First Grow Advice Needed...My Baby is Taking way too long!

[Bentelly]

This is my first grow. Growing DWC (5gal bucket).
Strain is Dynafem, blue cheese Auto Fem.
Cabinet 36" wide x 22" deep
4- 24" T5 cfl lights
2-sunGod dual spec cfls
4" inline fan
4" carbon filter
4 port air pump
4" disk air stone
2- cpu fans
Dyna-grow line (Grow & Bloom)
RO water
PH up & Down
DG Protekt
Botanicare cal-mag
Botanicare hydroguard
DG Bloom
My girl is 15 weeks old today. 15 weeks ago, I planted the seed. She has been in flower for 5 weeks today. 5 weeks ago, I started seeing hairs. Now I am a patient person. But I can't help but think I am doing something to keep her from finishing. I'm looking for any advice. She is way bigger than I thought she would get. She is outgrowing the cabinet and is still growing. Right now she is 39" tall and about 36" in diameter. Now if you're wondering if she maybe isn't an auto, stop, because she is. I have been running my lights at 20/4 from day one. She doesn't require much as far as nutes. She is at about 540 ppm. She goes through about 12 cups of nute solution per day and before I feed her she is still at about 520 ppm.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Weaselcracker]

Ha! I won't ask then- but you can't stop me from wondering. Sorry, other than the obvious question which shall not be asked I'm stumped, but good luck, and subbed -out of curiosity.

 

[Black Thumbs]

I've read about this happening in auto's,some say switch to 12/12 or even 24 dark to get it to flower but you will risk it stretching and by the looks your about to run out of space

 

[Bentelly]

So maybe I'm confused about "flowering". She does have lots of white hairs on her. I'll post closer pics in the morning. I thought the hairs indicate she is flowering?

 

[Weaselcracker]

So maybe I'm confused about "flowering". She does have lots of white hairs on her. I'll post closer pics in the morning. I thought the hairs indicate she is flowering?

The white hairs, pistils, are a sign of female maturity and a few will usually develop when the plant reaches a certain age- anywhere from roughly a month to two months along. When a plant starts flowering it grows more and more pistils and starts to form buds. But having pistils and flowering are not the same thing.

 

[Bentelly]

Here's some more pics of her Pistils. She does have quite a few, and they're growing in number. It's just that it's happening very slowly. Nothing I've read says anything like this. And btw, I am running out of room in the cabinet. She's about 4 inches from the ceiling. Lol

Thanks again.

 

[Weaselcracker]

My older plants, like the mother plants, do have quite a lot of pistils. Like that or more- quite a lot more sometimes actually. I don't see anything there to indicate flowering.
My only experience growing auto flowers was outdoors and that was quite a few years ago, but my understanding is that they generally barely even live as long as yours already have. Hard to say what to do, no matter what happens you'll have to deal with running out of room- which would mean a bunch of training and defoliation - not really autoflower stuff. Or modifications to the grow space situation. Have you thought about changing the light schedule. Ok- I have to ask- how are you 100% sure that it's an autoflower?

 

[Bentelly]

I was positive until your response. I based it all on thinking she was in her flower stage. I'm switching to 12/12 tonight. The only problem is that my lights and air pump are connected to the same electical circuit. Will it be okay to have the bubbler off during the dark period, or do I need to rewire? It looks like there's going to be some major grow space modifications being made. Ugh....but I appreciate the help.

Edit: I was positive because I bought and paid for auto flower seeds. I got these from Original SSC btw. That fact, and that I thought she was in flower with my 20/4 light schedule made me believe she was an auto.

 

[Bentelly]

Well, if everything has changed, maybe I'll want to rethink some things. I'm thinking maybe to make her a mother and take clones from her. Am I reading things right? If I take clones from her, they'll be ready to throw into flower immediately? And I can take the top of her main stalk as a clone? I have a box I bought from a guy a while back. It's much wider, but not any of taller. If I can cut her height down, I'll keep her in that one (with some work to make it a grow box), and flower clones in the cabinet she's in now. She's been on bloom nutes for at least 5 weeks now. Should I put her back on grow? Lots of questions, I know. I do appreciate the help. I've loved and babied her for nearly 4 months now. I'd hate for that to go to waste. Thanks!

 

[Bapple]

My only experience growing auto flowers was outdoors and that was quite a few years ago, but my understanding is that they generally barely even live as long as yours already have. Hard to say what to do, no matter what happens you'll have to deal with running out of room- which would mean a bunch of training and defoliation - not really autoflower stuff. Or modifications to the grow space situation. Have you thought about changing the light schedule. Ok- I have to ask- how are you 100% sure that it's an autoflower?

So it's been 105 days....... She should be finished!

I am pretty sure that is NOT an Auto

Light schedule is irrelevant to autos - if you switch to 12/12 and she starts flowering, that will prove she is a photoperiod, and at least you'll know where you stand.

As I posted in another thread last week, I would only advice anyone wanting to grow Autos to buy from the companies that pioneered the technology (or seed sellers and brokers they sell direct to) who have spent time and money on robust R & D over the last 10 years. Genetics, Genetics, Genetics

The technology is still fairly new and the Auto strains are only now being stabilised. All cannabis seeds look the same!!!! I am very time poor as are many people on this site, I would be very pissed off if I spent time, nutes, substrate and electricity on a seed/seeds that then fails to do what it said on the box.

Good luck

 

[Weaselcracker]

Quite a few questions there. Let me think...
I don't think I would switch her to 12/12 immediately -until you are a bit more prepared. If you had a lot more space you could, though I'd probably want to do a little training on that plant first to see it's potential. otherwise you get a very thick bushy sort of girl with buds on the outside and a huge wasted interior area tangled full of leaves and popcorn buds. All that congestion is wasted budding space and sometimes leads to mold problems.
Anyway- so going that route you need- bigger space in every direction, probably more light, lst and defoliation

If you're keeping her for a mother plant then don't switch her to 12/12. You'll need a second grow space to grow out the clones. Keep the mother in veg 18/6.
You don't need that big of a mother plant unless you are making a Lot of clones.
You could take a bunch of cuttings off of that plant, chop it down to half of that size with a lot of defoliation, etc, give it time to recover and then flower her, and in the meantime your clones will be rooting. You will still need a second space- for the clones. And by the time the original plant is done flowering the clones will be big plants themselves.

Cuttings take a week minimum to start showing roots, more like two for me, and then don't really start getting much plant growth going for another week or two after that. Growth is exponential. Plants need a good size root system to produce good foliage,etc. i've never tried taking a huge cutting and turning it into a clone but I don't think it would get you any further ahead than taking a small cutting in the same time period because the roots grow at the same rate I assume - I never tried it.
You could get a bunch of cloned plants going and flower them when they are small if you want a SOG type grow. but, saving a couple weeks of veg time doesn't always make it worthwhile, when you have to still wait just as long for buds to form, whatever the size of plant you are flowering. Sea of green is ok and may be the way to go if you're set up for having that many plants in your system. But I find that little extra veg time is usually the least of my worries. In the space of a couple weeks extra vegging time you can get quite a lot bigger plants and go from there for the 2 months minimum you will be flowering.

Sounds like you may be starting fresh from a different place than you thought you were. Maybe start a journal ? Or let us know what you figure out, and good luck with it.

You could explain/complain to the seed bank and if they are a good one they'll send you some auto seeds if that's the route you want to go.
Hopefully this current strain is a good one, whatever it is.