What specifically causes autos to start flowering?

[Space Goblin]

I would like to know what actually causes autos to start flowering. I asked this question on facebook, and the consensus of guesses was that it was simply "time". But I'm pretty sure that's not true. The reasons I have to hold this position are that I've started a few autos together in the past and had some not flower until much later than the others, or in one case, still not yet after 2 months, but this was after a significant shock was delivered to the plant by pulling it out of DWC and putting it into dirt. (the plant had a big nutrient deficiency right off the bat and then once I stabilized it, it was way behind the others, so I decided to yank it out and put it in dirt outside to see what happens. It's actually pretty happy out there after 2 weeks of crazy temperature swings, but still hasn't flowered). Also, it seems like I can keep a sprouted seedling in it's Root Riot cube for quite a while, which prevents it from really letting it's roots go exploring. And I don't really start the clock until it has a couple inches of roots coming out of the cube and I transplant it into hydro or soil. But a lot of people and breeders refer to a seed-to-harvest timeframe, which always seems a little optimistic.

...So I think the plant reaches a certain phase at some point with it's hormone balance or something like that, and that's what initiates flowering. Just a hunch. I've heard people speculate that it flowers when the roots hit the pot, but that's almost certainly and obviously wrong.

It would be nice to know the actual science behind this. Hopefully you folks know more than the people on facebook!

 

[Olderfart]

 

[420Forever]

am really buzy today, but will be back to give me own stonerscientific take on this ppp

 

[stan_mephisto]

Combination of root development and hormone response causes the plant to flower. This can easily be seen in the dwc grows vs soil grows. On our farm we regularly harvest our plants at 60-65 days in small pots with organic soil, you take the same plant and grow it dwc its likely to go 100+ days. The dwc reservoir is so large the roots continue to grow and the plants struggle to flower sometimes.

If you want big plants give them room to grow, if you want fast plants put them in smaller containers. I grow in 15 gallon living soil containers and my plants regularly go 90+ days, when I want a faster harvest I throw them in 2 gallon pots with organic soil and can harvest right around 70 days.

There seems to be an exception for coco growers, I don't fully understand the reasoning as I have never grown in coco.

 

[automan2]

Perhaps a few more bong rips will help you figger it out!

 

[Groff]

@Space Goblin … I think if anyone knew this, we would have all sorts of techniques to "veg auto's out" and train them for even bigger yields by now.

I have to agree. Autos are little time bombs. Once they sprout, there is no turning back. That is part of their magic. I have proven that is it possible to significantly slow down an auto, but not keep it in veg. Check my signature for the Gas Lantern Technique. It is often used with photos to save money in electrical costs during veg. I made an DP AutoUltimate, rated as a 70 day strain, go 100 days while still producing great massive buds! So could be useful for those struggling with bills and make it easier month by month, yet still yield far beyond the delay.

I'm currently trying to make some beans, if I succeed I'll have surplus of seeds to play with. I have a good idea on what to experiment next, that should be a kind of conclusive, apart from some chemical black magic trickery.
_

 

[tip]

It's genetics. In it's natural habitat which is usually quite harsh cannabis ruderalis has adapted to flower based on maturity rather than shortened daylight. It's low THC and is basically hemp. If you cross a ruderalis with an indica or sativa, you gain the trait of flowering after about four weeks which is an auto. The key to getting a good auto is to only introduce enough ruderalis to create the flowering effect but not otherwise change the strain for flavour and potency. That takes skill and time.

 

[parsing_trees]

I don't have room to do this, but it may be a useful experiment to try grow several plants, randomly assigned to either shorter/wider or taller/narrower containers of the same volume. (The shorter containers should have a small stand, so they won't be further from the light.) I wonder if there would be any pattern in the flowering behavior caused by the container geometry affecting how long the taproot can grow before reaching the container bottom.