Auto-Flower basics guide

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I have only finished 1 lowryder grow. I know you can flower at anytime but the af plant does away with the veg cycle. it is all about quickness and turnaround for the af grower. I will do another lowryder grow when I am done with my current jungle of hazexskunk.:hubba:
 
Quick question. I have started 10 Diesel Ryders and 5 AK-47 Ryders. They were started in 3x3x4" Rockwool cubes. Is that going to be enough root room to get me to sexing?
 
ugmjfarmer said:
Quick question. I have started 10 Diesel Ryders and 5 AK-47 Ryders. They were started in 3x3x4" Rockwool cubes. Is that going to be enough root room to get me to sexing?

No,check out page two in my journal(below).There are pics of some Auto White Russians/Dieselryder where you can see just how deep roots will be at the very beginning of flowering.
 
Well I don't have much recourse. To guarantee i'll have 8 females going from seed, i have to sprout this many seeds, and I don't have room for that many pots at all.

I can easily fit 18 3x3x4" cubes on my prop tray. Move to 6x6 cubes means going to a max of 6 plants. Its just not enough room to work with in my home. I understand if the plant has a deep tap root, but many hydroponic systems have small pots but do big plants fine. I think (and hope) that I'll have some hanging roots that i can transplant into the hydroton at 3 weeks.
 
ugmjfarmer said:
Well I don't have much recourse. To guarantee i'll have 8 females going from seed, i have to sprout this many seeds, and I don't have room for that many pots at all.

I can easily fit 18 3x3x4" cubes on my prop tray. Move to 6x6 cubes means going to a max of 6 plants. Its just not enough room to work with in my home. I understand if the plant has a deep tap root, but my pots are also only 1 gal containers. Mind you this is HYDRO not soil, so i think the limitations you have seen using soil will not be a problem.

I couldn't tell you about hydro root space.You can be the guinea pig;)
Just remember that if they don't get enough space they can stay almost comically small.
 
So far so good for the ones still in cubes. No roots poking anywhere. They will be transplanted into hempys soon though.
 
I have never grown these, so I am speakining through my arse right now, but I would like to make a suggestion. There is speculation in this thread that dwarfing is cause by light period [I agree] and by depth of tap root [I'm not sure]. There is an interesting way to determine if it is depth, or some response to the tap root making a turn when it hits the bottom of the pot. In many other nursery species we can increase plant vigor in a limited-size container by employing air root pruning.

Essentialy you need a specialized container with ridges and holes that guide roots to the holes. When the leading tip of the root, the apical meristem, hits a hole and the air outside, there is a different response; it signals the plant to branch at the previous root node. And this in turn increases the root capacity, and hence the amount of cation exchange and water uptake. It's an idea, to see if air root pruning will enhance growth for the auto-flowering strains.

Here is a source for air root pruning containers: xxx.rootmaker.com

You could do a SOG grow with 36 of the RMI-1S square 1-gallon containers in a 6x6 array. You need to have a little airspace between the pots for air movement. The containers are completely reusable.

VF
 
Very interesting.I'm gonna check it out some more tomorrow when I can think a little straighter.
 
Another approach that would be interesting is to apply focused plant growth regulators [phytohormone], perhaps ABA or some auxin-cytokinin cocktail to delay the start of flowering. These could be applied as a foliar spray. Just imagine if we could enjoy the benefit of auto-flowering [no photoperiod response] yet be able to delay flowering for controlled periods, perhaps weeks, with a targeted phytohormone regimen. I think there is some very interesting research to be done here.

For example, if the delay can be held by continuous application of phytohormones, then we could grow out to the point where we can do cloning, root the clones, then cease the phytohormone treatment.

It's another idea..

VF
 
im gonna get some lowlife auto ak's. I have 2 grows under my belt i think i will do my first online journal for yall!
 
Just to update, 3x3x4 cubes worked for about 8" of growth before the roots were really busting out.
 
i need professional help, sum1 plz come to my aid
 
thanx for the information ppl, i hope i could get the same detail on my questions which are yet unanswered :(
 
noob here and I'm curious, does anyone have a pic of one of these? Preferably fully mature with something in frame for a size reference (lighter, pop can, so on). I'm curious if I could throw some in flower beds and still be stealthy ;-) next to the viburnums!
 
Depends which strain. If you wanted to plant some in stealthily in your beds the original lowryder is 12". Beyond that, I think most of them can get over two feet. Check out the grow journals of time4tokin20, and grandaddytoke, both of whom have harvested autos recently.
 
HippyInEngland said:
Not outside you cant.

There is your reason :)

I am going to have to respectfully disagree. Have you not heard
of a light-proof outdoor tent/cover? You can flower outside any
time the weather is warm enough and the sun angle is decent for
spectrum using any variety.

I have been studying autos recently and here are the benefits I
have found:

1) Short life cycle and quick turnaround time. Quickness in and
of itself is enough for some people. It also reduces the amount of
time a crop could get a bug infestation and the amount of time
human error could occur and the amount of time the crop can
be found by non-friendlys such as thieves, pigs, etc.

2) Most grow short and compact so they take up less space.

3) Auto-flowering removes the possibility of light-cycle interruptions
by indoor growers and basically removes the need for light-cycle
management.

4) Short cycle plants require less root space, smaller pots, and
less soil.

5) This is inconclusive...but some autos *may* have inherited
some hardiness traits from the ruderalis side like increased
tolerance to cold and/or bug resistance.


There may be more benefits to "autos" but I haven't found or
thought of them yet.

:afroweed:
 
I thank you for this post. I have tried twice with LR2 and the mixed pack. I think my problem is hydro, I started and finished in 3 inch net pots. Here is a pick of two that just finished, they never made it above 5 inches and after abot the 65th day I said they had to be ready. Guess I should go an additional 10 days for soil less if I understand the post. Also should not use the sponge like media I use. I always get one or two that do not make it two inches. Now I am not depressed, I will try again and start them in 5 inch net pots. I had always went 24/0, will try these suggestions. This is all I manicured off two, I bet this is not 6 grams if that.

Also, in this my second go round, clearly 50/50, actually I think I am one or two more males than females in about 18 seeds. HID 400W. Maybe I will try LED on this next one, I am getting ready to start a journal of LED from scratch. I have one, but I did not document from start, with so much hating on LED in that forum, I may just toss 6 or 7 of these in with the SG I am getting ready to document.

pppDSCF7213.jpg
 

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