Auto only commercial grow?

[jadaway]

Are there examples of commercial companies growing autos only? The auto features seem ideal for commercial. If the quality and yield are comparable...why not? What am I missing about growing autos at scale?

 

[Steppa]

Hey yo!.. there's plenty of companies producing only or many autos... check the Autoflower and seed banks forum here on AFN (couldn't work out how to post a link) that'll point you in the right direction!..
Theres nowt against running a large scale auto grow other than cost!.. seed cost gets pretty expensive buying fe.inised seeds, as you can't clone them, otherwise you'd have to go down the regular auto route make your own seeds try f1's out and find what you're looking for and breed those and test offspring etc etc... most stabilised auto seeds are at the 4th generation F4... is that something ya plan on doing?.. or jus curious?..
Easy now!..
Do you plan on running a

 

[EP3]

I would imagine that photoperiod plants will produce more grams per square meter, but take longer. So maybe they even themselves out at the end?

 

[jadaway]

That’s the biggest downside I see. Seeds and seed vendors. If I find a variety I really like, and my customers like, I’m pretty dependent on that vendor coming thru. I hope to run real champions for years potentially. Ya know, get those varieties really dialed in.

The seed costs are a but I’m looking at light dep curtains for a 14,000 sq ft greenhouse and damn. I could buy a lot of seedswith that cash.

The best way I can think of to fix this issue is to work a royalty deal out with the breeder. In exchange for setting me up to make fem seeds I pay a royalty every time a seed pops on my land. I now control myown destiny in regards to the most important issue. The breeder gets his just dues.

 

[jadaway]

I would imagine that photoperiod plants will produce more grams per square meter, but take longer. So maybe they even themselves out at the end?

I’m looking at a 20% increase in production space by getting rid of veg room. A decent reduction in labor by getting rid of veg room. No capital expense of light dep curtains, labor pulling them, or risk from damaging the plants while under the curtain.

Im guessing that even with a smaller yield per sq ft that the cash flow is better...potentially. I’m trying to find the catch with auto only.

 

[Proph]

Are there examples of commercial companies growing autos only? The auto features seem ideal for commercial. If the quality and yield are comparable...why not? What am I missing about growing autos at scale?

There is soo much more to it.. I don't know of many commercial facilities that are running strictly autos.. I know Daz (Nightowl) has a commercial guy running a few rooms of his gear.. But that's it.. It's not cost effective to run all autos.. I don't know any commercial grow running rooms from seed.. Who'd want to keep buying all those seeds every few months? Every plant will be different.. Size shape, end product will all be different every grow.. Little to zero consistency... Most commercial (for profit) grows are done using photo period clones.. That way you can run as many of the exactly same plant as you want and they will all turn out the same, grow the same and finish at the same time. Every time.. Not to mention that no one is paying rent/electricity on a 5000sq ft space to grow a bunch of 3ft tall plants that yeild 4 ounces.... You also can't really harvest a commercial grow when some plants are ready at 65 days while others need to go to 85 before they are ready.. Entire rooms get chopped at once.. I'm sure it will change over the next decade or so.. But right now, autos are still something that most commercial growers laugh at..

 

[jadaway]

There is soo much more to it.. I don't know of many commercial facilities that are running strictly autos.. I know Daz (Nightowl) has a commercial guy running a few rooms of his gear.. But that's it.. It's not cost effective to run all autos.. I don't know any commercial grow running rooms from seed.. Who'd want to keep buying all those seeds every few months? Every plant will be different.. Size shape, end product will all be different every grow.. Little to zero consistency... Most commercial (for profit) grows are done using photo period clones.. That way you can run as many of the exactly same plant as you want and they will all turn out the same, grow the same and finish at the same time. Every time.. Not to mention that no one is paying rent/electricity on a 5000sq ft space to grow a bunch of 3ft tall plants that yeild 4 ounces.... You also can't really harvest a commercial grow when some plants are ready at 65 days while others need to go to 85 before they are ready.. Entire rooms get chopped at once.. I'm sure it will change over the next decade or so.. But right now, autos are still something that most commercial growers laugh at..

Good points. It’s just a stoner rabbit hole I guess. For some reason I thought there were stabilized seeds >F5 that yielded similar per sq ft. If those assumptions are wrong then ya, it won’t work.

 

[Death The Cultivator]

I think if you planned to do outdoor grows then a greenhouse with lights would serve your purposes best. The issue as Proph said, is the lack of consistency from pheno to pheno while there are production goals to meet. Have you accounted for seed failures? What about autos that don't auto? That will require a 12/12 or removal. By v

If you really wanted to do autos you would have to eventually breed your own seeds. I don't see autos as a lucrative venture indoors especially as we're seeing companies expanding their tissue cultures. With TC, one explant aka mother plant, can generate 70k clones and do it in way less space than it will take you to breed autos or photo growers' dedicated mom/clone rooms.

As far as yield goes, you have more control over veg time with photos and the beautiful SOG technique that can yield 1oz per plant. Talking 140g per sqft with no veg time and a equal turn around time to autos without having to prune or do anything.

Imo, I don't see a full auto commercial grow working smoothly unless it's outdoors or in a greenhouse. Look at @derek420colorado LAG - light assisted greenhouse. With something like that, I believe you would be better off. Otherwise I think your competition, harvest, production goals, and labor would be too much just to get an additional 20% that could be done with c02.

I see the merit in saving money upfront but compared to running photos, I see money being lost or at the least not getting your full dues using autos.

 

[Arthur]

Not stable enough yet... have been in the bay area California for 50 yrs, gelato 33 needs to look, smell, taste and hit like gelato 33. The 33 stands for the 33rd cut from a run of many gelato mothers. Only one made the cut, was cloned and became a superstar. For market, you run superstars, not maybe superstars.

 

[Steppa]

... @damien50 ... Good points well made!..