Flowering Weed Plants
Flowering weed is the process of inducing a photo period that mimics an autumn solar phase. Marijuana plants automatically start producing flowers when they sense the season is changing from summer to fall. When growing indoors you have to control this light period manually by using timers and your grow lights. During the vegetative phase plants usually receive 18-24 hours of light while in the flowering phase plants only receive 12 hours of light.
This is the marijuana plants cue to begin producing flowers. In a natural habitat the flowers the weed plants produce would be fertilized by male pollen and produce seeds. When growing marijuana you obviously don’t want seeds in your buds so you grow a garden of female only plants, commonly referred to as sensimillia.
Different strains will require different amounts of time in the vegetative stage. 6-12 weeks in the amount of time most strains require to be ready for flowering. Once they reach this point the grower will induce flowering by giving the plants 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark. It is important that the grow room is completely dark and no light leaks into the room. Even if half of a plant sees a bit of light when it is supposed to be the 12 hours of dark, it could halt the flowering process.
When flowering, your plants will need a different set of nutrients than when they were in the vegetative stage. A good organic blooming fertilizer is bat guano since it has more phosphorus than nutrients that help with vegging. Bat guano is great but there are many other commercial blooming fertilizers out there that will work well.
The flowering phase duration will also depend on the strain of marijuana that you are growing. Knowing when cannabis buds are mature is a process that is only perfected with experience. You should use a magnifying glass to look at the trichomes on buds in different stages of the flowering process. By watching the trichomes grow and mature you can start to learn when the perfect time is to harvest your flowered marijuana plants.
