Growing Autoflowering Cannabis Plants Using Organic Fertilizers | Fast Buds (2024)

FAQs

Growing Autoflowering Cannabis Plants Using Organic Fertilizers | Fast Buds? ›

During the plant's early vegetative state, we primarily use a combination of alfalfa meal and kelp meal. As the plant matures and begins to flower, we then switch to a combo of neem seed meal and kelp meal instead. All you do is sprinkle a little on the top of the mulch and/or soil, and water it in!

During the plant's early vegetative state, we primarily use a combination of alfalfa meal and kelp meal. As the plant matures and begins to flower, we then switch to a combo of neem seed meal and kelp meal instead. All you do is sprinkle a little on the top of the mulch and/or soil, and water it in!

Many growers also believe they result in a better-tasting smoke. Green Buzz Liquids, BiozBizz, and B.A.C. are some of our favorite organic nutes. Natural organic fertilizers such as manure, bat guano, and compost tea are also helpful.

Autoflower Supermix is a one component food grade mineral fertilizer, especially formulated for autoflowering plants with no specific need for longer or shorter daylight periods in order to start their flowering cycle. This unique formulation ensures a rapid growth and abundant flowering.

Packed With Key Nutrients

Organic options also contain more diverse nutrients than synthetic forms. Giving cannabis plants access to the host of minerals and elements they need to survive won't only increase growth and yields, but will help them fight off diseases and pests more effectively.

Instead, utilize organic fertilizers like worm castings, blood meal, fish meal, or bat guano for nitrogen; bone meal or rock dust for phosphorus; wood ash or kelp meal for potassium; and dolomite lime for calcium or magnesium.

Flowering – 5-20-5 or 5-25-10 – During flowering, you want to prioritize phosphorous to promote bud growth and make sure to limit nitrogen so your plant doesn't get too tall or “leggy.” You want it to concentrate on developing huge buds, not lots of stems or leaves, and phosphorus will make your buds grow.

Epsom salt is a fantastic and completely natural way of giving your cannabis plant an extra boost of both magnesium and sulphur, with the added benefit that you really can't go very wrong with it. Excess feeding of these micronutrients will not have a negative effect on your plants.

A basic autoflower soil could be inexpensively made simply by blending 80% supermarket soil with 10% coco and 10% perlite. That can be mixed simply by hand in a bucket. Combine that soil with a (preferably large) airpot or fabric grow sack and you have a solid foundation for your autoflower seed grow.

When should I start fertilizing my autoflower? ›

A hydroponic autoflower cannabis grower will be looking to start their nutrient feeding schedule for autoflowers within a few days of the seeds germinating. Someone growing an autoflower in a 75+ litre sack of quality soil with slow release organics may never need to consider 'feeding' with anything other than water.

Whether this is accurate is open to interpretation, but what matters is that autos will start to bloom after 3–4 weeks of growth. During the growing phase (2–4 weeks after sprouting), it is best to give low doses of vegging nutrients.

The best way to improve yields in autoflowering plants is to combine the use of fertilizers, stimulators, and fungi and bacteria every watering. The most important thing in every garden is to give plants all their needings (non generating overfertilized feedings, nor defficiencies that will decrease crop's quantity.

Loamy. Loamy soil is a combination of sand, silt, and clay soils with added organic compounds. It is one of the best soil types for growing cannabis as it offers optimal water retention and drainage, and it's rich in nutrients and oxygen.

Do not use “Miracle-Gro” soil or any soil that has “extended release” nutrients for growing cannabis. These types of soil will continue to release nitrogen to your plant roots for up to 6 months. This can cause deficiencies or burn your cannabis plants in the flowering/budding stage, reducing your overall yields.

Organic farmers, like any others, need to provide enough nitrogen (N) for crops to maintain good yields, product quality and profitability. But unlike conventional farmers, organic farmers rarely rely primarily on bagged N fertilizers.

Increasing the amount of CO₂ in your grow room can help you grow bigger, denser buds. By doing so, you'll help plants photosynthesise faster and encourage them to take up more nutrients and water.

