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.

 

[AnanKofan]

FD what do you think about pruning?

 

[M4A]

Some excellent info in this thread FD, much appreciated. I was noticing that you said you were using a 25lb bag of compost and 18qts of perlite in this mix, but the picture you attached of the black kow is a 50lb bag, and thats the only size I can find for sale. Is it 18qts to a 50lb bag, or were 25lb bags available at some point? Any idea what the qt to qt ratio is for the mix?

 

[Magic]

Now that you have got a grasp on germination you are going to need to have a medium to place the seed in after the white tail has emerged. My preference is soil. I have grown in a few different mediums but nothing to me has given me the results i get when i use my hand mixed soil. The biggest thing to the survival of an auto, and any plant is the root system. This is the life line of your plant. If you take care of them they will in turn take care of the plant. Feed the soil and not the plant is the idea here. If there is enough micro activity in your soil, the girls WILL swell like no other.

Now my soil is composed of several things but most importantly all organic friendly and natural compounds. I mix this all by hand that way i can tell when it is ready to just sit there and do its thing. Autos have the unique ability to make it to sex in general compost. They can be germinated directly into the soil and then have no risk of any kind of burn the first two weeks. At this point you can begin a feed regimen but well cover that at a later time.

So i figured that if it is good enough to germ seeds in AND they can make it to sex in it why not use it as a base for all my soil. So with that in mind lets go over a few things i like to add to it to give it the bang.

I start with the base of general baked compost. This is mainly cow patties that have been collected baked in a large oven and then bagged and sold .
This stuff is loaded with potash and that is fantastic for root development and their health. Then comes in the Blood and Bone Meal, Epsom Salt, powdered egg shells, Sea Weed Kelp (i use liquid), dolomite lime or coffee grounds, powered baby cereal. Now you may laugh at that last ingredient but when you get your hands on some take a look at what that stuff has in it. There are tons of trace minerals and vitamins that the plant loves in there.

Once you have all of this it is time to make it light. That is the key to success here, if the roots are well taken care of and can move easily through the soil the better the result. This is where i have hidden success, Perlite. When you aer mixing this together it is important to have a good deal of perlite in the mix. I use one 18Qt Bag to a 25lb bag of compost. Its seems like over kill but i promise you there will be no root binding. What this has done for me is allow one main tap all the way to the bottom and then the rest of the soil is concentrated with the feeding roots that branch off. When i remove the dirt from the pots the roots look like spider webs instead of circling roots. Most of the time you are unable to see any roots on the outside edge of the soil.

So with a prime mix and super light soil you are able to create an environment for rapid growth and healthy root development. I cant stress enough how important it is to maintain healthy roots, if you do this you will have superb plants.

Now what would this be if i didnt give the measurement break down of what i use in the mix.

25lb bag of compo
18Qt Bag perlite
3 cups of Blood and bone Meal
1.5 cups of powdered egg shells
1.5 Cups of Epsom salt
1/2 cup of sea weed kelp
1 cup of powdered baby cereal

I then mix all this together at once. Mix until you think you have mixed enough and then do it some more for about 5 min. After this test the soil's pH. Adjust it to where you need it by using the lime of coffee grounds to go down. Most of the time you will need to bring it down. If you need to bring it up i have used baking soda in the past. Once you have it to the desired level you can let it sit until you need it. Now i have never let it sit for any specific amout of time other than just over night before use.

One thing that i do is reuse the soil. After a plant is done ill through all of it back into the bin. I may break it up a little but it all goes back and gets used over and over. Plus it promotes healthy soil as it sits there and breaks down.

One other tip that i can advised is if you are able to keep a bin with a lid, go out and buy a few dozen earth worms and throw them in there. The soil has to stay damp to keep them alive, but the fresh casings in the soil are fantastic.

I knew you could use baby cereal in soil! :Sharing One:I got shot down when i suggested it last year. Great thread cant believe i never seen this! reading all the way thru this one.

 

[molegrower]

I just started doing tier planting. . I really like it. . I tried it with my WW auto. . It's a 1 gal tiered into a 3 gal.. I also started using bubblers in my ro water res tank.. When I started this auto. . 4.5 weeks, just moved her from under a 96 watt t5 fixture to the 250watt hps, to finish flowering.. I'm going to be brewing up some seabird tea and give her her first "feeding" she's been getting strictly ro water until now. . Thanks for writing this guide up. I refer to it allot.. I'm trying this method again with my DP Auto Ultimate.. exciting to see the differences. . Thanks again!

