From the Growing Stage to the Budding Stage: EFFICIENTLY

[coughcough]

Heyyyyyyooooooh!!!!

So I've heard two different theories... From one extreme to the other.

One guy says that you can manipulate a plant and get it in to the budding cycle whenever you want....

The other guy says that no matter if I go from 24 hours a day light cycle down to 12/12, it won't start budding until 'it is ready'.

I would sure like to shorten my growing projects (currently it's about 4-5 months from start to finish).

Which is it?

Thanks!!!!

 

[Zen Master]

12on/12off will induce flowering in most varieties.

the only cannabis plants that I know of that bloom under 24 hrs of light are autoflowers and you probably dont want those.

some equatorial sativas need less than 12 hrs of light to start budding.


you can absolutely control when your plants bloom by switching from 20/4 or 18/6 to 12/12

with the extra daylight hours most all strains will only grow vegetative growth, no buds at all, when they get to be the size that you want, switch the lighting cycle and in a week you'll start seeing frosty little calyxs everywhere.

 

[coughcough]

Okay I'll try and kick them over sooner than later next time. Previously I would wait until I saw a few white hairs pokin out before I would turn them over.

 

[Zen Master]

a plant in vegetative growth will still put out one calyx at the node which will have a pistil usually, but you could go 12/12 from seed if you want and still have perfectly healthy plants, theres a whole thread on here about just that actually.

 

[Milwaukee]

Yep, 12/12 will put it into flower. I've seen people go 12/12 from seed or immediately after clones root. Was "the other guy" talking about autoflowers?

 

[coughcough]

He didn't mention anything about auto flowers. His theory was that if you chose a hypothetical lifespan of a plant (let's say 12 months)...

That if you did 24 hrs on for 6 months, you'd have 6 months of budding till harvest time. if you only did 24 hrs on for 3 months, that you would STILL have 9 months of flowering until harvesting.

So no matter what you did, you still had a 12 month old plant before harvesting.

*Disclaimer* I know that 12 months is way more than what we're talkin about, but it's just for an example.

But

 

[FreezerBoy]

Apples and oranges. Veg time and flower time are two different things. An 8 week strain will flower in 8 weeks whether it's vegged for 2 weeks or 2 years.

The plant tries to flower the very second it sprouts. Problem is, it hasn't the equipment to do so at this time. Building the equipment takes the plant about 2 weeks. From that point on it's in full flower mode regardless of light. Thing is, the flowering hormone is allergic to light. Hormones build all night and are killed during the day. Eventually, days get shorter, nights longer and one silly little hormone survives. The next day 2, then 4, then 8... hormones hit critical mass and BOOM, flowers.

Once plants pass the seedling stage at 2-3 weeks they're "ready."