Photoperiod Questions

I finally got around to growing three of my short rider fem seeds and one of my jock horror auto fem I bought last summer from Nirvana (during their much discussed problem time for autos). They look great--15 inches, bushy, but they were at 37 days with no hairs and I finally flipped the light (400hps plus 2 X 68wCFL) to 12-12. I'm at 41 day now and hairs are showing and buds are forming. My question is should I flip them back to 20-4 or continue at 12-12. No way they'll be ready at my anticipated 8 weeks. Thanks for your replies. My first auto grow.

Not if you want them to go back to veg.

Im confused.... So your growing 2 autoflowering strains?? Of one auto and one fem??

No I think he has some of Nirvana's autos that diden't auto but if ya go to 12 12 ya get some nice flowers. They even did some refunds but that was some time ago noe. I grow their NL Autos no fail and nice somke.

Right. I did get replacement seeds for the Jock Horror auto fems: Jock Horror fems (which turned out wonderfully last winter). The press wasn't so bad on the Short Riders, so I kept them and planted one six weeks ago today along with one of the "bad" Jock Horrors.
So now they're under 12-12: three short riders, one Jock Horror auto fem.
Another question: I'll keep them at 12-12, but do I have to worry about light leaks like I would with regular photoperiod seeds?

If there true auto's... then you should be growing them under 18+ hours of light or more. Thats why there autoflowering strains. They dont need you to change the photoperiod for them to bud. They start budding when they want to. If your only giving them 12 hours of light, then your not going to produce nothing from those things. Give them more light and dont worry about light leaks. You can keep autos under 24 hours of light and they'll still flower.

That's one of the questions. I was at about 40 days from seed with no sign of sex, so I changed the light to 12-12. Then they showed. Fishbud says I should leave the lights at 12-12, not go back to what I was before--20-4. What do you think? And if I leave them at 12-12, do I need to worry about light leaks?

timeout said:

That's one of the questions. I was at about 40 days from seed with no sign of sex, so I changed the light to 12-12. Then they showed. Fishbud says I should leave the lights at 12-12, not go back to what I was before--20-4. What do you think? And if I leave them at 12-12, do I need to worry about light leaks?

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Thats a hard one man.... You modified your light cycle... so you dont even know if there true autoflowering or not. So if they are... then you should be able to increase the amount of light and increase your yield.

But if there not true auto's, then you'll risk revegging your plant, and possibly tear your plants up.

So there's really only one way to find out, but you'll be taking a risk.

I knew going in that the Jock Horror was suspect, but I figured the short rider would be ok. I think I'll increase the light back gradually to 20-4, where I started. If the JH doesn't turn out, so be it. I'm kind of depending on the short rider, though. I can only grow once a year. I have a pretty narrow window this year, which is why I thought I'd give the autos a try. What do you mean "tear up" your plants?

timeout said:

I knew going in that the Jock Horror was suspect, but I figured the short rider would be ok. I think I'll increase the light back gradually to 20-4, where I started. If the JH doesn't turn out, so be it. I'm kind of depending on the short rider, though. I can only grow once a year. I have a pretty narrow window this year, which is why I thought I'd give the autos a try. What do you mean "tear up" your plants?

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If you reveg a budding plant, then the buds get all deformed looking. You can also get hermaphrodites, and seed your buds. So deformed, seeded buds = torn up.

I got nine Short Ryder sprouts right now. I did not realize the Nirvana Short Ryders have a bad reputation for failing to autoflower until I read this thread. Oh well..... that's okay. I am going to light them 20/4 until 15 March then go to 11/13 with the others

Wait, now. The three short rider I'm growing now are from summer 2010. At the time Nirvana was selling a Jock Horror auto fem and I think a white widow auto or an AK48 auto as well. The Jock Horror and the other were the ones taken off the market after most of the complaints. The short rider could be just fine now.

My three from summer 2010 have looked good, they just didn't flower until I flipped to 12-12. I'm back up to 16 hours now, and I'll increase to 18 over the next couple days.