when do you count the days of flowering?

[FreezerBoy]

12/12 is meaningless outside. It's flowering for dummies, a one size fits all solution under which all strains will flower but, a solution few, if any, need.

Outdoor flowering periods also (or should) begin with the light flip, that flip being the June/Dec equinox depending on your hemisphere. Because flowering is triggered by shortening days, the day the days become shorter should be considered the beginning of the flowering period. Any other time would be capriciously arbitrary.

 

[AinSophAur]

Outdoors it's a different story as the light cycle changes everyday. Unlike indoors where it only changes twice.

 

[mrred]

well freezer boy thats not really true either, i got one outside that must flower under 13 hours of light, the feral stuff flowers even sooner, last night it got to like 45F outside, even colder places they autoflower

 

[Hydro-Soil]

If your seed pack doesnt list a indoor flowering time, inform the breeder of it when youre done.

I'll try to hold back my doubts that most breeders are interested in a hobby grower's 'flower time'. Granted there are exceptions but any decent breeder will already have that information through test grows. (You want it done right you need to do it yourself)

You'd have false claims of a faster flowering because of ignorance of the actual indoor flowering time.

In case you haven't noticed that's status quo in the cannabis community. Didn't you notice the 800 threads on this subject with all the exact same questions?


Edit: I've been reading these same questions from growers since before OG and CW went down.

 

[FreezerBoy]

Outdoors it's a different story as the light cycle changes everyday. Unlike indoors where it only changes twice.

The outdoor cycle only changes twice a year. In between, it progresses. If the day gets longer it vegetates. If the days become shorter, it flowers. This is why a glitch or two indoors does not trigger flowering. From the moment of birth, the plant tries to flower but, the flowering hormones are allergic to light. As days shorten, some of these hormones escape execution. The more days get shorter, the more hormones escape death. When these hormones hit critical mass, voilà, you're flowering.

i got one outside that must flower under 13 hours of light, the feral stuff flowers even sooner,

That's what I said. Plants do not require 12/12. Thats a one size fits all solution for indoor grows. If you have 13 hours of light then your days are shortening. It's that shortening that triggers flowering. When did the shortening of days start? After the equinox.

As to autoflowers, I haven't studied them but they seem a mutation to me and I'm not sure they fit in this discussion.

 

[unthing]

Oh the age old debate

Indoors I use the method of to start counting from 12/12 WHEN they have preflowers at veg, so same plant flowers faster as a sexed clone than seedling. Of course microscope is aid at the end and the harvest window of week(s) with most hybrids depending do you want more clear or total narcotic stone (of course with pure indicas the clear isn't that as sativas, but not total sleep aid etc). Also I don't really use counting days as the way to determinite ripeness. And I believe that others don't too.

I don' think that such a complex thing can be put to really simple guideline, because it takes some time to get the intuition right for yourself. It's relative and subjective, not set in stone. More experience you have, more sure you are when to harvest each particular strain. Environments and growers affect flowering times quite much, but this probably isn't surprise to anyone.

 

[Ms_Weekend]

This & people using wet weight as their bragging weight, is the 2 things that I can not stand about these websites....12/12 flip is day 1 people! If I take a clone with preflowers am I already counting? should i count the mothers days also? why does it got to be so hard?! I understand outdoors has to go by the flowering visually, thats because they arent lucky enough to have a 12/12 switch to start counting....Also no one cares about you bragging about your wet weight, dry it right then show off the weight.

Sorry just had to get that off my chest

 

[unthing]

It annoys some people to discuss these things, but the ability to argument properly isn't such a bad thing. What I've said might be incoherent, but I'd like to hear that in a way that points what I'm doing wrong instead of just ranting. I just think that there's more to this than "it's not broke why fix it". While that Ms' post wasn't particularly directed to me I wanted to answer.

 

[unthing]

A plant in vegetative stage with preflowers is different thing than a flowering plant, you don't have count those. It's just sexually mature, there are expections to this in stress-related cases, but usually it is just ready to go. Motherplants and clones with preflowers are not to worry about.

 

[unthing]

Being a fool:

To sum it up

Most logical common sense reference starting point is to count the start of flowering from start of 12/12 indoors when the particular seedling, clone from mother, unknown source clone or something similar has shown gender in terms of preflowers that most commonly appear in different spot than the true flowers before the flip. That place being between stipule and sideshoot.