My autos are out of control...

  • Thread starter Diverge
  • Start date
  • Tagged users None
D

Diverge

103
43
Current state as of this afternoon:
My autos are out of control
My autos are out of control 2
My autos are out of control 3


There's 2x ilgm blue cheese autos in the tent, that sprouted a week apart. Oldest on the left at 51 days since sprouting, 44 days for one on right. They both started flowering about 23 days ago.

I've had many ups and downs with pH control issues, but I guess that is to be expected for a first time grower (next time I am doing just one plant... Roots fill almost whole res).

There have been periods of lots of growth, as well as periods of no growth during pH control periods. I feel like they are pretty stable right now, but they keep growing and I'm concerned my tent is getting too dense and would like to prevent any conditions like bud rot from happening as the buds fill in.

I know the general consensus is not to mess with autos, since you have no control of the timer, and don't want to stress them. I've been removing lower leaves at the bottom to improve airflow, but feel like I still have way too many leaves and basically have 2 different environments in my tent - below and above the canopy. Usually the humidity is higher below the canopy, but had the tent open a lot this morning so it equilized.
My autos are out of control 4


These plants are ~3 feet tall right now and fill my whole 4 x 2 tent. The highest buds are about 4-5 inches from my light, but aren't getting burned, likely due to my overhead fan.

Do you guys think it's safe to remove more lower vegetation right now, or should I want until a later time? Or do I just leave as is and hope for the best?


I feel like these are very robust plants for autos, and don't see why they couldn't handle it... But just want the opinions of experienced growers.

So what do you all think? Defoliate or not?
 
D

Diverge

103
43
Man... I'd toss a net in there. Raise the light and hope it goes good enough
So you wouldn't remove any leaves?

I've been trying not to raise the light much until some of the lower guys reach the higher guys. Hoping stretch stops soon... Trying not to have to take my fan and canister out of the tent but will if I have to. I keep a close eye on the highest buds... No hairs are getting burnt.
 
mysticepipedon

mysticepipedon

4,738
263
You might want to remove some leaves for air circulation, but don't go nutz, unless you have experience defoliating. You may want to remove lower buds that won't amount to anything but popcorn larf, as well.

I've never run autos, so if there is some rule about not removing lower bud sites that I don't know about, ignore that suggestion.

I say this all the time, but consider photo plants next time. They are not more difficult than autos and it's awfully nice to DECIDE when to put them into flower.
 
Ponky

Ponky

3,941
263
I mean if you can get your arm in there and pinch out those lower leaves. Maybe a add a fan down low. Stretch just pisses me off so much. Makes trimming a headache. All my crowns get scorched. These genetics let you down.
 
D

Diverge

103
43
I will definitely not be running autos again. I like having control and will run one plant next time and train it to fill the tent. Already have some Godfather OG seeds ready for after these that have a much shorter flower time (8 vs 10-14 weeks for the blue cheese autos).

I can definitely access the lower portion to defoliate. I have been doing some here and there. I have 3 fans circulating air below the canopy, but would like to thin out the leaves more still. I have no experience doing this, but I'm a quick learner and do plenty of reading.

The pants on the left doesn't have much if any lower buds ( only little guys in the canopy), since it grew the fastest before it started flowering. One on right has a few below the canopy that I could remove. I stunted it when it was little by putting a fan too close to it... Half it looked like a Pug 🐶 😂.
 
D

Diverge

103
43
Better pics of below canopy. I put an exhale CO2 bag in there the other day, but don't think it's growing much yet since my CO2 levels are higher outside the tent than in it. I have an ac infinity 6" pwm fan in each lower corner of tent, and a monkey fan just blowing against a wall:
 
PXL 20220506 191650057
PXL 20220506 191905813
D

Dugplug

84
18
Current state as of this afternoon:
View attachment 1242281View attachment 1242282View attachment 1242283

There's 2x ilgm blue cheese autos in the tent, that sprouted a week apart. Oldest on the left at 51 days since sprouting, 44 days for one on right. They both started flowering about 23 days ago.

I've had many ups and downs with pH control issues, but I guess that is to be expected for a first time grower (next time I am doing just one plant... Roots fill almost whole res).

There have been periods of lots of growth, as well as periods of no growth during pH control periods. I feel like they are pretty stable right now, but they keep growing and I'm concerned my tent is getting too dense and would like to prevent any conditions like bud rot from happening as the buds fill in.

