Next grow - Autos and Photos

[laf6502 (Robert)]

Okay here goes the combined auto/photo run. The first set of 6 auto flowers were planted 5 days after three photo periods. then I just sprouted three more autos to flower with the photos at 12 hrs.

It has been an eventful start as the my dog ate up two of the photos pretty good the day I was switching tent set-ups. And I overwatered the autos to start so they were stunted a couple days. One died and I later filled its spot with an ethos haze auto.

For this run, I am only running ethos genetics. For the first six autos I have 3 Pineapple Runtz, 2 Strawberry OG Cookies, and the Ethos Haze auto. For the Autos that will be flowering with the photos - Pineapple Runtz auto, Planet of the Grapes auto, and Grandpas Stash

For the Photos - Three Mandarin Cookies (version 3).

Currently everything is growing with some veggies that will be moved over to another tent before going outside.

Currently it is not organized how I want it until later when I get the veggies out.

Mandarin Cookies at 40 days from bean drop. The two together were bigger till they were eaten by the pooch. They made a good recovery but I couldn’t top the satellite stems until about 10 days after the other one.

In the empty spot, I dropped the Grandpas stash as I did not want a big plant in the same pot as the Mandarin Cookies. When the first set of autos are about done I will reduce the cycle to 12hrs.

The first set of autos in the back are at 35 days from seed and are in the middle of stretch.

Im running filtered air into the 8x8x8 from two sides and exhausting out of the top. I currently have a hodgepodge of lights of which some will be upgraded. I am so happy with the cali light works from my last grow I may put a few more of them in there so I can run my programs that have taken some pain staking hours to dial in. But I have 20 settings in each program so my light intensity and spectrum is changing every 1 hour to 1.5 hours. Im not going to get into the exact settings but the morning start out with a very high red but overall intensity is down to mimic sunrise. That graduates into a hot intense day as the blue and white reach their maximum intensity. Then it goes back down to the red sunset over the last couple hours. The banana daddys and forgotten cookies I grew last round was literally some of the best looking weed ive ever seen.

I went to next level when I went to earth boxes… But when you get the lighting dialed then I saw what I was missing.

In terms of the boxes… These are old boxes. I pulled the rootballs and reammended the soil and added a few more worms and castings. The ammendments: (All BAS) Crustacean meal, Gnarly Barley, Craft Blend, Kashi, Big 6 Micros, Gaia Rock Dust (That’s what I have), fish bone meal, Alfalfa meal, insect frass, Karanja/neem blend, horticultural aloe, root wise couple and Colorado worm company casting. ---- At Flower, I top dress with craft blend, kashi, worm castings, and top dress blend to bury it. Im sure I throw a few other things in there but that’s the basics.

After that’s done, dump some water in every time the bottoms dry (1/2 gal to 1gal). Your plants will always be perfectly watered and not the constant overwatered/underwatered from top watering. Let your roots find their fresh water source and the feeders will go crazy in the rest of the box.

edit: Also worth noting… My cali light works have never been closer than 30inches to my plants. Same way I ran them last round until the end they may have gotten as close as 26"

Anyways I will update when I get ready to flip the mandarin cookies.

[Chasworks]

Very nicely done, i have a few of those ingredients by other companies as BAS doesn’t ship out the country: the EB has changed my game along with the live worms: love the tips!

[kanashiihawk (I'm a Gardener)]

Nice…I run photos and autos all the time in my 10 foot by 5 foot grow room. Fun, isn’t it? Ever notice MEN show lots more photos of their CANNABIS plants than lady posters? We are more secretive and seductive…No one sees the WONDERS under our leaves until we are ready to deliver potent terpenes. Grandma science.
Peace,
Jackie

[laf6502 (Robert)]

Thanks… The EB is great. I am growing all my veggies too. I gave my 4x4 to my wife so I only have to keep the smaller leafy stuff in my tent and she can have all the sprawling flowering stuff. I been teaching her how to prune to keep it in its space and not to keep all the flower spots! Its so frustrating but her tent is looking pretty dope now.

I flipped to flower on 47 for the flowers (like 2 days ago) since I pulled the new autos out and gave them to my niece. I finally decided on my final light set up and got those in…

For the Autos, I am going to run three California Lightworks SS 550’s (one with UVB for later) over a 4x8 space and keep them hung high.

