How Long Can You Grow A Plant For?

[LemonDemon76]

Hi all, i am currently on my first grow, growing white skunk traditional seeds not feminised, have no photos at the moment, i am just curious as to how long can a marijuana plant grow for? can you grow it for a year? trim back the leaves, and get it big, heaps of buds etc? or is there a time limit as to when you should harvest them?

 

[Stunned]

I guess that all depends on how soon you want to see results
If you veg it longer, you'll get a bigger plant in flower
everyone wants a sweet spot though
6 weeks veg is max for me
9 week flower
ka-ching!

 

[Widowsnest]

Tough question with no real answer. All plants have a lifetime and cannabis is no exception. I’ve heard about plants being grown for a couple of years but they usually die off on their own after that.
You want to look at what size of a plant you want to grow as this is limited by your grow space and lighting. If you’re new to this don’t worry about pruning and training. Just grow the plant so you can learn from it. Pictures would help but it you can’t get any uploaded give us your grow room dimensions and what equipment you’re using and we’ll do our best to help.

 

[Stunned]

the last two that I butchered when I cut all their branches off started sprouting again
I'm keeping them barely alive by watering it and I'll plant them outside this spring
we'll see that their instinct to survive is

 

[Weaselcracker]

There are pot plants that have been kept alive for twenty years and longer. I think I heard of a famous plant that was kept alive since the 70's. If you like I can try to dig you up a link or two. That's generally (perhaps always?) done by taking cuttings of a plant and rooting and growing those, then taking cuttings off that next generation, etc. This is how most growers do it.
My oldest strain is about five years old now. I just keep cloning it. Its the exact same plant as the one I sprouted from seed though. I used to keep mother plants but they were a pain- they keep out-growing their pots and getting rootbound, needing frequent transplanting and pruning.

 

[Big Sur]

I have kept the same plant alive for up to 3 years myself with multiple harvests. Problem is that they get root bound, the stems become very stiff and scaly, and they can get root and stem rot from all the condensed growth. As said above the best way to keep a plant alive long term is to clone it. 99.99% of the tme you will get the same exact plant after rooting a cutting of it, and you can clone them over and over indefinately. Most growers I know clone their mothers every year. Its easy to do once you get the hang of cloning.