Spalding’s Outdoor AutoFlower Soil Grow In Florida

[Spalding420]

Here are the most recent that wouldn’t fit in the first lot. Last night under the Mars Hydro and just now in the Florida sunshine

 

[InTheShed]

Howdy Spalding! Glad to have found your grow since it's so similar to my first grow two year ago. I was all autos, outside and in, with supplemental lights I kept upgrading, and even a shiny oval just like yours .

Looks like you're doing well here so I'll just follow along and offer any advice that seems pertinent as you go, if you don't mind!

With auto's you should just let them grow normal without any type of training or listing. They don't have time to recover as they will only be alive for about 3 months.

I'd like to politely disagree GM. LST is the only training I do on my autos and it increases yield immensely. It's actually the only training I recommend for autos.

For example, here is a cola taken from the second node of an auto I grew.

There isn't any possibility that I would have gotten 6 ounces off an untrained version of that plant. If you're interested in the hows and whys of LST (it's not about light penetration), I have a thread explaining it here and in my signature.

 

[Spalding420]

Looks like you're doing well here so I'll just follow along and offer any advice that seems pertinent as you go, if you don't mind

Please man, I urge you to advise haha! Anything you see or feel like critiquing me on I’m more than happy to hear. I’m really enjoying this as I thought I would, but I feel like I may try to grow year round and see how these girls do in the heat of summer. If all goes well, these 4 should be finished up around July 4 or so and as soon as I get them all cut I’m gonna start germinating a few more

I did have a question for you...when do you stop the tying down of stems and branches during LST? Also with the continuing LST, how tall can I expect my girls in particular to get? I feel like they are a good bit smaller than the ones I’ve seen of your final pics before harvest...am I going to see an explosion of size/growth in the coming weeks? They are only 32 days old right now.

Anyways, tonight was my girls’ 2nd feeding. We followed week 5 of the GO Box schedule at 50% strength(last week I used 30% with no burn) and used the below pictured nutes. I haven’t seen any leaf tips burnt in the 7 hours since I fed them, so I think I’ll stick with 50% strength for the next feeding or two and then kick it up to 75-100% strength in the last weeks before harvest.

Tonight’s nutes:

5/9/19 :

BioThrive Bloom - 5ml
CalMag - 2.5ml
BioRoot - 4ml
BioBud - 1.5ml
BioMarine - 3ml

Some real nice growth coming along and a couple bud spots are really starting to thicken up ) Pics coming this weekend, y’all stay safe out there and happy growing!
Cheers

 

[InTheShed]

I don't tighten anything once they're gone into serious flower but I will continue to guide new grow away from the rest so there's light and air all around the plant.

Most autoflowers will grow 50-100% "taller" once the start to flower, and some plants are bigger than others. The ones I used as an example in my LST thread were perfect specimens and not all of my autos end up getting that big. They were the best to use for a pictorial on how to train, rather than an example of what every auto will look like.

Here is a Brooklyn Sunrise Auto I ran last year that didn't get to be anywhere as bid as the Blue Treacle Auto in the LST thread:

That's the thing about autos, especially outside with no environmental controls. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don't. I hardly grow autos these days for that exact reason!

 

[Grassmaster]

that sure is a beauty Grassmaster!! how much did that girl yield?

This much for that one plant. Plenty if you ask me. And because I was nice to the plant It produces a good high when smoked or eaten. Instead of paranoia.

 

[Spalding420]

I don't tighten anything once they're gone into serious flower but I will continue to guide new grow away from the rest so there's light and air all around the plant.

Here is a Brooklyn Sunrise Auto I ran last year that didn't get to be anywhere as bid as the Blue Treacle Auto in the LST thread:


That's the thing about autos, especially outside with no environmental controls. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don't. I hardly grow autos these days for that exact reason!

Right on with guiding the new growth. Is the most important thing when bending and guiding to get light to new growth or another reason?

