Itsnineteen84, how many plants are you going to grow? I see you are very much concerned about yield per plant, if you are cash cropper, than yield per m2 per month will perhaps be more important for you.
I have tried autos and photos and chosen autos, Think Different, I grow only this strain because it is very resilient, grows nicely, looks nicely, not to stinky and last but not least, makes nice firm buds with very nice smell and taste.
I am now trying to find the right density of plants in my place, must tell you that I had started with to many plants/m2/lights, had a lot of streching, now I make the density lower and lower to discover the hot spot. Then I will start to SCRoG.
Since I am not familiar with monsters I think that for me is better to grow more smaller plants. Maybe for you too.
One more thing that I experience with autos is bad genetics - I throw away a lot of phenos and I am ready with new seeds instead. Have experienced, that some of auto genetic material is simply not good enough if you do not use plants for decoration only. Autos have very short lifetime and anything that is not very good genetics fails at the end. Disappointment and waste of time and money. Chosing between many phenos is a must if you want a decent yield. I have learned that seeds that brake the last will rarely grow better than others so I throw them away. I plant the rest, after two days I see that one plant is mutant. I throw it away. After a month or so I see that one plant does not develop buds as others and there are not enough budsites so it goes out and makes place for a new life.
