Hello all, first time grower. Looking for general opinions on my work so far... Long version w/ details (skip for tl;dr) 6 week old White Diesel Haze Auto and a 5 week old Bulk Smash Auto. Medium: Germinated in coco, both been transplanted once. Both still on hand-watering, however considering turning Autopot on soon. Mix is Coco/Perlite/Clay pebbles. Nutes: Started on Formulex, now onto the GH trio, plus regen-a-root, and diamond nectar, and Cal-Mag, all at quarter strength. Using plain PHd water every 2/3 waterings, depending on how I think the plants are doing. The WDH has been through a lot of problems (some minor, such as nutrient burn, heat/light stress etc, but a couple of larger ones), but seems to have survived them all... first of all there was the classic overwatering, which I think then caused a brief spell of root rot (weird leaf symptoms and smell in grow room, soaking medium, small plant, then the fungus gnats arrived. This was around 3 weeks ago. Seems to have cleared up fine after some treatment. The lower leaves started to yellow, so I switched to the GH nutes which seemed to solve the problem.Began LSTing the WDH, and a couple of days ago I got a bit too enthusiastic and snapped the main stem in half. Tied her up with some plant tie, and loosened off all the of LST to minimise the stress, and she seems to have been unaffected, which is odd considering the tear is down the Y and is at least an inch and a half deep! But good times. Temps when lights on: 21-25 C. Humidity: 45-55RH. Temps lights off - 17-21 C. Started both plants on a T5 flourescent, until about 2 weeks old, and then switched to 125w eco-light, blue, which I have been keeping around 3 inches from the top of the plants. They were on a 24 hour light schedule for the first 2 weeks, then switched to 20/4 when the CFL was introduced. I have an LED light to introduce just before flowering, but I wanted to maximise the amount of time under the CFL.The BSA germinated a week later than the WDH, which is why the growth is delayed.Growing in a 60x60x140 tent, 1 oscillating fan, 1 clip on fan, both plants in Autopots. Also have a few questions :When should I start LST training again on the WDH? Why are the plants so short and bushy? Is that down to the small amount of LST? I assumed the WDH would be taller and more spindly, with less bushiness, looking more like the majority of sativa-dominant plants. When would you recommend switching to LED/more flowering-orientated nutes? Would you turn on the WDH's autopot now or wait a week or so? There are roots coming out the bottom (not a lot, but a small amount) Thanks for taking the time to read this! tl;dr How do my plants look after 6 weeks of growing? Any advice/constructive criticism is appreciated! Thanks Larger one is White Diesel Haze, smaller one Bulk Smash.
White Label says they're 50-65 days to harvest so you should have 3-4 weeks left. Plenty of time to bulk up. At this point I wouldn't expect much more vertical growth. You can still tie back some branches to allow deeper light penetration though. Congrats on your first grow being successful. New grower + bottled nutes usually means half dead by this time but it looks like you've got a handle on it already. Good job. As for your questions, I would introduce her to the led immediately. The more light the better, as long as your temps are stable. Breeder says it's a short plant so that's one reason it's not taller. Another might be the stresses she went through in veg. Autos have a limited lifespan so any stress is going to have a negative effect on size and yield. CFL lighting also contributes to shorter internodal spacing, to an extent. So there's 3 variables off the top of my head that contributed to her current height. Next time give her all the light you have from day one for the best advantage. I start my autos under 1kw lighting.
I try to do as little lst and transplanting as I can with auto's, the least amount of stress is key with autos if your seeing roots then it's time to transplant, the reason for short plant could be from stress or not enough light, put as much light as you can, try to back off on helping them grow and let them grow on their own. The first pic looks like sativa dominant but then I seen the fan leaves and it looks indy dominant. Switch to flowering nutes about a week after they start flowering.
Thanks for the detailed reply, much appreciated. I'll probably resume the LST in a day or two, just gently, even if it only means one extra budding site, it's better than not! I think you're right about plant height, my smaller one seems to have slowed down rapidly also so gonna give both a 1/2 strength dose tomorrow when the lights come on, then I think I'll turn the autopot system on for the larger plant, certainly within the next few days, and I'll see how I get on. Everyone else, thank you also, I appreciate all advice I am given! Cheers ,