Was doing a little light reading…
Marijuana Botany An Advanced Study: The Propagation and Breeding of Distinctive Cannabis by Robert Connell Clarke.
In it he states that contrary to popular belief, starting plants later in the season may promote earlier flowering due to longer vegetative growth possibly producing flower inhibitors which slows the formation of flowers as the photo period decreases.
Anyone ever heard of this or experimented with this in mind?
It’s interesting reading…
Plant in Feb or March and you’re plants get extra time to veg but during this time flower inhibitors may be produced by the plant and may extend flowering time drastically.
Plant in June or Early July (after summer solstice), plants only experience decreasing light and will vegitate until mature and flower immediately. The author sees this as proof that there is less flower inhibitors in the plants, thus why they flower “early” or “quicker”.
I guess the question is, Anyone ever plant the same cultivar in Feb/ March and then again in June/July: notice any differences during the flower transition stages?
I always did when i planted outside…reason being, putting them out staggered like that, if it frosted i did not lose it all, if it did not frost, i got bigger plants from the earlier planted ones. Finished around the same time always, no matter when i planted them…outside of planting them outside real late, like aug-sep…then I just got small plants.
I read the same thing in the same book. I planted Malana in June last year hoping they would finish earlier. That was not the case. I’m not going to rule it out yet, but in my personal opinion I think large plants stand a better chance at beating the elements in the fall. More plant to hold on to heat. The floral Inhibitors are located in the fan leaves that grew on the plant before the summer solstice, while days increase in lenghth. I think it would be a better idea to take these fan leaves off to get rid of the floral inhibitors rather than planting late . I’ll see what happens this year. Lots of Malana seeds fell on the ground last fall, and should pop up as soon as the weather warms in April or May…usually seeds that overwinter pop in mid April . The plants began to flower at the end of August and early September last year. I’ll see when they start to flower this year and I’ll report back. Interesting subject.
Hmmm… that’s interesting intel. I thought it was interesting in the reading that he uses the word “may” a lot - like this may happen - or it may not - sounds almost like an untested theory than actual proven science.
I thought the exact same thing about taking the larger, older fan leafs off…
What amazes me with Mr. Clarke’s book is according to my copy first printing was 1953, in my copy there are14 pages of very small print Bibliography, and yet everyones always saying theres no research of cannabis
In my readings the only way there is to finish a plant “faster” or “sooner” is to dep them. Whether that is greenhouse with coverings or tarps or you veg a plant indoors flip it and plant it out at week 2 or 3 (or later if you are growing a long duration sativa variety and want to get it in before oct) after flower starts. As long as you plant after the light is decreasing they shouldn’t re flower. Only drawback is you probably can’t scale it unless you are in a legal state. I haven’t tried it for me yet because I don’t have the proper living situation for that yet
Don’t plant them into the ground, plant in huge pots with drainage holes on bottom with a tray under pots, plastic don’t plant until early July, late June or they will get too big tall. Water leaves at night not day cuz leaves will burninto yellow leaves. I started a grow outside in early august and afghani nirvana seeds regular flowered miracle grow potting soil and organic plant fertilizer are what you want.
That’s been my standard practice and didn’t really think anything about it till I read this book.
Think I’ll do a little experiment this season and start a handful closer to the solstice and see is there are any noticeable differences in flower starting and finishing.
Also going to let some go full on natural and give another group a medium defoliation.
Should be interesting to see what the results are, if anything.
Great idea. I did get lots of Malana seeds, so I can germ some late in June and plant them near the wild plants that pop up, and get another experiment. Lets test this theory out! If there is any truth to it, it could be a iseful tool for us pathetic Northerners that must have sativas lol
Thats my experience so far. I did that last summer, but instead of covering them each night, I brought them into a dark room for 12 hours, reducing that to 11 1/2 (most days )by harvest. Kept them in small containers for ease of movement and stealth, using frequent transplants to keep them from getting pot bound. Did some 14-16 weekers that way. Mostly 2 feet tall, some 3 footers. Turned out great.
