The Best Cannabis Strains For Light Deprivation (2024)

Light deprivation is a technique that involves controlling the amount of light plants receive to induce early flowering. The method lets growers harvest twice in a single growing season. Light dep growing is done by building a frame around your garden and rolling a tarp over it, creating a blackout greenhouse. This alters the natural light cycle to trigger flowering. If you grow in a greenhouse, you'll only need a blackout tarp to create a light dep setup.

Once you’ve perfected your setup, you’ll want to choose the right cannabis strains. The best strains for light dep produce short, fast-flowering plants. Short plants require fewer materials for setup while fast-flowering plants guarantee a double harvest in a single growing season.

Pineapple Donut

Pineapple Donut is a sativa-hybrid that adapts well to a light dep setup because it's relatively short.

Besides producing small plants that average around 32-50 inches, this sativa-hybrid yields around 2.11-2.82 ounces per square foot. If you're growing in a 3x3 (a yard square), you can expect a considerable yield of 19 to 25 ounces.

As part of Phylos' Elite collection of seeds, Pineapple Donut exhibits high resilience against common pests and diseases. This makes it ideal for first-time growers. In the hands of veteran growers, it can be a great strain for the light deprivation technique.

Pineapple Donut cultivar profile

Northern Lights

Another relatively short yet high-yielding cannabis plant is Northern Lights. This indica-hybrid grows to 43-47 inches yet can yield 2-2.33 ounces per square foot.

In a 3x3 setup, that's 18-21 ounces per grow. You can double that amount with your light dep setup, allowing you to get two grows in a single season.

Northern Lights has fast-flowering plants that only take around 42-56 days to finish. A shorter flowering time gives you more days for your second grow and guarantees that you get a second harvest before the first frost rolls around.
If you want the fastest version of this strain, get our Autoflowering version today!

Northern Lights cultivar profile

White Widow

White Widow is one of the best strains for growing techniques like light dep. This strain has a high tolerance for cultivation errors. Even if you make a mistake while growing, it won't significantly impact your harvest.

White Widow is also easy to grow because it has excellent resistance against colder temperatures. The only drawback of this indica-hybrid in a light dep setup is its tall plants, which average around 78 inches in height. If you can accommodate taller plants, you can expect a considerable yield of 3.5 ounces per square foot or around 32 ounces in a 3x3 setup.

The White Widow from ILGM comes in not one, but four variants: Photoperiod as seen above, the Autoflower version and both Photo as Auto versions of the CBD variant.

White Widow cultivar profile

Biscotti Bliss

Biscotti Bliss is a hybrid strain made by Phylos as part of its Premium line of seeds. Thanks to its advanced breeding practices, Biscotti has unparalleled genetics, making it a resilient strain for light dep setups. This hybrid also has high yields and decadent flavor.

This strain typically yields 2.43-3.14 ounces per square foot or 21 to 28 ounces in a 3x3 setup. A light deprivation technique can double your yield by enabling your plants to flower early.

In addition to yielding more ounces, Biscotti Bliss’s quick harvest means you can enjoy its flowers sooner. Many love this strain's taste and aroma. Its sugary, piney notes strongly resemble authentic biscotti cookies. There are even berry notes in its smoke.

Biscotti Bliss cultivar profile

Girl Scouts Cookies Extreme

Another incredible strain with a sweet aroma and flavor is Girl Scout Cookies Extreme. This indica-hybrid has the fragrant smell of cookies with vanilla and lemon citrus notes. The taste mirrors its aroma but with an added spiciness.

Besides being a flavorful strain many enthusiasts enjoy, GSC Extreme also produces excellent light-deprivation weed because of its relatively short plants. Cannabis plants from this indica-hybrid only grow to around 27-44 inches in height.

For its yield, you can expect to get about 1.5-2 ounces per square foot or about 14 to 18 ounces in a 3x3 garden. If you prefer this extreme plant in an autoflower version, ILGM is also the place to get your autoflower variant!

Girl Scout Cookies cultivar profile

Blueberry

If you’re looking for a plant with incredible flavor, consider growing Blueberry. It was developed by Daniel John (a.k.a. DJ Short). He didn't like the effects of indica cannabis, especially the Afghan varieties, which dominated the market because they produced short, potent plants with good yields.

Unfortunately, Afghan varieties were popular in the 1960s and 1970s, so many hybrids were created by crossing Afghan with other varieties. Blueberry was no exception. However, DJ ensured his strain was separate from the rest by breeding it with sativas that had the effects he liked.

Even with careful development, the iconic berry and vanilla flavor that gave Blueberry its name was just a coincidence, as were the plant’s purple leaves. Even if they weren’t intentional, the combination of berry flavor and the plant’s purple hues garnered attention.

The Blueberry strain is not only available in photoperiod, but also comes in an autoflower variant. Besides the autoflower variant, ILGM also sells the CBD focused version.

Blueberry is a good strain for light deprivation techniques because of its short plants and flowering time. Blueberry grows to 35 inches and only needs 56-70 days of flowering before you can harvest. It yields 1.5-2 ounces per square foot or 14 to 18 ounces in a 3x3 garden.

Blueberry cultivar profile

Granddaddy Purple

Granddaddy Purple is another indica-hybrid that's great for light dep because of the small plants it produces. They grow to a manageable height of 37 inches, meaning the structure for your light dep setup requires fewer materials.

In addition to producing short plants, Granddaddy Purple (and ofcourse it's praised Autoflower version) is highly resilient against common pests and diseases. Growers can focus on maintaining their 12-hour day and 12-hour night light cycle instead of fighting off attacks.

Granddaddy Purple takes a little longer to reach harvest, averaging 70-84 days to finish. You can expect plants to yield 2 ounces per square foot, about 18 ounces in a 3x3. While Grandaddy Purple’s yield is what draws most growers, the taste of sweet grapes and its intense sedating high bring many back for more.

Granddaddy Purple cultivar profile

Yuzu Sour

If you enjoy Dutch Passion's Tangie, you'll love Yuzu Sour. This sativa-dominant strain is a cross of Sour Tangie and EZBake AF. It is a high-quality strain with a strong citrus punch. In addition to its refreshing taste, Yuzu Sour is an excellent strain for light dep.

With a short flowering time of 56 days, you're guaranteed to get two grows in a single season if you time it correctly. You can expect 2.2-2.9 ounces per square foot and around 20-26 ounces per square yard. Your yields may be lower if you use light deprivation since forcing your plants to flower early means sacrificing some of the yield.

That loss becomes negligible when you've practically doubled your yields by getting two grows in a single season. This extra harvest makes light deprivation one of the best techniques a home grower can learn.

Yuzu Sour cultivar profile