Newbie Grower, Carmen Auto x Diva, Outdoors

Emilya said:
No such thing as a stupid question amigo. Generally, it is advised to grow an auto in a 3 gallon container, but if you want to experiment with pruning and training her to be bigger than usual, it can be done, and those folks generally tend to put them into larger containers. You can fit more 3's into a given space, and usually bigger yields happen with more plants, not spending extra time making big plants. The reasons for usually going with 3's are for exactly the reasons that you speculated, its usually going to stay in there for a relatively shorter period of time, unless it is a long running strain.
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Thanks.
I can't wait to go back to photoperiods, but I cannot do that here (but I have to wait until we move, and I am not sure when that is going to be...).

I just purchased some regular autos, and can't wait for them to get here, so I can start making my own seeds.

One of the regular autos is a short 60-75 days-to-harvest Kush that gets maybe half a meter tall, and the others are 3-4 months-to-harvest mixes that get over a meter+ tall.
So I guess I will put the bigger ones in the 5Gs, and I guess I will look for some 3 gallon containers for the short ones.

Hopefully I will learn a lot when we do the autopsies on the root balls after the harvest...
 
Phytoplankton said:
Just wrap the outside of the clear cup with duct tape, that will shield the roots from light.
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@Phytoplankton , that is a great idea!

We have some colored Solo cups coming, but thank you for that. That seems like a great idea.
 
Azimuth said:
Or slide them into the same size, but opaque, version of the same cup.
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Thanks, Azimuth.
Yes, we ordered some colored cups, so hopefully they will be here soon.
(And I hope I can re-use the cups.)
 
Phytoplankton said:
Duct tape is a quick fix in case he didn't have opaque cups. I use the 4 inch opaque nursery pots you get when buying starter veggies and herbs.
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Thanks, @Phytoplankton.
We ordered some colored Solo cups off of the internet, and hope they will be here soon.
I am hoping we can re-use the Solo cups (as I don't like to make unecessary waste).

I ordered some up-pots from China maybe a month ago, and they did not get here yet.
I went to the local nursery to find something that looks like a 1 gallon pot for when the girls outgrow the Solo cups (which I think @Emilya said is when it drains the water every 1-2 days, if I got that right).
I found some pots that look ok. Not perfect, but they should work.

I wish they had the little 4" cups here. They use plastic bags for everything.
 
el gringuito said:
(which I think @Emilya said is when it drains the water every 1-2 days, if I got that right).
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yep, the very first time they do it. If you ignore it hoping for even faster or don't notice it, they will slow down for a couple of watering cycles because the roots hit the point of diminishing returns. My young plants just hit that point today... pictures coming soon. These are some strong and aggressive plants.
 
el gringuito said:
Thanks.
I can't wait to go back to photoperiods, but I cannot do that here (but I have to wait until we move, and I am not sure when that is going to be...).

I just purchased some regular autos, and can't wait for them to get here, so I can start making my own seeds.

One of the regular autos is a short 60-75 days-to-harvest Kush that gets maybe half a meter tall, and the others are 3-4 months-to-harvest mixes that get over a meter+ tall.
So I guess I will put the bigger ones in the 5Gs, and I guess I will look for some 3 gallon containers for the short ones.

Hopefully I will learn a lot when we do the autopsies on the root balls after the harvest...
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This sounds like a fun project. Try to study your Kush plants and save some seeds to breed back to, and do what you can to end up with some F2 seeds that regularly produce the short Kushy plants you desire. Find that trait that comes from the mamma kush, that will identify an offspring as leaning toward her lineage. You are on the road to another whole subhobby of this thing that we do... breeding the perfect plant.
 
Well, I don't want to get too far ahead, but yes, the brreding-the-perfect-plant part sounds like fun!
I am (very) excited about that part (when we get to it)!

They allow 20 plants here, so I thought I could do autos on my roof until I can get relocated--and then after I move (whenever that is), hopefully I can switch back to photoperiods.
But in the meantime, I thought making my own auto seeds would be fun.

I started out at first with a colloidal silver generator, and I sprayed my best-looking female (Auto Blue Ace) with some 40-50 ppm colloidal silver, and she started looking all blotchy and sick.
So I don't know if the colloidal silver stresses the girls or what, but she did not look happy!
Anyway, after she started making pollen, then I had problems because they say that moisture kills the pollen.
So, how do you drench the buds in colloidal silver when you cannot get the flowers wet, or you kill the pollen???
So after some thought I abandoned that project, and thought I would look for some regular 1:1 auto seeds, instead.

When the seeds get here, I thought I would sex the seeds by inspecting the umbilical connections (round = female, long = male), and then plant maybe two males and two females of the Kush (unless the Blueberry gets here first), and then let them make lots of seeds (so I have lots).
And for fun I thought I would plant two seeds of all the other 1:1's I have in the same grow, so they can all make 1:1 seeds with different flavors (and then I can see what I like).
Only, if all of the males and females in the grow are 1:1 (or so), but they are all different strains, then are the seeds still likely to come out about 1:1?
Or will they be all over the road (unless and until they are back-bred)?

And then if I understand what you are saying, I should back-breed some of the seeds from the 1:1 crosses with some of the original Kush auto 1:1 seeds?
And then compare the phenotypes with the Mama Kush?
And so I should look for a daughter-Kush that looks just like her mama, and then breed the two of them together, to get an F2 Kush?
(Eek! I am not really 100% sure what "F2 Kush" means--but does it mean a Kush plant that is stable as a Kush, and yet carries a little bit of the genetics of the plant it was crossed with?)

