History of Autoflowering Seeds

[PowerSeed]

History of Autoflowering Seeds


Autoflowering seeds start to flower automatically regardless the amount of light (sun) hours they get. This means autoflowering plants don't respond to the photoperiod, but start to flower when they reach a certain age. This unique trait gives autoflowering cannabis seeds several advantages over cannabis seeds which do respond to the photoperiod. These advantages made autoflowering seeds incredibly popular in the last few years. Although autoflowering seeds are relatively new on the market, of course they didn't come just out of nowhere.


‘Cannabis ruderalis’

To understand where autoflowering seeds come from we need to know more about the genetics from autoflowering seeds. The reason why these cannabis seeds are autoflowering is the presence of ‘Cannabis ruderalis’ in their genetic make up.

Cannabis ruderalis is a cannabis plant that most-likely originates from eastern and central Europe where she grows in the wild in large quantities. These days you can find her also growing throughout Canada and the United States. This cannabis plant was named ‘ruderalis’ after the German word ‘ruderal’, which means ‘weeds growing by the roadside’. Although some botanical experts claim that Cannabis ruderalis is a species of her own, which would make her a sister of Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica, Cannabis ruderalis is most-likely a subspecies of Cannabis sativa that escaped from outdoor plantations and ended up in the wild.

The area in eastern and central Europe where Cannabis ruderalis naturally grows has different environmental factors than the areas on this planet where Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica can be found. The summers are colder and shorter. Besides this there’s during summer a period when it’s light for almost 24 hours a day, not giving the plants enough time to rest during night time. In order to survive, the Cannabis ruderalis adapted to her new location and started to flower quicker and earlier, until they became completely autoflowering at one point.

Cannabis ruderalis has been used in Russian and Mongolian medicinal and shamanistic traditions for a long time. In the nineties the ‘Mongolian Academy of Sciences’ did a research on shamanic and folk knowledge of medicinal plants in Mongolia. They found that Cannabis sativa and Cannabis ruderalis have been used for various medicinal purposes in Mongolia. Even though Cannabis ruderalis has a lack of psychoactive potency, it’s plausible that shamans in Mongolia have used the Cannabis ruderalis in order to reach their ‘shamanic trance’.

Grower’s experimenting with Cannabis ruderalis

During the seventies and eighties some cannabis growers from Canada started to experiment with Cannabis ruderalis. They tried to cross Cannabis sativa and indica with Cannabis ruderalis. At the same time Neville Schoenmaker (founder of ‘The Seed Bank’, currently known as Sensi Seeds) was also experimenting with sativa/indica/ruderalis crossings in The Netherlands.

Although the Canadian growers and Neville did succeed in producing some crossings between sativa, indica and ruderalis, they were all not entirely satisfied and they stopped working with Cannabis ruderalis by a lack of good results. The main problem was the stability; they were not able to produce a stable, potent and fully autoflowering cannabis strain.

The introduction of Lowryder by The Joint Doctor

The whole situation around autoflowering seeds drastically changed when ‘The Joint Doctor’ came into the picture and introduced his ‘Lowryder’ strain. The Lowryder was introduced by The Joint Doctor the beginning of this century and was a crossing between Cannabis ruderalis, a William’s Wonder and a Northern Lights #2. The Lowryder was the first commercial, fully autoflowering cannabis strain on the market and showed the cannabis scene the huge potential of autoflowering Cannabis ruderalis hybrids.

The Joint Doctor was introduced to Cannabis ruderalis by his Mexican friend Antonio. Antonio gave The Joint Doctor some cannabis seeds he called ‘Mexican Rudy’ and told him this strain stayed short and flowered earlier than anything else. It’s not quite clear where this ‘Mexican Rudy’ originated from, but The Joint Doctor believes Mexican Rudy was an experimental cross of Cannabis ruderalis from Russia and Mexican cannabis, probably produced at the University of Mississippi during the 70’s. The Joint Doctor tried to do some more research about this cross, but could only find some obscure references. In any case, the strain was kept and grown out in Canada for several years before The Joint Doctor got his hands on them.

