Autoflowering cannabis

Autoflowering cannabis varieties automatically switch from vegetative growth to the flowering stage with age, as opposed to the ratio of light to dark hours required with photoperiod dependent/short-day strains. Many autoflowers will be ready to harvest in less than 10 weeks from seed. Dwarf varieties can have short stature while still giving decent yield. Conversely "super autos" can take over 100 days to mature and can reach over 6 feet tall.

The origins of autoflowering cannabis are still debatable. The strain Lowryder by breeder The Joint Doctor was the original large scale marketed autoflower. Lowryder contains Cannabis ruderalis genetics from a Mexican strain that was referred to as Mexican Rudy and is believed to be created from a cross between a Mexican sativa and a Russian ruderalis. Another theory is that the early genetics came from the first oilseed hemp variety called Finola, which was developed from Russian stock in Finland during 1995. These early hybrids with large amounts of C. ruderalis genes were lacking some of the finer qualities of high grade cannabis strains available.

Further hybrids from these ruderalis dominant strains were created using some of the more popular and standard photo-period sensitive strains. Since the first mass market autoflower, Lowryder, many improvements have been made by breeders. The genetics behind these new autoflowering strains that breeders are producing are generally not shared or if so only in very vague terms. This secrecy is done to keep others from producing knock offs of the strains, and more often, to obscure revealing that new strains are, more often than not, descended from the original Lowryder, which is often criticized as a substandard strain of low potency.

Online vendors offer, as of January 2012, nearly 200 autoflowering strains. Most of these strains can be identified by the presence of "ryder" (such as Afghan Kush Ryder by breeder World of Seeds) or "automatic" (or "auto" such as with the Auto Ak47 bred by Lowlife) in their names.

The newly produced strains of autoflowering cannabis have proven that they can produce quality medicine comparable with classical short-day strains. Breeders have reported THC content in the low 20% in some newer varieties while many varieties also have high CBD content. The advantages that autoflower breeders report with their plants include:

There continues to be some short-day cannabis growers that insist that autoflowers are simply a fad and produce subpar medicine. The number one reason for these feelings are the understandable disappointment many had with the results of the first Lowryder. Also commonly argued is that when growing indoors, growers already have the ability to initiate flowering with photoperiod/short-day plants at will by changing the lighting. Hormones such as BAP and paclobutrazol can also be used to completely arrest vertical growth in photoperiod plants. There are however concerns about the carcinogenicity of some of these growth regulators. When growing outdoors, initiation of flowering in short-day plants is more difficult to control than with autoflowers. Another concern is the overall yield of autoflowering plants which with some dwarf strains can be a half ounce per plant.

...
Wikipedia