Photography My current autos

[BigBuddha]

Update (14 days on):


SAS (18ltr square pot) - 5 weeks old from germ today:

Unfortunately, being my usual self, I repeated the same stupid error I made with the Automatic and accidentally chopped the main growing stem from the SAS. So far she's responded very well and I take back everything bad I've said about the SAS strain.

Automatic (18ltr square pot) - 5 weeks old from germ today:

Automatic (37ltr airpot) - 3 weeks old from germ today:

Biodiesel Mass & Skunk Mass (1ltr airpots) - - 3 weeks old from germ today:

Groupshot:

They're all under a 600w DS bulb right now with supplementary side-lighting via a 250w red CFL. As they go into full flower I'm swapping that DS bulb for a 600w SHPS as it has 215 PAR watts, but there'll also be a 250w DS bulb in the diamond for a touch of blue spec, making a total of 850w (I modded my hood to take 2 bulbs). If ambient temps allow for it I'll swap the 250w for a 400w MH bulb for a full kw of mixed-spectrum, but it's unlikely I'll be so lucky.

I'm happy with the SAS and Automatic, but the 1ltr airpot experiment, and the 37ltr one in fact, seem to be pale from day one and not very healthy looking. Don't know why yet but they're still growing so hopefully it'll sort itself out. One of them looks limp today but she's just waiting for some water to bubble so she'll perk-up soon.

Overall I'm quite impressed with the square pot grow, and I have to say I've never once seen an auto take 5 weeks to go into pre-flower and veg so aggressively, with either strain. It's always been 3-4 max so far. I've been wondering if the tops being chopped has had some sort of hormonal, flower-delaying effect to give itself more chance of survival. If I can establish that as a fact, and the end-result is better than usual, it's cause for thinking about doing it with every plant because all the other tops are compensating nicely.

Anyway.. that's them for today.. hopefully we'll start seeing some bud in the next week or two.

 

[Noods]

:smokebuds:

 

[astronomy420a]

hey bb, i just read through your thread, very cool s & m purty batch of girls! i would like to sub up if you dont mind? i am new to autos, but have been studying them for about a year, i am not so sure i see the benefit of lst, if you have the room to grow autos as tall as three to four feet in one of your posts you were saying you would like atleast a half ounce per plant? thats not much. i am a neophyte when it comes to growing autos, but the plants i have now will yield at least 2 if not three oz's a plant as you once said........ "bless her little green socks"

 

[BigBuddha]

Cheers pal. Glad to have you aboard. Even though I have a 2m high tent I like to keep them away from the lights, but the main reason I do it is to open up lower bud sites for more yield. You could check out the link in my sig for a more in-depth look at the process and see if you can be convinced.

The ones I was hoping for half oz each from.. those were two that were started on a 12/12 regime so were stretched.. but I've just chopped those and I reckon dried there'll be about 2.5 oz between them. My SAS is gonna whoop that easy and if all goes well in the 37ltr airpot that'll smash all my personal records I reckon. I'm planning on having that in its own tent (1.2msq x 2m) if it gets big enough.

Fingers crossed eh.


Take it easy fella

 

[BigBuddha]

4 days-on infirmary update:


SAS & Automatic:

The rest:

The SAS is one hungry girl and has got herself a nice cal/mag deficiency. Not to worry, I'm on top of it but it crept up enexpectedly. She got a good feed of bloom and seaweed yesterday (EC 1.45) and today she's getting her green back in her leaves. The Automatic is doing pretty well at the moment.

I've changed a few things around, too, namely leaving the SAS & Automatic to their own tent under a 600w MH and a 250w DS bulb. The other autos have gone into the budbox under a 400w MH. You'll also see a new addition to the experiments.. and she's another Automatic being tested in batmix that's been re-used (washed through thoroughly and heat sterilised) which I've added some vintage guano and mycorrhiza too to revitalise the soil. So far so good at 4 days from germ. << That's just to see what happens with re-used soil.

The Automatic in the 37ltr airpot has started her LST and so far she's doing ok, same as the skunk mass in the 1ltr airpot. I'm leaving the biodiesel untrained, though. Not much to report really.. the 1ltr airpots are doing alright I guess but nothing spectacular. I suppose they're bigger than they'd be in normal 1ltr pots. It's hard to gauge but we'll see before long.


That's about it for now. I'll update again in a few days to progress on the SAS's deficiency issues.

 

[BigBuddha]

Woah.. sorry for the long break in updating but things have been mad in real life. Right.. the SAS and automatic in the 18ltr pots were chopped this week.. in the end they ran into so many problems the yield was a joke. Probably about 2 oz each when it dries IF I'm lucky. Sigh. Still.. they were just an experiment and I learned a huge amount about mineral nutes from it. And I do like them although they can't compete for flavour with true organics in my opinion.

