Help Please. 2 of my plants are flowering prematurely

[arse]

Hello boys and girls, first, a quick introduction. I have been growing herb for nearly 30 years, in Europe and Asia. Have grown indoors and outdoors, and thought I knew what I was doing. Now living in Switzerland, and have a problem.

I bought the seeds from a reputable place, they are strain 'Papaya', and they are from Nirvana Seeds.

Sprouted them in February, had them indoors for a bit more than a month, and then put them out, in a green house.

Now, the problem I have is that two of the plants are already flowering. This is 2 out of 10. I have never seen this before. They are not auto-flowering, they are feminised though. Has anyone had this problem before? I raised them without any chemicals, only 'green' ferts, and when I went out a couple of days ago I saw that two of the plants looked like pistils were coming. I ignored it, as it wasn't even May yet. Now, have looked again, and taken a couple of photos, and it is 100% heads coming, but only on two plants.

Any advice?

 

[arse]

Re: Help Please. 2 of my plants are flowering prematurely.

OK, enough views, but no replies yet. I'm hoping that you're all at the moment digging through extensive notes, trying to come up with an answer.

Some more info...

I sprouted the seeds in February, indoors, under flourescents, and they sprouted in a day, and grew very rapidly. As you can see by the pics. I hope they are healthy, and look strong enough. We had a very mild spring, and as I have a green-house, I put them out in early April, so they've been outside now about 3 weeks.
The sunrise-sunset times here now are...

Sun-rise - 06:04, Sun-set - 20:40, so 14h 36 minutes of sunlight, so I can't imagine the two girls think it's autumn already.

Nutrients used - well, only organic, the usual hippy stuff. No chemicals.

so can I widen the range of the questions.

1) Has anyone had any experience with the strain papaya? I know it's early-flowering, but May - for the northern hemisphere - is seriously early.

2) The seeds are feminised, is it possible that the pack of seeds has got 2 'rogue seeds' in it, that are auto-flowering sorts? The seed bank is Nirvana Seeds, and I have never had any problems with them, and have been using this company for over 10 years.

3) Only 2 of the 10 are starting to flower, so is it the other 8 I should be worried about?

4) Am I going mad, and the plants are not flowering, and I should maybe change my hobby to producing home-made beer?

Anyway, any comments welcomed, however random, as I just don't believe what I'm seeing. Even a random answer might be the spark that gets me to an answer.

 

[arse]

Re: Help Please. 2 of my plants are flowering prematurely.

Hello again.

Just a question, have I in some way failed to follow some protocol, or is it just that no-one knows or cares why this is happening?
I'm guessing that no-one knows, or thinks that it's a trolling thread, or thinks that maybe I have my seeds mixed up.

Anyway, thanks a lot, I'm still very interested if anyone might know a possible cause, but now also whether I should have asked in a different manner, or of course if I have to go through some kind of bizarre initiation ritual before anyone answers.

Re the 'bizarre initiation ritual', I am open for almost anything, if just to get an answer.

 

[420 Girl]

Re: Help Please. 2 of my plants are flowering prematurely.

High arse,

Just wanted to let you know that I moved your thread to the appropriate forum to help give your questions a better chance of getting answered.

 

[Droopy Dog]

Re: Help Please. 2 of my plants are flowering prematurely.

No idea where this thread was, but sure didn't see it. Thanks for moving it.

Outside+strong girls. That's your answer.

14hrs and 36min is certainly enough 'dark' for a willing female to go into flower. I'm doing a spring crop right now and even into June these girls show no signs of reverting. Same strain for 3 years now.

Indoors, I KNOW they will go into flower with a 14/10 cycle, but haven't tested tested a shorter dark period ... yet.

This is a pure or nearly pure un named Indica strain that was gifted to me and all I've been growing for 3 years.

DD

 

[exile19]

Re: Help Please. 2 of my plants are flowering prematurely.

Maybe stressed them out and they did it as precaution so they flower, maybe cause the other 8 should have flower if those 2 with that 14 hours of dark so idk.

