Thoughts On Auto Flowering Strains

Just wondering what the consensus was on growing auto flowering strains and what the best strains are. I have a limited grow space and would like to do a perpetual grow, but you need two light environments to harvest every X amount of weeks. I was thinking with auto flowering I could add say 5 plants every 3 weeks with 9 week grow time + or - and remain on a 20/4 light cycle.

i don't even know what you are talking about lol

jojoluver33 said:

i don't even know what you are talking about lol

Click to expand...

There are strains of plants that automatically start to flower regardless of the amount of light. They will bud under a 20/4 hour light schedule.

I think that should work OK, but I find 9 weeks is the minimum time and I let mine go for about 12 or 13 weeks.
I haven't tried many strains so can't help you there.
So far Iv'e grown a few crops of Lowryder 2,
and I crossed some Durban Poison with Lowryder 2 and bred some seeds with the ones that autoflowered.
I also crossed some Lowryder 2 with Pure Power Plant but they didn't turn out to be Auto Flowering.
The Durban x LR2 Autos are at 7 weeks from seed and are so sticky and strong smelling I cant wait to try it.

i mean you can do a perpetual harvest but you have to start from seed every time seeing as how autos flower by age not photoperiod. You would lose size every time you took a cutting....the clones will be smaller and smalled until.....well idk what will happen but your yield will suffer every time you take clones.....and if you are going to just do it from seed you're probably better off with normal strains. I have tried a couple different strains from lowlife and they yielded good bud and a decent amount but not enough to make it really worth your time unless you got a lot of them. A perpetual harvest too me only seems reasonable from clones

Great feedback, thanks. My understanding was that you couldn't take clones from auto flower anyways. I was planning on germinating seeds every few weeks to replace what was ever harvested. The downside is that I am pulling males out of half of what I germinate, but I was holding out hope to be able to produce my own feminized seeds at some point.

i mean to really feminize a seed you need some sort of chemical i dont remember exactly what it was i read but just inbreeding a plant with itsself will give you hermie seeds. another thing about trying to perpetual harvest with autoflowerers is if they get at all stunted they are stunted for life because they flower at a certain age and stop growth at one point no matter what you do. So sometimes you end up with a plant that is like 8 inches with a bunch of tiny buds packed together thats a nightmare to trim and doesn't yield all that much. You are probably better off with normal strains with like a sog... there are strains that flower in 6-8 weeks which is roughly the same as most autoflowering strains

The basic answer is no, this is not the best way to grow and I would not choose autoflowers if you have limited space or want fast turn around perpetual grows.

Go with normal strains and you can actually control the size they finish and when they flower and clone indefinately... etc.

You just need a small mother/clone area and you can shove clones in a perpetual box weekly or whenever and they'll finish way faster than autos.

OregonMeds said:

The basic answer is no, this is not the best way to grow and I would not choose autoflowers if you have limited space or want fast turn around perpetual grows.

Go with normal strains and you can actually control the size they finish and when they flower and clone indefinately... etc.

You just need a small mother/clone area and you can shove clones in a perpetual box weekly or whenever and they'll finish way faster than autos.

Click to expand...

ah - so take my clones and go straight to 12/12 and it would be just as fast/efficient or better than autos? I guess that would work to put mothers in a large tote - I might have room - and take clones every X weeks. So my main light would always be on 12/12 and a separate tote for mothers on 20/4 - does that sound right?

Tryingtomastrkush said:

i mean you can do a perpetual harvest but you have to start from seed every time seeing as how autos flower by age not photoperiod. You would lose size every time you took a cutting....the clones will be smaller and smalled until.....well idk what will happen but your yield will suffer every time you take clones.....and if you are going to just do it from seed you're probably better off with normal strains. I have tried a couple different strains from lowlife and they yielded good bud and a decent amount but not enough to make it really worth your time unless you got a lot of them. A perpetual harvest too me only seems reasonable from clones

Click to expand...

lets see if i undrestand here, u r saying every time u cut a clone from a plant that it will not yeild ass much as the plant u took it from, if thats what u r saying i will have do disagree sorry, i have cloned from the same plants for a year and get the same yeild everytime.

mygirls said:

lets see if i undrestand here, u r saying every time u cut a clone from a plant that it will not yeild ass much as the plant u took it from, if thats what u r saying i will have do disagree sorry, i have cloned from the same plants for a year and get the same yeild everytime.

Click to expand...

They are talking about trying to clone autoflowers, which just doesn't work.

westmich said:

ah - so take my clones and go straight to 12/12 and it would be just as fast/efficient or better than autos? I guess that would work to put mothers in a large tote - I might have room - and take clones every X weeks. So my main light would always be on 12/12 and a separate tote for mothers on 20/4 - does that sound right?

Click to expand...

Yes
And it's faster and better than autoflowers.

OregonMeds said:

They are talking about trying to clone autoflowers, which just doesn't work.

Click to expand...

haha thank you for correcting that fool i was about to say somethin to him but i noticed there was a second page and i thought "shit someone may have allready done it"

dude i had the same dilema as you but i chose the auto strain because after reading this grow log i saw the benefits : https://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/111613-diesel-ryder-400-watt-ecolite.html you wont need seperate chambers you dont have the risk of killing clones you can plant seeds whenever you want you get very good weed and can achieve good yields as well if conditions are optimum. search some more before deciding and if you want i can help!! i chose the auto ak47 feminized for first grow and after that il try breeding my own!! i know that for normal strains if you turn on the light in the middle of the dark period for some time you cause ur plant to herm i dont know what happens with autos but because i dont have the chemical that makes them herm il try it out some time. also note that autos need very little nutrients if you want to go organic that would make things much easier much cheaper much tastier and less likely to have probs since they are supposedly easy to grow!!! search then search again when u decided search the opposite again and search again research is never enough you will never stop learning changing and improving thats life !!! hope this helped!!

Thanks for the input. As far as creating hermies for fem seeds, I was planning on trying this at some point regardless if they auto flower or if I am into cloning - https://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/138736-creating-feminized-seeds-has-anyone.html (no chemicals required) - it would just be nice to have your own stash of fem seeds.