The tallest of the two vertigos was chopped earlier this week. The dry weight came out to just over 3 o's not including stragglers from the bottom branches. Vertigo 2 is at 77 days and should be ready to chop within a few days. It looks like it'll produce at least half of what the taller one did. The ak47 is still going strong with lots of thick, frosty colas. It's still packing on weight, and it looks like it'll out produce the vertigos. 4 zips off one auto?!?! It might happen. In any case, this will be a far more fruitful first grow than I expected.
One of the reasons why my expectations were so low was from reading the large number of anti-autoflower posts on RIU. The two largest criticisms of autoflowers in posts were that they don't produce much weight and that the smoke isn't quality. First, despite many people claiming that you're lucky to get 1 zip per plant, all 3 of mine will produce more than that. Two will end up being about 3.5 per plant, and the other will be close to 2. That's with no LST, etc. just dropped it in the dirt, watered, and a little leaf tucking from time to time. Second, the smoke is just fine! This is my first grow, but I've been smoking this shit for decades. The vertigo turned out some frosty, potent nugs, and they'll only get better after the cure. Is it the most potent I've ever had? No. Is it more or equally as potent as the average shit being sold by most randoms? Yes.
My conclusion....if reputable strains of autos are used, the yield and smoke are adequate for personal consumption. On top of that, they're ridiculously easy to grow! I've got a few photo periods to grow at some point, but I definitely won't hesitate to grow autos again. If a newbie can get these results, then it makes me question how other "experienced" growers screwed up their few attempts at autoflowers. Thankfully, there were some good auto growers out there who gave great information in their posts.