OK… I am finishing my grow on the Northern lights Fem I purchased from ILGM. First time grower and talk about a learning curve. I was pleasantly happy with the advise from all the members. I pretty much know the basics on the difference of Fem and Auto … My question is , Will getting the auto, this time around, be a bit easier or harder to grow than the N.L. fem seeds I bought ??? It will be another indoor grow , 600w HPS and MH . lighting system. I am still far from a " grower " , in my book , with only 4 plants under my belt over the last 5 months … Had 6 but 2 passed with me being a dumbass to growing … ( God rest their souls ) I already am curing 1 that I let grow a bit too long and it only yielded maybe an oz. I was still happy with that LOL …Should I keep to Fems or try the Auto this time ??
Just my opinion, of course, but I think feminized seeds are easier. I say this having never grown an auto, but I feel while I’m still learning, mistakes I make might stunt an auto, whereas a feminized (or any photosensitive, really) plant gives you the time you need to recover from any mistakes you might make, before initiating flowering. And I still make a lot of mistakes. From what I’ve seen, unless everything is more or less “dialed-in” or however you want to say it, in your grow, you don’t save much in the way of time invested vs. yields with autos, compared to photosensitive plants. In fact, again, just from what I’ve seen and read about, you’ll definitely yield less on autos unless everything is more or less perfect.
I think I might have answered you on another thread, but autos are definitely harder to grow right. You need to do almost everything right to get them to grow like feminized plants. I’ve grown 20 autos so far and only 10 were nice tall plants like 3 of the 4 White Widows I’m growing now.
This is a decent WW auto
This one is stunted and all of them are being grown the exact same way.
Maybe it’s just me, but I think they are harder to grow than feminized.
The other thread was to find out what strain ( pin. kush, OG , AK47, etc. ) would be a good grow for a novice… The thread got off track somehow … As far as the auto or fem … I am getting different opinions … A few say the auto’s are better for a first time grower and others say stick with the fems … lol … I actually like the fact of having the lee way I did with the N.Lights fem . because like you stated it gives more time to adjust … Even after the wrong amount of lights , wrong soil , wrong , wrong , wrong I did , they still came back … lol …
Female seeds will reduce the frustration of 6+ weeks of growing with TLC and finding out 30 to 70% are males. Photo’s will go longer and produce more.
Auto’s harvest quicker, but produce less goodies.
Up to you.