First time grow. I recently started LST at week 3 from sprout on Sunday. Noticed some new nodes forming which I expected, but they appear to be flowering nodes which I didn’t anticipate this early. I did over water to start and had some issues with high humidity during lights off. Due to the high humidity I went to a 10:2 light cycle which seemed to be working great but I guess could also be the cause even though autos shouldn’t react to light. Someone did not to me there appeared to be minor signs of light stress. I didn’t expect any of that to push an auto to flower though, the resiliency to stress was what drew me to then in the first place.
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Pics or it didn’t happen
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yup, it looks like she is flowering. There is nothing you can do to change it now. With an auto there is no need to change the lights. They will be just fine with 18hr light. I don’t see any evidence of light stress. I do see some signs of heavy feeding. what medium are you using? Nutes? How often? I would respectfully disagree that autos handles stress well. Photos are WAY more forgiving in almost all situations.
Weird, I thought they uploaded with the first post but got locked out when I went to edit and add them. This is what I’m seeing, does it look like early flower or is that just how the veg nodes start to form at some point?
Thanks!
Damn that sucks. I was hoping to get at least a medium yield first grow.
They’re 4 weeks from germination tomorrow. I planted them in Fox Farms Ocean Forest. I did water only the first week, then added voodoo juice the second week, and started the ph perfect micro, grow, and bloom, B52, and Cal Mag week 3. I did a half dose of everything per AN recommendations. They only drank a gallon of that mix each. Then I fed them a gallon this week with just the 3 part and B52.
I did have some people warn me about the high nutrient levels already in Fox Farms OF, but have family that grow who recommended it.
Autos are far more twitchy than photos.
It’s not surprising to see an auto flower at 3 weeks. It isn’t common, but it does happen.
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Lesson learned. I just read around a little before and saw a lot of people recommended then for beginners.
Well any chance I even pull anything out of them at this size or should I scrap the bunch and start over?
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Let her finish. She will be fine.
It frustrates the hell out of me that seed banks (and other forums) promote them the way they do. The sole advantage of autos is not having to change the light cycle, which is trivial. With autos, you get runts, they are more vulnerable to stressors, you can’t do a whole lot of training because you don’t know when they might flower, they are more sensitive to high nute levels, and so on.
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I can’t agree with @MidwestGuy enough about autos. I feel the drawbacks far outweigh the benefit. A lot of time they aren’t even faster than photos. I’ve used FFOF for 15 years, it is a great soil for cannabis. It is packed with nutes so I and a lot of other folks don’t use it for seedlings because it’s a little too much for babies. You can also put a more mild soil in the top of the pot where the seed and baby roots will develop and put the ffof down a little so they have a little time to grow before they get the hot soil. Do you have an EC and PH meters? generally I calibrate feed based on EC of the runoff. I would give them plain water the next time or two. A 3 gal pot of ffof usually keeps my photos fed for a month or two depending on how much they are feeding.
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Thanks! Yeah I’m thinking about a mix of happy frog, Ocean Forest, sand, and perlite for next grow. Mix the perlite into both soils roughly 25 percent. Then a little over a third of the OF mix in bottom, a little over a third of the happy frog, and then topped with 2 ish inches of sand. I used some of the rapid rooter plugs what worked pretty well and should give it something to root into in the top sand layer.
Also was already planning on going photo for the second, just have to order the seeds sooner than expected.
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Might I recommend omitting the sand. It does increase drainage but it also settles over time and I don’t believe it does much for moisture retention. Perlite is a good option, but if you want to reuse soil pummice chunks will do the same and last a lot longer. If not perlite is cheaper.
Thanks for the recommendations! I struggled with fungus gnats a little and read that sand on top could help. Do you top dress with anything for that?
Fungus gnats are generally a symptom of inadequate dry cycle length. Use diatomaceous earth rather than sand.
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I never had enough of a gnat problem to bother with. What he said 
I’m with @MidwestGuy and @Gl1tch that autos are sold in pretty packaging but are not the best fit for new growers. I grow them for the fact that I don’t have to stress light cycles outdoors in the canyon where I live, but past the light cycle I don’t see anything easier about them. It was one hell of a learning curve at first.
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I haven’t had that problem but the things you learn when you poke around…
Autos flower whenever they want…thats why I stick to photos.
Had an auto start flower after 3 weeks once…was the final straw.
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Do yourself a favor and start growing photoperiods. There is no advantage to autos at all unless you really cant wait another 3-4 weeks for a much better harvest. I could see maybe growing outdoors in certain areas where it gets cold before daylight hours will flower a photo…but that is very situational for very few people.
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That’s where this grow is at too, just over 3 weeks from sprout. Unfortunate it happened with my first grow, but already feel the same. I’ve got another 7 auto seeds left and will probably grow them outside next season and plan on picking up some photos to get started when these hit harvest.
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Did a little clean up and training knowing they’ll have less time. Any estimates on what this could yield? The one in the top right still hasn’t flowered, so may be able to get some more training in on it to balance a little. Definitely understand it’ll be super rough just no idea what to expect as a new grower.
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