Lights and Autos

greenlikemoney

Well-Known Member
You mean wattage or photo period?

The photo period doesn't matter ( 18/6 , 12/12 ), they will start to bud when they start to bud, hence the term auto.

Wattage is whatever you can afford.
 

needthacheeba

Well-Known Member
induction plasma cfl? does that cost alot to run. Just say i cant afford a decent light, can i put it outside in the daytime and bring it back in at night? and if i do will artificial light mess up anything?
 

sandjsdad

Well-Known Member
induction plasma cfl? does that cost alot to run. Just say i cant afford a decent light, can i put it outside in the daytime and bring it back in at night? and if i do will artificial light mess up anything?
Why don't you put it outside and leave it there. You'll have all the free light you need.
 

MonkeyGrinder

Well-Known Member
induction plasma cfl? does that cost alot to run. Just say i cant afford a decent light, can i put it outside in the daytime and bring it back in at night? and if i do will artificial light mess up anything?
You can leave it out in the sun and bring it in no problem. I don't think there's a light on the planet that will match the awesomeness that is the sun. Plus it's free. As far as throwing it under artificial lights during the dark hours outside? No it certainly won't hurt it. If it's pests you're worried about just go ahead and pick up some preventive measures beforehand. At the very least grab something to take care of spider mites just in case. Give the plant a quick lookthrough when you bring it in for aphids or anything like that. I've done it on a day to day basis with a few photoperiod plants that were started very early.
Also pulled some long ass flowering flowering sativas in that had spent spring and summer outside when the weather was supposed to drop into the super nasty categories so they could get another 3 weeks of flowering time.
The only things that were spotted were some ants. Easily taken care of via shoe. A rolly poly here and there. They pretty much stuck to the pots and are harmless anyways.
Maybe get some fly paper and hang it up for any potential winged bugs that could nest in your dirt.
 

az2000

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the tips man! how about putting them in 5gal buckets? Is that enough room?
I use 3gal and get excellent results.

Regarding lights, you don't need as much as you would for a photosensitive. Autos are smaller plants. Less penetration is required. I grew an auto and 5 photos under t5ho. The auto did very well. The photos did well in veg, but in flower the t5ho wasn't enough.

Right now I'm using Blackstar 130w (85w actual) LEDs. Two in a 2x2x4' tall tent. I'd like to do 180w (120w actual) but I don't have enough vertical space for that powerful light. But, the UFOs are producing great results. Again, wouldn't work well for a photosensitive. But, for a compact auto, they're great. (Not pitching Blackstar. Just the wattage.).
 

skinnysmoke

Well-Known Member
You can leave it out in the sun and bring it in no problem. I don't think there's a light on the planet that will match the awesomeness that is the sun. Plus it's free. As far as throwing it under artificial lights during the dark hours outside? No it certainly won't hurt it. If it's pests you're worried about just go ahead and pick up some preventive measures beforehand.
Maybe get some fly paper and hang it up for any potential winged bugs that could nest in your dirt.
I agree totally, thats exactly what I'm doing with my Sweet Seeds Dark Devil auto. and she is very big for her age. 1st 2 weeks she was on a 10hr sun/14hr cfl diet, then she went to 10hr sun/10hr cfl 4hr darkness. I used 6 23 watt 2700k and 5000k, as she grew bigger. 5 gal pot also, size of pot can help control size of plant if is an issue. Here's a pic at 23 days I started her May 10,2014.IMG_20140608_125139.jpg
Link to grow here https://www.rollitup.org/t/sweet-dark-devil-auto.832623/ unfortunately my cfl cab went down on day 25
 

skinnysmoke

Well-Known Member
Beautiful plant man! I think I'm gonna keep mine outside.
Thanks bro! Sweet seeds did a good job with the genetics on this strain.

Doesn't hurt to do that, but if possible give it some indoor light also. I don't know your geographics, but where I'm @ around 15hrs of sun light is the most around here; and I can only get 10hrs of that because of tree line. I truly believe that with out the added cfl hours she wouldn't look as good. Since my cfl cab has wne down she stretches a lot during dark hours.
That being said I've seen certain growers get 16hrs a day of sun and their plants get all 16hrs of direct light. I that case f***k the added lighting, 16 hrs of sun will grow a monster auto or photoperiod.
 

needthacheeba

Well-Known Member
nice!!!! I would love to get into breeding and create all kinds of new exotic stuff. as for the sun from like 6AM to about 7:45pm I get a ton of light all day. so this might be the best bet. maybe a few extra indoors like ya said to give just a little extra.
 

EverythingsHazy

Well-Known Member
TBH $200 is not THAT much when it comes to lights, and for that price you can get a V400 (actually outputs 200w) Vipar led which will be great for two autos if you want dense, trichome covered buds. If you skimp on lighting you will get less product of a lower quality. Light is imo more important than everything else except maybe water which I would say is a tie because I never ph my water for auto's, or wait for it to sit a few hours before watering. No time for that lolBut unless you can keep the temps down to the low 80's MAX at the top of the canopy, t5's probably wont give you a satisfying yield.
If you can do it outdoors in natural sunlight tho, that would probably work too. There are just a lot more variables you have to consider such as more bugs, animals, weather, location vs flower time (and length of growing season), etc.
 
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