Early Miss seeding lighting needs

[Ozzy13]

Hello to all,

My first autoflower grow (Early Miss). The seeds have germinated, nice healthy root tails. I have just read that they don't like to be transplanted. Too late. I have just put the seeds in soil using 4" wide x 5" high mesh plant starter grow bags. However, I believe I should be able to transplant into outdoor pots without disturbing the roots. Until the weather warms up, I need to get them started indoors. Now that they are in soil how much/what type of lighting do they need. I don't have a great setup. I have under cabinet fluro lights in the kitchen that I replace with 18" tube grow lights when necessary and can easily raise/lower the plants as required. I have never had a problem doing this with regular fem seeds. When plants reach 9-10 inches they are usually ready for outdoors (mid June). I live in a Cda zone 4a.

Question: should my auto seedlings be under lights now? I was planning on a 18 on / 6 off cycle. Can they be put in a full sun window for a few hours during the day and back under the grow lights for remaining light period?

What size (gallon) outdoor pots best for Early Miss?

Many thanks

 

[BigBearNTexas]

I transplant my autos with no problems. They key is to do it when they are in active growth period. I transplant mine at about 3 weeks from a 1 liter hempy pot into a 10 liter bucket. They don’t even slow down when I do this.

As for the lighting, I run mine under full lights from the start. As seedlings they are about 24 inches from the light, as they grow up to the light they finish about 12 inches away.

If your window gets direct sun, I don’t see the harm I letting them get some free lighting. The light isn’t going to be as intense as it would be outside, but it would probably me more efficient than artificial lighting. Artificial lighting has the advantage of being consistent, though.

If your lighting system works for photos, it should work for autos just fine.

 

[Electric Shaman]

Growing under florescent lights get them as close as you can, like 2-4 inches close. It will prevent them from stretching a lot.

Yes, they can go in a full sun window for a few hours. Natural light is good for them.

Outdoors ho with the biggest pot you can. 15-20 gal at least. I used to use 30 gallon pots and got good results but mine were always photoperiod feminised plants.

Hope this helps a bit. ES

 

[Ozzy13]

Many thanks Big Bear & Electric Shaman,

Feel a little better about having to transplant the autos. As mentioned, I started the germinated seeds in 4" x 5" cloth mesh plant grow bags. Yep, to keep them from stretching I try and keep them within at least 2 inches of the fluor lights until ready for outdoors. For past photoperiod fems I've had good success with 20 gallon pots but was reading somewhere that the autos didn't need much more than 3 - 5 gallon pots & I have lots of both sizes.

Best Regards &
Happy Growing