Perpetual autoflower harvest

[Stizz1e]

I'm trying to setup a perpetual harvest out of autos and I have some questions on timing. I have two 32"X32"X5' tents that can fit four three gallon pots each. If I want to harvest once a month how would I stager sprouting plants? for the first round its pretty simple, I'd just start four plants three weeks after my first four plants, but for subsequent grows what do I do? Can I start autos in solo cups and then move them to larger pots? Do I not start all my plants at once ? I'm at a bit of a loss.

 

[SmokingWings]

I do not grow auto-flowers but I have followed many threads on these types of plants. My perpetual photo-period plant growing involved putting one, two or three clones into flower at a time. And each batch was a week to a month behind the previous one.

I could control the number of plants going into the flowering cabinet by controlling their growth during their vegetative stage since they were photo-period. I also found that I could control plant size a whole lot easier than I figure would be possible with autos.

I'm trying to setup a perpetual harvest out of autos and I have some questions on timing.

By perpetual are you thinking of a harvest of 4 plants at a time? Or, are you thinking of a harvest of one plant, maybe two plants, each week or two?

... for the first round its pretty simple, I'd just start four plants three weeks after my first four plants, but for subsequent grows what do I do?

I not sure that is worded right and it might be adding to the confusion over how to pull it off. Anyway, the first round would be planting 4 plants which would be harvested approx 12 to 15 weeks later.

Then the second round would be another 4 plants which will take approx 12 to 15 weeks after seed germination. If the second round is planted 3 weeks after the first round then its harvest window is three weeks after the first. That means that there will be about 9 to 12 weeks before the first round is harvested and space in one of the tents opens up to start a third round.

Auto-flowers do not give the grower anywhere near the options of controlling the time between seed sprouting and harvest.

 

[azton]

If you put a new seed in soil once a month, after 3 months you will approximately harvest one plant every following month. Double for double. Do it every 2 weeks and approximately harvest every 2 weeks. Its more about how large a space you have. Also you want to consider light intensity at different distances, you will have plants at different stages, this might be a problem with space and lifting the smaller plants. Also plant training can help you hold plants relatively low.

This I think is a good concept if you want a steady supply of your herb.

Most autos seem (to my experience) to do quite well on flowering nutesschedule from the start

 

[BigBudsBunny]

I would add to azton's post ...you might want to consider adding more than you want as sometimes in some worlds seeds don't germinate or another problem comes up (cat digs up you seedlings-yep had it happen ONCE) and then you cycle is ruined or at least disturbed or altered. I don't do autoflower's but neighbor shared some seed with me so I might give them a go outside next year as I dont want any problems with my photoperiod. Photoperiods allow you to take more cuttings than needed or want in case of a problem so this doesn't happen. You can just give the extra's away, or throw them out, plant them etc. but your cycle won't be effected that way. If I were doing auto's I would plant more than I need or require to avoid any interruptions. Also with photoperiod cuttings - you know what you have (all fems) no guessing and cuttings are FREE from your mother plant. I would only do auto's to have a constant selection of new herb but then again it may be kind of hard doing a perpetual because different strains will grow at different rates, heights, etc.

good luck - let us know how it works out for ya.

BBB

 

[Stizz1e]

Thanks for the responses everyone! Like I said up top I'll be working with two vivosun 2.5X2.5X5 tents each with their 100 watt vs1000 light. I have a photoperiod grow about to go into flower in one of my tents, and then I'm running a purple experiment with my second tent that I'm going to start roughly three weeks after going 12/12 with my photo period grow. So hopefully that will set me up to harvest the autos about three weeks after the photos finish giving my the second tent back to start another auto run, and if I'm understanding correctly I can stager the starting of plants in the photo tent to get the perpetual up and running.

I would only do auto's to have a constant selection of new herb but then again it may be kind of hard doing a perpetual because different strains will grow at different rates, heights, etc.

That's kind of my goal though, I want to taste the rainbow so to speak. I'm impatient and don't want to wait for photos lol.
My drying space may end up being my bottle neck as I don't really have a dedicated place to dry, and if I use the tent that delays a new grow by a week or so.

 

[BigBudsBunny]

idk how long your photo's flowering time is, but generally if they make week 5 (of a true 8/9 week flowering strain) - no matter what happens (typically) in the second tent they'll finish - so that's the good news. Might night finish to full potential - again depends what happens in tent 2. Again I don't know how close the tents are to each other, but 1 will be lit for at least 18 hours (auto's) and the other for 12 hours. Same room - light leaks? Another thing to consider is your interaction between the 2 tents. If tent 2 had a plant herm you didn't know about and your fussing with it and move to tent 1 to fuss with them - tent 1 is now at risk - but still will finish!

I have 2 tents 3x3 and 5x5 same room, gorilla tents... and still moved the vegging tent to another room because the flowering tent (5x5) had light leaks from the exhaust system. So all I'm saying is you have to be extra careful when playing with your true and tried flowering fems and any new projects you want to begin.

I'm extra careful and keep separate rooms/tent for flowering and vegging. If I were to mix projects like you are doing, I would not intermix them to grow together. I will grow the auto's my neighbor gives me outside away from my inside true and tried flowering fems. I would mess with my fems first if I had to then mess with the autos never in reverse without ever messing with my fems that day again unless i have showered again after that. I don't cut the grass then mess with my plants without showering. I have learned from experience just those little things can ruin your day, room, sometimes life I guess - so just be careful. for example cut the grass once, thought nothing of it, later messed with my plants and lo and behold a few days later I was welcomed with spider mites...No thank you. Be careful is my advise.

BBB

 

[Stizz1e]

my photos are OG Kush from royal queen seeds, my tents are bot going to be in the same room, but its and unfinished basement and they will be on opposite sides of the room. I'm not planning to mix autos in with the photos, I'm going to wait until the photo grow is finished and then put autos into that tent, I'm only really growing photos because I got some freebee seeds and didn't want them to go to waste. I understand what you are saying about light leaks though and will be diligent about looking out for them. My photo grow hit week four of veg on Friday after sprouting on 6/14 and I'll be flipping it this coming Friday so I should have a little bit of time to see if there are any light leaks before the next auto grow really gets started.

 

[BigBudsBunny]

do you feed your autos a veg formula up to the last 3 weeks before switching to a bloom formula or do you start a bloom formula when they show? Ive hear it is best to feed veg formula up to the last 3weeks or so. Have no idea but my neighbor gave me some auto to try and that's what i have read to get the most out of them. I see an experiment coming up....lol

 

[Stizz1e]

I feed my autos veg up to and including the week they show, after that I feed bloom formula. However my last two auto grows are my first experience growing autos, so I don't know if thats the way to do it. I did get three ounces dry out of my first plant though, it was airy bud but I think that has more to do with my light than my feeding habits

 

[azton]

do you feed your autos a veg formula up to the last 3 weeks before switching to a bloom formula or do you start a bloom formula when they show? Ive hear it is best to feed veg formula up to the last 3weeks or so. Have no idea but my neighbor gave me some auto to try and that's what i have read to get the most out of them. I see an experiment coming up....lol

In my experience, autos dont like the basic veg formulas. I start them on week 2 or 3 on what I would open up a bloom with, so a mild PK raise. The autos I have tried so far hasn't seemed to like the higher N of the veg-period at all.

But I do organics. I have also tried a mineral bottle supermix of sorts, just a one part solution, that worked out fine too.

 

[SmokingWings]

I'm impatient and don't want to wait for photos lol.

Why wait?

It is possible to put a photo-period into flowering within 4 to 5 weeks after the seed sprouted. Good lights, soil, fertilizers and a fertilizing schedule and the plant is sexually mature and ready to do. Then 8 to 9 weeks after changing the light schedule it can be harvested. Or, wait another 2 to 4 weeks if a heavy load of amber trichomes is wanted.

Same sort of thing as what will happen with an auto-flower except the auto will do it auto-matically without a need to change the lighting schedule. Nine times out of ten it will auto-matically go into flowering at about 4-5 weeks and be ready for an early harvest in another 8-9 weeks or wait another 3 or 4 for the amber trichomes to develop.

The advantages to photo-period plants is that the grower is pretty much in charge. They can stop the lighting cycle and keep the plant in vegetating stage while taking care of minor issues. Maybe it takes 2 weeks or 4 weeks to get the plant back on track but at the end the harvest should be just as much as if nothing had happened.

The same kind of thing can happen to the auto-flower but the plant will keep on ticking because it is in charge and running the show. When it recovers from whatever the issue was it will be that much closer to a harvest. Most likely the harvest will be smaller because the plant spent resources recovering while the internal clock continued to run.

Every time I think about trying some auto-flower plants I have to also think about not being able to temporarily stall the growth while waiting for an issue to fix itself or while waiting for space to open up in the flowering tent.

 

[azton]

If autos are stressed and stunted in veg, it only seems to push them back a week or two In flower it can cause more problems though.

Just my experience.

 

[Stizz1e]

Why wait?

