Keeping Sativas small with Upstate

I get questions all the time as to how I keep my Sativas small and manageable. I thought it might be easier for me to post a link to a thread that covers this topic. I’ve germinated some Oaxaca seeds from my favorite plant, Old Silversides. They are ready to plant today or tomorrow.

73 Likes

The first thing you’ll need is multiple container sizes. The more the merrier. I’m a soil grower, so I can’t help the hydro folks much, but I’d assume container size matters less with hydro.
I like the following containers for frequent transplanting.
Solo cup
Half gallon
One gallon
2 gallon
3 gallon
5 gallon
You can grow anything with these pots.

64 Likes

Right on @Upstate . Timely post. I’m planning on a “sativas of the world” hunt in 3 months and you where one of the members I was gonna bug for tips on equatorial heirlooms but now I can just follow along. And maybe bug you just a little! :grin::v:

30 Likes

Looking forward to your insights. I have been working on growing sativas in a tent with limited success i germinate seeds and take clones and straight to flower tent once rooted. My current thoughts are, I need to veg a week or so before flower

Experianced guidance is a plus

14 Likes

Don’t be like me and veg for 6 weeks indoors.

37 Likes

Perfect timing @upstate as this grow is moving into my tent my next one is long flower as you know so this is perfect tutorial almost side by side. Gives me enough time to see what you do and see how it works for me. Thank you for this especially since you would have gotten all these questions from me :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::rofl::rofl::rofl:. Great info to share with community. Thanks growmie!
So needless to say I am pulling up a chair for this info packet.

12 Likes

@BigMike55 can tell you. :rofl:

4 Likes

veg one out. take a clone. then veg that a couple weeks or less then flower. the clone will be older. i have noticed the clones of older plants hit flower super fast from flip. also, i have seen this rec’d for sativas. i have two tangie ripper clones, sativa doms, they were in bloom day 3 of flip. the indicas from seed at 7 weeks veg took 6 to 8 days.

i also train a bunch. most stretch plants have actuallyl been indicas. blueberry from dutch passion and girl crush from twenty20. though, the girl crush didn’t stretch much in flower, just veg.

9 Likes

Yes. I have an Indian heirloom plant. Sheelavathi is her name. She has been under flower lighting for 17 weeks today. I’m gonna say at least another 3-4 weeks.
I screwed up. I had never run a true landrace sativa. I let her veg like I normally do with Indica and hybrids. About 6 weeks. Plus when I got her she was an already established clone. About a foot tall.
So… needless to say. This one plant has literally filled up a 4x4 tent all by herself. Front to back. Side to side. And hitting the lights some it’s that tall.
My advice to anyone growing a true sativa. Flip when they are very small. Like 8-12 inch plants. They stretch like crazy.

34 Likes

The plant I trained for 6 weeks was tied down to be only a foot tall at flip. It still quintupled.

14 Likes

This sounds fun. I am trying to keep some small sativas too. I will follow along.

5 Likes

It has been my experience as well. Blueberry can be very stretchy.

3 Likes

@Upstate

Limit the container size
Limit the Veg time
Feed mostly flowering nutrients
Grow in 12/12 lighting
Supercrop alot, grow wide.

Based on experience with landrace Sativa I’ve grown.

22 Likes

Lol. Ooooops! If you do that, it’s best to flower cuttings, or you’ll have a tree. As you likely know lol.

8 Likes

I had 3 of them in a 2x4. Silliest grow move I’ve ever made and I’ve made a few.

12 Likes

Older plants not only trigger quicker, but they are more potent. Photoperiod plants often need to be 5 months old at harvest for full effects( kush, blueberry, gg4 etc)Pure Sativas get more potent, reportedly at least, for 10 months or more( Colombian in this case. Info from an old book)
Most pure Sativas are age dependant flowering plants. They reach sexual maturity and then have a flowering phase of 8-12 weeks. I flower from seed so the " flowering " phase appears to take longer.
I hope that makes sense. This is why cuttings from mature sativas flower quicker than sativas grown from seed.
It’s really not much different than a regular plant, that would start outdoors in April or may( volunteers) and get harvested in September or October. 6 months. A tropical sativa like png gold also has a 6 month cycle, but all of it under a 12 12 cycle in its equatorial home. They are both 6 month plants( I know some are as fast as 4. This is just an example)in the end. Now, if you vegged a png for 3 months under a long light hours schedule, it’s not going to finish for you in just 3 more months of 12 12. I wish! But a decent veg time ( 16/8 or even 14/10 on cycle)will make them flower faster. I don’t know how fast. 6 months is long enough without me tinkering and possibly adding weeks or even months to my grow.
What I notice with Oaxaca is that as a cutting, a couple weeks are knocked off the flower time.
I can harvest Old Silversides at week 13. The fastest Oaxaca are done in 11 weeks as a mature cutting.
Basically you are " vegging" under a 12 12 cycle for around 6-10+ weeks and then " flowering them an additional amount of time under the same cycle.
I like to knock 30 minutes off the on cycle for each of the last 2 months, but I can’t always do that. It will help the most extreme tropicals mature properly.

35 Likes

So does this mean you can take a cut from a photoperiod that is matured and kind of get them to go quickly like an autos, and would have the ability to give you quality smoke much quicker than from seed?

8 Likes

@OhNo555 Definitely not like autos.
Almost any strain will finish a couple weeks faster if grown from clone, especially from a clone taken after sexual maturity, but it’s not going to make a long flower plant into a short one, or take a significant amount off of the flower time

12 Likes

Ok, I have never cloned with clippings and had questions before I tried and was disappointed.

6 Likes

They’ll still be effected by light duration, that is to say they remain photoperiodic. Also there can be no flower without corresponding root so you will have to veg cuttings long enough to build sufficient roots. Only a month or two though as opposed to six.

8 Likes