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Issue #389 - Sunday, September 29, 2019
Dear Fellow Grower,
In today's issue...
- Learn why auto-flowering strains can be a great choice for beginners.
- Check out the auto-flowering breeders recommended by Nebula Haze!
- Check out this week's amazing trophy pics featuring a first-time outdoor grower!
Nebula Haze & Sirius Fourside (founders of GrowWeedEasy.com)
"The grass is greener where you water it."
~Neil Barringham
Why Beginners Should Grow Auto-Flowering Strains
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by Nebula Haze
What’s So Special About Auto-flowering Strains?
Have you ever heard of “autoflowering” strains of cannabis? How are these strains different from traditional (photoperiod) strains, and what makes them easier to grow for beginners?
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Why Auto-Flowering Plants Are Great for Beginners
- Automatically start making buds just a few weeks after they sprout – This is why they’re called “auto-flowering” strains. Traditional photoperiod strains grown indoors need to be manually forced to start making buds by altering light periods to give long nights (why they’re called “photoperiod” strains).
- Autoflowering plants stay a manageable size – Most auto-flowering strains stay under hip height and will not grow into huge monsters that unexpectedly take over a closet or become taller than your fence. Although some auto-flowering strains can get pretty big, any strains with the tendency to grow extra-large are typically labeled as such by the breeder.
- Ready to harvest in 3 months or less – While traditional grows take 3-5 months from seed to harvest on average, auto-flowering plants are typically ready to harvest in 3 months or less from when they first sprout. A lot of growers prefer a quicker harvest.
- Can be grown outdoors in most climates – Traditional outdoor cannabis plants must be planted in the Spring, and need at least 4-5 months of warm-but-not-too-wet weather before Fall. This set of requirements makes it difficult to grow outdoors in a lot of climates. But as long as your climate gets warm, sunny weather for at least three months at a time, you should be able to grow an auto-flowering plant outside. This is great for growers who
would like to grow during a short but sunny summer, during warm winter months, or to get an early outdoor harvest.
- Not sensitive to light leaks or light periods – If light accidentally leaks into the grow space during a traditional photoperiod plant’s dark period (for example if you open the closet door to look at your plants, or even from a blinking indicator light on a piece of equipment you didn’t notice), it can cause big problems. The amount of time the grow lights are on each day also has a huge effect on how photoperiod plants grow. Outdoors,
photoperiod plants are sensitive to the time of year, and their internal cycles can be disrupted by security spotlights, street lights or even the light from a nearby window. Light stress can interrupt bud development or even cause traditional plants to make “male” flowers, which growers don’t want because you can’t really smoke or use them and they can cause seeds. Auto-flowering plants are basically
unaffected by light periods or light leaks. It’s just one less thing to worry about for a new grower.
- Feminized auto-flowering seeds always make buds – Speaking of male vs female flowers, when it comes to auto-flowering strains you typically don’t need to worry about sex. In fact, you would specifically need to seek out seeds that will produce male flowers because just about all auto-flowering seeds available online are feminized. If you buy feminized auto-flowering seeds, you are basically guaranteed to get a “female” plant, which means that every plant will produce buds and you don’t have to worry about male plants, seeds or pollination.
A bunch of autoflowering plants in a mini grow tent (view the tutorial on how to copy this grow style)
Did you know? Half of all traditional non-feminized seeds (the kind of seeds you typically find in your bud) grow into male plants that must be removed from the grow room as soon as you spot them. Growing with feminized
seeds prevents that potential headache!
Auto-Flowering Strains Have Better Genetics Than Ever
All modern autoflowering plants are the decedents of a type of wild hemp that grows in Siberia known as Cannabis ruderalis, which is a cousin of the THC-producing cannabis plant we know and love. Wild ruderalis plants grow very small buds that don’t contain much THC, but due to the extremely short summers, they have the odd quirk of flowering immediately after sprouting regardless of day length.
Some forward-thinking marijuana breeder saw the potential of this and started cross-breeding Ruderalis plants with cannabis strains that contain THC. The results from the initial hybrids were disappointing, but breeders didn’t give up and kept selecting for plants with higher yields and more potent buds while carefully maintaining the auto-flowering capability from generation to generation. Cannabis lore says the first experimental crosses between “Marijuana” and
Ruderalis strains were done in the 1960s, with some strains starting to be sold in seed banks by the 1980s.
Ruderalis – This Tiny Wild Hemp Plant is the Ancestor of All Auto-Flowering Strains
The first time I heard about auto-flowering seeds was around 2010, when we first started making GrowWeedEasy.com. At the time, auto-flowering strains were often referred to as “Lowryder” plants, or some variation such as “Short Ryder” or
“Diesel Ryder”. The “Ryder” strain options were extremely limited at first, but they were starting to catch on.
An original “Lowryder” plant
Home growers started demanding more and better options, and some breeders began specializing specifically in making auto-flowering strains (which mostly lost the “Ryder” name). The genetics have been improving exponentially ever
since.
Now there are hundreds of auto-flowering strains to choose from, and many traditional strains offer an auto-flowering version. You have competitive breeders that consistently sell auto-flowering seeds that are extremely fast-growing, give you great yields, and produce buds that feel as potent as their photoperiod counterparts.
