they have a place in your veg room...18-6 will produce bigger flowers than 12-12.
I think the trick to autos is the perfect substrate that allows aeration and the medium to not hold saturation so you can continuously use a ligher feed.
Like coco/perlite 50 50 or soil/perlite 50/50 or a bubbler dialed in.
And coco or water systems are preferred because you are limited in veg time. Clock starts when the seed cracks.
Hydroton/coco/growstones.
I am going to keep 1 or 2 going in veg so i can get the hang of them outdoors. They are the only outdoors i will grow now so rippers can suck a fat Canadian canoe !
I have some auto seeds on the way....
Mephistos the 2 i grew out went 6 weeks of veg and that means you can top them and train them a bit.
They are fun to watch. And the added CBD makes the doobs hit nice. Grape Sky Walker is very good smoke. Tasty too.