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.

 

[Dr.Autoflower]

Great Info FD. I am also growing some autos for the first time Alton956. X2 Afghan Kush Ryder from World of Seeds, and x2 Russian Rocket Fuel from Short Stuff.

Currently using a 4x4x6 tent with an air cooled 400 HPS
4x 5 Gallon Plastic pots
50-50 MIx of Fox Farms Ocean Forrest and Happy Frog potting soil.
For Nuets I went with Prue Blend Pro Grow & Pro Bloom.

** From What Ive been reading the small pots are a way of increasing the yeild in a small grow space because you can have more plants. Is the the nug size/density effected greatly in the auto flower the same way a photo period plant would when being able to grow more substantial roots. Because the Auto has short almost non exisitant veg state is there much benifit to going with the 5g?

I just started the germination process today, so I can still change things up. Any advice?

If your only doing 4 seeds then you want the biggest pots you can get. so 5 gal would be really good. The bigger your pots the bigger your yeild, just look at 215medicenmans results with 5 gallons.

 

[FullDuplex]

@FullDuplex so your getting 1.5 zips out of 1 gallon containers in a 2.5x2.5 ft grow space with only a 250 watt hps and a pair of t5s? and you grow about 7 at a time? wow thats quite impressive FD. i was just wondering what auto strains you were running? im just about done with my 3x3 room setup but am using 5gal pots and growing 5-6 at a time with a 4oo watter. 1.5 zips would be ideal for me, 2 would be drop dead awesome

Thanks mate I can get up to 10 in there if i needed to but at the time that last harvest fed my med needs. The setup had 2 t8's and a 250, i have changed it a bit and added one more t8 in the room.
The strains that i am running are all from Mossy Medical as well as my own selections and breeds. the JEM was my focus for a long time and thats where the big numbers were coming in at and they were
from my own selection.

I think that the 5gals are going to give you some big girls, and under a 400 they are gonna produce nice for you. If done right i could see 2-2.5 zips in them, i have seen a 4oz AK-47 in a 5 gal

 

[FullDuplex]

Great Info FD. I am also growing some autos for the first time Alton956. X2 Afghan Kush Ryder from World of Seeds, and x2 Russian Rocket Fuel from Short Stuff.

Currently using a 4x4x6 tent with an air cooled 400 HPS
4x 5 Gallon Plastic pots
50-50 MIx of Fox Farms Ocean Forrest and Happy Frog potting soil.
For Nuets I went with Prue Blend Pro Grow & Pro Bloom.

** From What Ive been reading the small pots are a way of increasing the yeild in a small grow space because you can have more plants. Is the the nug size/density effected greatly in the auto flower the same way a photo period plant would when being able to grow more substantial roots. Because the Auto has short almost non exisitant veg state is there much benifit to going with the 5g?

I just started the germination process today, so I can still change things up. Any advice?

Sounds to me that you have a nice set up there. The soil sounds good and sounds to me that you are going to have quite a bit of light going on in there.

The reason that i use the small pots is because of room. I had to figure a way to get bigger yields though in a small area, as autos size is reflected on how the roots develop
Small pot, small plant. Big pot Bigger plant. Its all about the tap root and what it does and where it stops. So with my light soil and tiered method i was able to give a bigger drop for the tap root
and allow air pruning of the roots to avoid pooling and root binding thus giving me bigger yields in a tight place.

So with that said you using 5 gal pots is a great thing. One thing that i would recommend is germing them there in the final home. the less you mess with the root ball the better.
You WILL stunt them if you mess with the root ball too much. So there is another thing that will effect the plants size. Also your veg stage will be prolonged in a larger container.
If you germ in the 5gal sex most likely will take a little longer to show than normal.

When you go to start this grow and things are going post me the link and ill follow it with you, i love to lend a helping hand.

speed and safety with them

 

[Dutch1]

If your only doing 4 seeds then you want the biggest pots you can get. so 5 gal would be really good. The bigger your pots the bigger your yeild, just look at 215medicenmans results with 5 gallons.

Wow! 215medicineman has a ton of light going on in there (2400 watts) but still, those plants are monsters! 4.5 oz from 1 plant of the Diavlo is impressive.

Yea, I've watched your videos before DR. Auto. You inspired my first purchase from DopeSeeds with this russian rocket fuel. I had only used attitude, and they never failed me. But I needed to get my hands on that fuel, lol, and attitude was "out of stock" for weeks.

 

[Dutch1]

Sounds to me that you have a nice set up there. The soil sounds good and sounds to me that you are going to have quite a bit of light going on in there.

The reason that i use the small pots is because of room. I had to figure a way to get bigger yields though in a small area, as autos size is reflected on how the roots develop
Small pot, small plant. Big pot Bigger plant. Its all about the tap root and what it does and where it stops. So with my light soil and tiered method i was able to give a bigger drop for the tap root
and allow air pruning of the roots to avoid pooling and root binding thus giving me bigger yields in a tight place.

So with that said you using 5 gal pots is a great thing. One thing that i would recommend is germing them there in the final home. the less you mess with the root ball the better.
You WILL stunt them if you mess with the root ball too much. So there is another thing that will effect the plants size. Also your veg stage will be prolonged in a larger container.
If you germ in the 5gal sex most likely will take a little longer to show than normal.

When you go to start this grow and things are going post me the link and ill follow it with you, i love to lend a helping hand.

speed and safety with them

Thanks FullDuplex, will do. I have been snapping a couple pics along the way. Hopefuly I can get a thread started tonight or tomorrow morning.

 

[cravetherave]

Big respect FD for all your help, i'm gonna use your techniques and see how i go!

 

[FullDuplex]

Big respect FD for all your help, i'm gonna use your techniques and see how i go!

Thanks Cravetherave :thumbs: If you have any questions let me know, either post here or shoot me a PM

 

[FullDuplex]

Sorry for the bump, this thread is not dead is it... i hope not, FD has a ton of great info

Nope just been busy my man, and addressing a few things around the site when i have been on.

Hey FD i got another question about your soil mix if you don't mind, Is that mix to hot for seedlings? Or is it ok to just germ and then stick into the soil?

Thanks in advance

I think that it is to hot for seedlings. I start mine in jiffy seed starter mix after all the problems i was having with the pellets. Once they get about a week old usually i wait till 1.5 weeks i then leave them in the cup and remove the bottom and transplant into my mix.
Autos can make it to sex on general non ferted compo. however they can start taking nutes at about 1.5 to 2 weeks so by the time the roots actually drop into the mix they are old enough to handle the new soil.

 

[AndyBotwin]

Thanks FD for that info, i would have burned up my seedlings if i would not have asked and been off to a horrible start lol. Knowledge is definitely power

Been there, done that! :no: Look back a couple of pages and you'll see I germed seeds and put them right in this soil, and they got smoked. I've started over with some new seedlings in Light Warrior soil in a cup, and when they get bigger I'll be moving them to the compo using the tiered planting method. :smoke:

 

[FullDuplex]

Been there, done that! :no: Look back a couple of pages and you'll see I germed seeds and put them right in this soil, and they got smoked. I've started over with some new seedlings in Light Warrior soil in a cup, and when they get bigger I'll be moving them to the compo using the tiered planting method. :smoke:

Still sorry about that one mate I cant wait to see what happens this time though. I think that you have a great plan ahead of you there and things should go better this time. Send me a link to the thread and ill stop in