turned out

Hey @Kanno26, well look at you! Great job! Look at those trichs! She looks to be reasonably dense too. Also looks like you plucked her at the right time, nice, mature looking bud. How's it taste? Mine is a bit on the spicy side and smells kind of like sweet tea leaves. Very balanced buzz. Very high yield. How'd you do on yield?

 

[Kanno26]

Hey @Kanno26, well look at you! Great job! Look at those trichs! She looks to be reasonably dense too. Also looks like you plucked her at the right time, nice, mature looking bud. How's it taste? Mine is a bit on the spicy side and smells kind of like sweet tea leaves. Very balanced buzz. Very high yield. How'd you do on yield?

Thanks to @Jon, excellent in taste and very strong, even that taste is so dense and slightly fruity. The yield of net was about 450g and 140g cut on some hash or would you recommend something else from that cut? Now I have thrown six Critical seeds from royal Queen seads. And I have one more question, how do you clean the tent and equipment after the harvest? Thanks