The best medium period, is clay balls, and hydro for autos. No argument.
What follows only applies to healthy plants growing in clay pellets and a non bullshit hydro. (see my sig)
—Autos like to be topped. Nine out of ten times it's best to top, maybe think about it one out of ten times, then top anyway. It will not 'slow down' your plant, in fact it's more likely to speed her up, but definitely not stunt her.
—Autos like to be defoliated, some plants need a lot some very little, but all need to be defoliated. It will not 'slow down' your plant, in fact it's more likely to speed her up, due to more light getting to early shoots.
—Two beans from the same packet can be very different from each other for no other reason than that's how they expressed themselves. For example here's three from the same sealed D.P packet of Orange Bud auto. These two are in the same pot
View attachment 4395687 they grew very differently right from the start, that is not a blue light on the left, they are both under a white light. The one on the right's leaves went yellow and produced a normal sort of bud, the one on the left bloomed two weeks later, none of the leaves went yellow, they went directly from green to dark plum. The ones on the right have been curing for 3 weeks, the ones on the left currently look like this
View attachment 4395686.
The first one of these I grew was very slow to set flower and looked very weedy for a long time then suddenly this
View attachment 4395688. So you can now see how easy it is to think something is wrong just because the same beans are doing something else. Then you can get panicked into fucking around with the nutrients and other bullshit. For the record, I've never used any extra Ca or Mg other than what comes already in the nutes.
This is why it's vital to get your system as simple as possible. If you change something like a different light or a different medium, that change you see may very well not be due to what ever change you made but just natural variation.
