hi everyone got a question on autos, I had three plants growing, 2 regs, and 1 femenized. My two reg Og chem did not really show sex during veg, flipped them on 8/11 and one turned out to be male, cut it down and it looks like the other one might be male. I have some auto that came with the order I got, can I just do 12/12 with them from seed, so I can get back quanity on the plants I'm losing. I know it will still take some time. thanks for any feedback.

That's a pretty good trick.

You can grow any Cannabis seed under 12/12 lighting from the gitgo.
I did just that for 2-3 years with non-auto flowering strains. I found the plants grew vegetatively for several weeks before they began to set buds. Once buds are set, genetics takes over, so finishing time is dependent upon strain and environment. Overall, it took about 13-15 weeks to go from seed to harvest. The plants were a foot or so tall and yielded, well, not a lot.

Comparatively, seeds from the same batch that were grown under 18/6 for 5-6 weeks before going to 12/12 took about 16 weeks to go from seed to harvest and they were 3-3.5 ft tall and yielded, well, a whole lot more.

As you know, auto flowering strains flower based upon growth and development, rather than a response to day length. Fewer hours of light = less photosynthesis = slower growth and development, so 12/12 from sprout would be suboptimal.

Just my nickel's worth...
If you're planting 3 seeds or less go with feminized. Plant a seed, get a bud producing plant; you need that assurance when planting a small number of seeds.

thanks steve

with wut ive read on autoflowers, its best to go 18/6 or 20/4 or even 24 hrs on, the more light the more grown the more yield with autoflowers.

Like Fera said use 18 hours a day or more light to get max growth out of your plants.

Start them from sprout in at least a 4" square pot too. I left mine in tiny pots too long and have 7 little plants that look like buds off a big plant.

The guys I got the seeds from grew nice plants that finished up around 16". They go from sprout right into a pot around 1/2 gal.

I'm about a week away from harvesting a bunch of seeds from those little Purple Gem autos. I'll be starting the next sprouts in the 4" pots right off.

On the autoflowers you don't need to ever go to 12/12 as you can veg them at 24 hrs and if you veg long enough, they will eventually flower on you, most cut it to 18/6 when they are ready to force flower.

My experience has been varied with having grown, cloned and killed many a breed of autoflower through the years, but will tell you this, if you need a fast plant meaning from start to finish, they are the way to go, now if you are after a high yield, you will most likely be unhappy.... why? because in my experience one cannot get 16oz of dried cured bud from an indoor autoflower, I know I have tried every method known to man and never succeeded, eventually I figured out to get away from them and now have yields like I desire.

To each his own and autoflowers may be just what you need in your life right now.

thanks for the advise guys, that helped me make up my mind.

What did you decide?

Decided that Im just going to finish, the one cheese plant if my buddy can't come through with some blueberry clones. I decided next grow going to give DWC a try.

DWC is my area of expertise when it comes to growing and I plan to start a tub this weekend. I got some 6 month old clones that need a decent home.