how long do your plants take to start budding???

[captinknots]

minimum 7 days of 12 12 before i see bud formation start. and they start slow!! how do yours go? is there a method to speeding up the onset of flower?

i just started doing a 24 hour dark day before they go into the flower room, but i havent noticed any increase in speed of the onset of flower though.....

 

[VerdantGreen]

it can take a while depending on strain and age. my Blueberry will take 2-3 weeks before any buds strart forming - during which time she will double or triple in size.

plants from seed that havent shown maturity (sex) can take a few weeks before they show sex and then a few more to bud up properly.

ive never bothered with dark days etc.

im just starting to grow some original haze which i plan to move to 12/12, then 11/13 and finally 10/14. this can work well with tropical sativas to encourage them to start flowering.

also a plant that is getting rootbound will start to flower quicker than a plant that has just been repotted.

VG

 

[captinknots]

interesting root bound theory. tested by trial and error or just heard of?
is there much root growth once in flower?

 

[captinknots]

ive been going from clone, vegging for a month or so maybe 6 weeks from roots showing. all strains have been similar in time. about 7 days

 

[VerdantGreen]

root bound theory is tried and tested and generally accepted.

indica roots will stop growing soon after flowering starts whearas sativa roots can grow well into flowering. - hybrids will be anywhere inbetween.

 

[captinknots]

thanks for the lesson man! that has me thinking about the way i do things....

 

[fonzee]

I like the 24 hours darkness thing. I usually start seeing pistils growing faster after 3-4 days.
Things that look like buds are usually around the 2nd week of 12\12.

 

[VerdantGreen]

this is why i dont mess with light cycles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circadian_rhythm

 

[fonzee]

VG, I've read about it quite a few times, yet people grow on 24\0 and 18\6 light regime and get great results.
I don't recall any day around here that was 18\6.

 

[VerdantGreen]

hey fonzee, its not so much the day length, just that the plant is dialled in to a 24 hour day/light cycle. obviously these change in duration but stay locked into the 24 hour cycle. so when you flip your plants from say 18/6 to 12/12 you want ideally take 3 hours off both the front and the back of the day so the daylight stays in sync with itself. it probably doesnt make a huge difference but i like to keep to the same daytime and night to mimic the way the seasons would change. this way you dont alter the basic rhythm of the plant.

moreover, 24 hours dark imo is just wasted photosythesis time - im sure it accelerates flowering a little but also may stress the plant. i would prefer the extra day's growth and a non-confused plant. the long dark period can cause stretch as well.

that said - each to their own

VG

p.s. the longest day in UK lasts nearly 17 hours - not far off 18

 

[fonzee]

The center of the daylight time is not the same all year-round, as far as I recall.

I'm sure those changed stress the plants, and in a dialed up setup like your its probably something to consider.
However, in my far-from-dialed-in setup I would rather focus on correct feeding rather than starting the day a hour sooner once in the plants life time.
I suspect (and I got nothing to back this up) that stress actually help the plant to flower sooner. It does all kinds of other things as well of course. Could be purely the stress of messing with the light regime that brings the pistils faster and that I can also cause it by tearing some roots. Maybe.

In parts of the marble the longest day in a few months. I don't recall many native strains of MJ in those places.

 

[VerdantGreen]

yeah fonzee im not saying you are wrong, just telling you what i do and why. none of the circadian rhythm stuff is specific to mj but my logic sees some merit to keeping the same basic day/night cycle even when making the day shorter. in nature all these changes happen pretty gradually so the plant will adjust as it goes along. i dont go to the lengths of gradually shortening the day period but i do try and keep it in the same phase as before.
the discussion started about giving the plant 24hrs dark to stimulate flowering, not 'starting the day an hour sooner once in a plants lifetime'

the hormone that makes the plant flower builds up during dark periods so im sure 24hrs dark will speed up the onset of flowering if that is what's important to you

cheers

VG

 

[captinknots]

I really just wanted to see how long YOUR (anyones) plants take to start showing signs of flower and possible ways to speed that up....thats all. thanks for your input fellas.

along with the 24 hour dark day, do the flowering nutes towards the end of veg promote early change over as well? or does that just make the plant better prepared?

 

[staff11]

It really also depends if they are fully matured seeded plants or if they are clones. The strain I run right now (cuttings/clones) start to show flowers in as little as 5 days under 12/12. They are at day 18 right now and already show plenty of bud sites/flowers, along with frost..... By the third and fourth weeks, they pretty much triple in size and go nuts until I chop them at around 65-70 days.

I run my veg lights at 20/4, the extra rest period seems to help in my experience. (Rather then running 24/0) And for whatever reason I notice that they grow a bit more then 18/6.

I have never let my plants sit in 24 hours of darkness but have read plenty of others that have and seen no noticeable difference in the appearance of flowers.

 

[Clackamas Coot]

I run my veg lights at 20/4, the extra rest period seems to help in my experience. (Rather then running 24/0) And for whatever reason I notice that they grow a bit more then 18/6

staff11

Several years ago on the old Overgrow.com forum there was a well-respected poster there (Old Timer1) who ran an experiment on the veg cycle deal, i.e. 16/8, 18/6, 20/4 and 24/0

His experience was the same as you've noted - 20/4 provided the best growing cycle for the veg cycle.

I've done the 20/4 cycle since I read that and it's probably been 6 or 7 years back.

CC

 

[captinknots]

day 10 my martian mean greens started showing. i 24 hour darked it too.

 

[fonzee]

Coot, I plan on going 16/8 for veg to save energy and heat buildup. Would it be substantially inferior to 20/4 by your experience and research?

 

[Clackamas Coot]

Coot, I plan on going 16/8 for veg to save energy and heat buildup. Would it be substantially inferior to 20/4 by your experience and research?

fonzee

I've only done 18/6, 20/4 and 24/0 cycles and the differences are fairly minor and in small increments, nothing overwhelming.

Perhaps someone who has experience with 16/8 can help out.

CC

 

[fonzee]

Thanks for the input