Regular versus autoflowering seeds

Every gardener who just starts growing weed faces the choice of what kind of seed he or she will buy. The kind of seed makes a huge difference to the end result. Moreover, the type of seed determines the entire growth process, because every strain is different and offers different and unique growth characteristics. If you have a small grow room at your disposal, then choose a plant that stays small. Are you going to grow outside? Certain strains are more suitable for outdoor weather conditions. And you also have a choice in regular seeds or self-flowering seeds. As a newbie bean popper, autoflowering seeds are a good choice. Read on and discover everything about regular versus autoflowering seeds.

Regular versus autoflowering seeds. What is the difference?

If you have a lot of growing experience, regular cannabis seeds is the most logical choice. But if you still need to master the cultivation of plants, then Autoflowering is the best choice. Autoflowering plants are easier to raise because they switch to the flowering period completely automatically. They do not depend on a change in light scheme. The transition to flowering is ingrained in their DNA. It is a bit like flying on autopilot. But despite that, autoflowering plants still need care and attention to be able to grow and thrive optimally.

The yield of regular, photoperiod plants is still better than the harvest of autoflowering plants. This is despite the fact that autoflowers have made considerable progress in terms of quality and positive growth characteristics in the past years. You will have to be twice as patient with regular beans, compared to autoflowers. And besides that you  also have to remove the male plants from the female plants.

The name autoflowering comes from the fact that autoflowering strains will automatically change into their flowering period. A change in light cycle does not affect autoflowers. This means that with regular seeds you will have more control. Autoflowers go into the flowering phase,  whether you are ready or not!

If you really want to learn how to grow cannabis, you have to start with regular seeds. Only then will you go through all aspects of the growth process. Do you want to make it easy for yourself and still get a substantial harvest in about 8 weeks? Then choose an autoflowering strain.

Do you already know what kind of cannabis seeds to buy? Check Amsterdam Marijuana Seedbank for the best quality regular cannabis seeds as well as autoflowering seeds.

Regular Vs. Auto-flowering seeds: How to grow

Learning how to grow both regular and auto-flowering marijuana seeds truly come handy. If you opt to go the auto-flowering way, then these are the basics.

Firstly, there is a training period, which involves topping, and mostly happens within 2 or slightly more weeks. Topping is crucial since it enables the cannabis farmer to increase the cola size, and therefore getting bumper yields. If you opt for enhanced growth, you also need to embrace pulling your auto-flowering strain downwards.

It is also beneficial to learn that it isn’t sensible to top your auto plants once they start blossoming as this will inhibit fantastic growth. Also, ensure that you don’t prune the leaves of your plants below a week after flowering.

Secondly, even though you are aware that auto-flowering cannabis plants do not rely on lighting schedules, it is worth noting that these plants need a minimum of 4 hours daily. No less.

Thirdly, as auto-flowering cannabis plants are mostly smaller in size than their regular counterparts, they don’t require skyrocketed amounts of nutrients. When it comes to the growing containers, the marijuana farmer should ensure that they use medium-sized containers, provided, they may enhance proper aeration.

Lastly, on the growth of the auto-flowering pot, the harvesting should get done gradually. This is to say that the buds mostly grow on the lower-most part of the plant; thus they don’t develop a canopy.

Conversely, growing regular cannabis seeds isn’t as overwhelming as it would have been the case with feminized marijuana. To germinate regular cannabis seeds, you will need to directly germinate them in the soil or use a paper towel and keep balling.

If you ensure good humidity, moisture, and air in your regular seeds, you will be happy to see your seedlings within 1 to 4 days. The ideal temperature should also get considered and should be within an estimate of up to 26 degrees celsius.

Secondly, you may need to soul search and fathom whether you would like to grow those indoors or outdoors. Unlike the auto-flowering plants that mostly need getting grown in pots, regular cannabis isn’t such demanding, but the growing environment needs to get put at checks. Necessarily, if you would like to get control over your regular grass, think of going the indoors way.

There is the issue of space when growing indoors, though. You need to space the plants in such a way that they’ll grow pretty well and without loads of congestion, lest you fail in what you would like to do.

Thirdly, you ought to transplant your regular ganja to pots and take it from there. However, you need to ensure that there is adequate space in the pot to ensure that the plants get ample space to have their roots expanding to their utter potential. However, root rot is also another factor to check. That said, the pots shouldn’t be enormous in such a way that the plants will shrink in water. 

Benefits of Auto-flowering Cannabis Seeds

1.   Hardy Plants

Most of the auto-flowering marijuana seeds you will see today come as a result of having the Ruderalis heritage. These plants adapt fast to different climatic conditions, and this makes them resistant to different things such as adverse weather conditions, pests, and diseases, and molds.