High-efficiency organic fertilizers can increase crop yield without depleting soil quality, making their application a means of supporting both long-term food security and environmental preservation.

General Hydroponic KoolBloom

Available as Liquid KoolBloom or Dry KoolBloom, this additive is widely regarded as the best bud hardener out there.

L-tryptophan and L-cysteine, two such amino acids, can help your plants produce more buds and large flowers while also encourage other parts of the plant to develop. L-tryptophan is used to create the floral growth hormone indole acetic acid, which creates large flowers.

What are the two most common methods of budding? ›

There are two slightly different methods of budding – chip budding and T budding. The difference between the two is procedure timing and the amount of wood taken with the bud.

Your autoflower is getting too much light

If this happens, the plant receives more light energy than it can use and the result is a small, stunted plant which has struggled under non-optimised conditions.

Regular autoflowering plants are small, yielding between 10 and 50 grams per plant. You cannot expect a strain with a fast and short flowering time to produce more than 30 grams but super autoflowers can yield 200-300 grams if you give it the perfect environment.

Do autoflowers need a dark cycle? Autoflowers don't necessarily need a dark cycle. You can grow them under an autoflower 24 hour light from seed to harvest. Many people do just that whereas others feel that they get slightly better results with a 20/4 or perhaps 18/6 autoflower light cycle.

Thus, when establishing an autoflower, its best to use a peat-based 'soil-less” medium such as Pro-Mix, with light amendments to bring up its nutritional value. Because to be sure, an autoflower does require water and fuel to grow; but most autoflower strains will always require less inputs than tropical strains.

The best soils for autoflowers can have up to 17 ingredients in the substrate. As a general guide, the following formula is recommended. Start with 3 parts peat moss, 3 parts compost, 2 parts perlite, and 1 part vermiculite.

Routinely check the pH levels in your water – autoflower plants grow best in 6.0 to 6.5 pH for vegetative and flowering stages when grown in SoHum Living Soil. If using a chlorinated water source, be sure to allow to off-gas for 24 hours before watering plants.

What Is the Highest Yielding Autoflower? Gorilla Cookies is one of the highest-yielding autoflower strains, with up to 600 g/m2. Additionally, these are also one of the best auto seeds when it comes to potency, with up to 27% THC and a strong “gorilla punch.”

Thanks to their ruderalis genetics, autoflowers do not require a change in the light cycle to begin flowering. Hence, to maximise growth during their short life cycle, it is recommended to keep them under an 18/6 light schedule from seedling through to harvest.

Green-O-Matic Auto

With a lightning-quick flowering time of only six weeks indoors and 5–6 weeks outdoors, Green O Matic is regarded as the world's quickest autoflowering marijuana. The quick and long-lasting effects of this marijuana, combined with its mildness, make it a fantastic choice for daytime use.

What week should I stop feeding my Autoflower? ›

Ending Nutrient Cycle / Flushing

To prevent harsh tastes and unsavoury chemicals making their way into your stash, you can simply stop feeding any nutrients in the last 1.5–2 weeks of flowering. If you are growing hydroponically, you shouldn't stop feeding until the last five days as they will be growing in water only.

Autoflowering strains typically move from seed to harvest in 8–10 weeks. However, some varieties can take up to 12 weeks to fully mature.

Stop Watering 1-3 Days Before Harvest – After flushing, in the final days of harvest, you can further stress your plants by stopping watering. You want to allow the plant to start to wilt just a small amount, because then the plant “thinks” it is dying and as a last-ditch effort, it will increase resin development.

You can top the plant once, or repeatedly, and allow as much time as you wish for the plant to recover and grow. Plants grown from autoflower seeds can be topped, but the high stress training technique will cost your autoflower several days to recover from the process.

Pistils appear white on immature flowers, but make the switch to dark orange/red as flowers continue to develop. For maximum levels of THC, you should aim to harvest your buds when around 60–70% of the pistils have turned. If you want a CBN kick from your buds, wait until 80–90% of the pistils turn.

