Beateo's Winter 2015 Multi-Strain Indoor CFL Grow in Soil

[superskunk61]

i used to do autos.its debatable wether or not to fim/or top them becaue there lifes on a timer,i never have tyopped but did lst them,got great resultsss61

 

[Green Dreamz]

Happy SkunkDaze Brother Beateo......damn if them girls arent the perfect example of happy healthy girls...great job you are doing my friend.......i actually had something i wanted to tell you and have forgotten while i was typing....so i keep typing hoping.....there it is......i wanted to agree with Major Pita.....that AK....is glowing with positive energy.....ok...brother i will catch you later

 

[PlanetJ]

They are looking great, a pleasure to watch

 

[Beateo]

superskunk61, I live in Pennsylvania bro.... curious...what made you think I live in the south?

beateo u live in the south,so do i,im in florida u anywheres by.ss61

Happy to have you along!

im subscribed for the 420 ride bross61

This is my first go with the autos.... I'm afraid to do much of anything in the way of snipping... I have trimmed off a few bottom fan leaves that will never grow a bud and are shaded enough by leaves higher up that I doubt they did much for the plant... so off they came!
That is about all I've done with the AK's so far.

i used to do autos.its debatable wether or not to fim/or top them becaue there lifes on a timer,i never have tyopped but did lst them,got great resultsss61

Green Dreamz, Thank you sir! I can't think of anything I'm doing any different so.... yeah... positive energy must be it! Take care my friend and have a happy SkunkDaze yourself!

Happy SkunkDaze Brother Beateo......damn if them girls arent the perfect example of happy healthy girls...great job you are doing my friend.......i actually had something i wanted to tell you and have forgotten while i was typing....so i keep typing hoping.....there it is......i wanted to agree with Major Pita.....that AK....is glowing with positive energy.....ok...brother i will catch you later

 

[Beateo]

Forgot to mention... I made a 4th wall to close my grow in completely with mylar. This is only a trial. If the new layout proves to be too cumbersome, I'll go back to the single cardboard addition. Also, and this just amazes me, I had to raise my lights THREE times yesterday because of how fast the AK autos are growing! (It would be nice if those clamp on hoods had more adjustment) Is this growth typical with autos? I'm also considering ignoring the humidity until they flower... It stays between about high 20's to low 40's if I do nothing. If I use the humidifier, I have to turn it on and off too many times to try to keep the level in one area (considering a timer for it).... I was trying for between 45 and 55% but it's proving to be a pain in the butt. Room temperature has been staying between low 70'sF lights off to about mid 80's with lights on. I'm trying to keep it right about 80F. They've been getting thirsty about every 4 days and I'm using half nutes. I'm thinking of starting full strength nutes next feeding.... Thursday or Friday. There was an early issue with a few of those gnats I had last grow.... this time I got rid of them with H2O2 and the pest strips. Haven't seen one since the first week. I haven't seen any issue with color, curling, spots, etc... To my untrained eye, it all looks good.
Thanks in no small part to all of you... I'm having a stress free blast this time around!

 

[Beateo]

When I checked this morning I found my AK's had grown into the lights and got burned over the 6 hours in darkness! Those girls had to grow almost 2 inches in that short time. I'm at a lost what to do about this? I'll guess I have to raise them last thing I do before light out.
They're autos and if they continue to grow at this rate I'll have to separate them from the others because I don't have that much adjustment.

 

[Major PITA]

Can you LST them?

 

[Stealthboat]

I'd be prepared to separate them, just in case. Hope the burn wasn't too bad

 

[Beateo]

Major.... Should I lst autos?
Stealth.... I don't think it burned too bad? It's still growing!

Here is a photo of an alteration I did on one of my extra CFL hoods. All I used was a vise and a pair of lineman's pliers and re-bent the clamp spring. It gives almost 2 extra inches of adjustment!

Any other ideas??

 

[Major PITA]

Hey man - I wish I could tell you for sure. I'm too new to offer great advice, I'm afraid. But since you aren't topping them, or changing their nodes, it seems like spreading them out and down wouldn't affect their flowering. It would just help manage their height and maybe open them up to more light.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

[Beateo]

Major,
I think I'm going to tie those girls down tomorrow. You're right.... bending them shouldn't change anything except their height....
I think? I hope. I don't know?? lol

Hey man - I wish I could tell you for sure. I'm too new to offer great advice, I'm afraid. But since you aren't topping them, or changing their nodes, it seems like spreading them out and down wouldn't affect their flowering. It would just help manage their height and maybe open them up to more light.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

[Green Dreamz]

