On our autoflowering product pages you’ll see the cycle expressed as a range: 60 to 80 days, 70 to 90 days. Never as a single figure. It’s a question we get often —”so how many days is it, then?”— and the honest answer is that this margin isn’t imprecision on the seed bank’s part, but the correct way to publish the figure.

What that number measures

In an autoflowering strain, the figure describes the plant’s full life cycle, from the moment it sprouts until it finishes. That’s different from what is published for a feminized strain, where the usual figure is flowering days, a phase that begins when the light conditions change.

The difference lies in the genetics. An autoflowering plant doesn’t wait for the light to change: it moves from one phase to the next on its own internal clock, inherited from the ruderalis in its ancestry. That’s why its cycle is counted as a whole, in one piece.

Why the margin is wide

A cycle ends when the plant has completed its development, and at that point factors come into play that are beyond the reach of any seed bank.

Region and time of year

Outdoors, two specimens of the same variety don’t get the same amount of sun in Andalusia as in northern Europe, or in June as in September. Daily hours of light and temperature change with latitude and with the month, and the plant’s pace changes with them. The same batch of seeds can shift several weeks from one end of the range to the other simply because of where and when it was planted.

Indoor light schedule

Indoors something similar happens, though for a different reason. The reference indoor cycle is 18 hours of light from the start, maintained all the way through. But not everyone works that way: some people drop to 12 hours when the plant enters flowering, usually to save energy. Fewer hours of light shorten that final phase, and that shifts the total number of days.

We’re not recommending one schedule or the other: both simply exist, and there are several weeks of difference between them. A range of 60 to 80 days covers that spread; a flat “70 days” would be making it up.

Variation between specimens

On top of that, within the same variety no two seeds are identical. Each one is an individual with its own genetic combination, and some phenotypes finish earlier than others even when they’ve grown on the same shelf.

Indoors and outdoors tend to be similar

In an autoflowering strain, the cycle indoors and outdoors tends to be the same, because it doesn’t depend on a photoperiod change that has to be triggered. It’s one of the clearest practical differences compared to a feminized strain, where outdoors the plant waits for the nights to lengthen, which ties the calendar to the season.

That’s why on our autoflowering product pages you’ll see a single range, not split into “indoor” and “outdoor”. That would be false precision.

What we’ve done on our product pages

Until recently, some catalog pages gave details about the light schedule. We’ve removed them, for two reasons.

  • They aren’t a property of the genetics. They depend on each person’s setup, not on the variety, and they have no place on a catalog page.
  • Our seeds are sold for collecting. A product page describes and identifies a genetic line; it isn’t a manual.

What remains on each page is the declared range of days for that variety, labeled as approximate, alongside the genotype, the parent genetics, the declared THC and the aroma and flavor profile. That’s enough to compare one variety with another, which is what the catalog is for.

So how should you read it?

The range places the variety within its family. A 60-to-80-day autoflowering strain is a short line; a 70-to-90-day one is longer. That comparison is valid, and it’s the useful information.

What the range doesn’t do is predict a date. Any seed bank that publishes an exact number is giving a figure that’s easier to read and less faithful to what actually happens.

If you’d like to see how this figure fits with the rest of the product page, we also cover it in what declared THC means and in the differences between feminized, autoflowering and fast version seeds. The full catalog for this family is in autoflowering seeds.

Legal notice

Trikoma Seeds’ seeds are sold exclusively for collecting and genetic conservation purposes. Product page data is catalog information for identifying and comparing varieties, not a guarantee of results or an indication for use. We do not encourage germination or any unauthorized activity. Check and comply with your country’s regulations.