Hello cheap homegrown Nation. This is Shea Macomber from the chief home grow podcast. And on today's show. I have Dan from Auto flower dotnet Dan is the co-founder of Auto flower dotnet and man the Lauren genetics Dan comes on the show today to talk about how to breed Auto flowers and best growing. Going practices you can find Dan on Instagram at full duplex underscore afn. Again. That is full duplex underscore afn Fu LL D. You ple X underscore a afn and also Mandalorian genetics maaaaan. DEA Lor IA n underscore genetics before the podcast begins you can find me on Instagram Twitter Facebook and YouTube all at cheap home grow and also growing with my fellow Growers on Instagram this new Instagram account highlights my new show called growing with my fellow Growers, which airs every Sunday evening 7:00 p.m. Eastern on YouTube this Podcast is information packed. So please rate review subscribe and enjoy the show. Hello everybody. This is Shea McCormick from the cheap home grow podcast. And on today's show. I have Dan from full-duplex underscore AF and again that is full duplex underscore a-f-n and he is the co-founder. Of Auto flower dotnet and Dan comes on the show today to talk about pretty much everything Auto flowers and specifically Auto breeding best practices and Organics, but Dan before we get into that part of the conversation. If you could could you please tell my audience a little bit about yourself? Absolutely and thank you Shane for the introduction there. I really appreciate it. You're welcome. I've been growing for a little over a decade now and majority of that time. I've spent with all the flowers came from a place where audit flowers really didn't have a voice and we were a bunch of Misfits really that needed a place to play. So we formed the audit flower Network and it kind of took off from there got myself involved with all the flowers early on and they infatuated me and I basically I wanted to pursue their lineage because I saw some viability there and kind of where I'm at today. I've gotten involvement with several commercial Farms here in Washington and also can get it out there to Med Growers and home Growers of like available through you know, different seed banks. And so yeah, just kind of been messing with all those for quite a while now. Okay. Cool, Dan. We'll listen man. Thank you for coming on the show. Now thank you for having me again. I appreciate it. No problem. And listen, man. I'm curious though. And this is a question that I like to ask every guy that is Pro Auto flowers. I mean, you know, why did they have such a bad rap to begin with and you think that is slowly changing? Yeah, actually, I think it's rapidly changing and you know to start from the beginning, you know, initially it was a small plant was a low yielding plant. It was a plant that That you could stash underneath your desk or in your dorm room or in your bedroom closet that you could grow and have low odor and you know easy to manage if you needed to grow your own and the biggest drawback, I think initially was low THC percentages which you know, a lot of people like to focus on and through the hand of people like myself and other breeders out there. They've kind of made a huge step forward and I got to see that recently over the last two years and Ting in the larger scale, you know down industrial but the legal cannabis business and seeing what they can do on farms and I think with the increased THC the quick turnover rate, it's become a huge thing for Farms, especially in regions like the Pacific Northwest or even main locations where they have a shorter mild or grow season. I don't know if you know this but Jeffrey lowenthal's was on my show a couple Months ago and he he said to me that he believes and I hope I'm quoting him correctly. He believes that commercial Growers are going to stop growing all the flowers. Is that something that you see in the future? Absolutely and I see it in a broader Spectrum than just the THD field to you know, Jay, I got the fortunate benefit to me Jeff. He came to an event here on Vashon Island and you know, it was pretty much the beginning of his book tour for lack of better term of his Giada flower book that's coming out because it's really excited about it. And again touching on the point. I mentioned earlier the ability for a farm to turn over to potentially three crops if it's done correctly in a season is huge and I think that's where the viability is for the industry. All right, then fair enough fair enough indeed. I'll tell you what let's let's get right into growing Auto flowers and I guess more specifically Auto breeding. Let's talk about lineage selection the importance of the mail and so on and so forth. So I mean what started off with like a 10,000 foot level? I mean the Cannabis breeding in general, you know male female you got to individual plants kind of applies to the auto world to the only caveat to that is the benefit of the audit rate. So looking at lineage, you know, you want to look If you have a favorite you got to fame. Oh, excuse me, apologize their favorite photo sensitive plant that you like and you would like to see it in a quicker ratio. One of the things that you might consider is, you know, bringing it into an audit form and with lineage, I believe it's important if you know the background of the plant in general you have a better understanding of what you're going to get at the end. So ideally what I tell people if they want to start breeding Autos or if they want to start going in any type of breeding is look at the lineage of the two plants through introducing and see how close the familial traits will be. So what you want to look for is an auto flower that has a couple of the same background characteristics as the photo period that you're growing. I think that will increase your success rate of reading and auto that would meet the needs of something that you have already in your garden. Well, let me know you said look for certain traits, but I mean listen, I know this might be very subjective. But what traits do you think somebody should look for the biggest thing? I always look for was what appealed to my nose what appeal to my eye and if there is something specific that you're looking for in both sides kind of try to relate to to look for something that's similar in the audit flower that you may introduce to the photosensitive plant. All right fair enough, you know, let's go down the list. How about the importance of a male? I mean what you know, what's the importance of a male in terms of breeding Auto flowers? Because from what I understand if you're breeding photo periods. It's it's not that important. I mean I might be wrong about that. But you know from what I have heard that seems to be the case. Yeah to me and the auto Flower World the importance of the male seems to have been key opening up several different types of lines and Kim of ours and even different phenotypes from the same generation. It seems the success rate of reaching the goal that I want comes from the mail one of the one of one of my favorite lines that I've created is Anvil and it's a very purple dominant strain. And the reason I even started down that line was because my initial pack of all the flowers that I ever bought was supposed to be a purple flower and I grew out all 10 of them and not a single one of them showed any kind of Our and for us it frustrated me. Hmm, I would imagine so yeah, you know you want what you pay for and so that set me on a path to to find something that I knew if I would germinate that seed in those females would show that at least my female plants would show that