Hey everyone! So I’m in a bit of a pickle here and don’t know if I should defoliate or not to try to get light to other areas…any suggestions? It’s GG#4 autoflower and is 22 days old today. I’ve trimmed the true leaves and one set of lower fan leaves. Still very covered and not getting light in certain areas
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@MwOutlaw573 let her be bro. Autos are real finicky about defoliation and any kind of stress. Luckily you are still in the veg state. These ladies flip on their own and alot of stress will affect the yield since they really dont have to recover. As far as nutes, start at a quarter of whats recommended and see how she reacts. Make sure to check your ph. Other than that bro shes looking awesome! Keep on truckin…
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I would trim the very bottom set of branches or raise your light up more to allow her to stretch and then after that point its about time to either top or apply some form of LST (low stress training) via a lst clip, pipe cleaners, paper clips in the dirt or landscape staples. Also im not a big fan of any leaves touching the medium as that just casues problems down the road and you eventually lose the lower leaves regardless. Im not an auto grower so ill tag a few any maybe they will have some better input to help you as topping could be too late @Not2SureYet @Nicky
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Hi. If leaves r touching soil. cut them. Like @BigCat420 said, raise lite a titch so nodes get some space.
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Those growers above me got you covered!
Im just here to say Welcome to the forum… so Welcome! Lol
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Welcome to the community @MwOutlaw573 I agree with everything @beachglass said, including what @BigCat420 suggested.
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Wow thanks for the warm welcome! Didn’t expect that. I had the light @ 24" raised it to 36". Also took off the two leaves touching the soil.
Support ticket:
- Strain: GG4 Autoflower
- Soil: Fox farm Happy Frog
- 5 gallon fabric pots
- 4x4 AC Infinity tent w/ 400w led light, inline fan and 2
clip oscalating fans
I have managed to keep PH right at 7 so far. I havent had much run off due to the fact that I don’t give it a lot of water at a time. I’m using Fox Farm nutes as well. As far as humidity and temp. The system I have keeps it at a consistent 77 degrees and 60% humidity and get as low as 45 if the air starts getting dry being as I have it set up in my garage and live in Missouri where it’s freezing one day and hot the next. If there is anything I’m leaving out let me know. I’ll take all the advise I can get.
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Welcome @MwOutlaw573 - she looks good! 36” may be a little high. If you haven’t already, you should consider downloading the photone app (or get a light meter) and then set the lighting up or down based on the PPFD and DLI values you want to reach for whatever stage the plants are in. The charts are all over the forum if you search for the acronyms.
$%#&*@ challenging weather this spring…. Dern 97% humidity and 70F at 6 this am… 
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Welcome to the community. Your are doing a great job 
Happy Growing 
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If you don’t want to remove leaves until you have some more experience, you can definitely manipulate them a bit to help the new growth escape from underneath them. Try gently moving a branch under a big fan leaf a little to the left or right, and then move that big fan leaf a bit in the other direction and push it down between branches. Sometimes it’s necessary to lightly pull the new branches away from the stalk and down a bit, and then tie or anchor them somehow.
This is the most basic form of leaf tucking/training, and it won’t bother the plant at all.
There’s also no problem doing more aggressive training on autos once you know what you’re doing. The worst thing an auto grower can do is listen to advice from photo growers who have a bias against autos for some reason. I grew photos for a while, but switched to autos several years ago. I love them both, but autos just work better for me.
It’s true that you can easily stunt an auto if you make a big mistake, but people are definitely under the impression that they’re way more fragile and sensitive than they really are. For example, I transplant my autos, and they do far better than when I used to start them in their final pots. I’m seeing 7 plus oz results from my average autos these days, and I remove lots of leaves and lower branches. I also top sometimes, and even super crop depending on how all the individual plants are growing.
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You are justified in your satisfaction with autos with those results. I would be too. I have not grown an auto for several years. Being new to this I was successful overall with them and never had a bust.
I do have a question. We all see a lot of posts out these micro autos that are 6 - 8" tall and in full flower. Is this 100% due to grower errors and stress put of the plant? Or, how much is it bad luck and drawing a genetic misfit? Has this happened to you? Has it happened recently?
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I feel terrible for people when I see those pics you’re talking about with tiny autos in full flower. I feel like if only they reached out for some help before they started things would have been different.
I’m reasonably certain that the experience I gained growing photos made my transition to autos smooth and successful. If I had started with autos and messed up at the beginning, I might very well have developed that anti auto attitude, lol.
To answer your question, I think it’s probably 98% user error that causes those sad looking tiny autos, so long as seeds are from a reputable breeder. Over watering, inappropriate soil/medium, bad germination, low/high temp, overzealous feeding, over/under lighting, and so on. It’s definitely really important to get off to a good start.
I’ve stunted 4 autos total, and that’s out of approx 250 plants, none in the last year or so. Two were NYC Diesel, one was a Skywalker, and one Super Skunk. Although they were far smaller than my average autos, they weren’t total losses by any means. Low harvest, but great smoke. The SW and the SS were definitely my fault, I transplanted a little bit too early and the rootballs broke a bit in my hands as I was transferring them to the new pots. The NYC’s might have been compromised genetics because I couldn’t think of anything I did wrong. I haven’t had a bad plant since I limited my grows to nothing but ILGM and Mephisto seeds.
Also, it helps a lot to get familiar with the genetics you like. Some autos are absolute troopers, like Mango Smile from Mephisto. You can do almost anything to them, and they still want to get 6 feet tall, but some of their other strains I’ve learned not to try too much with.
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welcome. looking good so far
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She is looking fantastic so far. Like many have said autos can be finicky but arent nearly as hard to work with as many make it out to be. I personally Lst train my autos starting right around the size of your plant now or a little smaller. It just depends on when i can safely grab the top and start bending them over. The goal is to bend it down level to or below the rest of the plant to redirect growth hormones to the lower nodes causing explosive lateral growth and opening up the canopy to even light without excessive defoliation. It allows the plant to create tons of potential colas without over stressing them. Feel free to reach out and I or anyone else familiar with LST can guide you along. The results speak for themselves
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Yes it happened to me last summer. Blueberry auto from Quebec Cannabis. I blamed the hydrocut for being sprayed with growth retardants but in two other locations they also failed. All autos. (the photos from QCS were all amazing).
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@SandyC @Jaysittinback @GreggT @Cap_Ron @Ebb @Easy @PurpNGold74 thank you! I was super nervous bc I’ve heard a lot about how easy it is to stunt the growth of an auto but not so much now after reading what y’all have said. And as far as LST I would like to try that but not sure where to start being as my nodes are super close.
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My big worry is stunting with overwatering. Besides that not much to worry about.
I got my Purp Amnesia Auto stretching out turning off my veg light and increasing red light. Now buds are forming far enough out from main stalk, I’m gonna whack it with all kinds of UV high blue whatever I got.
Can’t recommend it because it’s still kinda new to me. I’d like feedback on that too.
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@MwOutlaw573 I have a few young ones that were growing tight like that. I’ll get some pics tonight when the lights come back on and try to show you how I encouraged the branches to escape the dark trap!
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These are mine right now at 50 days after breaking ground. I’m gonna ask some advice separately a bit later but the Runtz (wire hanging, below) had pretty tight spacing so I just spread everything wider. Then little more next feed and hopefully it’s right after a bit and set for thick buds!
The Bruce Banner (top) just grew straight from the middle so the main cola is horizontal and then spread from there. For me, it’s a delicate, paranoid hour to shape (every time) in which patience is rewarded. Also, have a crash cart with tape and honey just in case something breaks.
Others will have great advice. I’m looking forward to the @Cap_Ron wisdom referenced above too.
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