 

[jammie]

Re: Help Please. 2 of my plants are flowering prematurely.

some unstable feminized plants will hermie. if its real unstable it will autoflower early then hermie. i had that happen to a bunch of larry og from cali connections several years ago. i'd get rid of them and see what the other 8 do. dutchmaster's reverse only costs $25 and is a cheap preventative against hermies

 

[arse]

Re: Help Please. 2 of my plants are flowering prematurely.

High arse,

Just wanted to let you know that I moved your thread to the appropriate forum to help give your questions a better chance of getting answered.

Thanks, took me a couple of days to find it again though!

 

[arse]

Re: Help Please. 2 of my plants are flowering prematurely.

No idea where this thread was, but sure didn't see it. Thanks for moving it.

Outside+strong girls. That's your answer.

14hrs and 36min is certainly enough 'dark' for a willing female to go into flower. I'm doing a spring crop right now and even into June these girls show no signs of reverting. Same strain for 3 years now.

Indoors, I KNOW they will go into flower with a 14/10 cycle, but haven't tested tested a shorter dark period ... yet.

This is a pure or nearly pure un named Indica strain that was gifted to me and all I've been growing for 3 years.

DD

Thanks DD. Never tried a 14/10 cycle, but interesting to know. I didn't think it was because it's not sunny enough, because then the question is why all of them didn't do it, but I take your point that 14 hours is probably enough to make a few of them think it's flowering time.

They are very strong, and two of the Papaya are flowering, but the strongest/biggest one isn't. Now two of my AMS ( a Swiss variety ) are doing it too, but the other dozen or so AMS are not. The Papaya are Indica dominant, and the AMS are ( I think ) a 50/50 hybrid.

 

[arse]

Re: Help Please. 2 of my plants are flowering prematurely.

Maybe stressed them out and they did it as precaution so they flower, maybe cause the other 8 should have flower if those 2 with that 14 hours of dark so idk.

Yeah, this was also one of my first thoughts - that I freaked them out in some way and they were then trying to make seeds, etc., but I was really gentle with them, ( I'm a good boy ) and hopefully it's just the 'short' day that has confused them, but thanks for the reply.

 

[arse]

Re: Help Please. 2 of my plants are flowering prematurely.

some unstable feminized plants will hermie. if its real unstable it will autoflower early then hermie. i had that happen to a bunch of larry og from cali connections several years ago. i'd get rid of them and see what the other 8 do. dutchmaster's reverse only costs $25 and is a cheap preventative against hermies

Also a good answer, thanks Jammie. I also wondered if it was an unstable strain, and that the plants were just a little bit freaky, so am thinking that maybe the Papaya strain is not that stable yet. Only problem with this theory is that the AMS strain I have out there is very stable, I have grown this particular strain - all from a succession of mother plants - for almost a decade, and with about 30 crops ( due to growing indoors as well ), and two of my latest batch have decided to flower as well, and I have never seen it before.

Re getting rid of them and waiting to see what the others do - really?!? Oh no, couldn't do that, they look so sweet. Am checking them every day ( sometimes 3 or 4 times a day, and when I say 'sometimes', I mean always ), and as soon as any 'hermie' signs show then they will die...that's for sure, but at the moment I will let them live, and hope that they have just mistaken spring for summer and will be ready for harvest in 8 to 10 weeks.

 

[arse]

Re: Help Please. 2 of my plants are flowering prematurely.

FOLLOW-Up Question - To All Out There - IF the plants have somehow confused spring with autumn, then will they in fact flower 'normally' now, in 8 to 10 weeks, or will they try and revert to vegetative stage when the long days of summer come?
Quite worried about this, as the stress will probably freak them out, and I don't want that.

Anyway, thanks to all for your replies, and will post a couple of follow-up photos tomorrow, as they are flowering so beautifully, and it's always nice to see. Will also post photos of the same strain that are not flowering yet.

