Sativa's and needing more hours of darkness to induce flowering

Greenthumbskunk

Well-Known Member
This is something that I've battled for many many years growing outside. Where I'm at we have extreme humidity compared to most of the country and indica's of course do not do all that well in hot moist environments. Developing mold rather quickly, I've seen plants look normal one day and the next 6" thick colas are nothing but solid pieces of white mold.
Sativa's on the other hand stand up to mold by their bud makeup. Less dense- more air-less mold. Only problem is finding varieties that will go into flower early.

For example I noted most of the Indica's showed sex the last week of July. Sativa's nothing until mid September. These were plants put out in June.

I've had many years of losing every sativa to freeze because they were no where near close to being ready even in December. Here are some plants I put out in the greenhouse in mid September.
I did this for an experiment to see how indica's/ Sativa's respond right away to flowering.

One cross is critical mass/ mulanje the other critical mass/ skunk no 1.



Critical mass skunk goes into flower by last week of September. The sativa dominant cross did not until 3 weeks later that she showed sex. These were all regular seed so males and females were present with males tossed.

IMG_20171110_100405.jpg IMG_20171110_100415.jpg IMG_20171110_100350.jpg IMG_20171110_100343.jpg
 

Greenthumbskunk

Well-Known Member
This is why I wished breeders not only put up flowering times but also flowering hours. Apparently sativas need more hours of darkness to induce flowering than indica's. I've seen this since I started growing as a teen 30 years ago with bag seed.
 

too larry

Well-Known Member
I crossed my Sativa dom hybrid CP1 with a bag seed male. It did start a little earlier than the CP1, and was quicker to finish. Also had bigger beefier buds. I did have a little bit of rot problems with it this summer. {this was my first summer grow of it. I did a few in my spring crop}

But you could cross your Sativa with a Sativa Auto, and grow out the semiautomatics. Cross it back to the photo a couple more times to increase kick. It can be vegged with long light hours, but will flower as soon as it goes outdoors. That is your best bet for getting done before the cold weather.
 

vostok

Well-Known Member
This is something that I've battled for many many years growing outside. Where I'm at we have extreme humidity compared to most of the country and indica's of course do not do all that well in hot moist environments. Developing mold rather quickly, I've seen plants look normal one day and the next 6" thick colas are nothing but solid pieces of white mold.
Sativa's on the other hand stand up to mold by their bud makeup. Less dense- more air-less mold. Only problem is finding varieties that will go into flower early.

For example I noted most of the Indica's showed sex the last week of July. Sativa's nothing until mid September. These were plants put out in June.

I've had many years of losing every sativa to freeze because they were no where near close to being ready even in December. Here are some plants I put out in the greenhouse in mid September.
I did this for an experiment to see how indica's/ Sativa's respond right away to flowering.

One cross is critical mass/ mulanje the other critical mass/ skunk no 1.



Critical mass skunk goes into flower by last week of September. The sativa dominant cross did not until 3 weeks later that she showed sex. These were all regular seed so males and females were present with males tossed.

View attachment 4041255 View attachment 4041256 View attachment 4041257 View attachment 4041258
theirs 2 distinct strains of weed the sativa from the tropics that most take a lot longer to mature,

and the cooler loving indica's, done and dusted in about 3 months

even indoors growing out a pure sativa is hard work,

most sativas now are hybirds crosses with an indica to speed up harvest date

as for mould/mold! ..pythium hits them about the same,

it ridiculous to think one strain is more suspect able to mould than another

mold attaches to one plant cell just as quick to another

how that strain reacts to the mould attack is a different story

there are a few hybrids to your advantage look for the destroyer from CannaBioGen

(https://www.cannabiogen.com/Producto/DESTROYER FEM-144.html)

that is a good cross of sativa and ruderalis yeah an auto!

mould is every mans fight

have 2-3 RH gauges in your grow space

good ventilation, suck air from inside the house passively

exhaust outdoors , water sparingly when the gauge is up

you can also foilar water!

