Autoflower breeders are the reigning kings of cannabis breeding

[Chuck Jägerschnitzel]

Over the past 3 decades or so, regular flowering cannabis breeders have produced some extraordinarily tasty & potent cannabis varieties, but Chem is now more than 30 years old and its still amongst the strongest and most sought after bud.
During the same period of time, auto breeders have taken a completely impotent variety of cannabis and turned it into many varieties which are nearly on par with the best regular flowering types.
Its not even a close contest, compared to auto breeders, the regular flowering breeders have just been spinning their wheels for 3 decades. Auto breeders are the champs.

 

[Cvh]

I really like autoflowers, it's perfect for my climate. It's a game changer here. You can find now almost any variety in an autoflower variety with barely any difference with the regular variety.

 

[goingrey]

I don't really agree.

Chem and even more so OG. OK, technically 30 years old, sure.

But who had them 30 years ago, a couple of guys maybe. Who had even heard of them 30 years ago? Not many.

Only during the last 10 years or so they have become more available and incorporated into breeding programs and then Cookies and all the dessert strains and so on followed. And because of that the "photo" options available today look quite different than they used to. You can like the new stuff or not, that's a matter of opinion, but unquestionably some kind of breeding has been going on.

Now with the autoflowers sure there has been a lot of progress. But it's not really accurate to say that autoflower breeders have taken a non-psychoactive variety and made it psychoactive with their breeding skills alone in some kind of vacuum. What has actually happened is that they have crossed autos with the photo strains, often these very new strains, and taken advantage of the wheel spinning you mention.. as they should, nothing wrong with that.

So it's not so black and white.

 

[NEED 4 SEED]

What I am always wondering when it comes to autos is: They can only do line breeding and can't keep any parents for obvious reason. So they always have to keep breeding to the next generation and so on. Some breeders must be in f50 generations. Right?

 

[Old Piney]

can't keep any parents for obvious reason.

Good point they certainly have a tougher but to crack

 

[midwestkid]

nope

 

[GreenToAsT]

Auto breeders are the champs.

Dude you missed April’s fools by a month.

 

[romanoweed]

but they say they are the Kings already, of cannabis as a whole:

 

[Old Piney]

but they say they are the Kings already, of cannabis as a whole:

Gready bastard strain hunting with dollars in his eyes

 

[romanoweed]

it was a funny joke.
for me the society as a whole made the Landraces, and therefore , well, those strains born in a symbiose out human and wild race, thats good weed. if someboday makes it autoflower without changing even a percent of the high, thaat would be royal, lol

 

[TheDarkStorm]

Isnt alot of the auto breeding based on the low riders wich were all worked off Williams wonder.....Williams wonder was nevils oaxacan dwarfs x afghan(the Afghan probably nl x r)...nevil had already done the auto breeding work on the seeds in the 80s.....most of the autos today are all based on that work.
Took them years and years to even work out how to use the genetics properly. Even then they took the longest route possible.

 

[Chuck Jägerschnitzel]

I don't really agree.

Chem and even more so OG. OK, technically 30 years old, sure.

But who had them 30 years ago, a couple of guys maybe. Who had even heard of them 30 years ago? Not many.

Only during the last 10 years or so they have become more available and incorporated into breeding programs and then Cookies and all the dessert strains and so on followed. And because of that the "photo" options available today look quite different than they used to. You can like the new stuff or not, that's a matter of opinion, but unquestionably some kind of breeding has been going on.

Now with the autoflowers sure there has been a lot of progress. But it's not really accurate to say that autoflower breeders have taken a non-psychoactive variety and made it psychoactive with their breeding skills alone in some kind of vacuum. What has actually happened is that they have crossed autos with the photo strains, often these very new strains, and taken advantage of the wheel spinning you mention.. as they should, nothing wrong with that.

So it's not so black and white.

