Flowering or stressing?

[Baggyarse]

G'day all,

 

I've got an indoor hydro flood and drain system that is governed by the natural light cycle. I've just had a few environmental and non environmental influences over my crop and the plants have started to show sex. I'm not sure if this is just an immature reaction to the influences or are my plants wanting to start the flowering cycle.

My recent crop influences are as follows,

http://forums.cannabisculture.com/forums/images/graemlins/default/Pothead.gif Based in S/E QLD season

http://forums.cannabisculture.com/forums/images/graemlins/default/Pothead.gif shed with translucent roof 

http://forums.cannabisculture.com/forums/images/graemlins/default/Pothead.gif Hot bright consistently sunny days, causing hot root zone temps due to flood and drain system acting as a solar heat collector.

http://forums.cannabisculture.com/forums/images/graemlins/default/Pothead.gif An extended dull and rainy patch with cooler days which inturn produced a much cooler root zone temp

http://forums.cannabisculture.com/forums/images/graemlins/default/Pothead.gifAt the same time the dull days appeared I applied 2 growth hormones 1 for internodal spaces, the second to influence sex (female of course) 

I have 1 plant that is clearly male and producing male flowers at many nodal points over the upper third of the plant. some are showing no sex and some are showing female flowers but only at branching nodes.

I'm wanting to know if I should be moving into a flowering cycle now or is this just a reaction to the influences I mentioned earlier.

Thanks for any info

[ford prefect]

im a noob to this. but looking at brisvegas sun rise and sunset times i'd say the level of sunlight reaching your girls is influencing them. 

 

this for feb 14 (tomorrow)

                                                    

14 Feb 2013

sunrise 5:30 AM

sunset 6:33 PM

day length 13h 02m 54s

change − 1m 30s

 

from http://www.timeanddate.com/

 

goodluck

Edited February 13, 2013 by ford prefect

[Sir PsychoHashy]

I'm a few hundred k's south of you and my outdoor plants are flowering already, so you should be getting photoperiod flowering.  Growing in a shed is problematic for high temperatures though.  The tops of the plants can handle it up to a point, but the roots don't like it.

[Baggyarse]

Ok thanks guys for the confirmation wasn't 100% sure but I'll start gearing up for the business end of the operation now.

 

I planted late in the growing season, early December, but got good growth for the mixed bag of beans I had. Most between 1m-1.3m tall with good shape and plenty of flower sites. I did get a few duds though and I'll have to remove at least 1 male at this point. I'm hoping to get a predominately female hermie so I can grow some femme seeds. Drdave69au, yes your right about root temps I get really good ventilation and temp difference between in and out isn't huge, to me the problem lies in the black poly pipe used for the flood and drain hydro system, acting as a solar heat collector. I've had nutrient temps consistentently up to 36o C for days on end but the plants never showed signs of any stress and I was quite happy with the progress also concidering the direct light restriction issues you could immagine with growing in a box only having sunlite available through the roof.

 

Thanks again for the info.

[louise]

To reduce the solar collection effect, you could try painting your poly lines and res with ceiling white... cheap as, wash up in water, and gives good coverage over most surfaces, including plastic.

[Baggyarse]

not a bad idea Louise. I cut a hole in my concrete floor and dug a hole so the top of the reservoir is at floor height so its really well insulated its just the pipes and bucket containers that are the main problem. I painted the walls with flat white, really reflective for a cheap price. I have a bit laying around too, I'll try giving the pipes a light sanding as well might stick on a bit better , I'll give it a go tomorrow.

 

Thanks.

[The Hash Nibbler]

Ok thanks guys for the confirmation wasn't 100% sure but I'll start gearing up for the business end of the operation now.

 

I planted late in the growing season, early December, but got good growth for the mixed bag of beans I had. Most between 1m-1.3m tall with good shape and plenty of flower sites. I did get a few duds though and I'll have to remove at least 1 male at this point. I'm hoping to get a predominately female hermie so I can grow some femme seeds. Drdave69au, yes your right about root temps I get really good ventilation and temp difference between in and out isn't huge, to me the problem lies in the black poly pipe used for the flood and drain hydro system, acting as a solar heat collector. I've had nutrient temps consistentently up to 36o C for days on end but the plants never showed signs of any stress and I was quite happy with the progress also concidering the direct light restriction issues you could immagine with growing in a box only having sunlite available through the roof.

 

Thanks again for the info.

Heya Baggyarse =) , ditch the hermie breeding idea........ya just get more hermies........ if ya want seed, you already have a male......use that, the seed will be regular, but at least they wont all be hermie crap. You wont get Femmed seeds from a hermaphrodite, if a female plant produces Bananas at some stage or you force them, then you can use that to pollenate a female, and get Fem seeds, but a hermie with balls will just give you a shitload of crap seed.

 

Peace. Nibbler.

[jaikai]

not a bad idea Louise. I cut a hole in my concrete floor and dug a hole so the top of the reservoir is at floor height so its really well insulated its just the pipes and bucket containers that are the main problem. I painted the walls with flat white, really reflective for a cheap price. I have a bit laying around too, I'll try giving the pipes a light sanding as well might stick on a bit better , I'll give it a go tomorrow.

 

Thanks.

 

Gday Baggyarse, top name

 

If your pipes are well exposed it may pay to sleeve em with some hot water pipe insulation or similar... Be pretty easy to bodgy something up, even wrap with cheap windscreen shades. If you wanna paint plastic, grab a sraycan of flexi-prime or even a can of hobby type plastic paint. Use it as an undercoat then use ya cheap flat white over it. Meself Id go with the insul` idea though... Food for thought.

 

BTW, laserlite roof on a shed, good work

 

JAIKAI

[Baggyarse]

Hey Nibbler thanks for the tip, I'm pretty familiar with creating female seed as I said in my post it will have to be predominately female this way the pollen will have XX chromosomes as opposed to male plant pollen with XY chromosomes. The cross with another female of course will only produce seed with XX chromosomes. I use to use Giblerilic acid as a foliar feed to bring this trait on once all males had been removed.

 

G'day Jaikai, thanks for the reply yet another good idea I'm on a bit of a tight budget so buying lagging may be a bit pricy, I did like the idea of cheap windcreen shades. I'll add that to the  list of options. 

 

I took some cuttings from the known females today so have something to fill the holes that the males will leave. I also set up 2, 3m NFT gullies with a narrow bit of space left in my room to take the left over clones. I'm going to have to get a stronger pump as I'm running to limit in the bucket system and adding 4 more micro tubes only 50mm higher than the buckets has found the limits of my current pump or I'll reduce the micro-tubing from my feed lines from 2 to 1. That experiment is on the to do list for tomorrow.

 

I have set up supplemental lighting for the clones. I'm using a 48 watt CFL bulb = 248w incandescent. I still get natural diffused light but thought they may need a bit extra.

What size CFL or total wattage is suitable for cloning. Do you think my set will up do the job

[iTiC]

Baggyarse;

the force is strong with this one. Genius use of resources. You are what has made this country proud.

carry on you aussie battler