when under attack I use Cold pressed neem oil

its got very little taste, organic and systemic

when I have mould

I wrap the plant in a trash bad and dip the entire plant

in a bath of warm water and 10% household bleach

dip into another bath of warm water to wash the bleach off

any budrot turns to snot and easy removed

good luck

ps here's a book that may help
(http://magicgreenery.com/download/i...s_Evolution&Ethnobotany_Clarke&Merlin2013.pdf)

from an earlier thread
:https://www.rollitup.org/t/what-are-your-essential-nutrients-and-supplements-for-your-plants.952743/#post-13892309
 
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Greenthumbskunk

Well-Known Member
Screenshot_20171111-231150.png
theirs 2 distinct strains of weed the sativa from the tropics that most take a lot longer to mature,

and the cooler loving indica's, done and dusted in about 3 months

even indoors growing out a pure sativa is hard work,

most sativas now are hybirds crosses with an indica to speed up harvest date

as for mould/mold! ..pythium hits them about the same,

it ridiculous to think one strain is more suspect able to mould than another

mold attaches to one plant cell just as quick to another

how that strain reacts to the mould attack is a different story

there are a few hybrids to your advantage look for the destroyer from CannaBioGen

(https://www.cannabiogen.com/Producto/DESTROYER FEM-144.html)

that is a good cross of sativa and ruderalis yeah an auto!

mould is every mans fight

have 2-3 RH gauges in your grow space

good ventilation, suck air from inside the house passively

exhaust outdoors , water sparingly when the gauge is up

you can also foilar water!

when under attack I use Cold pressed neem oil

its got very little taste, organic and systemic

when I have mould

I wrap the plant in a trash bad and dip the entire plant

in a bath of warm water and 10% household bleach

dip into another bath of warm water to wash the bleach off

any budrot turns to snot and easy removed

good luck

ps here's a book that may help
(http://magicgreenery.com/download/i...s_Evolution&Ethnobotany_Clarke&Merlin2013.pdf)

from an earlier thread
:https://www.rollitup.org/t/what-are-your-essential-nutrients-and-supplements-for-your-plants.952743/#post-13892309


Thanks for the tips as many of them I've been practicing for many years. My greenhouse has fans that suck the air out. Do not water plants if buds are getting filled out and only water when leaves droop but very sparingly.

We can have several days of cloudiness and drizzle and the plants will grab moisture out of the air and the buds will have water dripping out of the buds when pinching off the buds that start developing mold.

As far as different sativa flowering times....I have slme African Sativa's that have a 6 month flowering time with the mulanje being an African sativa.

My issue is not the flowering time like how long it takes bud to finish but how long the plant takes to induce flowering. I can take several plants and put them out all at once and you will have several varieties show sex in a couple weeks.

For example I planted several different varieties with some heavy sativa and others heavy indica. Indica's start showing sex with this amount of light.

Indica dominant plants of mine started showing sex in late July

Screenshot_20171111-231150.png



This is the time it takes to induce some sativa dominant strains. I have had some not show sex until November.

Screenshot_20171111-231905.png
 

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vostok

Well-Known Member
Power Plant /aka Power Flower is a hybid but at most a sativa from Africa

here on RIU lately I've been bleating about it several times

but what I love about this strain is the vitality

but I never grow it in the UK ..to damp and cold

maybe indoors if pushed

but I have grown indicas both in England and Scotland

with great success

would or can you have an indoor grow room

using the greenhouse as a shelter during those rainy summers ..?

just a thought
 

Greenthumbskunk

Well-Known Member
Power Plant /aka Power Flower is a hybid but at most a sativa from Africa

here on RIU lately I've been bleating about it several times

but what I love about this strain is the vitality

but I never grow it in the UK ..to damp and cold

maybe indoors if pushed

but I have grown indicas both in England and Scotland

with great success

would or can you have an indoor grow room

using the greenhouse as a shelter during those rainy summers ..?

just a thought

Yes I have 2 indoor flowering rooms. One is set up in a traditional style of 1000watters hanging from ceiling in hoods. Another one is set up in a stadium grow. It is 12ft long and I can pack in close to 300 plants

Greenhouse is 50 ft long

I have gorilla grows with around 100 plants in various spots. Some are just 3-4 oz plants and others I got 3lbs off of. Normal growing year I can get 10lbs but it was really dry and all my full season plants got eat up by termite's. So the biggest ones were put out in late may.
Still got 13-15ft tall
 
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