Feeding the seedlings

[Mizzo81]

I’m in coco feed from before they pop lol the water I soak them with is charged lol.

 

[PlatinumGrows]

I'm no expert, but if you feed them too soon you will burn them. I'm not sure how to copy this link, but this is from a legend in the growing scene.It's under the new growers journal section.

Post by Muddy;

Another common question I see is when to switch autos from veg to bloom. Many people are under the impression that as soon as they see the first flowers it's time to switch. Perhaps a little explanation of the life cycle of autos will help to clarify this.

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 know that many of you are thinking that the seed bank said the plants will finish in 8-9 weeks, so why are you saying they take 10-11? The claims made by the seed banks are somewhat deceptive. If you switch to flowering nutes at week 3 or 4 the plants can finish in the times the seed banks say but they will remain small and not reach their full potential yield. Years of growing by myself and others has shown that autos do best if you follow this time line.

Of course, there will always be variations depending on the strain, the environment, nutrients, etc. This information is meant to only serve as a general guideline.

For more detailed information on when to harvest your plants, please see: https://www.autoflower.org/f44/when-harvest-autos-your-leaves-will-tell-you-4889.html.

NOTE: This is an informational thread. Do not post specific questions about your grow here. Please start a new thread in the appropriate forum.

Hope this helps you!

This is the explanation of Autoflowering feeding I was looking for. I could tell right off the bat all the suggestions I read on the seed websites are not 100% accurate for me to follow. Now I know that you CAN in fact give veg nutes in week 2 (I am in week 2 and have done an ExTREMELY low dose of veg nutes) they responded quickly to this I am growing critical glue

 

[Flux]

I use promix organic soil amended with perlite & a little worm castings, Last run I didn’t feed until they were in full bud and Started at 1/8 strength, I SLOWLY started increasing until I got some tip burn then held my position. Keep in mind I use micro’s at half strength every feeding. I find less is whole lot more with autos! My last crown royal photo was constantly starving to the point thought I had deficiencies, crazy the difference.

 

[Budgie45]

I was told not to feed the young plants for a couple of weeks since the soil has all the nutes they need for the minute,maybe it depends on what type of grow you have going on,I’ve been using the ocean forest soil,I didn’t give any bites to my plants till they were 4 weeks old,

I’m sure there’s more people
Out there with lots more knowledge than me,since this is only my 3rd grow

 

[CannabisMingus]

I'm a new grower - and a hydro guy to boot - so take what I say with a healthy dose of salt, but I remain suspicious of any advice that incudes a flushing stage "to improve taste." Just my .02, YMMV, etc.

 

[Ahkens]

I've only a few grows under my belt and I've tried it both ways. I never killed a seedling by adding a very light dose of nutes. They do respond visibly to the input. But I'm not sure if this is a good thing for the final product or not. Just like we can push a plant into flower long before it would have gone naturally, we can probably push a seedling out to full veg more quickly too.

A small example of what I mean:

One thing we know happens during a natural seedling stage is that if the cannabis plant senses if there are other plants close enough to threaten its resources; it starts up chemical warfare. We plant them alone to avoid this measurable drain on the plant. However, we don't know how much energy building the chemical sensing for this takes or what else the plant might use this system for in the long run. We guess plants do this via a terpene language thing (or at least that's the latest I've seen).

The old ways, especially outside, say weed farmers should always put 3 seeds in a spot and only the strongest survives.

Maybe allowing the plant time and energy to develop its chemical warfare factory in seedling adds up to more terpenes or a more varied and sophisticated chemical response across the board, including against mildews, bugs and flavors.

And maybe making sure that the seedling stage is short and stress free really hamper's the plant going forward. However, if all you want is high THC/CBD, then it might not matter at all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigenetics says that not only is the above utterly possible, but that your decisions will also change any seeds you produce! We live in such a great time of science. The arrival of accurate cheap measurements is cleaning up all those bad assumptions, and reality is much more complex than we imagined.