After growing Mexican Rudy for the first time, the Joint Doctor found out that she was very fast-maturing indeed and crossed her with a Northern Lights #2. He chose Northern Lights #2 for her (also) short stature and high level of THC. The result were some F1 seeds that produced nice plants, quick and compact, but they were not completely autoflowering. The Joint Doctor decided to cross this F1 with a few different varieties, of the best clones he could find. One of the clones he used was William’s Wonder. In the first batch of seedlings from William’s Wonder x (NL#2 x Mexican Rudy), he found some unusual male plants that flowered immediately, while they had only grown just a few sets of leaves.

The Joint Doctor used these autoflowering males as pollinators, and this caused his next generation to be fully autoflowering and they all finished within 60 days. From seed to harvest… His plants did not grow taller than 12 inches; an ideal plant for small closet growers. The Joint Doctor realized he had something special.

This first hybrid between William’s Wonder x (NL#2 x Rudy) was named ’Willy’s Automatic’ by The Joint Doctor. He continued with growing and experimenting with Willy’s Automatic and after 5 or 6 generations the strain was stable enough to be released. The Joint Doctor renamed Willy’s Automatic into ‘Lowryder’ and introduced the very first stable and fully autoflowering seed on the commercial seed market.

The first reactions on the Lowryder were skeptical. The Lowryder was not a particular good yielding plant and had a lack of potency. Besides the relatively small harvest and low THC% a lot of people did not like the taste and flavor of the Lowryder. Although there was a lot of skepticism, Lowryder did cause a certain buzz in the scene of cannabis cultivators thanks to her unusual ability to flower automatically.

The Joint Doctor realized he needed something better to come up with, so he went back to the stage of experimenting. He crossed the Lowryder with a Cannabis sativa from Brazil called Santa Maria and after a few generations of breeding to get her stabilized, the result was astonishing. The Joint Doctor had been able to create an autoflowering strain that had more potency and that had a much better taste and flavor than the original Lowryder. Last, but not least, it also had a much bigger yield. The Lowryder #2 was born.

Thanks to Lowryder #2 the buzz around autoflowering cannabis strains got enormous and more and more cannabis growers got convinced about the special qualities of autoflowering seeds. After Lowryder #2 The Joint Doctor released several other autoflowering seeds, such as Chronic Ryder, Diesel Ryder and Easy Ryder. All these autoflowering strains were based on the Lowryder #2. Since the Joint Doctor introduced his Lowryder many other breeders started to focus on the creation of new autoflowering seeds with their own characteristics.

Dinafem has been growing and experimenting with autoflowering seeds for many years and these days Dinafem is taking the lead in the research and development of new autoflowering cannabis seeds. At this moment Dinafem has an astonishing assortment of 6 different autoflowering seeds and you can be assured we will keep working hard on our autoflowering strains and surprise the cannabis grower’s world with some incredible new autoflowering seeds in the (near) future.

[taken from dinafem.org]​

 

[PowerSeed]

The Origins of the Lowryder

Lowryder is without a doubt a very interesting and exotic little plant. This auto-flowering cannabis dwarf was originally created by a man known as The Joint Doctor. The Lowryder and its relatives only grow about 12-15 inches (30-40 cm) tall but can still pack a punch. Lowryders will perform well under any condition but they are particularly suited for growing outdoors at northern latitudes, where the photoperiod during the warmer months of the year is unfavorable for regular cannabis plants. They are also very stealthy plants due to their small size. Most stay lower than the surrounding vegetation, keeping them well out of sight.

The Joint Doctor grew up surrounded by cannabis and quickly developed a healthy relationship with the plant. In his early years he tended to his father's cannabis garden as part of his daily chores. Later on he started growing his own and found it quite easy to work with the plants. During his years as an outdoor grower he soon became acquainted with Cannabis Ruderalis. It is a short and early flowering subspecies of Cannabis Sativa which has the unusual ability to flower under any light condition.

For us to understand the history of the Lowryder plant, we first have to take a look at the cannabis subspecies Ruderalis. Cannabis Ruderalis is described as a near-wild or feral subspecies of cannabis that originates from Cannabis Sativa plants that escaped from outdoor plantations in northern Russia and other parts of Eastern Europe. The days can be very long during the summer in these areas (reaching up to 24 hours of sunlight), so the plant developed the unusual ability to flower under any light condition. Flowering in Cannabis Ruderalis is not triggered by photoperiod as in other cannabis plants but by age alone. These plants will begin flowering under constant light when they are about 3-4 weeks old. Most plants will reach maturity at approximately 9 weeks from sprouting and can yield up to 50 grams per plant, depending on their environment. The auto-flowering trait is recessive in cannabis plants so picking the right plants and isolating the trait through hybridization actually requires a lot of experience and time.

