Northern Lights strain: every version compared

Which Northern Lights should you grow?

Which Northern Lights suits you depends on your tent and your calendar.

Photoperiod or autoflower? Photoperiods give the full plant, run on a timer across 45–63 days of bloom, and list top THC of 17–22%. Autoflowers finish on their own clock from seed, from a quick 45 days.

Feminized or regular? Feminized seed takes the sexing out of it: every plant flowers as a female. The two regular Northern Lights here are for breeding or for keeping a mother plant.

Northern Lights photoperiod (feminized and regular)

The photoperiod versions are the classic Northern Lights: kept on 18/6 until you are ready, then switched to 12/12 to bloom, paying the control back in resin-coated flower. Flowering is 45–63 days, with listed THC 17–22%. Heights are listed at 100–200 cm.

Northern Lights autoflower

Northern Lights takes to the autoflower form well: crossed with Ruderalis, she finishes on age, asking nothing of the light schedule and little of the grower. There are 11 autos here. Seed-to-harvest times run 45–80 days, so read that figure before you buy. Heights are listed at 60–150 cm, 60 cm at the smallest (Vision), while keeping the sweet, relaxed character. Listed THC on the autos runs 14–20%, a notch below the photoperiods. Most list Northern Lights x Ruderalis; Green House cross in Green-O-Matic and Herbies a Blueberry Auto. If you are new to growing and want the easy automatic route, this is the section to read first.

How Northern Lights grows

Pyramid call theirs a sensible first plant that, with a forgiving indica temperament, asks little of the calendar and little of the grower. Fast Buds say their auto's Afghan roots make her hardy, though she rewards steady, unhurried care over any heroics.

Sensi say they bred their auto for discretion, with barely a smell the whole way through; it is listed at a compact 90 cm and 77 days from seed. The other versions make no such claim, so plan for the usual smell. Heights across the versions run 60–200 cm. Most of the photoperiods with a listed height sit at 120 cm, and the tallest, World Wide Cultivars' feminized, is listed at 200. Pyramid warn their auto can take the taller option, up to 150 cm, so leave room in case.

Speed is generous too: the quickest photoperiods are listed at 45 days in flower, and White Label's auto at 45 days from seed. 00 Seeds' auto is the slowest, at 80 days from seed. Herbies call their auto rugged and low-maintenance, rewarding minimal fuss with dense, resinous flower. Their one note on that resin: clean your scissors afterward; the resin will earn it. Keep the basics even, and she gets on with it while you get on with everything else.

Where Northern Lights comes from

Herbies tell it as Northern Lights stabilised by Nevil Schoenmakers from Afghani and Thai landraces in the mid-1980s, and named for the resinous buds that show green and purple like the aurora. Breeders list the parentage variously as Afghanistan, Afghani x Thai, or simply a Northern Lights selection. She is quoted heavily indica throughout, usually 70 to 90%. The autos carry that heritage forward in a faster, smaller plant without losing much of the character. Where the accounts differ, each version's own page carries its breeder's version of the story.