Autoflower Strains - Why?

[bromhexine]

its a fun strain great for newbs great for outdoor if grown in pots. eventually they'll make ones that grow well in the ground outdoors and then it'll be great for commercial early harvests imagine nice full sativa buds harvested outdoors in july! for the indoor grower you can throw a few in the veg room if theres space and grow a few extra ounces they dont do bad under 12/12 either.

 

[skotty]

have any of you guys seen what people are pulling off 1 auto grown in hydro under hps in short amount of time, dont get me wrong im not saying that every auto is gonna give you 4 oz + dry weight in 8-12 weeks but thats the whole reason i use this section of the forum so i can seperate the good from the bad

although having said that is their really a bad auto as the smaller varities do suit people who wanna do a stealth grow project, i could fill this section with pics of autos and their capabilities and what they can achieve but would that really change the way you look at them

autoflowers are marmite you either love em or hate em

the reason i grow autos is because i like the results im getting

funky pineapple smell and she is gonna be a beast in a short grow time with a nice covering of frost

this is nothing compared to what some growers are getting around the net on other grow forums

you can almost smell the pineapple in the last pic

peace

 

[Suomi-Prkl]

mine autoflowers grow very nicely in ground outdoors, af plants benefit from unlimited rootspace and continous light cycle, makes them produce more.

 

[Muddy]

Autos are the result of evolution. Auto flowering plants evolved in colder climates as a response to short growing seasons. Rather than responding to photo period like full sized plants, they are genetically coded to begin flowering at about 3 weeks old. The ruderalis plant contained almost no THC. They have been bred with full size plants to increase yield and THC content.

Many pros and cons have been discussed but one I don't see mentioned is variety. I've been growing autos for 3 years and now have 15 different strains harvested and stored. I'm a daily smoker and having that variety helps me avoid strain tolerance. I rarely smoke the same strain more than two days in a row. I also like the speed. Hard to beat getting a harvest in 10 weeks.

Many people who enjoy breeding also like autos, again because of how fast they are. Three or 4 generations can be grown in the same time it takes to grow one full size strain, allowing for faster development. Yes, they can't be cloned, but it's very easy to separate out a male, move it to a window sill, and harvest it's pollen in about 5 weeks. Pollinating just 1 lower branch can easily yield 30-50 seeds, eliminating the need to spend a lot of money on more seeds.

Autos aren't for everyone but if you want stealth, fast turn around, and lots of variety they are hard to beat.

so it seems af strains are geared towards outdoor and not indoor. this makes sense.

i am interested in the science behind how it actually flowers. what causes it to start to flower?

 

[Stress_test]

I have been experimenting with a Rudy/Sativa cross that I got from a friend for the last 3 grows and I like em for several reasons.

1. They grow quite fast.

2. They sex themselves. So I don't have to force them into flower to determine their sex. Also since they begin flowering as soon as they are ready to so I don't need to entice them to determine their sex. In fact I really have no need of a timer system at all, so there is no worry about timer failure or mistakes.

3. I can save a large amount of room because I don't need separate vegetative and flowering rooms.

4. Mine are finished and ready to harvest in about 12 weeks from germination.

5. They grow to a max height of around 24 inches. So I don't need a big room to grow my limit. I can start my seeds and place them in 6" pots and never have to transplant them again because they will finish out and never out grow the pot. I can easily grow 15 plants in a smaller area and still harvest between 1 - 2 oz from each plant.

6. They aren't as finicky with temperatures, watering or nutrients.

7. Mine are crossed with a Sativa so I have a slightly higher yield but I can still germinate and grow a full crop in less than half the time it takes ordinary plants even begin flowering.

 

[BadRabbit]

Last Waltz:

I would point out that if you're running perpetual clones, on many standard strains, with much higher yield and THC levels, you can easily match or outpace that 60 day mark.

best,
rabbit

 

[LastWaltz]

Last Waltz:

I would point out that if you're running perpetual clones, on many standard strains, with much higher yield and THC levels, you can easily match or outpace that 60 day mark.

best,
rabbit

Yes, with perpetual cloning you loose a few of the benefits of the AF's but many other benefits still exist, especially for outdoor and growing from seed.

 

[spookyteabag]

There's this guy I know... likes to travel a lot. He spends about five or six months of the year on the road, backpacking. he loves a good smoke too - used to grow loads back in the 80s - big cupboards full of skunk and NL. He really knew his stuff. He tells me that he much prefers smoking something he grew himself to all the shit that's kicking around our area on the street - he likes the hobby aspect of growing it it too. But now he has very little space (he's got a tiny one bedroom apartment that he lives in when he's not on the road) and of course, he'd have to shut everything down everytime he goes off travelling. So what's our man to do?

