Question for anyone that can help. Thanks

[alexbiologo]

Every summer I artificially change the light cycle of my outdoor crop. I usally do it the first week of June.

I put the plants in a dark room every night (It becomes dark around 10:00pm) so I put them in after dark.

I put the plants back out in the morning at 9:00am. (It becomes day at 5:30am) I know the lenth of day varies but not much during (June/July) So this puts the plants in a 13 hour light cicle.

Every year this triggers the plants to flower. I only keep the plants moving in and out of the dark room for three weeks. ( The pots are heavy and I´m lazy.) So after three weeks they start receiving about 15 hours of light.

here comes the question

Could a plant reverse into vegetive growth? (Even though its never happened)

Does this stress out the plant?

What symptoms would a plant reversing have?

Thanks

[alexbiologo]

One more question oops.

Could there be difrences between Indicas and Sativas in their tolerance to flower during longer days? (Since sativas are from latitudes where their isn´t much difference between summer and winter light hours.)

[Guest superbluehaze]

hi mate,

firstly there is a difference between sativa and indicas as to the length of the dark peroid that triggers flowering.

A plant could most certainly revert to veg with 15 hours of light;

the sympotms are that the buds become long and thin, and do not quite fill out.

What stresses a plant is extreme changes, some strains may take this change in light hour easily, while others would show signs of stress.

That is true sativa strains come from equaltorial regions where the day length changes very little during the year;

many of these strains continue to flower for months(such as Thai).

It is hard to answer your question as it does depend very much on the strain, but in general, it is not a good idea to lengthen the day once flowering has begun.

Youi could put a light proof carboard box, or black plastic bag over the plant, and remove that each morning and evening;

take care

john

[alexbiologo]

Thanks john; I´ve never had long thin buds. Usually short and hard. I usually plant hybrids that have more sativa than Indica or thats what the seed company claims.

On the other hand I´ve tried to revegetate those plants once they have been harvested, leaving some leaves, lowers buds and refertilizing with Bio grow (BIobizz) and what always happens is that the plant keeps budding as you say, and never revegetates. (usually mid to late july)

I´ve come to think (probably wrong) that once a plant is induced to flower (flowering hormones kick in) it is very hard to revegetate. As if there was a positive hormonal retrofeedback. Usually hormones work the other way around with negative retrofeedback. You really need to pass a large "hormonal peak" to be able to revegetate.

Maybe it has an evolutionary purpose to ensure that flowering goes on. Or maybe I should lay down this spliff and get back to work.

[Dust]

reveg takes a lot of time, john has done a post about it i think.

I did pass a plant that was in flowering in my growroom and declared hermie, we've put her outside and in a month she turned back to veg, she made new leaves with only one leaf in something looking like bud and after she restarted to grow.

Anyway try on 1 plant and you will know ^^

[Guest superbluehaze]

hi mate,

As sativa, or sativa dominate strains, are less sensitive(as a rule) to changes in the light peroid.

This is because a lot of their genes come from equaltorial strains where the daylength does not vary very much all year round.

It is strain dependant;

Indicas, on the otherhand, are much more sensitive to changes in day length;

the reason your plant still continues to bud is that a plant has more than one trigger for this.

In nature plants that survive through winter( if it is mild enough), and as the days get warmer and longer, the plant returns to vegative growth.

Indoor it is very easy to fool a plant into thinking it has survived winter and is in spring.

This is mainly done by using a long light cycle(24 hours continuous or at least 18 hours of light).

If one takes the main crop from the plants indoors, and leaves the light cycle at 12/12, then the same thing happens as with your plants, and one does get a second burst of flowers, and another harvest in 6 to 8 weeks or whatever.

The trigger besides heat to get a plant to revert back to veg from flowering is a long day of over 18 hours.

In warm climates growers do have plants that are years old, and have regenerated through spring, but here again it is the longer days that cause the plant to revert.

You could regenerate your plants but you would need a light and a space inside to take them too;

once they had regenerated from the long light cycle indoors, and returned to veg growth and are big enough, then you could put them outside to flower in autum or late summer.

Indoors the plants revert back to veg quite quickly(depending on strain) but here the key to this is the long light cycle.

Outdoors it would be much slower, as the day length does not change as much or as fast;

i hope this has helped:

here have a look at this post of mine on regeneration:

www.strainhunters.com/portal/content/regeneration-when-end-not-end

take care,

john

[l3v3r2ooo]

nice post superbluehaze very insightful answered alot of questions i had thanx.

[alexbiologo]

Thanks superbluehaze and great post on revegetation. I just wanted to know that I was doing things right. I get a lot of shit from fellow growers (mostly indoors) who respect the light cycle as if it where the laws of thermodynamics (the only ones we respect in this house.)

I always have a good crop chaging the cycle for three weeks (12/12) and then just leaving them outside (back to 14-15 light ) and never had hermies or strange buds. Never the less every year I get worried because of the comments I receive from friends, growshop guys and fellow growers. Even though I´ve been doing it for over five years.

I thought that maybe someone used the same system with also good results. Or that it was a good known fact that it could be done.

Thanks guys.

[Earthman]

hey dude it sound like a good thing, tou need to make a thread in the grow techniques and dicribe your method from start to finish.

really like this, all the best

[Guest superbluehaze]

It works and you know that;

do not listen to others;

and please post on your technique as it is unusual, and other outdoor growers may learn from your techniques.

I think it as a lot to do with the strains you are growing though;

I am not sure but I do think an indica dominate strain would revert back to veg with 15 hours of light, as indicas are more sensitive to a long day.

take care,

john

[Guest superbluehaze]

Glad to be of help l3v3r2ooo;

take care

john