Growing auto flowers for that big yield.

[70sdiver]

Good morning gang,I've had a few ppl wanting me to document my growing technique.I am by no means a grow god!!! But i do remember being new and trying to figure out how to grow these awesome plants.My lighting: I use the bad boy t-5 ho but I dont have quantum bulbs the bulbs I use are plant max.I do have quantums ordered for future grows to see how they do against plantmax bulbs.I am using an 8 bulb in a 2 x 4 x8 space.I sectioned of one side with white mylar coated styrofoam insulation panals,i vented to the outside with a dryer vent for my 6" inlinefan.I have one ocillating fan inside the grow area and one small fan for intake.I keep fans on 24/7 after the plants are about a week old.auto flowering plants need a big pot to get big.I see many many ppl complaining they have grown auto's and could only get a small yield of a 1/2 ounce to an ounce.Most all autos are able to produce 2 or more ounces if grown in the right conditions.So lets talk about our pots.I use smart pots but should prolly refer to them as fabric pots as i use smart pots and generic fabric pots.I actually like the generic pots best .The reason i like generic is they are built taller smart pots are are shorter and rounder.I think with the autos throwing down a big tap root this helps get max plant size going.With my pots I use a very unconventional watering schedule.All my water is bubbled with a fish tank areatore bougth from walmart for 7.47 and 2 airstones for 1.29.This allows me to bubble 2 gallons of water.On watering I start with just a third of a gallon per plant ph'd to 6.5 for the starting few weeks.Once i go into bloom about 21-30 days I start to screw with the watering ph Ill take it to a low of 6.3 for a watering all the way up to 6.8.This ensures that all nutrients sweet spots are hit to allow my plants to take up every nute that they can need.By watering very light i get a nice dry pot by the next days watering.I think this is a crucial part of my growing enviroment as this gets plenty of oxygen to the roots.As the grow progreses i use more water by week 5 i usually am watering at a half gallon per plant.I pretty much stay with this unless the pots are getting to dry before my next daily watering.This is one of those things you have to get a feel for just check them often till you get a feel for how much water they need.I know some ppl will probably think watering like this wouldnt give you a very big root structure but every pot will be completely filled with roots.Here are pics of the 2 pots i have been using.I'll be posting more on how I grow thru out today

 

[Zeplike]

so you still get big yields running just the T5 or do you switch over to an hid light for flower?

also were could I get some of the generic fabric pots?

I'm interested in autoflowers (especially if I could harvest with a T5 and some cfls)

 

[plainjanename]

I believe he claims to get 4 to 5 ounces per plant off the T5. I am still scratching my head though....

 

[70sdiver]

Super busy here so havent got the next page done yet. But yes i use strictly use t-5s all the way thru.yes i did have 2 afgan kush on at 4 oz and onr at 5 1/4. Just finished drying three more and they weight 11.02 ounces. So on thus 5 planr grow about 20 oz dried.

 

[Stonerman Enoch]

I want to see the plant.

 

[70sdiver]

ok got a few minutes and will talk about the dirts I've tried .fox farms ocean forest and happy frog ,miracale grow organic.and my perfered dirt organic choice original.I would say the best to canddates in my opion are the happy frog and organic choice.In all of these soils I've had different degrees of cal-mag deficencys even feeding with cal-mag soulution.My last grow of afgan kush ryders I struggled with it for a while.I knew going in with this soil that it had coco coir added and also knew that coco coir likes to hold on to magnesium.I thought i would start them off when they hit flowering on a slightly higher dose than recommended to offset the problem but it was to no avail.I finally watered in dolomite lime at 1 tablespoon per gallon of water,this did the trick and the rest of the grow went nicely.I do like the organic choice original it's a great blend and gets the plants off to a nice start with no feed really nessacery till late into week three.I've since taken to setting up my soil with dolomite lime at 1 tablespoon per gallon of dirt.really helps keep the ph stable.Happy frog was the second best soil for my growing but quickly runs out of nutrients so I was feeding at the start of week 3.here are some pics of the last 5 afgan kush ryders.I'll try to run thru them as they were growing.

 

[70sdiver]

here are some more thru harvest.The dried and jared bud are from the 2 biggest plants about 91/4 dried.

 

[70sdiver]

so you still get big yields running just the T5 or do you switch over to an hid light for flower?

also were could I get some of the generic fabric pots?

