Growing Elite Marijuana

flowers mature. However, when the flowers
are brought to maturity faster, they are
smaller than when they are given more time
to mature. For instance, a bud under a
regimen of 12 hours of darkness may take
6 weeks to mature. The same bud, kept
under a 14 hour darkness regimen may
take only five weeks to mature but may
weigh 15% less than the longer maturing
bud.
Some growers start the flowering cycle
at 10-12 hours of darkness. After 4 weeks
they turn up the dark part of the cycle to 14-
16 hours of darkness and the buds quickly
mature.
Sometimes parts of the bud are mature
but new growth is continuing. Most growers
pick when the rate of this growth slows.
However, the mature parts of the bud can
be removed using a small pair of scissors.
Some varieties respond to pruning by
continuing to produce new growth.
A few varieties including Thai and other
South East Asian plants are natural
hermaphrodites which produce flowers
intermittently under a 12 hour regimen.
They have adapted to the latitude in
Thailand which is close to the Equator and
does not have much seasonal variation of
daylight hours. Colombian varieties have
also adapted to low latitude conditions by
prolonging flowering a bit, until it catches up
with a chronological schedule.