Like many flowering plants, there are 2 phases of life for marijuana.

First the plant goes through a phase of vegetative growth, producing lots of stems and leaves. We covered the [marijuana vegetative stage] last week in depth.
http://archive.aweber.com/gwe-updates/Eeb2Y/h/_GrowWeedEasy_Vegetative.htm

Now, an annual plant like marijuana normally grows from seed to maturity and dies over the course of one year.

So next, when a marijuana plant "senses" that the year is coming to a close, the plant completely switches gears from growing bigger/taller and begins a flowering phase of growth.

During this flowering stage, the main goal of the plant is to produce the organs needed for sexual reproduction.

Though all marijuana plants look the same when they're very young, they reveal their gender in the flowering stage.

Yes, gender.

All marijuana plants are either boys or girls, which is part of their genetic programming.

Most small scale growers are generally only concerned with female marijuana plants because only girl plants produce the beautifully sticky flowers (or "buds") that we love so much.

Instead of buds, male marijuana plants grow pollen sacs that look like little balls,  and usually have zero psychoactive effects.

Today, I will cover everything you need to know about the Flowering Stage of marijuana growth, including:

• What happens during the Flowering Stage?
• Lights: Photoperiods and Flowering
• Other Factors That Encourage Healthy Flowering
• Temperature
• Light Color (Mimic the Fall Sun)
• Light Intensity
• Nutrients
  

What happens during the Flowering Stage?

With most marijuana plants, the "signal" that tells them when to start flowering is how much light and darkness they get each day, also known as their photoperiods.

Let me explain.

For most strains of marijuana, once the plant starts experiencing shorter days (when they're getting 12+ hours of darkness each night), they will enter into the flowering stage within a few weeks.

This is because the plant uses a special chemical process to sense how long the nights are. When night periods get long enough, the plant "senses" winter is coming and starts preparing to make seeds by beginning to flower.

Once flowering begins, the plant reveals his or her gender.

Female plants start growing wispy white hairs, which are actually the pistils of their flowers. The spots where these white hairs appear develop into buds.

Male plants start growing "balls" that form into pollen sacs, in the same places a female plant grows wispy hairs. Most growers kill male marijuana plants on sight, to prevent them from pollinating the female plants (pollinated female plants focus on making seeds instead of buds, giving you seedy buds and dramatically reducing your yields).

The Flowering Stage of marijuana can be a worrying time for growers because flowering plants are not as tough as they were in the vegetative stage. Flowering plants often have a bigger visible reaction to problems or stress.

Imagine what she's going through. Your female plant is a little stressed out trying to make awesome flowers. She just needs a little extra loving care at this stage to produce the biggest, most potent buds possible.

Don't worry about minor slip-ups, but do watch your plants closely in the flowering stage, especially your first few grows, and you'll be able to handle anything that comes up by using the information below.

Lights: Photoperiods and Flowering

It's generally recommended to switch indoor plants over to the flowering stage when they've reached half their final desired height.

For indoor growers, set your timer so that the lights are off for 12 hours a day to "tell" your plants to start flowering. This is known as the 12-12 light schedule because you're providing 12 hours of light, and 12 hours of dark each day.

As I mentioned before, marijuana plants decide to start flowering in response to how long their NIGHTS are.

In fact, many growers mistakenly believe that 12 hour days are important, when what's actually most important is the length of uninterrupted night, or darkness.

This is because specific chemical changes happen during long nights that tell the plant to start flowering.

So for example, your plant would still start flowering if you gave your plant 12 hours of darkness then 24 hours of light, then 12 hours of darkness, etc.

Though this is a generalized rule. It's important to keep in mind that marijuana naturally grows all over the world, in many different climates. This has caused a lot of variation between strains that can be confusing for new growers.

For example, the response to light periods (also known as photoperiods) varies widely between different strains.

Some strains respond very strongly to different light cycles, and may be triggered to start flowering after only a few "long nights."

Other strains, especially Sativa strains from equatorial regions, may need longer nights to be triggered to start flowering. For these tall, lanky plants, you may need up to 14 hours of darkness each day before they "get the hint" and start flowering.

To kick-start flowering, some growers will give the plant 24 hours of darkness, then a week or two of 14 hour nights. Then they might switch to the regular 12-12 flowering schedule. Some strains respond well to this type of manipulation, while other strains don't seem to be affected.

For reference, these varieties of marijuana tend to be harder to manipulate using the light cycle:

• Moroccan strains
• Southern African strains
• Commercial hemp
• Hybrids developed for early outdoor harvests (September or earlier)
  

These strains are more likely to respond negatively to light leaks and more likely to show hermaphrodites in response to light stress. For some reason, they also tend to be harder to clone.

Some extreme northern varieties of marijuana, for example the Ruderalis or "auto-flowering" strain are actually not photosensitive at all. For these plants, the amount of time since germination (the age of the plant) seems to determine when to start flowering.

Other Factors That Encourage Healthy Flowering

While the light period is your main tool to "tell" your plants to start flowering, other factors can have an effect on happy natural development of buds, (the importance of these "secondary" factors is dependent on the strain).

So in addition to photoperiod (i.e., day length), which we already discussed, factors such as light quality (spectral composition), light quantity (photon flux density), vernalization (exposure to a long period of cold), and nutrient and water availability may have some strain-dependent effects. Other strains are much less sensitive to these other environmental variables.

In the wild, flowering can be initiated by stresses such as nutrient deficiencies, lack of water, or overcrowding. Think about it, this allows the plant to produce seeds in bad conditions, and seeds are much more likely to survive environmental stress than the plant itself (which only lives for one year in the best case scenario).

Yet as the grower, you don't want to "stress" your plant into flowering. You'd much rather get her to start flowering naturally, which also gives you more control over your garden.

Temperature

There is some evidence that the presence of cooler temperatures can cause some strains to start flowering quicker, but this does not necessarily increase how fast buds develop.

Quick Tip: For purple strains, cooler temperatures at night is needed during the flowering stage for the buds to develop their signature purple coloring.

Freezing temperatures will kill most varieties of marijuana (think about it, in the wild they live their whole life cycle in one year and die when winter comes, so they have no need to become resistant to the cold).

Light Color: Flowering Grow Lights Mimic the Fall Sun

For optimal bud production, growers often switch their grow lights to "warmer" colored lights, which stimulate the fall sun.

CFL bulbs with a color temp of ~2700K are better for flowering, and a place like Home Depot will have CFLs in that color range (they're usually labeled as 'soft white' colored).

If you went for HPS/MH, now's the time for that HPS bulb.

Some LED lights come with a "flowering" setting.

It's important to note that any grow lights will work somewhat during flowering, but extra strong, "warm" colored lights give you the best results.

If you're growing outdoors, you just let the sun do her thing and just watch your plants for signs of problems or stress.

Light Intensity

Strong, intense light is what fuels the growth of buds. As a general rule, if your plant isn't having problems, then more light = more buds during the flowering stage.

However, for most new growers, just mastering the basics and preventing problems during the flowering stage will cause a huge increase in yields. Often, this increase in yields from understanding the basics is more than you would get by upgrading your lights.

I've seen many dedicated growers get bigger yields in his or her first grow with a few cheap CFL bulbs than other growers who've started with a 1000W HPS light and the most advanced equipment available.

After you reduce all other limiting factors, there comes a point where even stronger light can't be used by the plant to grow more buds and may hurt them. This is where some dedicated growers have discovered tricks (like supplementing CO2 in the grow room), which allow plants to use even more of the light, increasing yields beyond what would naturally be possible.

Flowering Stage Nutrients

Most [marijuana-friendly nutrient systems] will have you change to a "flowering" schedule which contains higher levels of the nutrients a marijuana plant needs for flowering.

A lot of beginner growers will add more nutrients at this stage thinking that the plant will take it in as food and grow bigger buds.

The hard truth is that adding too many nutrients will only burn your plant. Nutrients does not equal food for your plants. If anything, nutrients are more like their multivitamin, and light is their food.

So as far as nutrient levels, you'll want to keep doing things the way you have been. You've already dialed into what works for this plant, don't go totally crazy on her with nutrients now.

Only increase nutrient levels if she's showing signs of a deficiency towards the beginning of the flowering stage and only if you've ruled out pH problems as the culprit. Even then, increase nutrients slowly!

Towards the end of flowering, it's natural for there to be some yellowing of the leaves. No need to increase nutrient levels at this stage.

In fact, adding more nutrients than needed in the second half of the flowering stage can give an unpleasant "taste" to your buds, even with organic nutrients such as compost/manure.

~~~
Stay tuned!

I wanted to give you a complete overview of everything you need in the flowering stage, since this is the most important stage of growth for most growers.

This week I covered an overview of everything you need to understand to master the flowering stage. Next week I'll be sharing some specific tips and hints so you produce the best buds possible!

About the Author: Nebula Haze

In response to the need for more tutorials aimed at new growers, Nebula co-founded GrowWeedEasy.com in 2008 with fellow grower Sirius Fourside.

 

 

Check It Out!

 

I first bought a Magic Flight Launch Box in May 2010, and 2 years later I still use my MFLB almost daily.

Read my original 2010 review for the MFLB on Amazon here: http://growweedeasy.com/MFLB-review

 

The Magic Flight Launch Box is one of the most portable and discreet electronic vaporizers available.

Why I love my MFLB

• Totally discrete, does not look like a smoking device
• Vapor does not really smell like marijuana
• Small enough to fit inside the palm of your hand or inside a pocket
• Instead of using butane or flame, this handheld unit runs off rechargeable AA batteries
• Start vaporizing within 10 seconds
• Lifetime Warranty
  

Just do yourself a favor and get yourself extra batteries! If you're anything like me, you'll end up using this baby a lot!

Though many different batteries can work with the MFLB, I recommend getting spare batteries from the MFLB people for best results: http://growweedeasy.com/MFLB-batteries

 

Get Your Own Magic Flight Launchbox From Amazon.com: http://growweedeasy.com/magic-flight-launch-box

 

 

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