I'm interested in autoflowers (especially if I could harvest with a T5 and some cfls)

You can pull a good harvest in with only t-5's.I do the grow completely with t-5's You can get these pots from ebay here's a link from the ones I likehttp://www.ebay.com/itm/5-pc-5-GALLON-GRO-POTS-container-gal-smart-fabric-Grow-Dirt-Bags-Five-Hydroponic-/160684079377?pt=Planters_Pots&hash=item2569847911.I reuse them i throw them in the washer with cold water and air dry them after 4 grows there still looking good.

 

[Stonerman Enoch]

That's pretty nice for one auto afghan, I would like to be able to harvest that much bud of one plant, so how much dry weight for just one plant was it total after harvest?

 

[70sdiver]

Out of five i got 20z 4 grams dried.

 

[Stonerman Enoch]

5 autoflower plants and a little over a pound, not bad.

 

[Vapekush]

Those autos are pretty sweet but your cat's bad ass. I like that it was clearly investigating the plants in 1 shot then drinking from the toilet in the next 1 or 2, good stuff!

 

[jaspercane]

damn i didnt even see a cat.... now i see it lmao.... awesome autos!

 

[fishbud]

I'm in thought I was doing awesome at 1-2 oz per plant !

 

[70sdiver]

Lmao i didnt notice the cat in the toilet either.

 

[TheChodesman]

I dropped $40 bucks on ten 2 gallon smart pots after seeing your Bigfoot plant.

 

[socalkushgenetics]

any kind of kush

 

[mr.green123]

nice work growing them autos mate there massive. are they wos afgan kush ryder

 

[fishbud]

Yes I think he did say they were WOS AR BUT !!! Am I the only one that's going to say outragious !!! NOT saying he's not being truthful but I have a AR in a 5gal air pot under 1000 WATT and it will not produce 112 grams. Come on 5 of 5 at 112+ grams totaling
20 oz. I really do hope I learn how to grow plants half as good as this man I'd be happy with 56 grams per plant.

 

[70sdiver]

Yes they are world of seeds.Let's go into my lighting.I have 2 different 8 bulb t-5s a sun system and a quantum bad boy.There both good lights but the sun system runs way hotter as it's only vented on the side of the light and no top venting,so in a 2x4 tent temps can be a challenge.I'll have to tell you guys that I think a lot of the size of my plants are do to the lighting spectrum the t-5s throw.I have a relative that grew in exact same conditions as my grow ,he uses twin 600 watts.That is basically the only difference.His best plant yielded 2 1/2 ounces his worst 1 3/4.His plants had less bud sites and were about 27 inches.I run a mix spectrum of bulbs in veg which i figure 4 weeks on my auto's,this consist of 5 6500k and 3 3000k plantmax bulbs.At the start of week 5 I change to more flower lighting,I use 5 3000k and 3 6500k.So my theroy on this lol is that in veg the red spectrum (3000k) helps with the color spectum needed in veg
and in flower knowing my plants are gonna have a growth run i want them to have access to the whiter 6500k while still keeping the red for the flowering.I use to run all 6500k or all 3000k i have to say the mix spectrum grows have always surpassed the non mix .I run my lighting 24/0 start to finish I have tried 20/4 but i see a slightly heavier bud set and total harvest at 24/0.My relative ran 2 grows at 18/6 until after a few of my grows he went to 20/4.I figure as short lifed as auto's are they need to have as much growing time as possible lol.So now let's talk about how I start all my seeds.I use a shot glass with ph 6.5 water after adding one drop of super thrive.I soak them about 20 hours usually all the seeds will sink by then,tap each seed if you have some floating and they should sink.I then place my seeds in peat sprouters,not sure of their name lol i bought a couple hundred from the hydro store.There the ones that are flat and swell when you add water.i usually wet them down at the same time as I soak the seeds.i have them in a little plastic humidor ,it's very important to not plant your seeds in the peat if its soaking wet, your seeds can drowned .I plant my seeds in the peat and close the plastic lid on the humidor.After they sprout I leave them in the humidor 2 more days,you may have to water and if you do just hit them with a real small amount.After 2 days they go straight in to the 5 gallon smart pot.I cover the sprouts with plastic tupperwareto make a humidor.I use the cheap glad storage containers now since the wife claims to need the tupperware on a regular basis.You can get them in a 4 pack at walmart for about 3 bucks.I keep this lid over them until they start to get a nice true leave growing ,usually around 3 days.I pull the lights down to about 4" above the top of the plastic dome.her's some pics of the 2 lights,a lowryder2 seed run and 2 afgan kush ryders that just sprouted.notice the amount of male flowers on that guy lol .I'will post about watering and feeding hopefully tommorow.The lowryders are 25 days old.