best tips and tricks you ever got?

[Br33zy]

They're not particularly 'tips or tricks' but a few of the things that have made my decision to grow autos a whole lot easier.

TaNg's Autofeed schedule. I've been using a very simple hydro version of it with great results and not a single issue. Not having to deal with pH is a dream come true.

Top your plant(s) some time between the second and third week with six days of recovery before LST (only if it's healthy) from Autobeast's epic topping thread.

If defoliation must occur, remove only inward-facing secondary fan leaves. I think I got that from Green75's 35 day autoflower defoliation video.

Know the time frame of autoflowers and have a good idea of what to expect and when. Before I started growing autos, I found a few different non-AFN forum posts with a few different autoflower time frames. Neither one have been exact to my experiences but just having the info from the two posts has helped a lot.

DAY 1 - First real leaves emerge
DAY 6-7 - Plant has 3 nodes with smaller branches beginning to emerge
DAY 10-12 - 5 nodes
Day 17-21 - 8 to 10 nodes, plant sex is shown. Very fast growth by this stage.
Day 25-30 - Plant begins flowering and starts to stretch. Bud sites popping up.
Day 35-45 - Growth slows, gets a bit boring, buds slowly develop more and more each day.
Day 50+ - Buds begin to fatten, heavy trichome production and smell. This is the exciting part.
Day 65-75 - Harvest.

and..

Weeks 1 - 3. Once you've started your seeds and they break the surface of the soil, they are in their seedling stage. The first set of leaves to appear will usually single fingered, followed by a second set that may still be single fingered or perhaps 3 fingered. Once that second set appears growth will start to accelerate as the new leaves provide more photosynthesis. This process will continue, more new leaves, faster growth. Depending on the type of soil in use, mild vegetative nutes can be introduced at week 2. By week 3 most plants will start to show their sex. Males will start to produce pollen sacks and females will display pistols.

Weeks 4 - 6. The plants are now entering a pre flowering stage. During this time the plants should exhibit explosive growth, often as much as a new set of nodes and 1" vertical growth a day. This is the time when they will gain most of their vertical height. Many people make the mistake of switching from vegetative to flowering nutrients at this point, assuming that since they see flowers it must be the proper time. This is incorrect. If the switch to flowering nutes is made at this time the vertical growth will stop and the plant will put it's energy into producing buds. If you need to keep your plants small, or want them to finish earlier, they by all means switch nutes at this point. But if you want to get the most out of your plants continue feeding vegetative nutes until you see the vertical growth slow and stop. Depending on the strain that will usually be sometime during week 5 or 6.

Weeks 7 - 9. By now vertical growth has stopped and the switch to flowering nutrients has been made. The buds will start to fill out and put on weight, becoming hard and tight. Pistols will start to change from white to brown, orange, red, etc. By now the plants will also have developed a strong smell. Toward the end of this phase the large primary and smaller secondary fan leaves will begin to turn yellow. This is an indication that the plant is moving toward the end of it's life.

Weeks 10 - 11. At this time flowering nutes should be discontinued and only plain pHed water fed to flush the remaining nutrients from the soil and improve the taste. Yellowing of the fan leaves will continue as the plant draws the stored energy from them. Eventually they will die and fall off. By the time that the smaller leaves that come from out of the buds will also start to turn yellow. Then it's time to harvest.

I think this is an awesome post for 1st time growers, and I am one if them. I put the seeds of my first grow in the dirt on 6/3 and have been looking for something like this ever since. Something that would provide a rough framework for what I was watching happen, sometimes on a day to day basis. There is no substitute for first hand experience and information like this helps bridge the gap. Thanks for taking the time for spelling out what to expect along the way.

 

[OttoCBD]

I think this is an awesome post for 1st time growers, and I am one if them. I put the seeds of my first grow in the dirt on 6/3 and have been looking for something like this ever since. Something that would provide a rough framework for what I was watching happen, sometimes on a day to day basis. There is no substitute for first hand experience and information like this helps bridge the gap. Thanks for taking the time for spelling out what to expect along the way.

No problem at all. Hopefully the info is just as useful (and productive) for you as it's been for me.

 

[Death The Cultivator]

It was from a Fluence Bio Science seminar

Fluence by OSRAM: 9 Key Parameters of Plant Production

As cannabis companies concentrate on consumer needs, growers are working to advance and switch production methods to generate cannabis cultivars that meet market demand.

www.cannabisbusinesstimes.com

Then Harley Smith's YouTube videos on nutrition

 

[organicgordon]

@Olderfart so not only is pH in coco relevant for the res (would you recommend something like a submersible water pump to keep the res mixed?) but it’s relevant/able to fluctuate in the substrate as well? If I was going to autopots for ease of use over hand watering organic soil would this system with coco accomplish that?