I do the same with timing and have every year for 30 years except for one year when I took clones from an indoor crop on New years day.They did finish a little quicker in some instances, but I think clones do anyway. Bigger yields for sure.
I’m thinking I’m seeing signs of that or maybe just a different way to look at it.
The last two years I planted real early outside. And I usually planted more in late summer.
I’m seeing the later planted one grow just as large in half the time and it produced right at the exact same amount.
By planting early I’m using double the nutes and water for the same outcome. I’m sure there would be some outcomes somewhat different.
One theory for me and my environment (southern Colorado @6,400 feet elevation, intense burning sun first part of summer) is that I usually suffer through really bad heat and stress like hail storms early and work hard at keeping things moving forward.
I planted a SSDD early, late spring, and it reached 7’ and gave me a couple of pounds of bud. I also planted a Phuuu’s IPA in the same area in July and it ended up at the same exact size and yielded almost exactly the same weight.
I noticed it enough that I’ve been asking myself if I’m planting outside too early. It’s just not needed here with such intense sun.
We are subject to early frost/freeze and that was my basis for planting early; finish early. It hasn’t been the case those two in the ground were the last to finish. I had to build an igloo frame around both to save them from an early snow. So, I may save stress, water, and nutes by waiting to plant later at my house.
I can get pics when I get back on my computer in a week or so. They might still be on the phone, I’ll look.
Good question, though. I sure noticed it for two straight years. Clarke is supposed to be one of the best books supposedly.
Great idea. I did get lots of Malana seeds, so I can germ some late in June and plant them near the wild plants that pop up, and get another experiment. Lets test this theory out! If there is any truth to it, it could be a iseful tool for us pathetic Northerners that must have sativas lol
To further potentially back what you are saying, the Sativas I grew last summer, started in May with only 3 weeks veg period, all finished quicker than the times listed for them. Maybe the late planting is why.
Kullu 15 weeks instead of 16-20
Malawi at 98-115 days instead of 105+
Durban at 8 -10 weeks instead of 10 -14
These were all force flowered outdoors…so not the same situation but still interesting.
However, for yields in cold NY, the earlier I start, the bigger they get, (size and yield)when planted in the ground. That’s great that you can plant in July and still get a plant so big. Maybe if I was tending to my plants everyday I could get them big planting so late , but July and August are dryer months for me , and the plants seem to do better( on their own) if they get part of May and all of June’s rain . Seems like a no-brainer for you to do it again. It was cheaper and easier. Though if something were to go wrong in July, it could really stunt the plants because you don’t have much extra time for anything to go wrong. I guess the best way to know for sure is to have enough plants from the same seed planted at different times and see what happens.
Robert Connell Clarke really seems to know his information well. It does seem that if he says plants started very early finish later there is some truth to it… hopefully we can all remember to report back here as this next season progresses and share our experiences. I think I might germinate a few Malana seeds now, and just keep them in a window. They’ll probably be four foot tall Twigs by the time I plant them LOL but still, Clark did mention planting very early…
The next batch that will come up will have overwintered naturally outdoors and I expect it to germinate sometime in April… and then I will also plant some after the solstice. That’s a pretty good spread. Between what I’m doing and what the rest of you are doing, we will know exactly what happens with Harvest times and different start times.
Absolutely! Yields are not even comparable to plants that was started early to a plant that was started late. I think you can save even more time finishing flowering on most European varieties if you start your plants early. Don’t know why just my experience, but these last couple years I find better genetics here in the states, and since I found overgrow now the best! I never planted clones outside, so I wouldn’t know anything about that
Very interesting! I started my plants early March last year and was harvesting mid October. I blamed it on the American genetics. So if starting plants early leads to later flowering.
Where is the happy medium??
plant them into the ground, plant in huge pots with drainage holes 
on bottom with a tray under pots, plastic don’t plant 
leaves at night not day cuz leaves will burninto yellow leaves. I started a grow outside in early august and afghani nirvana seeds regular 
flowered miracle grow potting soil and organic plant fertilizer are what you want.