One of the things that everybody probably knows about growing cannabis at home is that these plants require a whole lot of light. Cannabis plants require light to perform photosynthesis, which means that they need a natural sunlight so that they can grow.
If you expect to grow a cannabis plant with plenty of flavor and lots of THC, it’s a whole lot of sunlight that is required. With that being said, the most common type of cannabis plant to grow in terms of lighting needs is known as the photoperiod cannabis plant.
A photoperiod cannabis plant is one that converts from the vegetative stage to the flowering stage due to a shift in lighting amounts provided to them.
In other words, photoperiod plants switch from the vegetative stage to the flowering stage when the light is reduced from 18 or 24 hours a day down to 12 hours per day. Although this is a great type of cannabis plant to grow, it can take a very long time, sometimes up to six months or even longer.
For this reason, the autoflowering cannabis plant has become very popular, which as the name implies, is a type of weed plant that automatically begins flowering after a certain period of time, all without the need for you to change the lighting cycle. As far as growing an autoflowering cannabis plant goes, it’s not overly difficult.
However, there are some differences between autoflowering cannabis plants and photoperiod cannabis plants that you need to be aware of, especially in terms of growing them at home. This is your comprehensive guide for home growers on autoflowering cannabis plants, so let’s figure out everything there is to know about growing this very special type of weed.
The Cannabis Plant & Light Cycles
Before we can talk about what an autoflowering plant is, it’s important for you to know how a regular cannabis plant functions in terms of the light cycle. So, a regular cannabis plant may also be referred to as a photoperiod cannabis plant, which as the name implies, relies on a photoperiod or a specific amount of light in order to change from its vegetative state to its flowering state.
In the wild, this type of cannabis plant relies on the natural cycle of the sun and seasons to indicate when it is time to start flowering.
As the days start getting shorter after the summer solstice, a cannabis plant will begin to flower because it recognizes that the days are shortening, which means that soon enough, autumn and winter will be upon it. The light indicates that it’s time for the cannabis plant to start flowering, so it can effectively reproduce before the next season.
This is why when you grow a regular cannabis plant at home, you have to adjust the light cycle in order to because your cannabis plant to start flowering. Generally speaking, most people will have their cannabis plants exposed to 24 hours of light per day during the vegetative stage.
Then, to switch from the vegetative stage the flowering stage, most people switch from a 24 hour light schedule to a 12 hour light schedule. It is this shift in lighting at home that will cause a cannabis plant to start flowering.
As you might be able to tell, having to pay such close attention to lighting can be a bit of a challenge when growing cannabis at home, especially because you do have to be quite precise. However, there is a solution to this, and this is known as the autoflowering cannabis plant.
The Autoflowering Cannabis Plant – What Is it?
We then have the autoflowering cannabis plant, which as you might be able to tell by the name of it, starts flowering automatically regardless of light. Instead of relying on light or seasonal cycles to tell the plant when it’s time to start flowering, the autoflowering cannabis plant relies solely on time passed.
Once an autoflowering plant has been in its vegetative stage for a certain period of time, it will automatically switch to the flowering stage.
As you might be able to tell, this automatically makes things a whole lot easier for people growing cannabis at home. No longer do you have to worry about the light cycle. With that being said, as you’ll see further below, there are both benefits and drawbacks to growing autoflowering cannabis plants, all of which will take a closer look at.
However, before we do this, let’s take a quick look at where these plants actually come from. So, most autoflowering cannabis plants have some amount of cannabis ruderalis them.
For those of you who don’t know, besides indica and sativa strains, ruderalis is another common type of cannabis. Ruderalis strains originate in Europe and Russia where there are much shorter growing seasons, which is why it is believed that they automatically flower, to account for these short growing seasons.
Most of the modern autoflowering plants that we are familiar with are combinations of cannabis ruderalis along with indica and sativa genetics, to achieve the appropriate results.
Opposed to a regular photoperiod cannabis plant, an autoflowering cannabis plant should not take more than 12 weeks in total to reach full maturity and harvest time. Regular cannabis plants can take up to twice as long!
The Benefits of Growing Autoflowering Cannabis Plants
Now that we know the basics of autoflowering cannabis plants, let’s take a look at some of the biggest benefits that come along with growing them.
Speed from Seed to Harvest
One of the biggest benefits of autoflowering cannabis plants for anybody growing at home is that they don’t take nearly as long as regular photoperiod cannabis plants. You can usually get a autoflowering cannabis plant from a seed to harvest in anywhere from 8 to 12 weeks.
Yes, that is right, you can get autoflowering cannabis plants that only take two months to go from seed to full maturity. That’s much faster than regular photoperiod cannabis plants, which can take twice if not three times as long.
