Auto help

I have been looking into autos as i received 2 free Seedman auto skunk #1 and was thinking of running them after my current grow. Never have run autos before and i am only on my second grow .
My newbie question is do i run them from the get go with hps on 18/6 or do start with mh and switch at some point? thanks in advance for the help!

My first plant was an auto. I thought it was fun the way it flowered on its own. It was plenty potent (people say ruderalis diminishes potency, nobody complained about mine.).

Aside from personal pleasure, I think the only legitimate use they have is for outdoor growing when you don't want to wait until Fall for harvest. Get one in the ground in April and harvest in June/July.

The most common lighting schedule is 18/6 from seedling to harvest. I think the additional 6 hours of light during flower is what makes up for the ruderalis. I.e., the penalty. Some people switch to 12/12 in flower to save electricity (or share a tent with photo sensitives). You'll have less yield.

Yes, you still want to do cooler light in veg, warmer in flower. It's the same that way.

I would just put the seedling under a CFL. And when it gets larger like maybe 6 inches and 4 nodes under the HPS and I like 18/6 or 20/4 to the end.