New to autos

[Raphe]

Hi everyone, new member here.
I’ve been growing photo fems for 30 years but have taken a notion to try autos. I looked in detail at greenhouse seeds and Barneys farm. I decided with the info I learned to go for Barneys purple punch auto. Now I’m regretting it. The more I look into it, grow diaries report a 14-16 week cycle and a cronic yield of 1.5 to 2 oz per plant! Barneys state a 10 week grow and 450g m2. I’m looking to do 4 in a 1m2 tent. Can someone please convince me to run with these? I use Autopots with fabric pots and shogun nutes,
If it really takes 14 weeks I’m better of doing fems and getting 5oz a plant and using less electricity due to going 12/12 after 4 weeks.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Frankthetank]

Hi everyone, new member here.
I’ve been growing photo fems for 30 years but have taken a notion to try autos. I looked in detail at greenhouse seeds and Barneys farm. I decided with the info I learned to go for Barneys purple punch auto. Now I’m regretting it. The more I look into it, grow diaries report a 14-16 week cycle and a cronic yield of 1.5 to 2 oz per plant! Barneys state a 10 week grow and 450g m2. I’m looking to do 4 in a 1m2 tent. Can someone please convince me to run with these? I use Autopots with fabric pots and shogun nutes,
If it really takes 14 weeks I’m better of doing fems and getting 5oz a plant and using less electricity due to going 12/12 after 4 weeks.
Thanks in advance.

I say go for it! You’ve got em, might as well. A good grower can always pull a good yield.

In the future, check out strains from mephisto, Jeanos, twenty20 Mendocino or several others you see grown alot on this site (I recommend multiverse beans for a seed bank).. hope it helps, hit me with any questions…

 

[White Punk on Dope]

When you get it dialed in you can get 4 or 5 ounces off an auto flower.
I have done it in 63 days. I use the lazy man method. Best of luck to you!!
DC Seed Exchange has some fantastic Auto's.

 

[Mozzy]

Hi everyone, new member here.
I’ve been growing photo fems for 30 years but have taken a notion to try autos. I looked in detail at greenhouse seeds and Barneys farm. I decided with the info I learned to go for Barneys purple punch auto. Now I’m regretting it. The more I look into it, grow diaries report a 14-16 week cycle and a cronic yield of 1.5 to 2 oz per plant! Barneys state a 10 week grow and 450g m2. I’m looking to do 4 in a 1m2 tent. Can someone please convince me to run with these? I use Autopots with fabric pots and shogun nutes,
If it really takes 14 weeks I’m better of doing fems and getting 5oz a plant and using less electricity due to going 12/12 after 4 weeks.
Thanks in advance.

Welcome to the forum for one .

I only grow autos, in decent organic soil indoors, usually 18/6 seed-to-harvest and I'd say ~90%+ rarely come out dry much less than 5oz, and I transplant/top/remove nodes/schwazz the majority of the plants for space and environment reasons. Most of mine get done between 75-90 days depending on environment and how much amber is desired, though I've let quite a few go as much as 17+weeks.

I've also seen folks chop other autos at 6X days on here who's judgment I trust on their plant's doneness, and there are also 1-3lb autos that have documented grows on here if you look through the grow threads

 

[Raphe]

Thanks for all the encouragement and offers of help from all that replied. I will for sure have a few questions as I get ready to start. Meanwhile I'll get used to navigating my way round the site.
Cheers.

 

[Delps8]

Hi everyone, new member here.
I’ve been growing photo fems for 30 years but have taken a notion to try autos. I looked in detail at greenhouse seeds and Barneys farm. I decided with the info I learned to go for Barneys purple punch auto. Now I’m regretting it. The more I look into it, grow diaries report a 14-16 week cycle and a cronic yield of 1.5 to 2 oz per plant! Barneys state a 10 week grow and 450g m2. I’m looking to do 4 in a 1m2 tent. Can someone please convince me to run with these? I use Autopots with fabric pots and shogun nutes,
If it really takes 14 weeks I’m better of doing fems and getting 5oz a plant and using less electricity due to going 12/12 after 4 weeks.
Thanks in advance.

