Main Characteristics of Automatic Plants
Autoflowering or Automatic marijuana seeds are characterized by being plants that flower on their own, meaning they are not photodependent, they don't depend on the light and dark cycle as is the case with feminized cannabis seeds. Once the seed has germinated, it goes through a vegetative growth period of about 15-21 days and then begins flowering regardless of the hours of light it is receiving. This characteristic makes them plants highly appreciated by many growers, since they offer a harvest in only 60-80 days from germination, much faster than traditional genetics. 
However, many other growers have never planted autoflowering seeds because they believe they are more difficult to grow or that they require special care, when simply it's enough to keep in mind some basic concepts when working with them. For this reason, in this post we want to answer the most frequently asked questions about Autos, as well as reveal the pros and cons of autoflowering marijuana cultivation.
What are the advantages of growing autoflowers?
The main advantage of this type of genetics is, without a doubt, their fast development cycle of between 65 and 90 days depending on their genetics and sativa load, which allows us to enjoy their cannabis harvest very quickly. This is ideal for those growers who don't want to invest much time in their cultivation, to make several harvests during the outdoor season, in a staggered manner, and thus achieve an abundant flower production by making the most of reduced spaces, or to have something to smoke during the summer, before our feminized or regular outdoor plants finish their development. 
What are the disadvantages of growing autoflowering plants?
Regarding the disadvantages they offer, very few compared to the advantages, we can highlight their size and short vegetative time which will mean we always get small plants, which results in them not exceeding 150-200g/plant, both in outdoor marijuana cultivation and indoors. This point is really subjective, as it will be a disadvantage for lovers of huge plants full of bud colas, but it will be ideal for those who want a discreet harvest with a good bud/size ratio. Another difference would be that autos offer THC levels of between 18% and 20% on average, similar to most feminized genetics, but it's true that the latter can offer a higher concentration of this cannabinoid, even reaching 25%-28% in some cases, while this doesn't happen with autos. One point we should keep in mind is that they don't allow us to take clones to work with, meaning that we won't be able to keep a mother plant from a clone, since these clones behave the same as the mother, starting flowering when they reach maturity, after a short time. Finally, some growers believe they are not suitable plants for indoor cultivation, given that they need a large pot that's taller than it is wide (between 15 and 20 liters) to offer their full potential, taking up a lot of space in the grow tent and allowing us to grow few plants at a time, which means all the light energy invested is not well utilized. 
Here's the translation from Spanish to English: ---
Why do autoflowering plants stay small?
Knowing everything said up to now, it's time to address this question that we've surely all asked ourselves at some point when growing Autoflowering genetics. My plants haven't grown. Why? Well, in short, we can say that it's due either to environmental causes, or to stress, or to the pot size and the amount of substrate. That is, autoflowering plants have a very short growth period, as we've already mentioned, and they must take maximum advantage of it to grow as much as possible. Furthermore, the more space the plant's main root has, the more it will also grow in height, which is why these plants show their maximum potential if we plant them directly in the ground, since they don't encounter the limitation imposed by the pot floor. 
If we plant the plant in a pot that's too small, or it receives very few hours of sunlight, or bad weather and cold, or if we use very compact soil that hinders root development, or we give it little fertilizer, or it gets attacked by fungi or cannabis pests, the plant will halt its development, staying very small. The ideal is to plant it in a deep pot or directly in the ground using an aerated, balanced, and quality substrate, during the spring - summer season, when there's no longer cold or frost, with a good amount of light hours (ideally 16h-20h), watering it carefully, avoiding both deficiencies and excesses, to achieve optimal development.
Can automatic plants be pruned?
What pot and what fertilizers to use in the cultivation of Autoflowering plants?
If we are going to plant them on a terrace or indoors, we should do it in a pot, either rigid or Smart Pot type. The volume we choose will determine the final size of the plants, becoming smaller as we reduce the volume of the containers. If we want the plants to offer their full potential, we should use an 18L conical pot, with greater depth than width, which allows the main root to develop to the maximum. But if we want to control their height for a discreet cultivation, we can opt for 10-12l pots at most. As for fertilizers, we can use the ones we like most, whether organic, organo-mineral or pure mineral, as long as we keep in mind that they don't need high concentrations of nitrogen due to their short vegetative growth. 
Can autoflowers be grown in SCROG and SOG?
Automatic marijuana varieties are not suitable for this growing method. This is because plants grown in SCROG require several weeks of growth to be able to develop enough branches and thus fill the growing space, something that cannot be done with them given that they have a limited growth time of 2-3 weeks. For marijuana cultivation with the SCROG method, non-autoflowering varieties with a sativa percentage of at least 50% are recommended. For this type of cultivation, we need to give a longer growth period than for SOG cultivation, that is, about 20 days minimum. The recommended varieties for the SCROG growing method are Easy Haze, Amnesika 2.0, Fruity Jack and our regular variety Jamaican Blueberry BX. As for SOG cultivation, it can be done, using small pots (5-7L) so that the plants develop only a central top with hardly any branching, filling the growing space with them, but we would achieve the same result as using feminized plants, without any advantage. Happy growing!
