Fluorobuds
Member
I'm new to the scene, but have been doing my fair share of research on our good friend the pot plant and started thinking....How can we cause flowering in a greenhouse when our light cycle in the summer won't allow for it??? Flowering in a "summer hours" light period while having more control over veg, which we don't have in the new autoflower strains.
I have been doing some research and finding all sorts of info. There are many hormones in a plant, and many plants where Photoperiod determines flowering. For example, We have Cannabis and Xanthium (I use this because this is what was used in the experiments I will be discussing), both Short Day Plants (SDP) that only flower in the fall hours. Another plant, Silene, is considered a Long Day Plant (LDP), flowering in long light periods.
Flowering with Hormone Additives
Since these two types of plants occur, it is assumed that a hormonal change occurs during the change in daylight hours to change between veg/bloom. This hormone has been termed "Florigen" from what I have read. And it is still a mystery in the science world.
Flowering in LDP plants, regardless of light period, has been able to be induced by the addition of "Gibberellin", which is some form of hormone found in the plant. These crazy scientists have developed and changed the chemical numerous ways to try and find which hormone is causing this, because the Gibberellin is found in a bunch of different chemical compositions. (this is my understanding on what I have been reading, I am no scientist though so don't hang me if I'm wrong.)
Flowering in SDP plants has NOT been able to be induced through the addition of of this Gibberellin however. This causes us to question if Gibberellin is the flowering hormone, or if there is a greater difference between plant hormones than speculated.
Why Do Scientists Think There is a Common Florigen????
BECAUSE OF GRAFTING?!?!?!?!
The reason it is believed there is a common hormone, is because a blooming LDP plant, can have a cutting removed, and grafted to a Vegging SDP Plant as the new host(this plant is not in a light period allowing for bloom, remember this!), AND BLOOM WILL OCCUR IN THE WHOLE HOST PLANT REGARDLESS OF THE FACT THAT LDP CONDITIONS ARE STILL PRESENT FOR THE SDP. So this leads scientists to believe that there is a common hormone that is found in the flowering cutting, and once grafting has occurred, this hormone is sent to the central system of the plant(for lack of the correct term) and causes hormone production to be altered to bloom hormones.
In addition, further experiments were done where grafting a blooming cutting from a Xanthium plant, to a vegging Xanthium plant, produced bloom in the new host plant as well. So we have evidence that we do not need to graft LDP to SDP or vice versa to cause flowering! Apparently once the hormonal change has occured in the blooming plant, it is permanent and has the ability to switch other plants to bloom as well, once it has been grafted.
The experiment I read about was able to continue taking cuttings from the new SDP host plants, and grafting them onto other plants that have never seen any photoperiod other than LD light cycles. They were able to do this to seven consecutive plants in such a manner where - they take a cutting from a bloom plant, graft and induce bloom in a veg plant, then once bloom was induced in the new host, take a cutting from that plant and graft to a third vegging plant which had never been exposed to bloom light cycle, and induce bloom here also, regardless of having long days. (Lona 1946, and Thrulow 1948, just in case you are extremely bored, this was the citing for the info I read.)
SUMMARY
Science seems to show that when we graft a Blooming SDP to a Vegging SDP, bloom will occur regardless of light cycle. It sounds like this should work in a greenhouse or outdoors to get an early harvest.
When you clone in bloom though, and put a clone in veg light cycle, it can change back, as most have you have probably done many more times than I have. But, if we take a cutting when we are in full blown bloom and it has a bud on it, since most clones don't have a nice bud already started, the effect must be different. The experiment where they kept taking clones from the new host and grafting it, creating 7 generations of blooming plants during long days, helps entertain the idea that this is possible.
I am leaning towards the belief that this might actually work to cause bloom in long light periods for us.
If it does......we open up a whole new batch of questions.
1. Since our new plants will produce "bloom grafts", and there is a period where the graft must attach to the host, veg will still occur till the hormonal change has occurred, possibly allowing for more efficient growing? While our graft grows onto our host and the hormones are altered, veg will continue in our host. This may allow us to graft to a smaller plant to cause bloom, but still allow it to veg and get bigger until the entire hormonal change has occurred. This hormonal change may also cause faster bloom, if the graft causes hormone conversion to occur faster than when we simply change the light period.
2. Once this change has occurred, bloom hormones may set in before bloom is evident on the host plant, will cloning produce blooming clones? Which would develop a sort of autoflower, but you would have more control over which strain. You can make your own autoflowers out of your favorite mother. Would definitely take more work than grabbing a bag of lowryder and throwing it in some dirt tho.
3. And the third and more far fetched of the three, can we develop plants that might be able to flower in LDP? If we were to successfully graft a Cannabis plant to a LDP plant, could we then breed and generate seeds that essentially were backwards in light cycle? 12/12 veg and 24hr bloom?
Hope this causes some good discussion and experimenting. I'm in my first microgrow and plan on exploring this once I get some inventory in clones and blooming plants, since I don't have much to play mad scientist with right now. Would be great to see anyone with a big setup already going to give it a try tho.
