Automatics during veg cycle..?

So I'm usually a regular seed kind of guy but with all the freebies from the Attitude, I'm gonna take a crack at a few fems and an auto this go around.

Planned on running the auto while the fems are vegging (20/4 cycle) so I have some puff while I wait for the rest. Question is, do I run MH for the vegging plants and just run the auto that way to completion before switching to HPS?

My thoughts would be to cater to the bulk of the room, correct? Give the plants that will live longer what they want first? Or would it be better to go HPS the whole way since autos are supposedly a bit less tolerant of stress?

Appreciate your thoughts!

I actually got some auto freebies as well and was considering doing something like this. I actually like to veg with HPS. I get super short node spacing, but I hear HPS can slow the veg process down slightly. I found this in another thread...

"We have been doing ALOT of work experimenting side by side with vegging with MH and HPS.The main thing we have seen is vegging with HPS really slows the vegprocess.....well let me clarify.

HPS seems to excellerate root growth alot more then top veg growth.
The stalk size is twice that of vegging with MH. The rootmass is far thicker also. Along with this is the super short internodal growth.

For me, if I am in a hurry to Veg, I would use MH, as the plant will reach "flippin'" height faster then HPS. If I am in no hurry, I would veg with HPS, escpecially if I wanted shorter, bushier plants."



Hope this helps.

Your best bet is to cater to the non-autos for one reason - autos will finish at 12/12 but non-autos
can't finish at 20/4 or 18/6. The autos are adaptable, make them adapt.

Here's what I did when I first decided to have a mixed grow. I only had one room at the time so all the
plants, autos and not, got 20/4 lights the first 5-6 weeks. Then switch to 12/12 and let the autos finish
with that light schedule.

If an auto takes 10 weeks in dirt to finish at 20/4, it may take a week longer to finish the autos with a split schedule.
The autos finish fine at 12/12, they're just a bit slower.

BigSteve.

A MH bulb isn't going to stress your autos. Use it, you'll be fine. A lot of people report better smoke with the MH anyways; it might lower your yield slightly though (For the autos.).

Thanks everyone! Crazy thing, I went through my bulbs last night to figure out which one I wanted to use and I had 3 x HPS with one grow each and no MH... Suppose life chose this one for me, huh?

Gonna run HPS the whole way through. I have a short room so the shorter nodes may help me out a bit actually. Nothin like a bit of trial and error right?

Appreciate the replies, I'll try to let you know how it goes.