Flowering And Ripening At The Equator

[TanzanianMagic]

All I have heard about outdoor sativas is that they ripen when their ecosystem starts to run out of nutrients to support them.

That may very well be it. It makes sense from what I have observed, there seems to be a connection between not feeding the plant and ripening, apart from not wanting to have the nutrients spoil the taste of the weed.

Still, it too often takes a long time for that second flush of resin to show up.

 

[jimboyia]

this is a resurrection.... I am growing ON the equator, at altitude, somewhat North of TZN. Have Sats in pots outside. I'm thinking stress reaction will help to prompt flowering, rather than a photoperiod shift.

Any takers?

 

[jimboyia]

here's a pic of a local landrace (NO idea what, western Kenya prolly) - went into flowering spontaneously and seems, to my untutored eye, to be developing nicely. This is flowering at one week. Have it on a basic LST, on the equator at 6300 f.a.s.l....

 

[jimboyia]

Local Landrace, Equatorial, flowering + approx 2 weeks - note gallon tub to right. So far, so good....

 

[Sam_Skunkman]

If a variety won't flower outdoors where you are then try a different one.
If you want to flower a variety faster you need to darken by covering it or moving indoors into the dark for a few hours a day in the morning or evenings. Pure Sativas should have no problems finishing, or seeds from your local area.
Also it is easier to flower when the hours are getting less then getting longer, 11 or 13 hours is a big difference to a sensitive Sativa, they don't want to flower at 13 they will at 11.
-SamS

 

[ChaosCatalunya]

As Sam and others said, plants can sense tiny differences in daylength, here in Spain I planted Golden Tiger in less than 12 hour light [11.27hrs sunrise to sunset, 12.22hrs dawn to dusk] .. but they sensed the lengthening days and vegged happily, are now starting to flower [12.58 S-S/1355hrs D-D]

Likewise, clones vegged on longer [18] hours light can go into flower when put outside in 14 or 15 hours light, Sativas less so, in general.

Plenty of people are growing great weed 12/12 from seed, there is much to learn, daylength is critical IMO.

 

[jimboyia]

Local Landrace on equator at 6300 f.a.s.l three weeks into flowering - it's only ever known 12-12 with very slight variations,

Coming on nicely, I'd say.....

 

[TanzanianMagic]

All I have heard about outdoor sativas is that they ripen when their ecosystem starts to run out of nutrients to support them. No idea if that is accurate though.

I think this really may be it.

There are some sativas that look like they are flowering forever, and light cycles only go from 13 hours to 11 hours. So it has to be something else.

Running out of food makes perfect sense. After the plant runs out of nutrients to make more calyxes, all that is left to do is to mature the resin glands. That's my working hypothesis at least.

Nutrients are in the soil, roots and leaves. Therefore yellowing or dropping leaves, wetting the soil with water only and maybe flushing it (hate that), and the roots being shocked with for instance ice water or cut with a knife would throw the plant back onto the nutrients stored in the leaves that are left, so it will run out of nutrients faster. Add strong sun/light and that would happen even faster.

I think there may be something to it, because back when I really didn' t know what I was doing growing, I used to burn the roots by overdosing the nutrients. They showed a lot of resin and were extremely potent, but the taste was pretty bad.

 

[Donald Mallard]

They know when to flower,
they are an annual ,
the diminishing hours ,
coupled with the finish of the monsoon,
they have simply adapted to the seasons where they are ..
its not magic , its just nature ...

 

[jimboyia]

They know when to flower,
they are an annual ,
the diminishing hours ,
coupled with the finish of the monsoon,
they have simply adapted to the seasons where they are ..
its not magic , its just nature ...

that's 100%.... local landrace, planted end June about a short piss length away from the equator, flowering the past 3 weeks - colas coming on, calyx development impressive, seeing the first trichomes, no extra light, no cutting out of light and all in a 1 gallon tub. Watch this space, more pics to follow....

but the Hawaiian Snow (obviously not a local!) somehow a little bit more reluctant, despite being predominantly Sat.

Goes to show....nature knows best

 

[jimboyia]

this is Local Landrace on equator at 6300f.a.s.l altitude flowering + 4 weeks. It has 5 nice size colas plus 3 secondary ones. It's in a 1 gallon tub, it's hot outside but this baby keeps stretching so long as I keep the fertigation going.

I did not initially think this would succeed given the small volume of soil but sofa so good.

Will be very interested to see final yield.....

 

[TanzanianMagic]

I think this really may be it.