In order to fully appreciate the Lowryder plant, we have to examine its history. The Joint Doctor first experimented with early flowering strains like Mighty Mite but later developed his own early-flowering strain, called 6-way. This plant was never commercialized but it gave birth to the idea of a fully automatic cannabis plant. Some of the components that led up to the first version of the Lowryder plant came into The Joint Doctor's possession through an acquaintance. They were given to him by a Mexican man called Antonio, who soon became a good friend. Antonio had been collecting and growing unusual cannabis strains for over thirty years and one of the strains that he shared with The Joint Doctor was called Mexican Rudy. The Mexican Rudy was short and flowered earlier and faster than anything that The Joint Doctor had seen before. The lineage of this mysterious plant is a bit unclear since part of the name clearly refers to Cannabis Ruderalis, while the other part suggests Mexican origin. One theory is that the Mexican Rudy was actually an experimental cross of Russian Ruderalis and a Mexican Sativa, made sometime in the 1970's, possibly at the University of Mississippi in the United States.

The Joint Doctor realized that the Mexican Rudy had great potential and that it could serve as the back bone for his auto-flowering hybrid but the plant lacked the taste and potency that you would expect from a recreational drug strain. While experimenting with various plants, The Joint Doctor crossed the Mexican Rudy with a Northern Lights #2 female. The results were pleasing, so he further hybridized the male offspring with a William’s Wonder clone. From this second generation of hybrids came a selection of extremely short and fast-flowering plants. They started flowering under constant light so the best ones were selected for further multiplication. All the subsequent generations retained this auto-flowering characteristic. The hybrid, dubbed simply Willy’s Automatic at first, became the basis for the Lowryder strain. Some also speculate that the pedigree of the Lowryder might have taken an alternate route and that it is actually based on a form of early-maturing industrial hemp, called Finola or FIN-314, which was developed by an American scientist for growing outdoors in Finland and other northern countries. Nevertheless, the end results are pleasing and a lot of work went into refining the strain for recreational use while still retaining the auto-flowering properties of the Cannabis Ruderalis ancestor. The Joint Doctor then grew out the variety on a small scale, selecting the best individuals for another five or six generations before it became commercialized. Unfortunately, Antonio passed away before the Lowryder's success was realized. Still, its notable presence on the market today is nothing but a tribute to his work. Part of him lives on through the legacy of this wonderful little plant that The Joint Doctor and others have since refined into perfection.

The Lowryder plant has been criticized for its lack of potency but the truth is that this is not hemp, far from it. The potency is quite good, if not great, in some of the more highly refined strains regardless of the Ruderalis heritage. It goes without saying that the harvestable bud on these small plants is not astronomical in weight but that is beside the point. These plants are grown for their unusual traits, not the amount of bud that they put out. For some, they are the only choice for a short outdoor season. I think that it is safe to say that the quality of the bud harvested from any plant is partly up to the skill of the grower and these plants are no different in that respect.

Since the birth of the first Lowryder plant, The Joint Doctor has continued his work on these amazing auto-flowering dwarfs. The more highly refined Lowryder #2 was created by crossing the first version of the plant to a strain called Santa Maria a.k.a. Planck. Santa Maria is a very potent cannabis variety that stems from the Brazilian part of The Amazon rainforest in South America, where it has been used in religious ceremonies for ages. It greatly improved on the characteristics of the first Lowryder plant, adding more flavor and taste whilst boosting potency. More recently, The Joint Doctor crossed his Lowryder #2 to Soma's New York City Diesel, thereby bringing the Diesel Ryder to the scene. This highly resinous strain normally favors one big main cola and was perfected over the course of some years in order to ensure that the plant takes on the excellent taste and high of the NYC Diesel whilst retaining the auto-flowering trait. This plant is more refined than all the previous versions and can be considered one of the best that he has to offer. The Joint Doctor also provides feminized versions of his plants, including an AK-47 and Lowryder #2 hybrid, called Easy Ryder.

