How to speed up growth

[AusMcMaster]

Hi all, newbie here. I'm growing my first plant. It's indoors with LED lighting. It's afghan or afghan skunk.

Anyway, it's taking a ridiculously long time to grow, it's been months. I have buds grown but the pistule type things wont go cloudy. I'm in Australia, sunrise at 6am, sunset at 8pm. Theres been hot weather and humidity lately which seem to make my plants branches sag. Even the main stem is starting to keel over.

So I'm on this forum to learn how to speed up harvest time. I was using 12/12 lighting but just changed it to 10/14 because there is still some ambient light before and after those times.

Guys, am I doing the right thing? I would muchly appreciate any advise to speed up harvest.

Greenforge

 

[TanR]

Hi Greenforge,

Welcome to the 420 site and community of folks that gather here.

I am really curious about your plant, but think pictures might go a long way in attempts to help. Can you provide some? Also wondering if your plant is shielded from light other than from your LED? You mention sunrise/sunset times and I'm curious how that might have bearing on the plants progress.

Be well and happy growing.

 

[AusMcMaster]

Hi Greenforge,

Welcome to the 420 site and community of folks that gather here.

I am really curious about your plant, but think pictures might go a long way in attempts to help. Can you provide some? Also wondering if your plant is shielded from light other than from your LED? You mention sunrise/sunset times and I'm curious how that might have bearing on the plants progress.

Be well and happy growing.

All I want to know is is 10 hours of full light going to hasten harvest. I mentioned those times because plants darkness should be fully dark. I was getting 12 hours of lighting but even though I have a blockout curtain some light was getting through during the plants dark hours.

 

[Papageno]

No 10 hours will not hasten it. Typically that may cause it to hermi as it thinks it is the very end of the year and has not seen any pollen and will attempt to self pollinate.

Likely there is non-optimal humidity or temps causing stunting. If it were a fertilizer problem you would see it in the plants physiology.

I also was confused the first time I read this but are you growing in an indoor grow space or outdoor?

 

[Kalimaki420]

No light at all in dark is key to have success, no power led no nothing.

Shorten the light hours can help speed up.

 

[Emilya Green]

Hi all, newbie here. I'm growing my first plant. It's indoors with LED lighting. It's afghan or afghan skunk.

Anyway, it's taking a ridiculously long time to grow, it's been months. I have buds grown but the pistule type things wont go cloudy. I'm in Australia, sunrise at 6am, sunset at 8pm. Theres been hot weather and humidity lately which seem to make my plants branches sag. Even the main stem is starting to keel over.

So I'm on this forum to learn how to speed up harvest time. I was using 12/12 lighting but just changed it to 10/14 because there is still some ambient light before and after those times.

Guys, am I doing the right thing? I would muchly appreciate any advise to speed up harvest.

Greenforge

Hi Greenforge... I would continue with the 12/12 if it was possible. The ambient light before and after is not a lot and also contains a low angle deep red component to it that lets the plants know exactly when sunrise and sunset is, and where they exist in relation to the horizon. If you kept your lights on you would get a couple more usable hours out of the day, and generally the more light you give, the bigger and tighter your buds will be. I am currently doing an experiment to prove just that... last round I went with a sliding light timer, starting at 12 hours and sliding all the way down to 9 at the end. I think what I proved is that yes, the plants finish faster with the shorter light periods, but at the cost of size and potency. That is my theory anyway, but I can't prove it for 2 more months.
Anyway, not to be a smart alec, but your plants will finish out when they are done, and not before. They think they are developing seeds, which must be viable to continue on the species. I currently believe that with more energy (light) they will finish out stronger and faster, contrary to the reports that 10/14 causes this to happen. I seek to prove that under 10/14 they indeed finish out faster, thinking that the end is near, and maybe even get a little tighter... but at the expense of size and quality, and in your case, finishing out.
Where are you at in the grow now? Can you give us a close up picture of your buds in natural light so we can see how old they look?