However.. the automatic in the 37ltr airpot is now on week 8 with relatively few issues (bit of a K def but I fed her some compost tea high in K today), and there are still 3 others in soil - the Biodiesel mass and the Skunk mass in 1ltr airpots.. and an Automatic that was thrown in some washed & reused soil to see what would happen (it lived).


Right now they're all in a 1.2m budbox with a 250w DS bulb in a diamond reflector, since it's way too warm to do much else here right now. But as it cools at night a 250w CFL comes on for side-lighting. Which they seem excellent at doing by the way.


So here they are as of a few minutes ago:


Automatic in 37ltr airpot (try lifting that when she's just been watererd!!):

The Skunk mass (1ltr airpot + lst):

The Biodiesel mass (1ltr airpot no lst):

I think I could do a lot better in small airpots if I had to next time. Especially with RO water to begin with. Anyway I'm going to do another 1ltr test soon with RO water to compare with these two. I think it's fair to say that with good water and nutes, autos and airpots can be made to work pretty well together for growers with really small spaces.


Automatic in shit soil and using only organic nutes:

You may see the obvious mag def she developed.. which is only to be expected as her soil had 0 ec in it and she's only ever had biobizz grow to date. Switching over to bloom next week when it arrives, but overall I'm surprised she did so well considering her medium, early defs and small round pot. Might get a quarter off her who knows.

I reckon everything in airpots will be ready for chopping in about 2-3 weeks max so right now it's simple a case of wait and see if the compost tea gives her enough K quickly enough.

I think most if not all these issues will be behind me once I start using RO water next week.. and aside from that I'm going to be bringing the wilma down from the attic and getting that on the go since I reckon I'll have much better results in the end.

Hope you enjoyed the out-of-the-blue mini-bbud-porn. I'll update again in a few days or if the buds get any fatter.

 

[Noods]

The Skunk and Biodiesel in them small airpots are killer! The trunk on that Skunk is almost as big as the airpot. Nice job!

 

[BigBuddha]

Hey noods,

Cheers mate. Not bad for a 1ltr pot eh. I was thinking the same on that stalk.. trying to scale it up in my head to a bigger airpot and it's about (I guesstimate) the equivalent of a 4-5" thick stem in a 15ltr airpot!! Trouble is autos stop growing before filling up a 15lt airpot, but it's convinced me that airpots do in fact work well for autos IF fed right. For photos I reckon they're a no brainer.

I've got a few of my houseplants in them now, too, and those are really taking off like never before!

Looking forward to seeing those two just before harvest to see how well they did.


Take it easy fella.

 

[GCase]

BigBuddha--I just stumbled upon your grow. Missed it--we are in different time zones. Curious about your experimentation with the airpots. I know your lightening is very good too. Can you tell us more about your impression of the airpots. BTY--the skunk is a beast.

 

[BigBuddha]

Hey, Alan. Dunno how I missed your post but better late than never. Thanks for your feedback man.

I've grown countless plants in round, square and airpots, both autoflower and photoperiod strains, and my mind is now very clearly made up on which is best overall, and why:

For photoperiod plants it's an absolute no-brainer. It has to be airpots now. With the time we have to play with vegging photos the airpots produce an unbelievably dense rootmass without a spiralled root in sight. They're better at keeping healthy soil because it gets more air.. and the plant NOTICEABLY uses up more nutrients. In fact the best results I've had with airpots so far have been with fast-acting mineral nutes rather than organics. testifyng to the plant's rapid need for loads of potassium and phosphorous to build the roots. It might seem a simple thing.. but because airpots dry out quicker we can get more water and food into the soil quicker. That makes for a potentially much bigger plant a lot quicker.

For autos I find it to be a whole other ballgame.. because we're adding an already fast-growing strain into a pot that causes even further rapid growth. So we have to get the right balance of nutrients going into the soil now. I took some of Muddy's advice and started feeding lighter but every watering.. and so far it seems to be the key to more successful auto-growing in airpots. HOWEVER.. my tapwater is such a joke my margin for error is almost non-existent. For folks with better water it'll be a lot easier that's a certainty. A lot easier.

I've repotted most of my houseplants into airpots now and even the slow-growers are doing way better than before. I'm talking plants that I've been nurturing for ten years.. so I know them pretty well and they've never ever taken off so well after a repotting until they got an airpot. So there's no doubt in my mind they're an amazing bit of kit. One just has to bear in mind that they should change the way the grow to allow for the extra needs of the plant and since weed is a fast grower they need a lot more care and attention until you get used to the extra-primo-rapid growth


Anyway.. short version.. airpots are the dogs bollocks in my opinion.