Trying To Avoid Last Year's Catastrophe

Soaring · May 31, 2017

Hi, I'm hoping to avoid a problem I had growing outdoors last year. I'm in Northern California growing Sour Diesel clones from a local dispensary in my backyard. Last year I did the same thing and they flowered super early (mid-summer I think?), then all the flowers died off and it flowered again a month or two later. The fall harvest was small, obviously, and I ended up having to cut away all the old dead buds from the first flowering when I harvested in fall. My backyard has a mix of sun, filtered sun, and shade throughout the day. Not ideal, I know, but it's the only spot I've got. The woman I spoke to at the dispensary said these clones have been on 24 hour light.

Anything I can do differently this year to prevent the same thing happening again? Or is there a way to harvest the early buds without killing the whole plant or something? I've grown successfully in the past (from seed) without this happening so it was all new to me.

Thank you!

BudBogart · May 31, 2017

They start to flower when they are fooled into thinking the season is quickly ending when " the sun" goes from 24 hours to quite a few less.
You need to slowly adjust the time under light from 24 hours in small increments over several weeks until the time under light matches hours of natural sunlight.
You can do this outdoors if you have adequate supplemental lights used to extend time under light or you can do it inside, adjusting lighting as needed.
You need to start right away. Slowly backing off of 24 hours to about 16 is going to take some time.

Shamanfarmer · May 31, 2017

Put them out on the solstice. This is what I've done in northern oregon and its worked great. They dont start flowering until the middle of august.

Dan789 · May 31, 2017

Soaring said:
Hi, I'm hoping to avoid a problem I had growing outdoors last year. I'm in Northern California growing Sour Diesel clones from a local dispensary in my backyard. Last year I did the same thing and they flowered super early (mid-summer I think?), then all the flowers died off and it flowered again a month or two later. The fall harvest was small, obviously, and I ended up having to cut away all the old dead buds from the first flowering when I harvested in fall. My backyard has a mix of sun, filtered sun, and shade throughout the day. Not ideal, I know, but it's the only spot I've got. The woman I spoke to at the dispensary said these clones have been on 24 hour light.

Anything I can do differently this year to prevent the same thing happening again? Or is there a way to harvest the early buds without killing the whole plant or something? I've grown successfully in the past (from seed) without this happening so it was all new to me.

Thank you!

Hey Soaring, welcome to the farm.

Soaring · Jun 1, 2017

Thanks, all, for your replies. I'll be getting them under some lights, STAT! How long should I take to transition them from 24 to 16 hours of light?

Dan789 · Jun 1, 2017

@Soaring the sun transitions about eight minutes a day difference, but at that rate it would take too long at 15 minutes a day change you could do it in 32 days. Someone else may have a different idea though, just my thoughts. Good luck.

SpiderK · Jun 3, 2017

its about 2 minutes per day and not accounting for dawn light ... the plant being an annual at 24hrs, a cut is already stressed. lights are not matching the sun and inputs the plant uses.

you could still plant seeds, kill males have a bunch of mini's / 2-3 oz ..... start in baggy let sit in window for a week or so then out they go ...

FenderSuper · Jun 3, 2017

BudBogart said:
You can do this outdoors if you have adequate supplemental lights used to extend time under light or you can do it inside, adjusting lighting as needed.
You need to start right away. Slowly backing off of 24 hours to about 16 is going to take some time.

Please define adequate - would 300W equivalent of LED (5000K) be adequate to the task?

Trying To Avoid Last Year's Catastrophe

Trying To Avoid Last Year's Catastrophe

Soaring

BudBogart

Shamanfarmer

Dan789

Soaring

Dan789

SpiderK

FenderSuper

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