For the three photos, they will go in a trellised 4x4 space although I may not use the net depending how they stretch as the stems are pretty stout. They are going under the SpectraMax1000 (Also Cali Lightworks). That was the final piece I just couldn’t decide which light I wanted. But I am confident, for the money this is the best light for home grow in the market for a 4x4 space. 900 watts max power, super efficient, the best diodes, integrated drivers in each bar, and fully controllable by the hour (2ch red/wh)… That was the only downside is I wanted full control like over the blue like with the 550s but its close enough. I know all the talk is about HLG diablos and a few others… But I am telling you, if you’re looking for the best, the California Lightworks are flat out dope and made in USA with great warranties.

Now that the light problem has been solved

The photos… Mandarin Cookies Ver.3. All three came out super indica dom as expected. Both the stems and foliage are looking great. Gave them a little trim and a massive top dress a few days prior. Looking promising so well see as it been a while since I ran photos.

The Autos… Pineapple Runtz and Strawberry OG cookies at about day 44 from seed.

The Pineapple Runtz are over 3ft plants. The Strawberry OG cookies looking good but never stretched out like the PRs… One will be over 2ft though and one about 18". The Ethos Haze that is a couple weeks behind is taller already. Flowers are starting to stack on everything but the Haze. The foliage under the 550s is looking amazing. The all received a massive deposit into their EBs about a week ago… I went pretty heavy and that will carry them to the end easy.

[Chasworks]

Looking good! I see you have (2) auto’s in each EB, since this was my first shot at auto’s couple that with my first time using EB & a Lg Container i only dropped (1) ea EB and just (2) in the 45gal container with about 30gal of Soil: which is also my first time making Soil from scratch! It appears i am not doing too bad: thanks for all the assistance

[laf6502 (Robert)]

It is mostly strain specific… I grow mostly the same genetics so have a pretty good idea of how big the plants going to be. The ones I’m growing now are new and in the future might do only one Pineapple Runtz per box. But almost all the strains I grow are smaller/ medium 18" -36" inches. If I grew something that likes to stretch and bush out like forum stomper it would just be one in the box.

Good placement as far away from each other as possible but not too close to the edge. Maybe 6-8" from either edge and you should be good. Plus gives you the maximum room to heap top dress in the middle.

The soil building and re-ammending is the way to go… Then you know exactly what’s in it. Just don’t forget to let it sit a week and test the temp as it can get really hot.

[laf6502 (Robert)]

Here is some closer photos of the autos

Pineapple Runtz

Strawberry OG Cookies a little behind with the 2 week younger Haze behind it starting to stretch over it.

The one in the back is still straightening out and will be the tallest.

[Chasworks]

Looking good! my (4) of 2 different genetics starter tray flipped and upon recovery i had no idea which seeds were where! Never grew the genetic be for but all were medium height: the all went into flower separately.

[laf6502 (Robert)]

Haha… I mix mine up all the time when I forget to label them.

Here is the final set up… Finally got everyone in there final spots at least.

The spectra max will fill an entire 4x4 with a couple inches to spare.

Ill keep the 550s in the 4x8 back space and just grow auto flowers. I will eventually keep 2-3 boxes and then start another 2-3 boxes after the first group is about 35 days old. Doubt I will do photos again for a while but I still have a bunch of freebie fems I would like to grow. (Las Vegas Lemon Skunk x Ethos Haze IBL and Super Skunk x End Game #5) so by summer that could change.

After I move the veggies in the front portion im not sure what I want to grow but probably a tree.

[Chasworks]

Nicely done your whole room looks Happy!

[laf6502 (Robert)]

45 days from seed… flowers are starting to develop and stacking some resin from the beginning. Just now starting to throw off some odor. The Photo stems already smell like strong oranges.

Some beautiful pistils on the pineapple runtz

The most indica Dom of the three PR’s

Strawberry OG cookie flowers 45 days from seed.

The Mandarin Cookies R3 (ver.3) at 50 days from seed. @Chasworks I like to generally always plant seeds on both sides of my earth box. The main reason is I like how two plants leach the water out. But even with photos you can bend and train them away from each other or let them go straight up before trellising. The EB were I planted the Grandpas Stash auto with the photo… I pruned away two stems growing into the photo and then just bend the rest away. But again, the way the box cycles water is better. just an fyi why I do it. Plus I like to make one big box of flowers even if I lose a couple stems.

These girls are cycling 1.5 gals a day right now.

And finally, the new seeds 4 days from bean drop. I used the BAS seedling soil mix for these and I have to say I am impressed. The soil is super airy and light. About 5 squirts with a spray bottle and it absorbs it like a sponge and is dry by the next morning. At 4 days… It has produced beautiful seedlings with absolutely perfect stems. And one directly in the EB Below where I put the seedling soil where I planted.