I plan to only grow autos, I just don’t have a way to control the light nor the space available to grow photoperiod seeds, plus I could really care less about how much bud each plant gives me, I just really enjoy it. Granted I want to achieve the highest yield possible, but it’s nit life or death and all I can do is hope to get better each grow

When the time comes, I would really appreciate you giving me some pointers on trimming for harvest and best ways to harvest and cure. Most likely still 4+ weeks away even for my earliest flowering Amnesia Haze...6-7 weeks away on the others.

I also had a question about fans blowing on the girls...is there too much or too little air I can blow? Right now I have 2 fans(pic below) blowing on them at speed #2(middle), is there a “proper” way to keep air on the plants? I am outside on a screened in porch in the corner of 2 walls and I have my buckets basically flanked by several car window sun shades to reflect as much light as possible. Anything you see I could be doing different?

Last question, seeing as I’m in Florida and the humidity here this time of year is always 70-95%....is there anything special I can or should do to prevent rot or help the girls?

 

[InTheShed]

Great questions! As I mention in my LST thread, this kind of training is not about light as much as it is about growth hormones. Keeping older growth low tells the plant to send auxins to the newer growth so that something will get tall.

Light is good, but that's not why I train. Taking a few fan leaves or just bending the main stem a bit to the side will allow for light penetration, but won't give you the great lower growth we're looking for.

Fans should be moving the leaves but not bending them. You can always tell if the fan is on too high or is too close when you see the edges of the leaves look burned.

In high RH, all you can do is keep the air moving and hope. Some plants are more prone to bud rot than others and sativa buds are less dense than indica so less prone as well.

And we'll get to trimming, drying, and curing when three time comes .

 

[Spalding420]

In high RH, all you can do is keep the air moving and hope. Some plants are more prone to bud rot than others and sativa buds are less dense than indica so less prone as well.

And we'll get to trimming, drying, and curing when three time comes .

I’m hoping I can steer clear of bud rot, but I’ll take the good with the bad. I’m really starting to notice them drinking more and more water by the weight of my buckets and the look of one of the girls(Sour Diesel) the last day or so has been real glum. I added 1 cup of water to her outer rim yesterday and when I came home she was still droopy. So this morning I added a 1/2 cup water to her right around the stem and just looking at her now, seems to be perked up.

I’m still getting used to the changing water feedings...and a couple plants are drinking more than the others so I’m trying my best to gauge how much to give each one rather than just watering the same amount to all 4.

Shed a couple questions for you, on your autos, did you have a set way you watered yours? Would you wait on the your pot to get light or the leaves to get droopy? Also, what was your interval method for feeding nutes? Every other watering or something else? Final question, does it look like my Jack Herer is still in pre-flower? Thanks man

Here’s some recent pics from today...the last 4 are all Amnesia Haze that started flowering first....

 

[InTheShed]

I would be putting a gallon of nutes through those pots with every water. I can't imagine that watering in cupfulls will wet all the roots.

And I feed feed feed. No reason to skip nutes.

I always feel the weight of my pots to decide when to water, but in flower I water a day earlier (i.e. not as light) as I do in veg. Drying a plant out is good in veg when you are encouraging root growth, but in flower you want a constant source of moisture without drowning them or keeping them wet.

JH looks like it still has a bit more vegging to do, so keep that outside growth lower than the middle to encourage those to get tall before flower.

 

[Spalding420]

JH looks like it still has a bit more vegging to do, so keep that outside growth lower than the middle to encourage those to get tall before flower.

On this Northern Lights plant that’s only in the 1st or 2nd week of flower, what would you do about the circled stem? It’s growing straight up in the middle of the plant and kinda stretchy? Is that one I should bend, cut, leave be?

Also, do you do much of anything during auto’s flowering stage other than some leaf tucking here and there? Thanks bud

 

[InTheShed]

Leaf tucking is preferred but feel free to take a few leaves that are blocking lower buds. Tucking can make things crowded and at your RH you need the airflow.

I would gently bend that leader into an empty space!

