Our grow experts at Best Bud Seeds share in-depth detail about Auto-flowering and Feminized cannabis seeds so that you don’t have to spend hours researching before purchasing your marijuana seeds online. In this article you will learn the difference between auto-flowering and feminized seeds, their pros and cons, and which cannabis seeds our growers at Best Bud Seeds prefer. Currently, our auto-flowering cannabis seeds can be found in our shop and will continue to grow as our seed selection grows. Below you will find the answers to the most common questions about auto-flowering versus feminized seeds.
What Are Autoflowering and Feminized Seeds?
Autoflowering cannabis seeds produce plants that flower on their own after 2–4 weeks of growth. Growers don’t need to worry about switching the light schedule to initiate and maintain the flowering phase, like they would if growing feminized photoperiod cannabis.
Feminized (photoperiod) cannabis seeds produce plants that flower depending on the hours of light they receive. Out in nature, they start to bloom when the days get shorter at the end of summer. Indoors, cultivators initiate flowering by adjusting their grow lights to 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness.
To clarify to our readers, there is either Autoflowering cannabis or Feminized/Photoperiod cannabis. There cannot be both in the same strain.
What Are Auto-flowering Seeds?
Auto-flower cannabis seeds are a popular choice for beginners as they bloom automatically, are easier to cultivate, smaller in size, and are quicker to harvest than feminized seeds. They also require a simple lighting schedule and are more resistant to temperature fluctuations, pests, and fungi; offering a perfect way for beginners to get into cannabis growing. As of lately, just like feminized seeds, auto-flower seeds will develop into female plants which deliver the smokeable cannabis that most growers are after.
Auto-flowering Pros
More Than One Crop Per Year
The advantage of auto-flowering seeds is that they start spontaneously flowering when they hit a certain size, so in warm climates such as California, you can technically do an early auto flower run, and then wait and do a traditional flower run later in the season effectively running two crops per year.
Light Pollution Elimination
If you grow photoperiod marijuana outdoors, nights during the flowering stage should be dark. Weed plants don’t mind the moon and stars but react badly to city lights. Indoors, you must make sure that your grow space is completely sealed off and doesn’t allow light leaks. With auto flowers, you don’t have these issues.
Space Efficient
For photoperiod feminized varieties, you must dedicate two separate rooms. In one, lights will be on for 18 hours a day (the veg room), in the other — for 12 hours a day (the flowering room). This is something that not every amateur grower can afford. As for autos, you can keep several generations, each at a different stage of maturity, under 18/6.
Auto-flowering Cons
Low Quality
The disadvantage is typically auto flower genetics are extremely low quality, and more desired to be used for extraction as opposed to something you would really want to smoke.
Accidental Flowering
Also, you can’t keep any of the genetics in a vegetative state to cut clones off because it will start flowering.
What Are Feminized Seeds?
While auto-flowering cannabis seeds require less attention and allow for quicker harvests, feminized cannabis seeds come with their own set of advantages. With feminized seeds, you don’t have to worry about producing male plants (which will not give you smokeable cannabis high in THC and CBD). You can expect bigger plants and a greater yield with feminized seeds, with the smokeable cannabis often being more potent than cannabis grown from auto-flowering cannabis seeds.
Given the greater yield and the fact that feminized plants can be cloned (auto-flowering cannabis cannot be, meaning you will have to buy new seeds every time), most serious growers choose to grow with feminized seeds and are not put off by the fact that they require more space, more care and attention, and a more demanding lighting schedule.
Feminized Pros
Higher THC Content
Today’s auto flowering cannabis seeds routinely have around 20% THC. Still, if a breeder takes some exceptional genetics with say 25-28 percent of THC and makes an auto flowering version out of it, the THC content in the resulting auto flower is always lower. An example is that THC levels vary from each photoperiod to auto-flowering seed variety, regardless of carrying the same genetics.
Higher Yield
Photoperiod strains can be vegged for as long as it suits your needs. This allows you to grow your plants into real giants. It’s hardly practical indoors, but outdoors you can harvest as much as several pounds of dry bud from every ‘tree’. Growing fewer but bigger plants is also convenient when there are legal limits as to the number of plants you are allowed to grow.
Feminized Cons
Not Suitable For Reproduction
Feminized cannabis plants can sometimes turn into hermaphrodites due to bad genetics or environmental stress.
Pollination Risk
Male plants can pollinate females and ruin their ability to produce buds. Male plants essentially have no value for producing smokable flower/buds in this way. Feminized plant crops run the risk of becoming sensitive to Male plants and can potentially turn into hermaphrodite plants causing less yield and less product in the end.
Conclusion
All in all, auto-flowering should be avoided unless you’re an outdoor grower trying to get one more harvest in per year. Autoflowering cannabis is time sensitive, meaning that under poor conditions, even if the plant is only a few inches tall, it will flower anyway once it is old enough, resulting in a disappointing harvest.
By making sure that only female plants are produced, feminized seeds ensure that each and every plant is producing cannabis. This ensures higher yield as the available growing space is used in the most productive way possible by eliminating the growth of male cannabis plants. Even though feminized cannabis seeds can run a little higher in price, it is worth every penny to invest in Feminized cannabis seeds.
Without a doubt, Best Bud Seeds prefers feminized cannabis seeds. Auto-flowering cannabis seeds have their own unique benefits to each grower, but for yield and quality Feminized Cannabis Seeds are our favorite. Browse our shop to learn about the Feminized Cannabis Seeds we have for sale now.