When transitioning plants from the vegetative to the flowering stage, growers are usually faced with the question of when and how to do it rightly. As a grower, you need to know how to transition from vegetative to flowering and the many factors to consider.
Making the transition at the right time is important to ensure a maximum yield of harvest and to avoid complications like increased susceptibility to disease.
If carried out properly, a proper transition can help you yield a batch full of harvests per year after every flowering stage.
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What is the Vegetative Stage?
The vegetative stage is one of the crucial stages of your plant’s life. During this stage, your plant crop looks healthy as it finishes the vegetative stage
The vegetative stage is also known as the growing stage of the plant. The vegetative stage is characterized by a robust size, uniform structure, pest, and insect-free plants.
As a gardener, this is the time you put all your simple training methods to use, to control the shape and size of your growing plants.
During the whole vegetative stage, the plant does not produce buds at all. It only grows leaves and stems. At this stage, plants tend to grow rapidly especially when growth conditions are right.
The vegetative stage typically lasts from 2-4 weeks, it’s also important to wait until plants become strong and sturdy before inducing flowering.
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What is the Flowering Stage?
In the flowering stage, plants begin budding when they get in any event 12 hours of continuous darkness every night.
After plants begin budding, they should keep on getting long dim evenings until harvest or they may return to the vegetative stage
How to Transition from Vegetative to Flowering
Many times, growers face complications when transitioning their plants from the vegetative to the flowering stage.
When making the switch, growers need to be aware of all of these conditions, and of how they can affect the final product.
Since each plant is unique, growers should be careful when copying the methods and techniques used by others. They may end up giving dramatically different results than what was intended.
Realizing the right time to transition from the vegetative to the flowering stage is one of the most significant factors to guarantee a bountiful harvest of your plants.
This is because transitioning too soon can result in a much smaller yield. On the other hand, doing the transition a little too late can bring about overgrowth, or consumed buds.
Your choice to transition ought to be dependent on putting various factors into consideration for example relative humidity, light intensity, nutrients, and others.
When doing the switch, growers should be mindful of these factors and conditions, and of the manners by which they can influence the final product.
Keep your plant healthy and avoid harm from complete surprises by bit by bit transitioning your plants from their vegetative to flowering.
Let’s take a look at some of these factors:
When growing plants outside, flowering is naturally activated by the shorter day length that happens as summer goes to fall.
Since plants are reliant on natural conditions, outdoor plants are restricted to production during these particular photoperiods except if they utilize some unique equipment.
Notwithstanding, an indoor or nursery plant can develop at any time of the year, accepting that they are controlling the natural conditions and the measure of light that the plants are getting.
So, an indoor grower's job is to effectively copy the components inside. In this way, transitioning is an approach to tell the plants that the seasons are changing by expanding the number of hours they spend in darkness. More particularly, this implies switching the light/dim cycle from 18/6 to 12/12.
So how do you get your plants to buy this approach? In the vegetative stage before the flower begins the plants are usually exposed to 18 hours of light a day and six hours of darkness (referred to as an 18-6).
But in preparation for the flowering stage, you change the light cycle to a 12-12, meaning twelve hours of light and 12 hours of darkness, which imitates the natural decline in the sunshine as winter draws near.
Your plants will begin to "think" that right now is an ideal opportunity to begin producing for the next generation sprouts.
Read Also: Stopping Grass From Growing In Gravel
12 hour light transition
Light, a basic and major unit of life plays an important role in the development of every flowering plant including your high-esteem crops. Exposure and duration to sunshine impact profitability and yield in your plants.
For the initial 1-2 days in transitioning to flowering, simply let your plants become used to the new 12-hour photoperiod.
Leave light force equivalent to what they were used to in the vegetative stage.
Grow Light Slowly
After the plants are accustomed to their new photoperiod, you can start step by step expanding light force by about 10% each 1-2 day
Repeat Until Optimum Light Intensity Reached
When your light power has arrived at the level you need for flower and your plants are glad, leave them to nature. At this stage, you can alter other natural factors varying.
Remember that any development changes can affect plant execution as you transition your plant through its life stages
Attempt to limit the number of changes you make at any one opportunity to keep up your plant's wellbeing.
Avoid Nutrient Burn
Nutrient burn occurs as a result of overfeeding your plants and this could lead to a fast decline of plant's health.
Ensure not to over-feed your plant with nutrients during transitioning. The first signs of nutrient burns in plants are the tips of the leaves looking burnt.
Relative humidity
When it comes to the flowering stage, it is best practice to manage humidity between 45% humidity.
Irrigation
Flowering plants roots will struggle to fill out new pots if the substrate remains damp. Over-watering may cause plants to grow slower and make them more exposed to root disease and less produce
The best way to avoid this is to properly irrigate enough for the plant to settle in the container and then wait until new white roots sprout out before saturating.
Read Also: How Often Should Indoor Plants be Watered?
Conclusion
The flowering stage is an important part of the life cycle of your plants and getting it right will determine the amount of yield you will get.
You should learn all about how to transition from vegetative to flowering using the tested and trusted tips in this guide.
Do well to take care of your plants, provide for them sufficiently, and enough nutrients to see them produce healthy buds for your next harvest.
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