Discussion: Veg. plant maturity

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#1

Something I learned from the old timers, that I have heard so few people speak of anymore is veg plant maturity. Meaning you plant a seed… you let it grow and when you are ready you send it into flowering. But did you know that the plant has its own timeframe for reaching maturity and it doesn’t care about your needs? Everything in nature reaches a point of maturity for procreation, and there are many sources of information about plant maturity that I have read outside of the old timer knowledge passed around.

My questions for all of you is this: do you think that forcing plants into flowering too soon may bring negative side effects in some cases?

I ask because I have noticed some trends… not rules, but trends. Outdoor grows seem to have so few issues with intersex traits. Yes there are some obvious reasons why, but the other side of the trend is when I see people who report bad experiences in their grows indoors… their plants are never full sized. They never seem to be with a clone. Also seen some pretty big variety in plants/grows when you consider how quickly something was rushed into flower versus someone who took the time and grew the plants into full maturity. They always look best when clones were taken or plants were grown from seed for months before flowering. And I am wondering how much plant maturity plays into stress induced intersex traits, better grow results, etc… I can imagine that forcing something into maturity is stressful by itself, but whether or not my imagination meets up with reality is a different story.

What do you all think? What have you seen as far as vegetative plant maturity goes?

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#2

I always veg until sexual maturity. Partially because I think it’s the right move and also because by then they are usually (usually) the right size for me to flip in my tent.

Some guys do 12/12 from seed and have good results.

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#3

How can you tell when a cannabis plant is mature and ready to flower indoors? Pre-flowers?

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#4

In some cases, yes preflowers would be a sign that the plant is old enough.

But its not a rule I dont think… as I know personally that not everything preflowers.

I might be a little off here, but I remember 90-120 days to reach maturity…

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#5

I usually get there in 5-6 weeks and I use preflowers as my gauge.

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#6

Yeah, I usually flip around 6 weeks too. Hard to imagine letting these ladies go for another 2 months before flowering!

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#7

Take clones, start over. People do this for SOG often. The clones carry the age of the plant on.

I often flip at 3-6 weeks from seed, and I see more issues when doing that. Whenever I take clones and allow them to root, get transplanted, etc… (once they reach the right size for my grow room, they are about 3 months old at that stage if things are done right and I am growing full sized and not SOG or in a reduced ceiling grow room)… the outcome is better.

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#8

I’ve only been growing a couple years at this point, but so far I’ve let all my plants sexually mature before flipping to flower.

I’ve had the same thought about that being a stressor that may play into unwanted intersex traits expressing, although I have nowhere near enough grows under my belt to make any guesses or assumptions as to whether or not that is actually the case.

I do think it definitely effects the finished product, and I do think it’s a stressor.

I think when you hear growers or breeders talk about how the bud on clones finishes better than seed plants, or that you should take clones and flower those and compost/discard the seed plants the benefit they are seeing is that these have had more time to come to maturity.

I’m lucky that I’m not hard pressed for time to finish and have enough meds on hand and it’s not an income for me that I don’t have to worry about rushing things.

For me, for the love of the plant and striving for the best quality I can grow makes taking the plants to full maturity not just something I think I should do, but a process that I thoroughly enjoy.

From a breeding perspective I see merits to both, because if plenty of growers are forcing things to flower as early as possible, there is clearly a market for plants that will perform well that way.

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#9

Now that is interesting!

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#10

I also have a theory about clones and old age… aka dudding

I think some genetics literally start to die of old age, while others have better genes that make them able to “live” longer.

This theory is based totally on me smoking too much weed. Grain of salt and all that… lol

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#11

Have you heard the talk of a virus called HpLVd being responsible for dudding?

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#12

I am very familiar with it. My Romulan has been through tissue culture.

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#13

Stagered nodes are an other usefull guide

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#14

@ifish I’ve never heard that… how does that work?

#15

When nodes start to stager , that can be a sign of reaching maturity

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#16

So you’re saying that when the nodes are no longer uniformly spaced on the stems?

That is what I am asking for clarity on, what you actually mean by staggered nodes? I’ve never heard anyone talk about node spacing in relation to maturity, so I am curious… not second guessing you at all.

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#17

Excellent! I really admire that your family has been able to hold that cut for so long, I aspire to pass something down to my children similarly

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#18

Alternating nodes and preflowers tend to show up at around the same time.

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#19

Yields suffer a lot fliping 12/12 from seed , clones are far better ( mature )

As for stress from flipping from seed I’m not sure , but for yeild alone it’s worth doing clones instead , more so if not doing a long veg

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#20

I don’t particularly wait for it so much as it just takes that long to grow them to my preferred size, but I’ve never flowered before preflowers/alternating nodes start to show up and I’ve never had any hermies that I’m not fairly comfortable blaming on genetics. I’ve had some from a feminized mystery box that I got as a freebie, but I was explicitly warned that they were untested lines.

Alternating nodes, btw, means that they don’t show up at the same spot on each side simultaneously. I’ve also noticed they start to show around the same time as preflowers, and I take them as a sign of maturity as well.

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