Photo Periods or Autos that Is the question?

I can totally understand autos if your cramped on space. That makes sense, but autos in a dialed in room baffles me.

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Well this is marketed as a super auto and it has yet to see more than 8hrs of darkness yet all are in flower. Functionally I would call them all autos. The short one may be done in another 30 days, pretty fast. The other two I’m thinking early October . I wouldn’t expect to be able to finish a semi tropical sativa here outdoors so that’s a selling point.

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Yeah I had to answer this question recently. I went with photo instead of auto. Auto is cool and all but I want to feel more in control.

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For the most part, I bet they are…But if you can find decent “regular” autos, or decide to reverse a plant, you can make your own auto seeds. Sure, it won’t be a clone, but hopefully its close to its parent(s) plus it gives you the ability to breed a little.

But some sellers are able to offer “the same” autos time and time again. Surely they have their stock / way of breeding true / semi-true…

I am almost done with my first autos that I purposefully bought, Black Cream from seedsman. And I love the color so much, I wanna reverse one, let it self pollinate, as well as pollinate another. Plus I added another auto to my mix, for my own little cross with the Black Cream (Dark Devil auto) so… Black Cream x Dark Devil = Devil’s Cream :slight_smile: At least thats my idea for now…

And its the dang autos that have me wanting to make seed… LOL. Otherwise, I agree, find a good mom, and clone away…

But the short time of the autos, especially considering generations to stabilize a trait… What I see mine doing in just 2 months… Yeah, you could say my interest is piqued…

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You should grow them both.
I have only grown 1 auto strain… 5 times*, if I recollect. I am going to get some different ones and fill in the holes as Tjake does.
I was pleasantly surprised that my auto flowers exceeded my expectations with their overall quality.

@ReikoX 's *Divyder

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I see a lot of opinions here, all with valid points & reasons. I myself was a complete ‘photo man’ all my life, But like someone else said here, “they both have their place”.
I was hardcore against ever having autos lol but I did a lot of research, and now feel they both can be useful!
I still prefer being able to take clones, and letting the plant veg as long as I want it to for training and size. But the Autos are at the moment a very big part of my growing. I’m using them to ‘catch up’ on production, and will be going back to my photoperiods soon! I’ve got a good bit of old strains going in the veg room, lol patiently vegging and waiting their turn!
Here’s a look at what’s happening for me

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I’ve got a free pack coming and I agree with your philosophy. Autoflowers are not my thing but people like them. People will argue about how to cook a steak but it comes down to preference- I think photo vs auto is similar.

Gonna try out my orange slurpee and see what happens.

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The main thing is to do your homework and research things first, don’t just take someone’s words on here as ‘gospel’ … not to say there aren’t some folks on here that DO ‘know their shit’ … just do some reading up if it’s your first attempt at auto’s, they are a little different in the way you treat them.

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I think we’re still evolving with autos though. Doing my reading I read in some places that topping is a no-no. In other places it says maybe above the 3rd node but not above the 5th node. I topped some above the 5th node when I thought they were photos, then a week later buds started to develop. Frankly, the canopy developed on its own for the most part (a few LST clips, but not much training), and theres a dozen nice sized colas in an even canopy now. When I finally have more than “a few” seeds (ie after my first seedrun of autos), I will definitely play with topping a few, not topping others, and comparing final amounts.

I will say though, treating them as photos would be a mistake. They really do use those extra daylight hours to pack on buds. I thought it might be a good alternative for outside here, so they would be pulled early enough to miss the first frost. But now having grown inside / outside, I have to say putting an auto outside, unless you are in Alaska or the northern latitudes with 18-20 hours of sun a day, you would be short-changing yourself on your final harvest.

Lots more research and experimentation to come!

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There was a guy on the mephisto reddit that swore you could stop autos from flowering with HST. He grew monsters.

Some auto lines get huge and take longer, like the ripleys from mephisto. Others are notoriously tiny and would probably be a bad idea to train, e.g. strawberry nuggets.

My hangup with autos is people are crossing the auto genes into photo lines (i.e. super autos). Its one thing to breed the dank into ruderalis, but I’m concerned about the ruderalis tarnishing the dank. I loathe a future where everything is a 30/30/30 hybrid… lol

Edit to add: im concerned there are or will be breeders working with autos to reduce flower times and not being 100% open about it if at all

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Brand new super super autos!

They germinate in the envelope before you get them!

Ready in 15 days!

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I just gotta say that you are absolutely right about giving autos 20 hours of light. @ReikoX just now posted that on my thread. This is valuable information

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I’m being optimistic, it remains to be seen if they’ll finish or not. They sure as hell won’t fit in my tents. :joy:

Whoa 20 hours of of light the whole time?

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My last autos I left running 24/7 lights on from seed to harvest just for a test and it worked out just fine. As for topping, I would not chance it unless you knew the strain well. Problem with autos is if they are not timed right you can hurt your results by say topping if they don’t heal before they start to flower. Now I do have a buddy that cloned one just for the hell of it and that went surprisingly well also. In the end it’s still just a pot plant without the need for light cycle change. Just have to know your strain and it’s normal time lines if you want to start pushing the envelope with them.

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Wonder what would happen if you kept pinching the flowers off to bulk them up like you do with basil?

I do both. I run the photo and fill in with autos. I have to maintain a set number and mixing the two helps me do it.
Also I love growing and I find the flowing time of photos plain BORING. I like the fast growing and turn over, I can grown more varieties that way.
:green_heart: :seedling:

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That’s some big ass autos,I’ve
Grown some big ones never like that,where you get the beans from

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I’ve grown both autos and photos ,I’ve been growing just autos full steam over
A year now I’ve had my ups
And downs with them from monster plants to tiny ass plants and I mean tiny ,

Doing a photo grow this time have a couple of autos going as well just for a quick harvest…

But I won’t be growing as
Many autos anymore

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Curious why?? Right now autos amaze me but I’ve only been dealing with them for 2 months. I’m sure in a year you learn quite a bit more considering their short turnaround time. So tell me why the decision not to grow many autos after growing them for a year. I’m sure you’ve seen the downsides that I haven’t yet