Reasons for extended flowering period of Northern Lights?

[DJCBrixton]

Hi Folks

Well, we are virtually there: we started our first attempt at growing on 18 November 2007 using Northern Lights seeds.

On 1 February, we entered into the flowering stage with 2 plants. Initially we had them on a 13/11 light regime but after a few weeks we changed this 12/12.

We also had to repot the plants after about 4 weeks of flowering.

The plants are in general purpose compost with perlite. They have been fed on geenral purpose plant food augmented by organic bonemeal and for the last 5 weeks Bizzmax.

Lighting is under a 250W Son-T.

My understanding is that NL should reach maturity in 8-9 weeks but here we are 87 days later i.e. 12 weeks 3 days and they are still not quite fully mature.

Pistils are now majority amber but not yet 80%.

Trichomes are getting cloudier but no sign of any amber ones. We are aiming for a more 'body stone' so as I understand we want roughly 80% amber pistils and about 10% amber trichomes?

Can anyone suggest reasons for this extended flowering? I assume repotting them may have shocked them and could be the reason? Also, having them on a 13/11 light regime at the beginning could also have extended the period. I should add that we changed to a 14/10 regime a few weeks ago to try to speed up their maturity.

I have added a few photos below.

I would be grateful for any views on why they are taking so long to mature.

DJCBrixton Reviewed by DJCBrixton on 04-27-2008. Reasons for extended flowering period of Northern Lights? Hi Folks Well, we are virtually there: we started our first attempt at growing on 18 November 2007 using Northern Lights seeds. On 1 February, we entered into the flowering stage with 2 plants. Initially we had them on a 13/11 light regime but after a few weeks we changed this 12/12. We also had to repot the plants after about 4 weeks of flowering. The plants are in general purpose compost with perlite. They have been fed on geenral purpose plant food augmented by organic bonemeal Rating: 5

[stinkyattic]

14/10 as in 14 hours' darkness, I hope. IT sounds as if you have a light leak. Also, what is the day/night temp in your room?

[DJCBrixton]

Hi Stinky

Thanks for the reply. Yes...14hrs darkness.

We have been very careful with the light..the plants are in a closet in a bedroom and the bedroom windows are blacked out. In addition we have a green lightbulb in case we need to use the light.

Temperatures have been pretty constant..about 65 in dark period and 75-80 in the light.

I should add, just in case its the reason for the extended flowering, that we have cut off a small number of buds to sample from about week 7 onwards...but literally only a few very small ones.

[stinkyattic]

From where on the plant were those buds taken?

[DJCBrixton]

lower down on the plant...we haven't touched the top (colas?)..which are really big nor any of the other largish ones.