Autoflower vs. Photoperiod yields per year

[bigAl25]

dear Biologist, I grow one time a year then shut it down, so my situation is a bit different from yours. That said, I outlined my experience with autos verses my previous fem photo grows and the yield was disappointing, but the quality of the ganja was not. To attempt to increase yield with my current auto grow I have done the following"
Switched from 2 gallon plastic pots to 3.5 gallon airpots.
Increased my timer schedule from 18/6 to 20/4.
I still do not top or fim my autos like I did my photo plants. Scared of training on afterthoughts suggestions in some of their posts.
I am growing different strains, so that will change my results.

In a few months I will have my final product and I can give you an idea if these moves helped increase my auto yeild this time.
Yes, Last night I had independent verification: That's good weed, I've got a good buzz off a joint shared by 3 people, so quality does not suffer.
The breeder of your autos does matter, and I am much happier with the one I have swithced to. I will not bash the initial breeder of autos I tried, but pm me if you are interested, because my second pick of breeder has much better ganja.


I do believe my changes will increase yeild ,but still not match the yeild of my fem photos, Oh, I also switched my soild from promix to happy frog so that's another factor. I think I liked promix better, but we'll see.


Merry christmas to all and damn, I'm impressed with the quality of people who have commented on this thread.

 

[Mate Dave]

If you have a kilo of Auto fem seeds then you might get somewhat of a decent harvest of Sin semilla before the photoperiod males dust up everything.. Don't expect to be able to stabilise a strain too much when breeding Autoflowering Feminized strains. Do some punets for homozygous recessive dominant & the heterozygous state & see if you can make a pure line The Auto farm I seen this year produced 3000 plants all done before end of June, they was all weighing about 50+ grams, some of them stretched a bit more as they didn't get morning sun from the feet up.. Some was hermi. They had good terpenes & made good hashish, some was diluted with pollen & they stoped bulking up.. Clones outyield them cost less to produce & need less numbers per acre & don't need transplanting up males roughing out and the plugs can go in the ground direct.. You won't get a second harvest in with them free from seeds here..

 

[TrillOG]

Loving this Convo.. Thanks for the jewels..

 

[Biologist]

Thank you everyone for the responses. BigAl25 keep us updated on how it goes! I'm still fascinated by the idea of switching to all autos. While I agree that photo clones grown sea of green has great yields, my mind wonders if being able to grow in up to 24 hours of light would speed up the turnover in my grow room even more. Up to twice as much light as a photo that sits in the dark half the day. The cost from having to buy seeds every time seems very small compared to the number of harvests I could pull in a year with autos. And it seems that auto genetics are really coming along and high potency high yielding strains are here. I may have to just try a grow and see. I'll continue researching other people's experiences as well.

 

[bigAl25]

Here's some shots around 70 days in my setup. Double grape and hubbabubbasmellascope.

 

[rolnik1]

When comparing times it's worth noting that autos can be germinated and grown before end of cycle like clones and that will deduct few (3 is reasonable) more weeks from whole time. With fast ones you get 6-7? weeks and need a little bit less effort and infrastructure like seperate space with different photoperiods.

 

[Krull]

Auto breeding on a large scale is relatively recent but i've already seen giant leaps from the first lowryder release to what we have today.

With further improvement they will eventually catch up photos even yield-wise.
Some release from HFH (semi-autoflowering) and LBH are really impressive

The problem is i see very few fully concentrating on a development of a single strain to perfect it and lots and lots of random/unstable crosses to feed the hype (Auto OG, Auto Cookies and so on...).


Nice thread BTW


=K

 

[aridbud]

The problem is i see very few fully concentrating on a development of a single strain to perfect it and lots and lots of random/unstable crosses to feed the hype
There's a handful of us breeders that develop our own strains and not give into the hype of the flavor of the month. Our Azure Rocket is now 10 years old, Tokarev T3 has been ongoing for 7 years all grown naturally without hormone/chemical morphing.....and many more strains. True, we're not commercialized, but we do have a solid presence in numerous circles.

Just because an auto is "super" (high yield) doesn't mean it's potent. The beauty of autos is you can successively plant offering 4-5 harvests outdoors.

And it's quite easy to grow autos or breed autos from autos. The trick is taking one from photoperiod to auto and still have the characteristics of the photoperiod....that's the challenge.

 

[Krull]

The trick is taking one from photoperiod to auto and still have the characteristics of the photoperiod....that's the challenge.

Agreed.
What about great yield + outdoor toughness + potency?
I bet that no one would complain
You're surely one of the good guys aridbud, keep up the good work.

Peace

=K

 

[gorilla ganja]

I believe autos can out yield photos over the same time period/area.

i have not done side by side testing and am just expressing my opinion based on my experiences with both. Looking to hear others thoughts and maybe someone can do a test with two different rooms to prove or disprove my theory.

If we try and compare apples to apples.We have to use the same time frame from start to finish. Every other environmental factor being the same except for photo period. I will try and use reasonable averages for yield, but I already know there will be many opinions on this, and many factors involved.

