Average time for an auto from seed to harvest?

[User43]

So i bought about 5 different auto strains, and 4 of them say the average time from seed to harvest.

Sadly the strain I bought the most of, and am starting with first, does not say. (Santa Maria/Planck)

Not knowing isnt the end of the world, I just like to have a timeline.


Also if anyone has experience with this strain and wanna tell me how she likes it that is always appreciated

 

[013]

Strainfinder says plus or minus 60 days for Santa Maria /Planck

 

[NorthernCosmos]

My experience with the specified flowering times are that they're a bit optimistic, at least if one wants mostly cloudy trichomes and a few amber ones. Of course, the growing style will affect this - a couple of weeks more than spec seems to hit the spot in my tent.

 

[013]

Agree with Northern.... the estimates are for the early side of the harvest window - not an indication of how lomg it takes to ripen. Most growers know to add a week or two to breeders estimate for the correct run duration.

 

[User43]

I only have 1 grow under my belt, but i did harvest a little early on trichomes. From what ive heard/read the earlier you harvest the more energenic the buzz? I REALLY hope thats true because thats the only reason I did it early, and I cant help but wonder what woulda happened if I waited, both to the effect and the yield.

In my area Indica is 90% of whats for sale, so its also much less expensive. Figured until I am able to only smoke my own
I would start growing the daytime buzz and continue buying the night time smoke.

 

[013]

Roger that. Staggered harvest may help too. Griw the plant and chop the top buds early, leave the rest to grow and mature for a few weeks. Hard to do this on a small Christmas tree style plant - much easier on a plant with a deep canopy

 

[User43]

Roger that. Staggered harvest may help too. Griw the plant and chop the top buds early, leave the rest to grow and mature for a few weeks. Hard to do this on a small Christmas tree style plant - much easier on a plant with a deep canopy

Never heard of that technique, I dont trust myself on that yet but I do like the idea. Comparing the effect of the same plant between two different harvest times sounds fun.

 

[013]

I’m a newbie too joined in April, but if I can do it then so can you...! I do this on photoperiods all the time - might not work so hot on autos since they are rushing to senescence or death but it should work in some capacity. In nature it would be nothing for a deer, herbivore or omnivore to chomp off a few limbs for a snack, plant don’t just die when theres a partial harvest.

 

[TorturedSoul]

My experience with the specified flowering times are that they're a bit optimistic, at least if one wants mostly cloudy trichomes and a few amber ones. Of course, the growing style will affect this - a couple of weeks more than spec seems to hit the spot in my tent.

Pretend a week has nine or ten days instead of seven and recalculate the seller's estimate, lol. "70 days" becomes 90 to 100.

 

[NorthernCosmos]

Pretend a week has nine or ten days ...

Some weeks are longer than others for sure

 

[SoGnotSOG321]

I wonder if the estimated time is with a specific set of parameters such as lighting temperatures RH growth mediums additional nutrients.
The ruderalis plant has a months shorter life cycle than a photo period plant. Mixing them together is great imo. I was about to go with a traditional clone setup with a dwc, I was shopping for beans and saw these autoflowers and started down the research road on how they grow. Couple months later and following a couple forums I went ahead with autos.
8 weeks after sprouting I had some haze on a couple and another 7 weeks after that my white trics started turning amber and it was another 10 days before I pulled the late bloomers flowers full of amber. Started May 15th and finished on September 29th.
I updated to full spectrum LED lights when they went into flower and my new plants have those same lights without my blurples this time so I'm hoping to cut some time this go round and get a better yield. My max yield per plant on the first auto grow was 3.5 oz of flowers. Not humungous but I had seven in a space meant for 4. I dont think I would've even had frost on my clones before I had harvested my first plant let alone the last ones.
So for 12 weeks I was thoroughly satisfied with the cost invested. I would still have a conventional clone grow if finances permitted but I'm doing this for personal so I only need this for now.

 

[SeniorMoments]

Some weeks are longer than others for sure

Some years are longer.....2020

 

[SeniorMoments]

Never heard of that technique, I dont trust myself on that yet but I do like the idea. Comparing the effect of the same plant between two different harvest times sounds fun.

I chopped on this outside plant 4 times over 2 1/2 weeks.
The high varies a lot from each. Harvesting in stages is a great way to go.

