first hydro grow: blueberry auto

[Girlonbikes]

pretty happy with how my first hydro is going. I’m using gh trio, and tap water that doesn’t sit out for the chlorine to evaporate. what can I say, I’m lazy and this plant is thirsty a lot.

end of week 1

end of week 4 (top left is female,two on the right are male)

this coming Monday will be the end of week 8. I had to force her into flower about a week and a half ago because she was taking too long. glad I did because she has had no trouble filling out the net.

once she gets to a certain point, can I put the lights back on at 18/6? I was hoping to not have to grow an auto at 12/12

 

[freezeland2]

At this point why? Looks to be doing well on present light schedule. You flip now back to 18/6 and it might hermi on you.

 

[Aqua Man]

I dont grow autos but I don't think you can just flip them to 12/12 to initiate flower. They flower as soon as they are mature AFAIK. Switching back shouldn't be an issue. Imo 18/6 is a better option as you can get more light to the plant with a bit lower intensity. With photos we blast em with light because we only have 12 hrs to get them as much as possible. That can often lead to some lights stress. Under 18/6 you don't have to do that to get them a high amount of light energy because you have 6 more hrs to do so.

 

[freezeland2]

I dont grow autos but I don't think you can just flip them to 12/12 to initiate flower. They flower as soon as they are mature AFAIK. Switching back shouldn't be an issue. Imo 18/6 is a better option as you can get more light to the plant with a bit lower intensity. With photos we blast em with light because we only have 12 hrs to get them as much as possible. That can often lead to some lights stress. Under 18/6 you don't have to do that to get them a high amount of light energy because you have 6 more hrs to do so.

Good points to make the flip back to 18/6

 

[Girlonbikes]

I dont grow autos but I don't think you can just flip them to 12/12 to initiate flower. They flower as soon as they are mature AFAIK. Switching back shouldn't be an issue. Imo 18/6 is a better option as you can get more light to the plant with a bit lower intensity. With photos we blast em with light because we only have 12 hrs to get them as much as possible. That can often lead to some lights stress. Under 18/6 you don't have to do that to get them a high amount of light energy because you have 6 more hrs to do so.

Thank you for this advice! I will switch her to 18/6 in a few days at the end of her second week of 12/12

 

[Girlonbikes]

here she is day 59. I put her back onto an 18/6 schedule, after 2 weeks of 12/12 to get her to flower since she hadn’t yet at 6 weeks. I’ve defoliate her a fair bit too two or three times.

 

[Aqua Man]

Looking good but the autos flower as soon as they mature. So imo they didn't flower under 12/12 because they weren't mature yet.

 

[Girlonbikes]

Looking good but the autos flower as soon as they mature. So imo they didn't flower under 12/12 because they weren't mature yet.

Yeah I figured that but I didn’t have any more space for it to keep growing in veg so I’m glad I forced it to flower when I did

 

[Girlonbikes]

I had to bump the light down to 16/8 because the leaves were getting droopy towards the end of the 18/6 cycle yesterday and from what I could find online that meant the light was too intense so I backed the light off a few more inches and then dropped the hours of light by 2. Hope that helps

 

[Aqua Man]

I had to bump the light down to 16/8 because the leaves were getting droopy towards the end of the 18/6 cycle yesterday and from what I could find online that meant the light was too intense so I backed the light off a few more inches and then dropped the hours of light by 2. Hope that helps

That's normal.

 

[Girlonbikes]

That's normal.

Should I put the lights back at 18/6 then? If the drooping towards the end of the light cycle is normal. My first grow it never happened (that I saw) so I thought I was doing something wrong!

 

[Aqua Man]

Should I put the lights back at 18/6 then? If the drooping towards the end of the light cycle is normal. My first grow it never happened (that I saw) so I thought I was doing something wrong!

Up to you. Here is a time-lapse to help you visualize what I mean by normal. Notice about an hour or 2 before the lights go out they droop and when they lights come back on they perk up.

 

[Girlonbikes]

Long overdue update. The girl is THRIVING and I got a new light. A Groplanner 150W. Let’s see what it can do to beef this girl up in the last 5 ish weeks of flower. Not bad so far for a $50 blurple tho.

 

[Girlonbikes]

I’m impressed with how well she has taken the beating I’ve given her. Day 73 and she hasn’t gotten food for two weeks (I went on vacation and only trusted my roommate to fill up the res with plain water), I’ve never once changed the water, she had a shitty blurple until today, and I’ve hard core defoliated this auto probably 3 times. Most recently tonight at 4 weeks into flower. Let’s see how far I can push her. Impressed she hasn’t hermed on me yet. And I know, I should be changing the water but this is part of my experiment :)