There is also another skillful breeder who specializes in auto-flowering hybrids called Mdanzig. After reading an article about the Lowryder plant that The Joint Doctor was working on, he became very intrigued with this small, new wonder plant. His mission, much like The Joint Doctor’s, is to create even better automatic strains. After growing Lowryders for several generations he realized that a larger auto-flowering hybrid could be very useful and he has since contributed with an assortment of automatic plants. All the plants from The Joint Doctor and Mdanzig are the result of years of expert breeding, meaning that they are all true breeding, auto-flowering hybrids. You will get constant results with their strains.

There are also some interesting Lowryder hybrids offered by Lowlife Seeds, Dinafem, Kannabia, Flash Seeds and several other breeders. Their plants include Lowryder hybrids of AK-47 (a.k.a. Minigun), White Widow, Hindu Kush, Mazar, Blueberry and Skunk #1, just to name a few. Recently it seems like several new seed banks have emerged that specialize in auto-flowering hybrids and they also offer their own creations. There are certainly some real gems to be found among these seeds although the plants might not be as highly refined or sure to auto-flower as the originals created by The Joint Doctor. Coincidentally, many of the new hybrids contain the same strains that The Joint Doctor worked on for a long time in order to create his plants.

There is also a myriad of privately grown auto-flowering hybrids in circulation. Some of these include purple varieties and hybrids made with elite clones. The Joint Doctor recently released a new colorful version of the Lowryder, called Purple Jems. The plant was originally created by a private grower named Mossy, using highly developed Mazar genetics. This plant breeds true for the purple color and provides even more hope for the bright future that awaits the Lowryder family. Purple Lowryder varieties can also be found in the Lowryder Mix from The Joint Doctor as these seeds contain random samples from many different generations of plants.

The Lowryder and all its relatives are not only suited for outdoor growers but also for beginners looking for a forgiving indoor plant that can introduce them to the world of cannabis. Although Lowryder plants do not need the usual dark period in order to flower, they will not suffer from it. Lowryders are the fastest flowering cannabis plants around, finishing well before any of the early indica strains. They also stay very low, making them ideal for areas where height is an issue. Lowryders can be grown in soil, in hydroponics or any other way with similar results.

The best auto-flowering varieties are reported to still come from the pioneer himself, The Joint Doctor.

[taken from seedsman.com]​

 

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Lowryder HISTORY
The Discovery of Lowryder

The creation of Lowryder has been a lengthy process. Lowryder came out of a desire to breed innovative Cannabis, coupled with the limitations presented by confined spaces (and time) in often-changing locations, both indoor and out.

Growing up on a farm, the Joint Doctor took an early interest in Cannabis cultivation. Bringing some seed with him to college, he supplied his head stash by growing small plants in his dorm room and the adjacent woodlot. These “extra-curricular” activities, in time, turned out to be the beginning of a career in Cannabis research.

Later, while traveling, the Joint Doctor observed marihuana plantations, wild patches of Cannabis, towering hemp fields, and even ornamental hemp, learning a great deal about the incredible diversity of this species. He soon became convinced that nearly anything is possible, in the marijuana breeding department. To create new, better varieties, he reasoned, all that was needed was some diverse sources of high-quality genes, a keen eye for observation, lots of time and patience, and as it turns out, a bit of luck.

“I have always been attracted to novel and unusual characteristics in plants. Living on a farm, I started playing around with unusual varieties of food crops with seeds brought from exotic places at about the same time I started experimenting with Cannabis – over 20 years ago. Later on, I attempted to create smaller strains of Cannabis for myself, to grow in small spaces, using unrelated genetics. I think that making the most of small spaces is a strong recurring theme, especially in Europe. At one point during my travels, I visited a friend whose family lived in a typically small, cramped working-class apartment. The previous summer, when I had first stopped by to visit, I turned his open-minded mom on to her first taste of marijuana – totally unprejudiced, she was immediately taken by the weed’s euphoric effects, exclaiming, ‘I like this better than vodka!’”

”Now, my friend’s mother was attempting to grow some weed on a windowsill, from seeds I had donated on my last visit. I doubted this was practical. ‘Wouldn’t it be neat,’ I thought, ‘if someone could develop a dwarf type of pot that would work for windowsills, balconies, and cramped apartments?’”

