Xotic Seeds

Autoflower seeds, also known as automatic seeds or autoflowering seeds, are seeds that make it possible to harvest cannabis without light cycles or removing male specimens. Perfect for gardeners who are at home in colder areas as the vegetative and flowering periods are so short. Of course, the yield of autoflowering seeds in a pot on the windowsill will not be as high as under an indoor lamp, as normal sunlight is not as intense. However, the yields are respectable for the short growing and flowering time. You can buy several different types of autoflowering seeds from us.

The secret of autoflowering cannabis seeds lies in their ruderalis genes. Since summers are very short in many eastern countries, it was very important for this type of cannabis to grow and flower quickly. Unable to wait for the shorter light cycle, they developed the trait of flowering on their own after a period of time.

Autoflowering seeds, also known as Automatic and Autofem, are a relatively recent development in the world of cannabis seed technology. What sets these cannabis seeds apart from regular cannabis seeds is that they can interrupt their vegetative cycle and set their buds in as little as 10 weeks, whether indoors, in a greenhouse or outdoors.

As a result of this short lifespan, autoflowering seeds produce small, short plants, ideal for discreet cultivation in a sunny corner of the garden, in a greenhouse or on the terrace. As a result, autoflowering plants grown from autoflowering seeds don’t tend to produce the same massive yields as a large cannabis plant growing in the sun for 6 months.

Autoflowering seeds caused a surge of interest in the cannabis community when they were first introduced. As with the development of feminized cannabis seeds, all breeders in Canada and Europe have also played a major role in the development of autoflowering cannabis seeds.

What are the advantages of autoflower seeds?

Autoflowering seeds are very robust and resistant to pests
Outdoors at least 2 harvests are possible
Indoors, it takes just 10 weeks from seedling to harvest
Most autoflowering seeds are 100% feminized
They are ideal for beginners

How can these cannabis plants flower automatically?

The term Autoflowering or Automatic Seeds refers to the fact that no altered light conditions are needed to stimulate the flowering phase that cannabis buds form. Instead, autoflowering strains use inbred genes from the ruderalis cannabis family. Ruderalis cannabis is not normally psychoactive but has the unique ability to grow from seed to plant in as little as 10 weeks, allowing it to grow in inhospitable climatic conditions with short growing seasons in northern Canada. Many breeders have incorporated ruderalis genes into some of their best-selling strains to create autoflowering seeds. Furthermore, these strains have been feminized, which means that only female plants are autoflowering.

Autoflowering seeds are very important, especially for outdoor growers. Cannabis is normally grown outdoors, in the Northern Hemisphere from April, and harvested around October after a 6-7 month life cycle. Some countries have summers that are too short to practice outdoor breeding. Breeders in these countries only have the option of growing indoors or in a glass house, which is not always pleasant. Autoflowering seeds have changed that, even growers in Northern Scandinavia are now able to find a suitable 10-week growing window with excellent results. In Mediterranean climates, 3 harvests a year are possible when using Automatic seeds.

Automatic seeds are best grown indoors with 20 hours of light and a 4 hour dark period over a 10 week period. Many growers find the characteristics of automatic seeds to be what they needed. Simple, fast and practical. Whether Sativa or Indica, as an autoflowering seed there are all the strains you could wish for.

If you look at what a good seed retailer has to offer, you will find dozens of seed banks with hundreds or thousands of strains in total. Which one should you buy? The varieties can be roughly divided into Indicas and Sativas or into regular or feminized seeds. Then there are the parent varieties that pass on their properties more or less homogeneously to the seeds that may be produced. Or there are the hybrids where this is not the case as their characteristics will fall apart in the next generation. However, there are also autoflowering strains. What are autoflowering genetics and why are they different?

Which cannabis seeds should I buy?

First of all: All plant characteristics that are mentioned in this section before the word autoflowering can also exist for autoflowering strains. However, they differ from “normal” cannabis in one point: they flower regardless of the time of day and no cuttings can be taken.

When cannabis grows and when it flowers

Normal cannabis grows with about 18 hours of light per day and flowers with about 12 hours of uninterrupted night time to about 12 hours of daylight.

You can’t even turn on the lights for a minute or the flowering phase will suffer.

It’s different with autoflowering: This term explains that the plants will flower after a certain size, regardless of the length of the day. Autoflowering genetics owe this trait to crossing ruderalis. This is a branch of the Cannabis genus that grows north and needs every day of light to develop ready seeds for the next year. However, these genetics are useless for THC production. Therefore, she is cleverly crossed with potent hemp to create a new potent strain that will flower regardless of day length.

First autoflowering strains had a bad reputation as the effects were rather mild and insufficient. This is now different with the right autoflowering genetics, as well as more yield per plant is possible. Autoflowers are generally smaller and, as mentioned, you can’t take cuttings. However, they are optimal for outdoor use, to finish early in the year or even to get two harvests from the same spot.

It is precisely in these outdoor situations that autoflowering strains are better. Autoflowering strains are usually ready at around 9 weeks, they also start flowering at around 2 weeks. If normal strains are already being released in May, autoflowering should be waited until June, as they need a lot of direct light, milder nights and warmer days. They cannot develop such large plants in such a short time, so other genetics would be preferable for indoor use. Autoflowering strains are generally recommended for outdoor use. They are easy and usually robust beginner plants. Up north ruderalis can take a beating where other plants have perished.

Why do ruderalis, or now autoflowering strains, flower regardless of day length?

A new plant or animal species arises at some point in the world. Some of these genres arise as specialists for the circumstances in the very place where they arise and do not have the property of being able to adapt. These genera usually do not spread. However, a genus or species that require less precise living conditions and is able to adapt somewhat will happily spread, at least when the opportunity presents itself.

Among the animals, it is humans, rats, rabbits and others that are spreading. Cannabis is one of the plants.

Over the millennia, hemp spread and adapted to the regions. However, there are only three known strains of the genus Cannabis: Sativa with an airy and tall stature. Indica with a squat stature and shorter flowering times. What many don’t know is that ruderalis is the third strain. Of course, the hemp in the far north also has to let its seeds mature in order to be able to thrive again next year.

Cannabis has therefore adapted to conquer the North and today, one autoflowering genetic after another can be crossed with ruderalis.

For autoflowering growing under artificial light, longer lighting times would favour larger yields and you could also completely do without night phases. However, some metabolic reactions take place in plants in the dark phase that would not take place at all or only to an insufficient extent during the day. So it might not be a bad idea to switch off the lamps once or twice for two to three hours in a 24-hour light period.

But even with autoflowering, you can certainly do things with one strain or do things better than with the other, less suitable strain. Whoever grows the same autoflowering seeds has the opportunity to experiment. However, the real strength of autoflowering lies in growing outdoors to harvest earlier in the year or even twice. You pull the seeds two to three weeks ahead and put the seedlings in a good spot on rainy days and only have to come back to harvest.