Autos are super fussy with low soil temps. It’s not the same sport as growing photos when it comes to soil temp. While you may not be able to adjust your soil temp, you can check it. I bet it’s cold. Then at least you will know why they are slow...or why not. Based on the soil temp, if it’s cold, you may also want to start them in a solo cup, and transplant after 10-12 days.
I will also recommend using a seed starter to plant the seed into, so your not planting into regular potting mix. Again, because autos are fussy.
As far as when they will flip to flower when grown in cold temps, they most likely won’t flip in the normal 3-4 weeks. Probably more like 6-8. It depends on how much the weather and soil warm up. They may even grow normal size, it’s can just take a lot longer.
I live way the fuck up north at Lat 61, and deal with cold soil and temps. I see what your living all the time. A 75 day indoor strain, takes 120 in my greenhouse.
For what it’s worth, some strains seem to do better in cooler temp. IME, the more indica like plant with wider leaves seem to do better in cooler temps.
HTH
cheers
os
Thanks for the info. I didn't realize autos were known to be fussy & picky with things like soil temp. All regular photo period seedlings I've grown in previous years have never flinched, they certainly grew faster as they days warmed but even the cool nights & mornings and shorter days of late March/early April wasn't an issue for em'.
I also didn't realize autos were fussy about having to start in a light/fluffy "starter" mix. My soil isn't too heavy but it isn't anything like some of those super fluffy mixes I've seen. And again, I've started ALL of my seed grown plants in this same soil for several years now, photo period plants, and none have had an issue with it.
These two variables could be playing a part in what's going on, I just didn't think or know that autos could be so picky & fussy about such things. I mean it's been a sunny & warm spring for a while now and anything that's been dropped in this soil over the years has grown up just fine (tho it isn't the most light/fluffy soil, it isn't super dense either, I added more coco & perlite this spring).
It was a little "cold" (relatively) for the first 5 to 7 days or so after they germinated which was on/around May 16th. Low temps in the morning were around 50 and daytime high temps were around 75 for the first week or so. But since then it has warmed up to around 80 to 90 during the day time. The soils around here have been plenty warm for all sorts of things to germinate for a couple months now, but yea it was a bit "cool" (for this area) during their first week.
The day time temps are about to be up around 103 to 106 here for the first part of next week, I think the soil should be plenty warm by then lol. I've never had any plants struggle much with the heat & dryness in my area either, I'm curious to see how these autos do.
I'd love it if they took 6 to 8 weeks from sprout before flowering (to an extent, I am moving later this summer and that's the whole reason I'm growing autos because I can't finish photos), in that amount of time I can see them taking hold and taking off and growing into a decent size plant...That's the main thing I'm concerned about is them flipping into flowering early while still so small.
Are u in the ground w them or containers?
Each plant is in a 30 gallon fabric pot, but they are filled up only 2/3 to 3/4 . I know that's a bit large for an auto but that's what I have on hand since that's what I've grown my photo period plants in in the past several years (as well as in the ground).
Two of them are in 1 gallon plastic pots which I was planning on transplanting into the ground. Initially I was thinking I would be doing so around week 3, like I usually do with photos, but it'll be a bit longer before I do that for sure.
Today I placed a seed directly in the ground (Skywalker).
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