Well. Here's what he did. He converted a tiny cupboard ('bout 2 x 2 x 1 feet) - put a fan in, a couple of PLLs, and painted it all white - and bought 10 autoflowering seeds. He grew them out and did a seed run. Got a nice bit of weed and a few hundred seeds. Now, when he comes back from a trip, he fills a few pots with soil mix, throws in a few seeds and sticks them in his cupboard. Two or three days after getting back, his seeds are popping. Within five weeks, he's snipping wee bits off for a smoke and in nine weeks or so, he's got a tidy harvest. Then he can shut everything down if he wants and go on a trip.... or he can do another grow. Sometimes he cuts a grow short, pulls the plants at seven weeks and heads off with his rucksack as the mood takes him.

If anyone says to him 'autos are for noobs', 'you should keep a mother and make clones or your wasting your time' or any of that kind of shit, he just says, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah...'

 

[I'm Dykster]

I grew non-auto's for years. Now I grow only autos.

Indoor...my reason.

Have you seen how beautiful the autos are? Big, fat girls. Less trimming. When you are getting ready to flip, I am putting mine in jars.

I will put my autos up with any non auto strain for taste high and stone.

Less power.

Less space.

More herb.

No wonder it's catching on.

 

[I'm Dykster]

Last Waltz:

I would point out that if you're running perpetual clones, on many standard strains, with much higher yield and THC levels, you can easily match or outpace that 60 day mark.

best,
rabbit

???? Don't ya veg?

 

[Sandnut]

Like above said, they're ideal if you have limited space, time, experience or if you want to grow outdoors during summer in a nordic country..

to make a f1 of an 12/12 strain x auto
and keep breeding on the auto offspring till you get a true auto. prob f4-f5 id guess

The reason you are seeing loads of ppl growing autos is because they are pretty new to the market still and its getting better and better, people like to breed themselves, and if you dont have a veg chamber for cuts n shit you can just run a tent with autos and get off some decent yields... also people run autos in the veg chamber, and the for personal stash or whatever..

 

[Nicoli]

Less power.

Less space.

More herb.

No wonder it's catching on.

How do you figure? You can grow any plant in any size of pot.

Less power? You mean twice the power? A normal strain runs on 12/12, most hemp growers run them on 20/4 or 18/6 or even 24/0. How is that exactly less power? Are you confused?

More herb? How? You have to actually waste MORE time with autoflowers, going from seed, sexing, culling, how is that more herb in less time? If anything its less herb in MORE TIME. WAKE UP KID!

Every single potential "pro" you listed isn't even applicable.

 

[IwannatokeNbone]

autos outyeild reg strains and the potency is at the 7 n 8 level , up there with most of whats going around. check icecoldcrikets out, hes yeilding a pound in 65 days under a 400hps, who is yeilding a pound every 65 days from a 400hps with reg strains??, and count your cuting/rooting/cloneing time also , nobody is even coming close...just becasue we dont need one(a cloneing room) doesnt mean that space in a comparrison study would not be used to grow more POT n not CLONEs and would make the yeild even greater in comparison, autos are the future.

 

[20/4]

How do you figure? You can grow any plant in any size of pot.

Less power? You mean twice the power? A normal strain runs on 12/12, most hemp growers run them on 20/4 or 18/6 or even 24/0. How is that exactly less power? Are you confused?

More herb? How? You have to actually waste MORE time with autoflowers, going from seed, sexing, culling, how is that more herb in less time? If anything its less herb in MORE TIME. WAKE UP KID!

Every single potential "pro" you listed isn't even applicable.

Hmmm, how about running a perpetual garden in a SINGLE growing space with a single light...Cant do that with full season plants...gotta have a veg cab, OR somewhere to keep your mother plants you take clones from... And also that involves having more lights...So less power and money is somewhat applicable...Or you start them off 12/12 from seed which is stressful to the plant and could cause more problems for the 12/12 Hermy epidemic...Anyways some strains could take over 130 days if force flowered...id rather stick to my 60 day from seed autos

 

[Mr Celsius]

i think there are better ways to breed them such as just doing one initial cross to the auto with a normal strain and then inbreeding those seeds and the result of those seeds will be 1/4 autoflowering then just inbreed the ones that suit your needs and if you like backcross to the original non auto and start over this will ensure the least amount of ruderalis in there as possible and if you're using a recent auto you've already got them pretty far from the original lowryder.

