I'm an experienced grower, but looking for ideas as to 1) what happened, and 2) more importantly, what to do about it. I've got plants that are going back into veg, after 7 weeks in photoperiod. I'm doing that thing most of us swear never to do again....I've got a mixed crop, with four strains. (Starting again after a few years off). Three strains are happily doing their thing, and will be ready in a week or so. Season seems a touch on the long side, so they've all been in 13 hours dark now for just over a week. (After six weeks 12/12) This other strain, a Sage and Sour clone I grew successfully and easily about two years ago, started in flower ok, and then started shooting at around week 3/4. Then the shoots' leaves became 'three's' (albeit very pointy three's), and I've had a mass of extra vegetative growth. Bugger is, the other plants are now getting less light, but I'm managing. I'm focussing the light more on the ones that are 'working' for now, so there's even more stretching and shooting going on as the Sage is getting less light......and is in places far to close..... In a week/ten days, I'll be pulling out the other three strains , then I plan to bend the Sage over and somehow shock it into a proper flower. SO.......the two questions. 1) What happened? I reckon is heat stress, though I'd be interested to hear of other ideas. Light pollution is also possibly there. We had our hottest summer, I'm in a new room, running a closed system @ 1500 ppm CO2, and get a fault in the air con....... Temp spent lit hours mostly at 30C, three or four times up to 35, and once up to 39. (86, 95 and 102 F) So for a few weeks it all got hotter than it should, and I was in there at times disturbing the light (though a hell of a lot less than a full moon!!). But the other three strains were fine (all except that an eight week season is looking more like a nine week). So whatever it was, it's only affected this one strain. 2) how to get it into flower properly. I plan on going to 10 hours light/ 14 dark. Think I'll go do that in a day or two as I finish off the other three. I'll spray with Halo, bend them over........and hope for another flower season!! Any one got any other ideas/thoughts, especially on the 'shocking in to flower' thread? The Cygnet
I would not go 10/14 or even 13/11. The 13/11 might have triggered them back into veg but more likely it was you going into the grow room at night. Just one flicker of light can send them back into veg. Also, your temps are way too hot. I have never heard of high temp sending them back into veg but it definitely can slow the growth. I would just stick with 12/12 all the way through and do NOT interrupt their dark period. Anyway, what strains are they?
Hi, Smokin' VTEC! Yes, the temps were way too high, but that coudn't be avoided at the time. With lots of TLC and lots of staying at home I managed to keep them down as I did till I got the air con sorted. The other strains have been fine, with the exception that they're doing a two week longer season than expected (probably went into stasis for a few weeks). In times long past, when growing a NL5xHaze, I often had problems with height before I got the strain sussed. Back then I found if a head got too close to the light then I'd get shoots coming from the top of the buds, with single leaves on and little flowers at the internodes. This is how my current problem started. But it didn't stop there. The single leaves became threes, and more shoots started coming out. Looks quite impressive, really. AMAZING veg growth in terms of potential. Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. "What strains am I growing?" Well, I've got a Jack Flash, a Grapefruit, the troublesome Sage and Sour and a combination strain of so many different plants, the name got so long, it became 'dot dot dot x dot dot dot', so now it's simply known as 'Dotty'. Anyway, Dotty, Grapefruit and Jack have been behaving perfectly, in spite of the heat, and inspite of the occassional light pollution. IT'S JUST THIS BLOODY SAGE AND SOUR!! But like I said, it may all work out rather wonderful......... Like I said, there's two questions...... HOW did it happen, and WHAT shall I do about it? The first is really academic, though answers I find may come in useful down the years, who knows? I think it's a combination of heat and light pollution. The curious thing is it happened so markedly with one strain and not at all with the others. You seem to think that going to 13/11 may have triggered it, but I can't see this. I mean 13 DARK, by the way. Did you think I meant 13 light? That for sure would be expected to bring back towards veg!! For years now I've played around a bit with the 12/12 rule. My 5xHaze, for instance, worked best on 13 dark right from the start, going to 14 dark then 16 dark for the last week in water (i.e. only 8 hours light). I found that with 12/12 the season was SOOOOO long, and buds would be maturing low down while flower sites were still being built up top. So cutting the light down by an hour gave me a properly formed bud(cola), with an eleven week season to full stonking maturity. (Eleven weeks can sound long, but don't forget there's absolutley NO veg growth with a plant like that, so in fact the season's shorter than an indica, and a lot lot cheaper on juice!!) Years ago in my Indica days, I often found I'd get a substantially increased yield from some plants by flowering on only 11 dark/13 light. Made the season a week longer, but upped the yield by over 25%, so worked out well worth it over the year. So I don't understand why you think 13/11 might have caused it, and why you think I should definetly go back to 12/12 i.e. LENGTHEN the day. ????? As to going into the growroom at night, sure, I shouldn't have, but sometimes it's just not possible when unexpected maintenance work needs to be carried out. But you say "Just one flicker of light can send them back into veg." Yeah. I've read this too. But have you ever seen it? Personally I think this may be exaggerated. Then again, my current problem might well prove me wrong........ The way I think is this: If just one flicker of light can send them back into veg, how come plants in the wild ever flower? Every four weeks there's this thing called a full moon, and that's one hell of a lot brighter than 'just one flicker of light', and the bugger goes on ALL NIGHT!! Also, I've found over the years that I've simply HAD to go in there sometimes during the dark hours. For instance, with a new attic set up, you suddenly get a flood. Do you wait ten hours before going up to the loft? I think not. Real life and theory tend to differ at times. ANYWAY, enough of 'what happened'. What matters is not how did we get here, but where are we going from here? It's all looking quite hopeful. All the Jack and the Dotty will be comiing out within the week. I've put them on only ten hours light now, brought the humidity right down, and halved the feed strength. I'll go onto water only for a couple of days, which will be enough to flush the worst out of those coming out, if not as long as I'd like. Then as soon as they're out I'll go back onto basic flower feed, and keep the hours low. I've got these MASSIVE great bunches of half flowered, tentative flower sites on the Sage. So I'll be bending them over, and should be able to fill a whole 3 square metres with it all, bent low down as I can get them, and spread out. If I can make damned sure that they stay in full flower mode, I'll get a bonus double crop coming in six weeks after the main one. I hope. That's what it looks like, anyway. I find when I'm in there now, instead of seeing a complete f***ing mess, I see more a staggering potential. Like I said, it's the sort of veg preparation for flowering you just couldn't get no matter how hard you tried. One thought. I'd like to post pics, to give you and others a better idea of this wierd phenomenon, but I find that when I try to take pics with my phone I get all these dark black bars across them. Any idea what that is? May be I'll post some pics with black bars on anyway, just to give you some idea..... No doubt someone'll tell me what I'm doing wrong with the photography!! The last thing remains is I want to collect all the tips I can on shocking into flower quickly. Things I've heard over the years: Put straight on flower feed. Give 48 hours dark, then on to 12/12. Spray with Halo Stick a nail through the base of the trunk (No WAY am I trying this on my darlin's!) Any other ideas/rumours? The Cygnet
Hi Cygnet, 13/11 is 13 on 11 off, that is what I thought you meant. You mean to say 11/13 which is 11 hours light 13 hours of darkness. That certainly won't cause them to go back into veg. I don't think 13/11 will cause them to veg for that matter either. However, depending on the strain 14/10 or 14 light 10 dark could keep some strains in veg. As for your outdoor light theory I believe it too. The full moon however is reflected light and outdoor strains I think are more adapted to more volatile light situations. But, as for indoors, I think that your going in the grow room during their night time could certainly have delayed or interrupted flower. I have never personally tested the brief flicker of light theory myself but, as you said, all the books state that it is true. Additionally, I often see kids on here running into the same problem you are having. So, I really believe the theory to be true. If you must go into the grow room at night, which in the real world is sometimes hard to avoid, I would turn off all lights too surrounding rooms and give your eyes a few minutes to dark adapt. Also consider using a green flashlight. Plants can not see green light so maybe if you had a flashlight you could wrap the bulb glass with green cellophane paper. As for the camera with bars, I have seen that before too. I wonder if maybe there is not enough light for the picture. Does the camera use a flash? If not you would need some good ambient light, if so get the camera within a few feet of the subject or close enough so that the subject will be lit by the flash. Other than those suggestions I am not sure why that happens. Also, I am not sure what you mean by shock it into flower.
Now THAT'S a brilliant idea! Thanks! I'll remember that one. I'll try all these out later, see if I can get a piccie for you. As to 'shocking into flower', I guess what I mean is 'put intto flower in such a way as it f***ing well won't go back into veg!' Seems to be working, what I've done. The Sage now looks like it's been in flower about two weeks. What's lovely is that there are just SO MANY flower sites now. IOf I can manage to get all the flowers there turning into 'proper sized flowers', I'm going to end up with colas about 9" in diameter and about 18" long!! (Have to be VERY careful with my ventilation/humidity/temp if I want to avoid bud rot!) Like I said, I'll see if I can get some pics for yous. Even with the bars. (though I thought it might be a frequency thing, something to do with the frequency of the light and the frequency of the scan of the camera clashing?)
If you can take pictures of the plant with the grow lights OFF, that is always the best because we can get a natural look at the general color of the plant. All I can recommend to keep it in flower is just go with 12/12, don't interrupt the dark period, and check to make sure the grow room is indeed pretty close to pitch black at night.