What triggers auto flowering cannabis plants to initiate flower?

[Jumper114]

All right talk.

Really hoping I can get the heavy weights into this discussion.

I have recently (2 grows back) started tying my girls to the rim top of the airpot. Daily or twice daily with pipe cleaners. So 8 plants thus far and cup girl.



The aim is to keep the girl as low as possible.

What have I noticed? Thus far, it feels I can stall the plant for 50+ days before entering flower. Sour Livers 52, Orange Diesel 50, Sour Crack 1 ... lets see how long !

Massively increased yields, as filling the pot and creating 30+ crowns. It feels very photo in style of grow.

Now, heavy defoliation I have found required :-



I genuinely think this is the way forward, so long as the girl is kept below 3rd node, you can train her like a photo.

Is it my genetics? Or luck?

[RASTA]

A dunno Jumper....from what I know of autos, is that they start to flower with age.
This is obviously due to the ruderalis gene. Ruderalis plants I think, generally start flowering after 20 days.
So my thinking is any auto that flowers later.....has probably more of the indica or sativa gene.
A would say its down to both genes and luck.....hopefully I'm wrong n your onto something though

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[Jumper114]

A dunno Jumper....from what I know of autos, is that they start to flower with age.
This is obviously due to the ruderalis gene. Ruderalis plants I think, generally start flowering after 20 days.
So my thinking is any auto that flowers later.....has probably more of the indica or sativa gene.
A would say its down to both genes and luck.....hopefully I'm wrong n your onto something though

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I would like to agree with you. But I just am not seeing it. I have only grown for 2.5 years. There must be others who grow in my style? Although I cannot find it on the net?

I took the spiral grow technique, in car parlance, and slammed it. :-) It makes sense to me to keep the girls as low as possible to improve number of crowns due to the side branching.

I will keep slamming SC1 to see what happens. Phenotype dependent - bah!

I don't believe ruderalis is triggered by age - I don't think plants know how old they are - just how developed (node) and light duration. I may be talking out of my @rse.... just my current thinking!

[lipnobody]

i think its more to do with a chemical signal given off at the time the plant feels it, tho by stressing it out you could be distressing the intended balance outta wack n once it gets its arse in gear n gets over the shock it starts to flower, coukd be wrong tho

[RASTA]

I would like to agree with you. But I just am not seeing it. I have only grown for 2.5 years. There must be others who grow in my style? Although I cannot find it on the net?

I took the spiral grow technique, in car parlance, and slammed it. :-) It makes sense to me to keep the girls as low as possible to improve number of crowns due to the side branching.

I will keep slamming SC1 to see what happens. Phenotype dependent - bah!

I don't believe ruderalis is triggered by age - I don't think plants know how old they are - just how developed (node) and light duration. I may be talking out of my @rse.... just my current thinking!

A always thought Ruderalis Cannabis plants started flowering once they reached a certain maturity.
My mind is blown if this aint true.

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[Jimster]

The plant does know it's age, sort of. As a plant matures, it produces different chemical signals. As these chemical messengers accumulate, or the plant becomes mature enough to produce it, then flowering takes place. Regular plants have their flowering ability inhibited by light, but some equatorial strains, which see a constant 11-13 hours of light, have another trigger which seems to rely more on age. I had this discussion the other night and we still didn't identify the exact mechanism, but I'm guessing that it is also in the Ruderalis strain.

[Jumper114]

The plant does know it's age, sort of. As a plant matures, it produces different chemical signals. As these chemical messengers accumulate, or the plant becomes mature enough to produce it, then flowering takes place. Regular plants have their flowering ability inhibited by light, but some equatorial strains, which see a constant 11-13 hours of light, have another trigger which seems to rely more on age. I had this discussion the other night and we still didn't identify the exact mechanism, but I'm guessing that it is also in the Ruderalis strain.

Many thanks for that.

Will take time to digest and investigate further.

I am sure I am stalling the auto flower process, regardless of strain!

[Agent Green]

I have heard of plants being able to count so maybe your node theory has something to it. What do you mean exactly by keep below the 3rd node?

[curiouscultivator]

I am curious as to this too. From my very limited experience the more I have played with my plants the longer they have taken to flower (only grown 7 autos that have got to flower stages, most taken 50+ days to flower). I am eagerly following your comparison

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[Jumper114]

I have heard of plants being able to count so maybe your node theory has something to it. What do you mean exactly by keep below the 3rd node?

So, my thinking is essentially that once the plant gets to a certain height (3rd node) it triggers the chemical response to flower.

Now, when I tie the girls down to the rim, they are less than 3cm in height. I think this fools the plant to keep growing without triggering flower. Similar idea to photo plants and SCROG.

Here is a Blueberry Treacle, day 44 as an example. You can see how I have continued to train her and keep her low. No sign of flowering!

I like to let the girl fill the pot with 30-40 heads - then do nothing, she grows up and little and boom flower.

You can see exactly when I stopped training the Blueberry Treacle. No more room in the pot! Any day she will flower as she is now "tall enough". If that makes sense?


Trained round the pot. Nice level and open canopy



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