Trouble reading today's article? Click
here: Issue #267 - Sunday, May 28, 2017 Dear Fellow Grower,
In today's issue... - Learn how to train an auto-flowering plant for better yields!
- Discover some
recommended auto-flowering breeders!
- Check out this week's trophy pics which feature an incredible stealth grow with a hidden room behind a bookcase!
Nebula Haze & Sirius Fourside (founders of GrowWeedEasy.com) "Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose."
~Zora Neale
Hurston
How to Train an Auto-Flowering Plant
by Nebula Haze |
Can I use plant training methods on auto-flowering strains?
For those who don't know: An auto-flowering marijuana plant automatically starts making buds about 3-4 weeks from germination, and most plants are ready to harvest by the time they're 3 months from seed. Auto-flowering plants are ready to harvest
earlier than almost every "regular" (photoperiod) strain and don't need special light schedules. You generally only get auto-flowering seeds from a reputable breeder.
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The quick-yet-bountiful harvest is one of the biggest benefits of growing auto-flowering marijuana plants. However, the shortened vegetative stage brings up an important question. Generally, when growing
"standard" (photoperiod) strains, indoor growers use plant training methods for the first 4-6 weeks of a plant's life to make plants grow flat and maximize yields in the flowering stage.
Can auto-flowering plants be
"trained" in their short vegetative stage? And if they can be trained, does it actually provide any benefits? The short answer is "yes" to both questions (with one caveat)!
As Long as Plants Are Healthy, Auto-Flowering Cannabis Strains Usually Respond Well to Simple Topping or Low Stress Training
This gorgeous Hubbabubbasmelloscope auto-flowering plant was topped at a young age by a talented grower called awolace (who has many great grow journals on auto-flowering plants) and produced 4.75 ounces by itself. Auto-flowering strains can be trained to produce more and bigger colas, and proper plant training can increase yields and overall
improve your grow results.
Auto-flowering strains from a decade ago were heavily hybridized with wild hemp and produced small and subpar quality flowers. However, modern
auto-flowering strains from trustworthy breeders (like this Auto Lemon OG Haze plant from breeder Nirvana) produce buds that are just as potent and beautiful as traditional photoperiod strains. 3 Main Schools of Thought on Auto-Flower Training
There are 3 main schools of thought about what works best when
it comes to training auto-flowering cannabis plants:
- No Training at All - Since autos only stay in the vegetative stage for a few weeks, if you stress your plant through extensive training, it may end up stunted. A stunted auto-flowering plant produces very low yields. As a result, many growers
recommend no training at all when it comes to auto-flowering marijuana strains, just to be safe.
- Low Stress Training Only (Bending) - The idea behind low stress training is to force the plant into the flat shape you want by bending all new stems and tying them down. The advantage of sticking only
to bending is it's very low stress (hence the name) on the plant. There's basically no chance of stunting from simple bending. However, with LST you don't have the same full control over the plant's shape as you do when you actually "top" the plant (split the main cola into two), which makes it very easy to grow a wide and flat plant.
- "Top" the Plant in Addition to Other Training - This is
when you cut off the very top of the main stem when the plant is young, so that it grows two main stems instead of just one. Although you can definitely top a plant without stunting it, it's possible that topping an unhealthy plant may contribute to stress. That being said, I personally haven't seen a whole lot of evidence that topping will cause stunting unless the auto plant was already sick.
Just about
everyone seems to agree you don't want to do aggressive training on an auto-flowering plant, for example you probably wouldn't want to make a manifold, which takes several weeks in the vegetative stage to set up. Though there are exceptions, you usually don't have enough time in the vegetative stage to take full advantage of that kind of training technique with
auto-flowers. Example of a Stunted Auto-Flowering Plant
These auto-flowering plants were stunted when they
were young by heat and overwatering. Now they've already started flowering and are just a few weeks from harvest.
Even though they have a plentiful amount of light, at this point the plants are not going to get any bigger no matter what the grower does because the vegetative stage is over, and the flowering stage is
already under way.
Here's a closeup of the middle plant. You can see by the bud development that it's just a few weeks from harvest. Since it's this far into the flowering stage, you know that the plant is not going to get any bigger. The buds will fatten up, but even if they tripled in size, the grower would only get a few grams of bud. The plant just isn't big enough to support bigger yields. This is why many growers recommend no training for auto-flowering plants. They're trying to avoid stunting. But in the above example, the plants weren't even topped. They were stunted from heat and
overwatering, not training. So, I think the main point is to avoid stressing the plant when it's young, not something as black and white as "no training allowed." Untrained Auto-Flowering
Plants
Here are examples of untrained auto-flowering plants. With good care and a lot of light, they can produce a whole lot of bud without any training, especially the medium to tall strains!
These 5 auto-flowering plants were started at the same time. Without any training, they grew into this sea of buds at harvest! Growing many untrained plants together can be one
of the easiest ways to get to a quick, hefty harvest. This style of growing is known as Sea of Green and is very well suited to auto-flowering strains.
Which Auto-Flowering Breeders Are Recommended? |
Which breeders can you trust for good auto-flowering marijuana seeds?
There are many breeders that offer auto-flowering seeds, but the breeders listed in this link have become famous for
breeding some of the best auto seeds when it comes to ease of growth, potency and yields!
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Thank you for taking the time to set up such an informative and easy to navigate site. I'm helping someone with their first grow and without your site we would be lost. Everything is written so it's super easy to comprehend, even for us newbies. Also, I love how you include photos and videos for just about everything. As someone who is a
visual learner it's such a help.
Peace & Love, Jane
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Trophy Pictures of the Week! |
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Made the bookshelf with 1 by 8 and put sliders on the bottom. Seals the room and nobody knows. I have a rack for nutes and misc. Day 3 of this grow. Blueberry, White Widow, and THC Bomb Auto for transplant to soil and outside. I just pop the seeds in the rooters and here they are every time. Of course now we shall see who is strongest and they will get to stay inside.
Thanks for all the great info on this site!!
~Capncanna
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Who Runs This
Newsletter? |
Nebula Haze:
I'll be honest with you, when I first started growing, I struggled. Now, it is my mission to
make it easier for new growers to get started as well as help advanced growers get bigger, better yields with less time and money. We are updating and adding articles every single week and our goal is to eventually build a comprehensive growing resource so anyone and everyone can grow if they want to! If we all share the knowledge there's more buds in the world for everyone :) |
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Learn which seed sources are personally recommended by Nebula Haze |
Sirius Fourside:
Sirius Fourside is a hobbyist grower who has gained the bulk of his experience growing in water as a medium (deep water culture, bubbleponics).
"Growing cannabis can be a relaxing hobby in and of itself, but it also saves you money and keeps you from having to deal with shady characters. Cannabis is much easier to grow than people give it credit for, and growing in water
doesn't increase the difficulty much, if any. But whether you want to grow in water, coco, or a different medium, we'll show you how easy it can be!"
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