changing to 12/12h after 49 days of 20/4 ? (yield?) ::: RQS Hulkberry Auto

Hello guys,
thats my first post here and just out of couriosity i would like to ask you how much % yield i would loose if i change to 12/12 after 49 days of 20/4 since germination. (i know that its impossible to give precise answer to my questions, but maybe you could still give some helpful answer)

First of all some short information about my Light setup:
LED: 250w Total Power (diy build, but it seems they are working really good)
5 x 50w 3500k chinese COB LEDs
LEDs are positioned so that the plants getting light even at the bottom part.
I could add 200w more (4 x 50w), but i think it doesnt makesense for only couple plants that does fill only half of the 120x120cm box.

Strains:
Autoflower: 2 x Hulkberry Auto (Royal Queens seeds): 80cm and 100cm
Photoperiod: 1 x Royal Gorilla + 1 Special Queen (Royal Queen seeds)

So, the reason i am thinking to change to 12/12 is because i have 2 photoperiod strains (RQS Royal Gorilla, RQS Special Queen) inside the box, that are pretty big already (30l pots), but thats not even a space problem. I have enough space, so i could also keep running 20/4, but the 2 Autoflowers i have should give at least 25g per plant.
The stretch is over now and i think it will take max 3 weeks until harvest.

The theory behind the idea to change to 12/12:
Lets say it takes 3 weeks until harvest of the Autoflowers.
If i would change to 12/12 now, then the photoperiod strains would only need about 6 more weeks (about 42 days) after harvest of the autoflower. If i get about 45-50g from the 2 Autoflowers, then its enough for me to have something until the photoperiods are ready to harvest.
So, even if i get less yield because of 12/12, then its totally fine for me, because i bought the seeds to have something a bit earlier.
The photoperiod strains i wanted to grow for some time to make clones. (the first 5 clones of 12 in total are already rooting)

My question is: Do i loose much when i do 12/12 for about the last 3 weeks?
I am sorry for the bad explanation, but i hope you understand my situation. My english is not perfect

Thanks in advance and best regards!

someone89 said:

Hello guys,
thats my first post here and just out of couriosity i would like to ask you how much % yield i would loose if i change to 12/12 after 49 days of 20/4 since germination. (i know that its impossible to give precise answer to my questions, but maybe you could still give some helpful answer)

First of all some short information about my Light setup:
LED: 250w Total Power (diy build, but it seems they are working really good)
5 x 50w 3500k chinese COB LEDs
LEDs are positioned so that the plants getting light even at the bottom part.
I could add 200w more (4 x 50w), but i think it doesnt makesense for only couple plants that does fill only half of the 120x120cm box.

Strains:
Autoflower: 2 x Hulkberry Auto (Royal Queens seeds): 80cm and 100cm
Photoperiod: 1 x Royal Gorilla + 1 Special Queen (Royal Queen seeds)

So, the reason i am thinking to change to 12/12 is because i have 2 photoperiod strains (RQS Royal Gorilla, RQS Special Queen) inside the box, that are pretty big already (30l pots), but thats not even a space problem. I have enough space, so i could also keep running 20/4, but the 2 Autoflowers i have should give at least 25g per plant.
The stretch is over now and i think it will take max 3 weeks until harvest.

The theory behind the idea to change to 12/12:
Lets say it takes 3 weeks until harvest of the Autoflowers.
If i would change to 12/12 now, then the photoperiod strains would only need about 6 more weeks (about 42 days) after harvest of the autoflower. If i get about 45-50g from the 2 Autoflowers, then its enough for me to have something until the photoperiods are ready to harvest.
So, even if i get less yield because of 12/12, then its totally fine for me, because i bought the seeds to have something a bit earlier.
The photoperiod strains i wanted to grow for some time to make clones. (the first 5 clones of 12 in total are already rooting)

My question is: Do i loose much when i do 12/12 for about the last 3 weeks?
I am sorry for the bad explanation, but i hope you understand my situation. My english is not perfect

Thanks in advance and best regards!

Click to expand...

I'm going to be doing something similar to you. I'm a couple weeks farther from harvest, and light cycle change. I'm expecting yield to be slightly noticeably smaller. Worse case, I'm expecting 20-25% smaller. But I'm going to have lower temps and humidity, so I'm expecting denser more resinous buds, which I prefer. For me I think the tradeoff will be worth it, since it will make my environment better for flowering, and helps with space issues. For you, I think it depends on your environment and if you expect to run out of weed and need additional yield.

Hi, thanks for your reply and help.
I cannot imagine it will be more than 15% less yield if i change for the last 2-3 weeks, but even if, then its fine for me to be honest, because only about 6 weeks later the photoperiod strains are done.

Temps is a very good point that i forgot to write about. My box is in the Attic, so when its cold outside, then its cold in the attic and when its hot outside, then its also very hot in the attic. I did the first grow there a year ago in about the same time as now and in the flower cycle i had temps of sometimes 32°, and the light went on when it was dark outside...
Right now, i have perfect temps (about 21-23°) and should stay below 27° for the next 7-10 days.