RFK Skunk was around back then too, so was Albert Walker, all super strong stuff. RFK Skunk was a 1990 Dead tour souvenir, Chem from 1991. All of that bud was so strong that it was more than one-hit-shit for some people, I had friends who didn't like being that high after just one puff of RFK. On the other side of the coin Low Ryder was just a novelty plant 20 years ago, neat-o, but kinda weak smoke. The progress with autos in terms of cannabinoid content is measurable and quantifiable and undeniable. This is what makes auto breeders the reigning kings of cannabis breeding, nobody else can say "I added 200% more THC to my plants over the past two decades". I'm saying it is that black & white, there can be only one king, and that king is auto breeders. Runner up isn't a bad result. Autos have only improved because of the availablity of kick ass photo strains to breed with, but auto breeding takes more time and patience, making a BX1 with autos, if you're breeding back to a photo, takes as many generations as making C99 did and if you make the auto BX1 from the photo plant, you still come out with a seed batch stigmatized by the reputation of autos as being on the weak side. That reputation may have been true 10 years ago, but it isn't anymore, auto breeders, the kings of cannabis breeding, have seen to that. It won't be too much longer before that reputation of auto bud as being second best fades into the past and everyone acknowledges that auto breeders are the kings of cannabis breeding. You may have your doubts now, but you are destined to change your mind eventually.

 

[TheDarkStorm]

RFK Skunk was around back then too, so was Albert Walker, all super strong stuff. RFK Skunk was a 1990 Dead tour souvenir, Chem from 1991. All of that bud was so strong that it was more than one-hit-shit for some people, I had friends who didn't like being that high after just one puff of RFK. On the other side of the coin Low Ryder was just a novelty plant 20 years ago, neat-o, but kinda weak smoke. The progress with autos in terms of cannabinoid content is measurable and quantifiable and undeniable. This is what makes auto breeders the reigning kings of cannabis breeding, nobody else can say "I added 200% more THC to my plants over the past two decades". I'm saying it is that black & white, there can be only one king, and that king is auto breeders. Runner up isn't a bad result. Autos have only improved because of the availablity of kick ass photo strains to breed with, but auto breeding takes more time and patience, making a BX1 with autos, if you're breeding back to a photo, takes as many generations as making C99 did and if you make the auto BX1 from the photo plant, you still come out with a seed batch stigmatized by the reputation of autos as being on the weak side. That reputation may have been true 10 years ago, but it isn't anymore, auto breeders, the kings of cannabis breeding, have seen to that. It won't be too much longer before that reputation of auto bud as being second best fades into the past and everyone acknowledges that auto breeders are the kings of cannabis breeding. You may have your doubts now, but you are destined to change your mind eventually.

Williams wonder was stong....Even parented the tenese hog as well as others....point is they didn't know how to use the auto genetics and made the mess of lowrider from it....nevil had already done the work if they new how to use it years back...he already had stuff flowering under 24hr light yet keeping the potency of the photo plants way bak in the late 80s

 

[Chuck Jägerschnitzel]

it was a funny joke.
for me the society as a whole made the Landraces, and therefore , well, those strains born in a symbiose out human and wild race, thats good weed. if someboday makes it autoflower without changing even a percent of the high, thaat would be royal, lol

I'm right with you on that, I'd love to see faithful auto versions of every landrace made available, but translating a landrace photoperiod plant to autoflowering is a big job, would take half a decade, maybe 13 generations if you're running as fast as you can and make no mistakes. So why not get started ASAP? The journey of 1000 miles starts with that first step.

 

[Chuck Jägerschnitzel]

Williams wonder was stong....Even parented the tenese hog as well as others....point is they didn't know how to use the auto genetics and made the mess of lowrider from it....nevil had already done the work if they new how to use it years back...he already had stuff flowing under 24hr light yet keeping the potency of the photo plants way bak in the late 80s

If Nevil was doing all that, they that further justifies his stellar reputation and also reiterates the fact that autoflower breeders are the kings of cannabis breeding

 

[goingrey]

RFK Skunk was around back then too, so was Albert Walker, all super strong stuff. RFK Skunk was a 1990 Dead tour souvenir, Chem from 1991. All of that bud was so strong that it was more than one-hit-shit for some people, I had friends who didn't like being that high after just one puff of RFK. On the other side of the coin Low Ryder was just a novelty plant 20 years ago, neat-o, but kinda weak smoke. The progress with autos in terms of cannabinoid content is measurable and quantifiable and undeniable. This is what makes auto breeders the reigning kings of cannabis breeding, nobody else can say "I added 200% more THC to my plants over the past two decades". I'm saying it is that black & white, there can be only one king, and that king is auto breeders. Runner up isn't a bad result. Autos have only improved because of the availablity of kick ass photo strains to breed with, but auto breeding takes more time and patience, making a BX1 with autos, if you're breeding back to a photo, takes as many generations as making C99 did and if you make the auto BX1 from the photo plant, you still come out with a seed batch stigmatized by the reputation of autos as being on the weak side. That reputation may have been true 10 years ago, but it isn't anymore, auto breeders, the kings of cannabis breeding, have seen to that. It won't be too much longer before that reputation of auto bud as being second best fades into the past and everyone acknowledges that auto breeders are the kings of cannabis breeding. You may have your doubts now, but you are destined to change your mind eventually.

Well breeding for autoflowering doesn't really take more time/generations than breeding for any recessive trait.

But sure, auto breeding comes with some extra challenges. Mainly from not being able to keep clones around.

So who are your favorite auto breeders and what are their best offerings?

 

[romanoweed]

i want to know the closest to a equatorial Sativa (original Haze , or atleast Skunk with mostly sativa Lineage) as a very good Auto version.

 

[Cvh]

i want to know the closest to a equatorial Sativa (original Haze , or atleast Skunk with mostly sativa Lineage) as a very good Auto version.

Those certainly exist, for example I have grown last season a purple haze auto. If you want more landrace sativa auto types then I think you should certainly check out the autoflowering section on Ace seeds. I suggest you go also through the autoflowering catalogus of your favourite seedbank and checkout the different varieties from different vendors and breeders.

Mine autoflowers went around 1,80m big

Here are some pictures

https://www.icmag.com/media/albums/autoflowers-2022.18131871/

 

[Chuck Jägerschnitzel]

Well breeding for autoflowering doesn't really take more time/generations than breeding for any recessive trait.

But sure, auto breeding comes with some extra challenges. Mainly from not being able to keep clones around.

So who are your favorite auto breeders and what are their best offerings?

I've had excellent performance from Female Seeds' NL auto, when the warning about difficulty uploading photos goes away I have some pretty neat photos I want to share. I crossed my custom diesel blend with their NL auto several years ago and eventually came out with autoflowering plants that have an incredibly brilliant tap root and a nice squat structure above ground that allows it to stay somewhat out of sight while still producing good weight and plenty of resin. I've grown the seeds the past two years in the same spot without watering, its full sun spot and we don't get rain during the summer here and those autos don't mind, they find all the water they need on their own, even when its very hot out, I've never seen them wilt. I grew one at home last year in a 2 gallon container and got about an ounce off a plant that was only 12" tall.
I was actually planning to upload my geurilla adventure pictures when I saw the upload warning, so instead I improvised and started this thread instead, in hopes of bringing some attention to ICMag's relativly neglected autoflowering section using combative bombastic rhetoric since exciting imagery was temporarily ruled out.

Cvh those are some nice looking pictures, that plant looks like it was still going strong right up to the end, nice fat top, must've kept your pipe loaded for quite a while.

 

[midwestkid]

ive grown some autos and they arent my thing.
i think there's a time and a place for everything, so im not going to take a giant shit on them.
BUT i think mainly they are handy for people who are not smart enough (or are to lazy) to wrap their head around the concept of what a photo sensitive plant really is. understanding a light schedule and/or the increasing/decreasing light that occurs in nature is beyond some people.
(if your climate only allows for auto genetics please disregard these comments. you are using these genes appropriately)