Hey OG fam!
I have a propagation tent (3ft long, 2ft deep, 2ft tall) that I use for cloning, seed popping and all my summertime veg grows but as it sits empty I wonder to myself how to train auto-flowers to grow from start to finish in such a small place as a single cola.
(Image from the interwebs as an example of my goal)
(Again NOT MY IMAGE, found on Reddit via google search for “single cola auto-flower”. Props to the grower of these beauties!)
Reading through a lot of threads here the past few days gives me a lot of ideas but I would love & appreciate any tips by anyone that has done this. I’ve love what I see pulled off by @Mr.Sparkle , especially their computer case build!
My set-up has 4x 4000K led utility lights that pump out 3000 lumen each. With all four lights on the meter reads at 17000 lux at the floor, and 250000 lux at 1ft above the floor. These are non-dimmable so I’ll be turning off fixtures for the seedlings before first true leaves.
My goal is to grow these autos in small containers and whatever training is necessary so my end result in “beer-can nuggets on a stick”.
Things I’m thinking:
- popped seed goes right into the single container for it’s entire growth cycle (no repotting).
- Keep light level at 5000 lux until first true leaves; then raise light level to full over a week.
- After lights are on full power straight into a 12/12 light period with added 730nm supplement to speed up flowering.
I’ll be using a mix of Promix BX, perlite, Bone meal, blood meal, worm castings and feeding with sterile nutes.
This trigger won’t be pulled for a while but my OCD/ADHD always gets a project ready to go in a pile well before I start doing it. 
Thanks everyone for any suggestions or input!
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This sounds fun!
Picking the right genetics is a major factor in growing short plants that will still yield well.
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Right now I’m thinking of using a few of Mark’s 60 Day Blueberry Autos I won in the server auction @DougDawson was hosting. Maybe @Sebring 's Forum Stomper F2’s, and Gorilla Glue #4 that @CADMAN kindly sent me.
There’s enough room to do “too many” plants; so I’m thinking maybe just 1 of each as a test run. I still don’t want to have the plants suffer either which is why I’m taking notes to develop a plan of action before pulling any triggers. 
= 
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My suggestion for small sized growing first just raise the light to absolute top and leave it at full on or maybe pop a bulb on the first say 10 days or whatever, reason is initially without any plant mass and at the bottom your light levels will be quite high and that will increase the closer to the light the plants get which in time they will do on their own.
Also if working with 2ft of height, think pots starting around 500ml or say solo cup sized or for a little more leeway say 750ml yogurt sized containers, you will still have to flop over some tops occasionally especially the bigger the pot is or more crowded your space is as they will fight each other it will just limit their size and make it more manageable running smaller pots, My own cabs from my reservoir tops to my lights is 25" and i typically run 450ml pots to 1liter pots with the later plants typically needing a decent bit of management to stay in check though they provide bigger plants with bigger buds.
Media comes into play as well as say what i can do with 800ml of coco with autowaters, i would need 1.5+L of promix with hand watering to be somewhat similar.
And consider still about 2-2.5+weeks veg time before flip as photos even if going say 12/12 from start still have an internal veg time that takes about that long before they can even start to think about flowering.
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I was going to give my 2 cents well at least a cent and a alf worth of micro auto growing but you just got the rundown from the guy no need to add any more can’t wait to see how you make out other than those Autos from mark are not autos the only auto I ever got to actually flower on it’s own was snowryder there decent plants just not autos
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@cannabliss : Thank you for the warning!
@Mr.Sparkle : YOU JUST BLEW MY MIND; thank you!!! 
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