Are pre-flowers a sign of anything besides gender?

[grod31]

So I have 10 regular plants in 1 gallon buckets on 17 hours of light started over 60 days ago. One of those plants is showing pre flowers and has been since day 51. Is this an indicator that it will start to flower sooner than the others? finish quicker than others? Has a phenotype more susceptible to amount of daylight hours? Maybe is less tolerant to environmental factors and just wants to end its life quicker?

Any one wanna share their thoughts on the meaning of preflowers besides a gender reveal?

 

[Creeperpark]

I've had a few plants show pre-flowers as early as 3 weeks old and others did not show until I switched to 12/12. It depends on a lot different conditions and not just photoperiod. 60-day veg is somewhat a long veg and pre-flowers are normal by then. If you up-potted to 2 to 3 gallon containers with the same soil and flipped, you could get about 3 times more buds in the next 60days.

 

[grod31]

Any thoughts on the meaning of preflowers besides maturity?

 

[star crash]

I’m no expert but as far as I know Pre-flowering is ONLY indication of both sexual identity & that your plant is mature enough to start flowering. Don’t know how they could indicate anything else ..Do they indicate that it will be an earlier finishing plant? I don’t think so .. ..What are some of the things you’re hoping to find ? I am also interested in learning about this as well …

 

[GoatCheese]

Any thoughts on the meaning of preflowers besides maturity?

It's shows they have reached maturity.
It can say something about the phenotype, like indica/Sativa hybrids. Some long flowering sativas can take very long time till they show preflowers.
..but ingeneral it doesn't mean anything you should be worried about.

Some plants do want to start flowering when the lights on hours get too short for them but it's not just preflowers, they actually start to form "buds". Strains that are prone to start "blooming" in veg may start doing it also when they are badly root bound or for some other stress-reasons.

Here's one:

 

[grod31]

Now we are getting somewhere. Besides gender/maturity you would agree it can say something about phenotype? or at least a plants individual metabolism.


I guess that is funny to think about because the fact that it pre flowers IS its phenotype but what i'm wondering is. pre flowering = prerequisite of anything in particular ?

 

[goingrey]

A lot of strains do it when they're rootbound. So vigorous root growth?

 

[St. Phatty]

Think they'll ever sell non-binary pot seeds ?

 

[flylowgethigh]

What is a pre-flower? Little lone pistals at nodes?

 

[GoatCheese]

What is a pre-flower? Little lone pistals at nodes?

yes, those things

 

[Dropped Cat]

I cull the plants in my cross program that show pre flower.

With store bought seeds pre flower is not a deal breaker.

I'll flower them and smoke them, lol

I take note if I'm crossing store bought seeds and move away from plants that pre flower.

 

[f-e]

I cull the plants in my cross program that show pre flower.

With store bought seeds pre flower is not a deal breaker.

I'll flower them and smoke them, lol

I take note if I'm crossing store bought seeds and move away from plants that pre flower.

Why don't you want them?



I 'imagine' that plants showing sooner will finish sooner. I have not specifically looked at this, but it best fits. Sometimes the last ones to show are very slow, that's for sure.
You would have to do a fair few from seed. See who was who. Get them all showing. Then flower them. I know which will come last, so reason tells us which should come first.

I'm forever working cuttings and this trait isn't one I desire. I just care what mature plants do. For people coming from seed, the more sexually mature plant is a thing though. Flowering before then brings losses. There is some solid science here somewhere.

Edit: I have not noticed fast varieties showing sooner. I have found myself willing one along recently, as it was a bit later than I wanted. It flowered quick though. So I don't think this observation is much use cross strain. However separating phenotypes... That really does seem like something

 

[44:86N]

I cull the plants in my cross program that show pre flower.
With store bought seeds pre flower is not a deal breaker.
I'll flower them and smoke them, lol
I take note if I'm crossing store bought seeds and move away from plants that pre flower.

That's very interesting. Would you be willing to share your reasoning? As someone interested in breeding, just hoping to expand my knowledge base. Does a plant need to be exposed to 12/12 before it begins expressing for you to consider it worthy?

I've always pre-sexed my plants from seed, usually by late June to mid-July, or in their 'third' out of 'four' pots. Some do indicate later than others, and those I will pot up and keep an eye on.

It was apparent to me this season, that a lot of those early/pre-flowers seem to be responsible for botrytis outbreaks, as they matured way ahead of the main flower structures.

 

[HempKat]

This is just anecdotal evidence but on more then one occasion I had a group of plants from the same batch of seeds and most would pre-flower in about 5-6 weeks but there would be two or three that didn't show any pre-flowers until they went into 12/12 which I usually had to do because the plants were getting too big to wait any longer otherwise I'd run the risk of them being too big for my grow space. The ones that didn't pre-flower in veg would show pre-flowers pretty quickly once in 12/12 (like within the first week). After that though they all pretty much flowered and were ready for harvest in the same amount of time more or less. Or to put it differently there was no real evidence that the plants the pre-flowered in veg finished any faster then the ones that didn't show pre-flowers until 12/12.

My experience has been that the appearance of pre-flowers is nothing more then the plant revealing it's sex and showing that it is mature enough for flower.

 

[flylowgethigh]

These two different strains have been at 12/12 for almost a month, and I have been dropping that steadily. They are down to 10:15 now, with sunset and sunrise. I wonder if the tent environment doesn't have a lot to do with the speed?

OHSK

OHLP

 

[44:86N]

These two different strains have been at 12/12 for almost a month, and I have been dropping that steadily. They are down to 10:15 now, with sunset and sunrise. I wonder if the tent environment doesn't have a lot to do with the speed?

Any... minute... now...........

Yeah, that's unusual. I'd leave the light schedule alone, though.

Any light pollution during the night going on?

Is there a drop in nighttime temps, or do they remain constant?

Have you given them a lower end dose of flowering formula yet?

Letting them get on the dry side before watering?

They seem to just want to grow, eh? There's a reason here, just have to suss it out.

 

[flylowgethigh]

I grow OK plants in my soil, that's for sure. Trics are a different matter all together. What is wilder is the slow sativa in the back is from the same seed batch as the fast column one in the front right of the other tent. Started at the same time.

 

[Dropped Cat]

subbed

 

[CannaRed]

I think it's a combo of maturity, phenotypical, and root bound or pot being to small.
What I mean by that is, if certain plants get root bound they will mature faster to get ready to flower.
I'm not sure, but I think it's a survival mechanism, the plant senses it's in a tight space and thinks it won't have much room/nutrients to grow much bigger, and knows it still has to go through it's stretch phase, so it gets ready to bloom.
Different strains and different phenos have different level of sensitivity to being in small pots.
my PurpAl plant will start show pre flowers, and then start to bloom (irregardless of light cycle) if she's not happy with her pot size. Other strains will just show pre flowers but not go into full bloom. Some will start the zig zag pattern of bloom.
that's my opinion/observations anyways.
But, what the hell do I know?

 

[flylowgethigh]

Plants can say "fuck flowering, I am gonna just pre-flower my whole life"? Hah! I may have two of them. 10 gallon bag of soil each.

Surely they have to flower sometime.