48 Hour Darkness

I just saw a friends plants that came from exactly the same mother mine did. I'm pissed off! He neglected his plants all summer and nearly killed them from lack of water and now they have better, more mature bud than mine do!

He thinks it was the shock effect of not watering that did it.

I can't undo my watering. I probably did water too much early in the season. But now I'm wondering if another form of shock would maybe improve my buds.

I've heard about putting plants in 48 hour darkness to induce budding. I've heard about puttine them in 48 hour darkness to improve taste just before harvest.

What about putting a plant in 48 hour darkness after it's been budding for almost three weeks to kick it into better budding action?

hmmmmm... I would not experiment with this tehnique with your only PLANT..

Chalcy.. Over watering is usually far worse than underwatering.... if you were over watering your plants you probably stunted your GROWTH.. this is very common with first time growers.."loving their plants to death"...

A small plant that is vegged for 2 weeks and flowered for 8 weeks..
AND kept at 75 Faren... often only needs watering every 5-10 days when watered properly and thoroughly..

cheers

Chalcy, if you want bigger buds you can either get more light (Are you using any type of bud enhancer in your feed?). Or you can increase the light cycle. We're now giving ours 12hrs 10/15 minutes of light. Most strains are fine having just 11 hrs darkness during flowering. 12 is just a good safety margin. I'd look in to the strain you're growing first before suddenly giving them 12hrs 55 mins of light. You should be quite safe though with giving them an extra 10-15 mins of light every day.

Thanks, Knowm and skunkushybrid.

Man, I guess I did overwater. I was watering about twice a week and wondering why the plants weren't getting bigger! Live and learn.

This has been an outdoor grow until now, but the weather just went to hell so I've moved my babies inside. They're under the full spectrum type fluorescents an inch or so over their tops with a grow light in a reflector pointing at them from the side. No HPS yet but I'm hoping to get one.

As soon as I saw bud starting, I switched from nitrogen heavy foliar feeding to foliar feeding with Miracle Grow bloom formula (10-52-10), but I overdid it, caused a copper deficiency and a fungus. More live and learn. Now I figure I'll spray that once a week unless you guys tell me I'm doing something stupid again.

I have no idea what strain I'm growing. Clones of a friends clones, you know, but I'm thinking it's a sativa/indica hybrid with sativa dominent.

Outdoors the plants have been getting about 13/11, but I was going to put them on 12/12 as of tonight.

Let me know if I'm doing anything else dumb!

And hey, skunkushhybrid, I'm really impressed by your grow and how much you know in such a short time. You're an inspiration to the rest of us newbies.

Yeah Skunk is a good guy. The only thing I would change is the foilar feeding. Your buds are going to taste like fertilizer. Just feed the soil. Maybe mist a few more times with just water to get the chemicals off the plant.

Widow Maker said:

Yeah Skunk is a good guy. The only thing I would change is the foilar feeding. Your buds are going to taste like fertilizer. Just feed the soil. Maybe mist a few more times with just water to get the chemicals off the plant.

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Thank you. I'll do that. I'll also stop feeding completely at least a week before harvest, and should I flush the soil in that last week, too?

I wondered how all that spraying would make the bud taste. Glad you warned me early so my friends and I wouldn't have to find out the hard way.

Widow Maker said:

Yeah Skunk is a good guy. The only thing I would change is the foilar feeding. Your buds are going to taste like fertilizer. Just feed the soil. Maybe mist a few more times with just water to get the chemicals off the plant.

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I am NOT a big fan of the foilar feeding..

just feed the SOILSIOILSIOLIOSLIOILS

h20xygen said:

How do you flush soil?

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By watering the piss out of it. You need to water about 5 times the amount of the soil. So a 1 gallon pot will need 5 gallons of clean water poured through it.

I concur re foliar feeding. The roots are all the plant needs to feed. But really Im chiming in here to point out... it's wiser not to think of darkness as promoting bud formation. In fact when it's dark, all the sugars and building blocks go back down into the roots... which brings me to a helpful point: if at all possible, when it's harvest time, do it just before lights on, so the harsh stuff you don't wanna smoke stays in the roots.

F**dge, I'm helpful.... I'll just see myself out.

What do you mean when you say water five time the amount of soil? Is that for flushing?

Oh shit this is from 2006 lol.

Oh shit this is from 2006 lol.

Haha well. We'll just call that a desk pop from the forum rookie.

*smiles awkwardly, moonwalks out of room*

Garden Knowm said:

I am NOT a big fan of the foilar feeding..

just feed the SOILSIOILSIOLIOSLIOILS

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Yea, I don't get foilar feeding unless there is a major deficiency that needs corrected right away. They call it "feeding", but light becomes food and nutrients just allow the plant to do what it does.