Growth cycle

[Mezo66]

In auto-flower plants what are the vegetative weeks and flowering weeks

assuming I harvest in 70 days or 10 weeks

 

[JSH1973]

I think it will depend on the strain and even down to the individual seed and it's *upbringing*
I'm just starting out myself so I'm not really dialled in on what is seedling to veg to pre-flower to flower just yet but my impression is that it varies a lot.

 

[Raggedy Man]

I've been researching the same thing as I grow rdwc and try to follow the nutrient schedule General Hydroponics recommends for their nutrients. As usual different people have different ideas but what I've gathered is that the vegetative period is at/near it's end (it's a gradual change really) when the buds first appear as a small "cotton ball" at the top of the growth. Now it's in pre-flower. This goes on for a week or 2 then into early flower, mid flower and finally late flower. How you tell the difference between all those flowering phases is apparently based on when you think they'll finish. The breeders finish time in my experience is normally 2-4 weeks shorter than the reality.
I do hope someone can explain this better for you.

 

[Smokey96]

A lot of it is strain dependent, Sometimes conditions can play a factor into the total grow time as well, If your looking for 70 Day strains there’s a thread on here that shows some of the ones out there that are quite quick finishers, I’ve heard Dinafems critical + 2.0 is a quicker finisher with great yields.

 

[automan2]

There was a time when one could depend on an auto to finish at just over 2 months...then to increase yeild/potency, breeders added photo strains to the pool so now phenos vary widely on some strains and it became a crap shoot. Getting hard to find old-type autos.

 

[Proph]

Autos dont have "stages" in the same way that photo period plants have stages. Most autos are so quick that there is no need to cater to a certain stage. Seedling, veg and preflower are basically rolled into one.. Most autos show sex by day 21. So that first 30 days or so would be considered your seedling, veg stage and preflower stages.. Once it shows sex, it on to stretch and preflower. Which only lasts a week or so. From there you should be in early flower by week 4-5..

There aren't many (if any) nutrient lines that are made for autos, or with autos in mind. Their feed recommendation are commonly based on photoperiods, with 4 weeks of veg and 8 weeks of flower. 4 weeks of an auto and you could be in preflower already. So basically all of the "stages" of an auto happen without warning, one after the other, and usually all with the first 30 days of life.

 

[Proph]

There was a time when one could depend on an auto to finish at just over 2 months...then to increase yeild/potency, breeders added photo strains to the pool so now phenos vary widely on some strains and it became a crap shoot. Getting hard to find old-type autos.

Those plants are called ruderalis. All modern autoflowers on the market today have photoperiod genes. Ruderalis is not something most people want (horrible traits).. But what breeders did want was the auto gene. So they bred out all of the other ruderalis traits, keeping only the auto trait to pass on.