 

[User43]

I wonder if the estimated time is with a specific set of parameters such as lighting temperatures RH growth mediums additional nutrients.
The ruderalis plant has a months shorter life cycle than a photo period plant. Mixing them together is great imo. I was about to go with a traditional clone setup with a dwc, I was shopping for beans and saw these autoflowers and started down the research road on how they grow. Couple months later and following a couple forums I went ahead with autos.
8 weeks after sprouting I had some haze on a couple and another 7 weeks after that my white trics started turning amber and it was another 10 days before I pulled the late bloomers flowers full of amber. Started May 15th and finished on September 29th.
I updated to full spectrum LED lights when they went into flower and my new plants have those same lights without my blurples this time so I'm hoping to cut some time this go round and get a better yield. My max yield per plant on the first auto grow was 3.5 oz of flowers. Not humungous but I had seven in a space meant for 4. I dont think I would've even had frost on my clones before I had harvested my first plant let alone the last ones.
So for 12 weeks I was thoroughly satisfied with the cost invested. I would still have a conventional clone grow if finances permitted but I'm doing this for personal so I only need this for now.

3.5 oz per plant in 12 weeks is amazing in my opinion.

Ive only grown 1 plant, it was photoperiod and it took a loooooong time. but yielded just 8.5 oz so Im happy with it. Planted it on 4/20(of course on purpose) and chopped it on 9/3, still curing.

Hoping i can get the auto's closer to 3 months than 5.

That said im a little confused, you started out with 8 weeks plus 7 weeks plus 10 days... Thats a lot more than 12 weeks,
were you refering to your first then second auto grows?

 

[User43]

I chopped on this outside plant 4 times over 2 1/2 weeks.
The high varies a lot from each. Harvesting in stages is a great way to go.

Im real curious what state your in(or maybe canada?) and also how well do you know your neighbors lol.
I can see a neighbors house in the picture so im pretty sure they can see that HUGE pot plant lol.
Do you have a greenhouse tarp over it normally?

 

[TorturedSoul]

3.5 oz per plant in 12 weeks is amazing in my opinion.

Ive only grown 1 plant, it was photoperiod and it took a loooooong time. but yielded just 8.5 oz so Im happy with it. Planted it on 4/20(of course on purpose) and chopped it on 9/3, still curing.

Hoping i can get the auto's closer to 3 months than 5.

Keeping a mother plant will knock some time off that. A bit, if you root clones and keep them in the growth phase for a while. A lot, if you take a bunch of cuttings, root them, and immediately switch to a flowering light schedule. Some people do that, sort of - and place a few(+/-) into the flowering space every week... Then, when the first set are ready to harvest, they'll replace those with a new set, and from that point onward, they'll be harvesting a few each week, in perpetuity. Just like planting a dozen radish seeds each week, almost . Makes the harvest work seem less like a job, too. So there's a way to "shorten the time" that doesn't require the person to switch to autoflowering strains.

Of course, if you want to switch for some other reason, that's different.

 

[User43]

Keeping a mother plant will knock some time off that.

I had kind of ruled out mothers because i was only considering DWC, not even sure why I assumed(gotta quit doing that)
that a mother couldnt stay in DWC long term.

Ive got some 7 gallon cloth pots that im sure could hold a mother for a loooong time. Im gunna have to put some thought into that... Ive got space for a third tent, it would be tight but manageable. Would increase my output big time im sure...

Perpetual isnt really a great word to me though lol. I want the efficiency of the perpetual systems, but to me
the perfect systems will have long periods of not growing. For example the perfect system would take about
2 years to grow 4 years worth of smoke, giving me a holiday if you will. I am really enjoying myself in this new hobby,
but it also stresses me out constantly thinking if ive made a mistake, and how much that mistake will cost me.

 

[SoGnotSOG321]

3.5 oz per plant in 12 weeks is amazing in my opinion.

Ive only grown 1 plant, it was photoperiod and it took a loooooong time. but yielded just 8.5 oz so Im happy with it. Planted it on 4/20(of course on purpose) and chopped it on 9/3, still curing.

Hoping i can get the auto's closer to 3 months than 5.

That said im a little confused, you started out with 8 weeks plus 7 weeks plus 10 days... Thats a lot more than 12 weeks,
were you refering to your first then second auto grows?

No, 12 weeks was when trics started changing. I pulled one a week after that, 13 weeks+ a couple days.
I pulled 2 more 2 weeks later, 15 weeks. The last 4 went in the dark around the 27th for 36hrs before cutting.
I was ready at 12 weeks, the plants were not. There isnt much I can attribute the long time to other than I've seen others with 16 week and older autos with can of corn colas.

 

[TorturedSoul]

I pulled one a week after that, 13 weeks+ a couple days.
I pulled 2 more 2 weeks later, 15 weeks. The last 4 went in the dark around the 27th for 36hrs before cutting.
I was ready at 12 weeks, the plants were not. There isnt much I can attribute the long time to other than I've seen others with 16 week and older autos with can of corn colas.

