Autoflower vs. Feminized Seeds: Which Should You Choose?

Autoflower vs. feminized seeds: which should you choose? By @bsfseeds

Choose autoflowers if you want a fast, compact, beginner-friendly grow that flowers on its own no matter the light schedule; choose feminized photoperiod seeds if you want bigger plants, denser and more potent buds, the option to clone and full control over when flowering starts. With so many options out there, picking seeds can turn into a real odyssey, and that's part of what makes cannabis fun to work with: depending on the grower's hand, the climate, the space, the seeds and the soil, the job can get easier or harder.

Choosing between autoflowering and feminized seeds is one of the first, and most important, decisions you'll make, and it tends to raise all kinds of questions. They look alike and both work indoors and outdoors, but you need to know how they differ to figure out which one makes sense when you're starting a grow.

Feminized vs. autoflower: what's in a name?

First things first: pitting these two terms against each other isn't totally accurate, but like a lot of words, they're what the cannabis community uses. Most autoflowering seeds are feminized too (feminized autos), so the more precise split is between autoflowering and photoperiod strains, since the main difference between them is whether they depend on a specific light schedule at each stage of their life.

Still, for this article we'll keep calling them by the names everyone knows.

Autoflower and feminized: which is which?

Feminized seeds are bred to completely eliminate the chance of growing male plants. They still need the same care and specific growing conditions, because they're just as light-dependent as regular seeds: you have to switch the light schedule from 18 to 12 hours a day to trigger flowering. Indoors, the grower decides when to flip, so you control how long the plant stays in veg.

Autoflowering seeds are the most popular with beginners because they don't need as much babysitting to produce a solid harvest. They can stay on the same light schedule their whole life, since they switch to the flowering stage on their own, usually three to four weeks after germination. In other words, they start flowering based on age, not light.

And since they're "programmed" to flower once they hit a certain age and size (around a month of growth), the grower doesn't have to change the light schedule (18 hours on and 6 off is plenty) or wait for fall to arrive.

Autoflower vs. feminized: how they differ in the grow

The switch to flowering

The main difference between feminized and autoflowering plants is the switch to flower. Autos do it automatically, while feminized photoperiod plants need you to flip the lights from 18 to 12 hours indoors. Outdoors, they follow a fixed calendar: in the Northern Hemisphere, you plant between March and June and harvest from September to November (in the Southern Hemisphere, shift that by six months).

Number of harvests

Another difference between autoflowering and feminized seeds is that feminized plants grown under the sun only give you one harvest a year, while autos can give you three or four, depending on the strain and your local climate.

Life cycle

Another thing to weigh is how hard each one is to grow. Feminized plants have a longer life cycle, so they take more experience and know-how to avoid damage and surprises along the way. On the flip side, indoors you can steer how they develop, stretching out veg and holding off on flowering if you run into a problem or a nutrient deficiency.

How they're propagated

When it comes to propagation, autoflowering cannabis is grown from seed only, while feminized plants can also be grown from clones, and you can keep mother plants since they'll stay in veg as long as you need.

Plant shape and size: how feminized and autoflower plants differ

Because autoflowers have such a short vegetative stage, they usually don't grow taller than 1 m (about 3 ft), so they stay shorter than feminized plants. For a lot of growers that's a plus, since they're easier to manage in tight spaces.

Feminized plants let you use different pruning and training techniques to control height and shape the plant, which is much trickier with autos. That's why stretching out veg or starting your seeds early lets you grow much bigger plants.

Feminized plants also win on calyx-to-leaf ratio, since autos tend to grow more leaves, which makes trimming the buds at harvest more of a chore. Plus, feminized plants' leaves look different depending on whether the genetics lean indica or sativa, while autos' leaves usually look like ruderalis leaves, with five or seven moderately wide leaflets.

As for the buds, feminized plants, especially indicas, tend to be denser than autos and pack more resin around the flowers, which means more intense flavors and aromas. And because of their ruderalis genetics, autoflowers usually have less THC than photoperiod strains.

Why choose autoflowering seeds over feminized?

• Autoflowering seeds do better than feminized ones in cool climates with short summers
• They tolerate cold snaps and low temperatures much better.
• Their whole life cycle is much shorter.
• Autoflowers stay small, so you can grow them without drawing attention.
• They're easy to grow indoors and perfect for beginners

How long do autoflower seeds take to germinate and sprout?

Here's the step-by-step for getting your autoflower seeds started:

Germinate the seed:

For this you need a germination method and, obviously, one of your favorite seeds. You can find some at our shop in Argentina.

Prep your starter pots:

Once your seeds have sprouted, it's time to prep some small 7×7 cm (about 3×3 in) pots filled with soil, where the root can grow without anything in its way. Fill the pots all the way with soil.

Plant the seeds:

Bury the seed half a centimeter to 1 cm (about 1/4 to 1/2 in) deep. Poke a hole with a pen or something similar, drop the seed in with the root facing down, cover it with a little soil without packing it down too hard, and leave it alone until it pops up through the surface.

Wait:

Now comes the patience part: wait for the seedling to break the surface and do that classic first stretch. It takes about 4 or 5 days, not much longer, and you need to keep a close eye on it so you don't leave it too long and let the plant start developing in that little pot.

Move it to its final container:

Pick your final container: ideally 5 to 7 liters (about 1.5 to 2 gallons). Some plants need 11 liters (about 3 gallons). Fill it to the top with soil, settled well enough that it won't sink much when you water, but don't pack it too tight either. Give it 20 hours of light a day all the way to harvest, or as many hours of sun as possible.

Transplant:

Once the container's ready, dig a hole deep enough to set your plant in so about 5 cm (2 in) of it sticks out above the soil. Then water slowly, around the edges.

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