I live in central Texas. I’ve been trying to grow some auto flowers in pots on my patio. The photos I grow do pretty well, but the auto keep coming up runts. They sprout, get 2" or 3" tall then just stop growing until they start stretching to bloom, but they never get more than 10" to 12" tall.
I use fresh Fox Farms, Ocean Forest for all my plants and keep them well hydrated. They are positioned to get direct morning sun starting about 8 am and then shade after about 3 pm when it gets really hot, 90+, so they are getting a good 7 hours of direct sun.
I don’t know if it’s too much heat, not enough sun, or if the Ocean Forest is not a good soil for autos.
What does this actually mean? If you are watering them frequently, this is the #1 reason for alot of problems. Cannabis like flood to drought. My watering practices are enough to drench the soil and then they get no water for 3-5 days depending on variables. Once they are dry I flood em again. The gallon or so I use takes about 15-20 minutes to water in slowly so it doesn’t just run off.
My watering practice is the same as yours, so she is not overwatered. She looks healthy, just small. In comparison, I have a photo sativa, germinated the same day, growing right next to her and the photo is 4x -5x larger than the auto.
Since I have had the same experience with other autos it made me wonder if I was missing some special, secret sauce.
If you decide to go outside, I highly suggest some kind of crop cover netting. The sun is absolutely brutal this year, and we aren’t even “hot” yet. I’m a little southeast of you and it has been tough keeping my vegetable garden from drying. I have a couple plants too that are absolutely not enjoying the sun either.
I think I misread something, my bad. With autos, it is essential to give them the absokute best start you can. No overwatering, overfeeding or major pH fluctuations. Heat stress or cold temps can slow them down. Their timeline is faster than photos and the recovery time can really hinder their production.
Thanks for the input. Since you are in the area, do you know if weed will thrive under live oak canopy? I have a ton of trees that can serve as a sunscreen.
I use my oaks as partial shade. I let the plants get straight sun until about 11, then they get slightly shaded until about 4. I have them at the edge of the branch radius so they aren’t under anything super thick. Just watch for freakin caterpillars and other critters.
Edit/add… if you have them in black grow bags or dark pots or something, i recommend something to keep it cool too. At least if you’re in like 7gallon or less. I’ve had roots get absolutely cooked in 5 gallon bags.
I’ve had white widow grown outside in a pot and it flowered when it was not taller than my hand. I don’t think it was a joints worth though it was a pretty bud (singular). We may both have had the same bad luck, but I decided to not waste my time and money on a 6 inch plant. I’m old school, photosensitive is fine with me.
I’m going to chime in with a different strategy, just what has worked for me.
Sub-irrigated planters! Also known as SIPs. Commercial versions you might have seen are Earthboxes or Real Buckets. I pair SIPs with organic soil. Each tote is ~17 gallons total - with about a 4 gallon water reservoir and 12 gallons of soil. I have a plastic tarp covering the soil, to keep the top layer moist, prevent evaporation, and help reflect heat from the sun to keep the top layer soil cooler.
SIPs let a lot of water be constantly available to the plant, without having super wet soil, if done correctly.
I have four autos growing outside and they’re doing amazing in their SIPs. I started them all inside in my tent. Two seeds were started on April 19th, and two were started about 2 weeks later. They were all transplanted outside to their SIP around 3-4 weeks after sprouting.
I like this style because it’s very little work once the plants are going. I have filled the water reservoirs twice so far this year (got a ton of rain this month). I have not top-dressed at all, and it looks like I won’t need to either.
I’m in southern Ontario, Canada. We had a big heatwave last week, 100+ F for multiple days. My plants are in full sun from about 8am to 6pm. They took the heat and sun no problem.
When I lived in the northeast(finger lakes of nys).I used the earth boxes for regular gardening.Mostly peppers and eggplant.i also had some in the ground on black plastic.the plants in the earth boxes out preformed the the plants in the dirt every time.It may or may not solve your issue but I’m thinking it just might.Another plus you can move them around fairly easy with a hand cart.,should some undesirable weather show up.
You could grow photos in them as well
Commendations are in order if you got anything outdoor to harvest in central Texas. You have beat the heat, humidity, and authorities. I tried some photos (OK med bag seed) in the garden a couple of years ago and they flourished until the summer solstice. Then they burned up in 104 deg average high for the next two months. Moved inside with autos after that.
My guess (not qualified to advise) on your stunted auto growth would be light duration. Being your neighbor I took my light meter out at noon and got a lux value of 122,000. Using HLG calculators, that translates to a PPFD of 2000 with a 7 hour DLI of 50. According to my YouTube education, that should be adequate, which only proves I don’t know. But good luck with the current crop.
I’m not sure if it is the light duration or the heat. I’m taking the advice of @Borderryan22 and placing them under the edge of the Live Oak canopy so that they get about 4 hours of direct sun in the morning and are then in broken/shaded light for the rest of the day. It’s a late grow experiment so we’ll see what happens.
Ive had great to ehhh. luck with my Autos… Very first year I grew ILGM Bluberry Autos the plants were tall and very bushy I got great harvest that was 6 years ago…Since then Ive had everything from 4fer plus to 2fters some Bonsais even…I think its genetics to a point…I’m leaning to believe that the Auto market is possibly turning out so many generations of seeds that for some strains / companies it may have hit a plateau ? I had good luck for years after that first year and not so good a few in between… I have 4 Autos of varying heights right now… But they are still growing all are in flower so well see?