I know the general consensus is not to mess with autos, since you have no control of the timer, and don't want to stress them. I've been removing lower leaves at the bottom to improve airflow, but feel like I still have way too many leaves and basically have 2 different environments in my tent - below and above the canopy. Usually the humidity is higher below the canopy, but had the tent open a lot this morning so it equilized.View attachment 1242292

These plants are ~3 feet tall right now and fill my whole 4 x 2 tent. The highest buds are about 4-5 inches from my light, but aren't getting burned, likely due to my overhead fan.

Do you guys think it's safe to remove more lower vegetation right now, or should I want until a later time? Or do I just leave as is and hope for the best?


I feel like these are very robust plants for autos, and don't see why they couldn't handle it... But just want the opinions of experienced growers.

So what do you all think? Defoliate or not?
How do you water them
 
steamroller

steamroller

1,815
263
I know conventional wisdom goes out the window with autos, but what about super cropping the tallest branches?
Nice grow ! 👍
 
D

Diverge

103
43
How do you water them
I been using distilled water. They drink a 2-3 gallons a day. I'm using lotus nutes. I have a hana pH/EC/temp probe in the res monitoring 24/7.

Currently at about 1.14EC ( I try to keep it around 1.05-1.15... it's actually 0.4 less than it reads when the lights go out... They affect the EC reading of the probe). I try to keep my pH around 6-6.2 when it's not falling out of control... Which hasn't happened for a week or so now. It only falls very slowly now. I was doing a number of the things wrong for a while, like filling my res too high causing my leaves to be dropping all the time. Now they only droop an hour or so before light out.

I've got a few other things for making adjustments or adding specific nutrients, like calmag, and potassium bicarbonate (been using as my pH up when it drops). Also have some hydroguard in the res since I thought I might have had root rot due to falling pH in the past. Temps of res around 72F so have been adding some here and there.
 
D

Diverge

103
43
I know conventional wisdom goes out the window with autos, but what about super cropping the tallest branches?
Nice grow ! 👍
I thought long and hard about cropping. Week or so ago I tied down all the tallest branches... That wasn't too bright, since it caused me pH falling issues again... But it stunted the left plant enough so the right one caught up at least.

This was them April 25th.. I bent highest branch over, circled in red... That stunted it a bit
PXL 20220425 2115004582


I abused these plants a lot and they recovered and went on to thrive. Learning by mistakes I guess.
 
D

Diverge

103
43
I did some trimming this morning. Hopefully they deal with the stress okay. I felt it was a risk I needed to take. Also cranked light intensity from 75 to 100% and raised light and fan. Also turned up lower fans now that there's less vegetation down there now.

Getting about 1000-1100 umol just above top buds. Hopefully my CO2 bag starts kicking in soon. I used a laser temp gun and buds and leaves are 75F or less. Black bracket on the mount holding my apogee sensor was about 80F. Will keep monitoring throughout the day.
PXL 20220507 143500404
PXL 20220507 151106806

If they get by without issues I'll thin out more within the canopy in next few days at a slower pace.
 
D

Dugplug

84
18
I did some trimming this morning. Hopefully they deal with the stress okay. I felt it was a risk I needed to take. Also cranked light intensity from 75 to 100% and raised light and fan. Also turned up lower fans now that there's less vegetation down there now.

Getting about 1000-1100 umol just above top buds. Hopefully my CO2 bag starts kicking in soon. I used a laser temp gun and buds and leaves are 75F or less. Black bracket on the mount holding my apogee sensor was about 80F. Will keep monitoring throughout the day.
View attachment 1242585View attachment 1242587
If they get by without issues I'll thin out more within the canopy in next few days at a slower pace.
I don't think they'll get any taller except for the bud I could just imagine if you had fimmed them they would have been massive bushes
 
D

Dugplug

84
18
Doesn't affect yield negatively I've got three Bruce banner autos growing now in week 11 been in flower for seven weeks I've got three bushes with big leaders growing on them
Leaners
 
Moshmen

Moshmen

8,218
313
Doesn't affect yield negatively I've got three Bruce banner autos growing now in week 11 been in flower for seven weeks I've got three bushes with big leaders growing on them
We will have to agree to disagree on this one any topping is def stressful and slows the plant - fimming some can tolerate? Maybe thing is there’s no way to know right ? You say you got bushes but you have know idea how big they would be if ya let em grow or did lst
 
D

Dugplug

84
18
We will have to agree to disagree on this one any topping is def stressful and slows the plant - fimming some can tolerate? Maybe thing is there’s no way to know right ? You say you got bushes but you have know idea how big they would be if ya let em grow or did lst
They're 4 ft high already
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom