I have an outdoor marijuana garden of ten plants located in my backyard. They were two months when I transplanted them in May. Now it’s the end of September and there are no signs of flowering. What am I doing wrong?
Marijuana will begin to flower when it “senses” that autumn is beginning. It chemically measures the amount of hours of unperturbed darkness it receives in every 24-hour cycle. When the amount of darkness hits a breaking point, the marijuana plant reaches a critical hormonal level and shifts from vegetative to reproductive growth. It generally takes about 8 to 10 hours of uninterrupted darkness to produce flowering for indicas and other higher-latitude varieties, but about 12 to 14 hours for equatorial plants.
It should be noted that marijuana is highly sensitive to interruptions in the dark period. A seemingly irrelevant flash of light during the dark period can keep the plants in vegetative state. You might also have a variety that is equatorial and won’t start flowering until late September or October. Interruption of the dark cycle during flowering will produce small, loose buds and a delayed maturation. If light is shined consistently on the marijuana plant during the dark cycle, the plants will go back to vegetative growth.
Robert