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The final day for supplemental lighting in my beds was July 21.

From this point forward, the plants will get light entirely from the sun, which has begun a full sprint toward the south. It is only a matter of days before certain beds dip below twelve hours of growing time. Once that happens, it takes one to three weeks for each cultivar to begin showing flowering signs. As a possible trigger to this plan, the weather cooperated by being completely clouded over for the first few days without lights. To my eyes, it appears that the transition has begun. Tops are tightening, and sparkles are beginning to appear on sugar leaves.

During these precious few weeks where the plants transition from vegetative to flowering, it is arguably the most vigorous growing time of the entire summer. This is because the plants know that it’s time to make room for flowers. The pre-flowering transition is one of my favorite periods of each grow. You can almost watch the plants expanding in real time. You can see exactly where the flowers are going to appear, and you can even tell which ones are not going to be strong enough to keep. If you are away from the plants for a few hours, you’ll return and notice that they’ve grown and changed. I’m amazed every morning I go out there and they’re different.

Bee has plant tape for bed 15 tied to the cage in 16.

Growers like to add something special to their teas during this period, to maximize the growth potential. This is where I pile the downed fresh fruit into every tea I make. They want to grow, so I give them sugar. They’ve already gotten all the potassium and phosphorus that they’ll need to flower, and they don’t need any more guano, with all the associated leaf growth. It’s getting time to shed leaves and grow buds.

This is the final surge of growth, the so-called “stretch” period of the grow where the plant rapidly becomes both taller and wider to support the incoming flowers. 

I could have kept the lights on for another week or two, forcing them to keep vegging, but I am hoping that turning off the lights will trigger a slightly earlier harvest from all of these cultivars. I know my local weather history, and the later we go into October, the weather and the amount of light hitting our beds declines rapidly. From about October 15 on, mold is looking for any excuse to emerge. The beds are practically begging for me to solarize them.

By starting the flowering process earlier, it is easier to keep the plants on schedule, and to actually reach the proper harvest date. Plants that go past October 15 on my farm have all been harvested early, with only one exception, an ACDC in my first year that harvested November 12. I’ll never let a plant go anywhere near that long again. Besides, test scores have proven to me that an early harvest is not a bad thing. Ideally, we reach the target harvest date on every plant. But if any problem materializes, like systemic mold, or a storm approaches, I have no qualms about harvesting early. I harvested ten days early once and still got over 20% THC and over 2% terpenes. I have noticed nothing in the way of diminished medicine if a plant comes down before her target date.

My goal is to have all the plants out of beds before October 15, which means the last trimming would be complete before the end of October. That would also mean my test results will be back sometime the first week of November.   

To have all my labor finished by early November would be satisfying.

Simply by deciding that July 21 was the last day for supplemental lights. I now have the versatility of either extending or shortening the growing season, a capability I did not previously enjoy. I’m giddy at having my first ever grow without an early flowering plant.

I am pruning more than most years. This is not a surprise due to the strategic use of guano for a few weeks. Pruned leaves are replaced in a hurry. I made a decision to combine guano with the Pura Vida Bloom Formula that is my favorite liquid fertilizer. That means new growth leading to flowers is happening all over the beds. They are becoming nutrient rich as they approach flowering. 

This is the key architectural time for me. I can see where the flowers are going to be. I can see where we might need to prune some less vigorous growth, in order to maximize the potency of the best flowers. I can see (and Bee can especially see) where to use plant tape and separate larger potential flowers that are growing too close together.

This is also the start of the plant interaction period, where growth from one bed overlaps into another. I discourage plant interaction. If there is anything pathogenic going on in one plant, I don’t want it touching another. Admittedly, this was most acute during the years I grew clones. They are far less resistant to pathogens than seeds. I didn’t want them interacting at all. It’s different with seeds, but the habit remains the same. Here are two photos, before and after a quick prune to prevent plants from touching.

Before–You can see how Bee uses plant tape to move a branch away from the neighboring plant. But a few leaves are about to touch, anyway.

After. 

This kind of pruning is ongoing until harvest. I walk around with scissors at the ready with every plant inspection. I constantly prune leaves too close to other plants, leaves that touch or are close to touching the ground, or any other fan leaves that to my eyes are covering potential flowers, or otherwise no longer serving a vital purpose. Underneath leaves have to go. They just drain resources from the growing flowers.

That leaf is about to go.

The mantra is: The more I cut, the more they grow.

Before Stargus, this activity took up much more time. With Stargus, we are less worried about minimal flower interaction. Any botrytis that develops is captured and localized by the Stargus sprays for easy removal, sometimes with nothing more than long handled tweezers.

Before tweezers

After tweezers. Note that there is nothing residual left of the mold on anything, including the stem. The tweezers were all I needed to cleanly remove the mold from the plant. We call this the Stargus Effect.

This is Cherry Punch 15. She is the plant I’m dry farming. She has sprinted past the top of the tomato cage, despite Bee’s efforts to train her down. I’m interested to see how tall she gets, but she is filling in and we just keep spreading her out. The Cherry Punch plants we’re growing are two of the most spacial plants we’ve ever grown. Ours are even more spread apart, since we sadly broke a couple of branches on 15 from plant clips. But those breaks are also largely responsible for the powerful growth that ensued following the breaks. Bee and I have even discussed how we could utilize strategic breaks in the future. Auxins are a powerful force.

This is Cherry Punch 11, and she is approaching the top of the tomato cage. You can see the air and space between levels of growth, this plant requires minimal pruning. We’re waiting for a couple of the inner branches to grow a bit more so we can train them out. The window to do this should open within the “stretch” period, and will allow for inner growth to get more sun.

All of the Punch plants, both of the Cherries and the one Purple Punch, are growers. I believe that Purple Punch has been pruned as much as any plant I’ve grown. I’m extremely proud of this girl. She withstood the cold and aphids early on, and was almost replaced. I’m so glad we didn’t, and I’m reminded that some of our greatest plants have been weak starts that took off later.

Purple Punch will end up near the top of the tomato cage, which is good height for a sleepy time plant. She is expanding massively right now and the constant inner pruning is helping.

This is the period of time where I probably am most active working outside. The plants are now large enough, along with all the vegetables, that every foliar spray is four to five gallons. Because the lights are not on at 5:00 anymore, I’m back to old school spraying: in the dark. 

I actually have missed going out on dark mornings to work, so I’m glad to be doing it for the remainder of the grow. 

Nothing is flowering yet, but the transition to flowering, the stretch, has begun.

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