color. So I started going down the line and started getting dominance and female caller and then I started noticing that the males were starting to produce a little bit of color to and they were Charger, so a balance, you know similar to the females as far as branching, you know, one of the other things you said in there in our list is that the balance is symmetry. They were showing the same traits is the female. So I started selecting my mails based upon their color in the flour to and when I did the result in generation had a higher dominance in colored females as well as a higher color dominance and the males now that could be coming down the breeding 101 what you put in is what you get out. But symmetry started increasing what I would find males that had a better balance in the female the Next Generation her finger count on our fan leaves or showing the same symmetry on both sides or as you know, if a female that wasn't or a male that wasn't start with selected that had an imbalance he tended to carry that as well. So not only through the processors are selecting males that I wanted. Ideally. I also wanted to see the result of if I cross something that was a female that had bad. It's an email that didn't to see if the female is going to carry it or if he was going to carry it. Yeah, well, I mean, you know, I mean isn't it with breeding though? I mean, isn't that what breeding essentially is all about going down those rabbit holes and trying to you know, find something new. Absolutely. You do want to go down the rabbit hole as you do want to taste the mutants. That's one of my favorite things I think is chasing the ones that just don't line up with everybody to kind of bring out something new but at a certain point once you find that you want to bring that balance and and you want to lock that trade-in, so you got to find the kind of the Of how far you do want to go down to continue hunting before you isolate a certain set of traits that you like in a visual expression of the phenotype. All right, fair enough fair enough man. Well, I mean, how about this? I believe I believe in pronouncing this correctly. How about the Punnett Square? What's the significance of that? Pertussis whooping it Punnett Square. I'm really not sure on the pronunciation on that myself. So I think we'll see if ourselves both a little bit there. But you know, I mean that's basic like genetics 101 it helps you pick out the dominant and recessive traits of a plant and you know, it comes back to whatever you put in you eventually get out as well as being able to go from full photo to an auto And dominance of expression so initially, for example, if you're going to cross a photosensitive plant to an auto plant the first generation will show some percentage of auto flowering plants. Okay, and it's a 7520 usually 75% 25% resultant. You take the generation you take The Offspring the product made from that generation and in breed them you start to see 50 and then so on and so forth. So, you know, it's basic genetic one or one searching for a little is a matchup with dominant traits. So I think that's an important thing that I mean pheno hunting is very important. But then once you get to the point where you find something you like I think you still have to kind of plug it into the basic math of breeding. Okay, Dan, I mean, well me what I'm curious though. What type of stress test do you do when you are breeding Auto flowers? So my stress tests again lean back towards the male. I mean, I stress test by females as well because both strains are scuse me, I strains but both sexes have the ability to hermaphrodite. I've seen a male for grow perfectly beautiful up into mid flour and then all of a sudden he starts producing pistols and I see the typical female who goes through she's doing great then all of a sudden she starts throwing male stammen. So there there's The size of that and I believe the stress testing is what causes that emergence because the plant does like a little bit of stress. It's what encourages growth a simple example of that would be why we use fans in an artificial environment. We you know, we use those fans to stimulate, you know, stem growth and basically caused those fibers to tear and break a little bit so they can, you know build a stronger blocked to grow on and the stress test that I use I overwater underwater light cycles like Cycles down transplanting is a big thing whether you that's a huge thing. I've noticed in Autos right stress. So if you grab that auto straight out of the pot or a crow bed, you can turn around and throw him back in soil and that male will turn around come back they do come back but that stress will let you know if he's going to reverse on himself or not. And if he does Yeah, absolutely. I've seen that's usually the last test I put him through because if they if they're going to trigger if they're going to reverse on themselves, it's going to happen during that rough transplant. I was told to not transplant Auto flowers. I mean, is that something that's true not true. I mean, what are your what are your thoughts there? You can do it if you're extremely gentle and you're smart about it. If you are a new grower if you're somebody who is experimenting with Autos you've been Rowing photos for Year. My recommendation would be start them in the three and five gallon pot understand the plant and its mechanics first. Hmm after you understand that flower cycle at few understand, you know what it can and can't take then I would say start experimenting with starting them in a Solo Cup or a 4 inch pot and then moving them into something bigger. Do I see the need for our transplant stage like that? Not really well to sum that up if you are new or relatively new to Growing all Flowers don't get fancy don't transplant but keep them in either three or five gallon pots, correct? Okay, that's it. That's the best thing that I would recommend. If you're going to use pots. I would recommend staying away from anything that's hard sidewall door bottom start off with an air pot or a cloth pot. You know, whatever your choice. Is there a way from plastic or hard wall, you know, I would recommend going into something that's more of an air pruning design. Well, I'm how about you know, let's get back to breeding. How about the seed maturity time? What's the significance of that? So see maturity comes back to germination rate. I mean play is simple if you want, you know High germination rates if you want healthy seeds to start your next Generation seed maturity time is very important at a minimum. At a minimum I would recommend. You know three weeks good healthy High germination rates come from four and a half to five weeks on which is Way Beyond typical life expectancy of after pollination, but you know, the more healthier seeds the healthier the seeds the better your chances are for your next generation. All right there Dan in terms of breeding. I mean, is there anything else that we should cover? I mean have I asked all the questions needed or you know, do you want to go down some more rabbit holes? I'll go down another Rabbit Hole here with you. Yeah, let's do it kind of touch. It kind of touch it back to the Femme and regular seed integration, you know right now on the market a lot of the guys a lot of Auto access is feminized seat and I don't have a problem with that at all. It makes it easy for the home grower. It makes it easy for Yeah, somebody who's trying to learn about it to not have to worry about males and learning so many compound things at one time and with if you're interested in breeding and you know, get a few pack of regular autoflowering seeds which myself that's all I offer. There are a few other companies out there that offer, you know, regular autoflowering seeds. When you first introduce if you're going to do an auto to autocross a lot of times what I have seen and this is from Sarah. Different feminized brands that I've you know, test it again some things usually that first generation is going to show a lot of hermaphrodites. Okay, and it's why though why I mean what's like wider from what the whole why I really can't answer that from scientific level. My theory on that is reintroducing a missing allele or not a missing a Leo missing chromosome, because when you're selfing is seed you're eliminating them. Male chromosomes and you're bringing that back into the gene pool when I think the gene pool freaks out a little bit and says what wait a minute. This isn't what I was used to because a lot of the feminized seeds that people buy have been the generations of himself to three maybe even four times. So they're not used to seeing that male chromosome back into the gene pool. Yeah. Okay, so they're not used to it. So that means in this case that they are going to harm out pretty much and you know, I see quite a bit of that first generation across especially using regular Auto to regular Regular Auto to feminized Auto I can't say that behavior is going to be the same with feminized photos because I've only used photos in progress and projects that were either Cuts or grown from seed. Nothing that was ever a feminized purchase eat. All right. All right, um, okay fair enough to and I mean in terms of breeding, I mean do you want to do you want to mention anything else are there as I said are the anymore rabbit holes that you want to go down? Yeah. I like we talked about I'd like to talk about like balance and selection Just a Touch sure, you know, because a lot of guys are a lot of people are wanting to read it home. They're wanting to produce their own seed and with low in fellows idea and no calling it the next tomato plant, you know, something as simple as saving your own Seasons huge to a lot of people and some things to kind of look for your you know, one look at you like I was talking about earlier look at your leaf cemetry. Look at your plant balance and those two things I Bolivar good are a visual expression of a good melt of the selections. You're making if you're seeing families on opposing nodes that are showing seven fingers on both sides. That's a really good thing to see at least it's appeasing to my eye and what I based part of my selection process on the other part is the KX ratio to Leaf ratio are your flowers dense are your flowers, you know could it could be improved or seeing more leaflets that you are actually calyxes, you know, those are some things to actually look for and then take a look at your mails to you know, males by Nature typically don't show a bunch of pollen sacs. One thing to look for if it is pollen sacs increase. Usually he's got to translate that to a denser flower the next generation of female from experience. Tell you what let's go on to the next. Section here and I'll be honest with you. It's a section that I'm a little bit more familiar with because I am currently growing Auto flowers right now and quite frankly. We just covered a couple of these topics, but let's go over on Old growing best practices. So I mean, you know, we've we've already talked about pot and container size and type, but we haven't discussed Lite. Cycles mediums talked a little bit about large and commercial farming but I tell you what, let's you know, let's start at the top and you know, let's just take it away from there. So yeah lie Cycles, I think are very important Otto's can and will flour underneath 24/7. I believe that they were there very successful under 24/7, but I however I Leave the dark period is very important. Sure. The reason I feel it's important and I've talked to Jeff about this actually recently. It is the Calvin cycle of the photosynthesis process or the light independent cycle or basically the plant is taking carbon and converting it. To sugar to for processing in the plant and it's doing that in the dark period that's correct start cycle. All right. Okay sure. And you know, I think that's very important process to the plant. I think that it helps encourage a better yield than the 24 cycle kind of giving that plant a chance to just rest, you know, we're simulating nature indoors. That's that's the goal, you know a lot of the you know for indoor growing. Way and simulate that I mean even outside there's a dark cycle and those plants have a process during that cycle to encourage other beneficial growth patterns. Yeah, I mean, you know and and it's funny because you are not the first person that has said that I have I've talked to many people over the past year or so about growing Auto flowers. I've talked to a lot of my panel members on my Sunday show and you know, they've they've All said yeah, I mean you can certainly grow Auto flowers, you know, 24 0 however, you know, when you switch over to the 18 six or Twenty and four for whatever reason and I think it's because of that reason you just mentioned during the dark cycle you your yield tends to be a little bit bigger by yield is then bigger every single time. I've done comparisons and grows across like, you know, run three tents at a time once 24/7 ones 18. X + 1 is 20 and 4 and the 20 and 4 and 18 6 out yielded the 24 light every single time and the one thing that I want to you know, I see a lot, you know and home grows simulating CO2. If you're running CO2 or you're running to CO2 additive to increase that yield if you're not giving that plant that dark cycle, it can't take advantage fully. I believe of the added CO2 that you're pumping into that room. Umm, you know, that's I think one thing that Growers should keep in mind. What is the significance of the CO2? That's the carbon diet, you know the carbon dioxide the plants using to for the base carbon molecule to convert to the sugars. So the the the idea from what I understand is to promote, you know, bigger growth higher sugar concentrations more food internally for that plant to end result yield more. Okay. Alright, Dan. I'll tell you what, I mean, how about well, There's something in terms of growing Auto flowers. Does your medium play a role, you know, is it is it better to grow them organically hydroponically, aeroponically. I mean, what's what are your thoughts there? My thoughts there are whatever is best for you and and what you have available to you because they'll Thrive pretty much anywhere if you're looking for Monster Autos. My recommendation for you is deep water culture or area ponic. even you know flood and drain system or even recirculating they don't have root restriction and the biggest trigger to the flowering process from what I have seen is how you control the root Zone you give that plant a 28 gallon Reservoir I've seen and they just absolutely exploded increases their veg time. And of course in a result, it increases the flower time, but you're dealing with a much larger heavier yielding plant as long as the genetic codes there too. I mean, let's not forget about that sure, you know organically they are expect do extremely well on Organics over the last year. I've seen better profiles that are flavors. Enhance smells all from Organics the key I think to Organics though is not large scale. But if you're going to do it stay in that five gallon pot. It's really hard to keep a true living or an organic soil alive and something three gallons and under your either constantly having to feed t or wrap Saran wrap