How To Flower Cannabis Seeds

Flowering Cannabis Seeds.

Flowering your Cannabis seeds once they have reached the required size is easy, simply follow this step-by-step guide.

Whether you choose to grow Cannabis indoors, or outside, the plants will begin to flower once they receive around 12 hours of daily uninterrupted darkness. Unlike the vegetative stage covered in the previous post, the flowering phase takes a set number of weeks to complete, which differs from strain-to-strain.

If you’re an indoor Cannabis grower, flowering is easy. Simply allow your plants to reach the required size, and then reduce the number of light hours the plant receive to a set 12/12 on-off cycle. People cultivating Cannabis outdoors will have to rely on nature and the gentle decrease of daylight hours after the passing of the Spring Equinox. For most strains, outdoor flowering begins around August, lasting through until the end of September/early October.

The Flowering Stage of Growing Cannabis.

As the number of light hours the plants receive decrease to 12 hours per day, a chemical change occurs. Over a period of a week – 10 days, the plants will begin to produce small white flowers that look like hairs from the budding sites, the very upper-most tip, and at the ends of the branches. These are the female flowers, and this phase of the plants development is often referred to as the pre-flowering stage.

Over the next weeks the plant changes its focus from growing leaves and branches, to producing more and more of these white flowers, until a cluster or bud is formed. The new leaves that are formed around these buds are smaller than the ones formed during the vegetative stage, and usually comprise of just a single blade. These are often referred to as ‘sweet-leaves’ as they often have a coating of resin and THC, when the buds are completely mature.

All Cannabis and Marijuana strains differ in the amount of time the plant requires in flower to fully mature. In general, most modern, popular hybrid strains require between 8 – 9 weeks to completely develop, with Sativa dominant strains often requiring an extra week or two. Towards the later part of flowering, the white flowers will begin to change color, shrivel and disappear. This is perfectly natural, as the plant begins to mature.

The part where the flowers emerge will swell, become larger and more dense, this is called the seed bract, and if the plant is fertilized, the part where seeds will form. Resin will start to appear around these areas, in the hope of attracting some floating male pollen, necessary for fertilization and the creation of the next generation of seeds. The lack of pollen induces the plants to make more sticky resin, to create seeds before it dies.

After 8 – 9 weeks of flowering most of the plants white flowers would have changed to reds and browns, shriveled and disappeared. The resin glands, which look like tiny pin-head mushrooms will have filled with liquid, containing THC, CBD and other compounds, turning from clear, through a ‘milky’ appearance to an amber color. Once around 70% of the resin glands have changed color, the plants are mature and ready to harvest.

Improve Your Harvests With Advanced Flowering Techniques.

The plants requirements change during flowering, with different nutrients needed for bud development. Air quality and temperature can have a huge impact on the size, weight and quality of your harvest, with bad climate control often leading to problems such as mold and bud rot during the final stages of maturity, totally ruining your harvest.

Understanding these changes will enhance the quality and quantity you can achieve from your Cannabis seeds, making for bigger, more dense buds, an increased aroma and flavor, and ultimately a more potent harvest.

If you would like to learn more about flowering Cannabis seeds download the Marijuana Grow Guide today. Written by Robert Bergman, this easy to follow, but comprehensive guide will walk you through all aspects of growing your own Cannabis and Marijuana, with complete sections of flowering and improving the quality of your buds.

Available as an instant download PDF, you can quickly and easily learn the secrets used by professional growers to maximize their harvests. With no costs or obligation, you can download the Marijuana Grow Guide today and learn from the Pro’s!