Feminised or autoflowering seeds: What’s the best option for you?
Although choosing your cannabis strains from the wide range of genetics available may seem extremely complicated, knowing what your needs are will help you make the right decision. And one of the first steps is choosing between feminised and autoflowering seeds. In this post, we explain the differences between them to help you see which one is best suited to your grow.
What are feminised seeds?
Feminised seeds are genetics designed to produce exclusively female cannabis plants. Before the arrival of feminised strains, growers used to use regular seeds – these are still used today for some purposes, but they’re not as efficient as feminised varieties when the ultimate goal is to harvest seedless buds. It’s just a question of functionality: using feminised cannabis plants means that growers no longer need to be careful to discard the males, which saves time and space. Feminised strains depend on the number of hours of light that they receive to start flowering. Both indoors and outdoors, these varieties will remain in their growing phase as long as they’re exposed to more hours of light than hours of darkness (for example 18/6). They will then begin to flower when the light cycle is changed to 12/12 indoors, or when the days start to get shorter outdoors.
Advantages of feminised cannabis seeds
- Control of plant size with the light cycle: As these strains are photo-dependent (they depend on the photoperiod to start flowering), you can easily control the size of your plants. If you grow indoors, just keep your lights on for 18 hours a day, followed by 6 hours of darkness. In outdoor grows, you can control the size of your plants by simply germinating your seeds earlier (April - May) or later (June - early July), weather permitting.
- Yielding capacity: Controlling the size of your cannabis plants will allow you to grow real trees in true American style (if that’s what you’re after) so your yield will be larger, providing you have enough space.
- You can implement pruning and training techniques like SCROG, LST, etc.
Disadvantages of feminised cannabis seeds
- The light cycle needs to be controlled: In indoor grows, it is essential to adjust the hours of light and darkness to promote the flowering. In outdoor grows, light pollution during the hours of darkness (lamp posts, neighbours’ lights, etc.), can disrupt the flowering.
- Longer growth cycle: Although they deliver a heavier yield, the life cycle of feminised seeds is longer than that of autoflowerings (especially outdoors), which can be an inconvenience for those looking for quick results.
What are autoflowering seeds?
Autoflowering seeds were developed from a ruderalis strain native to Siberia that adapted to the cold climate and short summers of the region. The main characteristic of autoflowering varieties is that they don’t depend on the amount of light that they receive to start flowering – they do so automatically around the fourth or fifth week of life. This type of genetics will be ideal for you if you’re looking to harvest in record time.
Advantages of autoflowering cannabis seeds
- Speed: Automatic strains are ideal for fast growth cycles, especially outdoors and in areas with cold climates and short summers.
- Ease of cultivation: The hours of light that the plants are exposed to don’t need to be controlled, so they’re a great choice for rookies.
- Discretion: Autoflowerings have a limited life span, so their vegetative period is reduced. Therefore, the final size of the plants is usually smaller than that of feminised seeds. This feature facilitates cultivation in reduced spaces, such as terraces and balconies.
- Life cycle: Autoflowers complete their life cycle (from germination to harvest) between approximately 8 and 11 weeks, depending on the variety. This gives you the possibility to grow several crops within the same season.
- Reduced risk of pests and fungi: As their life cycle is shorter, they are less likely to contract diseases, pests, or fungi.
Disadvantages of autoflowering cannabis seeds
- Lower yielding capacity: Generally speaking, autoflowering plants produce less buds than their feminised counterparts because their short life cycle doesn’t allow them to grow as much.
- Lower margin of error: Since they don’t depend on the light cycle to flower, any mistake in their growing process will be extremely costly. Unlike feminised strains, whose vegetative period can be as long as you like indoors (and also tends to be longer outdoors), autos have a limited lifetime from the moment they germinate. Therefore, this will make it harder for the plants to recover from any problems that may arise to successfully deliver a bountiful harvest.
- Pruning or training techniques aren’t recommended: These plants don’t have a vegetative period long enough for these practices to be effective.
There are a number of common mistakes that can be made when growing autoflowering seeds. Here are some top tips to avoid falling into them:
- Don’t do any transplanting: Plants could become stressed and stop growing. Place the seedlings in their final pots from the beginning.
- Don’t saturate the substrate with water: This mistake is quite common. Autoflowering strains are especially sensitive to overwatering since their roots may stop absorbing nutrients and their growth could be halted. Try to water less but more frequently, especially during the first 3 weeks of life.
- Use a more aerated substrate: than usual so that the plants can accelerate their metabolic processes and thereby make the most of every day of their short life.
Feminised or autoflowering: What type of seed is best for you?
The choice between autoflowering and feminised seeds depends on your objectives, experience, and growing conditions.
Autoflowering seeds are for you if…
- You need fast results.
- You live in a cold region with short summers, where the bad autumn weather arrives early.
- You want to reduce the risk of pests, fungi, and diseases.
- You only have a reduced growing area, such as a balcony, a terrace, or a generous sized window.
- You’re looking for discretion. Autoflowering strains are ideal for urban growers.
- You don’t want to be keeping an eye on the photoperiod indoors, or you’re unable to avoid light pollution outdoors.
- You want to have several growth cycles during the outdoor season.
Feminised seeds are for you if…
- You’re looking for a huge yield.
- You want greater control over the size of your plants.
- You’d like to apply pruning or training methods to maximise your yields.
- You’re going to grow indoors. Although autoflowering genetics can also be grown indoors, they require a cycle of 20 hours of light and 4 hours of darkness (throughout the whole cycle) for optimal results. Therefore, they might not be the most efficient choice when it comes to saving energy and money on the electricity bill.
- You’re an advanced grower and you want maximum control over the growth cycle – with feminised seeds, you can customise the growing process as you wish and take full advantage of the space and resources.
Conclusion
In the wide expanse of the cannabis universe, there isn’t any one format that’s better than the others – it’s just a matter of choosing those seeds that meet your needs and help maximise your growing experience. If you’re ready to start or want to explore your options, visit our Linda Seeds catalogue, and discover the perfect strain for your next grow.