around and I see a lot of guys still wraps around wrap around the five and larger pots just to maintain that moisture bed in there and it's really hard to do in in smaller scale and from from right now. There's not a lot of commercial guys growing the more interest to all the flowers is the home grower and you know, they're going to be growing and one three five maybe seven gallon pots your I really don't see a lot of 10 gallon pots. So our Organics on that scale is going to cause you a little bit more work, you know, and if you're fine with that, that's okay too, right? Yeah. Well, I mean, let me just to tell you about my own personal experience recently growing Auto flowers. And I just I mean all I did you know, and you know, as I said a million times on my show, I'm not the world's best grower. Although I am getting a bit better because I talk to people like you nearly on a daily basis. But with that being said all I did for my grow is just simply water it every day. I didn't feed it a thing and I just let it grow and you know from seed to harvest I believe according to my notes, I think. I don't have my notes in front of me, but it took me I believe around 70 I believe around 75 days. And that's a good average. Right? And I fed it literally nothing. All I did is water it every day. That's it. I mean, you know, I mean nothing in the soil at all. No, nothing. I didn't feed it. Not one thing and I mean don't get me wrong. I probably should have fed it. It was starting to show deficiency. Probably around day 45 maybe day 50. Yeah, I would say around that. Around that day, and I said again, I believe it took me say 70 75 days. So I went maybe two two and a half weeks with deficiency. I didn't do a thing, you know, I didn't I didn't address the deficiencies whatsoever. I did no stress training at all. I just literally just let it grow and I mean my my yield wasn't really impressive but The quality was was there and quite frankly. I don't know why I didn't really help it along but I don't know it just was there and I think that plays really into the ruderalis background man. I mean these these plants evolved in an environment to where it was the harshest that it could potentially be and still Thrive and reproduce and I think that is one of the key benefits to Otto's is the fact that if you did they do get a little bit neglected or you are growing too many of them or you have it in a larger scale or even you go out for a weekend and you forget about it, you know a little bit of water when you comes back. Okay. Thanks for the water. I'm just going to keep going, you know, that's all I needed, you know, and I'll see that quite a bit. You know, there's the gentleman Chad that runs the auto flower podcast. We were discussing. He's actually growing one of mine. And California and he had a mishap to where somebody didn't water it while he was out of town. He came back through some water on. It was great. He had a different variety from a different breeder inside that suffered the same fate threw some water on it continue flowered like it just it was nothing like it really like it's interesting to see across all the different types that are out there that same thing. You're just talking about the ability for just to give them some water if that's really on the Source that you have and they just it continued to flourish and I mean, yeah, I mean it's it's it's kind of funny really I mean and and like what you said it really it really is a testament to the genetics because I mean listen, I don't have a I'm becoming a better grower, but I still don't have a green thumb. But you know, I don't know. I just I just couldn't kill these things. They just they just kept on growing. So yeah, they're really resilient to that. They really really are and I think it's an attribute of that's been carried for forward with them something that is just there to say. Hey, we'll look we want to stick around we're a force to reckon with and don't look past this anymore, you know, and I mean and sure some of that's been helped with, you know, again, the human hand the human hand is really said that seen that as something viable and it's just continued to carry forward, you know. I mean you can grow these things in your flower box next to some daffodils if you really want to do I recommend it. No, but they have the ability for that. I mean if you got a couple planners out on your balcony and you're in a location where it's alright to home grow throw something with your flower bed, you know, just to watch it just to see what it'll do that brings me to my next question. Do you think Otto flowers are better suited for growing Outdoors as opposed to endure? I really am kind of neutral on it. I've seen amazing results. Underneath artificial lighting and I've seen some fantastic results underneath the sun. I think it's all about I think they're a versatile tool in a Growers belt. To be honest with you. You got you know, you're you're a patient at the house. You want some quick, you know quick meds. You want to keep on a cycle you've got access to them. You're a farmer. You got to look scale operation you go full season plants throw these guys and get yourself a little bumper crop until your fall Harvest is ready. So I really think that you know, The kind of play a role in both sides of things. I really don't have a A dog in the fight in either direction. Well, we've touched on large scale and really farming growing but let's go down that rabbit hole a little bit more Jeffrey lowenthal's he was a guest of mine a few weeks ago or actually more than a few weeks ago a few months ago and he told me and really he thinks that commercial Growers are going to be growing Auto flowers in the not-so-distant future now, I hope I am not misquoting him but I but I'm pretty sure that's what he said. Do you agree with his assessment? I think it'll be the case moving forward do I think that it's going to be an overtake of regular you know, long season or fairness phone and sent sensitive sensitive. Sorry plants. No, I think they'll get kind of be like hand-in-hand. I really think that they appeal to the farmer for multiple crops per season or stood crops per season. I'm seeing them on the large-scale grown out here. There are several forms that are running all the flowers right now. Not a lot of them are running them for flower. They're running them for extract and you know, we see a lot of that. I see a lot of you know cartridges a lot of shatter. A lot of your concentrates are derived from Autos. I'm seeing farmers use them for multiple reasons. So do I see them in a very large scale coming into the Sure. Yeah, I think it's going to catch on pretty quickly. There's a tidal wave coming with it. All right. Well, that's well, I mean I got to say that's that's pretty exciting for sure. Oh, it's extremely exciting. You know, I know we talked earlier about you know, how long I've been messing with them and I've been growing them since lowrider one and low rider to debuted and to see them go from that dorm room PC grow plant to what they are today, you know, they've gone from an average. Plant, this is you know anywhere between 8 to 12 inches tall to I've got I've seen seven and eight Footers grown in the right conditions. Well, man, that's gonna say that is pretty impressive. Well, I did it shocked me too. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. You know, I really couldn't believe it if I hadn't experienced it firsthand and helped into those plans. I would have believed it myself, but you know the few people we brought around them and to show them and it's just it was amazing how far they progressed to such a short time window. Yeah, I mean and again, I mean I know that we keep going back to this but really I think it is a testament to the genetics of Auto flowers. Yeah, it wants to survive it. You know, I you know, like I said earlier it's kind of like it's got a thing to prove itself, you know, it's like hey, you know y'all considered a subspecies or ditch weed but we can bring more to the table than just that absolutely didn't and then I mean we've talked about light cycles, but let's go down the rabbit hole. Of lighting right? I mean, I mean, you know, are there any particular lights that you prefer when growing indoors and growing Auto flowers? Yes, there are actually I do prefer growing underneath LED these days and I prefer growing underneath the more of a didn't consider like a white Hue. I've grown with several few different Technologies. I've grown with the what I call. More people, you know the original like LEDs that came out which they call full spectrum these days that are that offer the Reds the purple's the blues the green and I've grown underneath Cobb technology, which is the chip on board technology, which I are extremely efficient Quantum boards and then single individual exposed LED which you know, which is kind of like a Quantum board but not with the same kind of power rating. So from what I've seen the white Light with the touch of red seems to be the best Spectrum. I get my best growth rates underneath that I get my better yields underneath that you can dial in the blurple. But what I have seen from that spectrum is a lot of calcium and magnesium deficiency from transpiration or it's being released in the plant. It seems once they hit that third week of flour underneath that color. They start requiring cal-mag right now. Well, can you talk a little bit more about that? Absolutely, a lot of Home Growers. I know and I see still to this day are growing underneath that full spectrum that I was speaking about and what you'll start to see is you'll see the you'll see the Speckles on the leaf, which looks like somebody sprayed rust on your families that's calcium started leave the plant you start to see the hammered margins and then the hammer, you know lines from the Magnesium starting to leave and the one thing that I've noticed is that comes only underneath and higher concentration of that color spectrum, and it's of course, unfortunately, it will impact your yield because those are two major elements that are in the plant and it just basically Burns it out. It's it's basically forcing the plant to pick up that nutrient a lot heavier and transport, you know, and pass it through the plant faster so it can't find it in the soil. So it starts pulling it from Reserve which is The leaf and that's why you start seeing that deficiency in the leaf, you know in this this goes back to a few podcasts that I did a while ago. You have to be able to know what a deficiency looks like which is easy enough, but you have to know what you are looking at. I mean like how do you properly diagnose a deficiency a lot of reading and a lot of staring at pictures? Right? I mean like to be completely Frank and honest with you. I mean it was the best way for me. And then you know, the other thing is, you know talking to Growers have got more experience from you. You know, I know that one of the big things it seems to be hard as approachability, but the only way that this thing gets better is if we come become more approachable, we've got to share this knowledge and there's been from what I've seen a lot of Secrets held and I get that you're protecting stuff that you work on hard, but we can't grow as Community unless we share that information and you know, I think talking to people with more experience that have The same things is the best way to do that. I mean as archaic is it sounds and a little touch on our forum is you know, we got a lot of guys that have been around for a while and we have an infirmary, you know, and you don't have to come search for audit flower dotnet but there are a lot of places out there like us that share that kind of information so you can get a grasp on what a deficiency may look like of a specific element. One thing that is hard to start differentiating on a compound deficiencies, you know when you get Calcium and magnesium at the same time or things of the same nature. The best thing to do is just read and try to correct it, you know, take a little bit experiment. I know some people it may be hard because they're depending on that plan to finish for the medication. But at the same time you got to have a few failures before you can start making it right? It's all about reading. It's all about watching YouTube videos and it's all about listening to the cheap home grow podcast. That's exactly right. You know what I mean? That's that's what we're here for, you know, that's what this is here for is to get Information out will avert it talked a little bit about this damn. But what are some negatives when growing Auto flowers just some cautions to you know, take a look at you know, you start in a small pot you don't transplant. You're going to get a small yield. It's to be expected that plant is basically think of it like a goldfish or what I like to reference to people is the pepper plant. You see that's got a pepper in a four inch pot at Home Depot when you're walking around in the spring that thing is grown in a small container. It's going to flower early. It's going to you know, you lower the biggest difference is with the pepper plant. You can pull the blooms off pull the peppers off transplant it and it'll continue to grow Otto's really told behave the same way, you know, so that's One caution to look out for their another one is your growing container give those roots some room. Let those roots Thrive. Let them are prune. You're going to get better yields. You're going to get better Harvest you're going to get a better experience with the plant. I think that is something that I can't stress on enough is give those roots a happy environment not just feeding lies or nutritional wise but the ability to move within that Medium. May it be cocoa or soil Hydro they're going to get their going. Fill the container that you know, that's kind of a no-brainer, you know, and the well, you know to tell you a little story I germinated in my five gallon and I gotta say my root ball. It wasn't all that big at the end of that say 70 75 days or whatever. It was my you know, I mean II and listen, I mean I did not transplant at all, which you know might have been a mistake. All I got was a relatively small RuPaul it didn't it didn't fill up the five gallon pot. It was just kind of small and wimpy and I don't know why I mean, I guess I figured that I would get a much larger much more, you know, I guess vibrant RuPaul, but I didn't and I was a bit going to say I was disappointed there. And that could potentially be because of starting in that large pot. Right one of the one of the challenges with starting in such a large pot like a 5-gallon or Home Depot bucket, you know 5 gallon bucket or anything like that heck I should have Home Depot pay for this, you know mention three or four times. But if you're starting in that one caution, I will say is try to keep the moisture levels even and I think that may have, you know, come into play with what you experience there because if those Are starting to go laterally and they see that it's a dry root Zone. They're going to start dropping down. They're gonna start searching for that water. So in playing into the cautions or maybe even some advice here, if you're going to use a 3 