During the germination and seedling stages, give each plant 3-7 ounces every 4-7 days. During the vegetative stage (when your autoflowers are growing leaves and branches), give each plant 10-20 ounces every 2-4 days.

Lack of light is perhaps the most common reason that cannabis produces fluffy, light buds. You may have noticed the lower, puny 'popcorn' bud sites that form below the main canopy. Often these buds are discarded by growers allowing the plant to focus biochemical energy on the main blooms.

Cannabis plants need water and nutrients to grow and develop big, healthy flowers. Drought, overwatering, and over/underfeeding can all affect your plant's ability to develop big, dense, and heavy flowers.

Harvest too late and other cannabinoids will run off, and you'll get imperfect buds. Harvest your flowers at the right time if you want to have perfect, delicious buds.

Autoflowering Nutrient Tips

Calcium & Magnesium - Cal-Mag supplements are recommended if you are not growing in soil. Calcium and magnesium are both important secondary macronutrients essential for healthy growth but they are easily washed away in soilless grow mediums.

What are the two most active ingredients in cannabis? ›

The two main cannabinoids are delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). The most commonly known of the two is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is the chemical that is responsible for the psychoactive effects of cannabis.

Whereas organic fertilisers break down slowly over time, synthetic types are either used up quickly or leach from the soil. This means growers need to apply them more regularly to meet the nutritional demands of their plants.

Sweet Weed Control

The calcium in milk helps to compensate for what is unavailable in the soil, while the increased biological activity from both the milk and molasses releases unavailable phosphorus and create soil conditions that are unfavorable to germination of weed seeds.

Compost tea and seaweed extract are two common examples of organic foliar fertilizers. Use liquid fertilizers to give your plants a light nutrient boost or snack every month or even every two weeks during the growing season.

Examples of naturally occurring organic fertilizers include manure, slurry, worm castings, peat, seaweed and guano. Green manure crops are also grown to add nutrients to the soil. Naturally occurring minerals such as mine rock phosphate, sulfate of potash and limestone are also considered Organic Fertilizers.

Organic farming has a smaller carbon footprint, conserves and builds soil health, replenishes natural ecosystems for cleaner water and air, all without toxic pesticide residues.

The flowering stage in marijuana plants is the period when they grow their flowers or buds. In this phase, there is high consumption of nutrients, mainly phosphorus, and potassium. To supply the plant with these elements, it is best to apply a fertilizer solution during the flowering stage.

What is the best additive for flowering cannabis? ›

Bat Guano. Manure and especially bat guano made into a tea is a popular soil additive. Adding manure to water helps prevent plants from burning and also helps them to stay properly hydrated. Bat guano tea adds phosphorus and nitrogen to the soil.

As previously stated, moderate levels of nitrogen and phosphorus work best to sustain trichome growth to the maximum level. Dumping nutrients on your plant during the second half of the flowering cycle can result in reduced cannabinoid and terpene content, thereby lowering your bud quality in both flavor and potency.

The nutrient requirements will change dramatically when the plants enter the flowering stage, and this may be a little hard for new growers. You can feed your plants 1-2 times every week, gradually increasing the nutrients, but at the same time pay attention to your plants' reactions after each feeding.

There could be no best nutrients for flowering stage list without CANNA Boost. It is one of the most well known bloom boosters among growers, and for good reason. CANNA Boost contains calcium, magnesium and sulfur, plus additional micronutrients like chlorine, iron, zinc, copper and more to help boost nutrient uptake.

Epsom salt is a fantastic and completely natural way of giving your cannabis plant an extra boost of both magnesium and sulphur, with the added benefit that you really can't go very wrong with it. Excess feeding of these micronutrients will not have a negative effect on your plants.

Down to Earth's natural fish meal fertilizer (8-6-0) is ideal for cannabis plants. It promotes beneficial soil microbial life and stimulates strong root development. It is a great source of two of the main nutrients needed for plant growth: phosphorus and nitrogen. It also provides 5% calcium to your plants.