Techniques to speed up final weeks of flower

Grow Cycle Flowering
1

I’m in soil and growing an Indica strain with an 8-9 week flower cycle (currently at week 5 in flower). I’m hitting a time crunch as I need to harvest these by the end of June (4 weeks away) as I will be away for a couple of weeks after that and cannot continue to water, etc…

I would prefer not to harvest early with only milky tricomes as I prefer about 20% amber.

I have heard of some of the following to speed up the time to harvest, but would like to know if anyone has actually proven any of these out or have any other suggestions. I do understand that there may be a trade off to speeding up.

  • Reduce lights from 12 hours to 10 or 8

  • increase lights on from 12 to 18 hours about 2 weeks from expected harvest

(Interesting how these two ideas are opposite)

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

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There’s not much you can do to accelerate the ripening of flower other than to have the basics nailed so they finish on time. It generally takes 8 to 10 weeks. Perhaps a bit longer if you are looking for amber.

It’s just bro science imho. I’ve never heard of such a thing.

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I have never tried something like this but I know if a plant is flowering and you reset the light to 18 on, she will think she needs to revert back to veg. As for speeding it up, Mother nature runs that. You can’t make an unripe banana ripe overnight.

As to harvesting early, that is no bueno either. If you still have all clear/cloudy it will give you headache racy weed. Do you not have at least 1 friend that can just give her some water while you are away? Then you can chop when you return.

I would wait and see where she is based on these 2 statements. It looks like you will be right in the window without worrying about early harvest.

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Yeah, I missed the 18 hour comment. That will slow it down, not speed it up. The plant will begin to focus on veg again and it will neglect to ripen flower, which is the opposite of what you are looking for.

You have to be careful with youtube and other content. These content creators will say anything if they think it will get them clicks (and therefore money.) Be skeptical of what you see out there, then come back here and check with the experienced growers. No one here benefits from providing advice in any way other than the satisfaction of seeing others be successful.

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