FD's Guide to Growing Hefty Autos in Small Places.

Ok guys i have been dragging my knuckles on this for too long. This thread will be dedicated to my actual grow technique. I will have everything in here from the way i germ seeds to the way i harvest and everything in between.

ill cover my soil mixes, teas, water adjustments, feeding schedules as well as the recipes for the soil and teas that i use. My goal is to teach how to grow the bud lumps you see in the small pots i use. I feel if you use this you may have the same success that i do when it comes to autos in small places.

Bare with me as i will update this on the regular, but will be locking it to get it all organized.

 

[FullDuplex]

Hey FD I have read your thread and just love some of the ideas man. Thanks for sharing! On another note I am new to this community as well as new to growing. I am not in the position to try and mix my own organic soil at the moment, but I heard alot of good things about Ocean Forest. I was planning on using Botanicare's line of nutes including pro grow, pro bloom, cal-mag, liquid karma, super thrive and some blackstrap molasses. Maybe some bud candy as I heard the stuff is like steroids for plant. I was planning on putting the seeds right into the soil in 2 or 3 gal pots right after germination. Under a 400 watt mh/hps system how far/close would you keep the light from the soil? once it has a couple sets of leaves should I move the light closer? Also, I am a noob so bare with me, how long would you use the mh bulb before switching to the hps? I'm planning on growing nothing but autos, a variety of strains including pineapple express, easy ryder, mi5 and diesel ryder. Any tips or suggestions would be highly appreciated guys. I also plan to start a thread as soon as I get this thing started. Does anyone here lst train their autos? If so, any advice on that would great as well. Thanks to any and all reply's.

Sounds like you have a good line of ideas there as well as a good starting soil. Thing is take it easy at first here mate. Less is more, grow one first use the soil and thats it. They will make it to sex in most base soils, and then as they need it feed them. There is no need to force feed them all of the good shit right out of the gate if you are a noob at this. Autos take stress a lot different that other cannabis plants. Start off with the soil, and balance your water and soil to the correct pH and then go from there.

As far as the lights go i would keep that 400 18in + above those girls. I always kept my 250 about 12-15 never had a bit of stretch. So with that 400 you should be good at 18 easy. Always check the heat between the lights and the tops of the plant and have a fan blowing between the two.

---------- Post added 12-07-2011 at 06:29 PM ----------

Just spent the last hour reading from page 1-15. All i can is WOW & THANK YOU FD. So many things to do on my next grow i cant wait. I have a couple of small blue himalaya that will finish around Christmas. Going to start and gather all the stuff i need for my next grow but i have one question. For the tea ingredients what is (Tablespoon of Slag (pH balance, has lime in it). Again thank you for the time you have put into this thread.

thanks for sticking that out man,, i know there is a lot of info in here!!

Slag is a mineral compound that has a blend of copper, steel, magnese, magnesium, dolomatic lime, and a few others. It helps balance the pH of the soil and provides the minerals the plants need/like.

 

[Juan]

What a nice body of work. I'm new to AFN and new to growing autoflowers. It is refreshing to read information from a level headed grower and someone that knows there shit. I've been growing for a couple of years now and do fairly well at it. However, there are tools in your arsenal that I haven't considered and I'm anxious to try. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

 

[kelviiv]

So if i'm correct you used oxygen tablets and pumped o2 in the water? or did you stop using the tablets and just pumped o2 in the water? can anyone confirm

 

[FullDuplex]

Good guide FD I will be using some of your tips for sure

Glad to hear it mate and sorry i missed this one. I didnt see it till tonight.

Let me know what you are changing and well talk about it. Let me know if you need anything mate.

---------- Post added 12-09-2011 at 04:28 PM ----------

So if i'm correct you used oxygen tablets and pumped o2 in the water? or did you stop using the tablets and just pumped o2 in the water? can anyone confirm

The tablets were used at first, then i went to the pumps only and never looked back.

 

[FullDuplex]

As Wiz would say, "Top Tip"

I had a great point brought up to me by Auto Snooch, i want to let you guys know that not every ones water is going to react the same way as mine or others have. The main reason the water was given o2 was to avoid over watering, and because it was rain water, keep it moving to avoid it getting stagnant.

Lets face it, now a days N isn't the only thing in the falling rain water. Your Tap Water can be just as lethal. He came to me and asked about how the water balanced with the o2 as his was not going stable. The moment he added air to the water it raised. Now this is not unheard of and i had the same thing happen as well with distilled water. I wasn't paying attention and doing things as i normally did but the water was off.