The idea stuck, and gave new direction to the Joint Doctor’s projects. About the same time, he began to trade seed with a new friend, Antonio, a spry, dreadlocked Mexican expatriate who had been collecting and growing unusual strains for 30-plus years.

“One of the types of Cannabis seed I acquired from Antonio was called “Mexican Rudy,” a strain which stayed short and flowered earlier than anything else we had. I didn’t know too much about it. At first the name seemed contradictory: “Rudy” almost certainly stood for Ruderalis, a mythical, rare subspecies of wild Cannabis from Siberia which has a short growth habit and quick life cycle; but I failed to see the link with Mexico, though it was the country of Antonio’s origin. Was this simply an unrelated Ruderalis-like plant from Mexico, or did it have a link to the real thing?”

Although no-one can be sure until some type of genetic fingerprinting is done, it’s possible the Mexican Rudy was actually an experimental cross of Russian Ruderalis and Mexican Cannabis, made sometime in the 1970s, possibly at the U. of Mississippi in the U.S. or at U. of Ottawa (Dr. Small). In any case, the strain was kept and grown out in Canada for several years previously. The Rudy was indeed a short, quick-flowering strain, but with medium potency. But it provided Antonio and his friends with some well-needed stash in mid-summer, before normal plants had even thought about budding.

“It was very fast-maturing, and very hardy, although the potency was low to medium. At first, I crossed it with a Northern Lights #2 (also known as Closet Queen or Oasis) that I knew was also a compact plant, but more potent. These F1 seeds gave some really nice, vigorous moms, and although they weren’t autoflowering, they were quick and compact. As I understood much later, the autoflowering trait wasn’t expressed in the F1 since it was recessive. Not really knowing what I had, I decided to cross this F1 with a few different varieties, of the best clones I had around.”

Without specific expectations, the Joint Doctor crossed the Rudy with a Northern Lights #2 female, then with a William’s Wonder clone. It was the offspring of the experimental 3-way cross that brought back the recessive autoflowering genes into the equation, most likely inherited from the Rudy.

“I was beginning to have an eye for novel characteristics. I had a tendency to keep seeds and strains that many a grower would have thrown out as off-types. When growing out the next generation of seedlings, in particular a batch of William’s Wonder x (NL#2 x Rudy) seedlings, my buddy and I noticed some very unusual male plants that flowered immediately, when they were still basically seedlings. This was unheard of, especially in a room receiving under 24 hours of light!”.

It was a real Eureka moment. Fortunately, the Joint Doctor kept the unusual plants and was able to stabilise the autoflowering trait in them, while many growers would have rejected the plants as weird or off-types. Only these novelty plants were kept for further multiplication, and all the subsequent generations retained this “autoflowering” characteristic. The hybrid, dubbed simply Willy’s Automatic at first, became the basis for Lowryder.

“I used these “freak” dwarf males as pollinators, and lo and behold, my next generation consisted exclusively of tiny plants that matured automatically at no more than 12 inches and less than 60 days from seed. An ideal closet cultivar. It seemed incredible. And the taste and potency were great too, retaining the structure and scent reminiscent of the William’s Wonder, coupled with a sort of wild, earthy but pleasant aftertaste inherent in ruderalis. The hybrid, dubbed simply Willy’s Automatic at first, became the basis for Lowryder. All the subsequent generations retained this autoflowering characteristic. The name Lowryder came to me during a morning session on the porcelain throne, reading my favorite car magazine, LOWRIDER. I grew the variety out on a small scale, in a closet in the winter, and in my garden during the summer, selecting the best specimens, for several generations before it was released on any scale.”

The next step was to introduce autoflowering to the new generation of home growers. But that’s a whole other chapter.

[taken from jointdoctordirect.com]​

 

[PowerSeed]

Lowrider Grower’s Guide

Growth Cycle

Autoflowering plants bypass the vegetative growth stage, going straight from seedling to flowering without delay. As such, they more compact and quicker to finish than traditional varieties. In addition, autoflowering varieties have a very predictable outcome in terms of size, yield and lifespan, rather than relying on outside factors such as light cycle or time of year.

Our plants go through a seedling stage lasting 3-4 weeks from emergence, at which time they start showing their sex and begin to bloom. The subsequent flowering time varies from 4 weeks (Betty Boo) to 6 weeks for maturity (Maxi).