 

[Spalding420]

Girls are one day shy of being 6 weeks old. My Jack Herer plant is still in veg/pre-flower which is pretty cool, while Mrs Amnesia Haze has been in flower since the beginning of May and is starting to thicken up her buds; I won’t get a whole lot of our the Haze plant, but it will be ready to harvest way before the others so that will give me a guinea pig plant to do my first trim, cure/harvest so I’m excited about that. I’ll also gain extra space under my Mars Hydro for an extra 2-3 weeks at least when my Haze plant finishes up. Northern Lights and Sour Diesel are really doing well. I’ll get some pics tomorrow.

I just fed them all tonight and pictured below are the nutes I used and I followed week7 of the GO Box schedule at 40% strength as I did notice very slight lead burn at 50% strength last feeding on May 9. The girls were very thirsty and I’m very excited about how this particular feed went, as I think I’ve dialed in exactly how to water in my gallon bucket....nothing special about the way I do it, just the amount I water each time(2 cups) and the timing in between the next 2 cups. I achieved the exact type of runoff I was looking for, which was not a whole lot, but just barely seeping out so I know the roots were drinking every bit I put in. Between all 4 girls, it was a 2 gallon feeding tonight and it went very well. I’ve noticed that after the feedings a couple of the girls will droop for about 12 hours or so and then perk the F up

Does anybody have a recommendation for the TIME to water/feed? 7pm, 12am, 7am? Any thoughts are appreciated! Y’all have a great weekend and I’ll post some pics tomorrow or Monday.

Cheers 420 Land

 

[Spalding420]

Leaf tucking is preferred but feel free to take a few leaves that are blocking lower buds. Tucking can make things crowded and at your RH you need the airflow.

I would gently bend that leader into an empty space!

Thanks again Shed, I did a good bit of trimming tonight before I fed. I did a BIG trim job about 7-8 days ago and I can’t BELIEVE how much new growth sprouted and how thick they got. I think these girls are actually fond of taking some fan leaves as long as the state of the plant is healthy.

 

[Spalding420]

I just snapped a few pics before breakfast, nothing special. This is 15 hours after last nights feeding. Happy Sunday y’all

 

[Spalding420]

I would gently bend that leader into an empty space!

Shed, so on the Northern Lights plant(pictured below), there is a bud(I believe it’s the main cola) that is a good 3” above the rest of the plants. Should I move the light up to not burn NL, or leave it that height so as to all the other growth isn’t affected. Currently that NL bud is approximately 5” under the lights.

Thanks man!

 

[InTheShed]

If you're not seeing any damage to the leaves or the pistils then you should be fine. In terms of when to water, the answer is morning if you're growing outside without supplemental lighting, but if you have them under the lights all night, then any time is fine. I do stick to mornings though just so the better airflow outside can take off the excess moisture from the pots, something they don't get inside under the lights.

People in tents water at lights on (the plant's morning) so they're less damp at night in the dark.

 

[Spalding420]

Updated pics...Jack Herer still vegging over 6 weeks in, looks like pre-flowering has commenced. All the other girls are pictured as well and doing very well. Amnesia Haze will be ready for harvest in a couple weeks or less I feel as it has been flowering almost a month now. I will update this weekend or sooner if any good/bad news arises. Cheers

 

[InTheShed]

My autos flower around 25 to 35 days and get harvested from 85 to 110 days, so don't really think in terms of how long they've been in flower. Trichomes will tell the tale!

 

[Spalding420]

My autos flower around 25 to 35 days and get harvested from 85 to 110 days, so don't really think in terms of how long they've been in flower. Trichomes will tell the tale!

Right on, can’t wait to get my loupe in and check them out. I’ve been researching the trimming videos and also the washing videos. As much as I want them to keep getting bigger, I’m really excited to get to the post-grow phase. In good time my friend! Thanks

 

[FishEyedFool]

Spalding - I just subscribed. Unfortunately for you, however, you have way more experience than I do, growing marijuana. I've never germinated a seed, but I plan to do just that in the near future. So, if you don't mind, I'll pull up a 5 gallon bucket (turned upside down, of course) and sit and learn from your experiences through the end of your grow. I have to say, I hope that my first grow turns out as good as yours seems to be doing, 6 - 7 weeks in. Good luck to you, my friend.