Another beauty 4 days from bean drop. If you want beautiful big autos, the first week is the most important… If the stems don’t look like this within a couple days I start over.

Edit: The new seeds (Toof Decay x Forum Stomper, Pinot Noir, Ripley’s OG x Walter White, forgotton cookies, and Wedding Cake - all autos)

[Chasworks]

2 in a box makes sense: i think i did 1 because i seen build a soil do 2 then the next run he did 1: the 1 plant has filled in nicely but i see room for 2 unless i try 1 in the middle first I have room for 4 EB’s in my 4x6 foot tent: with a limit of 6-8 plants i would need to double them up to have max count Its up in the air

[laf6502 (Robert)]

For me, in a 4x6 I think I would go 4 boxes but space them (time wise) so the tent doesn’t get over grown…. 2 boxes 4 plants and then repeat in 35 days or so…. If you’re running good genetics that are average 75 days seed to harvest. Otherwise may have to space them 45 days.

You’ll be glad you spaced them when they start raging… plus it’s nice to have the constant harvest of fresh meds.

[laf6502 (Robert)]

Photos finally triggered and popping pistils.

Day 11 (56 total from seed) since the light change… 13.5 hours with .25 hours on each end with sunrise/sunset settings. Took about 9-11 days for all to start showing pistils. Today the last one is showing pistils. I am going to flower these at 13 hours of light until about the last 2-3 weeks of flower.

Mandarin Cookies starting the stretch

Autos got final defoliation and are stacking hard now

I think some of the higher red spectrums morning and night definitely help the stems stretch and branch.

[Snowyroads (Ben)]

Hey there, welcome.
A lot of auto growers say never go down to 12/12. They say it’ll kill your yield and quality by about 30%.
I keep mine on a 20/24 schedule. Done about 6 runs on that schedule, and for me at least it seems to have the best results.

[laf6502 (Robert)]

Yes it can but not necessarily. I am running mine at 13.5 but the intensity is cranked quite a bit higher for periods of the day.

At the end of the day… I have well over 2k watts hanging in my tent and the difference in total DLI that the plant can actually uptake is minimal. I would rather run at 18 but with higher intensity the yield and quality will be just fine. Density all the way down through the lowers is where I want them at this point.

And, when you are flowering photos, that is the focal point of the tent… The autos are just there. So you kinda can’t be at 20/24 with the lights

[laf6502 (Robert)]

Photo’s are at day 59 (day 14 flower)… Autos at Day 54 from seed.

Mandarin cookies preparing to bloom at day 14 flip.

Branching is plentiful on every stem as you’d like and they are starting to stretch nicely. Definitely loving the spacing and structure of this Mandarin Cookies.

Another stem… They all look the same from plant to plant. Very consistent genetics. Cleaned some growth going to the inside of the plant.

@Chasworks this is why I don’t worry about 2 in the box… Once they start to stretch out you can bend them out or trellis. More than enough room. Even the grandpas stash looks like it will make it.

Just a beautiful indica at 59 days from seed. Hoping she maxes at about 36-40". Its fixing to get crazy up in this tent. The aromas from the pineapple runts is already gnarly strong.

[laf6502 (Robert)]

The new ones… About a week out the ground now… pushing roots down.

Pinot Noir

Wedding Cake x Double Grape x Crem de la chem - popped 2 of these since im out and you have to have this in your jar.

The ethos haze ibl auto towering over the 2 week older strawberry go cookies. Haze finally done stretching and starting to put a little meat on those skinny legs. She smelling gnarly already… The super lemon haze coming through with a bit more burnt rubber. Im hoping she finishes very SLH dominant.

Pineapple runtz day 54 from bean drop

Lower stems on the PR

PR top at 54 days from seed.

Straw OG cookie nugs close up

PR nugs close up

[Chasworks]

Wow 45 day Veg, nice i like to Veg mine only 5 weeks: quickens the turn around but gives enough time to take a few clones each plant! Now with a plant count of (4) per seed you don’t need to Veg to get extra yield

[laf6502 (Robert)]

Yeah I always wait at least 6 weeks and give them time to sex. It’s just a safer flip.

At 45 days size is still more than manageable. 60 is really pushing it for indoor grows.

The bloom is starting a little slower with 13.5 hrs of light but if all goes as planned I will get more stretch on the branching with the reds to start and end day and then they will absolutely crush through stack and more than make up for the slow start. I will probably back em off 1 hr around week 7 and bump the reds.