Inducing Flowering

Hi People… This is my first post. I have to say this site is an awesome grower’s resource… I have read heaps of the threads and love how everyone (even when disagreeing) is so polite and act with good humour (that is due I’m sure to well wired brains from a healthy diet of THC) …although I have noticed many spulling errers.?. (possibly also a result of THC)

I’m (down here) in Australia (highest per capita pot use, I proudly believe), and as we are just at the start of outdoor grow season, I thought I would put a few out this year.

…on to the question: “What would be the correct process for inducing flowering, on an outdoor plant?” My understanding is that if I just let them do their thing, they will start to bud when the days get cooler and shorter, etc… but that would mean waiting till the end of summer. We (in Aus) are in the middle of spring (so the end of summer is over 4 months away). I don’t want 8 footers! I would like to flower them at about 3 feet (or as G Knowm has suggested, at 4-6 nodes)

Can I cover the plants (during the morning or in the afternoon) to trick them into thinking the days are getting shorter? …or is there another way.

Thanks

You could cover them but you would have to do it everyday. That would be a huge pain in the ass!

Plants start to flower not because the weather is getting cooler but because the amount of day light is getting less.

I grow in Canada so my season is the opposite to yours and my plants are just about ready to be cut down. It's another good crop!

So, if I were you, I would put my plants outside and just let mother nature worry about when to start the budding.

Good luck with your grow.

I'm in suburb of Phx, Arizona and have probably an eight-footer now in my back yard garden and while I was initially worried about possibly being spotted I am now more worried about someone following the scent trail!! This thing reeks...I can't walk out onto my patio without being bowled over. There are masses of buds, many long white hairs, and it all is very, very sticky to the touch. Planting wasn't intentional, at least on my part, but I'm trying to see it thru - how much longer before they turn red and I can harvest it?? I was under impression by mid to late October. Does that sound right for my location? Any way to lessen the smell?? I would post a picture if I knew how but I'm hopelessly incompetent when it comes to electronics/computer/gadgets and can't believe I actually found my way to this marvelous website and figured out how to communicate thru it.

I was hoping someone @ rollitup may have had some experience with inducing the flowering cycle of an outdoor, and could impart some advice.

I am dedicated to the point of obsession, so tending to the plants daily to cover/uncover is not a problem for me… So I WILL be trying to manipulate mother nature by limiting morning light to my plants (as I have read elsewhere is an acceptable procedure). Thanks to everyone for your great advice.

You may want to look into the "Low Rider" strain. Flowers very very early at like 12" AUTOMATICALLY!!!! OUTDOORS BABY!
Was origianlly designed for canada / alaska. etc. But supposedly goes into flowering w/out light change. Lowish yield, but very kind just the same!

arizonared said:

I'm in suburb of Phx, Arizona and have probably an eight-footer now in my back yard garden and while I was initially worried about possibly being spotted I am now more worried about someone following the scent trail!! This thing reeks...I can't walk out onto my patio without being bowled over. There are masses of buds, many long white hairs, and it all is very, very sticky to the touch. Planting wasn't intentional, at least on my part, but I'm trying to see it thru - how much longer before they turn red and I can harvest it?? I was under impression by mid to late October. Does that sound right for my location? Any way to lessen the smell?? I would post a picture if I knew how but I'm hopelessly incompetent when it comes to electronics/computer/gadgets and can't believe I actually found my way to this marvelous website and figured out how to communicate thru it.

Click to expand...

Ive got 2 down in the creek bottom behind me and I tell you, I WISH THAT DAMNED SKUNK WOULD MOVE ON!!! (Know what I mean?)
Stay with them. You could try tying them down a little each day to lessen the height issue. But yeah, I hear you with the smell. But you wont have to worry about frost as soon as us here in Virginia. Wait till most of the hairs are red or brown and you should be good to go!

I have a friend that does the manually. Everyday he does outside and faithfully uncovers his crop at 7 AM. At 7 PM he is out there covering them up again. This workds for him every year.

They are covered with a huge sheet of black plastic. He uses several rose trellises so the plastic doesn't touch his plants and holds the edges of the plastic down with bricks.

I am too lazy. I just let nature take it course. Heeee

I managed to upload a picture of my plant - it's in the gallery of pix. Look under the A's for Arizonared.

Gday MaxBax I'm from Melb.

I planted my outdoor about a month maybe a month and half ago and they are budding nicley. I leave em out in tha sun all day and let mother nature do her thing.

But yeah they are flowering.

arizonared said:

I managed to upload a picture of my plant - it's in the gallery of pix. Look under the A's for Arizonared.

Click to expand...

You've got a nice, healthy sativa there, and if you can leave her, she will continue to ripen well into November. I'd say have her hanging for turkey day.

Hey Team…
Thanx for the info


Hey VTW3TN I’m in Melb too… why have your plants started to bud already? (if you know). …we are getting about 12 and ¾ hours of light at the moment, but that is increasing. Will they go back to veg when (in 2-3 months) we are getting 14-15 hours of light per day? Are they going to keep maturing (the heads) throughout the season? or will they be ready in a few months? You have planted them early for outdoor, how have they survived (what did you do) ? Thanks man.

3 weeks ago I set up 8 seeds (from a mixed collection of old seeds) to germinate… four popped and out of them two are going well (third set of leaves are sprouting), the other two: one is fooked, and one is a runt. So they are underway… (I am germinating a few more back-ups as we speak)


When I am ready to induce the buds, I will be covering my plants for the morning light (have read that afternoon light, and a slower transition to darkness may help) and they will get 12 hours per day. I will post some pics and advise my progress/findings…

Peace to all

Oh no, your kidding....I'm gettin more paranoid by the day. The hairs are definitely turning red now, maybe 20%. I was hopin for Holloween, but you think Thanksgiving?? I just wish it didn't smell so much. The neighbors nearest the weed are winter visitors and they haven't shown up yet, so that house is vacant..and the one behind them is too..thank God for the housing cool down...I'll just have to take it a day at a time. Thx

and thank you very much for the ID, I had no idea what I was growing. The more I know about this damn thing and the longer this goes on the more attached to it I get. I can remember way back to when it was a little sprout and a big joke. Now I'm out there talkin to it on a daily basis.

Hi MaxBax

I'm in Perth and I was wondering the same thing. My babies are only seedlings about 3 inches tall but I also don't want to have to wait until the end of summer for harvesting. I'm hoping some more people give some advice to this thread so that I can find out what to do as well.

I guess I'm happy enough to bring them inside early or take them outside later in the afternoon to prompt them to flower. I'm home every day anyways so it wouldn't really be a problem. But yeah, good luck and I hope some more people give some more advice about the problem.

what you will want to do is tie the plant down somehow with yarn and stick the other end of yarn into the ground. if you do this you can easily keep the plant under 3 feet. just tie back right at the bottom of the leaf and stick it to the ground somehow. just bend the stalk enough to bend. not break - theres sort of a "tube" in the stem that you dont want to break. you could build a tarp over it and cover it after 12 hrs of sunlight but that would be a pain. but it is do-able.