Happy MunchDaze my friend..........Major Pita is correct with LST on autos for the most part.....i have had a couple of autos that jsut didnt like being tied down at all....they jsut wnated to grow naturally.....but for the most part they all have responded well and if you pull it down enough it will trick the other bud sites into growing vertical......off hand i cant remember how tall yours are but i am growing a auto berry ryder right now that i topped and LSTd.......i topped because of Beemerbill's success with topping autos.......have a look at my berry ryder from yesterdays photo update and you can see how far i have tied her down.....the buds on the main branches have started vertical growth and are meeting up with the 4 mains....i topped mine to early i think but still am very happy with growth since....didnt slow anything down much in my opinion.......if they are flexible enough you can even tie the top and pull it over slowly over a couple of days and just everyday pull it down level again as it will turn back up to the light pretty quick.......i wouldnt worry too much about the burn......when i grew with t5s we left for a couple of days....came back they were grown up into the lights.....the tops of all the colas burned but started growing kind of around it......i ended up cutting the affected tops off.....not the tips on all of them....some were on the sides of the cola....so i just cut that part off and it continued to grow.....have a good evening bro

 

[Ranger275]

Can't you just do more of what you did before? Raise the light bar and the shorter plants to even things out. It worked last time.

 

[BubbaHoTep]

Anyway you can make the entire light bar more mobile? Like put it on a pulley/winch system of sorts?

I'm growing in a cab with notches so I can move my entire bar up and down in roughly 1 inch increments. It's working for me so far, but if I get a plant that wants to grow any taller than 46", I'm pretty much bonked! lol

Or, you know, you could just try and train them. Which is probably the far simpler approach.

 

[Beateo]

Green Dreamz, I'm going to LST both of the autos in the morning. I'm not going to do any topping on the autos this grow. They're roughly a foot tall right now.

Happy MunchDaze my friend..........Major Pita is correct with LST on autos for the most part.....i have had a couple of autos that jsut didnt like being tied down at all....they jsut wnated to grow naturally.....but for the most part they all have responded well and if you pull it down enough it will trick the other bud sites into growing vertical......off hand i cant remember how tall yours are...

Ranger, if you're referring to my first grow, that light bar was only half as big and I only had 3 plants under it... had to pull the one and grow it separate because of the size difference. I cut plenty of slats so I can raise them... it's just that it's a pain in the ass and I'm really lazy. lol Really, I think my next grow I'm going to pick a strain and grow 6 or 8 of the same plants.

Can't you just do more of what you did before? Raise the light bar and the shorter plants to even things out. It worked last time.

Bubba, My light bar does move. It's on four chains that I can pretty much move in as small of increments as I want. Takes a few minutes to get it all just right but not any problem.... the problem is the damn strains growing at such different rates.... my light bar would be on a severe slant if I didn't raise up the shorter ones. Height isn't a problem... I can go to the ceiling minus the light bar.... the problem is when two plants out of 7 are growing WAY faster than the other 5.

Anyway you can make the entire light bar more mobile? Like put it on a pulley/winch system of sorts?

I'm growing in a cab with notches so I can move my entire bar up and down in roughly 1 inch increments. It's working for me so far, but if I get a plant that wants to grow any taller than 46", I'm pretty much bonked! lol

Or, you know, you could just try and train them. Which is probably the far simpler approach.

Thanks all for the input.... always gives me stuff to think about and better ways to do things!

 

[Dchannn]

890 likes!

Jeez buddy, glad to be taken notes from you good friend.

All the best Beat

 

[Ranger275]

LOL. You don't seem like the lazy type.
It's nice to be able to pick what strain you're in the mood for, even if they're all bag seed! If slats are too much bother, you can do upside down pots. Less hassle.
Love and Respect, Brother.

 

[wildwelshman]

I have 3 autos not he go at the moment and 2 off them I have topped and lsd.....your more than welcome to my yard to have a look at them and see what you think...one thing I have noticed with topping is that they stay pretty short and I've kept the bud sights level and they are growing at the same rate as each other...with the LSD I have not seen any slow growth so far ...hope this helps a little...

 

[Beateo]

Green Dreamz... I decided to actually measure instead of guess how big these AK-49 auto lovely girls are.... they're 16 inches... wait, now they're 16 1/2... now 17... damn they grow fast! lol Really... they're 17 inches as of this morning. I don't like the way the lst attempt is going.... it's either that it's too tall or the stem is too thick but I'm not comfortable with it. I should have done it earlier! I don't think the burn is going to do any harm.. it's just a bit on the tips.
Have a great dayz brother.

.....off hand i cant remember how tall yours are...

 

[Beateo]

Ranger,
I guess I'm really not... most of the time. I am being slowed down A LOT by this COPD crap though.... really have to pace myself now-a-days. The upside down pots will be a great idea once the height difference becomes a little more pronounced... great
Thanks bro!

LOL. You don't seem like the lazy type.
It's nice to be able to pick what strain you're in the mood for, even if they're all bag seed! If slats are too much bother, you can do upside down pots. Less hassle.
Love and Respect, Brother.