Too Old's Indoor Hempy Auto Fem Candy Cane - 2014

[Catman12]

Day 32 Update - really low RH today, 20%. But I guess that is to be expected at -32*C. Sat with the girls until the RH came up to 38% just to make sure (took about an hour). I don't know if it was wishful thinking, but I'm pretty sure I saw pre-flowers on both ladies. It was kind of a strange mixture of emotions finding them, first of course was Yahoo!, but then it was Hmmmm...the girls are still pretty small. Being my first autos, I never know what to expect. They are definitely healthy, and steadily growing, but a lot of uncertainty on what is supposed to be happening, how big, etc., etc. Guess I'll find out soon enough.

Good news man! should get exciting soon when flowering kicks in etc. Also with my autos there was a fair bit of a gap between pre-flowers and the full on flowering kicking in, and during that gap they stretched like crazy, i've read other people say the same that they grow allot in the gap. Who knows how much its a mistery for now lol

Do you know much about your strain? like the size other people get them to?

Hey too old

I don't have a lot of growing experience with autos, just completed my first grow, but I do have a lot of additional experience reading too much about it along with watching too many YouTube videos.

It seems autos have advanced a lot over the years. They used to be very small, fussy, unreliable plants and were never too popular until the Powers That Be began to allow Legal Medical Grows. It seems now, depending on the breeder, autos have become more stable and can produce an OK harvest.

Generally speaking, an auto starts showing her Lady Hairs between about 3 to 4 weeks in (depends on the strain and breeder etc) but, just like Soup 01 said, it took a good bit of time after that before bud development began on both my autos. There was a growth stretch first too like he said.

As a matter of fact, the first Lady Hairs on both my plants did not lead to flowers, but sort of dried up and disappeared!

Congratulations and good luck! Exciting times!

 

[too old]

Hey Soup and Catman - thanks for the info. Autos are....well....different to say the least. Compared to photos, the time frames are all off, the methods, the size.....all new to me (and most of us, I guess). Good to know that they will get bigger. About the only info I have on this strain is what the seed card said. It's a seven week flowering cycle, and from your two grows, I don't put too much faith in that number. Again, thanks for the info.

 

[Catman12]

I've seen auto's with one stalk that barely produced anything but sugar - I've seen an auto the size of a small tree in one journal. You never know what you'll get with an auto flower too old!

 

[too old]

I'm picturing a plant about 7' high, 5' across, so heavy with bud I had to use cable to hold it up.......oh wait, that was my first plant.
So, I checked on the genetics of this little lady. Apparently, she has a rather well known family: AK47, Mango, and White Widow. Stats didn't say how much of each, it was just seed bank info. Also, I guess she's Spanish. Ole!

 

[Catman12]

Sounds Great! Who is the breeder?

 

[too old]

Tried to google info for breeder, but all that came up was the seed company. They may be the breeder, I don't know. They are not a sponsor here so I will pm you the name.

 

[too old]

In trying to answer Cat's question about the breeder name, I waded through four pages of google results, and found this tidbit. Forum was talking about growing auto's, so I had to read it. They were talking about transplanting autos and how important it was to start your auto in the pot it was going to finish in. One member had an interesting concept: he started his in the drinking cup and when it was time to "transplant" it, he merely cut the bottom off the cup and put it into the bigger finishing pot. Sounds reasonable to me.

 

[Colesdad]

In trying to answer Cat's question about the breeder name, I waded through four pages of google results, and found this tidbit. Forum was talking about growing auto's, so I had to read it. They were talking about transplanting autos and how important it was to start your auto in the pot it was going to finish in. One member had an interesting concept: he started his in the drinking cup and when it was time to "transplant" it, he merely cut the bottom off the cup and put it into the bigger finishing pot. Sounds reasonable to me.

I think I remember that too. I think they cut the bottom of the cup off, placed it in the final home and used a blade to cut the sides of the cup and then pulled the sides up and out.

 

[too old]

They may have. By the time I read that, it was about an hour of reading, which for me is about 55 minutes too long. I'm thinking it would definitely help in the early stages.

 

[jinn]

if you were to grow them with coco/perlite hempy style, you could easily grow out autos in those double gulp cups from 7-11. (64 oz)
without the need of transplanting, and without getting rootbound.

 

[too old]

jinn - I'm going to have to have a look at one of those cups. That's amazing. And here all I ever found was info saying 2-3 gal. minimum. Now I get to try something new with something new. Thanks.

 

[colorfuldayze]

jinn - I'm going to have to have a look at one of those cups. That's amazing. And here all I ever found was info saying 2-3 gal. minimum. Now I get to try something new with something new. Thanks.

That is a really interesting technique. I believe I recall a write up (don't recall the source) years ago doing something similar where they simply buriend the root/pot ball halfway and/or even at the surface of a new pot and the bottom roots just kept on going and filled the bottom pot with humungoginormous rootz. I'm considering a similar technique to improve my next gro attempt. I way under sized the soil and container for the plants on this gro.
Great subject gents, Cheers

 

[jinn]

jinn - I'm going to have to have a look at one of those cups. That's amazing. And here all I ever found was info saying 2-3 gal. minimum. Now I get to try something new with something new. Thanks.

yeah when you grow hempy style you can get away with much smaller containers. Several growers I know have use 3gal buckets for a 3month or longer veg hempy.
The only real downside with the smaller container like the 64oz cup, is you have to feed more often once a larger root system is developed

 

[colorfuldayze]

I used 1-gallon pots for all the plants this gro. My biggest lessons learned going forward is that whenveer I've gone w/ smaller root mass I've failed to give the soil and the pH as much attention as it needed and had problems the whole way. It also resulted in significant stretch of the main base (trunk in my case). Prior to harvest I may have a timber appraisor come over to give me an appraisal on the lumber value lol.

 

[Catman12]

Great conversation - getting myself an education!

 

[jinn]

Great conversation - getting myself an education!

That's what we're all here for right? sharing all of our combined knowledge so that we can pass it along, or improve upon it ourselves for the benefit of the community!

 

[too old]

Well said, jinn. Just recently, I was browsing other sites on a google search. I could not believe the attitudes that these growers exhibited to each other. They were rude, childish, and sometimes down right vulgar. And all because someone didn't agree with their opinion. This isn't to say all posts were like that, but I don't think I read through one page without seeing some kind of abuse between the posters. How hard can it be, to be civil and open-minded?

 

[too old]

Update - Day 34 from sprout - Temps have all been good, even through this recent cold snap. Humidity is still tricky, but I've found that if I dump one litre of water into the tray and let the fans deal with it, I can keep it around 35%; a little low but better than it was. The girls seem to be doing ok, still growing. Definitely have pre-flowers now. Moved them to within 6" of the light. Started them on full strength nutes plus CaMg. (I give them Superthrive every second feeding.) OK, picture time. Thanks for coming by and good growing to all!

 

[colorfuldayze]

Great update too old. Plants are looking happy and healthy - great job!

 

[jinn]

the ladies look lovely! and Ive also found that most other cannabis communities online are far less mature than the folks here, or at the least less civil.
That is why I spend time on the forums and try to help where I can, to do my little bit to help keep it nice.