OK So Why Is Everyone Growing Autos Now
My neighbor Dave — retired electrician, lives two houses down in Portland — pulled four harvests last year. Four. From the same tiny 2×4 tent he bought off Craigslist in 2022. All autoflowers. Meanwhile I was over here babysitting my photoperiod Zkittlez through week 14 of flower like some kind of plant nurse.
That was my wake-up call honestly.
I’d been a photoperiod snob for years. Thought autos were for lazy growers who didn’t want to learn real cultivation. God I was wrong. And kind of a jerk about it too. The truth is autoflower genetics have gotten stupid good since about 2023 and if you haven’t tried them recently you’re operating on outdated information.
Quick primer if you’re brand new: autoflower cannabis plants flower based on their age instead of needing a specific light/dark cycle. Regular (photoperiod) plants need 12 hours of uninterrupted darkness to start making buds. Autos just… do it automatically around week 3-4 from germination regardless of what your lights are doing. It’s a trait that comes from Cannabis ruderalis — a subspecies that evolved in Siberia and northern Russia where summer daylight can last 20+ hours.
The Strains That Actually Delivered For Me This Year
I’m not gonna list 25 strains I found on Google. I’m gonna talk about the ones I’ve personally run or watched friends run in the last 12 months. Real results, real plants, real yields.
Northern Lights Auto — The One That Converted Me
So Northern Lights has been around since what, 1985? Sensi Seeds brought it from Seattle to Amsterdam and it basically dominated the Dutch coffeeshop scene for a decade. The auto version finally does justice to that lineage.
I ran three Northern Lights Auto seeds from Dutch Passion last April. All three germinated within 48 hours — paper towel method, nothing fancy. Planted into 3-gallon fabric pots with a coco/perlite mix (roughly 70/30 but I eyeball it, I’m not measuring with a graduated cylinder or whatever). By day 21 they were showing pistils.
Harvest day was day 72. I weighed the dried trimmed bud from all three plants: 78g, 91g, and 84g. So averaging about 84 grams per plant. Not going to win any yield competitions but the consistency blew my mind. All three plants looked nearly identical — same height (about 75cm), same structure, same frost level.
The smoke is classic NL. Earthy, piney, a little sweet on the exhale. Heavy indica effects — like your body gets wrapped in a warm blanket and your brain just… quiets down. My girlfriend calls it “the shut-up strain” because I stop talking within 20 minutes of smoking it. She means that affectionately. I think.
Find this one at any of the major seed banks listed here.
Green Crack Auto — 49 Days. I Timed It.
Green Crack has one of the best origin stories in cannabis. It was originally called “Cush” — supposedly a cut from Cecil C, a legendary grower in Athens, Georgia. Then Snoop Dogg tried it somewhere around 2007 and renamed it Green Crack because, well, it hits that hard. The name stuck even though half the industry wishes it hadn’t.
The auto version from FastBuds is… fast. Shockingly fast. I popped a seed on March 3rd last year and chopped the plant on April 21st. That’s 49 days seed to harvest. Forty-nine days! The yield was modest — 54 grams — but for 49 days of work that’s an insane return.
And the high is pure sativa energy. I smoked a joint of it before a Saturday morning hike at Forest Park and I basically ran up the trail. It’s focused, clear-headed, euphoric. Zero couch-lock. If you need a daytime strain this is the one.
The buds smell like mango and fresh-cut grass with this sharp citrus bite underneath. Dense little nuggets coated in trichomes. Dried and cured in mason jars for two weeks and it only got better.
Buying cannabis seeds online is pretty straightforward these days — Green Crack Auto is stocked at basically every seed bank with a website.
Blue Dream Auto — Everybody’s Favorite For a Reason
I know I know. Blue Dream is basic. It’s the pumpkin spice latte of weed strains. Every dispensary from Denver to Detroit has had it on the menu for the last decade. But you know what? Pumpkin spice lattes are popular because they taste good. Same energy here.
Blue Dream Auto won’t blow your mind with potency — my batch tested at roughly 19% THC from a home test kit, so take that with a grain of salt — but it’s the most pleasant, enjoyable smoke I grew all year. Sweet blueberry on the inhale, a little hashy on the exhale, and the high just floats. Not too up, not too down. You can smoke this at 2pm on a Sunday and still cook dinner and walk the dog and have a conversation with your parents on the phone.
The plants get a bit taller than other autos. Mine reached about 95cm which is pushing it for a 2×4 tent. I had to do some light LST (low stress training — basically bending the main stem sideways and tying it down) to keep the canopy even. Harvest was around day 77 and I pulled 88 grams.
Honestly one of the best feminized seeds for someone who’s never grown before. It practically grows itself.
Sour Diesel Auto — East Coast Gas In Auto Form
Sour Diesel is the strain that defined New York weed culture in the ’90s. There are entire documentaries about who bred it — AJ (short for Asshole Joe, yes really) or Weasel or whoever. The lineage drama is fascinating if you’re into that kind of thing.
The auto version captures about 80% of what makes Sour D special which is honestly more than I expected. That fuel-forward nose is there — open the jar and your whole room smells like a Texaco station got into a fight with a lemon grove. THC came in around 21% on my batch.
