Feminized Autoflowering seeds are becoming a more sought after choice for both small scale recreational and large scale industrial growers for a number of reasons. The most obvious reason they are increasing in popularity is that genetic advancement in the last 5-10 years has finally made them a viable enough option to grow for serious hobbyists or commercial cultivators.
Some of the first autoflowers legacy growers worked with, including low-rider and early girl autoflowering varieties, didn’t perform well enough for these varieties to catch on, and so a generation of growers developed a negative impression of day-neutral varieties.
Now that a new generation of hemp and cannabis breeders have brought autoflowering varieties to a market ready standard, it’s up to enterprising cultivators to weigh the benefits of incorporating them into their production model. In this article we will explore some of the pro’s and con’s of autoflowering and feminized seeds so that you can make a decision about what is best for your specific context.
Pro’s of Feminized Autoflowering Seeds
Cheapest Production Available
For many of the reasons listed below, growing cannabis outdoors (sun grown) in native soil from feminized autoflowering seed is the cheapest, most scalable biomass production solution available.
Succession Planting with Auto’s
Autoflower cannabis seed varieties can be run in succession plantings like normal vegetable crops. This is an enormous advantage for developing dynamic, resilient crop production plans.
Hybrid Harvesting Models
Large scale hybrid harvesting models are made all the more possible with autoflowering cannabis seed. This would begin with a tops harvest meant for the finished, smokable flower market and conclude by pulling the rest of the bottoms / lowers for biomass.
Fastest Method of Cultivation
Growing autoflowering seeds provides the fastest method for turning a cannabis crop. Some of Atlas Seed’s faster finishing varieties can complete the process in as little as 60 days.
Multiple Harvests per season
It is possible to achieve 2-3 pulls per season of outdoor autoflowering cannabis in certain growing regions.
Simple Set Up’s
Autoflowering cannabis doesn’t need a separate space where light length is controlled to prevent it from flowering. In other words, it doesn’t need tarps pulled across green houses or hoop houses, and it doesn’t need to be in an indoor space with supplemental lighting. It will begin flowering regardless of light cycle changes.
Hybrid Planting Models
Growers can artfully combine autoflowering cannabis with full-term plants in hybrid crop plans. This method helps maximize the total potential of growing environments in either greenhouses or outdoors. One can interplant them with full terms, as well as succession plant them.
Bring Product To Market Earlier
Autoflowering cannabis can allow an outdoor grower in many environmentally hospitable states, such as California and Arizona, to bring a crop to market as early as June, when many other growers have photoperiod plants that have not initiated their flowering cycle by that time. This early to market strategy can be the make or break between a highly profitable year and barely staying in the black.
Reduce Likelihood of Males
Growing feminized seeds will reduce the overall likelihood of having male plants in your grow. With smaller scale operations of <2000 plants, it’s possible to completely remove males from your planting population.
Increase in Space Efficiency
Operational efficiency is greatly enhanced by choosing to plant feminized seed. From the cost of inputs like pots, soil, and nutrients; to saving valuable bench, greenhouse, and field space; to saving money on labor from uppotting and watering; eliminating males from your process at the beginning of a cultivation cycle, instead of months after regular cannabis plants show their sex, will greatly alleviate a number of operational inefficiencies that will save you time, money, and plenty of headache.
Direct Seeding with Feminized Seed
Direct seeding cannabis flower can only be done with feminized seed. It is possible and most probably optimal to grow regular, non-feminized Type III hemp at an industrial scale from seed, as pollinated hemp will be far less likely to test hot (>.3% THC), and can be mechanically harvested. However, high potency Type I cannabis that’s been direct seeded in an outdoor growing environment needs to be feminized, as farmers can’t efficiently plant out their fields with regular seed only to come back many weeks or months later when plants have finally shown their sex and cut down half the crop
Cons of Feminized Autoflowering Seeds
Can only Control Flip by Plating Date
Many legacy or traditional growers like to be able to control the moment their cannabis initiates its flowering cycle. With autoflowering cannabis, the only way you can control the timing of planting is by when you start the seed. This could cause problems for certain cultivators in scenarios where they are facing stacking operational variables that throw off the timing of their available labor, equipment, infrastructure, and agricultural inputs.
Delicate Establishment Period
Autoflowering plants require careful attention during their establishment period as they start their growth cycle. Therefore they do not take kindly to becoming root bound or any kind of transplant shock. Mishandling during this phase can drastically reduce yields. Plants may grow only 6-8 inches tall if their roots become bound or if mishandling occurs during transplant, causing them to begin flowering earlier.
Less Bag Appeal / Harder to Sell in a Flooded Market
Thus far, because autoflowering cannabis cannot compete with photoperiod plants terpene and cannabinoid levels, it has a harder time winning awe inspiring “bag appeal” reviews from brokers, distributors, and dispensary buyers in the finished flower market. Therefore it can be harder to sell autoflowering cannabis in a flooded market, and it goes without saying that it doesn’t command as high a price for finished flower as a premium photoperiod plant does.