Thanks for stopping in, gonna go get high and daydream about this now
I have been doing some research and finding all sorts of info. There are many hormones in a plant, and many plants where Photoperiod determines flowering. For example, We have Cannabis and Xanthium (I use this because this is what was used in the experiments I will be discussing), both Short Day Plants (SDP) that only flower in the fall hours. Another plant, Silene, is considered a Long Day Plant (LDP), flowering in long light periods.
Flowering with Hormone Additives
Since these two types of plants occur, it is assumed that a hormonal change occurs during the change in daylight hours to change between veg/bloom. This hormone has been termed "Florigen" from what I have read. And it is still a mystery in the science world.
Flowering in LDP plants, regardless of light period, has been able to be induced by the addition of "Gibberellin", which is some form of hormone found in the plant. These crazy scientists have developed and changed the chemical numerous ways to try and find which hormone is causing this, because the Gibberellin is found in a bunch of different chemical compositions. (this is my understanding on what I have been reading, I am no scientist though so don't hang me if I'm wrong.)
Flowering in SDP plants has NOT been able to be induced through the addition of of this Gibberellin however. This causes us to question if Gibberellin is the flowering hormone, or if there is a greater difference between plant hormones than speculated.
Why Do Scientists Think There is a Common Florigen????
BECAUSE OF GRAFTING?!?!?!?!
The reason it is believed there is a common hormone, is because a blooming LDP plant, can have a cutting removed, and grafted to a Vegging SDP Plant as the new host(this plant is not in a light period allowing for bloom, remember this!), AND BLOOM WILL OCCUR IN THE WHOLE HOST PLANT REGARDLESS OF THE FACT THAT LDP CONDITIONS ARE STILL PRESENT FOR THE SDP. So this leads scientists to believe that there is a common hormone that is found in the flowering cutting, and once grafting has occurred, this hormone is sent to the central system of the plant(for lack of the correct term) and causes hormone production to be altered to bloom hormones.
In addition, further experiments were done where grafting a blooming cutting from a Xanthium plant, to a vegging Xanthium plant, produced bloom in the new host plant as well. So we have evidence that we do not need to graft LDP to SDP or vice versa to cause flowering! Apparently once the hormonal change has occured in the blooming plant, it is permanent and has the ability to switch other plants to bloom as well, once it has been grafted.
The experiment I read about was able to continue taking cuttings from the new SDP host plants, and grafting them onto other plants that have never seen any photoperiod other than LD light cycles. They were able to do this to seven consecutive plants in such a manner where - they take a cutting from a bloom plant, graft and induce bloom in a veg plant, then once bloom was induced in the new host, take a cutting from that plant and graft to a third vegging plant which had never been exposed to bloom light cycle, and induce bloom here also, regardless of having long days. (Lona 1946, and Thrulow 1948, just in case you are extremely bored, this was the citing for the info I read.)
SUMMARY
Science seems to show that when we graft a Blooming SDP to a Vegging SDP, bloom will occur regardless of light cycle. It sounds like this should work in a greenhouse or outdoors to get an early harvest.
When you clone in bloom though, and put a clone in veg light cycle, it can change back, as most have you have probably done many more times than I have. But, if we take a cutting when we are in full blown bloom and it has a bud on it, since most clones don't have a nice bud already started, the effect must be different. The experiment where they kept taking clones from the new host and grafting it, creating 7 generations of blooming plants during long days, helps entertain the idea that this is possible.
I am leaning towards the belief that this might actually work to cause bloom in long light periods for us.
If it does......we open up a whole new batch of questions.
1. Since our new plants will produce "bloom grafts", and there is a period where the graft must attach to the host, veg will still occur till the hormonal change has occurred, possibly allowing for more efficient growing? While our graft grows onto our host and the hormones are altered, veg will continue in our host. This may allow us to graft to a smaller plant to cause bloom, but still allow it to veg and get bigger until the entire hormonal change has occurred. This hormonal change may also cause faster bloom, if the graft causes hormone conversion to occur faster than when we simply change the light period.
2. Once this change has occurred, bloom hormones may set in before bloom is evident on the host plant, will cloning produce blooming clones? Which would develop a sort of autoflower, but you would have more control over which strain. You can make your own autoflowers out of your favorite mother. Would definitely take more work than grabbing a bag of lowryder and throwing it in some dirt tho.
3. And the third and more far fetched of the three, can we develop plants that might be able to flower in LDP? If we were to successfully graft a Cannabis plant to a LDP plant, could we then breed and generate seeds that essentially were backwards in light cycle? 12/12 veg and 24hr bloom?
Hope this causes some good discussion and experimenting. I'm in my first microgrow and plan on exploring this once I get some inventory in clones and blooming plants, since I don't have much to play mad scientist with right now. Would be great to see anyone with a big setup already going to give it a try tho.
Thanks for stopping in, gonna go get high and daydream about this now
