Wasted days and wasted nights - Wait - That's a song?

Bumble

Bumble

New Member
Seriously though, I am very new to growing, and I've 3 females flowering at different times. 1 has about 14 days, 2 are at 5 to 7 days. Where I'm at, its still 13+ hour long days. I was under the assumption that to trigger the plants bloom phase, it had to be even day and night hrs, 12/12. And do different strains flower at dif times? So, I'm wondering, WHAT IS MAKING MY PLANTS BLOOM.
 
From The weed blog:
Of course, getting to the flowering stage is different for every plant. If you’re growing indoors, then you have control over when the plant will start flowering. If you’re growing outdoors, however, the plants will only start flowering once certain lightness and darkness quotas are met. Unless you’re using an autoflowering variety, then having a set amount of complete darkness every night is necessary to get the plants to flower. During vegetative growth, you might leave the lights on 24/7, but when the plants have matured enough, you’ll want to switch them to a 12/12 light to darkness ratio. That means, the lights stay on for 12 hours and they go off for 12 hours straight.

It’s important to note that flowering will only occur in situations where the plant receives total darkness for approximately 12 hours. If you interrupt the darkness period even for a few seconds, you may trick the plants into thinking they’re getting more light. It should also be noted that certain varieties have “thresholds” of darkness that need to be passed. That is to say, 12 hours might not work for some plants. You might even be able to get away with a smaller length of time in the dark (say, 10 hours), and you may even need to provide as much as 14 hours of darkness.

If you’re growing outdoors, then you may be at the mercy of the of the Earth’s tilt. Varieties that have extra-long darkness thresholds will have to stay outdoors for a longer period of time. If applicable, you can but a blackout sheet over the plants so that they get the recommended amount of darkness, but that won’t always work.

In general, the plants will become more robust as the flowering cycle wears on. You’ll start to see more leaves, more branches, and more buds forming. In some instances, the plant will take the shape of a Christmas tree, with the bottom leaves fanning out and the top leaves sort of rising in a conical shape. The female plants will produce the nice, sticky, THCn-laden buds that you will later use for smoking.
The flowering process generally takes about 1 to 2 months. You will know that the plant is ready to harvest because the pistils will swell up and start to change colors. You may also start to notice a considerable increase in THC production on or around the buds. THC (short for tetrahydrocannabinol) is a sticky, almost crystalline substance that starts to form around bud clusters on marijuana plants. In terms of biology, THC is used as a mild, natural pest deterrent to keep any bugs away from the flowering plant. As far as human usage goes, THC has considerable psychoactive properties that make it interesting to smoke or ingest.

An unfertilized female plant produces more THC than any other variety of plant simply because it focuses more of its attention on growth rather than reproduction. A fertilized female plant has to focus on seed production and, thus, gives less primacy to producing THC. The substance can be found virtually everywhere on the plant but is most prevalent at the buds. Males also produce THC, but at a much smaller volume than the female plants do.
 
Done in one...

12/12 is for indoor plants to "force" flowering. I'm at 35N latitude and my outdoor plants begin to flower 13.5 - 14 hours daylight. Each strain is a little different.

12/12 light doesn't happen until September 25th in my area. If I added 9 weeks to that, it would be November 27th for harvest. Way to cold. Plants would have frozen before that.
 
masonman said:
Done in one...

12/12 is for indoor plants to "force" flowering. I'm at 35N latitude and my outdoor plants begin to flower 13.5 - 14 hours daylight. Each strain is a little different.

12/12 light doesn't happen until September 25th in my area. If I added 9 weeks to that, it would be November 27th for harvest. Way to cold. Plants would have frozen before that.
Click to expand...
Thanks masonman. I'm like a leaf in the wind here.... Lol ! I was tripping! Ones budding out nice and the others are... well, just starting. So, being the noobie I am, I'm thinking I messed up somewhere. Ph, nutes too strong, pruned it wrong... But 1 is doing great so nothing made since. Thanks.
 
Do I prune these lower sun leaves leaving mostly flower and sugar leaves?
420-magazine-mobile1062570414.jpg
 
Dealer's choice on the pruning/defoliating. From what I'm seeing, I would not. They are not so bushy as to be a problem, IMO. They appear to let enough light in. You could remove a leaf here and there to let more light to a bud site, or try tucking the fan leaves underneath those spots. Some fans will likely yellow and die on their own anyway. You've got time to feel it out.

BTW, my outdoor plants begin the transition (slowly) to bloom when the days are about 14.5 - 15 hours long. Outside is a much slower process with days only deceasing 1.5 - 2 minutes per day. It's not like flipping from 18/6 to 12/12 instantly.

Canna Montana said:
Don't mind if I do. Thanks! :passitleft:
Click to expand...
I want in on that action. :cheesygrinsmiley:
:passitleft:
 
Bumble said:
You the man Major! I see so many stemy looking plants with so much trimmed that I was wondering if I missed something! Lol. I'll do a little, but they seem very happy right now. Thank you
Click to expand...

I prune my lower branches, but only because I'm pretty sure I'll have more produce than I want and I hate trimming larfy popcorn.
Some plants do get so bushy as to become a problem. I tend to prune branches that are heading to the interior of the plant since they won't get ANY light for flowering and they make it a real pain if I need to spray for bugs.

Here are some examples of how I do it (I'm no expert) for different kinds of plants.
ZD1_08-10.jpg
LH2_08-10.jpg
LH1-2_08-10.jpg
GT2_08-10.jpg
GG4-1_08-10.jpg
 
One easy way to tell if you should trim those lower branches and leaves is to get down low and look up threw the plant to see just how much light is making it down to the bottom. If you do not see any really dark areas, you should be fine. As the Major pointed out your plant is not super bushy so chances are you will have good light all the way down to the bottom.
You mentioned that you have 13+ hours of daylight where you are at, well that is plenty short enough to cause a plant to flower. When I put my 1st plants outside this year in April we had around 13+ hours of daylight and each day it was increasing by 1.5 minutes, yet one of the plants I started early began to flower. I had to put lights on the others to prevent them from going into flower as well. 12/12 is just the industry standard to guarantee that your plant will start flowering. I have flowered plants on 11/13 and 13/11 schedules before and both worked just fine.
 

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