Hi,
I was wondering if you could give me some advice with nutrients with a first time outdoor guerilla auto **tomato** grow. I have looked on the internet and the best nutrients that are affordable for me are Flora Bloom and Flora Grow. I really just need to know how to use nutrients simply on my autos. If you could give some advice for a newbie, it would be greatly appreciated. (UK climate if that makes a difference to anything).
Daniel
Hello Daniel,
The thing to remember about auto flowering plants is that they grow super fast, shifting from one phase to another before you know it. Traditional plants wait until you or nature tell them it’s time to change so you know exactly when to adjust the nutrient ratios. Because auto strains grow so fast the common impulse is to give them lots of nutrients. After all, if they are growing so fast they must be hungry, right? Wrong. Auto plants are only one or two generations away from Ruderalis strains and they have much lower nutrient requirements making it easy to over fertilize. Traditional strains give you plenty of time to catch a mistake; auto strains do not. This is why grower’s error has convinced some growers that auto flowers aren’t worth it. But, with a little advice you can find out just how productive these little powerhouses can be. Auto flowers really don’t have a vegetative stage; after they pass through the seedling stage they almost instantly switch to flowering. It’s important to give them the opportunity to produce as much healthy vegetative growth as possible before they dedicate themselves to flowering.
To aid the plants as much as possible, inoculate your soil with Rhizotonic to establish the strongest root structure. Avoid feeding the plants for the first ten days and then start with a ¼-strength veg dose. Slowly increase the nutrients to ½ strength during the pre-flower stretch.
At the onset of actual flowering, start the plants on a ¼-strength floral regime and gradually increase the feed to ½ strength during the flowering process. Flush the plants with pH balanced water during the final 7 to 10 days before harvest. When done right, auto flowering plants can be quite impressive and productive.
Good luck and happy growing!
Professor Lee