Settle a bet re: flowering time

This is my first grow. A buddy gave me some cuttings, told me "good luck" and I've learned everything on the internet. So far, so good. They all rooted, vegged, and became 2 foot plants. Day 32 of flower, so I must be doing something right.

Dude comes back around offering advice, and says....that since I am growing in soil, these (AK-47) will be 10 to 12 weeks flower. Claims that his are done in 8 weeks in hydro.

Fine and dandy, I know how to check the trichs, but here's the question: How can the same strain flower faster in hydro than in soil? I understand that veg time may be faster, but flower time is basically encoded in the genes, right? (Give or take, lighting, environment, etc.) Who is right? Will the same genetics differ so much in flower time from hydro to soil?

P.S. I am also annoyed that he told me to stop getting my info from 70's growing books. This may be the first of these plants I've grown, but I've been growing flowers and vegetables my whole damn life! :hippy:

Well, hydro is faster, but I don't think its that much faster. I think it may be faster by a week or two compared to soil if done right. In hydro you have all the controls, that is oxygen and nutrients. You don't have that with soil. I also think for example a plant in hydro using media such as the clay pellets and others, such as perlite offer less resistance than soil, and so they grow faster and mature faster.
Another difference could also be when your friend says his is ready to chop it may not have his triches at the same stage yours would be when you harvest yours.

keylime

hydro is a little quicker, but only by a week or so usually. like you stated, a lot of it is environment specific. their is a rough estimation in a plants genetics as to when to finish, but only in the scope of it's overall life span, not to be ready to smoke.

reason hydro is a bit quicker is that in soil it takes time for the mircrobes to break down the nutes into useable elements for the plant to uptake. it takes around 7-10 days before you see changes (either good or bad) in soil, but only a day (sometimes hours) to see changes in hydro.

ask him can he recommend a better book, enquiring minds want to know!


-shake

His idea of a better book is do what he says. Around here, it's only guys growing....and since I'm not a guy, he seems to think I'll take his word as the final word.

I don't want to piss of the dude that gave me the stuff to get started, but he is kind of insulting my research. And I've put some major time into my research.

well it's your stuff right? just take his advice, nod, say thanks and do your own thing.

-shake

Exactly. I think I'm mostly annoyed that he thinks his way must be the only way. Looking down on my little dirt farm. It's just a plant. Light and water and it will grow! :thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by Sprite

Exactly. I think I'm mostly annoyed that he thinks his way must be the only way.

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they always do!

-shake

Thanks for teh rep, brother! ; )

LOL!

Yeah, I've gotten into it with a grower like that! "I've been growing for 25 years, it's best to do it this way, and all the crap you read on the internet is BS"


Funny tho, after our little tiff about up-potting (He insisted the best and only way to do it was put a clone straight into a 5 gallon that it will finish off in) he's now doing it!? Clone to 1 liter, to 1 gallon, to 5 gallon for flower.

Part B of that argument was Root bound,.... one should NEVER let a plant get root bound,... but he has 9 foot tall trees in 5 gallons? :wtf:


Some times its best to just nod your head and walk away to do your own thing. :thumbsup:


Toss some pics of your girls up if Ya don't mind! Everybody loves a little bud porn! :jointsmile: :hippy:

Seems to be a whole bunch of ways to grow really great ganja. It also seems like people make this way more complicated than it needs to be!

I'll snap some pics of these girlies tomorrow. It's day 40. I'm thinking to start the flush. May be early, but they don't seem to drink as much water as I thought a plant this size would.

Everyplace I've ever lived has had small veggie gardens. It would never fail, everyone would always chime in on "Why do you do it that way"? or "Oh, you should really bla bla bla".

I used to politely ask them, "Oh, you garden too, how interesting, can I see your garden"? Answer "Me? Um, er huh, well I don't have a garden right now but bla bla bla".

Now I first explain what I'm doing, how there are many ways to garden, and then I put the exclamation point on it by telling them it's really NONE of their business at all and that I'm just explaining it to be nice. I don't' really say it as politely as it sounds but it's a half step better than saying F off.

I digress, sounds great what you're doing. There is no such thing as bad research. Please pardon our male bother as his ego may be making him overbearing or controlling.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sprite

Exactly. I think I'm mostly annoyed that he thinks his way must be the only way.

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Yeah, I think there's a lot from traditional veggie gardens, houseplants, landscaping, etc that can apply here. And dude that's running his mouth only has experience with this.

I'll just smile and nod though. He gave me free cuttings, a container of Bloom Juice, and one of Hygrozyme. Don't wanna bite the hand that might have more cuttings for me down the road. :pimp:

I hope I attached these right.

I started with 6 cuttings. Rooted them all. Two went outside, and these pics are of the 4 inside. They are at about 2 feet tall, in 5 gallon buckets, and at day 40 of flower. I'm pretty flippin' proud of myself, I must admit. :hippy: The light you see at the bottom is just a flouro plant stick I'm using to supplement my 250 hps. It's not much, but I figure it might add some light to the dense forest beneath. When I harvest, I plan to take the top half first, then lower the light and let the bottom go another week at least.

If they look like they are all different heights, they are. I tried different techniques with each of these four. One of them, I pinched/fimmed the hell out of to see how bushy it would get. Another one, I tied down four different way and it's the shortest. Another was tied horizontally but not pinched at all. And the last one, I just left alone.

I'm interested to compare weights between the methods. All other variables are the same.

Thoughts?

Your ladies look great. Dont know why someone would be telling you that you are doing something wrong. The proof is in the results and you have got some thats for sure. Keep up the good work and never stop reading/researching.