or 5 gallon pot make the roots chase the water. So if your plant is posted up Center of that pot, which a lot of us like to do because that just, you know appeals to me water from the outside in you know, those roots inside there were blooming there. Are there going laterally they're going horizontally they're going diagonally they're looking for nutrient. They're looking for a network they're looking for water. So if you water from the outside and making sure those exterior margins maintain a moisture level, I think you would have seen a better route ball to sum that up at first germinate in a smaller pot and then move to a larger part pretty much, you know, and the easy way to do that just a quick tip something that I like to do or what I did and understanding the auto If you do feel the need to transplant and you're concerned about that get yourself to Solo cups or two of the same size, you know container. You're going to start in maybe a four inch pot and cut the bottom just the bottom out of the first pot laid inside the second pot and then put your soil and then germinate inside there. Once your Leaf tips get within a quarter of an inch touching the side walls transplant that plant so pull the bottom cup off leaving it in inside the internal container and she's planning. Into the larger container allowing the root ball to drop down and the reason I suggest that before they hit the the wall is to avoid any kind of flower trigger. Okay. Well, you know, thank you Dan for that tip. I really do appreciate it man. No problem. No problem. And thanks for the questions to you know, it's I'm speaking sometimes from a high level. It's just experience and I've got a lot of thoughts going so I appreciate them. I miss it's it's it's perfectly fine. You know, thank you, you know I try and keep things as simple as possible. But listen before we go on to Organics other anymore as I mentioned when we were talking about breeding are there any more rabbit holes that you want to go down in terms of best practices? I mean, not really because anything else that I touch on me like the light distance or anything like that is going to be coming relative, you know, it's down to just general growing. And it's in its aspect. So I mean, I think we you know covered pretty much best practices there as what I could say to get somebody on a good path to not have a bad first experience, right? All right, man. Yeah. I mean, it's Hey, listen, it's all great information. And I and along with all the cheap homegirl listeners. I'm confident that everybody here that is listening in whether you're listening to this podcast for the first time or for the hundredth time. I'm confident when I say this we all do Appreciate it. All right. I again I appreciate you in and again, like I said earlier, you know given a voice and sometimes people don't have the time to read and if I can get a little bit of information out there that will save somebody a heartache or disappointed, you know Harvest, you know, I appreciate that. Absolutely. Absolutely Anselm. Listen, man. Let's go on to or Organics. Let's talk a little bit about amendments top dressing if it's needed microbes compost tea and And integrated Pest Management, so it's like what let's start at the top and let's talk about amendments. So was amendments, you know, the dry amendments are great. It's a good way to build a foundation for the soil. You know, one thing I want to remind people that want to get into Organics and I'm still learning a little bit about it some I'm talking from a newly learning expect, you know experience as well as like, you know, seeing the results that I'm getting and you know, one thing with dry amendments. It's Horton as a foundational building block the one thing that has been brought you know new to light to me is that without the microbes side of that those amendments that we spend so much money on or the we invest our time on don't become available to the plant without the microbes. So what you're saying there is that they go hand in hand with one another absolutely they go hand-in-hand and you know, they say feed the plant but you really want to feed feed the soil and like you eating the soil you want to maintain that microbe activity to convert the Amendments that you put in there into a Source that the plant can actually uptake and you know with the Organics like I was talking about earlier, I see a better term profile. I see better flavors. I smell better smells. I see a healthier overall plant in general and I think it's a beautiful direction to head down if you're really interested in it. It can get very complex. It's got a very it's going to deep rabbit hole in their several forms have been going on out there. So I guess my thing would be Take a look at it. See what the goal you want to achieve and then just start again reading about that information. Okay. Well, I mean, how do you I mean, you know just based on your experience? How do you know when a top dressing is needed and for and for that also a compost tea as well from my experience and what I've seen so far this year is that the top dressing would only really be needed if the Amendment in the soil. Is it meeting the needs of the plant above the surface? So if you're seeing deficiencies and it's triggering you to add something to the soil think about not only what's already and they're what you may need to add and your microbe activity, you know, if your micro of activity a suffering and you don't have a lot of active microbes growing in that soil being able to convert what's there and they not necessarily need a cop dress more so that it needs a water and with a more micro. Herbal, and document their several you can there's several companies out there that have bugs in a bottle that you can you know, inoculate your watering cycle with to get your microbe activity going on again, but usually with topdressing there's something going on. That's that's an imbalance May there not be enough for the microbes convert that you already have in the soil or not enough microbes to convert what is available down there. Let's go on to IPM, which is the last little Topic that I would like to cover and also before we talk about IPM, which is integrated Pest Management. Let me ask you this. Have you ever heard of Matthew Gates AKA sync angel on Instagram? Yes, and the gentleman has been highly helpful to me this year. I'll have ya very very helpful, and I was extremely excited to hear him on your last panel from Sunday just to hear him. You know speak Beyond just text, you know, the gentleman is a huge asset to the community, I believe and I think he's stumbled onto quite a few things that without I wouldn't understand. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's funny that you mention that I did a couple of podcast with him. They haven't been released yet. But I'm gonna do I believe you the a four of Five series with him in the next couple of months or so. I mean he is I gotta say man. He's a smart guy. He says he says a lot of big words. Trust me. Look there's been a lot of words. He's posted stuff that I looked as I got a Google that yeah, I got to figure out what that means. You know. Hell yeah, man, he's a man. It's yeah I ran into him. Actually. I came in contact with him via Mark a Momin from Green carpet growing at the end of Blast ya at the end of last year. I think it was either October or November of last year. But anyway, I am really happy that I did because he's he's just I mean, he's just a friggin genius really in my Paul. Absolutely absolutely and the ability to identify what I had going on and what I had a question about just for some pictures, you know, of course I try to take the best quality picture because without that it's hard to identify you can't expect someone to do so and you know, just the thing. Ability to identify that was I've never seen anything like that and I highly highly valuable somebody who doesn't understand what they're looking at. Right right. That's true. Yeah, he's yeah, but all right. Well, I tell you what in terms of IPM, are there any suggestions from you in terms of IPM regarding growing Auto flowers? Not any in different than when you would be growing any kind of photo sent. Photo sensitive sensitive cannabis, I mean a pest is a past. There are more there are you know specific ones to the cannabis plant and even as you were talking there a moment ago, he you know is showing us new pests that we've never seen before to cannabis that are starting to you know colonize and I think it's because it's becoming more of a A common thing a common voice across, you know, the US with legalization popping up everywhere. We're going to see new stuff like this. And so I mean as far as I recommended over top of photosynthesis sensitive canvas, not really, you know something I know that I tease this in the intro and we really haven't talked about it at all for the most part, but you know what I would like to have you talk a little bit about and really I This can act as one huge plug if you really wanted it to okay, let's all right. Let's talk about Auto flower dotnet and for you cheap home grow listeners out there. I am a member my screen name is cheap home grow. So feel free to go to auto flower dotnet and sign up, but I tell you what, I mean, why don't you tell me tell my tell my listeners a little bit about your website. Well, I will say not just Just mine. There's a huge group of workers there and there's an initial group that started out because like I was talking about earlier. We're a bunch of Misfits. Nobody wanted to give us space. We know 10 11 years ago to talk about this subject to share amongst each other what we're seeing what to do what not to do we bounced around from I see mag to roll it up and got I personally was banned from I see mag about talking about breeding and trying to get an understanding of this and then so from there. I got I moved myself over to roll it up and then, you know countless times. in the admin there for a place to vocalize this just subsection, you know, we don't need a dedicated giant section on the site just a subsection of place where we could all just kind of hang out and talk and we never got it and I was approached by the owner from Canada to kind of come along with them and bring my knowledge and my experience from the years that I had been growing them over and there was a breeder from Spain named Massey, who is a huge Name than a big player in the Auto game if it wasn't for her. I don't think we would have ever seen our first colored lines of autoflowering cannabis. She was one of the first ones to seize the purples and the blacks and reds and all the colors. We see the to actually isolate those traits. Yeah. She's huge player in that and she's you know, she's from Spain. We all kind of got together and formed the place and then it just kind of took off from there. I mean, there's an infirmary there's a place where you know, if you're a new grower you're new to You're new to forums that we kind of you know for lack of better term Hold Your Hand come in there and get an idea of what you want to do. You'll see a lot of reviews of products honest reviews to where people have either been sponsored by a certain product or have purchased a product and here's the results. You know, here's what it did for me. Here's what it did in my environment some of the largest names and seed banks in the auto Flower World. Are there and that mean they don't just carry all the flowers. I mean, but they've specialize in them. You know Dinah Femme sweet seeds Dutch Passion. They all sponsor Growers on there. They all look for competition. They're constantly doing free stuff too, you know places that can accept those kind of, you know rewards for growing. So it's a wonderful community of people that are there just for the same thing, but you can come in there you're going to get judged. I mean we encourage photo period plants R2 we don't hold back, you know, if you want to grow and you want to learn come hang out, you know talk to the staff talk to people. Everybody's pretty approachable there. Hmm. Sure. Yeah. No, I'm I'm a member and I got to say I mean so far so good. I mean everybody's been everybody's been really nice and really helpful which which is different from I see Mac because I actually got banned from I see mag as well believe it or not fair enough said another thing in common then Exactly. I just logged in I'm like, oh I haven't logged in a long time. I try to login. It's like you have been banned. When will the band be lifted never so they're right. Yep. It's like Don is like, okay and well, we just move on but and listen, I mean, what is the deal with Amanda? Lauren genetics man. I know that's yours. Tell us about it. That is my brand. I I am a little bit about the name the Mandalorian is you know, it's a Boba Fett Clan from the Star Wars and fortunately it's not owned by LucasArts so I could play with it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah, you gotta check that first. You know last thing I wanted was some kind of letter in the butt. That's true it yeah, that's my brand is something that yeah I geek out about I'm a nerd at heart. I'm a nerd by trade other than dealing with all the flowers and you know cannabis but we it's a brand that I try to offer all the flowers for people to learn. I've worked most of the lines. I release are, you know familial lines. They're bred into the f8 and F9 generation currently available. I got Game of ours that are at five and have 6 released a few tests stuff and then I've got a couple other. Lines that will be coming out this this fall early. I would say this fall early winter that will be available to the public and it's the main reason from my releases were to get regs back out there to to re ignite the passion that I found so long ago being able to play with this plant at home on a small scale and get a better understanding of it. I would love to release feminized seeds potentially in the future because I know that you know, a lot of people would prefer that they don't want to deal with the They don't want to deal with one other complicated thing about learning how to grow since like we were talking about legalization expanding. But right now I also kind of want to appeal to the people that just want to mess around like I did and try to get it, you know, try to learn sure. Yeah, I mean at the end of the day it's all about it's all about learning but I mean, let's be honest to it's all about making a buck to oh, yeah. I mean don't get me wrong the the nice reward sign of that is, you know, I do get a little bit of monetary value for you know, Lisa. In this stuff and getting it out to the public and I just drive to put off something stable because one of the biggest complaints we've seen for years as a lot of hermaphrodites and a lot of plans to wooden flour underneath 24/7 lighting, you know, and then they just pass it off as semi-auto and if you see a semi-auto you haven't done the work yet, right? Yeah. Exactly. That's true. That's a good point. But let's meant did you win a auto flower cup where you well were you second place or yeah, I believe it. Yep. Yeah, okay. Yes, I did I did. Okay. So what's the deal with that tell me tell me to tell