How to use the chart

Our variety descriptions (see Comparison Chart) quote the average time from seed planting to maturity, rather than the duration of flowering or a specific maturity date. This makes it extremely easy to calculate when a strain will be ready, based on the time of planting.


Example: Easy Ryder seed planted May 15. Add 65 days = harvest July 19

Lighting

We recommend giving autoflowering plants 16-20 hours of daytime (if growing under artificial lights) throughout their growth cycle, for optimum yield and energy efficiency. However, autoflowering plants can be grown from start to finish and will flower under 12 to 24 hours of light without significantly changing the plants’ life cycle. As such, they are suitable for outdoor growing in northern growing areas; in addition, indoors plants at any stage of growth can be kept in the same room and light regime.

Fertilization

Our yield figures are based on our results from indoor cultivation in soil mix. We generally double these figures to calculate what may be obtained with hydroponics. Natural light as well as metal halide lights tend to induce taller plants than high-pressure sodium lamps. Using a Nitrogen-containing fertilizer meant for vegetative growth in the first month can result in taller, more branched-out plants. Conversely, high-pressure sodium lights and high-phosphorus (Bloom-type) fertilizers, and high temperatures are all factors that will promote squatter, more compact plants.

To achieve maximum growth, we recommend the following. Use Grow type-nutrients for the first 3-4 weeks. Then, switch to a Bloom-type fertilizer for the next 3 weeks. Do not feed too heavily. Use large containers and avoid needless transplanting. Also try and avoid extreme temperature changes.

Germination and Storage

We are a seed bank dedicated to providing information and high-quality original and affordable seeds to medical marijuana growers.

The Joint Doctor is the originator of Lowryder and other auto-flowering cannabis strains.Since launching the ground-breaking Lowryder automatic, the Joint Doctor has been specialized in creating and improving autoflowering varieties. He is responsible for developing the genetics and terminology associated with autoflowering strains, which are now treated as a whole new category of cannabis.

Germination Advice

Good seeds will generally germinate within 2-5 days. Our seeds are tested periodically to insure viability. If planted directly in soil, seedlings usually emerge within 3-7 days. Fresh seeds will germinate quicker than older ones. For optimum lifespan, keep your seeds in the fridge, or freeze them for long-term storage. Seeds stored in this way can be kept for 2-3 years without significant loss of viability.

[jointdoctordirect.com]​

 

[PowerSeed]

How to Grow Auto-Flowering Seeds

Many cannabis growers use auto-flowering cannabis seeds as part of continuous hydroponic grow systems. With a bit of planning it is easily possible to set your grow room up to produce a continuous supply of buds from auto-flowering seeds.

One of the greatest advantages of auto-flowering seeds is that they avoid the need for separate grow rooms and nurseries. Because the lighting regime doesn’t change throughout the grow, it is possible for all plants to share the same room regardless of what stage of growth they are at.

With such a short grow cycle, pot size, light quality and nutrients all play a crucial role (even more so than normal) in defining the size of the yield.

So with your grow room under a continuous 18 hour light cycle what you need to concentrate on is keeping it full and productive. Stagger planting new seeds by a couple of weeks to keep a continuous supply growing. Plant new seeds each time you either harvest buds or remove a male. Male plants of auto-flowering strains will show themselves between 2 and 3 weeks after germination, about a week before females.

All auto-flowering cannabis strains work well in both soil and hydro systems. For best results plant the newly germinated seeds directly into their final pots (1-2 gallon or 5-10 litres) and place them directly under 18 hour lights. Beware, smaller pots can result in smaller yields.

Start young plants on a veg phase nutrient regime at about 1-2 weeks. Switch to flowering phase nutrients as soon as you see flowers begin to form, usually at about 4 weeks. This is also the right time to switch from MH to HPS lighting if that is what you are using.

For outdoor marijuana grows in the northern hemisphere, May – August is the optimum time for growing auto-flowering cannabis strains, although with a bit of planning you can organise successive harvests right through to November.

Mature auto-flowering cannabis strains are normally no more that 20” (50cm) tall, this makes them ideal for high density, compact grow systems similar to Sea of Green set-ups.

[howtogrowmarijuana.com]​