First time autoflower grow...

I'm happy to announce there are 5 new additions to the family! All 5 Snowryder autos from Attitude successfully germinated in the tried and true paper towel method. Basically I just soak the seeds overnight in a glass of water, then put them between a double layer of fairly damp paper towels, put them on a plate, cover them with a bowl, and finally put the whole contraption in an oversized ziplock bag. Stick em in a dark closet, and presto: germinated seeds! Two of them germinated within 24 hours, two within 48 hours, and the biggest of the 5 seeds took 3 days. Into Solo cups they went and into the grow room. They are a good 3 feet away from the 150 watt HPS on the perimeter so they'll be fine. I think when it comes time to transplant them they will go directly into 2-gallon grow-bags.

On the other hand, this does raise a dilemma. I'm still not certain if my other 3 plants are actually autos. If it turns out they are, great! If not, then they are going to have to veg for another couple of months because I have the Snowryders in the same grow area and I can't turn the lights to 12-12 so they are just going to have to grow nice and bushy. If they start getting too tall then I'll just top them.

New pictures are coming this Saturday. Again, please feel free to comment or offer up your knowledge! Cheers.

Wow. Don't know who the transplanting was more stressful to; me or the plants! The Jock Horror and the Bubblelicious were pretty rootbound and were somewhat difficult to remove from the 1-gallon containers - it took some doing and I thought I was hurting the plants for sure. The roots were a very healthy white so hopefully they will be OK. The Northern Lights was rootbound as well, but not nearly as bad as the others.

The next few days will be very telling. The leaves are already drooping, but not as bad as I thought they might, although that could change so I need to monitor them closely. I plan on putting a white sheet between the plants and the HID lights as I read that direct light from the HID is not good. In fact it said to put them under a fluorescent if possible for a few days but I don't have one so a white sheet will do good to filter the light. I also raised the lights fairly high.

I've attached some pix of the plants before transplanting - they are marked as to what they are. The Jock Horror and Bubblelicious were both about 14" tall and the Northern Lights was about 10". I definitely don't plan on transplanting again - too stressful!

i have 1 jock,NL, and 3 bubbles at 3 weeks old my self and from i been hearing is there not true autos.I've read a few [post where people are saying there not showing sex till they flip them 12/12.Yours are looking really nice i will be watching to see if urs do autoflower... keep up the good work

nice plants

flaboy76 said:

i have 1 jock,NL, and 3 bubbles at 3 weeks old my self and from i been hearing is there not true autos.I've read a few [post where people are saying there not showing sex till they flip them 12/12.Yours are looking really nice i will be watching to see if urs do autoflower... keep up the good work

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Thanks man. Yeah, I'm seriously beginning to doubt the autoflowering abilities of these guys. I could see if conditions were't good or something, but these guys are healthy. I'm going to keep vegging them for awhile and then if nothing happens I'll switch em to 12-12. Peace.

jfa916 said:

nice plants

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Thanks man - they're my babies!

Surprisingly little transplant shock considering how much I manhandled the plants! I think putting the white sheet between the lights and the plants helped as it cut down on the light intensity. On the other hand it's been less than 24 hours since transplanting so I don't want to speak too soon.

The 5 Snowryder autos have all broken through the soil and are officially little seedlings. They are in Solo cups right now so once they're a few inches tall I'll transplant them to larger containers.

I did want to say that these plastic grow bags are awesome. The 2-gallon size are only .12 a piece. I think they would make for easy transplanting as well. Just cut out the bottoms and sides with an X-acto knife and put the rootball into a new container. That said, I'm pretty sure I'm going to leave them in the 2-gallon containers.

Good news, no wait, check that - GREAT news! Unmistakable pistils showing on my Northern Lights auto! And this following the transplant I did yesterday - go figure. At any rate, I want to keep the white sheet between the plants and the lights for another day to make sure they are not shocked by the bright lights so soon after transplanting, but I will definitely take some pictures when I remove the sheet. Well this is certainly good news, but I still need to examine the Jock Horror and Bubblelicious for signs of flowering as well.

The one thing I am wondering is if my giving the plants Sensi Grow somehow triggered the plants to grow rather than flower. I've always read that autos don't have a vegging stage - supposedly they go right from seedling to flowering stage. I find it difficult to believe giving the plants grow formula nutrients would delay flowering, but it's a possibility I guess?

I also ordered a 190 CFM inline fan/carbon filter combo from eBay for $135. My grow area is rather small so a 190 CFM fan will be more than sufficient, even with two 150 watt HPS lights. I'll be posting more pix soon - I just want to let the pistils develop a bit more on the Northern Lights and hopefully they'll show up soon on the others. Stay tuned!

Well, I got tired of waiting and I removed the white sheet I had screening the plants after transplanting. Surprisingly to me there was little transplant shock. Again, I attribute this to the overall health of the plants.

