light cycle/plant physiology

[out99990]

Hola mi amigos!!! I'm brand new here and i need your help. My scenario is that i have a few selected strains that i keep in the closet over the winter so as to put clones out in a greenhouse in the spring. My PROBLEM is that when i put them out they just go into flower. I tried to get the light cycle in the closet down to 15/9 so as to be closer to the natural cycle in late April when i put them out, but they act like i was just prepping them to flower. One question i have is: would it be better to start over with new strains and grow them on a 24/0 cycle? I had heard somewhere years ago that the 24/0 cycle actually holds the physiological age of the plant back while allowing the physical stucture to proceed. The intuition i'm getting is that since my clones are coming from plants that have already attained sexual maturity at one point in their lives-they're ready at the drop of a hat to "jump in the sack and procreate" (so to speak). And while i've always admired that quality in human females-it's really pissing me off with my plants!!! What i am shooting for is large plants in the greenhouse grown in natural light so it seems my plants would need to go out in mid/late April or early May while the days are increasing. Any help is mucho appreciated!

 

[HeadMed]

Give the clones a couple weeks of 24 hr light... they'll re-set. But will re-act to the natural light cycles.

12/12 if thust a good rule of them.. some strains trigger at different light ratio's, some strains auto flower i've heard.

what strains ya got?

 

[out99990]

Thanks for the reply HeadMed! The two strains i have are both un-named. One i brought with me from Arcata and the other was sent to me with an order from Dr.Chronic named Mystery (in a packet of ten "freebies"). My strains may change over time but i still need to be able to carry the best ones forward. To further our discussion, you stated that putting them back in a 24/0 cycle for a few weeks will re-set them and that totally goes with my intuition. However, when you state that they will re-act to natural light cycles, will they come out of the 24/0 cycle, hit the greenhouse at about 14/10 or 15/9 and then "understand" the increasing daylengths and continue to veg for the remainder of the natural season and grow to their full size potential? Or will they notice the sudden change in day cycle and slam into flower mode? Thanks for any help you may give and sorry for not gettin' back to you for a couple of days, i was having problems with my computer (or my computer was having problems with me-depends who you ask!!!). Thanks again.

 

[TorturedSoul]

A light on a timer set to come on a couple times during the dark cycle should inhibit flowering until you are ready.

 

[HeadMed]

If they are a strain that naturaly flowers with a longer day they will continue with their program. Like I said 12/12 isn't the law it's what works you may need to consider suplemental light to keep em going.. some florecents that stay on a few hour's past dark.... the plant may think it's still day.

 

[out99990]

Thanks for the input guys!!! Neither one of these strains would appear to be auto-flowering types as both of them took until November to finish last year. One of my problems (since i am COMPLETELY off the grid) is that i only get to try an experiment once a year. For power and security reasons, i choose to grow in a more natural style. I keep my strains over winter in a small 10"wide X 30"long X 20"high box in my closet powered by 2-cfl's rated A 13watts each. This carries them over just fine, although i do have to let the plants SLOWLY adjust to the greenhouse sun for 2 weeks by moving them in and out of direct sun. I will try many more strains next year including Skunk and maybe Skunkberry from Peak Seeds and the ones i'm looking forward to the most-Malana and Parvati Valley (both north Indian landrace, purebred charas sativas) from Real Seed Co. My main thrust is to get back to the landrace types that i started with in '73. Not necessarily the same strains (although i wish i could find a pure, vintage Oaxacan Mexican sativa-MMMMMMM!), but i'm starting to move away from the "designer" strains. Again, thanks for the input-keep it coming!!! I need all the help i can get.

 

[TorturedSoul]

and the ones i'm looking forward to the most-Malana and Parvati Valley (both north Indian landrace, purebred charas sativas) from Real Seed Co. My main thrust is to get back to the landrace types that i started with in '73. Not necessarily the same strains (although i wish i could find a pure, vintage Oaxacan Mexican sativa-MMMMMMM!), but i'm starting to move away from the "designer" strains.

+REPs for keeping the strains alive! Don't forget to let us know how they turn out. And good luck on your search for the ultimate sativa.

 

[HeadMed]

hmm... any other signs of stress? These are clones? Whats the NPK ratio? this is soil right? did you reuse soil/medium?

When I sed to veg for longer than a couiple weeks, I would do the last few weeks of veg using bloom ratios... plants would take a lot quicker to bloom when the time came.

If yer PK is up compared to your N the shorter light cycles could be having an effect.

are you seeing clusters of flowers... one or 2, or just small singles right by the main stem?

Tryin to figure it out brother... +reps and luck

 

[out99990]

Thanks for the high fives Tortured!!! And you got a deal-i will let you know how they come out. As a matter of fact, i decided to put some of the Malanas and Parvatis out (unsexed) this years in a sort of desperation mode to get some ground covered. But since you guys have been giving me needed support, i have regained my faith that everything will turn out o.k. And HeadMed, thank you for wracking your brain trying to figure this out. This year, because of the rough start, i'm putting out some unsexed plants (Malanas, Parvatis), some female seed (Trainwreck), and my un-named clones. Next year i will probably want to only work with clones so for this info i will say YES to your question about "are these clones"?. It is soil (directly in the ground), yes it is re-used-but every year will have new, well rounded compost and leaves added and turned in for replenishment. When i start my very light feeding after the clones have attained root-set, i do bring up the PK ratio so as to get the roots big and healthy to support the coming demand from the veg cycle. You might have something there as this year i didn't give enough time for veg. I cloned, lightly fed with the higher PK and then began turning down the light cycle so as to not stress the plants when i put them out. I went from 18/6 to 15/9-which i thought would still keep them vegging, but they began to flower before i even put them out. Your original reply stated that if i reset the light cycle to 24/0 for awhile the clones would reset their growth cycle and would adjust to the natural light cycles. Do you think they will adjust by "intuiting" the increasing daylength and stay in veg until after July or so if i put them out in late April/early May? I think this sounds right (but PLEASE correct me if i'm wrong). If i took the clones earlier, brought them into the 24/0 cycle and left them there for a couple of months with the requisite higher N ratio, and ONLY THEN put them out-we may have a winner. You see, i have almost always had a plant in the ground since '73, but it was always start the seeds in paper towels in late March/Early April, and then stick them in pots to get a little size, then put them in the ground outside-all natural light cycles, but i never used clones-just yanked the males when they showed. Then when i moved to Humboldt in the late '80's, i got wrapped in the indoor culture-no natural light cycles!!! So thank you for helping me to blend the two-MUCHO APPRECIATO!!!!!

 

[out99990]

Just an update on things as i promised. First of all, thanks to your help, everything is turning out fine. The females that i put out started shooting out branches in late june and i just kept trimming the budded parts off. Increasing the N ratio, in july they TOOK OFF!!!! Now the shortest of the early budded fems are 5' tall with the tallest (Train Wrecks) standing at 8' after being bent over multiple times! Also, the Malana's and Parvati's have had to be bent numerous times and i didn't put them out until july!!! These could EASILY get 15'-20' tall so give them TONS of room. I will post a quality test report in another thread when i get there, but let me say now-those Malana's and Parvati's smell SUBLIME!!! Thanks again guys-YOU ROCK.