There are some sativas that look like they are flowering forever, and light cycles only go from 13 hours to 11 hours. So it has to be something else.

Running out of food makes perfect sense. After the plant runs out of nutrients to make more calyxes, all that is left to do is to mature the resin glands. That's my working hypothesis at least.

Nutrients are in the soil, roots and leaves. Therefore yellowing or dropping leaves, wetting the soil with water only and maybe flushing it (hate that), and the roots being shocked with for instance ice water or cut with a knife would throw the plant back onto the nutrients stored in the leaves that are left, so it will run out of nutrients faster. Add strong sun/light and that would happen even faster.

I think there may be something to it, because back when I really didn' t know what I was doing growing, I used to burn the roots by overdosing the nutrients. They showed a lot of resin and were extremely potent, but the taste was pretty bad.

From Soma's book "Organic Marijuana Soma Style", Chapter 7 "Finishing with Finess - the harvest": "My motto is, 'if it looks ready, wait for a week'."

Letting them go another week could just mean that they have more time to use up more nutrients.

Secondly, girdling.

Girdling (removing a partial or complete circle of bark around the base of the stem) cuts off both the nutrient flow to the plant, and water supply from the roots. This may be useful in high humidity areas, where humidity cannot be restricted in the budding phase. Plants will not get water from roots, but may still take it up through the buds/leaves.

Just a thought.

 

[Donald Mallard]

Once you watch a few seasons in the tropics you get the hang of what makes it all work,
and you can take advantage of the wonderful weather ,
and use the rain to your advantage also ,
the rain is food ,
when it stops and the hours are right ,
the plant will finish its flowering cycle ,
its built in , they have grown accustom to the tropical seasons ,
the wet and the dry ..

heres what you can do on the "off season" , winter/spring ,
in the tropics ,
if you know what works and why ...

 

[TanzanianMagic]

" if you know what works and why ... "

Which would be what?

This thread is about techniques that may speed up ripening.

 

[Gelado`]

IMO some long-flowering sativas flower by maturity and daylength; if I wanted faster flowering I'd keep an indoor mom, take cuts, veg outdoors and flower in small containers the plants had fully rooted in. I'd aim to flower at the dryest time of year (which hopefully also had the shortest daylength).

 

[Donald Mallard]

Hi,


So I wonder how sativas ripen in the tropics. Are they made to ripen by the growers, and if so, how?

i was referring to this part of your first post ,,

my apologies if the information ive shared isnt welcome,
i was only trying to answer the question you asked ...

 

[TanzanianMagic]

i was referring to this part of your first post ,,

my apologies if the information ive shared isnt welcome,
i was only trying to answer the question you asked ...

Hi Donald Mallard,

The information was not unwelcome, just a little cryptic.

Right now I'm ripening two (tropical) plants, in a Northsea climate.

It is extremely valuable to know of techniques that speed up ripening, especially if you grow outdoor or in a greenhouse in a country that can get cold in winter.

If I'd had the space, I would try and cross a long flowering landrace with a good autoflowerer, and then backcross them over and over again until there was nothing left of the ruderalis except the autoflowering trait, and then inbreed them.

It would be very useful to know what stops a plant from flowering and start ripening.

My guess is still that the plant runs out of nutrients, including from the leaves. I think most of the techniques (icewater on the roots, girdling, removing leaves (which are filled with nutrients) used facilitate that.

 

[Weezard]

"It would be very useful to know what stops a plant from flowering and start ripening. "

Indeed it is.
Just google photoperiodicity and all will be revealed.

Aloha,
Weeze

 

[Donald Mallard]

Hi, T,
ive been thinking on that girdling also,
i suspect even in the tropics theres the odd stubborn plant ,(ive seen a few that never wanted to stop growing)
im sure that will shock them enough to finish,

i did notice when bending branches on my ladies,
if one was a little overly manipulated ,
to the point of cutting off most nutrient ,
it definitely ripened quite a bit before the rest of the bush...

when the guys where i live had only pure sativas to grow,
and they were trying to get them to flower properly in the "off season" (ie spring/dry season)
they told me cutting down the water supply helped them mature better at a time when they would normally resist...

 

[jimboyia]

this here cola's off ye olde local landrace (as mentioned before, I think)...I'd say 4 1/2 weeks into flowering on equator etc. Probably major flowering inducing factor had S.F.A to do with photoperiodicity because, if anything, we're getting longer days as we approach the equinox.

So, I'm thinking the fact that this baby is in a 1 gallon pot and it's been hot lately and nutrients and water are somewhat restricted that this is the main inducement to flowering on the equator....