What do you like

In my opinion, autoflowers are only the ideal choice when you don't have the right conditions to grow photoperiod or regular plants. Photoperiod plants give the grower much more control, especially indoors. You decide how long the plant stays in the vegetative stage, when to flip it into flower, and ultimately how large you want it to become before flowering. Another major advantage is cloning. If you find a phenotype with exceptional traits, you can keep it as a mother plant and take clones for years, preserving those exact genetics. That's something you simply can't do effectively with autoflowers because they continue aging regardless of whether they're cloned. Autos are also less forgiving. Since their vegetative period is fixed, any stress or mistakes early in life usually reduce the final yield because the plant doesn't have enough time to recover. Personally, I think regular seeds are still the gold standard for experienced growers. They provide both male and female plants, making them the best choice for breeding, phenotype selection, and preserving strong genetics. Feminized photoperiod seeds are excellent if your goal is producing flowers, but they don't offer the same flexibility for breeding. That said, I'm not saying autos are bad. They definitely have their place, especially for growers with limited space, limited time, or situations where controlling the light cycle isn't practical. But if all conditions are equal and the goal is maximizing quality, yield, and long-term genetic potential, I'd choose photoperiod or regular plants every time. By the way, I've recently made a genetic cross and I'm currently testing the results on my page. I'd really appreciate it if you could take a look and let me know what you think. 💚🙏

I'd only grow autoflowers if that particular trait was useful. e.g. growing outside out of season when the sun will not play nice as far as maintaining vegetative or flower phase of a photoperiod. Otherwisel no reason to grow something that was bred with weaker genetics.. .even if they are far better than they used to be. There's still some difference. Can't do anything about people offended by facts. The differnces are small, so more power to anyone that prefers autoflowers, but they will forever be 95% of a photoperiod :P Anything you do with an auto, you can do with a photo (except whimsically trigger flower phase on its own in an inconsistent way). Simply put the photoperiod into flower after 10-14 days and it'll average out the same as any autoflower. They both have the same range of flower phase length once you compare apples to apples. The myth originates from not counting 'flower' for autos until a person can see something.. but that's a 7-14 days after it went into flower. That's cheating :P

You are going to find very opinionated answers here 😂. In my limited experience, it just boils down to what you are looking for as a grower. If you are prioritizing things like genetic consistency, phenotype hunting, or absolutely maxing out your grow (max cannabinoid content and maxing out size of your plants), then photoperiod is what you should stick to. I am in a weird living situation which is why I choose to grow autos. I have issues with light exposure both indoor and outdoor and because of that, photoperiod isn't a great option for me. The only real positive to autos is the fast turnaround. Under a single small/medium light you can have a setup that allows you to harvest 2-4 plants every other month or so. I think it's easier to have more variety that way. I think objectively, photoperiod has a much higher potential if you are looking to min/max your grow, while autos are just convenient under the right circumstances. IDK why people have such a hard time accepting that 🤷‍♂️. For the record, I do have experience with photoperiod plants, it was just not documented on GD.

In my initial research into seeds/growing i thought autos would be easier. While they are more plug and play than photos, they are far less forgiving if anything goes wrong (and it will). On the other hand I have what was supposed to be an auto but is clearly not. Long veg, gigantic height (6') slower longer grower. I am an indoor recreational grower.