ok let's talk about nutrients for a minute.Auto's can be very finicky I have a saying with auto's less is more.I never go over half the recommended feeding schedule for auto's,So what I do as there are no published feeding schedules I can find stricktly for autos is take a standard feeding schedule and try and figure out where in the plants life cycle the feeding chart is relevent.My thinking is that autos really are only vegging for about 3 weeks then they start to flower between week 3 and four on average.I feed very little in the first 3 weeks mostly trying to prevent any stress and feeding the soil more than the plant to try and establish a solid and big root foundation.With out a big root structure we will end up with small plants.Now this isnt always a bad thing as it let's you control the size of your plant.If you have a small grow cab then you can keep them in smaller pots to help keep there size down.I try for maximum size and yield.Thats why after i get sprouts up for a few days they go straight to their final size pot,5 gallon smart pots for me,every transplant will slow your growth and the ultimate size of your plant.Some ppl who try growing autos outdoors are unimpressed with there yields.The key factor here even if their in big pots or straight into the soil is the lighting difference that outdoor plants will recieve.To get the most out of outdoor auto's they need to be growing when your area has the most hours of day light.You can make up for this by planting more plants to offset the smaller yield due to less hours of light per day.I use early spring to do seed runs and later summer for yield runs,that being said I never can get as much yield from them as I can indoors under 24/0 lighting.Here is a typical feeding schedule I use for fox farms nutes.
Start for Seedlings and Vegetation from Week 1 to Week 3- Bush Doctor (1/4 strength?)
End Week 3- Big Bloom and Grow Big at 1/4 strength.
Week 4- Follow the Fox Farms Schedule for start of flower cycle. Feed with Tiger Bloom and Big Bloom. Drop Grow Big from week 3. After 3 days add 1/4 strength of open sesame.
Week 5- Repeat same as week 4. Replace open sesame with beastie bloom
Week 6- repeat week 5
Week 7- Same feeding as week 6 except replace open sesame with Cha Ching.
Week 8 - Same feeding as week 7 at this point you'll have to decide how long you think is left before harvest.Typically on most auto's it will be between 70-75 days.Decide if your doing a 2 week flush of one week .I feed up till about 10 days before harvest then flush with sledge hammer and finish in plain 6.5 ph water.I only do one flush during the grow at week 5 with sledgehammer .
