First time grow - Let me know what you think

[Sullysmokes]

No pics as of yet since I'm only on my cell.

MSNL Bubblegum Auto, only 1 plant
Started in a jiffy pot, then planted jiffy and plant into 3 gal pot with FFOF
Under 520w eqiv with cfl, 4 100w 2700k flower bulbs and 2 60w 6500k veg bulbs with reflecter built from the diy section (thanks again for the killer idea BTW).
Watered only with Poland Spring water, welcome to New England lol
Grow area is about 18"x18"x6', spare closet, wrapped in mylar, and floor is lined with poly tarp for water spillage

So far everything has been going great for my first time around. The plant is starting its 6th week this week and its growing strong and at a little under 2 feet. I plan on starting to use nutes this week. The plant had been under a constant 18/6 light cycle and grows damn near an inch a day.

There are lots of foxtails starting on the cola area and on quite a few of the branches out towards the ends, but no bud production yet. For what it's worth, she smells great and looks healthy as can be, lost 2 small fan leaves at the very bottom of the plant, but that's been the only injury I've noticed.

Am I jumping the gun on hoping for buds to start, or at this stage should I switch to a 12/12 cycle to trick it into flowering? Today I'll be watering her so I'll take pics then and post them later on.

Any input is greatly appreciated. Big up to bongtastic for his autoflowers grow guide to get me started and to snuggs for the diy reflector project.

 

[AKgramma]

Sounds like what you are calling Foxtailing is veg growth. If you want to keep your plant from outgrowing its space, you should tie down the longer branches, or tie down the center stem, Bonsai-style. This will force more growing tips and give you a larger yield.
Autoflowers don't usually respond well to topping, and you can't force them to flower if they are not ready. So just wait for it to change on its own.

You COULD gradually increase the number of night time hours and see if that speeds up the process. Worth a try, but the common expectation is that light schedule doesn't make that much difference in autos.

 

[Sullysmokes]

Hey thank you very much for your input. I'm going to give it another week or 2 which will bring it to 7/8 weeks and if I see no changes into flowering I'll try your idea.

Other than not making buds yet, this plant seems very healthy with minimal dead leaves at the base and not really anywhere else.

 

[AKgramma]

Hey thank you very much for your input. I'm going to give it another week or 2 which will bring it to 7/8 weeks and if I see no changes into flowering I'll try your idea.

Other than not making buds yet, this plant seems very healthy with minimal dead leaves at the base and not really anywhere else.

If it makes you feel any better, it took me 110 days under flower to get my sativa dominant OG Kush to harvest. Some things cannot be rushed.

 

[Sullysmokes]

So I harvested finally about 2.5 weeks ago and finished with 1.25 oz off of 2/3rds of a plant. My light fell at about week 9 and I lost the top foot and thought it was all over with, but this AF strain was super tough and lived through basically a way late topping lol I think I could've gotten 2oz out of it but for my first ever grow with one AF plant, I was very pleased and the smoke is pretty damn solid too. Overall, plant was in grown for 14 weeks

I've seen some of these other journals, and idk how people have 1-1.5 foot tall AF plants, mine was a little more than 3 feet before the light topped it for me.

Any questions or advice is greatly appreciated

 

[AKgramma]

How big was your lady when you put her to flower?

 

[Sullysmokes]

She was about 2.5' tall when the flowers started coming in, then the light fell in her like a month later when she was at her tallest