Are Autoflowers worth growing?

You have heard about autoflower weed plants and now you are wondering are autoflowers worth growing? A home growing cycle of cannabis plants can begin with one of three methods: feminized seeds, regular seeds or autoflower seeds. Each of these three methods has relative advantages and disadvantages that make it more or less suitable for a particular grower, so every beginner breeder should be familiar with all three.

Basically, growing cannabis from autoflower seeds is similar in terms of the growing process to that of growing regular cannabis seeds, but there is one fundamental difference between the two methods that lies in the length of the growing cycle.

What are Autoflower Cannabis Seeds?

Autoflower seeds are seeds of cannabis plants that contain the dominant genetics of Ruderalis – the most common cannabis strain in nature after Sativa and Indica, which has genetics that changes and determine its life cycle. This genetics causes the plant to adapt to a regular life cycle in its length and stages, which does not depend on changes in lighting or other conditions in its growing environment. This growing trait evolved for reasons of survival in harsh natural conditions. For this reason, autoflowering seeds are the fastest and safest way to grow cannabis and reach a rapid harvest of the final crop.

The unique genetic traits of the auto cannabis plant have evolved due to extreme environmental conditions prevailing in most of the natural habitats of the Ruderalis plants, particularly in Russia and North America. These conditions have led to the development of extremely cold-resistant plants, with strong roots that require a small number of nutrients, which are able to reach flowering and reproduction even without a sufficient amount of sunlight.

Growing Autoflowers

“Autoflower” cannabis plants are plants that grow and bloom over a precise and predetermined period that does not vary from plant to plant in the same bag of seeds. That is, these plants are not photo-periodic and do not change their growth and flowering cycle according to the amount and number of light hours to which they are exposed. These plants yield an average amount of crop, less than a regular cannabis plant, but the crop yields much faster with a significantly shorter period of time than it takes for regular cannabis plants. While a growing cycle of a “normal” cannabis plant can take up to 5 months, cannabis plants grown from autoflower seeds will yield a crop within a maximum period of two and a half months and sometimes in less than 80 days from seed to full flowering and ready for harvest.

Are Autoflowering seeds worth it?

Growing cannabis from autoflower seeds has relative advantages that differentiate it for good compared to growing cannabis from regular seeds. These are the benefits of automatic cannabis seeds that you should be aware of before choosing the way to start your home cultivation:

1. Short Growth Cycle

The automation of the growing process of autoflower cannabis plants and their transition to flowering independent of changing the lighting cycle, make the growing cycle of an automatic plant significantly shorter than that of non-Ruderalis cannabis plants. This saving can reach up to 50% of the total growth cycle, in the case of varieties whose non-automatic version blooms for a long time.

2. Uniform and consistent crop

Autoflower cannabis plants that come from the same genetic source, from the same bag of seeds, will yield at the end of their growth an almost identical crop in terms of quantity and quality. Although the amount of crop is not large relative to regular cannabis plants, its quality will almost always be high and uniform in all parts of the plants, even in the parts that are less exposed to sunlight. In general, the sun exposure ratio of the flowers in autoflowering plants is better because there are almost no parts of the plant that are not exposed to the sun, so all parts of the plant develop flower buds optimally at the beginning of the flowering stage.

3. Higher flower/weight ratio

Cannabis plants grown from autoflower seeds grow less in height and width compared to regular cannabis plants and therefore take up less space in the growing space. While the amount of crop available on each plant is lower on average compared to regular cannabis plants, the total amount of crops in a growing space filled with autoflowering plants will usually be larger compared to the full space in regular cannabis plants. In addition, each automatic plant will have a better ratio of flowers compared to the overall plant weight compared to a regular cannabis plant.

4. Diverse terpenoid profile

Cannabis plants in which the dominant genetics are among others Ruderalis will be plants with a diverse terpenoid profile. In these plants, there will be terpenes (flavours and aromas in cannabis) that do not exist in Indica or Sativa varieties and come directly from the genetics of Ruderalis, which enriches not only the taste and smell of cannabis.