Flowering stage - indoor growing

[Bramleyjordan]

Hello guys,
I have been growing my two tobacco plants indoors in a grow tent. The plants are around 5.5 months old and have been kept between 20 - 25 degrees.
I recently moved house where the plants saw temperatures as low as 10 degrees for about a day - since then, it looks like they have started to begin the flowering stage.
Did the lower degrees replicate autumn conditions hence why they now began to flower? If they did not see lower temperatures, would they not get to the flowering stage? I have reduced the light period to 10 hours on but this was 4 weeks ago - coincidence they are now flowering?
Now we are in the new house, they are seeing temperatures of 20-25 again - will this stop them flowering?
I have read the autumn conditions are needed (Shorted light and cooler days) for flowering so wondering if the lower temperatures are actually needed to trigger the flowering stage, how can I cool down the grow tent on my next grow?
Thanks,

 

[Yultanman]

Ill copy and paste my last response from your other thread. Specifically the part about light schedule and what you are trying to grow. If youve stayed at 10 hours and its gotten cold yes to a plant thats a nuclear winter. It is going to stop growing leaves and try to save itself for the next generation

“
As far as i know, no leaves should be harvested until after first flowers except maybe some mud thumpers. I could be wrong though.
Also your light schedule sounds like you are trying to grow flowers. Having only grown outdoors i have not read up much on the photoperiod effects on tobacco growth but since you are growing leaves and not flowers i cant see how big drops in light period being helpful. By the time light was naturally outdoors at 12/12 my tobacco was all harvested. If you have no flowers yet, the tobacco thinks its julyish in northern hemisphere or earlier. That should be 18 hours.
im leaving lots of room for me to be wrong here. This is just my observations from a single year grow. Maybe someone with a more detailed understanding will chime in”

 

[Bramleyjordan]

Ill copy and paste my last response from your other thread. Specifically the part about light schedule and what you are trying to grow. If youve stayed at 10 hours and its gotten cold yes to a plant thats a nuclear winter. It is going to stop growing leaves and try to save itself for the next generation

“
As far as i know, no leaves should be harvested until after first flowers except maybe some mud thumpers. I could be wrong though.
Also your light schedule sounds like you are trying to grow flowers. Having only grown outdoors i have not read up much on the photoperiod effects on tobacco growth but since you are growing leaves and not flowers i cant see how big drops in light period being helpful. By the time light was naturally outdoors at 12/12 my tobacco was all harvested. If you have no flowers yet, the tobacco thinks its julyish in northern hemisphere or earlier. That should be 18 hours.
im leaving lots of room for me to be wrong here. This is just my observations from a single year grow. Maybe someone with a more detailed understanding will chime in”

Thank you for that, sorry you've had to copy and paste from my other thread...
So I guess I need to somehow make it cooler in my grow tent to replicate autumn conditions - any ideas how to achieve this?
Thanks

 

[Yultanman]

no.... id think you want to run 18/6 at summer temps. No need to stimulate autumn

 

[Bramleyjordan]

no.... id think you want to run 18/6 at summer temps. No need to stimulate autumn

Ohh.. I was understanding it wont flower unless autumn conditions... I could be wrong. In this case ill change the lighting to 18/6 and see what happens.
Thank you

 

[Yultanman]

How much wattage for how many plants are you running?

 

[Yultanman]

Also why do you want it to flower so bad? Grow big leaves, harvest when ready.

 

[Bramleyjordan]

Also why do you want it to flower so bad? Grow big leaves, harvest when ready.

I am not too bothered if they don't flower but I do see comments about letting it flower before harvesting so a little confused on that part.

 

[Bramleyjordan]

How much wattage for how many plants are you running?

I am using these for 2 plants.

 

[Yultanman]

I am using these for 2 plants.

i guess that is only ~100w at the wall. Enough for seedlings but not enough light for the plant to thrive unless you bonsai it.
I grow 4 bonsai hot pepper plants under a similar wattage (actually probably a little more). Id be lucky to get a pack of smokes if i was trying to harvest leaves.

 

[Bramleyjordan]

i guess that is only ~100w at the wall. Enough for seedlings but not enough light for the plant to thrive unless you bonsai it.
I grow 4 bonsai hot pepper plants under a similar wattage (actually probably a little more). Id be lucky to get a pack of smokes if i was trying to harvest leaves.

Okay that will make sense on why the plants are very small when comparing to other.. outdoor growers! Are you able to point me in the right direction for a suitable light? I am trying to grow outdoors this year but will also be doing some indoors so would like to have the correct light going forward. This years crop was a trail and error as I am learning so much along the way so I expected to come across problems like this... thank you for much for the solid advise!

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Only certain strains of tobacco are photo period sensitive according to at least one study. I believe the only one I know of is White Mammoth.

Anecdotally, the older a plant is, the more likely it is to flower. Is this because of shortening days? Inconclusive. It could easily also be, for the same reason every member of a specific strain will grow to a similar height, the plants just know they've grown as much as they need to.

They will flower early due to stress.

10° is no big deal. The average nighttime low for most of my growing season is in the 10-15° zone.

 

[Bramleyjordan]

Only certain strains of tobacco are photo period sensitive according to at least one study. I believe the only one I know of is White Mammoth.

Anecdotally, the older a plant is, the more likely it is to flower. Is this because of shortening days? Inconclusive. It could easily also be, for the same reason every member of a specific strain will grow to a similar height, the plants just know they've grown as much as they need to.

They will flower early due to stress.

10° is no big deal. The average nighttime low for most of my growing season is in the 10-15° zone.

Okay great thanks for that. The problem i have is growing an unknown strain and yeah, changing the lights pretty much did nothing
When changing house, the stress must have caused this. I will continue to harvest the leaves as they become ready then
If anyone is able to recommend a suitable grow light for indoor growing, please let me know.
Thanks

 

[Yultanman]

Look for the 1000w 301b or h samsung chip lights. They are about 120w at the wall and should be $100 ish. The chip is much more efficient than the blurple you have

to grow a plant to maturity you would need minimum 1 of those per plant.

If what @ChinaVoodoo is saying about photoperiod not really applying to tobacco (and i believe him) then run 18 hours for sure

Okay great thanks for that. The problem i have is growing an unknown strain and yeah, changing the lights pretty much did nothing
When changing house, the stress must have caused this. I will continue to harvest the leaves as they become ready then
If anyone is able to recommend a suitable grow light for indoor growing, please let me know.
Thanks

 

[Yultanman]

I should expand on that by saying i dont think there will be a good return for electricity $ spent. Im just recommending a middle point between cost and plant health. If you like the plants to tend (like me and my peppers) then go for it.

 

[Bramleyjordan]

I should expand on that by saying i dont think there will be a good return for electricity $ spent. Im just recommending a middle point between cost and plant health. If you like the plants to tend (like me and my peppers) then go for it.

Thank you for all the information. I am reconsidering growing indoors as it seems much easier/cost effective growing outside... I have already started to germinate 8 plants in my sunny, south-facing window sill and will keep them there until end of frost.
I will look into the lights a bit more to find 120w at the wall.
Thanks again

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

I feel like indoor growing is a matter of passion for certain people. They are kinda like audiophiles. It starts out being about the music and eventually becomes about the components. If that brings you joy, go for it. But if it really is just about producing tobacco, outdoors is totally the way to go, (outside of the one country where its illegal to grow).

 

[Yultanman]

I feel like indoor growing is a matter of passion for certain people. They are kinda like audiophiles. It starts out being about the music and eventually becomes about the components. If that brings you joy, go for it. But if it really is just about producing tobacco, outdoors is totally the way to go, (outside of the one country where its illegal to grow).

This is very true. But not just because if the components. Some are just passionate gardners. I love watching things grow and winter is too long to wait through. So aside from the benefit of the produce throughout the winter, there is the mental benefit from visiting your garden.
Also ... components are awesome!! Haha.
Tobacco equip, music gear, grow equip. All soothe the same addictions when overdone to excess properly

 

[Bramleyjordan]

Would this be a suitable grow light? https://www.londongrow.com/products..._gvZ44XiGEAthI5jxnSDUUePRjHrK73gaApLGEALw_wcB

 

[Yultanman]

Would this be a suitable grow light? https://www.londongrow.com/products..._gvZ44XiGEAthI5jxnSDUUePRjHrK73gaApLGEALw_wcB

No i would not do that

there is none that id recomend on that site but this is the closest. The site does not offer any info on driver or chip so it is very hard to know what is what.
https://www.londongrow.com/products/maxibrightdaylightled. Thats for 2 med plants or one big with the 200