4
4dabopper
Guest
Know this subject has been posted on a lot, but this is my version.
Every thing you wanted to know about growing auto flowers*
*But you were afraid to ask........................LOL
Finally a site devoted to AUTOFLOWERS, hip, hip hooray. ….
This is how I grow it and if any of this can help out even one person, it was worth it.
I believe in the KISS principal, “keep it simple stupid”. Also I am cheap/frugal, so I want to buy as much of this stuff at the dollar store. Any item that I use and is from the dollar store will have an aster after it (*)
I have a temperature restriction and height limitations so that is why I only use two 150 watt HPS and then a group of clamp lights for gaps in the lighting. But if you do it right, it will provide all the smoke/vapor you want.
Please note that every experienced grower has their own way of doing things and just because my way is not your way, that doesn’t mean that your way is wrong.
OK enough with the bullshit, here is how you dump your dealer.
I have a garage closet grow, that usually runs from middle September to the middle of May in Houston, Texas. It is too hot the rest of the year to grow in a garage so I got to grow as much as I can to have enough. Remember a spider mite at 80 degrees and low humidity will reproduce around 10 thousand a week, at 90 degrees and low humidity, those mites will reproduce 100 thousand a week. Mites are small spiders that suck the juice out of your leaves, will turn your plant whitish instead of being dark green and if they overwhelm you, you will actually be able to see webbing. Four ways of preventing or getting rid of these buggers. #1 don’t bring plants from outdoors in to your grow room, #2 buy lady bugs to eat them up. #3. Check your temperature in your grow room, anything consistently over 90 can mean an explosion in these critters. Spraying your plants with just plain water every 3 days can also help a lot. Make sure you get the bottoms of the leaves. #4 Get two one quart spray bottles. In one bottle, mark it soap and put around a quarter of a teaspoon of dish soap into the quart of water and mix. Ideally you want a 5% solution of soap in the quart of water. In the other bottle mark water for just pure water water. Take the soap spray bottle and coat and soak all of the leaves both on the top and most importantly on the bottom. Wait around 3-4 minutes and then rinse off both the top and the bottoms of the leaves and get all the soap off of it with the just water spray bottle. Never, ever spray your plants when your lights are on or while the plants are in full sun, it will burn the leaves and turn them brown. A magnifier glass* will easy let you see any bugs that are on your plant. If your area runs hot, make sure you have your grow running when the temperature is the lowest. I turn my light off at 10am and turn them back on at 7pm. As it gets cooler, then the lighting can go on longer.
Dirt: I take a two and a half cubic feet of Miracle Grow and mix it with one bag of perlite. The MG has fertilizer in it so for the first half of your grow around one month, don’t use any. The only thing the first month that I add to water is Superthrive. After your plants are flowering, then I stop giving them Superthrive and start giving them a ¼ a teaspoon of just plain of 20.20.20 fertilizer to every gallon of water until a couple of weeks before harvest, then just give them pure water if you smoke it in either pipes or joints. Since I vaporize I can skip this step and just give them the fertilizer till the end.
Containers: I am sure I will hear about this, but the volume of the pot is not as important as the depth of the pot. Auto have a large tap root, that likes to go as deep as it can. You want a stunted plant, grow it in a short container. Over 90% of the root system will be in the bottom 1/3 of your pot. I have found that as long as the container is more than 12” deep, that anything that is at least 4 inches wide is good enough. Examples are the white containers* that I found at the dollar store, but I have used 5 quart containers*, and for under $6 bucks you can buy 4 inch wide by 10 foot long drainage pipe and cut it into 12-14 inch lengths with a hack saw. This cheaply gets you 9 deep pots. Then drill holes in the end caps you can buy or just shove the pieces of drainage pipe in a 6” pot. Another time saving point is putting your plants in box in plastic containers that are water proof. It is always easy to water or move one container* with 4-6 plants in it then to have to deal with 6 individual plants. Don’t forget, whatever container you use, it has to have holes in the bottom of the container for drainage. You can always use a drill to create the drainage holes. Don’t ever let you plants sit in water for more than 10 minutes or it will rot the roots. Use a turkey baster* to suck up any standing water after that 10 minutes is up.
See how the white pot is tapered more as you go to the bottom, that saves you a ton of soil.
Electricity and cheap bulbs: Make sure you have a surge protector, good timers and that all electrical devices are grounded. 4 packs of 23 watt CFL can be bought almost anywhere at about $2.50 a bulb. Use a timer to control your light timing. Most auto will do great with 18 hours of light on and 6 hours of dark. No matter what anyone tells you, they need that 6 hour rest period. 20/4 will not hurt your plants, but will run up your electric bill more than you will gain. There are two kinds of CFL bulbs, the vegetation growth ones at 6400 K, blue light spectrum for first month and the flowering lights at 2700K red light spectrum for the last 6 weeks. You can get good buds off just CFL or small LED, but a HPS really finishes them off the best. Change your bulbs out ever beginning of a new grow or at least once a year. The additional light that a new bulb will provide you with about a 10-15% greater efficiency and with the price of electricity this is a worthwhile expense. You can get a 150 watt HPS bulb on the net for around $15 dollars.
Reflector: I use the car dash sun reflector* keep it to the wall by simple stick pins. Two bungee cords and three binder clips allow for an easy open, easy shut way to get at your plants, and you want any additional light to be reflected towards you plants, this will make a big difference.
