My recipe for success with autoflowers. New growers can use this just as its described and have success. With experience you'll probably start making changes and playing with things.
Step 1. Prepare the soil.
3 parts
gaia green living soil 1 part worm castings.
Pre amended with a 50/50 ratio of
gaia green all purpose and power bloom at the recommended dose.
6" diameter and 6" deep center gets a recommended dose of mycorrhizal inoculum mixed in.
Step 2. Germinate the seed.
I float my seeds in a cup of water until they have a tap at least a 1/4". make sure its in a warm and dark place.
Once it has a tap root you need to finish the soil. completely saturate your pot from top to bottom.
Place seed tap down with a touch
mykos in the hole and carefully cover with no more than 1/2" of soil.
Add a few drops water on the location being careful not to disturb the seed.
Place a humidity dome over until you see the sprout emerging then remove.
Step 3. Control your environment.
Get the gauges, meters, and equipment you need to keep things in check.
Monitor your Ph, temp, RH, and PPFD.
Try to maintaining optimal VPD and DLI
Step 5. Watering.
Once the sprout emerges let the soil dry back until the pot is light and the top 1" to 1 1/2" is dry.
Use this dry back and guage of when to water the whole life of the plant.
Ive given a 1/2 gal of dechlorinated tap water at 6.2-6.8ph since that first dry back as a sprout.
Every other watering or so Ill give the trays 4-6 cups to absorb from the bottom.
Around week 2 I give them 1/2 gal of Recharge on the top and 1/2 in the trays.
As the plant gets older I might need to increase the amount of water. The idea is to water everyday or other day.
Step 6. LST and defoliation.
Start as early as the plant lets you.
Keep the branches growing horizontal and evenly spread out.
Remove as little of the leaves as possible.
I usually only remove the leaves on the top of the branches growing towards the center of the canopy.
Any leaves that can be tucked under or behind that new growth needs to be done every day if not multiple times a day.
The goal is for all new growth to have direct exposure to the lights.
Continue LST into the "stretch" using your judgement when enough is enough.
Step 7. Top dress early flower.
Using a mix of 70/30 power bloom to all purpose at the recommended dose. To that ill add an equal amount of worm castings.
The mixture gets spread around the pot evenly and then mixed into the top few inches of the soil by hand.
You then water it in to start the process of breaking that down. Im going to use Recharge to water in. Using the same 1/2 and 1/2 method.
Step 8. Continue watering until harvest.
