New Grower What's the deal with SLOW flowering autos?

[Kels59]

get some pics up mate and lets see what were dealing with. View attachment 837371View attachment 837373 that was my last auto. topped the fourth node off. that helps to force all the smaller stems to grow up. then just grew it out as flat as i could. only got 30” height wise before itd burn on the lights so had to keep her short. bending the main stalk down is a bit scary but just be careful and do it slowly an shel be fine. helps to use a scillica product aswell as it makes the stems more rubbery and hard to snap. both those guys are really helpfull so dont be scared to pop up in their threads. gave me a lot of tips when i started out. i dont really follow a system though i just chop off anything in my way and generally be as rough as i can with them. not the sort of behaviour you want to be throwing at them if their on the smaller side so im maybe not the best one to advise. ill find a-trains thread the now though and tag you up.

Don't have any photos of what they typically look like at three weeks old, but these girls on the table are 52 days old and you can get an idea of what structure they had at 3 weeks. Tall main cola (well, not *that* tall maybe 14 inches) and stubby little branches. Sometimes we get better structure and more size than this, but not often enough. Am really looking forward to learning LST.

Hopefully starting some mephisto seeds shortly after the first of the year. Would like to try training them so appreciate all your input Scottie. Will prolly ask for more help when the time comes.

 

[Kels59]

https://www.autoflower.org/threads/low-stress-training-guide-descriptions-and-pictures.57314/unread forgot your name to tag you so copy and paste lol

VERY helpful!!! Thank you!

 

[Dudeski]

Welcome to afn! There is a ton of help and information on the site.

What kind of light are you using?

 

[Kels59]

Welcome to afn! There is a ton of help and information on the site.

What kind of light are you using?

Hey @Dudeski thanks for the welcome! AFN folks are great, very helpful and kind. So glad I found this place.

We have a 1000w hps and a 400w hps in a tent that is approx 4 ft x 8 ft x 6.5 ish. Can run either hps or mh on dimmable ballasts 400w/600w/1000w.

 

[EvilScotsman]

hmm... have you checked what the seed bank say to expect from them? some autos are meant to grow like that. people use em for SOG set ups. i think thats what puts a lot of people off autos. they get hit with stumpies on the first run when theyre used to 10 ouncers. are you transplanting them at any point? ive seen guys grow bigger strains to look like that deliberately by stunting them or restricting the root space.

 

[EvilScotsman]

what strains are in there aswell mate. ill have a wee look into them. i like a bit of problem solving now n again. i dont know much about pots growing so i generally learn a few things along the way too : )

 

[Kels59]

hmm... have you checked what the seed bank say to expect from them? some autos are meant to grow like that. people use em for SOG set ups. i think thats what puts a lot of people off autos. they get hit with stumpies on the first run when theyre used to 10 ouncers. are you transplanting them at any point? ive seen guys grow bigger strains to look like that deliberately by stunting them or restricting the root space.

Yeah, checked the breeders guide/info. They are supposed to grow as high as 35 inches. Don't think they specify what kind of structure to expect. And they have been transplanted twice: at around 2 weeks from a seedling cup to a 1 gallon net pot, then again at around 5 weeks to final 3 gal airpot. I have learned its not optimal to transplant autos, but hubby feels we should maximize our use of resources (time and electric cost) so he wants to fill the tent with plants of different ages. Guess we have a perpetual grow going. This sometimes means seedlings cant go into final 3 gal containers right away because of space restrictions. Honestly, we are very good at transplanting and they dont seem to stress over it, but I believe in this case it may have stunted their growth. Poor babies!

 

[Dudeski]

Autos dont have time to recover. You can try to use pots that can be put directly into soil. Take two identical pots and make a lot of cutouts in one. Slip the solid one over while starting, remove the outer at transplant.

But stunted roots cause stunted plants, not the best outcome. One and two gallon pots can grow nice plants.

 

[Kels59]

what strains are in there aswell mate. ill have a wee look into them. i like a bit of problem solving now n again. i dont know much about pots growing so i generally learn a few things along the way too : )

That strain in the photo is AMS (Amsterdam Marijuana Seeds) Light of Jah autofem. We have 9 girlies, two different phenos plus one reject that is bushier but just has grown very slowly. The other pheno you cant see in the picture is taller and has more branches but was slow to flower and is not packing on buds.

The older strain we have going in the tent right now (can't see in photo) is AMS Ganja Dwarf autofems and these have been our best ones yet for this season. These would have taken well to training I think. We had 7 of them and they range in size from 22" to close to 26" and they were supposed to finish out at around 19 inches, so they have exceeded expectations. (They were transplanted twice too.) Three of these have been harvested (the shortest ones that really packed on the buds). Still drying so not sure what yield is yet. One thing that is different about the ganja dwarfs is they got weeks 2-5 under a 1000w mh light and they really seemed to love it. We just had a hell of a time keeping heat in check with two 1000w lights so we swapped the 1000w mh for a 400w hps. Now that it's winter we might be able to give it a try again when we start the mephistos.

 

[Kels59]

Autos dont have time to recover. You can try to use pots that can be put directly into soil. Take two identical pots and make a lot of cutouts in one. Slip the solid one over while starting, remove the outer at transplant.

But stunted roots cause stunted plants, not the best outcome. One and two gallon pots can grow nice plants.

Could well be the problem. These Light of Jahs have been finicky from the get go. Hubby learned only from books and a friend who passed of cancer two years ago. Somewhere along the line he learned this concept of transplanting up to bigger containers 2 or 3 times or more. Maybe that's something that works for photos, but not autos. I just took an interest in growing this year and I am doing all the internet research, learning all there is to know about autos. Now I just have to get him to listen to me hahahaha. Our joint effort projects can sometimes result in us disagreeing on things LOL.