Breeders flowering times

[Dusted]

I wish there was some consistency in the flowering times listed by seed companies and breeders. I get it that a lot of people are impatient and want fast finishing plants, but to list a flowering time less than required to properly mature the buds is confusing. You can get a general idea of flowering time by the description of the sativa/indica ratio. The introduction of ruderalis genetics can give “fast” versions that aren’t auto’s which further confuses the issue.

I am presently growing a straight indica strain, which you would expect an eight week flowering time for. The breeder lists 55 days. I’m looking at my plants at day 42 after flipping to 12/12 and there is no way they will be done in the time listed. I go to the breeders website, find the strain review, and after reading it came to the conclusion they start flowering time two weeks after flip.

Maybe this is well known and I’m just a noob about modern genetics. I always harvest when the plants tell me to, but it can throw off my two grows per winter if a strain drags on forever finishing

 

[Chris Scorpio]

That's a pretty standard practice

And every plant is different, yer environment plays a huge Roll in the time schedule as well

Plus phenos of same plant can be way different in times and schedule

So lots of factors for sure


Most just use breeders Time as a guesstimate at best

 

[TurboBucket]

Counting flowering from the time you flip the switch is inaccurate.

There is no switch in an outdoor grow. How would you count the days? You wait for flowers to show and then start counting. Flowering times are how long it takes the flower to finish after it emerges. Not how long you waited for it to start and then finish flowering.

 

[Dusted]

Counting flowering from the time you flip the switch is inaccurate.

There is no switch in an outdoor grow. How would you count the days? You wait for flowers to show and then start counting. Flowering times are how long it takes the flower to finish after it emerges. Not how long you waited for it to start and then finish flowering.

I forgot people grow outdoors. That makes sense now that you put it that way

 

[Jackalope]

Some companies are better than others. For years I never even kept track of when I switched the lights back it was so bad. Plants would finish when they finished. Now I mark the day I drop the light back for general info. I mostly figure everything thing for 8 to 10 week finish. Somewhere along the lines I figured out it was from Onset of flower.

Hard to get feeding just right if you don't know the strain well. Another reason I went back to the less food is better. It is only a problem for the first grow. After that you may have a pheno or 2 that might vary some. I always grow different stuff so I am always in the dark LMAO.

 

[Nicholas Flamel]

Like Turbobucket said. I always wait till flowers show up then start counting. But always use a loupe, check trichs, and listen to the plant. I was once told, when you think it's ready, wait another week to harvest.

 

[Dusted]

Well, that does explain why all of my harvests have been two weeks later than my calculations. You would think I would have figured it out before now. Gotta love the people here

 

[Nicholas Flamel]

Well, that does explain why all of my harvests have been two weeks later than my calculations. You would think I would have figured it out before now. Gotta love the people here

I use to do the same thing Dusted. The last couple weeks are very important when it comes to potency and weight. My main issue was I just wanted to harvest something but in the growing game as in life....patients pays off.

 

[Emilya Green]

I also clearly identify that there is a veg stage, a transition stage that starts from the moment you flip the switch to 12/12, and finally the bloom stage that starts typically 7-10 days from the time of the flip.

Making that lighting change does not instantly start blooming... it just signals to the plant that it is time to transition into the bloom stage. We have found that 1 day of darkness instead of simply flipping, will take about 1.5 days off of the transition time. One person has reported that 60 hours of darkness practically eliminates any further transition time and pistils were reported to be popping out immediately after that switch. However you do it, if you wait to start counting the flowering period till after the growth tips stop producing new green leaves and instead start to throw out pistils, you will find that most of the breeder recommendations become quite accurate. My current grow appears to be finishing up about 3 days past the predicted date, but pretty much right on time.

 

[Jackalope]

Interesting. I have never heard of a total darkness start to flower. The logic sound solid. The 2 day thing makes it even more interesting. I wonder how much that would effect stretch? Lots of stretch goes on in the transition period. Plants also stretch out every night when the lights go out. I have heard 24 hours of light will hold back all that stretch for flower time. They will stretch twice as much after the lights are dropped back. My mentor uses this method at times.

 

[Glookies1]

I wish there was some consistency in the flowering times listed by seed companies and breeders. I get it that a lot of people are impatient and want fast finishing plants, but to list a flowering time less than required to properly mature the buds is confusing. You can get a general idea of flowering time by the description of the sativa/indica ratio. The introduction of ruderalis genetics can give “fast” versions that aren’t auto’s which further confuses the issue.

I am presently growing a straight indica strain, which you would expect an eight week flowering time for. The breeder lists 55 days. I’m looking at my plants at day 42 after flipping to 12/12 and there is no way they will be done in the time listed. I go to the breeders website, find the strain review, and after reading it came to the conclusion they start flowering time two weeks after flip.

Maybe this is well known and I’m just a noob about modern genetics. I always harvest when the plants tell me to, but it can throw off my two grows per winter if a strain drags on forever finishing

Start counting from the time first flowers pop.

 

[Glookies1]

Interesting. I have never heard of a total darkness start to flower. The logic sound solid. The 2 day thing makes it even more interesting. I wonder how much that would effect stretch? Lots of stretch goes on in the transition period. Plants also stretch out every night when the lights go out. I have heard 24 hours of light will hold back all that stretch for flower time. They will stretch twice as much after the lights are dropped back. My mentor uses this method at times.

Best stretch control I’ve found is to cut back co2 and keep night temps as close to day temps as you can in early flower

 

[Jackalope]

I have heard similar things. Keeping plants in 24 hrs keeps plants from stretching very much. That same amount of light would keep temps close to the same all day. That is one way to control stretch in veg. From what I heard that stretch comes back in flower in a big way when they do finally get a major temp difference between night and day.

I remember someone saying something about starting flower with 1 or 2 days of darkness to speed up flower. Now I am wondering about 24/7 for veg . Then 2 days of darkness might be a way around lots of stretch. Might be worth a try.

I don't add Co2 so that's out. Stretch has not been a huge problem for me so I don't need to worry too much about it. I have noticed that the LED tent had very little stretch while the HPS tent did. The plants in the HPS tent have filled all the way in with buds in most case's so it it wasn't bad stretch.