Which factors can influence the development of your cannabis plant and which signs to be on the lookout for?
Autoflowers are a special type of cannabis that contains the auto-flowering characteristic, a trait inherited from the Ruderalis species. This means that, unlike photoperiodic cannabis, feminized autoflowering seeds will flower automatically without the need to change the light cycle.
Outdoors vs Indoors
Autoflowers can be cultivated outdoors all year long, even though the temperature, humidity, and amount of light may vary from month to month, you will be able to successfully harvest your cannabis plants, just have in mind that the climate will influence your harvest so if you want to harvest the best buds possible you should plan when to germinate your seeds ahead so they’re growing in the best possible conditions.
If you’re an indoor grower, controlling the environment is not only possible but is vital for your plants to grow properly. Just like when growing outdoors, the environment will affect how your plants grow although it’s not a problem because you can and will have to control the temperature, humidity, and lights.
Environment
Like said above, the growing environment is the most important element when growing cannabis, it doesn’t matter if you’re growing autos or not. Being able to provide and maintain the ideal conditions makes a huge difference.
Lights
The intensity and quality of your light will influence the outcome, you should make sure your light fixture can provide enough light for your plants to develop properly.
As a general guideline, you should provide around 100 watts per plant for optimal plant growth.
Remember that when growing cannabis you need to control the environment, having the best lights in the market won’t make a difference if you’re not taking care of all the other variables.
Temperature and humidity
It’s extremely necessary to control the growing environment, with the aid of a hydro hygrometer you can easily measure the temperature and relative humidity level, and adjust it if necessary.
The ideal temperature can depend on the specific strain you’re growing but as a general guideline, you need to keep the temperatures between 18-25°C.
It’s crucial you keep it around 80% for young seedlings, starting at 60-70% for young plants in the vegetative stage and gradually decreasing it until you reach 50% nearing the pre-flowering stage and 40% for flowering plants.
Stress
Stress is a sign that something is wrong with your plant, when this happens you’ll see signs like yellowing leaves, twisted or droopy leaves, and slowed down growth, and your plant can end up taking up to 7 days to recover and start growing normally again.
Autoflowering strains take as little as 8-9 weeks from seed to harvest so you must avoid stressing them because when talking about an autos life cycle 1 week is a lot, so the recovery time can affect the size and quality of the buds.
Growing space and strains
Even though autoflowers grow more compact, Sativa-dominants grow taller than Indica-dominant strains so depending on the space you have available you should carefully choose the genetics you’re growing.
Indica-dominant autoflowers grow around 90cm while Sativa-dominant can grow up to 140cm, usually, growers control the size of their plants by using smaller (or bigger) pots.
In general, a plant in a 3L pot will grow around 25cm, in a 5L pot around 60cm, 8L up to 90cm and 10L or more they will reach their full height.
Have in mind that even though you’re using smaller pots, plants can still grow taller, it will all depend on the genetics you’re growing.
When is the best time to harvest autoflowers?
After successfully maintaining a healthy cannabis plant throughout its life cycle it’s now time to harvest, the best time to harvest your autoflowers will depend on the signs your plant gives and the type of effect you desire.
When your cannabis plant is nearing the end of its life cycle you will see the pistils turning brown, yellowing leaves and a decreased water usage, all of these signs should be taken into consideration but the standard practice among growers is to harvest by the state of the trichomes.
State of the trichomes
Each state will provide a different type of effect, although this requires attention so you harvest at the right time, it’s not a bad thing because it will let you harvest your plant to provide the effect you desire.
There are basically three trichomes states clear, cloudy, and amber.
- Clear: Trichomes aren’t fully developed yet, not potent enough.
- Cloudy: Trichomes at their peak potency, potent psychoactive effect.
- Amber: Trichomes contain CBN, provides a more corporal effect suited for medical patients.
For example, harvesting your cannabis when it has around 50% cloudy and 50% amber trichomes will provide a more balanced effect and if you harvest when the majority of the trichomes are cloudy it will provide a more Sativa-like cerebral effect.
Conclusion
Even though there are a couple of things you need to have in mind, growing autoflowers isn’t hard. Obviously, the results will depend on how well you take care of your plants and the growing environment but you can grow autoflowering cannabis in your balcony, backyard, or even an improvised growing tent without too much hassle, just make sure you always start with legitimate genetics, good quality genetics make a huge difference.
Source: https://2fast4buds.com/autoflowering-cannabis-seeds