Double the Flowering Stage for More Harvests
Also worth considering is that because it only takes anywhere between half and a third the amount of time to grow an autoflowering plant as it does for a photoperiod plant, you can also get many more harvests each year.
Having a more frequent harvesting schedule allows you to check out different strains more frequently, therefore allowing you to narrow down the best strains for you to grow at any given time.
Size
Something else that stands out about autoflowering cannabis plants is that they are extremely compact. They’re usually much shorter and narrower than regular photoperiod cannabis plants, and this goes for both indica and sativa varieties. If you have a limited amount of space to work with to grow cannabis, then autoflowering strains are always beneficial.
They take up a fraction of the space of regular cannabis plants. Not only is this beneficial in terms of your own spatial requirements, but it also helps keep things much more discreet and secretive. Of course, we are in no way advocating that you illegally grow cannabis, but if you need to be more secretive, then autoflowers are the best choice.
Resilient and Adaptive
Autoflowering cannabis plants are usually quite resilient and forgiving. They can generally withstand a number of adverse environmental stressors and conditions, as well as changing temperatures, humidity levels, light levels, and more. They tend to adapt really well to differing environmental conditions, much better than photoperiod cannabis plants.
Lower Costs
Because autoflowering cannabis plants take about half as long to grow as photoperiod cannabis plants, you can also expect to have a much lower electricity bill. Having the grow lights on for only half as long leads to a whole lot of savings.
Also keep in mind that because the plants themselves are much smaller than regular photoperiod plants, they also require less water and nutrients, two more things that will end up saving you a lot of money.
Let’s not forget the fact that autoflowering plants usually require much less training and pruning as well, which not only helps save you money, but time as well.
Consistency
What is also worth noting about autoflowering cannabis plants is that they are very consistent and predictable. If you have a good source of information about this specific autoflowering strain you are growing, you can more or less time when it will start flowering down to the day.
The Drawbacks of Autoflowering Weed Plants
Just like there are benefits to growing autoflowering cannabis plants, there are also some drawbacks that you need to consider, so let’s take a quick look.
No Timing Control
For many people, the fact that autoflowering plants automatically switch to the flowering stage is a benefit, but this is not always the case.
If you are somebody who would like to retain the maximum amount of control possible over exactly when your plant switches into the flowering stage, then autoflowering plants are not the best thing for you.
Limited Chances to Train
Yes, autoflowering plants grow much faster, but this can also be a drawback, especially when it comes to the shorter vegetative stage. The reason for this is because many people like to prune, top, and train their cannabis plants during the vegetative stage, but because autoflowering plants have a very short vegetative stage, your opportunities to perform these plant training techniques are limited.
Lower Yields
Sure, autoflowering plants take about half as long to grow as regular photoperiod cannabis plants, but they’re also much smaller, more compact, and have much less growth on them than photoperiod cannabis plants.
What it really boils down to is that you can expect an autoflowering cannabis plant to yield about half as much as a regular cannabis plant, if not even less.
Cannabinoids and Terpenes
One of the big advantages that you get from growing regular photoperiod cannabis plants is that they have a lot of time to develop all of their cannabinoids and terpenes. This means that they generally have fantastic and complex flavor profiles, along with complex cannabinoid profiles.
It is the photoperiod cannabis plant that usually has the most THC, CD, and other cannabinoids. However, because after flowering cannabis plants don’t have nearly as long to develop, they also don’t have as many cannabinoids or terpenes, which results in less flavor and potency.
Seed Cost
The autoflowering cannabis plant is fairly sought after, which means that seeds can be quite expensive. Although the seats are expensive, you also need to consider that you generally can’t clone an autoflowering cannabis plant, and rather need to buy new seeds every time you want to start a new crop.
Tips on How to Grow an Autoflowering Cannabis Plant
To wrap things up, let’s go over a few quick tips on how to get the best results when growing an autoflowering cannabis plant.
- Always choose the strain based on things like aroma, potency, flavor, and other such factors.
- During the vegetative stage, make sure to give your autoflowering plants about 20 hours of high-quality light per day. Using blue light during the vegetative stage and a full spectrum light during the flowering stage is ideal.
- Although autoflowering plants are quite resilient, maintaining stable humidity and temperature conditions is recommended.
- Autoflowering plants don’t require nearly as many nutrients as regular photoperiod plants. Therefore, you need to avoid over feeding them, or else you might cause nutrient burn.
- Performing training techniques as well as transplanting with all the flowering plants is not necessarily recommended.
Conclusion
What it really comes down to here is that if you have a limited amount of space at home, and not that much time to spare either, then an autoflowering weed plant is always best.
The reality is that auto flowering weed plants don’t require nearly as much space or time as regular photoperiod plants.
Although they might not produce quite as high as yield or as potent a bud, there are still some big advantages to auto flowering weed plants.
