IF..I had plants under lights for 24 hours a day x7 for about two months, how would one go about the transition to the normal daylight hours? Would my plants start to bud if I moved them outdoors?
Thanks Hosebomber, I am and I don`t think they are. A dozen bagseeds that began as an experiment to see if I could grow some in an old gutted out fridge with CFL`s, and, I CAN. This is like raising rabbits, I`m quickly running out of room. I`m not sure if I`ll ever get to the bud stage but so far it`s been interesting (sitting in front of a fridge for hours amusing and abusing half a dozen plants).
Donate half the plants to a friend and LST the rest, because if you put them outside now they will flower. Around mid June is when I'm putting mine outside.
There is currently 12 hours and 57 mins of sunlight per day in the northern hemisphere. Cannabis is a short day plant. This means it will not go into flower until the total number of dark hours is greater than the total number of light hours. That will happen on or about Aug 29th.
Cannabis is a short day plant. This means it will not go into flower until the total number of dark hours is greater than the total number of light hours. That will happen on or about Aug 29th.
Having grown outside, certainly flowering is initiated well before Aug 29 in the North.
My understanding is that plants measure the dark time difference in between days, IE 2 days ago dark was shorter than yesterdays dark. For short day plants, around the end of June and early July, the plant has measured that darkness is slowly going from longer day length to shorter day length. This increasing amount of darkness starts 'the photoperiodic response' whereas hormones start flowing and flowers shortly appear. If you shock your plants, going from 6 hrs dark/day to 12hr dark/day in 1 day like many do in the MJ world, that gets the hormones flowing faster and initiates flowering response faster than the slower response to natural light time fluctuation.
Im also guessing that the switch from blue shifted fluorescence to red shifted HPS would only enhance that hormonal switchover as the reports are that red's and far red's are where the majority of this response comes from.
This is also why the 'gas lantern routine' works as it shortens the night time the plant measures.
I was afraid that ANY darkness would set them to flower,ANY being more than what they are used to, I can`t donate them to friends because I don`t have any (friends), my training method has been: Defoliate: if it has has a purple stem, cut it off,get the one on the other side too, as far as LST, I crush the outer most stem and crush and/or bend (break) the branch down to the next node or two to the direction I want it to grow. If I cut one off accidentaly I wait a couple of days for another to poke it`s head up and crush IT. So far my plants resemble Brillo pads but WTF, Mother nature giveth and ignorance taketh away.
