How to get more buds out of autoflowers

A customer has a question and I hope we can get some opinions on it, thank

Just wondering what your best opinions are to get more buds out of autoflowers! The ones I grew weren’t much at all! Any advice would be appreciated! Thank you!!

We’d need to know strain, environment, what nutrients, what kind of light if you’re indoors, how many plants and so on and on and on as there’s just too many variables to be able to say “Do this and you’ll be fine”

Some general rules for auto flowers: once germinated, put them in their permanent homes (they don’t tend to like being transplanted); b/c most autos are only in veg for 3 weeks or so, they benefit from lower N levels than photo plants; actually, they tend to like less nutes in general; most autos don’t take kindly to high stress training techniques; and as with all grows, keep your grow environment in check (light, heat, rh,etc).

As @anon35207245 said, how your plants respond to those variables is often influenced by strain. Also, your strains might not be heavy producers to begin with, or maybe your strains have some special instructions to achieve the best yields.

However, in general, if you pay attention to the areas listed above, your autos should immediately do better.

You’ll get it. I promise. If I can, you can. :grinning:

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Yep, autos don’t like most nutes. The ones I’ve grown, during bloom, do well with seaweed and molasses mixed together.

I’ve also had good luck taking off most of the big fan leaves shading any buds. And just when they start to bud I clip off the lower buds, basically a form of lollypopping. I average around an ounce a plant, sometimes more. The genetics and strain play a big role too.

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Lots of light good nutes 18/6 light cycle go easy on nutes use like half strength and most of all good seeds I recommend WW autoflower from ILGM .

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These are two different plants but you can see the nice yield Don’t trim many leaves if any with the short growth period you need them for energy they like to be left to there own no need to train or manicure.

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Do you have any pics of your harvest 25oz seems a bit much thats 8 oz per plant

You got this. I’ll keep to my own wheelhouse @Rexx

What size pots are those? If you put the auto into it’s final pot won’t you get issues of a small plant with a large pot I keep reading about?

Autos don’t like having their root zones disturbed, which is why they go into their final pots as babies. The grower has to take care to follow proper watering practices to prevent issues, for sure, but that’s what autos prefer.

They have slightly different rules than photoperiod plants.

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I haven’t had any issues with repotting but i have found that too much water/nutes after repotting is a big factor small amounts of water no nutes till they get their second wind

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Was there a post that got edited? I see where @rexx call you out about pics for your auto grow… but not where you posted to begin with?
Yep maybe people need to search a Lil deeper before they go and try to call out the only grower here that has ever had not 1 but a few autos produce 6,7,8+Oz.
@Screwauger such class

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I just wanted to see pics of that huge yield I have never seen pics of an auto flower with 8 oz

@Nug-bug

I posted this:

> _Weeks 1 - 3. Once you’ve started your seeds and they break the surface of the soil, they are in their seedling stage. The first set of leaves to appear will usually single fingered, followed by a second set that may still be single fingered or perhaps 3 fingered. Once that second set appears growth will start to accelerate as the new leaves provide more photosynthesis. This process will continue, more new leaves, faster growth. Depending on the type of soil in use, mild vegetative nutes can be introduced at week 2. By week 3 most plants will start to show their sex. Males will start to produce pollen sacks and females will display pistols._

_ Weeks 4 - 6. The plants are now entering a pre flowering stage. During this time the plants should exhibit explosive growth, often as much as a new set of nodes and 1" vertical growth a day. This is the time when they will gain most of their vertical height. Many people make the mistake of switching from vegetative to flowering nutrients at this point, assuming that since they see flowers it must be the proper time. This is incorrect. If the switch to flowering nutes is made at this time the vertical growth will stop and the plant will put it’s energy into producing buds. If you need to keep your plants small, or want them to finish earlier, they by all means switch nutes at this point. But if you want to get the most out of your plants continue feeding vegetative nutes until you see the vertical growth slow and stop. Depending on the strain that will usually be sometime during week 5 or 6._

_ Weeks 7 - 9. By now vertical growth has stopped and the switch to flowering nutrients has been made. The buds will start to fill out and put on weight, becoming hard and tight. Pistols will start to change from white to brown, orange, red, etc. By now the plants will also have developed a strong smell. Toward the end of this phase the large primary and smaller secondary fan leaves will begin to turn yellow. This is an indication that the plant is moving toward the end of it’s life._

_ Weeks 10 - 11. At this time flowering nutes should be discontinued and only plain pHed water fed to flush the remaining nutrients from the soil and improve the taste. Yellowing of the fan leaves will continue as the plant draws the stored energy from them. Eventually they will die and fall off. By the time that the smaller leaves that come from out of the buds will also start to turn yellow. Then it’s time to harvest._

_ I know that many of you are thinking that the seed bank said the plants will finish in 8-9 weeks, so why are you saying they take 10-11? The claims made by the seed banks are somewhat deceptive. If you switch to flowering nutes at week 3 or 4 the plants can finish in the times the seed banks say but they will remain small and not reach their full potential yield. Years of growing by myself and others has shown that autos do best if you follow this time line._

_ Of course, there will always be variations depending on the strain, the environment, nutrients, etc. This information is meant to only serve as a general guideline._

Adding that I had recently followed these guidelines and harvested nearly 25 zips from 3 autoflower plants.
Thx. I work for a living and did not have time nor the desire to compare swingin d****.

No hard feelings @Rexx I just ain’t got time for that. Like the man said, search away, all journaled, all pictographed and I even have a live forum friend who’s been to my place, examined my plants with a scope and has vouched for my harvests!!

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well i guess

@Screwauger

Where did you post this article about autoflowers at. I would love to read the whole thing. Could you tag me on that post please

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Hey @Onlythebest79, not really from an article per se. It was a copy paste from research I did before starting to grow last year.

I posted it originally in my grow journal

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Thanks for this. It’s a real nice approach for beginners dealing with autos. It’s a straight forward approach and almost fool proof if you really sit read and comprehend what’s in this post.

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It does go against “the grain” a bit. I’ve known growers on this forum who religiously start bloom nutes at the start of week 5, regardless of what the plant is doing.

That is ok, but I think squeezing another week or two of veg (by pushing the grow nutes) makes a fair amount of difference in the final results.

Glad you find it helpful, hopefully the OP will.

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