Assuming a sound grow environment, the size and quality of a cannabis crop is a direct function of the amount of light the grow has received.

The yield equation for cannabis is simple - 0.2 to 0.3 meters of flower per mol of light that the plant has received over the course of the grow. CO2 and light are used to make food. As long as you're not past the light saturation point, more light will result in more glucose being created which will tend to result in increased mass and quality.

If your grow environment is sound and if you provide your plants with adequate amounts of light, autos and photos will yield well over 450gm/square meter.

The photos below are two Gelato autos under a Growcraft X3 flower light and a Vipar XS 1500 for the front row of the plant.

Yield data from two grows. Jeff and Mary were from the first grow in 2021, the photos above are Chris (Evert) and Wilma (Rudolph) from 2022.

 

[Raphe]

Wow! That’s an eye opener. Thanks for this. I was going to get the Maxibright 300 daylight LED to go with a 1m2 tent, unless you think otherwise? I currently use maxibright 315w cmh for photos but with the warmer weather coming it can be a problem.

 

[Delps8]

Wow! That’s an eye opener. Thanks for this. I was going to get the Maxibright 300 daylight LED to go with a 1m2 tent, unless you think otherwise? I currently use maxibright 315w cmh for photos but with the warmer weather coming it can be a problem.

Yeh, cannabis is a light whore loves light. One researcher I've followed over the past few years is Mitch Westmoreland, a PhD candidate studying under Bruce Bugbee at Utah State (USA). I strongly recommend growers watch his recent YouTube video (late 2023). It's about an hour long and absolutely chock full of info, to the point that it's a "do these X things and you'll have to back up the truck at harvest time". It's interesting to hear an expert in the agricultural field talk about how…eager cannabis is to grow under high light.

You can grow at over 1k (I grow at 1000-1100) but if you're just hovering around the 1k mark, you'll be amazed.

"unless you think otherwise" - There are better options I Googled the model you posted and the PPFD chart is at one of the links that came up.

To confirm-you're looking to spend $415± and your tent is 1 meter by 1 meter and it's a standard height (1.8 meters)?

I've posted a couple of sets of data and charts of other lights. The PPFD chart is a good way to illustrate how quickly light levels fall off. The chart from the Maxibright makes me thing that they modeled their light after an HPS lamp because it's got that same hot spot that HPS does (along with lights from HLG, BTW).

PPFD chart of the Maxibright (yup, there is no usable light in the corners)

Over the summer of 2024, I spent some time looking for a replacement for my Growcraft X3 flower light, which is a 330 watt light, designed in 2019-2020. My reason for replacing the light was that I didn't like the light fall off at the ends of the PPFD map.

These are the data for the light:

And this is the resulting surface chart (Excel)

What I was looking to replace it with was the Spider Farmer SE4500.

The data:

The chart

Compare the Maxibright chart to each of those other lights. Once you move out of the center of an HPS light, there's just not a lot of light, but there are options.

Let me know about tent size and budget and I'll get back to you.

 

[Raphe]

Yeh, cannabis is a light whore loves light. One researcher I've followed over the past few years is Mitch Westmoreland, a PhD candidate studying under Bruce Bugbee at Utah State (USA). I strongly recommend growers watch his recent YouTube video (late 2023). It's about an hour long and absolutely chock full of info, to the point that it's a "do these X things and you'll have to back up the truck at harvest time". It's interesting to hear an expert in the agricultural field talk about how…eager cannabis is to grow under high light.

You can grow at over 1k (I grow at 1000-1100) but if you're just hovering around the 1k mark, you'll be amazed.

"unless you think otherwise" - There are better options I Googled the model you posted and the PPFD chart is at one of the links that came up.

