Wondering if there’s any noticeable differences between auto and photo of the same strain besides the lighting requirements. I’ve resisted getting autos after the first time I had it foxtail. I know it could’ve happened for a variety of different reasons but I’m still fairly new to growing and my mind equates autos to foxtailing. I want to try some out again and I’m curious if the bud is much different even from the same strain. The only thing I found was thc levels are generally higher on photos.
I don’t have a strict schedule for growing yet and would also like some recommendations for when to top and trim or how to tell when an auto is about to flower. That was another problem I had. It just flowered and I would’ve liked to trim it before it started. Anyways, thanks in advance for replies and recommendations.
Yes, a few come to mind. #1 stress.
Autos and stress arent always the best bedfellows. Photos CAN eat up stress in veg so they can be trained to maximize yeild potential. Then flowered after they have bounced back.
#2 Bud density.
Autos can be kind of loose in the bud department. Sometimes they come in real nice but for the most part, IME, they are looser feeling.
#3 Feed intensity
My experience with autos is they cant be pushed as hard as photos. Does that make them bad? Not at all.
This is in no way exclusive to autos. Let that BS go. Foxtailing isnt even bad unkess you got some seriousness going on… like this…
I supose you could say that. So much of potency is in the growing too.
With an auto you should only updress and defoiliate once. End of week 2 mid week 3 of flower. At least thats my opinion. Autos do flower on their own time.
IME, autos start stretching within days of seeing the first sign of maturity (white pistils at node points.)
If Im topping an auto I like to top from the 6th node down to the 5th or 4th. Persinally with autos I prefer lst methods. I like to bend the plant in half around the fourth node to level everything off.
You are most welcome. Please, if you have more questions, just tag me. Happy to help if I can.
I totally disagree with autos having loose buds. For the past 4 years I’ve strictly grown autos and loose buds are a rarity. Autos are totally unexplainable at times. I’ve had some that started flowering at 4 weeks in and others that didn’t start til week 8 and ended up being 6 foot tall. I think the main difference you’ll see is the yield. On average, you’ll get 2 to 3 oz off an autoflower. Sometimes less, sometimes more.
My experience and advice for autos is purchase from a reputable breeder. Autos also need a great start before flower on set. No wiggle room for hiccups as there no time for recovery before flowering sets in.
Reputable Breeder (@repins12 ) Re-spun Gelato Auto yielded a little over 12 zips
My experience with auto plants , it Is important to get out of the gate running. (Don’t burn them up by trying to make the plant grow faster). Most cannabis friendly soil You may not need to feed till close to flowering time. As mentioned yield can be less.
Good luck happy growing!
I have done mostly photos. Have done autos a couple times, they all went into flower at 3 weeks from sprout. They can still get big still. I think I stress them too much. I still got between 2 and 3 oz off of them.
I like to control when plant flowers myself.
Photos for the win with me.
As far as reputable dealers, it’s hard to know until you grow. I’ve only ever grown with seeds from ilgm but recently bought some from Barney’s farm and royal queen. Would you know if they are good in terms of genetics? I haven’t started with any of their seeds yet.
I have no experience with either of those Growmie. A lot of folks here that have grown from different breeders, when you’re on a seed bank site there should be an option to check the breeders. Other than ILGM and some fellow growers my seeds come from small Breeders
I could never understand wanting to give up the control factor of having photoperiod plants unless you specifically needed autos. Like not having a light tight grow space, or outdoor growing where you have a short season. Other than those two scenarios there is no reason to want to grow autos other than just because, and that’s kind of silly.
Good autos will do fine. But there’s hundreds of posts on here where they didn’t flower under long light cycles or started flowering when they were only a few inches tall. Some of this is grower error and there’s just as many examples of autos doing really well in the right hands. But outside of the scenarios I listed above you can get a photo plant that will do everything any auto plant will do but still have the ability to dictate when it flowers.
When I look at auto beans to buy, I lean towards breeders that mainly focus on autos. I’ve never had a disappointing grow with Mephesto beans. Buds are always dense and chunky with a nice layer of frost. Same with Ethos.
IMHO photoperiod has the ability to take the stress and other neglect, over or under watering, HST, Basically anything you can do to stunt growth a photo is going to have that extra time to “heal” and do what you want it to. An auto is more fenikie with a much shorter life cycle. Less time to “heal”.
The reason I grow autos is that I need the short growing time. I need to start and finish the grow in a 90 to 100 day period. This allows me to pursue other projects and activities outside the grow, drying and curing time frame and time of year that I grow.
I have been doing autos for a bit now and have had good success. Definitely don’t rush them and they usually do very well good soil and some loving and they will definitely surprise you. And yes some will grow super tall and next ones will stay within range of the 2 foot mark. And they will finish early or right at 120 days.
The reason I’m looking into is because I’ve had a change of schedule where it’s been hard to make sure they get even 13 hours of light. The only place I can grow is in my room and it’s hard to sleep with the lights staying on.
Plus I’m a bit curious to see how they do. My first and only auto didn’t grow well and I’d like to think I can do better now. Gotta be a reason autos seem popular. But I’d agree giving up the control of when to allow to flower is quite a drawback. Any kind of stress could ruin the entire harvest while you can have the photo recover.
That’s what I wondered about as far as defoilating. What’s up dressing tho?
Is there actually something wrong with foxtailing aside from appearance, because it still smokes the same doesn’t it?
Really appreciate you taking the time for such a detailed response. Really love this community.
So I shouldn’t try to push an auto like a photo in case it stresses it out. What’s the best way to allow it to recover in case it starts to get stressed? That probably depends on what is stressing it but maybe something like lst or insects(after eliminating the insects)?
I know that’s just bs buts it like if you went to a fast food restaurant and their fries were terrible. You’d be hesitant to order fries again even if you seen other people happy with theirs. But thanks for calling me on that and I’m gonna try to forget that. It was my first grow and I probably just stressed it out too much. None of the photos foxtailed but that probably shows their resilience if anything.
What about other differences like smell? If I had for example 2 Apple fritter plants, one is auto the other is photo would they have different smells? Maybe even a different type of high? I’m not really sure how they breed them to make seeds but it’s almost like making a new strain since they have to have it breed with the ruderalis strain. I’m not sure how much that effects the genetics or if it reduces traits from the strain that’s not the auto.