I can assure you and everyone else (unless you're growing LR#1) that the autoflowering trait is about the only thing present from the ruderalis in today's modern autoflower.

When breeding you should be looking for stability mostly. Not saying your way isn't stable, just saying the reasoning for your way is flawed.

 

[Jaymer]

Ruderalis cannabis seeds: real Ruderalis cannabis seeds is a single stem plant like a willow whip and x n umber of weeks after germination will begin flowering irrespective of light hours. Once this is in a strain it never goes away even if all auto flowerers are weeded out, it will reappear after a generation or two when the genes recombine to the dominant form its like sickle cell anemia except you cant tell the carriers with Ruderalis cannabis seeds. Ruderalis cannabis seeds doesn?t have large colas either. In the early days of wild strain collection, indicas from western Afghanistan were often mistakenly called Ruderalis cannabis seeds they were early flowering with large colas. They also will often initiate flowering early, but can be reveged. The difference is that with real Ruderalis cannabis seeds once flowering is initiated it cant be revegitated you can root cuttings with just a few flowers under 24 hr lighting and it just makes tiny co las. It?s no t a thing to pass on to future generations.

Any truth to this?, it has me concerned about dormant auto traits being passed on when breeding for seed stock and/or accidentally pollinating photo period plants. It's the only querk I have with auto's.

My vote is they are a little bit less efficient. They are cool though an I'd like to try some of those diesel riders that look to be doing so well farther north.

 

[Psycho Paul]

Autoflowers are for noobs who haven't really discovered or dont have access to true elite genetics. It's pretty obvious isn't it? This topic has been covered dozens of times on endless forums. They have nothing else so that's what they grow.

One day they will grow real plants and learn how much time they wasted, but until them let them fail. Who cares, more good cannabis for the rest of us. Let them grow their shwag.

For whoever said they are more efficient than regular strains..

assuming $0.06 per kwh.

k lets say you run a 70 day from harvest autoflower seed strain

under a 400w HPS. 24/0 ($0.58/day $210.24/yr)
under a 400w HPS. 20/4 ($0.48/day $175.20/yr)
under a 400w HPS. 18/6 ($0.43/day $157.68/yr)

vs

an elite cut that runs 70 days

under a 400w HPS, 12/12 ($0.29/day $105.12/yr)
+ WE HAVE TO HAVE A VEG RIGHT????
So...
+a 150w HPS veg 18/6, ($0.16/day $59.13/yr)
= ($0.45/day $164.25/yr)

so if you are running your autos on 20/4 you're actually paying more than somebody with a 400w flower and a 150w veg .

Even if you drop it down to 18/6 you're saving what.. $6.57? That's the reason they are more efficient? to save $6 a year and grow less quality cannabis? wtf logic is that?

One day noobs will grow up.

 

[dargo]

its mario vs sonic allover!

 

[Nicoli]

autos outyeild reg strains and the potency is at the 7 n 8 level , up there with most of whats going around. check icecoldcrikets out, hes yeilding a pound in 65 days under a 400hps, who is yeilding a pound every 65 days from a 400hps with reg strains??, and count your cuting/rooting/cloneing time also , nobody is even coming close...just becasue we dont need one(a cloneing room) doesnt mean that space in a comparrison study would not be used to grow more POT n not CLONEs and would make the yeild even greater in comparison, autos are the future.

owned.

For whoever said they are more efficient than regular strains..

assuming $0.06 per kwh.

k lets say you run a 70 day from harvest autoflower seed strain

under a 400w HPS. 24/0 ($0.58/day $210.24/yr)
under a 400w HPS. 20/4 ($0.48/day $175.20/yr)
under a 400w HPS. 18/6 ($0.43/day $157.68/yr)

vs

an elite cut that runs 70 days

under a 400w HPS, 12/12 ($0.29/day $105.12/yr)
+ WE HAVE TO HAVE A VEG RIGHT????
So...
+a 150w HPS veg 18/6, ($0.16/day $59.13/yr)
= ($0.45/day $164.25/yr)

so if you are running your autos on 20/4 you're actually paying more than somebody with a 400w flower and a 150w veg .

Even if you drop it down to 18/6 you're saving what.. $6.57? That's the reason they are more efficient? to save $6 a year and grow less quality cannabis? wtf logic is that?

One day noobs will grow up.

 

[lasko]

Paul growing out elite cuts doesnt mean you have a skill and they get boring for me after 10 spliffs.
Im not pro or cons autos. They work for ppl in certain situations. I dont know why so much hate its not all in numbers. Try to grow your Cheese cut in finland and show me pics in october.

peace positive karma and no hating