The Perfect Lighting Plan for Auto-flowering Cannabis

Are you growing auto-flowering strains? In this article, we will address the correct Vertical farming to help your autos produce the best possible yields.

What is the best lighting program for auto-flowering cannabis?

Auto-flowering cannabis strains flower based on age and not as a result of a change in their light cycle. However, providing autos with the right amount of light remains an essential step in ensuring the best possible yield. Read on to learn everything you need to know about the most appropriate lighting for auto-flowering cannabis strains.

Light cycle 18/6: healthy and robust

Cannabis is a C3 plant, which means it can absorb CO₂ by photosynthesis even during daylight hours. And since auto-flowering strains have shorter vegetative stages and typically smaller sizes than photoperiod strains. You’ll need to try to expose them by using Vertical farming to at least 18 hours of light per day.

 This will allow them to grow healthy and robust, while avoiding excessive spending on their electricity bills. Auto-flowers love light as much as traditional photoperiod strains, they just don’t rely on it to start flowering.

24-hour light cycle makes auto-flowers grow best

Some growers prefer to give their autos 24 hours of uninterrupted light, claiming this maximizes vegetative growth. However, there are other growers who believe that the 18-hour light cycle allows plants a short “recovery” period. According to them, essential for healthy and strong growth.

So far, no consensus has yet been reached on which Vertical farming makes auto-flowers grow best, the 18 hour or the 24 hour one. We have seen numerous growers achieve excellent results with both methods. To help you make your decision, we recommend that you try both variants to see which one works best for you.

What is the best lighting program for auto-flowering cannabis?

Some growers claim that adopting the 12/12 light cycle for the flowering phase is also good for autos. Sure, even under Vertical farming, an auto-flower can produce a decent yield. But remember that the amount of buds produced by a 12/12 light cycle will be significantly less than a crop exposed to an 18- or 24-hour cycle. Some of the reasons why you might consider 12/12 for your autos are:

Heat issues: If the climate you live in is very hot, you may need to turn off the lights during the day to prevent the grow room from overheating. In that case, Vertical farming under a 12/12 light cycle (with the lights on at night) might be the best solution to avoid causing heat stress on the plants.

Growing auto-flowers alongside photoperiod strains:

If you are growing auto-flowers alongside feminized photoperiod strains. You will probably need to place the autos in the same room as the feminized flowering plants. This means autos will only get 12 hours of light per day.

Save money: Leaving grow lights on for 18–24 hours for a few months can significantly raise your electricity bill. If you want to grow autos on a tight budget, you might want to go for the 12-hour light cycle.

Adopt SOG with Vertical farming

The SOG, or Sea of Green, is a “training” technique aimed at increasing production yields. Instead of making plants as large as possible. SOG is about growing large numbers of small plants close together to form a uniform canopy, thus maximizing light exposure and space.

SOG is an amazing technique to use with autos because it takes advantage of the smaller natural stature of these strains. Although each grower has their own version of SOG, most grow 4 to 16 plants per m². Depending on how long they let the plants grow.

How long they let the plants grow?

Depending on the size of the specific varieties to grow. We recommend Vertical farming using 7-10l pots and growing between 4 and 6 plants per m². This way, you should be able to make the most of space and lighting, while providing plants with enough airflow to avoid mold problems. If you decide to grow more plants per m². Remember to use smaller pots to control their size and avoid overcrowding in the grow room.

Provide insufficient light to cannabis plants

Many manufacturers of cheap and poor-quality LEDs intentionally confuse growers with wattage numbers and tech specs. Actually, in Vertical farming the wattage does not provide information on the amount of light emitted. But rather indicates the energy required to produce the light. Instead, you need to measure in lumens — the amount of light actually generated.

Therefore, regardless of wattage, the light may spread unevenly and / or not penetrate adequately between the branches of the plant. Basically, don’t be misled by incorrect information and always buy from reputable suppliers.

How much amount of light needed in your grow space?

Providing plants with adequate lighting can become difficult when growing more than one specimen. For example, a single 300W LED lamp and Vertical farming may be enough for one or two plants. But it will not be enough for a larger space with numerous specimens.

Follow the recommendations of the LED vendor and / or manufacturer to understand the amount of light needed in your grow space. If you want more information on using a particular type of LED. You can also consult online reviews or gardening forums.

Follow an inadequate lighting scheme in vertical farming

In the most reputable cannabis seed shops, you can buy auto-flowering cannabis seeds and feminized photoperiod cannabis seeds. Vertical farming is pretty easy to manage, especially in terms of lighting. You can expose them to 18–24 hours of light a day from planting to harvest time. The plants will flower automatically after a few weeks which makes them very beneficial.

Feminized (photoperiodic) strains provides 18–24 hours of light

Feminized (photoperiodic) strains, on the other hand, are usually grown in a scheme that provides 18–24 hours of light during the vegetative phase, and 12 hours of light / 12 hours of darkness in the flowering phase. This is not a problem, as growers can install timers in the Vertical farming.

For beginners, however, it can be difficult to set the various lighting cycles and change the light spectra. Especially if they are not using full spectrum lamps.

Certainly, even the less experienced can easily learn how to manage the lighting in their grow room. But sometimes the new LED technologies can be misleading. If so, you may be wondering why your plants have grown to colossal size without producing any buds!

Try Vertical farming — with due care

For more tips on growing with LED lights, check out our article on how to make the most of LED lights. Finally, remember that even with the most advanced LED system, your ganja will not magically grow. You will need to provide your plants with the necessary water and nutrients, a good substrate and everything they need.