Hello guys and girls. I just started my 2nd grow in my 4x4 main tent ( grow log is up if anyone wants to tag along) l.
I was curious since my first grow I did autoflowers and I did 20/4. I have digested thousands and thousands of hours of podcast, books, forum discussions etc in the 3 or so months I’ve been growing. I have heard different opinions on autoflower lighting.
I for one lean towards the opinion that some dark downtime is good. I have also heard the “science” behind autoflowers show they are designed and flourish with 24 hours of light.
So I took it upon myself to try it out.
This is a sour diesel autoflower from ILGM. Sprouted above soil 22 days ago and has been going absolutely s. So far I cannot argue with what I am seeing to this point. Granted this is not a technical experiment by any means, it’s one plant with no other grow comparing light cycles etc.
Just figured I would point out what my results have been to this point for anyone curious. How this will do once flower hits I guess we shall see .
3 gallon pot with happy frog, extra mychorizzae and top dressed Gaia green power bloom 2 days ago for when flowering hits ( also first time trying that). ( Don’t mind the burnt leaf or two I tried to crank dli up to 60 too early and settled on 40ish).
This is in a 2x2x4 tent with an Alibaba full spectrum supposedly with the older Samsung diodes for reference. Temps been right about 80 with a little fan, a diy CO2 milk jug and a little exhaust. Very minimal tent for experiment purposes.
I am getting a little burnt leaf here and there but other than so far she’s going insane on me. My wife can’t believe it because I’ll bring it up and show her one day and the next day she’s just like wow.
Haha hey I wouldn’t complain, I’m just hoping she makes it to the end and I get a harvest would be a successful experiment anything more than that is a bonus
She continues to go bonkers over night. I won’t post anymore photos until she starts to flower or I run across any serious issues. Minus a burned leaf here or there overall health appears to be amazing and growth is super fast. We shall see what happens when it hits flower.
A teachers aid on night time processes in plants. Captured the web adress so you can find and read it in its entirety if you want. Figure that she will process the days energy in the light same as dark because she has to do it at some point. While she is processing this energy, she isnt taking in more at the same time. Those hours spent processing are costing you dollar bills.
What you are seeing as exponential growth is just as easily, and more likely, a vigorously growing plant. Some seeds give you huge plants and some give you small plants. What you cant see is the stress of not doing night time things during the night.
Humans produce cortisol when stressed. What do plants do when they are stressed? I know light and heat stress will cause foxtails, nutritional stress is hell on the leaves. if stressed, a plant can spontaneously change sex and polinate itself. That seems like the plant equivilant of picking up a gun and shooting yourself. You know because after polination they seed out which is the last thing annual plants do before dying. Which is funny because I have heard insomniacs wish to die alot when they cant sleep for long periods. I think youll get to harvest just fine, many have. The question I have, is what would your plant have done if not stressed by being denied “sleep”. Would it be bigger, would it have given twice the weight it gives you in the end? What about taste and smell? Just my .02 cents.
Oh yea I still believe they need some dark down time. My actual grows for autos will be 20/4 but this was just a random thing I wanted to see how it worked. The one guy on the podcast I listen to was really adamant about autoflowers working best in 24 hours. He also was the one who has re vegged autoflowers and cloned them etc so I guess he’s pretty knowledgeable. Like I said not a technical experiment or anything but I was curious what the results would be just letting it go until the end. I can definitely see the stress on the leaves but it’s not as bad as I thought it would be to this point.
I wrote this before my morning coffee and I realise now after a reread that I wasnt clear with my intention. Less critique more inquisitive was my goal.
Oh and to play devil’s advocate. About wasting $ on electricity etc. If I’m running a lower wattage at 24 hours a day would it really be any more than running 20 hours a day at higher wattage
I will watch too. I thing they need a litle down time too. This will be hard to judge by just one grow as what strain you have makes a huge difference. I run a 16/8 my self. The extra 2 hours didn’t show any difference. So less electricity is always a good thing here. Plus. That equals less time on your lights. This is my 21 day old I have now. 16/8 for veg and 12/12 for flower. it has turned out to be my biggest auto size wise right now. Yours is doing great for you. I will follow along to see how this progresses.
Ive wondered about that with DLI vs Intensity. So, could get a super high DLI with your light 2 inches from the plant set at 25% and would that DLI diminish faster the further away you got because of lack of intensity? Like a DLI of 45 but two inches down from canopy gets a 5 DLI cuz the light isnt any brighter then a flashlight
I have thought this exact thing and I think I asked something similar on the big DLI thread. It was confusing to me because people recommended X wattage per foot etc. Yet if we go by DLI those #s go out the window. My example was my 480W HLG. I never had to go near full blast to keep the DLI recommended yet that is kind of the minimum wattage recommendation. It is very interesting and just goes to show how many ways there are to do things and how much we are all learning etc.
I would be curious though to know the answer to your question there. I just wanted to see if this plant would explode from 24 hours of light, Hermie or give me something comparable or better than my last grow doing 20/4. Even though it’s not scientific at all it will be good to know if someone could potentially throw a plant in a tent and leave it be and get “quality” buds
Nice to see others using Gaia Green products. Do you happen to recall your mixture rate? I’ve been using Gaia Green 4-4-4 All Purpose and the 2-8-4 Bloom as the primary nutes and I topdress on the first of every month with the minimum recommended dose, which I think is a Tbsp/gal of grow media. I’m wondering if you use more and what can safely be gotten away with before stressing out the plant.
Between my SF-2000 and SF-4000 LEDs (I have two 2x4x6 tents) I can keep my DLI in check by playing with the height of the light over the canopy, the dimmer knob on the light, and the hours per day to dial in the exact amount of light I want the plants to get. My smaller plants stay under the SF-2000 until they get big enough to move to the other tent where the SF-4000 can keep a higher intensity with a longer reach. It’s been working out so far!
Your Auto is looking great so far is really putting on some nice growth!
s. So far I cannot argue with what I am seeing to this point. Granted this is not a technical experiment by any means, it’s one plant with no other grow comparing light cycles etc.
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and settled on 40ish).
