Im a disabled veteran as well, thank you for your sevice. GDP is my favorite strain to grow so far out of the 7 strains ive grown… i currently have one growing now thats almost ready she is an auto as well. I grow both autos and photos but should have started with photos originally my first grow would have been higher producing as i could have waited to flip it into flower after all the mistakes i made at first ive only bought seeds from ILGM and everything ive grown so far has been 1000x better than what i can buy at the medical dispensary here.
Ignore her ugly leaves please shes taking a little longer to produce her amber trichs… i had her switched off nutes thinking id be harvesting her soon
The thing that attracts me to autos is that I’ll get bored of a strain quickly and have like a pound of it if I do photos lol. Otherwise I would just do photos.
I do both autos and photos but have mainly done autos for this exact reason. Variety!
I have never had the bud on a stick and don’t recall ever having under 2 oz when I used poor lighting and small pots. I average between 5-6 oz when I try. I have one going now that I tried to keep small because I only sprouted the seed to see if an immature green seed was viable. Still looks like 1.5 oz. to me.
As far as quality goes, most good breeders have worked out autos so they can preform right with their photo counterparts. The strongest I have smoked was a blueberry auto grown in a sealed environment with CO2 by my bro. here. Too strong for me. One hit and stupid out of it couch lock.
I do get some fluffy buds once in a while, but I don’t sell, so I don’t care, and once ground up no one can tell if they were dense or fluffy.
I do clone the crap out of my photos so seed prices are absolutely better with them, and they are very consistent for quality, But I don’t use enough to really justify it, I just do it because I can.
My experience with autos has been nothing but good. I am sure that sooner or later I will get a bum plant but I have done dozens of them and so fare I am very happy with them.
ILGM has critical mass and several other balanced cbd to thc strains, I am using their white widow and critical mass cbd autos for sleep and pain management, I have yet to find anything that completely knocks out my leg pain from many surgeries but they do seem to take the edge and bite out. Hope this helps, Happy growing and keep it green.
It’s not that we are/ were “too young,” it’s that the corrupt insurance companies don’t want to pay for REAL healthcare.
The corrupt Big hospital/ Big pharma reps meet with the even more corrupt insurance company reps and they ask eachother, “what is the LEAST we can do for a patient that has the highest profit margins?”
Insurance companies would go out of business if everyone was getting expensive surgeries as opposed to things like physical therapy, chiropractic, steroid injections, etc. that cost virtually nothing and can be upcharged in clinics and hospital for a 5000 % return on investment.
If we were politicians or celebrities we would have access to REAL healthcare. There is probably a futuristic bed with robotic arms that can do surgeries that humans aren’t capable of.
If we were in the Biden/Clinton family or played professional sports we would be fixed up and zipped up all under an hour.
But no, the working class wage slaves only get access to bubblegum and duct tape so we can get our asses back to the “factories” and keep working for a few more weeks (rinse and repeat until death)
They’re a self watering system with coco coir and perlite. Once setup they are a virtually hands free grow system. The pots work on a gravity system with a 12gal resivor supplying water/ nutes. This is my second grow using them. There are some good videos on YouTube. There are some good growers on here and some good articles in the autopots section of the forum. Some of the growers are @Nicky@Not2SureYet@OGIncognito
Welcome to the forum and thank you for your service. I am going to offer a few opinions. s well as a few suggestions. Based on my grows. You have taken the right step in asking before buying. I wish I had joined a forum before I started buying. I will go by sections
Tents. If you get a 2x4. Make sure it is a 6’ tall one. Height is your friend. To me. a 2x4 tent is more of a veg tent. Here is what I see a a big down fall to trying to grow in one. And sorry to those that do use one to grow.
since you are using a small tent. It will run a lot warmer than a big tent.
space. Once you get light in there and a fan. You have very little room left. When you take in to consideration a pot will take up a foot. Add a fan/filter and light and there goes another 18" Now you don’t want your light right on top of the plants. So even with a good LED light. You still want to shoot for a 8" gap. So that basically leaves you about 2 1/2 - 3’ to grow in with a 6’ tall tent.
If you have room for a 4x4 or a 5x5. You will be much happier. And have space to grow more than a couple nice plants in.
For lights. @dbrn32 helped me get into some good lights. I don’t know a lot about them. I would be looking for some thing that would cover a couple plants with. My HLG are 35’ long and my DYI are 42’’ long. So they cover pretty good.
I wouldn’t buy a kit my self. You can get all you need for a lot less than what they want to get you for. And you can choose to get only the items and brands you want. I agree. Craislist or some thing like facebook will let you find a nice used tent cheap. I need to get rid of a few tents my self.
As for autopots. They are great and have advantages. You are not married to your plants with them. If you want to take a few days off to go camping or do some thing. You don’t need some one to feed for you.
I would also advise using a digital timer. Mine have 10 separate settings for time I can use if I want. And don’t need re set if the power goes out.
Autos vs photos. The reality is. Growing them shouldn’t be much different than a photo. I learned with them my self. How ever. I will give my 02 as if I was helping a friend here. I would tell them to start with a few photos. Grown on a 12/12 from start. You can pack more than a few in a small tent. And get a bunch of different strains to try. And still average 2 - 4 oz per plant pretty easy. The plants will be smaller and easy to care for. You veg time will be around 4 weeks. And that means you will have your own smoke to enjoy that much quicker
Autos are not some thing to dear. But you never really know what to expect till you grow the strain at least once. I have had a few pretty small ones and then some that can fill a 3x3 tent with a single plant.
The last would be to poke around in here and look for some one that grows how you think you would like to grow. And see if maybe they wouldn’t mind mentoring you. For my self. It was easier to follow what I was told by a couple helping me. I would listen to what every one said. But only do what those I chose as mentors told me. Some times to many cooks can spoil the soup
I wish you the best with your grow. And will try to keep up in here
Also Disabled Vet, you my Brother are in the right place at the right time the information here is spot on and straight up welcome to the group and happy Memorial day
@Nicky I was only trying to add a few things to think about before dropping a bunch of money Like me. Now I have a room full of un used stuff that looks like I am planning on starting a store But you all ready know that lol
This would probably be good for me. Mind is fucked from PTSD so I know I would forget to water and my back is destroyed so it would be very hard for me to kneel down and bend at the waist to water. This autopot system looks like it’s right up my alley if it actually produces good results
Here are a few pics of my current grow ILGM Orange Bud Feminized photos in autopots. If you have any questions about them I’ll try to answer them if not I will find the answer.
I was just giving you the flex points for such a solid and informative post. It saved me alot of writing and you definitely thought of some Awsome points to consider.
ive only bought seeds from ILGM and everything ive grown so far has been 1000x better than what i can buy at the medical dispensary here.
I was only trying to add a few things to think about before dropping a bunch of money 
Like me. Now I have a room full of un used stuff that looks like I am planning on starting a store 
But you all ready know that lol