The plants are lanky. Mine hit 100cm and I had to supercrop the tallest cola (basically just pinch the stem until it bends, sounds brutal but the plant recovers in like 2 days). Flowered for about 65 days and I harvested 73 grams. Not the most productive auto but the quality of the smoke makes up for it.
What I’ve Learned About Growing Autos (The Hard Way)
Alright look. I killed my first three autoflower plants. Straight up murdered them with overwatering and too many nutrients. So let me save you some money.
Start in the final pot. Do NOT transplant autoflowers. I know every growing guide for photoperiods tells you to start in a solo cup and work your way up. Autos don’t have time for that. Their vegetative phase is locked in by genetics — usually 3-4 weeks. Every day the roots spend recovering from transplant stress is a day of growth you’re never getting back. Put the seed directly in a 3 or 5 gallon fabric pot.
Water less than you think you should. New growers kill more cannabis plants through overwatering than every other problem combined. And autos are even more sensitive because they’re smaller plants with smaller root systems. Pick up the pot — if it’s heavy, don’t water. If it’s light, water. That simple. I watered my NL autos maybe twice a week for the first month.
Cut your nutrient doses in half. Whatever the bottle says, give half. I use the General Hydroponics Flora trio at about 50-60% strength and that’s plenty. Burned leaf tips means you’ve gone too far. My buddy Jake burned an entire crop of Girl Scout Cookies Auto because he followed the feeding chart on the bottle at full strength. $60 in seeds, gone.
20/4 light schedule is the sweet spot. I’ve tried 18/6, 20/4, and 24/0. 20 hours on, 4 hours off gives me the best balance of growth rate and electricity costs. Some people swear by 24/0 but I genuinely think the plants benefit from a few hours of dark. They do some important cellular repair during lights-off. That’s not bro-science — there’s actual research on dark period respiration in Cannabis sativa.
There’s more detailed info on feeding and training in the growing guides section — worth a read if you’re just starting out.
Autos vs Photos — I Grow Both, Here’s Why
I still grow photoperiod plants for specific situations. When I want to run a mother plant and take clones — can’t do that with autos. When I want to grow a massive tree outdoors over a full summer. When I’m pheno-hunting and want to keep particular expressions alive.
But for my everyday stash? Autos. It’s not even close anymore. The quality gap between autoflowers and photoperiods was massive in like 2017. Now? The Mephisto Genetics guys are breeding autos that test at 27-28% THC. Night Owl Seeds is putting out autos with terp profiles that rival anything from the photoperiod world. Dutch Passion and FastBuds have been refining their auto lines for over a decade.
The math is simple. I can run 3-4 auto cycles per year in the same space where I’d get 2 photoperiod cycles. That’s potentially double the yearly harvest. And because each auto cycle is only 10-11 weeks from seed, any individual crop failure is less devastating — you can just pop more seeds and start over.
Where I Buy My Seeds (And Where You Should Too)
I’ve ordered from maybe a dozen different seed banks over the years. Some great, some sketchy, one that I’m pretty sure just sent me bird seed in a fancy package (not naming names but it rhymes with Schmeed Schmity).
The things that matter: germination guarantee, discreet shipping, actual breeder packs (not repacked seeds in a ziplock). I always check seed bank reviews before I order from somewhere new. Saved me from a couple of bad experiences.
Oh and always buy feminized autos. Regular (non-feminized) autoflower seeds will give you roughly 50% male plants that you’ll have to identify and remove before they pollinate your females. With feminized seeds, every plant is female. Every seed produces bud. No wasted space or resources.
FAQ
How long do autoflower seeds take from seed to harvest?
Depends on the strain but most land somewhere between 8 and 12 weeks total. I’ve had a Green Crack Auto finish in 49 days and a Blue Dream Auto take 77 days. Average is probably right around 10 weeks which is still way faster than any photoperiod grow.
Are autoflower seeds good for beginners?
Best option for beginners, full stop. No messing with light schedules. No worrying about light leaks causing hermaphrodites. They finish fast so you learn quicker and get to try again sooner. My only caveat is you should still read up on basic cannabis growing before you start — don’t just wing it.
How much do autoflower plants yield?
I’ve personally gotten anywhere from 54g (that speed-run Green Crack Auto) to about 91g (my best Northern Lights Auto plant). Online you’ll see people claiming 200g+ per auto plant but I’m skeptical of anything over 150g unless they’re running massive pots with perfect conditions and a really big yielding strain.
Can you clone autoflower plants?
Don’t bother. I tried once out of curiosity. The clone was already flowering by the time it rooted. Ended up being a sad little 15cm tall plant with one tiny bud on it. Autos and cloning just don’t mix — grow from seed every time.
What’s the strongest autoflower strain right now?
Mephisto Genetics and Night Owl Seeds are pushing the boundary. Strains like Alien vs Triangle and Mango Smile from Mephisto regularly test above 25%. Some of the newer Gorilla Glue Auto crosses are hitting 26-28%. But honestly the gap between 25% and 28% THC is barely noticeable when you’re smoking it — anything above 22% is going to send most people to the moon.
Do autoflowers need special nutrients?
Same nutrients, less of them. I use General Hydroponics Flora trio at half strength and it works great. Some growers go fully organic with living soil amendments and never feed liquid nutes at all — that’s a legit approach too. The main thing is don’t overfeed. Autos are small and they’ll burn fast.