My plants are all doing really well. Unfortunately I ended up with fewer females than I anticipated. That in combination with a 100% loss on my early clones (usually I have a nearly 100% success rate but I gave Clonex a try and it didn't work out) have resulted in situation where I expect less yield than usual. I do however have some beyond amazing males that I will use for some seed production Back to the females. They only showed the first signs of being female having been in 12/12 for about a week now. For the first time in this growth I switched from 19/5 to 12/12 over a gradual 8 day peridod. I was trying to mimmick nature a bit more by having a gradual instead of instant light exposure change. I did notice that the gradual change in light exposure resulted in a longer time period until they showed their sex. So now I'm thinking of increasing the light exposure again to encourage some more vegetative growth. What do you think, is it worth putting them for one more week under 16-18hrs of light in order to encourage more vegitation and therefore overall yield? Or could the changes in Phytochrome (Pr) and inactive Phytochrome (Pfr) from the changes in light exposure cause too much stress to them? If I decide to put them back into vegetative mode for a week or so I would like to do so with minimal stress. My thoughts are that the changes should be done gradually, from 12-18 hours over maybe a 4 day period. What do you think? I never switched from flowering back to vegetative growth. Does anybody have experience with this? How much stress did the plants experience as a result? The last thing I want is losing more Females and having them turn hermaphrodite. Thanks in advance.
I think it would be better to let them flower, harvest them and then re-veg them. You must leave a few buds on the plants in order for that to happen. Then give them 16/8 light and it will take approx 6 to 8 weeks before it is completely turned around. In the meantime, you could take a couple clones off the plant(s) and and try to get them rooted. That process takes longer than normal due to the flowering stage the plant in. I have even harvested some plants and then make clones out of it with some success ...maybe 50% or so. ....and revegging a plant is quite normal in nature and I don't think there is much stress involved, it just takes time.... Good luck! keylime
I have been thinking about it today and I agree with you. I will continue with that flower phase and after the harvest go back to 16-18-20-18hrs to put it into another vegetative cycle. In the meantime I take more clones and also cross some strains with the stronger plants. Thanks for your input.