what are the pros and cons of auto plants

ltecato

ltecato

Well-Known Member
Heavy Consumer said:
As an absolute noob, I see some benefits in autos for myself, both in terms of getting to know my eventual setup and learning to deal with the challenges/fuck-ups therein, and also, to try and take some ladies through to harvest while slowly vegging out some larger ones for a couple of months+ that will hopefully end up yielding something more substantial - I think all the waiting for photos to grow would cause me to tinker with them too much initially, so the autos could save the photos from a noob mistake or two, while getting some errors out of the way without costing quite as much wasted time and energy or end product. I don't expect to get good yields in the first few grows as there's so much to learn, but I see some niches for auto grows along the way in my case. I'm sure there are valid reasons for others to grow them too with the shorter life-cycles, typically smaller plants, their ability to flower under any light schedule etc.
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Yeah, keeping everything light-tight is a pain. I suspect my last two crops were held up because of light leaks.
 
LetsGetCritical

LetsGetCritical

Well-Known Member
there is an easy way to tell, stand inside the closed tent/room/area and switch all the lights off. Tape over all little lights on fans ect
 
A

az2000

Well-Known Member
Dubbz415 said:
Im thinking about getting a fem auto plant but i wanted to know some pros and cons
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I've grown an auto strain for a long time and liked it a lot. It yielded a lot and was potent. What I disliked was running lights 18 hours a day. You can run 12 hours, but that's when you'll notice less impressive yields. I also had a couple duds that didn't automatically flip to flower. I had to move them to a 12/12 flower tent.

Whatever you do, be sure to try "12/12 from seed" with photo-sensitive strains. I'm near done with my first one. I'm impressed. It was fast like an auto. Yield per sq/ft appears to be similar. I'm not sure about 12/12 literally "from seed." I let mine veg 2-3 weeks. They're 1.5-2' tall. Not as large as an autoflower. But, I can grow 2 plants in the same space. And, instead of using seeds, clones could be taken from a mother. (You can't do that with an auto.). Not as flexible to work on when "lights out." But, I save 6 hours a day in electricity and lifespan of lights.

It's worth trying.
 
S

Smokenpassout

Well-Known Member
I do autos in a 5 gallon pot and they yield plenty. Pros being able to garden anytime day or night. I keep mine on 20/4 from start to finish.
 
Bugeye

Bugeye

Well-Known Member
I think autos are the shit if you're into sneaking around doing little secret cabinet grows in your mom's laundry room.
 
a senile fungus

a senile fungus

Well-Known Member
I ordered some autos this year so that I can put them outside and they'll be finished shortly after my photo plants begin to flower.

I'll be harvesting in early September and also in October as long as no one rips the photos.

People in my area actively look for plants, so autos have the advantage that they finish more quickly.
 
MonkeyGrinder

MonkeyGrinder

Well-Known Member
Meh autos are what they are. If you're doing an outdoor thing they're cool for getting an early but small harvest. That's with a 4/20 start date anyways. But that can also work against you in a humid climate. If they're in full late flower in July temps + high humidity = budrot city. You get 2 or 3 days of rain? You're getting mold and or budrot. If all goes as planned though you can expect to pull a zip or 2 per plant dry weight with little to no effort per plant. If you kept em tied down til they finished stretch I'm sure that would increase a bit. So pros = quick harvest + light feeders. Cons = small harvest. Climate is a huge factor. That's strictly outdoor though. Indoors I probably wouldn't bother with em.
 
MonkeyGrinder

MonkeyGrinder

Well-Known Member
As far as the potency issue I really didnt notice a difference. I wasn't smoking much if at all though at the time. Id say I got rid of 95% of what was grown. Only had one person semi complain. Said it didn't last long. But this particular person smokes himself retarded on a daily basis.
 
S

Smokenpassout

Well-Known Member
I have to second that, potency on my autos was pretty good. I got plenty of effect from them. Just make sure you plant them in your final pot.
 
kiwipaulie

kiwipaulie

Well-Known Member
Personally I think they are a waste of time. 8-9 weeks for an o or two on average per plant....

If I get freebies, I just chuck them outside in some nice soil and pretty much leave them to their own devices. My current one outside being Pineapple Express should hopefully get me at least an ounce.
 
N

nobody important

Active Member
The ONLY pro for auto strains is if you are growing outdoors and live in an area with not enough dark hours (Arctic circle regions). If this is not you, I could go on and on about the cons
 
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GrowUrOwnDank

Well-Known Member
Auto+Hempy(perlite)+LED+good hardy fast genetics+decent 3 part nutes =.

Pros.

Fast, Hardy, Easy as spit, no hassles with heat and such, decent yield 1-3 o, good to great smoke, most everything depends on genes. Gotta treat it right should go without saying and its so easy.

Cons? Don't really know. If you go in knowing what to expect, treat it right, can't see any? Not supposed to be the best yeilder. Will stank up your house just like photo, among other things.

If you want great smoke, fast and easy. It's perfect.

If you wanna BF it to death to get more smoke. By all means photo is awesome too.

We got choices! Yay!
 
Dubbz415

Dubbz415

Well-Known Member
GrowUrOwnDank said:
Auto+Hempy(perlite)+LED+good hardy fast genetics+decent 3 part nutes =.

Pros.

Fast, Hardy, Easy as spit, no hassles with heat and such, decent yield 1-3 o, good to great smoke, most everything depends on genes. Gotta treat it right should go without saying and its so easy.

Cons? Don't really know. If you go in knowing what to expect, treat it right, can't see any? Not supposed to be the best yeilder. Will stank up your house just like photo, among other things.

If you want great smoke, fast and easy. It's perfect.

If you wanna BF it to death to get more smoke. By all means photo is awesome too.

We got choices! Yay!
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bf?
 
A

az2000

Well-Known Member
cjmade said:
I'd say if you want a quicker yield and less work - go with auto.
12/12 gives you freedom and control, but does add some headache.
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I just harvested two 12/12 plants. I'd say the performance was equivalent to my auto. They were smaller with less yield, but on a per-foot and energy-cost basis, it seemed equal. I posted details here.
 
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