Light Spectrum Help

[MicroKrunk]

If I have the choice of either 60 watt equiv daylight spectrum cfls or 100 watt equiv soft white cfls for growing Lowryder which would promote the most growth during seedling/veg cycle, ussually I would always just use the daylight spectrum for all vegging plants but since this is an auto-flowering strain I was wondering if the 100 watt equiv soft whites may even be better for the full life cycle due to the extra wattage I have on those. Lately I've been switching from daylight spectrum to higher wattage soft whites when I think its maybe a week before they start flowering which idk if this is a good idea either.

 

[yeknomssa]

Well, you've got the basics down for sure:
Soft White = 2700k = More Red Spectrum which is good for flower
Bright white (Daylight) = 6500k = More Blue spectrum which is better for veg

however on an autoflowering strain i'd say it makes little difference when you're talking about final yield. but i can see a reason to use 6500k CFLs in the first month or so because they can help give you more females (if growing from seed). a couple other factors are temperature and humidity. lower temps and higher humidity have been known to cause more females too. good luck on your growing endeavors

 

[Guest]

ive noticed with auto-flowering strains I get way more females under 24/0 light, compared to starting them outdoors I get almost all males.

big root space is important when growing LR for the best yeild, get deep pots over wide pots, I use 3 gallons and they use all of it.

also, after 21 days or so and they still havent showed sex, switch light to 20/4, they will show in 3-6 days and start flowering. one thing I liked about AF strains.

 

[MicroKrunk]

Thanks for the input, I've been using 20/4 light cycle from seed so far and my oldest is now on day 23 with still no signs of sex (most peoples lowryders are sexed way before this).

About the size of my pot, I'm only using 1.3 liter pots at the moment which is only a third of a gallon. I was planning to use these all the way through. I would use bigger pots but I only have exactly 17 inches from the bottom of my cfls to the bottom of my cabinet and only 11.5 inches from the top of my soil to the bottom of my cfls.

What should I do in this situation? Keep using these size pots or get bigger pots and have even less height to grow in? Possibly get bigger pots and attempt to LST the lowryders? (also I read LSTing lowryders isn't a good idea)

Here are some pics of my cab and my hopeful girl compared to pot size at day 23.

 

[yeknomssa]

I don't have any experience with auto-flower strains, but imho, some kind of training is absolutely necessary when growing with CFLs. it helps to distribute more of the light to more parts of the plant with less waste.

about your container question, i don't want to contradict what soilgro said, but in your case, a wider and shallower pot may do you some good as it will free up more vertical room for you. however, i'm not sure how this will affect your particular strain come harvest

 

[Guest]

if its pure LR it probly wont stretch much, I would tye it over, when the branches grow out train them to.

ive done AF hybrids, sweettooth#3/LR, SativaSkunk/LRxLR, Masterlow, powerstout, AK-47/LR,

The hybrids usally take longer than pure LR, about 30 days or so at the most, ive had them at 17 days. It takes about 4 inbreed or pure LR male to make it 100% AF,
I always flowered them on 12/12 also, its just natural, but it is proven to yield more with more light, costly if you got HPS running constatly with heat.

I flower them at your veg time, and they would get just as big as other strains with the same veg time, I would pull about an OZ each(give or take).

Pot size is key for big yeilds with LR.

hard to keep them stable I think