In our big Dark Devil Auto community resource thread, Rifleman mentioned that his DDAs were always ready at around 93 days, 100 days, something like that. But others, growing the same strain (and possibly even ones from the same selfing for some of them, IDK) reported that theirs were ready at various times, going all the way down to 61 or 63 days. Maybe type of grow (soil/hydroponics), composition of media, container size, nutrient ratios, and perhaps even temperatures and lighting can play a part in determining how long it will be from sprout to time of maximum number of cloudy-headed trichomes.

I had kind of ruled out mothers because i was only considering DWC, not even sure why I assumed(gotta quit doing that)
that a mother couldnt stay in DWC long term.

Of course it can. I'd only consider that if I was planning to grow a sizeable mother plant and regularly harvest a fair number of cuttings from it, though - but that's just me (and just me at this point in time). I expect I'd be more likely to do a small hand-watered/passive hydroponic setup or a small soil one. If the latter, I'd "refresh" it once a year or so by pulling it out of its container, cutting off an inch or so of roots/media from the sides and bottom, then pour a fresh layer of soil into the same container, set the plant back into it, and fill around the sides with the fresh mix. And give the greenery a good trimming to match the percentage of root matter that I removed, so that the plant stayed healthy.

Ive got some 7 gallon cloth pots that im sure could hold a mother for a loooong time.

I suppose so, lol. I once did an experiment in which I stuck three seedlings in 6-ounce or 8-ounce (I think it was the former, but couldn't swear to it) Styrofoam cups and parked them on top of the medicine cabinet in a bathroom, directly under a pair of little CFL bulbs. They were still alive a year later. They received minimal water and barely any additional food. I would have had to have treated them like I didn't hate them if I had wanted to regularly take cuttings from them. And if I had wanted a reasonable(?) number on a regular basis, I'd have most likely needed to stick them in larger containers - but not huge ones, the 6"x6"x6" ones would have been enough to support a small perpetual garden. Wouldn't have taken much in the way of resources at all.

Here's a thread by a guy who was doing a 112-plant perpetual SOG grow. It was supported by three smallish mother plants. You can see two of them in one of the pictures in post #5. It looks like they were sharing one container, so half the root space.

Come SOG With Me: 112 Plants, 2 Liter, Hempy SOG

Hello everyone, It's been a long time since I've ran a journal here. I just started a large SOG grow today so I've decided to journal it here for you. I have 3 Snow White(NLXCinderella99) mothers in my veg room along with a 50 site aero cloner. I just transplanted the first 16 rooted clones...

www.420magazine.com

Im gunna have to put some thought into that... Ive got space for a third tent, it would be tight but manageable. Would increase my output big time im sure...

For a mother plant, or more than one? Well, you don't need to ensure a regular uninterrupted period of darkness each day - and, as I mentioned above, you don't really need much space/etc.. So you might not actually need a grow tent for it/them. A decent sized shelf with some old-school fluorescent tube lighting screwed to the underside of the shelf above it might work. A little cabinet picked up at a yard sale, CraigsList, or a thrift store. Sturdy cardboard box, even. If your mothers get too large for the space, give them a haircut. Treat them like houseplants; you do not have to grow out everything that you cut from them.

Perpetual isnt really a great word to me though lol. I want the efficiency of the perpetual systems, but to me
the perfect systems will have long periods of not growing. For example the perfect system would take about
2 years to grow 4 years worth of smoke, giving me a holiday if you will. I am really enjoying myself in this new hobby,
but it also stresses me out constantly thinking if ive made a mistake, and how much that mistake will cost me.

Seems to me... If you're relying on a few big grows to provide you with product, that you'd be more vulnerable to disaster, not less. Instead of possibly losing the equivalent of a short period's worth of supply, you could lose months' worth. Unless it's something major like a house fire, I suppose - but that could destroy everything, including whatever you have in storage. <KNOCKS ON WOOD>

But whatever you end up being best for you. I'm just mentioning options. BtW, most folks who grow semi-constantly end up producing way more than they actually need. Some of them get pretty creative in finding uses for the stuff. Or giving the excess away as gifts.

 

[SoGnotSOG321]

I was looking for exactly that type of time frame @TorturedSoul I think, I know I had one plant all by itself in a pot and it was the first plant I harvested and had the best growth overall. The other 3 pots had two plants in each pot. Perhaps, I think, idk for sure, but that's maybe the reason it took so much longer. 80% sure.
I would hope now with my new op, I'm not going to be waiting 15 weeks for 1/2 amber. These are in 5 gallon fabric pots by themselves.
OP soz we hijacked your thread.