Growing autoflowers opens up the possibility for multiple harvests a year with high-quality genetics. The learning curve for growing autoflowers is pretty easy because of how robust this type of cannabis can be.
However, yield can be an issue since they grow so quickly which is why a lot of growers love to cultivate regular photoperiod cannabis.
Especially for larger operations, having larger yields a couple fewer times a year outweighs multiple smaller harvests. Ambitious growers might decide to grow both types of cannabis together, but is that a wise idea?
You can grow both autoflower and photoperiod cannabis together as autoflowers don’t rely on a light cycle. It’s important to remember that autoflower cannabis has different requirements for nutrients as well as a different schedule for something like low-stress training.
So while you can grow both of these types of cannabis together you will have to adjust your grow room accordingly.
Photoperiod cannabis Vs. Autoflower cannabis: nutrient regimen
This is part of the learning curve associated with autoflower cannabis plants. Autoflowers are ruderalis dominant. It is a form of cannabis that is used in harsher conditions to grow. In other words, they require fewer nutrients than their photoperiod counterparts.
Giving autoflowers the same nutrient recipes as you would give to regular photoperiod cannabis would burn your plants and possibly stunt them. If you are growing them together just make sure that your watering system has two nutrient mixes.
Unless the nutrient company you use includes specific recipe requirements for autoflowers, you want to start them off at ¼ strength and work your way up from there.
It is probably wise to not exceed more than half strength for the nutrients unless you have some robust genetics.
Photoperiod cannabis Vs. Autoflower cannabis: low-stress training
Since the growth rates are different between these two types of cannabis you will have to adjust the way you train your plant. Since any kind of training takes at least a week for your plant to bounce back, it can be precious time wasted if you’re using it on autoflowers.
Regular photoperiod cannabis can easily recover and come back stronger when you do things such as topping or bending the branches. Later on in the growth cycle you can scrog your plant with trellis as the flowers are coming out.
Because regular cannabis takes a much longer time to reach the end of its life cycle (about 115 days), doing these things earlier on won’t be detrimental to the plant’s overall health and will often increase flower yields.
However, an autoflower cannabis plant can be harvested within 75 days from seed. Any kind of training takes away the time it can use to just grow naturally. For that reason, most growers won’t do much aside from topping their autoflower plant.
Growing autoflower and photoperiod cannabis in the same grow room is not difficult as autoflowers don’t need to rely on photoperiod. As long as you adjust nutrients and training you can have multiple small harvests from the autoflowers and a couple of larger harvests throughout the year from the regular photoperiod cannabis.