Like, if I left for a few days or a long weekend on a trip (which is what I’m hoping the autopots enable me to do) while growing would I be hosed when I came back to check? I have real growers recharge from my organic grow, would including that in my feed help buffer pH?

I have an Apera pH pen, so I should be good. I was weighing and mixing nutes every other day at the height of growth, my goal is to need to tend to nutes/watering less than that. I want to focus on plant growth, training, and things beyond the water qualities.

Im open to input but I was expecting this system, either with soil or coco, to be a move to the overall simpler. Any advice to help meenable that transition I welcome and thank you for your advice

 

[Olderfart]

The change in ph that I have experienced is no biggie, leaving for several days once you are set up will work fine. What I recommend is to mix your reservoir up to specs a couple days before you leave, and then adjust pH again just before you leave. The initial change in the reservoir seems to happen mostly before too long, and if you have a sense of the direction, you can bias the pH you leave it at accordingly.

The change in the medium itself seems to be a longer term issue in my experience. I just ran into it with a greenhouse plant, but it didn't arise until more than two months into the grow. In future, I may just do a preemptive flush after 6 weeks or so to make sure the medium is still in the zone for the rest of the grow.

As to whether autopots are worth it, at this point I wouldn't personally grow cannabis any other way, and I am also using the system for other garden edibles as well. It works like a hot damn, and reduces watering hassles enormously even with the need to handle pH.

I don't think aerating or stirring the reservoir is necessary. My grow certainly did fine without it, and the current garden couldn't be happier with how it is working without anything other than a manual stir a couple times a week.

If you are not stuck on Coco, I suggest giving ProMixHP myco a try instead if it is available in your location. It did a great job in my summer grow last year, and I expect it may be a bit more forgiving than coco to minor nute/pH issues. It is still classfied as "soil-less", but maybe not as full hydroponic as coco. Worth considering anyway, either approach can work perfectly.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[organicgordon]

@Olderfart ok good to know, might do autopots with coco for a new challenge and fall back on autopots with soil. I like the autopots more than being married to a substrate style of grow. You eased my worries about pH.
I’ll give it a whirl, might PM you down the road with questions. Thank you very much for your help, sincerely

 

[Olderfart]

@Olderfart ok good to know, might do autopots with coco for a new challenge and fall back on autopots with soil. I like the autopots more than being married to a substrate style of grow. You eased my worries about pH.
I’ll give it a whirl, might PM you down the road with questions. Thank you very much for your help, sincerely

No worries, tag or pm me any time. I may be off the internet for a while soon, but will always get back to you eventually. You will love the autopots once you get on to them. It is the simplest and most reliable automatic irrigation system I am aware of. The biggie for me is zero dependence on electricity, so as long as your reservoir has nute in it and good filtration, it will work fine, likely for weeks at a time, although I have yet to leave it that long.

Just a head's up about Recharge though, I would not add it to your reservoir. I recall other peeps on here that have had plugging issues with it. If you want to use it, just top water it in. You could check soil pH while you are at it. Just turn off the supply to the autovalve, let the reservoir empty as the plant uses the nutes up, and then top water enough with pH'ed nute mix to be able to measure the runoff. If runoff is not good, you can do a flush which concludes with top watering your Recharge in. If it is good, just top water with your Recharge, let the pot dry out for a while, and then turn on the nute supply again.

Good luck with it.

 

[SooCali]

Hey @semo63936 I’m in my 2nd grow using organic potting soil mix. I’ve learned the following so far:

1. Grow medium is key- good drainage and moderate nutrients I personally like coco coir based mixes I’ve also added homemade compost and worm castings
2. Don't overthink it especially with watering. I nearly drowned a few of my first seedlings
3. KISS keep it simple stupid- I got carried away with compost teas and other bottled nutrients. The 2nd grow media recipe i got from @Bigg Al which consists of OF AND Happy Frog potting mix. I’m only using PH’ed 6.5 tap water and I’m using his recipe for top dressing as well. Off to a great start
4. Topping autos =much greater yield. I used very low stress training on my 1st grow as I was worried about hurting and or stunting the plants. I used topping on 2nd grow and the difference in bud sight growth was impressive.

I will post a few pics later of grow 2. Best of luck in your growing. Peace out

 

[Salvi]

55 cm weight