Hey fellers it’s me again. My last post I was ready to through autos under the bus and start photos. While I’m trying some photos I still want to try autos. The reason being I’m having terrible luck with stunted autos like 1 out of 3. So I made an observation tonight, my 3 gallon plants look good and my 5 gallons contain the stunted plants. Some 5 gallon plants are okay but a large portion contain the minis. I believe this clue means I suck at watering? I have been misting to top of the soil about daily with a pump sprayer until they move to the flower tent about week 3. I can tell by week 2 when they’re going to be little soil wasters. I’m convinced I’m overwatering early on and causing my own problems. Any advice on better watering practices will be appreciated!? And am I correct in my analogy?
Thanks DGC!
DocK
I think you are on point too, it’s usually watering little plants in big soil masses that throws people off.
My suggestion is to start your auto in a solo cup, but cut the bottom off. This way, you have less soil mass to accurately water, but you also don’t have a bottom for the taproot to bounce off of. Once the auto gets established, you simply place the bottomless solo cup on the soil surface of your larger pot and the roots will grow down into it.
Or you could just use a 4″x4″ container to start it in and then transplant if you feel comfortable with the process.
Thank you! I am currently starting a few in a solo cup to test and practice.
With autos I really prefer growing them in a coco with about 30% perlite. This way you can hardly ever over water and allows for easier root growth since you are on a clock with autos. But when the plants are young you still want to allow drybacks to encourage root growth but it at least eliminates the risk of causing an anaerobic environment. But like Chad was suggesting I agree with. I start my autos in a 1/2gal transplantable rain science bag so that the roots are ready for transplant as well, but a system like Chad was suggesting should work fine. Growing is all about the root health and development, so proper watering techniques to support that is the goal to prevent stunting. What type of pots do you grow in and what is your aeration percentage? A good air pruning pot can really help, especially in the early stages of autos to prevent them from getting root bound. But generally I water a seedling carefully but after it gets established I will water the pot fully and then allow it to get under 50% saturated before watering again, that dry back encourages the roots to seek out more water and it’s important to root development to support a big plant. It’s a good idea to feel the weight of your pots when they are fully saturated so you have an idea on how dry they are before you water again.
I’m testing a few different soils currently. I’m slowly converting more to coco and less living soil but I generally add perlite to each mix 20%ish. Most of my pots are generic 5&3 gallons. I purchased a 3 gal rain science bag I’ll text with one of my solo cup transplants. I have 5-5gallon grass root pots where the side is lined to help reduce water evaporation, is that a great thing or terrible thing with autos?
I appreciate all your advice! I’ll be letting soil dry a lot more now!
With autos the train of thought should be about never letting anything slow them down. This leads to focusing on root health. Roots and microbes in the media need an aerobic environment to thrive so having a media that resists compaction and has a good aeration is key. Personally I believe coco is a great media for autos since it is more forgiving in watering practices. Coco holds a great air to water ratio even without perlite so it makes it very unlikely to suffocate the roots especially in an air pruning pot. You could still limit the root expansion by not allowing for drybacks, but you can at least avoid anaerobic conditions.
I am personally not familiar with grass root fabric pots and their liner they use to prevent evaporation. But I would say if there is a gap between the liner and pot then the air pruning ability should still be there and should still be great for an auto. You can grow in different ways, but it’s about finding what fits you.
Just remember if you start getting more coco in there you will need To start considering additional cal and or mag supplementation.
I use a squeezable condiment dispenser to water my young autos. I just squeeze a few circles around the plants once a day.
I believe that my misting daily (to much) has caused my roots to hang out up top and be happy as hell doing nothing. Learning and texting this plant is so much frigging fun!