Chapter Seven
Going for the Gold
The last 2-4 weeks of nurturing your girls in the 12/12 flowering cycle.
Currently, the average complete growing period from Day#1 of 20/4 [20 hours lights on, 4 hours total dark], through the final day of 12/12 [12 hours lights on, 12 hours total dark], and harvest’ is 9 weeks or 63 days. Take 1 week in between harvest, curing, staring endlessly at the buds and admiring your craft, thoroughly clean and flush the systems before restarting the regeneration cycle of 12/4.
These growth cycles will vary with the type of plant, the growing medium and the environment. The experienced grower with a controlled room and good mother stock may cycle to harvest in 6 weeks.
Once you have made all the predictable mistakes most new gardeners encounter, you have the advantage of seeing the signs and acting accordingly. This usually means not doing anything drastic or trying to rush the growth of the crop.
In the total 9-week cycle, the 1st 3-4 weeks are kept on 20/4, then switched directly to 12/12 for the next 5-6 weeks of flowering growth. Many growers choose a shorter foliage
cycle in the 20/4 phase, sometimes 10 days to 2 weeks. Since all the cloning is done in one grow room, this grower keeps everything on the same cycle and finds that the bit of extra time in the foliage stage makes for a stronger plant. Most of the actual plant growth occurs in the flowering phase at which time your girls may double or triple their size.
|
If you give a man a bag, you can feed him for a day. If you teach a man to Grow, you can feed him for a lifetime.