And does it matter which one is the mama, and which one is the daddy?
Meaning, should the Kush be the mama both times?
Or is it the same if the Kush is a daddy?
I can sense there is something important here, but I am not real sure what.

Just to comment, I really would not mind if the Kush was bigger (or even if it takes a little longer), but I do want to maintain +/- 1:1 CBD:THC, if I can.
Thank you.
 
Emilya said:
yep, the very first time they do it. If you ignore it hoping for even faster or don't notice it, they will slow down for a couple of watering cycles because the roots hit the point of diminishing returns. My young plants just hit that point today... pictures coming soon. These are some strong and aggressive plants.
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Cool.
Thank you, Em.
I will look forward to the pictures.
I will start checking back on your Coffee Shop Perpetual Grow as soon as I can get things settled down here.
Thanks so much for getting me straightened out!
(Eek!! Is it really almost as simple as "wet, then dry, and repeat"??)
 
Sueet said:
Is this true? Can you post pictures to clarify the difference between 'round' and 'long' ?
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Hi @Sueet .
Ummm........... I am still kind of a newbie grower, but I think it is true.
Al least, it has been my experience that it is true.
I would post some pictures, but all I have some regular autos on the way, but all I have at the moment are feminized seeds.
When I first started growing (2016? 2017?) I saw a web page online that said the females have an attachment (umbilical) point that is either round or oval, where as the males have an attachment (umbilical) point that is longer, or elliptical, maybe like a slit.
Back then I was only interested in photoperiod female seeds, but I did order a batch of SubCool's seeds (Jesus, and I forget what else), and I sexed them that way, and I got all females.
(And it was about half the seeds.)

I did a quick internet search trying to find that article, and I found another article that said that article was a fraud???
I dunno, I don't want to say the wrong thing, but when I sexed them, it was about 50%-50%, and everything came up female.
When I get my regulars in I will be happy to do some trial batches, but that will be at least 2 more months, because the seeds are not here yet, and I am just starting a new round.
But if you can wait a few months, I will post it again.

I hope I am not spreading misinformation, but do you have regular seeds, and you could post pictures of the attachment holes? (Only, probably the difference will be pretty obvious.)
 
Is it ok to post links?

I just read another article that says this article is a fraud, but it worked for me with two small batches of SubCool's seeds (Jesus OG and I forget the other one).

I have to go, but I hope to be back in the afternoon.
I hope this is helpful, and not bad information.


Sexing-cannabis-seeds-chart.jpg
 
I saw that article a few years ago and it has seemed to hold more or less true for me. I've found not all that many seeds are clearly definitive, though, at least for me. But the ones that have the clean, round volcano shape have turned out more female than male for me over time.

Also, I've read that your germinating environment can help determine sex, as anything outside the ideal zone is more likely to turn out a higher percentage of males. That would suggest the sex is not predetermined in the seed itself but maybe it "leans" more one way.

But I don't know if that's true. I haven't seen any research on the subject. I will say that I have had way more female plants than I should have if it were truly a 50/50 deal, but it's a relatively small sample size so could completely be luck.

 
Yeah, when I was looking for the link, I read another article this morning that said it was more like 30-50% males, depending.
I also saw something that agreed with what you said about the environment playing a major factor. I wish I had taken an extra minute to read what the factors were.
Just as an anecdote, I also recall I did plant a seed that was kind of questionable as to whether it was truly round, or not, and it did have a few male flowers.
So I don't know if it works 100%, but I had it work 100% on my two small samples (I think of 7 seeds each, but I am not sure).
If my auto regulars get here before the next grow I can run an experiment. (And hopefully they will get here soon, but with Colombia, you never know, haha.)
 
Does anyone know what the factors are? Is it just a stable growing environment?
I think I read that if the growing environment is not stable, or get stressed, then the plants tend to go hermaphrodite more often than normal. Which would seem to make sense.
I think the colloidal silver stresses the plant, which makes it throw male flowers. It kind of seems like it wants to be a female (and make seeds) but if you stress it, it will tend to go male on you, trying to reproduce any way it can.
Or I dunno. Maybe I am just stoned? Haha.
 
Sueet said:
Is this true? Can you post pictures to clarify the difference between 'round' and 'long' ?
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they're all over the internet and this forum. just search sexing plants.
 
This is something I have never investigated in my garden. I am going to look in my seed collections and see what I can come up with, and in one of my monthly starts I will be intending to start 12 plants to get down to 6 females. Let's see what the odds look like when I use this sexing method. If I come out at 70% or better female, I will definitely be looking further into it. Something has kept that thing circulating around the internet all these years, so someone must believe in it.
 
Emilya said:
This is something I have never investigated in my garden. I am going to look in my seed collections and see what I can come up with, and in one of my monthly starts I will be intending to start 12 plants to get down to 6 females. Let's see what the odds look like when I use this sexing method. If I come out at 70% or better female, I will definitely be looking further into it. Something has kept that thing circulating around the internet all these years, so someone must believe in it.
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it's been around in print since at least the 70's. you heard more about it before there was fem seeds. i kinda remember it being a bit more specific to sativas.
 
Thanks for the info. I have just recently purchased some 'regular' cbd seeds, so it will be great if I can know that I have a lady from the get-go. Well, and I guess being able to grow a male at will would also be a good option to have available. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!
 
Sueet said:
Thanks for the info. I have just recently purchased some 'regular' cbd seeds, so it will be great if I can know that I have a lady from the get-go. Well, and I guess being able to grow a male at will would also be a good option to have available. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!
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Glad to share.
 
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