Thanks! That plant has been grown 12/12 from start, too.
Fastbuds 6 Shooter, 77 days from germ
12/12 from seed
@sponge I’ve had incredible results with Fastbuds Blue Dreamatic and Green Crack, myself. In fact, Blue Dreamatic is one of my favorite strains, for flavor and potency. Green Crack got me 6oz of potent sativa buds in about 105ish days. I agree about their GG: I hated it.
Auto flowers can definitely be stunted by early mistakes. As far as light needs and nutes, I haven’t found them to be pickier. I run strong qbs and push really heavy nutes, but that’s kind of a cause/effect relationship. I typically run my autos like photos: 1 week 24/0; a couple weeks of 20/4; then 18/6 til bloom; finally 12/12 til harvest. I have found 12/12 from start to be just fine, as well.
Of course, there are limitations to autos, such as no cloning or experimenting with crazy training techniques. Plus, they are unforgiving of mistakes, sometimes even minor ones. No denying they have a mind of their own. It’s up to the auto grower to read their plants and know what to do/not to do and when. I won’t deny that I allow for a couple stunted plants, per grow. It ends up working out for when the others become beasts!
Their fast turn-around, not having to worry as much about light leaks, and the ability to flower at just about any light makes them invaluable to my small indoor grow. Plus, I have found them to be just as potent and stacked as their non-ruderalis sisters, strain dependent, just like photos. I get to try a huge variety of strains, over 3 harvests from Sept-June. I can now reliably pull about a pound per grow, using 25² ft. That’s probably not a lot to some people, but multiply that by 3 grows in less than a year, and it’s nothing to sneeze at. That’s my stash for the year.
I love autos. Sorry you haven’t had good experience with them, but don’t give them up for dead; I had nothing but bad luck growing photos, so I understand.