The really strange thing is that out of the dozen or so AMS strain that i have put out 2 are also doing it, and all those plants are clones, from the same mother. The mother, and her mother before her, has been in my possession for years now, and have never had any problems with them, none whatsoever.

I even harvested one huge plant last year, and only cut the main cola off, and then successfully re-vegged the plant indoors, just to see if I could do it, and it worked very easily and quickly, so the AMS strain is, imo, totally stable and very strong, but still two plants are flowering early.

Just a bit of back-up info, the plants are in different parts of the greenhouse, so it's not due to the 'conditions' in one corner of the grow, or something like that. It just seems to be totally random.

Anyway, thanks again to all of you. Very, very happy this evening, after being quite 'sad' for a few days as I couldn't find this thread any more.

:doh:

 

[crashnfool]

Re: Help Please. 2 of my plants are flowering prematurely.

I have no experience with outside grows, but I will see what kinda info I can gather up on your issue... not much help I know but it's all I can offer right now..be a couple of days but I will let you know what I find out.

 

[Droopy Dog]

Re: Help Please. 2 of my plants are flowering prematurely.

I can only speak of the strain I'm running, but once outside and in full flower, they never reverted even though harvest wasn't till the middle of June.

That was last years crop. This year, they are still outside about 1 month from harvest. Right now, they are showing no signs of trying to revert. Same strain as last year.

DD

 

[lildj90]

Re: Help Please. 2 of my plants are flowering prematurely.

Hey man let me know what happens wether it flowers or reverts to veg bc one of my nirvana northern strains has asymmetrical growth and the other 3 do not

 

[Dmvut40]

Re: Help Please. 2 of my plants are flowering prematurely.

OK, enough views, but no replies yet. I'm hoping that you're all at the moment digging through extensive notes, trying to come up with an answer.

Some more info...

I sprouted the seeds in February, indoors, under flourescents, and they sprouted in a day, and grew very rapidly. As you can see by the pics. I hope they are healthy, and look strong enough. We had a very mild spring, and as I have a green-house, I put them out in early April, so they've been outside now about 3 weeks.
The sunrise-sunset times here now are...

Sun-rise - 06:04, Sun-set - 20:40, so 14h 36 minutes of sunlight, so I can't imagine the two girls think it's autumn already.

Nutrients used - well, only organic, the usual hippy stuff. No chemicals.

so can I widen the range of the questions.

1) Has anyone had any experience with the strain papaya? I know it's early-flowering, but May - for the northern hemisphere - is seriously early.

2) The seeds are feminised, is it possible that the pack of seeds has got 2 'rogue seeds' in it, that are auto-flowering sorts? The seed bank is Nirvana Seeds, and I have never had any problems with them, and have been using this company for over 10 years.

3) Only 2 of the 10 are starting to flower, so is it the other 8 I should be worried about?

4) Am I going mad, and the plants are not flowering, and I should maybe change my hobby to producing home-made beer?

Anyway, any comments welcomed, however random, as I just don't believe what I'm seeing. Even a random answer might be the spark that gets me to an answer.

I am having the same problem now. And sorry I can’t tell you why. But I have had anomalies in every grow I have done in the last 3 years. I live in Kentucky and I get these anomalies no matter if I grow indoor or out. But it’s always just a handful of my crop that does this

 

[Dmvut40]

Re: Help Please. 2 of my plants are flowering prematurely.

Hey man let me know what happens wether it flowers or reverts to veg bc one of my nirvana northern strains has asymmetrical growth and the other 3 do not

They are full on in flower. But they do seem to take more time than normal flowering

 

[Sueet]

@Dmvut40 This is a very old thread, your chances of getting a response from them is probably pretty low. If you need advice about your current plant/s you can post a new thread with some info about your situation (soil, feed, water schedule, feed/schedule etc.)

That said, if your plants are flowering early when you put them outside in May, it is usually because the available light hours are too short - most plants that experience this situation usually end up 'revegging' as the days get longer until they finally get short enough to flower again (usually about mid august where I am at)