The same number of plants in the same area must be used for a fair test.

Autos started from seed and un rooted clones started at same time.
There are many different finishing times for autos. For my example I will use 75 Days from sprouting to finish. If using a faster auto just decrease veg time for photo period plants.

So I know many will argue on rooting times etc. but I think this is a good average for a decent amount of roots to sustain growth.

Photo period plants from cuttings:
10 days to root,9 days veg -18/6
56 days/ 8 weeks for flower - 12/12 = 75 days total

Finished plant size ? You tell me what you can get with this schedule.
I'll say 2-3 ft. final size. Average yield 2 oz. dry flower a plant
Of course strain selection and number of plants /area plays a huge part in this, but lets try and take averages.

Autos from seed:
75 days from sprouting to finish 18/6

Finished height 2.5- 3.5 ft

Average yield 3 oz a plant. Same as above. number of plants/area and strain selection plays a role.

So how do I figure autos can out yield photos given the same time frame given that everything is the same except photo period.

Well that is the answer right there. Photo period
For the flowering period the autos receive 50 % more light hrs. Therefore they can have more growth during critical flower period and can out yield photo period plants.In my example by the 50% which is equal to the extra light hrs received during flower.

Like I said strain selection is very important.

let's get the debate started.

Peace GG

 

[Ibechillin]

If indoors autos need more than 12hr photoperiod to yield similarly to photoperiod strains they are less efficient and cost is higher for equal overall yield. Autoflowers are just another tool in the growers arsenal similar to selecting different strains that have resistance or finishing times that work for your environment. Where I live I dont see the sun hardly at all during September - November and it rains constantly during those months usually. Semi auto and autoflowers are ideal for people in my situation with short growing seasons as the plants can finish flowering when the sun is most intense. Regardless of yield ill take the semi auto/auto that actually finished over the full season photoperiod giant of half finished bud.

 

[f-e]

Nothing about taste here?
I have only tried about 8 auto's, and various crosses made with them. But it all traces back to 8 types. I found a certain taste that was in all of them, that I didn't like.

I'm well know for chucking out perfectly good green, that I feel isn't up to it. So I don't imagine many would see my problem even sat here with me. But it all tastes dark emerald green to me.

 

[PDX Dopesmoker]

Autos are still really early in their eventual history of breeding for pothead usage, theres a lot of popular ones on the market that are still really closely related to Lowryder or other early generation autos. You can put whatever olfactory and endocannabinoid stimulants into autoflowering plants that you want, given that you're patient and skilled enough to get there. Theres probably a whole bunch of new varieties on the market this year that are less like Mexican Rudy or whatever than the previous lot was. Eventually people will have plants where the autoflowering gene is the only remaining one thats found on a wild ruderalis plant.

 

[Ibechillin]

Beat me to its pdx haha. Honestly im in the frame of mind majority of weed is sub par in effect and taste in general overall. Hell of alot easier and faster to pass around clones of a superb plant than to stabilize it in seed form. Lowryder is stabilized and used in a ton of autoflower crosses being bred with unstable poly hybrids. Its no surprise the same taste/effect keeps surfacing since they back cross to the auto parent to gain the autoflower trait. Would take multiple generations of crossing the newly developed autoflower strain with the original photoperiod parent used and then breeding to isolate auto trait again.

 

[wh1p3dm34t]

new test strain in hydro is growing over 2 meters she is a real beast.. (already scrogged, supercropped several times, but can t stop her ...

 

[aridbud]

^^^^^Nice! Is it a true auto or short harvest indica photo?

 

[wh1p3dm34t]

should be true auto, it is a cross of automazar x gorilla auto. all the time under 18 hours
now they are at week 9, few more weeks to go. now stretch is over.. lasted for like 3-4 weeks

(had to use bamboo sticks and kung fu kicks to keep them low...low.. at least 15 cms from the 600W hps at top xDDD)

 

[Deke]

Great thread!! Thanks everyone learned a lot!!

 

[ReservoirScrogs]

I think the original post would be interesting to analyze if in another context. Using an example where someone has a 4x4 space and a limited plant count, this could have an impact on the ability to have clones or mothers.

For the sake of argument, let's assume someone has limited space (can't have a veg tent or mother tent) and a strict plant count. While some areas differentiate between flowering and non-flowering plants, let's just assume the plant count is fixed at any given number. Many places are a 4 plant limit or 12 plants for medical patients.

Let's make a few assumptions. First, lets assume the photo grow is only feminized seeds. Let's ignore the difference in electrical costs running 18/6 for autos vs 12/12 for photos. And let's ignore the specifics of lights, nutrients, etc.

The real question is if someone only has a single space to grow in from seed to harvest, will the additional cycles per year allowed by autos be enough to overcome the lower expected yields. For this, I make a spreadsheet that each person would need to modify to meet their expectations for flowering time, yield per cycle, etc. Using a 400 gram yield per cycle for autos and a 600 gram yield per cycle for photos, and assuming the post-harvest drying can be done outside the grow space, this is what I came up with.

 

[ReservoirScrogs]

The missing image

The missing image