 

[Jamezito]

Excellent info man. I'll be re-reading this thread many times over the next couple of months!

 

[Drkevorkian]

Has anyone tried LST using FD's method. Seems as if the soil mix being so light you would want it to mature as to not upset the rooting.

 

[cdizz7]

Hey Everyone! Im about to start 1000w 5x5 tent grow, with about 10-15 fem LR#2 seeds. I have grown hydro for many years but right now my main issue is finding an easy soil mix. I cannot find some of the stuff FullDuplex mentioned like BlackCow compost in his mix, and would rather keep it simple with some potting soil/perlite/etc. So is there a good mix anyone can recommend using OF or Happy frog? Thanks!

 

[Need4Weed]

Thanx FD for the gr8 info!

 

[blaze420]

bloom nutes

I have seen a few questions on this as well as had a few directly asked to me about these products. Since there was a demand on the knowledge i figured i would share what i use and how much and when.

Currently i am using my own teas, BUT i still have the on standby. When it comes to products you have to know one thing these are not organic, but they do have organic compounds in them. You have to be careful with the use of them as they WILL burn the piss out of your plants. With that said lets get into the meat and potatoes of this.

Right now Fox Farms sells a wide variety of cannc friendly ferts, soils, and mixes that suit any need of the grower. It leaves you with several questions as to what to use, how much and when. i hope to simplify this for you after you read this info. i have tried a few of their products other than the trio but i have to say hands down that if used right as well as routinely fed your plants will get huge. There is Grow Big, Big Bloom, and Tiger Bloom that form the main trio, they offer it in both soil and hydro applications. So they cover both sides of the spectrum here. So you hydro guys are not left out of this as the levels i use for the soil are THE same as i used for Hydro back in the day. Im sure that i could have pushed it a little further in the hydro setup.

Most autos do not need fed until they sex, most of them make it to this point before they ever need any type of feeding other than the pH water. Usually you see the need for feed at or around 2 weeks of life. You will see the Cotyledons begin to yellow and this is usually the first sign for food. At this point most begin to add nutes to their feedings to heal the plant as well as make it grow. I how ever push them a little bit when it comes to the stuff. I have grown out several autos and have learned from them what they like and when they like it and most important can handle it.

As you grow out your own autos you will see that they need a specific treatment from one strain to the next, even one pheno to the next. As we know autos are not real stable at this time but are getting close to it. I see this happening in the near future though.

So if you would like to super charge your autos this is what I do. But remember that this is my feed schedule to my conditions as well as soil amendments. SO if you know you have a hot soil ease up on the mix to make sure you dont burn and if your soil is plain compo you can get a little brave but less is more here.

The back of most of the bottles say 2teaspoons for regular feed and 3 for heavy feeding. I never use the 3teaspoon regimen. 2tsp is ideal for a 1/4 part break down.

Week
1 pH water only

1.5 add in Big Bloom to the mix at 1/2 tea spoon

2 1/2tsp Grow Big 1/2 tsp Big Bloom

2.5 3/4 tsp of grow big

3 1tsp grow big and 1/2 Tiger bloom 1/2 tea spoon Big Bloom

3.5 1/2 tsp Grow Big 1/2tsp Tiger bloom

4 1tsp Tiger bloom 1/2 tsp Grow Big

4.5 Clean pH'ed water to clear out salt build up

5 2tsp tiger bloom 1/2 grow big

5.5 1 Teaspoon Grow Big

6 Begin Flush for the final weeks. At this point i can flush for a week before i begin to see yellowing of the fans.

I like to leave enough time to get all the salts out of there before the harvest. This stuff WILL salt up on you and cause build up and lock out.

Hope this helps some of you out there and remember this may vary to your application. This is just MY feed schedule.

I think it is best to wait till week 5 to add bloom nutes or when growth stops it keeps the plants focust on growing and not budding and i get bigger autoflowers that finish at week 11 not knocking that ^ just find they grow bigger

 

[blaze420]

I follow this and it works great,some times i get plants that want moor food but not often, it took me a while to come up with this