Hello, I am growing auto ak-47 and auto afghan kush and i had a few questions I was wondering about that i havn't recieved a definative answer 1. How does a 24/0 light schedule effect autoflowers and is a dark period necessary for autoflowers? 2. Since i am growing in ocean forest soil, i have been told that the soil alone has enough nutes to last the plants two months- Is this true? 3. I m growing under a four foot six tube T5 setup using full spectrum tubes putting out about 16000 lumens. I have 8 plants total all in three gallon bags. Will my current lighting be enough to go from seed to harvest? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. plants are 8 days old since they popped out of the soil. Just trying to get as much info as possible before i proceede on improving my set up. Thanks
I think if you go 24/0 it will take longer to finish than 20/4. I'd go with whatever the breeder says. Some do best in 18/6, some 20/4 and others 24/0. I don't know which seeds you have but for example lowlife auto ak-47 does best in 20/4. Ocean forest is good for a month or so. Just feed them when the first leaves, not the cotyledons, start yellowing. Watch the runoff, ffof has a tendancy to get acidic. Those lights are ok. You'd want a minimum of 5000 lumens per plant. I've flowered one plant with a 110w 2 bulb t-5 and it wasn't that great. HPS is a lot better. Or add plenty of cfl's.
With t5s it is strongly advised that you do ScRoG or LsT. Get the most out of the lights try to keep, them as flat as possible so they can use the entire length width of the tubes. They will work ok but they don't have very good penetration. I also only ever do 18/6 but that because its easier to control heat, but since heat is not a option i would say 20/4-22/2 would be best. It takes 40 minutes of down time for nutrients from the leaves to travel down. Not saying that it wont travel down if on 24/0 its just going to be harder going against the current. transpiration and all.