Yes basically what the title says i've heard stories of people's plants flower cycle starting early in spring and they harvest in around June. How would I go about doing this? Is it just a natral process that no one can really predict?
Everything is controllable to some extent, but if you're looking to flower quickly, autoflower would be your best bet, considering they take approximately 2 months to finish from seed to harvest. You have to beware of frost dates too
Could you technically induce flowering by covering your plants with some kind of black plastic to emulate the 12/12 flowering period?
If you want to have this sort of control over the lighting periods you will be much better off growing indoors.
First, definitely use an auto flowering strain for your initial grow, the light transition from spring to summer doesn't like to make a regular plant bloom. Start all your plants indoor for the first two-three weeks. When you put your plants outdoors take one of the clear, gallon water bottles that are rectangle shaped, cut out the bottom and cut Quarter sized holes in each side of the bottle for ventilation. Put these bottles on top of the plants to form a mini-greenhouse. Also, you can order ABA online and use it in very small doses. ABA is a naturally occuring hormone in cannabis that the plant emits prior to winter to make the plant tougher against cold, wind, and moisture. The hormone likes to slow down growth so just use a miniscule amount of it until you aren't worried about frost or rain any more. Then, flush the system so the hormone doesn't hinder growth any further. EDIT: If you intend to get multiple harvests in one summer, MAKE CLONES. When you start a plant from seed, it has to go through a long phase in which it becomes full plant. If you take clones from an autoflowering plant in the late vegetative stage they will endure a short-intense growth spurt and QUICKLY switch over into flowering stage (enabling multiple harvests in quick succession). The reason they switch to flowering so quickly is because even though they are technically new plants, they have the DNA of an autoflowering plant that is about to switch to flowering. This strategy is a quick way to get a lot of bud from a low profile garden. This strategy lends itself better to dwarf autoflowering strains. Check out Lowryder Blue Ryder (my strain for this year) from Attitude Seed Bank: http://www.cannabis-seeds-bank.co.uk/lowryder-blue-ryder-new-stock-4915-p.asp
You can cover the plant with a large black garbage bag during the dark period. Or if its really small u could do it with a garbage can.
correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe autoflowers can't be cloned...not positive however, but pretty sure
I was under the impression that cloning an autoflowering plant is technically "possible", but very impractical due to genetics issues that Indica Kid already touched on..but hey, I've been wrong before.
Interesting, I did a little bit more research on the subject and you are all correct, it is incredibly difficult/impossible to clone auto flowering plants. My bad on that recommendation. You can still use the principle of cloning just prior to flowering with a non-auto flowering plant. If you have a healthy mother plant (of the non-auto flowering variety) you can clone it early in the transition to flowering and your clones should begin flowering much earlier than a comparable seedling. Good luck! EDIT: I'm actually really glad ya'll informed me of this, I was planning on trying to clone my lowryders this spring. Guess I'll have to make some clones of my Thai Super Skunks. Anyway thanks to all who corrected my notion that I can clone Autoflowers
Hey dude. So I just followed up cantharis' thread on flowering outdoors and one of the replies to the thread was by a grower who induced flowering with a "grow box". Here is the thread link: http://forum.grasscity.com/grow-journals/227520-first-outdoor-speed-queen-grow.html He said that after a week of keeping the plant in the dark, he began to see results. (Photos are in the thread). Best of luck man!