When it comes to cannabis seeds, there are three terms you should be able to understand and differentiate before you make your purchase: photoperiodic, autoflowering and feminized.
To begin with, photoperiodic is the term used to describe those types of marijuana plants that, as the word suggests, depend on the light cycle, or period, to trigger their different growing stages. For example, a photoperiodic plant will continue to stay in the vegetative stage, when the plant is growing its build and structure, until the light cycle it is receiving reaches a 12/12 light-dark cycle or anything under 12 hours of light. This is when the plant will get the sign that she needs to jump into the flowering stage, which is the final step for the plant to develop the weed buds and be then ready for harvest and use.
On the other hand, autoflowering is the term that refers to those plants that are independent of the light cycle and are thrown into the different stages of growing, again, as the name suggests, automatically. These plants are usually smaller sized than those that are photoperiods, but normally they are also much easier to grow, making them ideal for beginner or inexperienced growers.
Lastly, feminized is a term that can go along with either photoperiods or autoflowering seeds, and it’s indicating that the seeds have been genetically modified to ensure your plants will be female. Why is this important? Simply because female cannabis plants are the only ones that will produce the flowers or buds that you’ll most likely want to consume later. Males are the ones that produce seeds, ideal for breeders who want to experiment with cross-breeding.
So now that you know the differences you’re ready to start checking out your favorite strains and germinate them!
Source: https://2fast4buds.com/autoflowering-cannabis-seeds
