Am I right in saying that, from the plants point of view, what growers do with weed (i.e. pushing the plant through a full flowering stage, un-fertillised) is essentially a process of starvation, forcing the full flowering potential of the plant? I'm on my first outdoor grow, and starting to think about the 'realities' of flowering - to prevent bud rot, I need to harvest early, but that compromises quality and quantity... but if i keep on feeding and watering, am I essentially extending the flowering stage? In a nutshell, @ week 4 flower, should I really be slowly starving the plant, forcing it to use its own reserves + speeding up bud development? The weather has been sunny and mild for 8 days, and will soon drop low, with potential for snow in the next 4 weeks, high humidity, nowhere indoors blah blah blah... but, Am I talking sense about flowering?!
What you have written here, is this your own base of knowledge that you have used to postulate a theory on speeding up the flowering stage?
I have no knowledge, no experience. I'm trying to understand how to best treat a plant in its flowering stage
[quote name='"phlanjo"']Am I right in saying that, from the plants point of view, what growers do with weed (i.e. pushing the plant through a full flowering stage, un-fertillised) is essentially a process of starvation, forcing the full flowering potential of the plant? I'm on my first outdoor grow, and starting to think about the 'realities' of flowering - to prevent bud rot, I need to harvest early, but that compromises quality and quantity... but if i keep on feeding and watering, am I essentially extending the flowering stage? In a nutshell, @ week 4 flower, should I really be slowly starving the plant, forcing it to use its own reserves + speeding up bud development? The weather has been sunny and mild for 8 days, and will soon drop low, with potential for snow in the next 4 weeks, high humidity, nowhere indoors blah blah blah... but, Am I talking sense about flowering?![/quote] Ok bud, I think you got a few things mixed up. Let us take it from the top. A plant flowers because it senses the days shortening and the climates slowly cooling down. Hence, it's time for plants to bud/seed so they can grow again next spring. Plants need nutrients and water to survive. Marijuana uses a lot of nitrogen in the veg cycle which is why everything is nice and green. However once flowering is induced it NEEDS potassium and phosphorus so that it can begin to developed bud sites. If you supply these nutrients your plant will thrive and bud a lot more than one only being fed nitrogen. Starving your plant of these essential nutrients is exactly what you do NOT want to do at week 4. 4 weeks into flower is when your buds REALLY start to need that extra push. If you start feeding them only water at week 4 it will not "trick" them into thinking it is harvest time, it will simply cause your fan leaves to yellow faster and your plant to produce underdeveloped buds schwaggy buds. By starving the plant are you in no way "speeding up" the flowering cycle. The reason you starve a plant in the last 1-2 weeks of flower is to flush out all chemical salts from fertilizers. This allows the plant to then use all of the energy in the fan leaves to finish up flowering. In a nutshell by feeding your plants or starving them of nutrients you are not effectively changing the harvest date. But I applaud your enthusiasm towards the subject.
thanks, that seems to make a lot of sense. But realistically, I think I'm going to have plenty of issues to deal with that will eclipse this thought process - mold seems to like the conditions here!
I'm having a really hard time figuring out the meaning of a few of your sentences. "I think I'm going to have plenty of issues to deal with that will eclipse this thought process" So you have other problems like mold that will keep you busy? I think you need to do some more research brother. You barely even know what nutrients are/what they do...let alone the simple, N-P-K.
Yeah, a stoner writing in a forum is always difficult to understand, my bad. I do have other problems (its an outdoor grow lol), I research ALL the time, and can't for the life of me find a good guide to flowering. Maybe re-read my first post here
I think your problem is that you wont be able to find a "flowering" guide that matches your style. There is no real guide to flowering, besides a list of certain nutrients you should be feeding your girls at certain times. Especially outdoors, you can't do anything except give a little TLC and hope the rains don't fuck you over. Maybe string up your branches so they don't break in a storm?