Will shorter light cycle speed up harvest time? Other ways to speed flower maturity?

[Guest]

Tried some mild defoliation during weeks three and four of flowering with good results. Buds grew larger faster than prior grows but now in week five buds are growing faster and I'm concerned I've increased my flowering time which will delay harvest beyond the normal schedule.

Will decreasing light cycle during flower speed up bud maturity and reduce time to harvest? I'm on a tight schedule for harvest before I have to go traveling. I've done this grow before and have the timing dialed in. Now that I've experimented with mild defoliation I see it works but maybe I've extended my harvest time.

I'm open to suggestions on how to reduce maturity of my buds.

Soil grow, organic nutes, one CBD Medihaze plant, 150 watt HPS

[oldjarhead100]

lowthc your buds are growing bigger cause their getting more light the bloom time is the bloom time I dont think it can be changed. your harvest will happen on time but with much bigger buds and more of them enjoy

That's good to hear. If I may rephrase what you said is basically - I haven't lengthened my flowering time I just increased my yield and there isn't anything I can do to speed up the flowering time. Did I understand your thoughts correctly?

[oldjarhead100]

yes only way to reduce bloom time is to grow in hydro dont know why but it seams like my grows take about 2 weeks longer than a friend who grows in hydro

I'm an old guy doing this for depression relief. I know how to grow just about anything in soil. Hydro is like a brand new cell phone to me, I'd have to ask my kids how to turn it on.

[007]

I thought I read in a thread here that the LEC/CMH lights can finish faster, but I haven't experienced that myself.

I'm fond of my one plant 150 watt HPS set up. Not willing to change lights but I'll read about it.

[Xaliuz]

Yes there is a article here on GWE on how to shorten flower time and one point was reducing hours of light a day. On my phone atm having problem linking with ma greasy thumb

Thanks for the tip I'll search for the article.

[Xaliuz]

http://www.growweedeasy.com/how-to-get-to-harvest-as-fast-as-possible

Here it is

You rock!

[Xaliuz]

You can google " Growweedeasy + desired topic" and 98% of the time the wanted article is on top

[9fingerleafs]

That should be on the "before posting a topic" info. I think

[NebulaHaze]

It's a good idea, I'll add it

[Guest]

I'm on a tight schedule and would normally be three weeks from harvest and I want to speed up the process so I'm going to shorten my cycle from 12/12 to 11/13 and see what happens.

[NebulaHaze]

It sound work to speed up flowering! Let us know how it goes

[Guest]

It's been 11 days since I cut back the light by one hour to 11/13 and the effects were evident in three days. Lower leaves started turning yellow, buds stopped growing but seemed to get frostier. Trichomes turning cloudy a few are amber. Seems like I'm now two weeks ahead of schedule. I think I may be able to harvest in a week.

[NebulaHaze]

That's great!