the listeners about that. So this year in May was the inaugural to flower cup down in Oregon was put together by a gentleman with black hat genetics and he got this whole group together to have the first Auto cup and I entered in a couple different strengths. I entered in Anvil which is my purple flower and then I entered in Bobby's Widow, which is a white widow cross that I currently working on and Bobby's Widow took second place. I was a little bit taken back by that and flattered. I didn't expect anything because I had never released it beyond my circle of friends and myself and yeah, it seemed to want a few Hearts over not fully to get the first cup. That's okay. I'll take I'll take the first cup win with my own genetic science. That's pretty flattering. It's a huge honor. Well, what would you have to do to actually create that strata me what I mean? You know, you don't I have to reveal the secrets of your success, but I am I gotta be honest. I am a bit. I am a bit curious. Basically, it was selection upon the traits that I was looking for the most I was looking for a plant that had a higher resin content that way my concentrates or higher returns. I searched out. I knew I wanted a widow cross based on lineage and then I match that up with some some genetics that I acquired very early on in the game but had similar traits It produced High, you know visual amounts of resin and one thing that I have learned is just because it has a heavy trichome coverage does not translate to the potency of the plant but it does translate well into the extraction point of the plant so I get a higher return on concentrates, which I focus on more I do a lot of Capsules and things like that with coconut oil for myself. I'd rather eat it than smoke. It most times. It's just as better for the pain for me. But her selection process was based on a widow cross that I had a love for about five or six years ago. All right there Dan. I mean, I mean, let me ask you this. I mean, this is a question that you may or may not know that I ask. Are there any questions then I should be asking in are there any final statements that? you would like to make I think we did a pretty good job of covering the things that you know, you should ask or anything like that. I would just like to recommend, you know, learn to plant if you if you fail at the first time and you get a stunning plant don't give up. They do have a more more potential than just that tiny lollipop, you know lollipop style. But some people might see you know, and some words of encouragement as you know, just keep pushing forward with them if you're interested in growing. I think it's a very good tool to learn how to grow at a very very Basic level. I mean your podcast is too cheap home grow, you know, and that's what we want to do is kind of reach out to the public that is just now getting to the ability where they can do this and like you said earlier, it's a plant that you can throw on your back porch and give it some water and some sunlight along with your daffodils or your lilies or whatever you got going and get yourself a little bit of a harvest, you know, so I think that open up your mind a little bit of a difference is a good thing. Yeah. I mean, absolutely I mean try and try new things and because I mean it's like what we kind of talked about at the beginning of this podcast. I mean, there's a lot of old school Growers and I mean some of which that have come on my podcast and they're like they are so anti Auto flowers. It's not even funny. They want nothing to do with them. And I don't know. I mean, I think personally I think they are living in the past. And I would agree and I understand being you know being set in your ways and being used to seeing a certain plant for a long time. But we talked earlier. Jeff was saying, you know, it's not very often that in a lifetime. You see a new plant you see something that has potential and just because it's different doesn't mean it's bad or negative. You know, I think I like to look remind them a lot. You know all the time of you had to start somewhere. Where and don't forget about those roots, you know, so I think that opening up the mind and seeing something new and the potential is where it's at and I agree with you. A lot of people are closed minded about it. But you know, some people just set in their ways, right, right. Yeah. That's true. That's true you yeah, sometimes you just can't teach an old dog new tricks as they say. Right, and that's okay. You know what? I mean? That's okay, you know, you're allowed to believe what you want to believe and but I don't discourage trying anything new because you just never know. All right, Dan. We'll listen man. Listen, I do appreciate you coming on the show. I think this has been a in depth podcast recording and listen man, as I mentioned, you know, well as I mentioned before the recording I would like to have you come on my Sunday evening show in the near future. I would love to I definitely absolutely would love to be part of that. And I really appreciate you even considering me on that. It would be nice to be you know on a panel amongst some of the greatest Minds that I consider and the you know in the industry right now. I'm Manuel listen, man. Again, Dan, you know, thank you and you can find Dan on auto flower dotnet full-duplex underscore. Afn and also Mandalorian underscore genetics on Instagram. That's ma ndal Ori a n underscore genetics G NE T ICS and full-duplex underscore afn. That's Fu LL D. You ple X underscore a FN and of course Auto flower dot net. Then Dan thank you very much, and I look forward to talking to you again soon Shane. Thank you again so much for the time and I look forward to the same sir. Hello cheap homegrown Nation. This is Shea Macomber from the cheap homegirl podcast and thank you for taking the time to listen to my podcast with Dan. Dan can be found on auto flower dotnet and also on Instagram at full duplex underscore AFM that's Fu LL D. You ple X underscore afn and also Mandalorian. Genetics that's ma ndal Ori a n underscore genetics. I've been podcasting for nearly one year and have many other helpful growing cannabis podcasts in my library of content. I encourage you to go to cheap home grow.com to sign up for my email newsletter and browse all past cannabis growing episodes are release a show every Tuesday. And do a live show every Sunday evening on YouTube at 7 p.m. Eastern called growing with my fellow Growers. You can find me on Instagram at cheap home grow and growing with my fellow Growers. Thank you everyone. I look forward to seeing you next Tuesday and this upcoming Sunday as always. Please rate review And subscribe. I am reaching out to you to ask you really one question. Want to know how am I doing as a podcaster? What topics do you want me to cover? Is there anything specific please reach out to me? Please? Get back to me. I can be found online at cheap home grow.com under the contact us page and also you can message me directly on my Twitter and Instagram account at cheap home grow.
Dan from AutoFlower.net, @fullduplex_afn and Mandalorian Genetics comes on the show today to talk about everything autoflower related. We did a deep dive about autoflower breeding, best growing practices when growing autos and we also talked about his website, Autoflower.net and his genetics company called Mandalorian Genetics. Dan is a well established and highly respected grower and breeder in the cannabis world and his knowledge about various subjects we talked about in this podcast is second-to-none. I invite everyone that's reading this to listen to the podcast and comment below. 