8 weeks on most strains advertised...really 9-10 weeks?

[Oxygen_Man]

HI, I was wondering if the 60 day statement on strains is a little false advertising, or an eraly chop. Im finding most people saying 9-10 weeks is actuely the perfect time on MOST strains that are indica or hybird or short flowering sativas(besides the longer flowering sativas). so in your personal opinions guys, do you really chop at 60 days feeling that they are indeed ready or would most of your stuff be perfect at 9-10 week mark?

 

[Warped1]

I think part of it could be that some growers consider the date they switch to 12/12 as a beginning flower date and not when flowers are actually seen.

 

[GoneRooty]

The flowering period always starts when you flip to 12/12. The flowering period starts before any flowers appear. And as for the 60 flowering time on a strain, it is dependent of variables. It's never meant as exactly 60days, but around 60days. The only true way to tell when your flowers are ripe is by looking at them through a magnifier of some sort. Flowers start to ripen when trichomes begin getting cloudy, and progress to an amber color. Depending on the ratio of cloudy to amber trichomes, gives you a different type of high. More cloudy gives you a heady high, more amber gives you a couchlock. For most strains you want close to 50-50 cloudy and amber, which gives you a very good head and body high.
Remember cannabis is just a plant, and all plants mature and ripen at different times. Even within the same species/strain, ripening times can vary based on environmental variables.
So with all that said, get a magnifier and check your trichomes. Start checking about a week before the stated harvest time (60days,etc) and continue to check until you feel they are ripe enough

 

[laylow]

environment plays a big part and what/how you feed them imo...

 

[Oxygen_Man]

i know you have to look with a magnifier, but I was wondering in your guys personal expereience, have most strains taken atleast 9 weeks to get to even cloudy?

 

[lloy]

Good info above. I personally start counting when there are more pistal's then preflowers. Some of the environmental factors are, small container causes rootboundness wich can trigger early flowering, feeding to much n in early flowering will cause the plant to flower longer, and less than 6 hours of direct light will also cause prolonged flowering.

 

[supermanlives]

i always add 1 to 2 weeks to advertised flowering times.i think flowering times advertised are just an suggestion ..

 

[MadBuddhaAbuser]

a combination of probably picking before the "connoseur" would, growing in hydro(which can be faster than soil), growing from clone, and wanting to have a short flower time that appeals to growers(A.K.A. buyers $$$).

 

[GoozMan]

I wonder if stress causes flowering times to lengthen? I imagine all my pruning and defoliating during flower adds a week or two each round.

 

[señorsloth]

yes stress will cause flowering to take longer! defoliation can add a week, growing in soil adds a week over hydro, there are a bunch of little tricks listed somewhere but yeah most companies do exaggerate a bit. there is a TON of different factors that you have to take into account. different people have different ideas of what ripe is. i prefer somewhere between 25-50% amber, but more importantly the plumpening of the calyxes must occur and the brown hairs must be mostly retracted into the swolen calyx...because this tends to be longer than what most people would consider ready i figure that adds another week or two...there are a lotta dudes out there that pick at the first hint of amber or at least within that first week, i figure the seed companies would probably use that as their mark too because it looks better on the website, lol

so yeah, a lot of strains out there that say 8-9 weeks can actually finish in that time, as long as you have them completely healthy and dialed in, hydro, using all the little tricks you can find on this site and be willing to pick at the first hint of amber.

personally i have been just figuring almost all my strains are gonna be 12 weeks, though i may be able to bring that time down a bit in subsequent runs, im switching to dripfed beds this round and not defoliating much, plus i got a good idea of what my girls like to be fed and how much so they should be a little happier this round, though im still expecting 11 weeks at best, because thats the norm for my chem ibl and og kush, but my serious ak47, la blanca, wwXbb, and kanabia special were all advertised around 8-9 weeks i think, just about everything would have been or was ripe around 12 weeks for me but i did pick a couple early around 9 weeks and one of my ak47's actually was ripe at 9 weeks, but again you have to figure soil adds a week, defoliation and first run from seed add time as well, subsequent clones go a little faster ive found in the past, and i like to go at least a week longer that what most people consider done so it's really not too much of an exaggeration from their times i figure.