I have two autoflowers that I have been pruning every once a week. The growing period is 6 weeks from seed to harvest according to the description. It's now in week 4 / 5. Yesterday I pruned and since the plants are quite big now I had to prune a lot. Usually when I prune, the plant looks very healthy the next day and is bigger already. This time I think I might have over pruned as one is hanging a bit and the other one is becoming yellow. They don't have the usual glow and they don't even smell as usual. Is there anything I can do to help them become better? I have now shut the lamp.
Autos are very hardy, and yours will do fine, in spite of pruning abuse. You should double check that "6 weeks from seed to harvest ." Auto typically need 7-8 weeks of flower, and 12-14 weeks from seed to harvest. Breeder claimed times are sometimes geared to selling more seeds, rather than the truth. I question why you feel the need to prune weekly, because they don't need it, and I've seen evidence that it will reduce bud size and yield. As you have discovered, autos can get huge, and vertical space is a major concern. I recently topped and trained some autos, and they still got almost 2 meters tall. Sometimes the plants put out too much vegetation to be contained.
It's 6 weeks from seed to harvest. That's why I choosed them. I had another auto that died of auto pruning. It looked like this
Autos can be grown without ever cutting off anything that's healthy green. Every leaf is a solar panel that adds to the feeding of the whole plant. I've never seed a 6 week strain. What are the breeder and strain names?
One is Ultraviolet from Samsara. Now that I look more into it, my vendor says it's 6 weeks from seed to harvest while at Samsara they say it's 72 days, that's 10 weeks. I believed it because when you look at Zamnesia's enormous seed bank all life times of autoflowers are written but only few are said to be 6 weeks so I thought perhaps it's not an exaggeration and this is one of them fastest strains ever. Another one is Thunder Bloody Mary again from Samsara and they say it's 62 days. But they looks much more happy now. I had to water twice as much as last time, 2 days ago before the water ran out from the bottom. I guess I just need to water more from now on. For a while the smell was totally gone, I shut the fan to the carbon filter and there was no smell for many hours so I thought it's probably dead but I was wrong. I will be much more careful with the pruning now, it got me really scared.
"This strain will grow for around 14 days after which it will enter a fast flowering cycle. Ultraviolet will be ready approximately 72 days after germination. With proper care, we can expect yields topping 60g per plant even indoors." But it has been growing for a lot more than 14 days now without any flowers. I don't know what to trust. It's even more confusing when they tell the exact amount of days.
I've done Samsara Ultraviolet auto, and don't really remember (~12 weeks?), but the fastest autos I've tried take at least 10 weeks. The best strategy for autos is to add 1-2 weeks to the MAXIMUM time the breeders claim. Most autos start flower in 4-6 weeks, then bloom for 6-9 weeks, meaning a total time of 10-15 weeks. One more thing about pruning. You owe it to yourself to grow a plant with zero pruning so that you can learn how the plants grow. Save the leaf cutting for when you have more experience. Until then most of what pruning tries to accomplish can be done with leaf tucking or by slightly bending the plants over so that light hitting the canopy interior will stimulate the growth of new branches (Low Stress Training). But anytime you do any cutting on a plant, it slows it down for awhile, and can reduce bud size.
Speed Bud by Femaleseeds 54 Days from seed. Takes removing of excess fan leaves well and flowers at around day 24.
Looks awesome! And really pruned! Does it really take 54 days and is it that precise? How long is the lamps on? I have mine working 24hs. I use coir and perlite, is the brown stones needed or helpful? One last question (Sorry for too many questions): The autos flower during some weeks right? How often do you harvest them and how do you then dry them? Because I was thinking I would harvest once and then shut the lamp so that I can dry the flowers in my tent where there carbon filter helps to remove the smell.
Yes 55 days now. She is a quick flowering one and finishes quick. Only 50 days of flower time. I run my lights 20/4 on/off. I grow in Black Magic Soil and the pebbles to keep soil moist, its hot in Northern CA right now. I harvest 4 plants every 2 months, i have other plants ready and in a cycle
Aha, So the total life time is not 53 days. It will flower in 50 days. And you harvest each plant once?
She is on 55 days from seed, 2 more weeks and she is done and ready to harvest. You can only harvest a plant once. I am running autos.
