[Only Ornamental]

Ah... now I get it!
Chinese (which was too often everything SE Asian back in the day LoL) hemp was and still is very renowned because of the tall plants and hence long fibres. Why exactly they called it 'gigantea' I do not know... your guess is as good as mine.

The carmagnola is a North-Italian variety with an optimal temperature during growth of ~23°C. I have no knowledge which of the other Italian and Spanish varieties would be best.
Maybe the Chinese variety Yunma No. 3 would work?

[Thule]

I just crossed a big seeded chinese variety with finola. Not sure what to expect though.

[Cannabliss420]

interesting stuff this really lights a fire in my interests.

[hedgeraider]

Finola Report:

I found a big field of hemp weed lately, and had a chance to visit it when it was completely budding and full of seeds.

the buds were vaguely hairy, the seed pods too, and it smelled slightly narcotic, different from vegging fields for example, so i was intrigued and had to smoke some.

I forgot to smoke it and threw it away, and was busy throwing away the bud i'd shown someone and though... "Oh Yeah... Let's have a pure spliff of that one then"

Guess what... i'm in love! it's delicious and weird. I smoked 2 puffs on it and it gave me the glowing sensation at the top of my lungs and my throat, same as normal weed when you know it's strong... I thought. WTF? it tastes abit pokey. full of flavour, nicer than pure skunk weed and less "gone past sell by date mouldy" than the imported african weed that used to be in the UK prior to skunk.

I thought... THis stuff is DELICIOUS. it's like air-skunk... It's much nicer than tobacco. a great way of avoiding tobacco, it really feels like you are smoking something abit mental, unlike herbal tabacco's, and it's cool when i am programming so i can be clear headed some weeks.

So... I went back and got about 1 gallons of heads out of the field, to last me many months, as a tobacco replacement.

[oldchuck]

Interesting, hedgerider. Couple of questions?

What makes you think it is Finola?

I'm assuming you are in the UK. Is the field you found some farmer's cultivated hemp crop or are they wild plants?

[Only Ornamental]

Doesn't look like Finola... too tall, no even size, no males (which would be dead at that time)...

I'm growing some Finola under 24/0, 11 W CFL, with daytime temps around 15-20°C and roughly 10°C at night. Planted the first of January and the first males are recognisable since two or three days. I was under the assumption that Finola were extremely early but still photoperiod though with heavy dependence on daily temperature integral and/or cumulative light intensity (CLI); turns out that this is likely not the case if it flowers under the above conditions already 2 weeks after pushing their cotyledons out of the dirt! True, the shorter time to flower under constant light might point towards a high enough CLI... but it's only a household 11 W CFL! Maybe I have to try again with the 3 W LED and an even lower temperature? Seeds are already soaking but where the heck did I put the small light fixture?

[Thule]

Originally Posted by Only Ornamental

Doesn't look like Finola... too tall, no even size, no males (which would be dead at that time)...

I'm growing some Finola under 24/0, 11 W CFL, with daytime temps around 15-20°C and roughly 10°C at night. Planted the first of January and the first males are recognisable since two or three days. I was under the assumption that Finola were extremely early but still photoperiod.

Didn't take my word for it, eh? Photoperiod dependent strains just don't cut it in northern Finland. The strain was bred close to Kuopio which lies at 62' degrees north. I'm at 65' and never had problems with finola not flowering. I'm not sure if even cold temperatures can prevent them from flowering, you're gonna have to test that. Ime they grow just fine in temperatures as low as 10-15c so I don't see a reason why they wouldn't flower as well.

[Only Ornamental]

Originally Posted by Thule

Didn't take my word for it, eh?

I do, just that in my current understanding it is/was a functional and not a genetic 'autoflowering' mechanism. It's Sam who always says it's not an auto .
The fact that Finola inherits the trait in a seemingly dominant way and also heavily affects the F2 points to a quantitative trait locus rather than 'Mendelian inheritance' and is in agreement with the inheritance of flowering onset in most other hemp varieties. It is entirely possible (theoretically) that a QTL (with or without contribution of light and/or temperature integrals) for early flowering sets the critical night length to zero hours and hence, it becomes practically impossible to not induce flowering.
Sam said, that the original parents of Finola (VIR 313 and 315) were only very early flowering; if this were indeed a QTL it is also feasible to select for even earlier individuals up to said zero hour critical night length; something not possible with common recessive inheritance for photoperiod independence.

BTW I went over some literature and from my point of view, short day plants (literature is based on rice) measure day length rather than night length like long day plants (e.g. thale cress). Why or how in my case a day of 2 weeks without any night would not repress flowering implies that the light intensity is too low and not too high... It's a pity that most research is based on Arabidopsis thaliana which functions completely differently.

[Thule]

Originally Posted by Only Ornamental

it is also feasible to select for even earlier individuals up to said zero hour critical night length; something not possible with common recessive inheritance for photoperiod independence.

Can you explain this part? I'm not sure if I'm following.

Also are you suggesting that your plants flowered in response to stress or lack of light intensity?

[Only Ornamental]

The 'true auto trait' is a recessive mutation wherein one of the flowering suppressing mechanisms (e.g. enzyme) is damaged causing the plant to flower immediately after the juvenile-to-adult transition. It's an 'on-off' switch. What can be changed is the time of the transition and if the plant keeps on growing during flowering or not.
On the other hand, early flowering much like size is determined by QTL. Imagine you take the tallest plant out of a population (millions of individuals). This is seemingly the talles hight this variety will grow but as hight is due a QTL, you can breed with it and select for ever taller plants ending with something likely a lot taller than before (sure, there are limits to each QTL and also to biology). You can do the same with a small size or with flowering onset shortening the critical night length (or prolonging day length) beyond what's physically possible (like a -1 hour night ).

This time, I'm sure that it is not stress. Intensity might be an issue. Unfortunately, I have broken the small fixture and can't find the 3 W LED either... but I might try with lower temps and/or more light.