After removing the sheet I was able to get a closer look at the Jock Horror and Bubblelicious. I was pleasantly surprised to find tiny, tiny white pistils just beginning to develop on both! Yay!! Hopefully within the next week these will begin to develop more fully and I'll be able to post some pix.

Also, the Snowryder seedlings are coming along nicely. They are getting a little stretchy, but that isn't a problem at all. It is perfectly fine to add additional soil right up to the cotyledons. I did this for all three of my current autos so I speak from experience. Stay tuned - hopefully I will be posting pix of the pistils that are forming on my 4-week old autos here real soon.

So, they may be Auto's. Great dude. I was hoping for that. So the pistols showed up at what age?

ripster said:

So, they may be Auto's. Great dude. I was hoping for that. So the pistols showed up at what age?

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First pistils showed up at approximately 4 1/2 weeks...a bit later than I thought they would. Not sure if it's a simple case of genetics or if my feeding them a grow formula nutrient somehow interfered with flowering. At any rate I am glad to see that (apparently) they are indeed autos. I'll be keeping a close eye on them and hopefully flowering will begin in earnest here soon.

Just wanted to drop in and comment on the autos showing sex. I am growing out NL autos and they showed sex at about 3 1/2 weeks. I fed them Grow Big a few times and am now going to switch over to Tiger Bloom. Being this is my first grow I am very happy with their progress and even more so because I am just using a 2 tube T5 light from HTG. It puts out 10,000 lumens but I think I am going to order some CFLs for additional lighting. Went to Lowes the other day along with Wal-Mart but they didn't have CFLs strong enough so I am going to need to order them online.

Just a couple shots of my Snowryder seedlings and a group shot of my grow room. Eight plants looks like it is going to be the max. Will probably transplant the Snowryders next weekend into the 1-gallon containers. Will be receiving my carbon filter/inline fan combo hopefully this upcoming week.

very nice plants im going to start my first grow with an autoberry soon! One thing though, I think I see a seedling stretching for light! Don't let her fall over

GanJulia said:

very nice plants im going to start my first grow with an autoberry soon! One thing though, I think I see a seedling stretching for light! Don't let her fall over

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Oh no - I won't let her fall over! I'll raise em up soon and then transplant them to 1-gallon containers next weekend. I usually leave a few inches of room in the pots so that way I can add soil to help stabilize the stems until they are strong enough to take care of themselves. Is autoberry like an auto blueberry? I'm always willing to try new strains although after these 8 plants finish I'm going to switch to some Crimea Blue seeds I have. Peace and thanks for stopping by!

Just wanted to post a brief update here at day 35. Plants are looking good and while all plants have shown their first pistils, flowering hasn't really begun to take off yet. Not sure what the deal is; I do think they are autos, but I just don't understand why flowering hasn't taken off in full force yet? Hopefully the next week or two will show results.

The smaller seedlings you see are my Snowryder autos. Hopefully they'll be more productive than my other guys. Worst case scenario is the 3 big guys aren't autos meaning they'll have to stay under 20-4 lights until the Snowryders finish. Then I would go to 12-12, which I certainly don't want to do if they are autos. What to do, what to do?!

Well, I have to say am very disappointed in these autoflower seeds. Great growth, but disappointed in how long it is taking to flower. I just started 5 Snowryder autos as well so I have no choice but to see this grow through to the end. However, once these 8 autos are done I will be starting a new grow journal with the 5 Crimea Blue seeds I have. I've had better luck in the past with photoperiod seeds so will probably go that direction next. Stay tuned!

I was going to wait until my Snowryders were a little bigger, but I decided just to be done with it so I transplanted all of them into 2-gallon bags so I wouldn't have to mess with them. So now in my grow-room I have a Bubblelicious auto, a Jock Horror auto (big as hell), a Northern Lights auto, and 5 Snowryder autos. Hopefully they'll all produce some nice healthy buds!

Carbon filter/inline fan arrives today so I may hook it up if I feel sufficiently motivated! I don't really need to hook it up right now though as I don't have an odor problem right now and I'm able to maintain proper temps with the closet door open. I would like to get it out of the way though.

I need to make a 4" hole in my closet though. I have a jab saw (or drywall saw, whatever you want to call it), but I'm thinking of investing in a drill with a hole saw. Thinking it might be easier and make a cleaner cut. Home Depot has a cordless Ryobi drill for $30 and I think a 4" hole saw might run another $20. A lot to make a hole in my opinion, but I'm sure the drill could come in handy for other uses.

I also am thinking about making another 4" hole near the floor for intake and installing a 4" inline fan with 60 CFM. Then I might be able to keep the closet door closed instead of open. I wanted to keep this as simple as possible, yet I keep finding new things to do. I'll post some pix of the filter/fan combo when I get a chance.

Can you tell me where you got the carbon filter/fan and how much it cost you? My grow is starting to get stinky even though its NL and I need to either take care of it in the coming week or find a spot to put them outside. Thanks and you're girls are looking great, keep up the good work.