When should buds start ?

[CaptainMick]

Hi all, I live in central Victoria, simple question, what month should buds/flowers start to appear. The reason for asking, i aint grown dope for 15 years til now and I forgot everything about them lmao. I planted 3 seeds way back in August, and babied them in the kitchen window til the frost went. The are now pushing 6 feet high (or would be if I hadn't bent them over) and one of them has started to bud, which I didn't think happened til 12 hours of darkness, and we are only getting 10 or something at the mo. They are hydro seeds I just put in my vegi patch if this has something to do with it.

 

ps - I have got them under light cheap arse shade cloth behind tomatoes, they get plenty of sun, but because they are shaded to a degree would that affect bud time ?

Edited January 18, 2010 by CaptainMick

[Frazz]

hey Cptn Mick shading certainly can bring flowering on earlier than otherwise, i would have thought yours would see onset of flower from mid-Febuary onwards, given your location and that she is fully mature and more than ready flower so its not far off ...

 

[CaptainMick]

Cheers Frazz, I knew it wasnt a bad thing , I just thought it may have been odd. Thanks for the input (:

[Yavimaya]

From my little experience and knowledge, basically they turn when the days start to get shorter, if you can notice the night coming earlier, then so can they.

 

My last decent crop done in my backyard started to flower around end of Feb. or so and was good enough for picking by end of march or so.

 

I have also tried a shadecloth smother this time around, added around a week ago now, we will see if it brings on early flowering.

 

It isnt so much about a certain amount of hours of darkness, its more about there being less hours of light than it is used to.

[canetoad]

CaptainMick

Firstly, you started your seeds off a bit early. If you are growing outside, you depend on the day/night cycle. A lot of folk forget that cannabis flowering is dependent on total hours of darkness.

 

If you put the seeds out before the spring equinox (21 September) you run the risk of very young, not fully vegged plants going into a flowering cycle. It's not the end of the world, but it tends to stunt the plants.

 

Here in Victoria we have almost perfect outdoor growing weather. After the Summer Solstice (December 21) the nights get longer and usually by the first week of January you will see signs of pre-flower in outdoor plants. This is when the leaves no longer sprout in pairs and the new growth is in a sort of herringbone pattern - growing alternately out of the top of the plants.

 

Now I've been growing outdoors in Melbournes outer north east for a brazillion years. The most important thing is to be patient. Let the plant do it's thing. You can control light and dark in an indoor grow room but not outdoors, especially in Victorian summer. You will find that the first plants start showing sex in the second or third week of January, by late February you will definitely be able to tell all the males from the females. Don't waste your time with shadecloth. It wont work.

 

Depending on the weather and how much direct sun the plants are getting, some should be ready to harvest the top buds by mid-March. I count on having all mine in by the last week in April, but if the weather is good I cut of the ripe buds, leaving the stem and little low growth intact and they can still produce little buds well into May.

 

If you're interested, I've posted a detailed grow log over on Graay's grow boards in the outdoor section and you can see pix of this year's grow starting at seed sprouting up till now.