Medical cannabis growers. Auto or photoperiod genetics?

One of the new trends with medical cannabis growers is to have a ‘perpetual harvest’ auto tent with a new auto seed or two being added every couple of weeks. The system allows a mature female cannabis plant to be harvested every couple of weeks using one grow tent with 20 hours of daily light. One of the convenient aspects of autoflowering cannabis varieties is the ability for plants of all ages to grow under the same light cycle. Medical home growers that want to cultivate photoperiod plants require separate tents if they need to keep small plants in vegetive growth as well as mature plants in bloom. Having separate veg and bloom tents for photoperiod varieties offers maximum flexibility for the medical home grower, the veg tent can contain cuttings, seedlings and a mother plant growing under e.g. 18 hours of daily light.

And the bloom tent runs on a 12/12 light cycle, allowing an area where the plants can flower. However, not all medical cannabis growers have the space for two grow tents. Therefore many photoperiod medical growers opt to have a single tent, which initially runs on a vegetive growth cycle and is later flipped to 12/12 bloom conditions. In the early days of CBD there was only one choice, choose photoperiod varieties because auto CBD hadn’t yet been invented. So for the early medical home growers of CBD varieties, you had to grow photoperiod cannabis seed genetics. But in the last couple of years the first stable CBD autoflowering varieties have started seeing commercial availability and great performance levels too. The advantage of auto CBD-rich varieties is the simplicity and convenience for growers.

Once again, the self sufficient medical home grower can use the simplicity of a single grow tent for all his autos, large and small. With autoflowering medical cannabis varieties the old concept of ‘veg’ and ‘bloom’ growth phases disappears, instead a single light cycle of 20 hours of daily light is all that is required. Growers that don’t have lots of space may find autoflowering varieties offer some advantages in terms of growth simplicity and convenience. Other growers that have developed a routine around growing photoperiod varieties may prefer sticking with what they know. And some growers successfully combine auto and photoperiod varieties, taking the benefits of both. One easy way to do this is to grow your photoperiod varieties in veg mode under 20 hours of daily light while your autos are growing alongside, getting ready to harvest. Once the autos have been harvested the tent can be switched to a 12/12 light cycle allowing the photoperiod varieties to start their bloom cycle. For many medical cannabis growers, both THC-rich and CBD-rich varieties have their place.

Some prefer CBD rich, whilst many medical cannabis growers love the delights of a THC rich cannabis variety. These days you have the choice of growing both auto and photoperiod varieties of either cannabis type. And remember that many medical growers enjoy growing their cannabis outdoors, all you need is a sunny, sheltered spot with good quality moist soil. Most climates have a long enough growing season to allow photoperiod cannabis varieties to be harvested outdoors. But if your growing season is too short to risk growing photoperiod varieties then consider growing an auto or two outdoors, they only take around 90 days from seed to harvest and they will produce bud no matter how short your growing season. However you grow your cannabis, grow it to the best standards with the best genetics and plan your grow carefully. Remember there are autos and photoperiod seeds to take advantage of, and you can supplement your indoor grow with a few outdoor plants. www.dutch-passion.com By Tony, Dutch Passion Seed Company