We advise our readers that it is a win-win for them if they aren’t conversant with the weather patterns in their areas or rather when they can’t exactly fathom maintaining the typical necessities of a specific auto-strain. Overfeeding and underfeeding isn’t a thing with auto-flowering cannabis, but it is mostly a problem with most of the photoperiod strains.

2.   Secrecy

Even though your country may legalize the cultivation of marijuana, there is still the stigma that gets attributed to potheads. Perhaps if you live near nosy neighbors and specifically those that tend to belittle connoisseurs, the best choice you may be having as of this moment is growing auto-flowering marijuana seeds.

As these plants tend to be smaller than the typical feminized or regular marijuana strains, you can even grow the auto-flowers in your balcony, and the highest chances are that you won’t have to struggle with anyone noticing what is in store for you.

Lastly, their fast growth would only be an advantage to you. Within 8 or 9 weeks, you may be having your fully matured auto-flowering ganja and what this typically means is that the shorter the maturity period, the better for that farmer who needs discrepancy in their pot farm. By the time a regular weed farmer would be happy seeing their plants blossoming, chances are that

3.   Short flowering times 

This is somewhat obvious. When compared to the Sativas and Indicas, you will realize that within 9 weeks or so, you have your yields in your favourite store. The flowering times are not only faster but also growth.

Within 4 weeks/ a month, your auto-flowering plants reach the blossoming phase. However, sufficient aeration between the leaves needs to be ensured, otherwise, the plants won’t flower on time.

The lights may also scorch the leaves and flowers. The grower ought to be cautious and ensure that they adjust the lights frequently during the flowering period. The harvesting time is also short.

4.   Economizing on space

As a norm, short, small, and compact marijuana plants occupy a small space. You don’t have to keep worrying about your growing space, provided you cultivate the plants that best fit the garden.

Auto-flowering cannabis plants are the best deal when it comes to the proper usage of growing space since their small size guarantees just that.

5.   Suitable for beginners 

As a beginner, you need that cannabis plant that would let you trial with and still get results. Going the regular and feminized way will probably let you more disappointed than ever. The solution lies in growing auto-flowering cannabis strains since these aren’t extremely dependent on the lighting schedules for flowering, and that lighting is crucial in the flowering phase.

If you are a beginner, keep your feet wet while enjoying auto-flower weed, and pleasure would all be yours to learn a long-term art.

Demerits of Auto-flowering Seeds

• Low yields

With short, small and compact sizes come disadvantages such as low yields. Auto-flowering cannabis plants rarely support dense buds and nugs, and this means you can’t expect as massive yields as it would have been the case if you grew feminized marijuana strains or rather their regular counterparts.

• Cloning is daunting

Arguably, cloning auto-flowering cannabis is impossible. As of the moment, we aren’t in a position to mention if this argument holds water or nay. Even though it is a breeze to preserve the genetics of your favorite photoperiod cannabis plant, it is a different case with autos.

Benefits of regular cannabis seeds

1.  Easier to create one’s breed

If you perfect yourself in the art, you may breed your desired cannabis strains to come up with your go-to ganja plant. Regular seeds bring about cannabis strains that can get tweaked to become a male or female, and hopefully, you wouldn’t be edged out in making gown cannabis strain with regulars.

Importantly, label your cannabis plants in such a way that you would avoid confusion, lest you fall prey on getting undesired plants and qualities. Also, if you are a beginner, it is advisable that you start with a lower number of plants such as 10 and see if you may get a perfect hybrid. If you succeed from the get-go, then be happy that you’ll have initiated the process of becoming a perfect breeder.

2.   A better mother of your choice

Let’s face it: It’ll be a long way before settling for the breed you’ll wish to have. However, what you don’t know is that at the end of it all, you will have gotten the strain of your choice and this may make you that badass breeder that will get remembered over a couple of decades.

Demerits of Regular marijuana seeds

Firstly, it would be a loss to you if you get male cannabis plants whereas you only wanted the females. Now that regular cannabis seeds give rise to both males and females, this means that there will be inconveniences your way, and either way, you will need to cope with the uncertainties should you go the regular marijuana seeds way.

Secondly, regular marijuana seeds occupy much space than auto-flowering cannabis plants. The area you would plant let’s say 10 regular cannabis plants could be ¼ more than it would have been the case if you went the auto-flowering cannabis seeds way.

Regular vs. Autoflowering Marijuana Seeds: Which is better?

Better here is relative. Your taste and preference comes into play since see, you may be interested in cultivating cannabis plants that won’t take lots of space. If you go the regular cannabis seeds way, you will have gone out of your expectations.

Conversely, if you opt to get your desired genetics, then using regular seeds is what will best fit your specifications. This is to say, let your passion and self-drive be your motivator in buying the cannabis seeds of your choice.

Keep the conversation going in the comments box below!