It is possible to put a photo-period into flowering within 4 to 5 weeks after the seed sprouted. Good lights, soil, fertilizers and a fertilizing schedule and the plant is sexually mature and ready to do. Then 8 to 9 weeks after changing the light schedule it can be harvested. Or, wait another 2 to 4 weeks if a heavy load of amber trichomes is wanted.

Same sort of thing as what will happen with an auto-flower except the auto will do it auto-matically without a need to change the lighting schedule. Nine times out of ten it will auto-matically go into flowering at about 4-5 weeks and be ready for an early harvest in another 8-9 weeks or wait another 3 or 4 for the amber trichomes to develop.

The advantages to photo-period plants is that the grower is pretty much in charge. They can stop the lighting cycle and keep the plant in vegetating stage while taking care of minor issues. Maybe it takes 2 weeks or 4 weeks to get the plant back on track but at the end the harvest should be just as much as if nothing had happened.

The same kind of thing can happen to the auto-flower but the plant will keep on ticking because it is in charge and running the show. When it recovers from whatever the issue was it will be that much closer to a harvest. Most likely the harvest will be smaller because the plant spent resources recovering while the internal clock continued to run.

Every time I think about trying some auto-flower plants I have to also think about not being able to temporarily stall the growth while waiting for an issue to fix itself or while waiting for space to open up in the flowering tent.

I feel like if I'm growing photos it only makes sense to veg them out for a while to make the yields worth it, so it'll end up taking longer than autos. My current photos will have been in seedling/veg for two months before I flip them, autos would have almost been finished in that amount of time. I also don't really want to worry about light leaks which is why I'm going to steer more towards autos

 

[bluter]

autos aren't really a perp type of plant. that's pretty much photo territory for a number of reasons.

simplest way to do it if you have more than one grow space is run the autos in the veg tent which stays on 18/6 permanently and leave the flower space on 12/12 for your photos.

it's how we ran autos on the bigger med grow i used to be involved with.

 

[Stizz1e]

autos aren't really a perp type of plant. that's pretty much photo territory for a number of reasons.

simplest way to do it if you have more than one grow space is run the autos in the veg tent which stays on 18/6 permanently and leave the flower space on 12/12 for your photos.

it's how we ran autos on the bigger med grow i used to be involved with.

Thanks for the response! Yeah after asking it seems like perpetual is probably not the right choice for me since I want to stick with autos, but I think since I have two tents I'll just stagger my grows by 3-4 weeks and then every few months I'll be able to harvest the tents almost back to back, that should give me enough time to clean the newly finished tent and reset while harvesting the second one.

 

[bluter]

Thanks for the response! Yeah after asking it seems like perpetual is probably not the right choice for me since I want to stick with autos, but I think since I have two tents I'll just stagger my grows by 3-4 weeks and then every few months I'll be able to harvest the tents almost back to back, that should give me enough time to clean the newly finished tent and reset while harvesting the second one.

just be aware they won't sync up at all.

autos finish in their time not yours. even autos of the same strain can finish more than a wk or two apart when planted at the same time. it all depends on how strong the pheno is for each seed.

it's partly why photos are used in perps. they are much easier to predict when they are the same strain.

 

[Stizz1e]

from what I've seen/read most autos finish up in like 12 weeks from seed, if they are off by a week or so thats ok with me, I have limited drying space

 

[bluter]

from what I've seen/read most autos finish up in like 12 weeks from seed, if they are off by a week or so thats ok with me, I have limited drying space

not sure you understand.
2 autos of the same strain can easily finish a couple wks apart. so you either chop one too early, or let the other go long and risk a late flower hermie.
if you take the first one that finishes you'll need a separate drying space while you wait for the other.

most folk who grow autos have one growing space and a separate drying space. they just keep feeding the drying area as the plants finish. there's no need to ever change the grow space light schedule from 18/6 that way.

 

[Stizz1e]

not sure you understand.
2 autos of the same strain can easily finish a couple wks apart. so you either chop one too early, or let the other go long and risk a late flower hermie.
if you take the first one that finishes you'll need a separate drying space while you wait for the other.

most folk who grow autos have one growing space and a separate drying space. they just keep feeding the drying area as the plants finish. there's no need to ever change the grow space light schedule from 18/6 that way.

that's good information, thanks! Maybe I'll need to get a dedicated drying tent then

 

[bluter]

that's good information, thanks! Maybe I'll need to get a dedicated drying tent then

a closet or something along those lines would work. i'd avoid spending if possible. not sure where you live but basements often have great conditions for the dry and cure.