To confirm-you're looking to spend $415± and your tent is 1 meter by 1 meter and it's a standard height (1.8 meters)?

I've posted a couple of sets of data and charts of other lights. The PPFD chart is a good way to illustrate how quickly light levels fall off. The chart from the Maxibright makes me thing that they modeled their light after an HPS lamp because it's got that same hot spot that HPS does (along with lights from HLG, BTW).

PPFD chart of the Maxibright (yup, there is no usable light in the corners)
View attachment 1738825


Over the summer of 2024, I spent some time looking for a replacement for my Growcraft X3 flower light, which is a 330 watt light, designed in 2019-2020. My reason for replacing the light was that I didn't like the light fall off at the ends of the PPFD map.

These are the data for the light:

View attachment 1738834

And this is the resulting surface chart (Excel)
View attachment 1738833

What I was looking to replace it with was the Spider Farmer SE4500.

The data:

View attachment 1738836


The chart
View attachment 1738835


Compare the Maxibright chart to each of those other lights. Once you move out of the center of an HPS light, there's just not a lot of light, but there are options.

Let me know about tent size and budget and I'll get back to you.

Thanks for all of this. I have room for a 1m2 x 2m high tent. Budget isn't so much of issue, I'd rather get the right light to start with. The one issue is that I'm based in the UK so choice of smaller LED's are limited. I am familiar with the autopot system so I'll be using that with the 20lt fabric pots. I also use an inline water timer to regulate the amount of feed in a 24 hour period. Just to stop them sitting in water all the time.
In the past I have read that co2 is of no benefit at temps under 30 dec C. Does that still stand with LED lighting?
As I mentioned, I currently use 2x 315w cmh bulbs for an area 6ft long by 28" wide and heat can be problematic in the summer. Another reason to go LED but for that size and shape of space it's not easy find an LED without going over or under the desired wattage, but that's another story for another day. I would like to concentrate on the tent, If I could fit a 4ft tent in I would as there seem to be a lot more options for LED's to cover that size. But 1m2 is what it has to be.
I hope this gives you enough info to recommend a light and any other additions I haven't covered.
Cheers.

 

[Raphe]

Thanks for all of this. I have room for a 1m2 x 2m high tent. Budget isn't so much of issue, I'd rather get the right light to start with. The one issue is that I'm based in the UK so choice of smaller LED's are limited. I am familiar with the autopot system so I'll be using that with the 20lt fabric pots. I also use an inline water timer to regulate the amount of feed in a 24 hour period. Just to stop them sitting in water all the time.
In the past I have read that co2 is of no benefit at temps under 30 dec C. Does that still stand with LED lighting?
As I mentioned, I currently use 2x 315w cmh bulbs for an area 6ft long by 28" wide and heat can be problematic in the summer. Another reason to go LED but for that size and shape of space it's not easy find an LED without going over or under the desired wattage, but that's another story for another day. I would like to concentrate on the tent, If I could fit a 4ft tent in I would as there seem to be a lot more options for LED's to cover that size. But 1m2 is what it has to be.
I hope this gives you enough info to recommend a light and any other additions I haven't covered.
Cheers.

After researching various lights I'm still finding all the lights designed for a 1m2 tent are really only beneficial over a 2ft 6" area in flower. When looking at the spider farmer se4500, as good as it looks on the ppfd map, it is designed for a 4'x2' area. I can fit that size in. However I think I could only get 3 plants in giving 16" space for each plant?
I see spider farmer have a new 3'x3' kit with the G3000 light. This should be good for 4 plants. However this too has a flower footprint of 2'x2'. Am I reading the info correctly, is anything outside the 2'x2' not going to get enough light in flower? I see autos need a lower ppfd of around 500 umols if that is the case then it should be fine, but will it be okay for photos? As the edges are a much lower ppfd value the centre is really high. does this have a blending in effect or will it give more light penetration to the whole area?
The more I learn the more questions there are, this is a real minefield to get the right setup.
Thanks in advance Delps8.