Here is my point. If you are using any type of drop solution to measure the pH of your water please be careful. The typical aquarium test kit or local pool kits can miss read the actual pH. Make sure that the solution you are buying color ratings drop lower than say 5.0. If not the yellow green color you see from the others could be a false reading. That base color stops at yellow no matter how far the pH drops. I didn't see this till i got my meter.

The thing that has got me on this tick is, a fellow grower had an issue going on with toxicity. We tried everything and the plant was getting worse, then he gave the ticket. He had been adjusting the pH but was using lead weights to hold down the stones. Be cautious with this, these could poison the plants. They make lead free and steel. With the lead and the pH changes he locked some things out. We got him on the right track and well see in a couple days.

Just wanted to share this as this is rather important and all can learn from it.

 

[astronomy420a]

history repeats it self the romans lined ther aquaducts with lead. part of the fall of the roman empire.

 

[BOMBUDZ]

personally i think it would do great in the tea. If i could have got my hands on some of that over the liquid i would have got it. I would start small as i do not know how concentrated it is to be honest. At first i would to like a table spoon or something small. kelp has amino acids and things like vitamins for the plant so there isnt really a chance to burn but to much im sure can be done.

Thnx for the reply on that I will try to make one this week. It should be ok in flowering right? and I was wondering as some use it as a light salt substitute if that would change anything..I have a couple wholesalers I get it from Ill send you a link to one that isnt expensive, good and doesnt have that big min order for you.

 

[THCRx]

Great information FD.

 

[Juan]

My grow area is 2' X 2' X 4' and I use a 150 W HPS. The box is on the back porch and exposed to the elements. However, I cut a hole in the outside wall, ran duct and installed an inline fan going into the box. There is also a ducted exhaust fan. The central air from my house takes care of the climate control. I use coco in one gallon pots and have done all right. I'm doing an experiment on this grow with off the shelf fertilizers. I used Ferti-Lome 4-10-3 as a root stimulater and it worked better than Dyna-Grow's product. Then switched to Carl Pool fortified 20-20-20 introduced in small increments and will continue with it throughout the cycle. What I'm wondering is how many AF's can I grow in my area? I'm new to AFN and impressed with the exchange of knowledge you guys are sharing. FD is a pleasure to read. I'm trying the water aeration. I also removed the lead weights holding the stones down. That tid bit of information was a gem. Thanks

 

[texasboy26]

Autos in small places

Been following you for a while now. Doing a bunch of your stuff. :thread:

Only difference, I use Coco and Canna for Nutes.

Got an air pump some tubing and some connectors and rigged up an 8 gallon jug bubbler. Started refrigerating my jugs. Got a system going to let the water stand a day, bubble it, refrigerate it, pH it, add the nutes. pH it and use it.

Planted my last crop of 2 Sour60s in a pot with the raised cup in the middle. :hot::hot:

Aint got a pic of the 60s with the cup but I attached a shot of their dug up main roots. (or some of it - the main part)

Maybe youre on to something :thumbs:

Attached is another picture of the next generation (2 plants) (Barneys Farm - Pineapple Crush Auto and Little Cheese) with a raised cup.

Bubbled my water til my contact at Canna said he had heard of it and it was an americun fad. Water must be aerated at a much deeper level and he, a horticulturist, said it wouldnt do a thing except mess with the pH. The water being cold sounded good but remember its the root temp that matters and in nature, whether its rain or irrigation by the time it gets down to the root zone its nearly ground temperature. Your indoor plants maintain the room temperature in the indoor grows. So cold water may shock them a bit and room temp might be better. Another americun fad.

americun fads make me sick. Not entirely sold on anything americun

I threw out the pump, stones and tubing immediately. Stopped refrigerating :no:

Little Cheese and Pineapple Crush are part of my latest grow. Both, as you can see in the pic, have raised cups. Does it work? I dont know. Are they breeding the root out of autos? I dont know. But it is a question to be considered. And you are a careful man who considers his work deeply so I dont know that you know.

My previous grow was Barneys Farm - Little Cheese and there were only large fine root systems of very fine roots for each of 3. No big central roots. Bred out? Dont know. On purpose or by accident? Dont know

In the last (Sour 60) grow I concentrated on MST at the beginning and no fimming or topping to shock them in their short lives. The results were heavenly and there appears (in photo) to be that strong central root.

Im not sure