skullcandy said:
i don't know what autos are,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoflowering_cannabis
Auto-flowering cannabis varieties automatically switch from vegetative growth to the flowering stage with age, as opposed to the ratio of light to dark hours required with photo-period dependent / short-day strains. Many auto-flowers will be ready to harvest in less than 10 weeks from seed. Dwarf varieties can have comparatively short stature while still giving decent yield. Conversely "super autos" can take over 100 days to mature and can reach over 6 feet tall. Auto-flowers are one of the fastest growing strain varieties for sale on the market today.
GHaze x Dieselryder auto-flower
Contents
1 Origins
2 Naming
3 Advantages
4 Disadvantages
5 Well Tested Auto-flowering Strains
6 Super Autos
7 Breeding
8 See also
9 References
Origins
The true origins of auto-flowering cannabis are still somewhat debatable. The strain Lowryder by breeder The Joint Doctor was the original large scale marketed auto-flower. Lowryder contains Cannabis ruderalis genetics from a Mexican strain that was referred to as Mexican Rudy and is believed to be created from a cross between a Mexican sativa and a Russian ruderalis. Another theory is that the early genetics came from a Finland grown hemp strain called Finola, though the true origins may never be agreed upon. These early hybrids with large amounts of C. ruderalis genes were lacking some of the finer qualities of high grade cannabis strains available. Further hybrids from these ruderalis dominant strains were created using some of the more popular and standard photo-period sensitive strains including Williams Wonder and Northern Lights #2. Since the first marketable auto-flower, Lowryder, many large improvements have been made by very talented and devoted breeders such as Mossy, Lowlife, Flash Seeds and many more. The genetics behind these new auto-flowering strains that breeders are producing are generally not shared or if so only in very vague terms. This secrecy is done to keep others from producing knock offs of the strains.
Naming
As previously stated the strain Lowryder by breeder Joint Doctor is commonly referred to as the original marketable auto-flower strain. This strain received a lot of interest and mixed reviews at best. Since the development of the Lowryder, various breeders have developed a large number of improved auto-flowering strains. Online vendors have, as of January 2012, nearly 200 different autoflowering strains. Most of these auto-flowering strains can be identified by the presence of ryder (such as Afghan Kush Ryder by breeder World of Seeds) or the word automatic (or auto such as with the Auto Ak47 breed by Lowlife) in their names.
Advantages
The newly produced strains of auto-flowering cannabis have repetitively proven that they can produce quality medicine comparable with classical short-day strains. Breeders have reported THC content in the low 20% in some newer varieties while many varieties also have high CBD content. The advantages that auto-flower breeders report with their plants include:
Short Life span with many going from seed to harvest in under 13 weeks (some as short as 7 weeks)
Can be kept short in stature for "stealth" growing
The Cannabis ruderalis heritage causes flowering after 23 weeks from germination
No need for a separate vegetative and flowering environment (unlike with photo-period dependent/ short-day strains)
Relatively simple seed production, one plant can produce several hundred seeds even at 1' tall
As auto-flowers become exponentially more popular among home growers more information is appearing on the web concerning them. Several popular marijuana cultivation websites include new sections for auto-flowers and others such as Autoflower.net which is the first site completely devoted to them after high-bred closed their website.
Disadvantages
There continues to be small population of short-day cannabis growers that insist that auto-flowers are simply a fad and produce sub par medicine. The number one reason for these feelings are the understandable disappointment many had with the results of the first Lowryder. Also commonly argued is that when growing indoors, growers already have the ability to initiate flowering with photo-period/short-day plants at will by changing the lighting. Hormones such as BAP and paclobutrazol can also be used to completely arrest vertical growth in photo-period plants. There are however concerns about the carcinogenicity of some of these growth regulators. When growing outdoors, initiation of flowering in short-day plants is significantly more difficult to control than with auto-flowers. Another concern is the overall yield of auto-flowering plants which with some dwarf strains can be a half oz per plant. The last concern with auto-flowering cannabis is the chance of buying genetics that do not actually automatically flower regardless of photo-period. Thankfully as auto-flowers become more popular and individual strains are tested and reported on, the market is becoming more predictable.
Well Tested Auto-flowering Strains
Online seed vendors and (though rarely) medical cannabis dispensaries carry hundreds of varieties of auto-flowering strains. One problem (which is becoming a rarity) that has been encountered by various growers are strains that are poorly bred, sold as auto-flowers and yet do not automatically flower with age. Good Breeders like MOSSY, joint doctor, breeder's STITCH provide good medical quality auto-flowering strains.
Super Autos
Super Autos were created by breeder STITCH (FLASH seeds) in order to satisfy those growers looking for larger sativa plants with a more photo-period / short-day feel to them. A Super Auto (sometimes referred to as amazonian autos) starts flowering automatically only after a much longer vegetative period between 28/32 days most of the time. Just like other auto-flowers changing the lighting schedule does not affect the flowering cycle of these strains. It is not unusual for Super Autos to get over five feet tall with some becoming huge 8 foot bushes. The average life span of a Super Auto is 90 to 110 days from seed as opposed to the shorter 5585 days with most common auto-flowers. The added advantage of the longer life span is that slow maturing sativa phenotype have more time to develop and larger yields can be obtained.
Breeding
Creating true auto-flowering seed from two quality, true breeding auto-flowering parent plants is easy for most. Breeding new auto-flowering strains becomes more difficult when one attempts to make a hybrid with a non-auto-flowering strain. Some photo-period / short-day cannabis strains are heterogeneous - containing the recessive day-neutral or auto-flowering genetics along with the dominant short-day genetics. However a proper list of such strains is not yet available so most breeders treat all short- day plants as homozygous dominant. A true auto-flower is homozygous recessive for the day neutral genetics. Therefore most crosses between classical photo-period / short-day strains and auto-flowers produce few or no auto-flower progeny in the F1 generation. Regardless of whether the F1 generation produces auto-flowering plants, the higher performing and similar plants need to be recrossed. This F2 generation will contain approximately 25% of homozygous recessive plants which are auto-flowering. Still the few auto-flowers produced are not always stable and may require further stabilization. Further complexities with stabilizing auto-flowers has previously led to non auto-flowering and low quality strains making it into the market. Auto-flowering Cannabis Seeds are already on the market for a while, but in the last few years the popularity of auto-flowering seeds has skyrocketed and are a fact on the commercial market.[1] Many growers have marketed their own auto-flowering cannabis seeds, which are mostly indica/sativa hybrids containing a small part Lowryder #1 and/or Lowryder #2 genetics, in order to keep the auto-flowering properties. One type contains more Lowryder #1/#2 than the other.