PS: I havent smoked for at least 3 month and my last grow was a year ago. Its my 4th grow within 10 years and i am inpatient like it would be my first

someone89 said:

Hi, thanks for your reply and help.
I cannot imagine it will be more than 15% less yield if i change for the last 2-3 weeks, but even if, then its fine for me to be honest, because only about 6 weeks later the photoperiod strains are done.

Temps is a very good point that i forgot to write about. My box is in the Attic, so when its cold outside, then its cold in the attic and when its hot outside, then its also very hot in the attic. I did the first grow there a year ago in about the same time as now and in the flower cycle i had temps of sometimes 32°, and the light went on when it was dark outside...
Right now, i have perfect temps (about 21-23°) and should stay below 27° for the next 7-10 days.

PS: I havent smoked for at least 3 month and my last grow was a year ago. Its my 4th grow within 10 years and i am inpatient like it would be my first

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With that knowledge, you might want to flip to flower asap, to get best case scenario flowering temps on current crop, and then do a long veg on your clones, and start flowering when temps start to drop so that they get the best flowering temps. I couldn't get my apartment very warm this past winter, my sativas had a very hard time but my indicas did fine. Might want to consider different strains for different seasons with your grow environment.

Thank you very much. I will do it exactly as you wrote.
The idea to choose strains depending on the season is a pretty good one!
Especially for gaming i would like to have some mostly sativa genetic e.g. 80% Sativa, but some that does not take more than 10 weeks to flower. Maybe you know a good one? (not that important, i will googe a bit and for sure i will find some reviews)
Again, thank you very much.

17% loss.

I grew out and smoked some Shining Silver Haze from RQS that I really liked, that would be very suitable to a hot and humid environment. The bud was very air and I think she finished just shy of 10 weeks. I see that you've been using RQS, every seed that I've popped from them has been very good.
Glad that I could help in a small way

Good to know! Thanks. I checked it and it looks good interesting. I think i will order 3 seeds soon.
Yes, i cannot say anything bad about RQS, but also i wouldnt say that i am a experienced grower. I have experience, also with cloning and SoG, but until now the only strains i had were:
White Widow x Big Bud (female seeds)
- I did a SoG with them and liked them very much. I had to harvest them a bit early, which gave me the perfect high for e.g. gaming where i dont want to be totally knocked out and thats actually what i would have now also so i am thinking to harvest one of the Mothers (Royal Gorilla / Special Queen) when the trichome are cloudy but not amber.
Special Queen (RQS - last year grow)
That plant is a quiet good mix between a high and couchlock effect but would still say 60% couchlock. Its the perfect plant for beginners. It seems that its impossible to do something wrong and i have temperatures of 32°C sometimes.. . I have a seed left over from last year, thats why i am growing it again.
Hulkberry Auto (RQS - current grow)
Cannot say much, just that, that it has since the beginning yellow leave-tips, but still it looks very healthy and grows also healthy. No other problems so far. Its mostly Sativa so i am pretty curious about the effect
Royal Gorilla (RQS - current grow)
Its so bushy, never knew its even possible, but same as the Special queen, but that has to be because of the COB LED i use, because the Special queen i have growed last year with a HPS and it was completly different. Its crazy what different Light does..
Also that strain is very robust. No problems at all. RQS says that it has to have up to 27% THC. Some growers wrote 24% and that its strong, but they dont feel the +24% THC. Not pretty important for me, it should be more than enough because i am not a all day smoker

Thats all for now In case i dont forget it, then i will give a review when i have tested the Hulkberry and the Royal Gorilla.
Ah and one more thing: I shouldnt have anymore such a high temps as last year, because last year i used 2 x 70w Powerball Osram (WDL? at least in germany they name it WDL) + 400W HPS, so 540W in Total, and right now 250W LED and the heat difference seems to be pretty big.

Nice selection, I'm curious to how the hulkberry turns out, I was considering their photo version. I've also grown their Med Mass, like the SSH it germinated very fast, good vigor, good structure, was easy to grow. I want to try their Runtz, other hazes, and their sour diesel. Not sure when I'll get around to it, I have so many seeds I need to pop first. I haven't been growing long myself, about a year and a half, but I've been making so many mistakes the experience has been coming fast

I will let you know in 2-3 weeks .
Alright thanks, will take a look at those strains.
Oh yeah, making mistakes is the fastest way to learn
After the Motherplants are finished, i wanna do some experiments with the clones. Soil, coco, different mixtures, different techniques, etc. to get some more experience. I am growing to have something for my self and i think from the 2 mothers i should have enough for over a year, so after that run its time to make experiments It does also make more fun than just doing everytime the same.

someone89 said:

I will let you know in 2-3 weeks .
Alright thanks, will take a look at those strains.
Oh yeah, making mistakes is the fastest way to learn
After the Motherplants are finished, i wanna do some experiments with the clones. Soil, coco, different mixtures, different techniques, etc. to get some more experience. I am growing to have something for my self and i think from the 2 mothers i should have enough for over a year, so after that run its time to make experiments It does also make more fun than just doing everytime the same.

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Making changes to your medium isn't going to help you. Stick with one and learn it. That's how you gain experience.

someone89 said:

I will let you know in 2-3 weeks .
Alright thanks, will take a look at those strains.
Oh yeah, making mistakes is the fastest way to learn
After the Motherplants are finished, i wanna do some experiments with the clones. Soil, coco, different mixtures, different techniques, etc. to get some more experience. I am growing to have something for my self and i think from the 2 mothers i should have enough for over a year, so after that run its time to make experiments It does also make more fun than just doing everytime the same.

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That's how I did it, helped me make a ton of mistakes. Growing in coco is a pain, but glad i did it, learned a lot. Now I'm back to organic, I love the simplicity of water only, occasional tea/top feed. I do foliar feed synthetics to my clones, which I would never have done if I didn't grow in coco.

@twentyeight.threefive: You might be right. I should also maybe buy a PH and EC meter.
Currently i am growing on pre-fertilized soil but i use Advanced Nutrients PH Perfect. I give only 50% of what is recommended, but i dont know about the PH of my water and whats in the Soil, so i think it should start to check the PH and EC.
Is it correct that if i would use e.g. BioBizz organic then i dont need to check the PH ? Have used BioBizz in my previous grow and had no problems.

@Sparky413: Good to know, then i think i will continue with soil and just try to optimize it as also twentyeight.threefive said.

You have longer than 3 weeks to go on your autos if stretch has just finished. Try 6-8

someone89 said:

@twentyeight.threefive: You might be right. I should also maybe buy a PH and EC meter.
Currently i am growing on pre-fertilized soil but i use Advanced Nutrients PH Perfect. I give only 50% of what is recommended, but i dont know about the PH of my water and whats in the Soil, so i think it should start to check the PH and EC.
Is it correct that if i would use e.g. BioBizz organic then i dont need to check the PH ? Have used BioBizz in my previous grow and had no problems.

@Sparky413: Good to know, then i think i will continue with soil and just try to optimize it as also twentyeight.threefive said.

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With your hot attic environment, plants might grow better in coco or a soil/coco mix. Coco would let you water everyday which could keep your roots cool in the summer, or the soil could better protect them. You might be better off with coco during the summer and soil during the winter. I think you should experiment with a plant or 2. If you decide to grow in coco, I learned a lot from https://www.cocoforcannabis.com/.

You should really be PH'ing your water if you're feeding synthetics. There's a really good explanation on the site above on how to check ph. Growing in soil and using synthetics, I think it's a good idea to use a product like recharge frequently to add life and make the nutrients in the soil available.

You don't have to check the PH with BioBizz or any much cheaper dry organic. Organic nutrient uptake happens via microbial life, synthetic salts are available to the plants instantly and only in certain ph ranges.

@T-ronik: The stretch finished about 1 week ago, maybe a bit more than a week, but the one plant should be done in max 3 week. The other hulkberry might take 1 week longer.
I did 2-3 mistakes at the beginning: I was waiting for my "BioBizz All-Mix" Soil to arive, but they germinated already so i have put then in "used" soil. I have only flushed it, but it was not the best idea. The mistake was, that i used 100 watt LED and it was too close. The third mistake was that i planted the hulkberry in 1 liter pots at the beginning, but thats because i was waiting for the All-Mix to arrive. They were then in the 1 liter pots for about 2 weeks.
Automatics and repotting is not a good thing, i know.

About 6-8 shedule: Might be a good idea for the automatics, but not for the 2 photoperiod mothers i think. I will wait a bit until i switch to 12/12, becazse 5 clones are since 2-3 days in 1L pots. I would like to make 2 mothers from 2 Royal Gorilla clones and 2 mothers from the Special Queen clones. The rest of the clones i want to repot to 7L pots in 1-2 weeks and let them flower with the 2 big Mothers.
So, my plan now is to wait at least 1 week, then check how the Automatic will look and compare the progress. If the progress in 1 week is not very big then i will wait another 1 week and then repot the couple clones to 7L pots and switch to 12/12.

One interesting thing: The special queen seed (the mother) was about 1 year old. The Royal gorilla was new. I have cut 5 clones from the Royal Gorilla which all rooted within 7-8 days in peat pallets (Jiffy`s).
I took 7 clones from the Special queen, and now after 13 days only 3 clones have rooted.
I think it has nothing to do that the Special Queen seed was about 1 year old. (the mother is very healthy). There were in the same cloning box, so they had the same conditions. I have read that some strains take longer to root, but thats quiet a big difference.

@Sparky413: Thank you again for your help. Good explanation.
I will finish this grow with the Synthetic nutrient "Advanced nutrients PH Perfect". The plants look healthy, especially the mothers look perfectly healthy. After that grow i think i will use only BioBizz organic products.
The only problem is that i would like to have automatic watering when i am not at home for 1-2 weeks and with organic nutrients i have heard that its not a good idea.

someone89 said:

Automatics and repotting is not a good thing, i know.

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This is 100% false. I transplant all my autos from starter pots to their final 3 gallon pots. Never an issue.

Oh okay, good to know I thought that because of repotting i will have less yield or it will take longer.