Auto-Flowering Plants Today Come in a Variety of Strains
These auto-flowering plants produced about 2 ounces each (here’s the grow journal)
Outdoor auto-flowering plants don’t care about light schedules or the time of year. Your climate is likely suitable to grow an auto-flowering plant if you have at least 3 months of sun and warm weather (above
60°F / 16°C during the day, and no freezing nights). These auto-flowering plants were grown in a homemade greenhouse in a cold climate. They were planted in Spring and ready to harvest before freezing temperatures came, despite a very short summer.
Nebula’s Recommended Auto-Flowering Cannabis Breeder
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Mephisto Genetics
The Mephisto breeding program was started in the UK in 2012 by two friends that felt auto-flowering strains should be bred to have the same level of bud quality as photoperiod strains. Although auto-flowering strains have been available for purchase since at least the 1980s, there has only been spotty interest in auto-flowering breeding programs. Mephisto has led the way and there are now dozens if not hundreds of dedicated auto-flowering breeding programs.
Mephisto only works with auto-flowering strains and the buds always come out at photoperiod quality. I will say that some of their strains can be a bit sensitive when growing and not necessarily the best yielding, but Mephisto makes up for that with bud quality. If you care more about quality than quantity, I highly recommend any Mephisto strain.
Known for
Cons
- Their focus is on buds above all. As a result, some of their boutique strains don’t get the best yields or may not be the most beginner-friendly to grow
Recommended Beginner Strain
- SODK Auto (Sour Orange Diesel Kush) – Easy to grow, good yields, amazing smell, dense buds. This strain is great for beginners!
- Sour Stomper - Gorgeous buds, great mental effects and a strong complex smell with grape undertones. Can take on purple or blue tones if plants get cool nights in the late flowering stage.
More autoflowering Mephisto strains
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A different SODK autoflowering plant
Bomb
Seeds
This breeder has great autoflowering adaptations of their most popular photoperiod strains.
Known for
- Easy to grow, good yields, consistent results
Cons
- Only a few autoflowering strains to choose from
Recommended Beginner Strain
- THC Bomb Auto – I’ve grown this strain under several different types of grow lights and it’s a sleeper. Buds look ordinary and yields are average, but always produce strong and memorable effects. It’s one of those plants that I don’t pay attention to while growing, but then always becomes a favorite after
buds are dried and cured.
Look at more autoflowering strains by Bomb Seeds
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It was my birthday on the 25th. I am 68! Whaaaaa! For 38 of those years I've been in pain and have been prescribed vast quantities of prescription opiates (yes THOSE prescription opiates). They stopped working for me, so I stopped taking them. That was a bad month...
A good friend saw me on a particularly bad day and, because cannabis is STILL not legal in most of Australia, he brought me a joint and I took a couple of tokes for the first time in 40 years. I slept that entire night, pain free for the first time in years. That pretty much sealed the deal. (Due to my illness, I can legally get medical marijuana if I jump through many expensive official hoops but, because it's not legal, I can't afford it!). The same friend got
some seeds and I put my green thumb to work and grew enough to get me through a year, taking it only when I couldn't cope anymore.
I say "taking it" because I do not smoke, so I used your canna-butter recipe/instructions and the trim from my plants (one large, two small). I also followed many of your other suggestions and feedback from the good folk that use your site.
Without your help and the help of the cannabis growing community, I would still be in unbearable pain. My heart goes out to others that are still suffering due to corporations and politics, rather than the expertise of qualified medical practitioners. In the meantime, we depend on your shared knowledge and assistance. So, this is a big THANK YOU from the land of Oz, where cannabis is still in the (slow) process of being legalised.
Most sincerely,
Steve
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"These are pictures of the first plants i have ever grown. I rescued them from certain death. They were growing behind a barn in poor conditions and the grower was going to destroy them. With permission i uprooted them and planted them in my yard. Now they are taller than me growing in Canadian farmland." ~DJ
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Who Runs This
Newsletter? |
Nebula Haze:
I'll be honest with you, when I first started growing, I struggled. Now, it is my
mission to make it easier for new growers to get started as well as help advanced growers get bigger, better yields with less time and money. We are updating and adding articles every single week and our goal is to eventually build a comprehensive growing resource so anyone and everyone can grow if they want to! If we all share the knowledge there's more buds in the world for everyone :) |
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Learn which seed sources are personally recommended by Nebula Haze |
Sirius Fourside:
Sirius Fourside is a hobbyist grower who has gained the bulk of his experience growing in water as a medium (deep water culture, bubbleponics).
"Growing cannabis can be a relaxing hobby in and of itself, but it also saves you money and keeps you from having to deal with shady characters. Cannabis is much easier to grow than people give it credit for, and growing in water
doesn't increase the difficulty much, if any. But whether you want to grow in water, coco, or a different medium, we'll show you how easy it can be!"
Get Your Seeds Delivered Safely! |
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banks including what type of payment they accept and where they ship in the world!
List of trusted seed sources:
http://www.growweedeasy.com/seeds Get Seeds!
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2019 GrowWeedEasy.com
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Disclaimer: Grow Weed Easy only recommends products that we've either personally checked out ourselves, or that come from people we know and trust. For doing so, we may receive a commission. Nothing in this e-mail should be considered personalized Financial, Legal, or Medical Advice. The contributors to this magazine grow legally under their
local laws but are not lawyers or medical professionals. Any decision to grow marijuana should only be made after consulting with an experienced lawyer or other legal adviser. Any medical decisions should only be made after speaking with a doctor or other medical professional. Be safe!
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