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

[Yeatster]

You will not be disappointed in Mephisto grows. I suggest starting a journal, you will get all the guidance you desire. I would personally be more than happy to help with lst.

 

[Kels59]

Here is some indoor stunted with large strains...kept in cups for 20 days to keep size down. 25" tall as a result
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Same this plant had a 20 day stunt and is 25" tall(1.5gallon pot) pic from day 49
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Not every time goes as planned...I overdid this toofless alien at 20 days in the cup and she stayed small as a result(maybe 14" in height)
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So with our transplanting habits we have been unintenionally stunting growth. Oops. Good thing it's a weed and still pretty forgiving and keeping us in decent smoke. Now I am really excited to start our next grow doing things differently. We have some mephisto seeds to start in January when everything currently in the tent is done. Maybe only do 4-6 girls this time, then we will take a break over spring/summer as our tent just gets too hot indoors with our current setup in the hot months, even with an air conditioner running in the grow room. Thanks for all the help!

 

[G.Leave]

Ah, interesting. So you just bury the 6 inch pot with plant in your 1.5 gal container and the roots grow out the side like that?

Yeah exactly....i would also drill a bunch of 3/8" holes in the bottom too for more root expansion. Head over to the Dragon Meds section....i have 3 seasons of grows in the stealth cabinet that are pretty well detailed.

Of course we won't be able to sample as many strains that way!

Thats why i grow in smaller 7"square pots(1.5gallon). Love being able to grow 5-8 different strains at a time. Even in small pots though.....the right strains wont stay small if grown proper(or nearly proper...i make mistakes pretty much every grow....lol). Here is a 20 day root restricted Dutch Passion Euforia, that barely fit in the cabinet.

Some of the strains out there i wouldn't even consider trying to grow in the 56"longX16wideX34"high cabinet. Strains like daiquiri, ultimate, dinafem AWW XXL, would far outgrow this space

Guess he just assumed more plants would produce a higher yield, but the way he was doing it that was not necessarily the case. Learning a lot here on how to do things better.

It works for me!! More smaller plants in smaller pots gives me more bud than fewer plants in larger pots. My overall space yields went up by quite a margin when i got smaller pots in season 2 and abandoned 4 plants in 3 gallon pots.

 

[G.Leave]

So with our transplanting habits we have been unintenionally stunting growth. Oops. Good thing it's a weed and still pretty forgiving and keeping us in decent smoke. Now I am really excited to start our next grow doing things differently. We have some mephisto seeds to start in January when everything currently in the tent is done. Maybe only do 4-6 girls this time, then we will take a break over spring/summer as our tent just gets too hot indoors with our current setup in the hot months, even with an air conditioner running in the grow room. Thanks for all the help!

Hard to say if that is the problem!! Pop22 has proved you can transplants autos with very little slowing of the growth and I have seen the same thing whe i did standard transplants on a bunch of outdoor autos 2 seasons ago. I did a bunch of insta transplants along side a bunch of airpots buried directly in the ground along with a few standard transplanted plants and all 3 types went well and size and yields were all comparable. What size pot are you starting them in and how long do they stay in the smaller pot?

 

[G.Leave]

You can make instatransplant pots out of large beer cups, but 6 days after you plant you will like start to see roots starting to pop out the lower side holes, by day 10 they should be planted in new medium.

 

[Kels59]

Sorry if it was already covered...what medium are you using? What nutrients? How is your water PH? Distance of plant tops to light?

Soil. Start out in Happy Frog then at 2-3 weeks transplant into Ocean Forest. Also using nutes roughly following their schedule at about 1/2 the amounts. I realize Fox Farm is not held in high regard here so for next grow we will be switching soil and nutes to something our hydro shop carries. Not sure what brand yet. We use well water that always tested at pH 6-7 so I quit testing the water and just started testing the runoff to monitor pH. Of course now I've learned my pH pen is probably shit and not very accurate so who knows. We really haven't had any terribly sick plants. Occasional yellowing and occasional clawing and both tend to remedy without intervention.

One thing i would try is choose a reputable breeder....lots of breeders on this site pull massive plants. Start it off with highly recommended genetics(not saying AMS isnt, but i am not familiar with them) and then its all on you guys. This holds true in any type of growing indoors or outdoors in any climate. The plant will only grow as well as the weakest ink in the chain allows. The weak link could be improper watering, too intense or not enough light, genetics, sour soil, too much or not enough nutrients, root restriction,water or medium PH, ill timed transplants, and on and on. Eliminate the potential weak links one grow at a time, and before you know it you will be pulling monsters! Personally i like the little autos!!
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Yep, very true a lot of factors could be at play. You have some gorgeous little autos! Up until recently when we purchased the latest Mephisto Artisinal drop all our seeds came from AMS. I really can't say how good or bad their genetics are as I now know there have been too many factors in our grows that could result in less than optimal results. Can't necessarily blame it on their genetics. Someone on the forum is growing an AMS White Widow XTREM auto and that plant looks pretty good. Our 10 of that strain from AMS did NOT look like that.

I do understand wanting to pull monster yield per seed....I would take a look at Dutch Passions stock...

Would like to try some other breeders in addition to Mephisto. Dutch Passion apparently doesn't ship across the big pond so will have to find a seed bank that carries them who does.

 

[Dudeski]

Royal Queen, Delicious, Fastbuds, Nirvana, Humboldt Seeds

 

[Dudeski]

Seedsman, banner at top of page

 

[Kels59]

Here's a pic of my current grow just before I tied them down.
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Here's some after pics.
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Hope this gives you the ideal and welcome to AFN!
Btw, here they are today!
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Beauties! Thanks for the photos. It does give me an idea about training ... actually helps tremendously! You guys are all so generous with your help, I hope I don't wear out my welcome LOL. Am sure I will need a refresher course when I am ready to put this into action in a few weeks.

 

[G.Leave]

Soil. Start out in Happy Frog then at 2-3 weeks transplant into Ocean Forest. Also using nutes roughly following their schedule at about 1/2 the amounts. I realize Fox Farm is not held in high regard here so for next grow we will be switching soil and nutes to something our hydro shop carries. Not sure what brand yet. We use well water that always tested at pH 6-7 so I quit testing the water and just started testing the runoff to monitor pH. Of course now I've learned my pH pen is probably shit and not very accurate so who knows. We really haven't had any terribly sick plants. Occasional yellowing and occasional clawing and both tend to remedy without intervention.

"Houston....we likely have a problem in the PH vector of medium quadrant A"
LOL
Seems that soils have been having quite a bad rap lately. Any chance you can get promix hp for your next run? As for the nutes though....there is Nothing wrong with nutes at all....in fact if I could still get nutes here i would still be using them(used them for 2 seasons outdoors)

Dutch Passion - Yeah DP doesnt ship across the pond...Seedsman, Alibongo, Thevault, herbies, Truenorth(canada), GTAseedbank(canada) all carry them, and are all solid banks. If you order from europe i would check out the vault. If cannada check out GTAseedbank...not very many payment methods, but i have dealt with them many times and every time has been exactly what i ordered(no freebies).

Yep, very true a lot of factors could be at play. You have some gorgeous little autos! Up until recently when we purchased the latest Mephisto Artisinal drop all our seeds came from AMS. I really can't say how good or bad their genetics are as I now know there have been too many factors in our grows that could result in less than optimal results. Can't necessarily blame it on their genetics. Someone on the forum is growing an AMS White Widow XTREM auto and that plant looks pretty good. Our 10 of that strain from AMS did NOT look like that.

I am not knocking AMS...just havent seen many of their grows at all. I bet this is medium related!