@SeaF0ur You bring up another good point with the relation to blood sugar. That component (hypothesis) of where I'm going with everything, will probably take some time and may not have an easy answer; but will probably be re-visited. Also, I'm glad to see that we are talking about the same "lingo" being used for stages, as that will play a role in all this.
@EyeC Ty, I'm glad your finding interest and hope others do too. I'm heading in a particular direction with all this stuff and I suppose it's based off experimentation already ran / running (excluding hypothesis). I did all the tests under 12/12 600w hps. Varying photoperiod isn't something I've played around with yet and it may be a while if I do; though I would have more interest in varying spectrum first probably.
@gardnguyahoy ty for the kind words and I'm glad your are finding interest also. Trying to "understand' things or research, philosophize and such; interests me for sure. I spent so many years without trying to research any of this; that I ended up spending a good deal of time looking into many areas when I finally did, lol. No amount of research can equate to good hands on experience though. I may know a bit of certain things here or there that I've learned, read and researched, but I definitely don't consider myself an expert; in experience nor knowledge.
So are you saying the plants susceptibility to N+ changes? Meaning the threshold is lowered because of the flowering cycle? Thus rendering it easier to burn, perhaps with the same amount of N it had before?
Yes. Yes. Uh, Yes.
I want to mention to all, The statement Junk quoted (reduction in reductase relative to photopheriod); is at least documented / can be found and is not specific to bloom but photoperiod. Though it allows us to say for sure; that some amount of nitrate reducing capacity is lowered in bloom because of this. However, as mentioned, I don't feel it can totally explain why nitrate reducing capacity does not change within the first 3 weeks; while photoperiod (and thus reductase) has.
It is also of importance to note, that there seems do be a moderate to possibly large variation in the "change to the N+ threshold" when moving from veg/ early flower to peak flower; with what few strains I've been able to test. If there was no variation between strains, or very little; then I would have no issue connecting that totally to the change in reductase w/ photoperiod. Since the variation between strains (even genotypes) has proven notable; then there must be some other factor(s) at play. I can only presume this same wide variation would be present across all strains. Fortunately here and with this point; we do not "have" to know all the factors, just to have an awareness about this point as an "in general".
I would like to also introduce another point that is relevant as well. This point being, that, given a constant N / NPK, plants will still shorten their internode spacing; directly after the "early flowering" period (Inflourescence meristem). This particular component is probably the most obvious of all things to be mentioned, as we've all seen it happen.
It will be of value later to mention a few aspects of "why" this happens. When researching into plant growth characteristics, from the perspective of hormones; many papers focused on the hormonal response as a result of NPK vs considering a direct growth from NPK. For instance with Auxin, and stem elongation or internode spacing; they talked from the perspective that the auxin is the "cause" and any Nitrate used to illicit this, was effectively ancillary or happenstance. Of course they were not saying that nitrate was not a factor; just that the hormone is what effected the change.
So then back to a change in internode spacing at / after the transition from early flower to peak flower. From a hormonal standpoint; the plant eliminated all the gibberellins in the previous stage (early flower) as a bloom inhibitor. This leaves us primarily with Auxin and Cytokinin; which work together in ratios to determine apical or auxillary growth / bud growth. Since we already know / observe that the node spacing shortens after early flower and we know that auxin effects node spacing; it is pretty easy to surmise that the hormone "responsible" for altering this node spacing is cytokinin.
Or rather that the cytokinin to auxin ratio is increased during this period.
We should be able to Move forward, with 3 "points" so far to keep in mind:
-stages of flowering
-To simply note the perspective that there seems to be a Nitrate limiting factor, to greater or lesser degree and depending on strain; when moving from early to peak flower.
-That, when moving from early to peak flower, a consistent N will still result in a shortening of node spacing (i.e. stacking phase)
This is longer than I hoped, so I'll stop for now.