Sydney Winter Grow - Autoflowering suggestions or comments

[Paco]

Hello!

 

My hope is to grow outdoors throughtout winter here in Sydney and was wondering... have any of you fine Oz farmers experienced success with any  Autoflowering strains during the winter months? 

 

My growing space is a discrete terrace with excellent direct sun from around mid-day to sunset and ambient light avaiable for no less than10 hours a day.  The worst case scenario is that the plants will only get 5-6 hours of direct sun during the depths of winter,  I'm not too worried about temperature as the space is protected from prevailaing winds and the slate tiles the pots sit upon retain an epic amount of heat through the day.    I can bring them indoors at night.

 

SO my question to the forum is - In your experience, what Autoflowering strains are best suited for the limited light and cool temperatures experienced during the Austral winter.  And have there been any sucessful strategies employed to keep the girls happy (e.g. soil mixes, nute protocols, heater pads, etc...) 

 

Thank you all.

 

::Sharing One::

[Naycha]

A regular photoperiod plant will outperform an auto in your situation. Autos require long light hours to perform well, the light hours are only getting shorter now.

 

I would choose a strain with a decent amout of sativa in it, heavy indicas may flower too quickly and lack in size this late in the season.

 

Naycha

[Paco]

Thanks for the comment Naycha.  I have a few photo seeds to try out, however my concern is that if I start a traditional photo-period seed in July when we have 10hrs of light is that the vegetative stage will go on waaaaay too long - the days will continue to get longer till the end of December.   Is it possible to fool an outdoor plant to begin flowering after a few months of vegging even though the daylight hours are increasing?  

 

I was hoping that the autoflower route would let me harvest a few small plants through the winter, as I read somewhere that with the ruderalis gene the plant can succeed with just 6hrs of light.  

[billygoat]

July ?

[forgetiwashere]

paco if you start a photo seed now it will behave just like an auto, it will grow for around 4 or so weeks and then it will go straight to flower, vegging too long will not be an issue.

 

photo plants will begin to flower under 12 hrs of of light or less some with maybe even longer daylight hrs than that.

 

with an auto or photo plant starting now your biggest issue would be getting it big enough to get any kind of yield considering the shorter light hrs it wont veg really fast, but at least with a photo plant you have the option of using artificial light to extend the light hrs to keep it in veg longer if you want it to get bigger.

[billygoat]

Yeah stick a new 135w cfl porch light in

[crunk]

 

A regular photoperiod plant will outperform an auto in your situation. Autos require long light hours to perform well, the light hours are only getting shorter now.

 

I would choose a strain with a decent amout of sativa in it, heavy indicas may flower too quickly and lack in size this late in the season.

 

Naycha

 

I think that was the reply to my question a little while back haha

[xzavier budd]

best off planting a dozen bag seeds in a large pot or tub.

the sex will show in 4 or so weeks, allow half to be male.

once males are ripped that gives the little females just enough room to create a little carpet of winter buds ready in about 8 weeks/pick early spring

xb