Part 1
Every thing you wanted to know about growing auto flowers*
*But you were afraid to ask........................LOL
Finally a site devoted to AUTOFLOWERS, hip, hip hooray. ….
This is how I grow it and if any of this can help out even one person, it was worth it.
I believe in the KISS principal, “keep it simple stupid”. Also I am cheap/frugal, so I want to buy as much of this stuff at the dollar store. Any item that I use and is from the dollar store will have an aster after it (*)
I have a temperature restriction and height limitations so that is why I only use two 150 watt HPS and then a group of clamp lights for gaps in the lighting. But if you do it right, it will provide all the smoke/vapor you want.
Please note that every experienced grower has their own way of doing things and just because my way is not your way, that doesn’t mean that your way is wrong.
OK enough with the bullshit, here is how you dump your dealer.
I have a garage closet grow, that usually runs from middle September to the middle of May in Houston, Texas. It is too hot the rest of the year to grow in a garage so I got to grow as much as I can to have enough. Remember a spider mite at 80 degrees and low humidity will reproduce around 10 thousand a week, at 90 degrees and low humidity, those mites will reproduce 100 thousand a week. Mites are small spiders that suck the juice out of your leaves, will turn your plant whitish instead of being dark green and if they overwhelm you, you will actually be able to see webbing. Four ways of preventing or getting rid of these buggers. #1 don’t bring plants from outdoors in to your grow room, #2 buy lady bugs to eat them up. #3. Check your temperature in your grow room, anything consistently over 90 can mean an explosion in these critters. Spraying your plants with just plain water every 3 days can also help a lot. Make sure you get the bottoms of the leaves. #4 Get two one quart spray bottles. In one bottle, mark it soap and put around a quarter of a teaspoon of dish soap into the quart of water and mix. Ideally you want a 5% solution of soap in the quart of water. In the other bottle mark water for just pure water water. Take the soap spray bottle and coat and soak all of the leaves both on the top and most importantly on the bottom. Wait around 3-4 minutes and then rinse off both the top and the bottoms of the leaves and get all the soap off of it with the just water spray bottle. Never, ever spray your plants when your lights are on or while the plants are in full sun, it will burn the leaves and turn them brown. A magnifier glass* will easy let you see any bugs that are on your plant. If your area runs hot, make sure you have your grow running when the temperature is the lowest. I turn my light off at 10am and turn them back on at 7pm. As it gets cooler, then the lighting can go on longer.
Dirt: I take a two and a half cubic feet of Miracle Grow and mix it with one bag of perlite. The MG has fertilizer in it so for the first half of your grow around one month, don’t use any. The only thing the first month that I add to water is Superthrive. After your plants are flowering, then I stop giving them Superthrive and start giving them a ¼ a teaspoon of just plain of 20.20.20 fertilizer to every gallon of water until a couple of weeks before harvest, then just give them pure water if you smoke it in either pipes or joints. Since I vaporize I can skip this step and just give them the fertilizer till the end.
Containers: I am sure I will hear about this, but the volume of the pot is not as important as the depth of the pot. Auto have a large tap root, that likes to go as deep as it can. You want a stunted plant, grow it in a short container. Over 90% of the root system will be in the bottom 1/3 of your pot. I have found that as long as the container is more than 12” deep, that anything that is at least 4 inches wide is good enough. Examples are the white containers* that I found at the dollar store, but I have used 5 quart containers*, and for under $6 bucks you can buy 4 inch wide by 10 foot long drainage pipe and cut it into 12-14 inch lengths with a hack saw. This cheaply gets you 9 deep pots. Then drill holes in the end caps you can buy or just shove the pieces of drainage pipe in a 6” pot. Another time saving point is putting your plants in box in plastic containers that are water proof. It is always easy to water or move one container* with 4-6 plants in it then to have to deal with 6 individual plants. Don’t forget, whatever container you use, it has to have holes in the bottom of the container for drainage. You can always use a drill to create the drainage holes. Don’t ever let you plants sit in water for more than 10 minutes or it will rot the roots. Use a turkey baster* to suck up any standing water after that 10 minutes is up.
See how the white pot is tapered more as you go to the bottom, that saves you a ton of soil.
Electricity and cheap bulbs: Make sure you have a surge protector, good timers and that all electrical devices are grounded. 4 packs of 23 watt CFL can be bought almost anywhere at about $2.50 a bulb. Use a timer to control your light timing. Most auto will do great with 18 hours of light on and 6 hours of dark. No matter what anyone tells you, they need that 6 hour rest period. 20/4 will not hurt your plants, but will run up your electric bill more than you will gain. There are two kinds of CFL bulbs, the vegetation growth ones at 6400 K, blue light spectrum for first month and the flowering lights at 2700K red light spectrum for the last 6 weeks. You can get good buds off just CFL or small LED, but a HPS really finishes them off the best. Change your bulbs out ever beginning of a new grow or at least once a year. The additional light that a new bulb will provide you with about a 10-15% greater efficiency and with the price of electricity this is a worthwhile expense. You can get a 150 watt HPS bulb on the net for around $15 dollars.
Reflector: I use the car dash sun reflector* keep it to the wall by simple stick pins. Two bungee cords and three binder clips allow for an easy open, easy shut way to get at your plants, and you want any additional light to be reflected towards you plants, this will make a big difference.
Part 1
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