Never messed around with Auto flowering, need help.

So I have some pretty basic questions to ask about auto flowering, on average about how tall and bushy would a low ryder get? Im working with a cabinet that is 2ft deep x 4ft wide x 3.5 feet tall. biggest question is, how many could I fit and what would be the best way to pull off as many plants as possible in that cabinet with a 400 watt HPS and MH conversion? also whats best? hydroponics for them or soil? always wanted to mess around with them and was wondering the advantages of them other than the fact that they only take 7-8 weeks to be finished.

Also, about how much do you get per plants? is LST or topping necessary for this? and would I be best with a scrog situation? please let me know!

Using a 400W you should make sure you have optimum cooling for that small of a space, because it will be very hard to keep cool without a good canfan or likewise. Hydroponically, Ive seen grows that yielded much more than soil, and much less. Alot of auto grows are done in Ocean Forrest soil because it takes them to week 6 with no nutes needed until that point. Yields are anywhere from a quarter ounce to 3.5 ounces (on a very optimal hydro grow). I would aim for about an ounce a plant to be realistic. You can lst them, but I havn't seen a huge benefit when people do it to them. Topping is generally not recommended. Scrog isn't really necessary IMO but it wouldn't hurt anything to try it. I would recommend afghan kush ryders for a very potent smoke. Autos actually are beneficial because on dialed in grows people are getting 2 ozs a plant and harvesting very frequently. And as a bonus you can sample many different varieties and also stagger your grow however you like since you don't ever have to switch the lights to 12/12 .

Much appreciated, you have been most helpful!

DO NOT GROW LOWRYDER #1. There are so many better strains out there. Lowryder #1 was my most wretched plant. It's essentially like growing outdoor regs. I made it in to crummy QWISO hash because it was an awful tasting smoke and a shit buzz.

People bag on autos because of first generation strains like Lowryder. Try Afghan Kush Ryder or Royal Dwarf, Barney's Pineapple Express, etc.

SlightlyStoopid said:

Much appreciated, you have been most helpful!

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No problem, Im not an expert by any means but Ive done a fair amount of research and am in the middle of growing some Easyriders and Afghan Kush Ryders atm. For your question about how many plants, I'd say 50W per plant would be a good rule of thumb, so Id probably go with 8 plants. You could throw in a few more though and be fine, depending on which strain you grow, but leave them a little room to breathe. Anything else just ask, Ive been researching quite a bit lately on lots of different autos and like I said Im growing some now so I may be able to help. I've had a few problems, but that was due to the water supply I was using having a high ppm(extremely hard water). If it wasn't for that I think it wouldve went alot smoother thus far, but Ive turned it around and they are plumping up nicely under 1000w of goodness.

because you are growing in a cab you do want to be very careful with the heat inside. too hot and your plants will fry/bake whichever way you look at it. So to solve this i would probably use cfl lighting or if you can get a little bit of ventilation a metal halide.

also because of your constraints i would only do like 4 max. if you were to do 8 like plainjanename suggested I think they would all be fighting for space/air and whatever else.

yields are of course going to vary so I wont even attempt to guess for you

I grew some lowryder strains a couple years back and they grew to be about 2- 2 and 1/2 feet. at least with the cfls you can put them on the sides and not burn the plant.

as far as what training to do. I would stay away from stress so topping and FIMming are out. LST will work but as pjn said might not yield big big results. supercropping is something to look into as well, but i have never done supercroping to autoflowers....i will soon though

hydro or soil? I'm a soil guy so.... soil lol but I think a hydro system might be a little difficult to set up in a cab

either way good luck. keep us posted

DSS


ps- also not an expert lol

You can try LST but like others have said there is limited improvement. Do not top too much stress for them. But it helps to tuck fan leaves that are shading bud sites. I'm not sure how they would deal with a scrog. Also those advertised lifespans are not real accurate you usually want to a week or two on to them.

I do soil and that seems to be how most auto grows are but no problems with hydro. The only hydro I can remember seeing was I think trousers with a massive blue something in a DWC.

SlightlyStoopid said:

So I have some pretty basic questions to ask about auto flowering, on average about how tall and bushy would a low ryder get? Im working with a cabinet that is 2ft deep x 4ft wide x 3.5 feet tall. biggest question is, how many could I fit and what would be the best way to pull off as many plants as possible in that cabinet with a 400 watt HPS and MH conversion? also whats best? hydroponics for them or soil? always wanted to mess around with them and was wondering the advantages of them other than the fact that they only take 7-8 weeks to be finished.

Also, about how much do you get per plants? is LST or topping necessary for this? and would I be best with a scrog situation? please let me know!

Click to expand...

Check out my thread "DinaFem White Widow Auto". Got 2 ounces dried of some excellent bud in my first attempt at hydro. Homemade 5-gallon DWC. She topped 45" and was over 52" wide when chopped.

Don't top autos. Try a small SCROG.