Hey all. At this point, I'm just a lurker trying to absorb whatever information I can. I do plan on cultivating in the future, but don't have the means atm. Anyway, I was just wondering why one would use auto-flowering genes? It seems to me that one could simply veg for a very short time (~12 inches in height) and go straight into flowering, which would avoid the cons of using autos. If you use 18/6 light cycles with autos, that's more money on the electric bill, and I've read that autos have a lower THC content. Besides the ease of use, what would be the reason to grow autos?
Lol well personal experience growing autos. They flower on their own without worrying about flipping the lights to 12/12. If they get their darkness interrupted by light.....the chances of it Hermi are next to none Auto's usually Hermi if you start cutting them. They are usually small so fit in nice spaces, The flowering time is usually a lot less then a Photoperiod plant. not to mention right now im growing an auto next to a photoperiod. After the Auto finishes im going to SCROG the Photoperiod. And usually growing Photoperiods takes longer. Everyone is worried about "Oh man the Thc is lower" thats not the case. There are auto strains that have 20%+ THC Content
Quicker harvest time from seed and the ability to run a perpetual garden with vegging and blooming plants in the same too are the only two major advantages. The name autoflower implies that they will be easier to grow but really the opposite is true. Autoflowers require everything photo plants require but are much less forgiving of mistakes. Autos now are much better than they were years ago with some strains pushing THC levels more common in photo plants and yields much increased.
Good stuff from the others here already, but I'll chime in as well. Auto's are supposed to be faster. I've grown a few strains of auto's - Northern Light - Big Bud auto (three different occasions), ChemDawg Auto, Kalashnikova-Auto (now). Give or take a few days, all have taken around 80 - 90 days from transplant to harvest. These under a 250W HID in a 2X2 tent using an Ebb n' Gro hydro setup with GH Flora nutes with Diamond Nectar and KoolBloom additives. Compared to 100 days +-with photoperiod strains under my 400 or 600W HID, also hydro, same nutes. So yes, they can be a little bit faster. But IMHO not as fast as advertised. Maybe that would be true outside or under a bigger light. Haven't tried that yet. Conventional wisdom has held that auto's don't yield as well... I suspect this is more a case of the grower screwing up as Jay implies. GENERALLY yes - they don't yield as good. But the best single-plant yield I ever grew was 7 oz. off a single NL-BB auto. I was happy And, a long time grower I trust on here grew a Kalashnikova-Auto outdoors and claimed over a pound off one plant. I bow to @Midlife, the SCROG King and his magic spring water. Conventional wisdom / they are not as potent... once again, disagree. Except the Chemdawg auto, it was far inferior to the real chemdawg which I worship. But the NL-BB is sweet indeed. And the K-Auto is rumored to be magnificent, very much like it's White Russian lineage which was a cup winner back when. I'll let you know in about three weeks. The one thing I have found consistent with all the auto strains I've experienced so far is that they remain compact. This is partly due to, you don't top an auto. This stresses the plant plus it doesn't have time to recover. So you LST the bitches. 50 shades of green bondage queen, they LOVE to be tied up. My little 2X2 party tent is 5' 3" tall and I've never stretched its vertical limits. SO... if you're an outdoor grower and want to get two, maybe three harvests during a growing season, I'd say auto's are the only way. Will the yield suffer when you can't run 20 hours of light a day? Maybe, if you try it let me know. But they will finish regardless of the daytime hours. The negatives - it's really hard to make seeds since almost all auto's are also feminized, meaning no males to pollinate the girls. And forget cloning. Auto's veg, bloom, and die. You take a cutting from a 4 week old plant, the rooted clone is 4 weeks old and has lost a month of it's life in which to grow and bloom. So even if it roots, you can't keep a mother. If you decide to grow auto's I say go for it. Just remember, weak nutes (300 - 600 ppm) until they are in full bloom, then you can gradually increase nutes to the 900 ppm or higher range when in bloom. Just watch the plants closely and at any sign of tip burn, back off the strength a bit. But as long as they respond to the stronger nutes, keep going, just in small increments. And don't prune, top or super-crop. It's LST all the way until stretch has stopped, and after. If you train the main top leader of the plant horizontally, the lower and side branches will catch up & result in an easily maintained top canopy that really increases your yield.
Just wondering what is your opinion on the cons for autos? For the record the past few grows of mine have been autos and i like them. If its yield your worried about u might have the wrong strain ive grown autos that produced 90g.
Hard to make seeds as it's tough to find a male. You can't keep a mother plant for clones and that pisses me off (well, really, ya gotta find SOMETHING to be mad about every now & then). They are sensitive to nutes especially in the early stages. 1 & 2 suck, 3 is manageable. All in all, I like them. Going to smoke some NL-BB auto right now