Hydroponics Nutrients for Autoflowering Marijuana

In previous autoflowering marijuana articles we gave you the dozen best autoflowering marijuana strains.

We gave you cultivation strategies and lighting specifics for maximizing your yields and potency.

Autoflowering marijuana has a way shorter amount of time to grow, bud, and finish when compared to photoperiod marijuana.

This greatly influences how you feed your plants.

Growers of photoperiod marijuana traditionally feed their plants with two types of base fertilizer—one for vegetative (grow) phase and the other for bloom phase.

The big difference between the two categories of base fertilizers is that veg phase fertilizer has a higher ratio of nitrogen versus phosphorus and potassium.

Nitrogen is most associated with vegetative growth when stalks and leaves are being created—it fuels these processes.

Phosphorus and potassium are necessary in vegetative phase, but they’re way more important in bloom phase, and nitrogen is less important in bloom phase.

The most successful autoflowering marijuana growers use vegetative phase base fertilizer in increasing amounts from germination until the time their plants enter pre-flowering.

Then they use a transition mixture of 50% grow phase base fertilizer and 50% bloom phase base fertilizer, for one week after pre-flowers show up.

After that, they use 100% bloom phase base fertilizer.

Bloom phase autoflowering plants under 20-hour lighting receive nearly twice the light energy that bloom phase photoperiod plants receive, and they can use that energy to create buds, cannabinoids, and terpenoids… but only if nutrients are properly administered.

In some cases, this means using a higher volume of nutrients water, or nutrients water with a higher percentage of nutrients added.

Autoflowering marijuana plants often consume more water and nutrients than photoperiod plants.

This is affected by relative humidity in the grow area, whether C02 is being added, the health and size of plant roots, and the type and intensity of grow room lighting.

Growers can expect blooming autoflowering plants to be hungrier than blooming photoperiod plants because blooming photoperiod plants only have 12 hours of light per day to drive their metabolic processes.

Autoflowering growers get the most success from their plants use hydroponics base nutrients that automatically balance pH.

The only reliable hydroponics base nutrients that automatically balance pH are the ones made by Advanced Nutrients.

Autoflowering marijuana growers also use a Vitamin B additive such as B-52, because Vitamin B complex helps autoflowering marijuana plants deal with the stress that comes with such as short life cycle.

To aid in root development, growers add beneficial bacteria and beneficial fungi to the root zone via nutrients water starting one week after germination and continuing until three weeks before harvest.

Autoflowering growers get tastier and bigger buds by adding a carbohydrates supplement like Bud Candy to their feed program starting at the beginning of grow phase and continuing until pre-harvest flushing.

The carbohydrate supplement fuels plant metabolism and feeds root zone beneficial bacteria and fungi.

Another useful additive, especially if you’re growing autoflowering marijuana in pure hydroponics systems, is potassium silicate such as Rhino Skin.

Potassium silicate strengthens cell walls, and aids in the creation and structural integrity of resin glands.

In early bloom phase, autoflowering growers should use a supplement such as Bud Ignitor that promotes early flowering and more budding sites.

During early bloom phase, peak bloom phase, and late bloom phase, autoflowering plants should be fed a bloom booster high in potassium and phosphorus.

Look for a bloom booster such as Big Bud that has the right ratio of potassium and phosphorus.

Most bloom boosters have the wrong ratio, and it overload plants with phosphorus which hurts the plants and can make your buds harsh and hard to combust.

You also want to add in a resin and bud size booster such as Bud Factor X.

Because most autoflowering marijuana strains add a lot of bud weight, cannabinoids, and terpenoids during the last three weeks of bloom phase, growers continue using high doses of nutrients, including phosphorus-potassium bloom boosters such as Overdrive, until the day flushing starts.

Because autoflowering plants cycle through so much water and nutrients, and could store nutrients components in plant tissues in a way that affects the taste and purity of the finished buds, growers do a flush using a flushing solution such as Flawless Finish and pure reverse osmosis water (and nothing else) during the last 4-6 days before harvest.

In general, you push your autoflowering marijuana grower with the highest parts per million feed program as they can handle, while also boosting roots with beneficial microbes like Voodoo Juice, and pushing bloom phase maturation rate and productivity with the specialized formulas we mentioned above.