autoflowers and terps.

so to you guys that have run a fair few autos and photoperiods, do you not find that most autos just lack that extra bit of taste and smell that most photoperiods produce, i don't know what it is but every auto I've grown I've just not been happy with the end result when it comes to the terpene profile (taste/smell) think they always just lack compared to their photoperiod counterpart? dont get me wrong im not bashing on autos, they're great for quick harvests and small structure work to peoples advantage. But just wondering if you guys had the same experience, maybe i just got unlucky with the phenotypes, who knows.

strictlyflavours said:

so to you guys that have run a fair few autos and photoperiods, do you not find that most autos just lack that extra bit of taste and smell that most photoperiods produce, i don't know what it is but every auto I've grown I've just not been happy with the end result when it comes to the terpene profile (taste/smell) think they always just lack compared to their photoperiod counterpart? dont get me wrong im not bashing on autos, they're great for quick harvests and small structure work to peoples advantage. But just wondering if you guys had the same experience, maybe i just got unlucky with the phenotypes, who knows.

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I’m curious as well. Might try an auto flower for a winter harvest; put it in my greenhouse and perhaps give a little supplemental light.
I enjoy great terps, so I’d hope to find a good auto strain...

I’m sure they’re dud genetics out there but I’ve been really impressed with them.

This is my first year running autos. So far I've noticed my photos definitely have a stronger smell even in veg, but up close my autos smell absolutely amazing! (Photo in this case is African landrace strain so may be part). I should have a taste report in a few weeks!

I'm growing Pineapple Express and Dark Devil autos. Pineapple is extremely pungent while the Dark Devil I would describe as normal. It's probably genetics.

Here are my autos. First time grower. Gotta say some of them smell amazing. Some still don’t really have a smell but it’s early in flowering I believe.

I do think autos are still catching up... they are a fairly new lineage and they have to overcome those otherwise shitty ruderalis genes ... if they didn't have the unique ability to flower on any light cycle ruderalis would never have been introduced into marijuana cultivation. Have you ever seen a picture of landrace ruderalis? Not very appealing.

That being said, a few of the ones I've grown have been solid ... I just think it takes longer to get there, hence Mephisto having a lot of F7s and F8s ... thats how many generations it took to breed good flavor into these auto lines.

Toward the of my bruce banner auto run, any time I would touch the plant my fingers smelled like skunk acid. That particular smell that's not just skunk but extra. Crazy terps! Yet a foot away I would barely smell anything

yeah, literally everything i grew from Fastbuds was disappointing in my opinion, had some absolutely terrible phenos, i grew 3 green cracks auto from them the one time, had 2 phenos that were so different and hardly any smell and throughout the whole grow, literally no terpene profile at all. and 1 with a bit of a skunky aroma but not much. their gelato auto was slightly better, but still not great, was pretty disappointed with it. I grew Mephisto once, i believe it was Stilton Special. And that was the best auto i've grown out of the lot, you can tell they put more work in there genetics, but unfortunately for me still wasn't up to the standard i want. terp-wise. I still slightly fault myself as i could probably do a slightly better job on the dry/cure but i just notice photoperiods always just produce so much more stannk/taste effortlessly.

if i was to ever grow autos again Mephisto Genetics would be the only breeder i fuck with.

Greenthumblady said:

Toward the of my bruce banner auto run, any time I would touch the plant my fingers smelled like skunk acid. That particular smell that's not just skunk but extra. Crazy terps! Yet a foot away I would barely smell anything

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Yeah, that is an odd phenomenon with a lot of autos ive grown too ... smell and taste great when you smoke them ... but no smell in the tent at all while they grow

I grow both. there is no difference between them at all. I've got some autos that when I crack open a jar you can smell it 20 ft away. Terpene profiles are affected by grow style, nutrients, temperature, etc. Over feeding is a big killer of terpenes in all cannabis, it's one of the reasons commercial canna terps are so blah.

pop22 said:

I grow both. there is no difference between them at all. I've got some autos that when I crack open a jar you can smell it 20 ft away. Terpene profiles are affected by grow style, nutrients, temperature, etc. Over feeding is a big killer of terpenes in all cannabis, it's one of the reasons commercial canna terps are so blah.

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Just curious what you grow for strains, both auto and photo?

Totally understand that environment affects things like smell and taste, but I also grow both, and using the same methods, good photo genetics usually have a much stronger smell while growing than even the best autos I've grown. Once their harvested the difference is much less noticable as I mentioned. But a there's just a way bigger variety of photo strains available that have been worked for far longer with an emphasis on things like smell, taste and THC (or even CBD) content.

Shawn7769 said:

Here are my autos. First time grower. Gotta say some of them smell amazing. Some still don’t really have a smell but it’s early in flowering I believe.

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Nice looking first time!

I think the thing with autos is that for example zkittles auto is not a zkittlez that happens to autoflower, but its zkittlez crossed with an autoflower and then they look for phenos that resemble the original zkittlez. But the common trend with autos seems to not stabilise them enough and you get tons of pheno variations, so even if there might be some that resemble original zkittlez, there most likely are also phenos that dont resemble it. Often the auto breeders have one or few breeding autos, for example sativaish, hybrid and indica dom and they always use these or some hybrids bred from these to make new strains.

So yea auto zkittlez is not zkittlez and i think its silly how they advertise strains as if they would be exact copies of the photo versions..

Some autos are crap, some are as good as good photos, but those are rare, usually its something in between.

I used to grow autos over 10 years ago when i used to grow a bit(before recently starting again) and i used low ryder #1 x photo hybrids bred by amateur breeders. And now that i have grown bit over 10 commercial autoflowers, not many commercial strains seem much better than some low ryder #1 pollen tossed around..

Mephisto seems good and they breed autos especially and not try to false advertise some auto versions of photos, which i dig. Many seem to try to make auto versions of what ever is popular at photo side of things and basically never get forwards with their breeding as well as being a dedicated auto breeder like mephisto. Fast buds seems like a lot of hype, not very cheap, quality varies and plants dont generally seem very big, but are on the small/medium side, even tho they are supposed to be huge yielders.. But they seem to pack some punch, even if the plants are not that big. Would fit to a small grow setup, but in general too much hype and i also got 2 hermies out of 3 once and the third one i did not pop because fuck hermieshit.

MAGpie81 said:

Nice looking first time!

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Thanks. I got my seeds from I49 and I’m happy thus far. Got 9 seeds all 9 popped and are flowering. Grant it 2 are runts but not bad.

I am doing a full run of Amnesia Haze Autos right now.also some out side, they seem to doing the same a my regular would be. The 3 bottom pics are my outdoor Amnesia Haze Autos.

I can only speak to my experience so take this fo what its worth.

All auto weed is inferior. Taste, smell, you name it. I can taste that ruderalis gene immediately when I smoke it. It tasts like shit. If you ever had weed from organic soil, that was photoperiod, its hands down better to smoke.

Now, that don't mean its bad dope, just shifty taste. I grew some sour d and amnesia haze autos and they were fire ass weed but still had that rudy taste. Autos just don't have the terp power photos do.

As someone who started with autos and recently tried growing photos, I'm sticking with photos for good. The quality is just so much better. There's good weed in autos too but too many hit and miss.

I do agree sometimes you get a few shit plants or just straight up small. I have grown autos a few times.... so I am still experimenting with them.