New to growing and looking for a little help.

[Finster]

Hi everyone. Im new here and looking to educate myself. Im welcome to any tips and advice you may have to offer.

We have an old coal room in our basement. Cinder block walls and a cement floor. It is rectangular, about 4'x13' with a door on one end. The coal shute has already been removed. My wife used to use it for starting her plants for her vegetable garden in February/March, to be transplanted outside in May. The room sits empty after May, except right now it's got some junk in it. So I decided to use that space and start a plant of my own. I am completely new to growing Cannabis and growing indoors. I picked up some White Widow Autoflowers to start. I germinated 2 in a paper towel on May 12th. One didn't make it. More than likely my fault. We have a water softener and I wasn't thinking and pulled soft water from the tap to germinate. One did make it. The other never even sprouted. After about 3 days I transferred it to a starter tray with some generic potting soil we had left and put it under her grow light. For the most part, ive left it alone. No topping, no trimming, no training. Just light about 15" above on an 18 hour cycle and water every few days. I transplanted it a couple of times and is now in a 5 gallon bucket. Until I started reading more I didn't know any of that was necessary.
So the first 30 days came and went with no signs of flower. Then the next 30 days came and went with still no signs of flower. It is approaching 80 days and still no sign of flower. What am I doing wrong? I was under the impression that it would start on its own without me initiating it.
The basement averages about 60 to 65 degrees year round. The coal room has no ventilation ducted to it so it runs warmer with the heat from the grow light. It's been holding 76° at 55% humidity. I have a fan in there for circulation and did install an outside vent, vent fan, and carbon filter. My wife's grow light is a 100 watt full spectrum led. After doing some reading I realized i made many mistakes, with the grow light among them. I picked up a 400 watt led. I just hung the new light a couple of days ago.
The plant looks healthy. It's currently 26" tall not counting the 5 gallon bucket its housed in, but not nearly as full, lush and green as other plants ive seen. So is there any saving this plant or should a scrap it and start over?

 

[Phyto]

Well, it’s highly unlikely that it is actually an auto flower, breeders get seeds mixed up sometimes. An auto should have gone into flower at 3-6 weeks. My guess is it’s actually a photoperiod plant. When you want it to flower, drop the light period to 12/12. You didn’t give us a lot of info (media, nutes, ph etc.). A couple observations, you might want to let the bucket dry back a bit more between watering, it’s showing signs of too much water (puffy, droopy leaves). It also looks like it could be a little hungry.

 

[voltage]

Looks like it gets watered too often. Let it dry back. Most people lift the pot and get a feel for it.
They also look hungry like they need Nutes

 

[Finster]

Ok. Good advice here and I appreciate it. I dont have much of a green thumb, that's always been my wife. I just wanted to post an update on the progress I've made so far.

A video o found on YouTube suggested leaving an autoflower that wont start flowering in total darkness without water for 48 hours, then a 12/12 light schedule until it does. I dont know if this is good advice or not but I figured it probably wouldn't hurt.

I also revisited the nutrients I've been giving it. Apparently What i picked up is more for the flowering stage. It has no Nitrogen in it. So the plant is likely Nitrogen deficient as well.
I looked at our local tractor supply and found some 12-5-7 Miracle Grow liquid plant food. After I posted last, and after hanging the new light, i found some of the canopy leaves turning yellow. I did some more reading, and think the light was too intense or too close. I ordered a ph meter and a par sensor that runs off an app on my phone so I can set up the new light properly.

So here's what I've done so far. I did leave the plant in total darkness over the weekend last weekend. On Monday, I started it on a 12/12 light schedule. I backed the light off. It's been keeping about 900 par at the canopy.

After calibrating the ph meter, i tested the water i had been giving the plant. Ph was 7.2. I adjusted the ph down to 6.2-6.5 and added the 12-5-7 fertilizer to it. Monday was the first watering in about 5 days. I let the soil dry back some before watering it again.
On Thursday, I finally spotted the first appearance of pistils, and today it looks as if it's beginning to stretch out.

Now that it's flowering, I plan to maintain the same feed schedule until after the stretch, and then back off the Nitrogen. Is this the correct approach?
Another question i had is what do I do with the light schedule? This is supposedly an autoflower which doesn't need a 12/12 schedule. But it wouldn't flower so im not sure if it actually is. Maybe it's a photoperiod plant and changing the light schedule fixed it? Or maybe it is an autoflower and wouldnt flower because of the combination of the poor lighting, overwatering, Nitrogen deficiency, and improper pH in the water? So what's the best way to handle lighting in this situation? Should I keep it on a 12/12? If it's an auto, doesn't it still need an 18/6 even in flower? And what should I keep the light intensity at?

 

[JIMKSI64]

Keep it on 12-12
Autoflower traits are not 100% in most strains photo traits are 1 in a 1000 some are worse.
I grew several Widows and non expressed that far up the sativa line.
Looks hungry but no recs on your nutrition choice.
For the lights you have to watch your plants and read them. look for negative signs like curling or drooping ( hint hint ) look for tacoing ( hint HINT OMG look at your pics )

Keep on 12 12 balance your nutes turn down the lights until at least the leaf curl stops.

 

[Queefmaster215]

Having my own problems with fast one strain and a blue cheese strain. They were growing great then stopped. Need help

 

[Queefmaster215]

The blue cheese started turning in on itself and the fast one just stopped