Hi all, Making plans for my first grow. Outdoors and have decided on autoflowering for short plants and quick finish. Really a learning summer coming up.
Anyhow, I am a seasoned vegetable gardener and have a handle on seed starting and transplanting and hardening off and such, but I keep reading that auto’s don’t handle repotting well, as it stresses them too much. So how does one start the seed inside and get some solid growth on them prior to moving them on outside?
Get seed going in starting peat pot and then what? In other circumstances I would transplant into larger pot and keep indoor under light until outdoor climate ready. Sometimes I have cut the bottom out of the peat pot at start and when roots begin to grow out bottom, transplant into larger pot…BUT can an auto handle this. I am very gentle with roots and such during transplant, but not sure what might be too much.
Plants will ultimately grow in garden, not in pots. Well established beds which I have turned over during last week in December. Loose and full of leaf compost and aged manure. Very mild winter , 35f at night all month and mid 60’sf every day with lot’s of sun. Expect to be able to get plants into ground mid April. Perhaps under a window box if necessary.
This No Transplant message has me wondering. Any insight?
thanks
I repot/transferred my auto’s but just onceor twice , after them are started in Jiffy tabs whitout any trouble… So this is how will do it personally…
Start them in what you have and when you see roots on the bottom transfer them in their final home(I will recommend you to use fabric pots 3-5gal).
To me it sounds like you should be using a photo not an auto. Auto would most likely be flowered and done before you even got to plant them in April. Of course that all depends on when you geminate.
If you do go Auto then germinate then plant in garden no pots beforehand.
If your looking for weight photo is the way to go I personally love the auto flowers there fast and if you play with them a give them a little extra tlc I average around 3 ounces a plant took a lot of practice to be able to do it but outside you can double that
Thanks @Hogmaster. Not really looking for heavy yield. Just a couple discrete plants. Lot’s of grows around here with plants the size of trees. Huge forests. I really don’t want to be that obvious.
I’m thinking now I might plant one of each, an auto and a photo… I could buy 2 strains and experiment, since I learned today that the seeds will keep well if kept cool and dry.
@mulegal I have been doing autos indoors for my first two grows. I’ve started them in sliced solo cups with a coco based soil. I transplanted to them final container after two weeks and they didn’t seem any worse for the wear. I think a key maybe getting them transplanted before a root ball begins to form. Transplanting multiple times may stress it too much though because you are on a clock and can’t extend the veg cycle.
I hear scrog may stress autos and reduce yield, but I haven’t been through it to make a judgement call on that. Or maybe the same issue because there’s not enough veg time.
I’ll add this you can start them in a solo cup or starter pot and transplant as soon as you see roots
With autos they grow fast so you want to be ready to put them outside maybe a week or two after germination so don’t pop them to early lol
If you went with a photo grow a scrog is a great idea to control hieght i have a 8x4 screen in my green house last summer filled six feet Of it WooHoo
Plants was never over 3-1/2 foot tall
And toull get alot more bud off a photo
But you can do well with auto outdoors
The biggest difference from auto to Reg Fem photo is that you can make more mistakes you simply add time and recover they also will adapt to how you treat them more. This means even if abused they adapt because they have time to auto’s have set timeline so any mishaps equals lost yields
You can get a decent ph meter tho fir around 60 $
The cheaper ones work good just need to be calibrated more often
I have the cheap 20 $ yellow one as a back up but i check calibration and adjust every time i use it
, after them are started in Jiffy tabs whitout any trouble… So this is how will do it personally…