I’ve been meaning to ask this question for a long time. Going the shorter grow cycles for moderate yields instead of the longer grow cycle with a big yield. I don’t really want to grow monster plants, the longer they are growing the greater the chance for issues/ getting caught. Lol
What’s the shortest grow cycle for plant? 2 months (From seedling to harvest)? And what could you expect to harvest? (10gs?)
@MattyBear has a grow going that he has had at 12/12 for the entire grow. That would likely produce the shortest grow possible. Perhaps he will see this and weigh in with what sort time frame he expects from sprout to harvest. For an experienced grower I would expect at least a couple of OZs per plant and maybe more.
That said, I would guess that three months would be about as short as one could expect because photo-period plants take about a month or so to reach sexual maturity and take a couple of months to finish flowering.
Let’s see what others have to say as I have never tried to grow a small fast plant.
Some of the folks that grow auto-flowers may have some shorter grow times. I have no idea as I have never grown an auto.
It all depends on pot size going 12/12. I averaged 1.5-2 ounces per plant with 8 plants in a 4x2 tent in one gallon pots. That was all sativas. This round is all Indica strains. I’ll compare harvest weights and all that once this run is over. Would you like me to tag you into my grow journal?
Once the plant reaches maturity… Meaning when you can tell by looking that it is a male or female… About 4-6 weeks… Then the flowering time is estimated on your seeds… Soo… For instance go to ilgm check on gorilla glue says 8 weeks flower… But since your growing from seed you can get gorilla glue or a phenotype or variation… That could take shorter or longer.
You can also use far red light during flowering at lights on and off to speed things up a bit… But that’s a whole other discussion.
But this won’t guarantee you’ll get a decent yield… That takes care, proper nutes and environment… And technique.
There is a few strains of autos that you can finish in 12 weeks. Photos with a short veg period You might pull off some good buds in 12 weeks. Good luck
Have you researched perpetual grows using ebb and flow? I grow in coco and have the space so I drop seeds before one crop is finished and get them going and ready if I want to cut down turnover time.
Another way is to grow from clones.
Define decent. For me that’s about 8 ozs. For quickest I’d start with 8-10 rooted clones, veg for a month and then flower. I did something similar last year for my reveg project and each plant yielded about 1.4 ozs. That’s a lot of work when I can veg one plant for about another month and do better than 8 ozs.
If it is with clones I have done alcopoco gold clones in me 2x3x54. Clones come from a aeroponic cloner. In cloner for two or three weeks depends on root ball I want it big then veg for two weeks then flower 10 to 12 weeks 4 to 5 plants try to bust the sides of tent out. 2nd grow lights were 2 inches from ceiling and some grew within 6 inches of light couple of buds had top 1/4 to1/2 inch bleaching. I got 12 ounces each time though. (Only wiegh good buds no larf) So it was 12 to 14 weeks for me.
That’s in soil hydro should cut some time off I think.
Clones and SOG is the way to go for short grow cycles with decent yield.
I recently did 9 Blue Dream clones, once rooted they were vegged for 2 weeks and then flipped to flower which took 9 weeks and yielded over 17 oz in a 3x3 tent.
If asking me. I used 5 gallon oxy pots. Cut enough off of bottom ring to wrap 2 cone tighter. So not sure what that would make 4 maybe 4 1/2. Had to do it so they could set side by side in there.