The Best Reasons to Plant Autoflowering Cannabis on Your Farm
Mastering your tradecraft means knowing every tool you have at your disposal, and when the best time is to apply it. As cannabis farmers, our job is to utilize our growing season, equipment, available labor, and growing space to pull out the best quality harvests possible. The point of this blog is to simply convey what we believe to be the best contexts for growing autoflower cannabis.
What are Autoflowering Genetics?
Autoflowering genetics, aka day neutral cannabis, developed in Siberian latitudes and automatically trigger into flowering regardless of light cycle changes. They will begin flowering under 2 hours of light or 20 hours of light alike. The plants are smaller, and produce on average less potent, aromatic, and high yielding plants. Check out our blog on light cycle types for further information on the differences between semis, full term, and autos.
Growing Autoflower Cannabis for Multiple Harvests and Staggered Harvest
Because autoflowering genetics flower regardless of light cycle changes, they can be planted virtually year round outdoors and still complete their full growth cycle provided that conditions support healthy growth patterns. The closer your farm is to the equator, the more likely it is that you will be able to grow auto’s year round, monsoon seasons and overall humidity depending. The closer you are to the poles, the more likely you are to want to use autos to get any kind of harvest at all, such as growers in Alaska. And for growers that share a similar climate to us in Sebastopol, CA, autos can be grown as an early season crop, staggered or succession planted just before the full term crop. This allows you to utilize your space, grow season, and crew to it’s fullest potential.
Disadvantages of Growing Autos
The disadvantages of growing autos are very obvious. They do not yield as much, and contain neither the same potency nor terpene content as photoperiods. Therefore selling them into competitive market landscapes can pose challenges, especially in a flooded market. Therefore, autos need to be grown judiciously with careful attention given to market conditions.
Here are our recommendations for some excellent autoflower varieties to grow on your farm: