Your chosen seed. Fem photo, Reg photo, fast flower or auto flower

Just would like to see what your all out there growing. Share some tips for others who might want to try a different form of seed.

For me, ive only grown auto flower. But, this year I’ve decided to buy some fem photo seeds with a new tent on order. going to give it shot. Any advice from those who have done both are welcome.

Given the choice I go for top tier fems. They have the best end product imho.

Autos have their place if time is an issue (like my new run is all auto because I have to finish it by July or the heat will destroy them). But in my (albeit limited) experience I think the end product is not quite as good as photos.

I haven’t bothered with regs for the simple reason I only have a small tent and don’t have the ability to grow 8-10 plants through to sexing. Regs I think are best for breeding (or maybe some rare genetics - some of the small breeders only offer regs), which I have not got into yet.

But for my next runs I am going to be looking into pheno hunting, the variance I’ve seen between plants of the same strain has been crazy. I want to try to make sure they are consistently good in future rather than a lottery of which ones are gonna be good. I just want to grow consistently A+ tier bud, is that too much to ask lol. So I might have to get a new tent to keep mothers in. But that’s for another thread, for now I have my hands full drying my last run and starting the auto run…

Thats good stuff. Yeah, i currently have seedlings of autos running at the moment. Should be done by july. Which, like you is important. Last run i had was flowing during my hottest months of August and September… ended up heat stressing my plants in late flower. It started creating seed pods in my buds just before i harvest. Made it horrible to smoke. Ended up turning all of it into editables instead.

On Tuesday i get my new tent i ordered, (4×4) then also buying the new feminized photos. Im planning to start them in September. Heat will be good for them as babies, then should cool down just in time for when i switch to flower.

Im planning to take cuttings of the plant’s. I think the idea of a mother plant is great. And cost effective to not buying new seeds.

If you end up getting that A++ with pheno hunting. Imma need to try it.

Sounds like we are in exactly the same position - my first run all produced seed too due to the heat stress. A lot of lost terps too. Then my second run all turned out tasteless for the same reason. Turned a lot of it into concentrates. Some of the hash I made out of it was amazing though, really top grade. Something to keep in mind if your flower is not what you wanted.

So this auto run will be it until Sept then will do a new photo run.

Where you at btw? I’m in Spain. Crazy hot summer and pretty warm winters too. I am not installing AC in the basement so it is winter grows from now on. If I can squeeze two grows into next winter then do another auto run in the spring then I should be good for the year.

And yeah, when that A++ hits it is party round my house time

Im in Washington state, USA. Overall its not crazy hot here. Our summer average in the 80s f range. We will see some weeks in the upper 90s to 100 f. If i was growing in my house it wouldn’t be a problem. The problem is i grow in my garage and it gets very hot(about 105f, i think thats around 40c) with the sun beating on the big door all day with no air movement. There isn’t really a way to cool down my grow without dropping way too much money.

Being a newb, might I ask how one goes about knowing top tier, is it a grade system or more just a reputation thing?

Im halfway through my first grow of apparently regular seeds and the guess work has made things interesting.

Strictly from what I’ve read, I like the idea of Fem Photo, allows for more options and issues. Autos sound like if you stunt them, they don’t fully recover. But with like 60 day flowering times… i mean if you need some fast lol

I will add more later, but how about adding “Early Version” seeds to the tittle? I recently got some free ones from Spain (Delicious Seeds). I live in Canada, it took 1.5month to get my Cotton Kandy Kush seeds form them, and they sent me 3 Early version seeds, new to me… apparently, it is the middle ground between Photoperiod and Autoflower… in that I can Veg it as long as I want, then flip it to flower, and it finishes like 2 weeks earlier than a Photoperiod.

I have grown both Autoflower and Fem Photo seeds, I prefer photoperiod for my style of growing.

I only recently noticed the fast flowering seeds. Must be a newer thing. Im interested to hear on anyone with experience with them also. I just wonder if fast flowering cuts down on yields. Thats my concern.

I’m very tempted to try a fastflower on my backdeck this spring or summer. May end up finishing inside if the heats too bad, but experiences are fun. I do believe I read the yield is said to be fairly similar to Auto, and since I’m wanting to try auto next. This sounds like a fun experiment.

In fact now I need to go seed shopping lol, good thing there’s a post for that!

I use MSNL out of holland. Superior genetics and I’ve had about 98% success rate with their seeds

Very comparable to autos as they are a byproduct of breeding them . . . fast versions already have the Ruderalis cut into them for the faster finish, but takes another generation to see the autoflower trait emerge.

I have tried a few fast versions; GBP, Strawberry Banana and Dos Si Dos. Not my cup of tea so I’ll stick with regs or fems. My opinion, based on my personal experience, is that regular seeds are better than feminized and feminized are better than fast or autos.

No offense intended if you think autos or fast versions are the best thing ever that’s great

Thanks for the informative input @frogyrogy !

I am pretty much the same page as you I guess, but I never really considered if regular seeds were better than feminized seeds. I always went with feminized so far, but I think I might start buying regular seeds, especially if I want to start eventually breeding.

What would you say makes regular better than fem? Would it be yields, potency, flavour?

Honestly, I can’t say a regular is truly “better” than a feminized plant. Of course when it comes to breeding, regulars are a must, and I’ve been taught that clones from mother plants that have a full set of chromosomes are healthier and more vigorous than those from feminized mothers.

Thinking back, when feminized hit the market it was about like the feminized vs auto debate today. Ask 10 growers why one is better than the other and get 10 different answers that may all be right . . . or wrong.

It’s a very interesting debate none the less, one I’m not sure where I stand lol. Spent the morning looking at fast and auto seeds, fast doesnt seem must faster than auto lol and so far I love the versatility of the fem. Not sure regs are for me cause id feel bad killing em and pretty sure a hous full of males wont end well lol

Did find some fun strains I wanna try now, though.

If i had to guess, your probably correct. Regular seeds are basically in the raw form. So, its probably going to be a healthier seed overall. Reg seeds are probably less likely to hermaphrodite then a feminized would.

I just think its great that we have these options. All these varieties for different living and growing situations.

I started out growing fem autos, i wanted short growing times so i could get more grows in to learn more. Also, my tent has too many light leaks. So photo was a bad option. Soon ill be going to the fem photos with a new tent. I’d be interested in doing Reg seeds in the future. I just dont have the space currently to make more plants till i sex them. Also, my heart would probably bleed from just trashing a healthy male.