Hi guys and galz!!

Just a quick question, got some beautiful Malawi landrace on the go and would just like to know the height to flower at, got a 6 ft room in height with one 400w going and they are 15 inches so far, are they too big already?? And will Ot1's biobizz schedule be sufficient for these sats???

I flowered mine after 10 days vegging and they were 5ft tall

Although I've never grown Sativas, I know that they reach for the sky! Regarding when to flower , well thats down to you and how you want to grow..... Im assuming you're not in a hurry or you wouldnt be growing Sats
Why not try training them if you're worried about height? Very easy cos they're very bendy....
I have some very sat dominant plants atm and they musta been going 10 wks or more in veg now But I waited for them to show me what they were sex wise, I didnt rush them. But, height is getting out of control so they are now being trained in a spiral using bamboos etc ( Bonsai tree training) I reckon the one plant I have without its training must reach nearly2/3ft, but on a bamboo coil we're down to 12/15 inches Also lets the light into the lower canopy at the same time!

Ms Powerband

I take it you're growing in soil? It'd help if you filled out a bit more detail in your profile. OT1's schedule is an excellent guide, but at the end of the day you'll just have to watch and learn from your plants, as they do tend to vary somewhat and adjust the feed accordingly. Have you been potting up and are they now in their final pots? How does the rootball look? Sativas apparently don't need vegged as long as indicas, probably because they will continue to grow throughout flowering (they can reach quite a height too). If you could post a pic or 2 it'd probably help too - 15" doesn't mean much tbh as it could be down to stretch if you're using a HPS bulb, or if your lamp isn't at an appropriate height, etc - how long have you been vegging them for so far? Good luck with the grow - I'm waiting on a pack of the Malawi Golds atm myself - be interesting to see how you get on. Hopefully one of the more knowledgeable members will be along soon enough to help you.

e2a: oops - I see they did already.

Sativas are characterized by the fact that they grow in equatorial regions. At the Equator the daily light cycle is 12/12 throughout the year and this is the reason why sativas take so long to flower, they don't have the same day-length cues as indicas which grow in more northern areas.

In Malawi daylight varies by about an hour between winter (May to August) when there are 11-day light hours, and summer (January to March), when here are 12-day light hours.

The answer is: Don't veg at all!!! Sativas do not need or benefit from vegging, they are genetically programmed for a 12/12 cycle from the start.

Most people don't realise this, I bet I just opened a lot of eyes!

Certainly opened my eyes! If this be true then why do so many peeps veg them? So many peeps who know what they're doing? Getting confused here....

Ms Powerband

It's a good question, I'm sure none of us know as much as we think we know!

So if you dont veg your sats,.......how long does your grow take, start to chop, approx?

Ms Powerband

Sadly, the answer is, as long as it takes!

Unlike indicas, there are no short cuts with sativas.

Someone give me a straight answer? Do you veg sativa strains or not?

Ms Powerband

Some tropical and equatorial pure sats will veg under 12/12 til they're mature, then they start flowering.

If I was growing a tropical or equatorial sat or a pure haze I'd veg the plants til they showed sex then take clones and flower them as soon as they were rooted as that'd keep the height down.

Or if I couldn't do that I'd give them a week or so normal veg then flower them potting into final pots once they've started flowering.

But it really does depend which one it is, I wouldn't flower NJs without veg for example or indica hybrids as the yield would be tiny.

Stupid question time, sorry. If the light difference in Malawi for winter is only an hour, do you simply veg on 12/12, then flower on 11/13? Are they actually vegging, or just reaching a certain level of maturity and hence auto-flowering anyway? How would you keep a sativa mum then? Can you veg indefinitely with a pure sativa? Apologies for ignorance. Thanks.

You know I thought starting a crop of sats would be just the same ish My Geography is not that good
Im assuming Panama.... S American, and Columbian Red ... S American? Someone put me right if Im wrong..

Equatorial??? So veg?

Ms Powerband

I'd maybe bring the light down an hour for the last couple of weeks



They're vegging to reach maturity (alternating nodes) but not auto-flowering.



Yep just veg under 18-24 hrs and it won't flower.




Those South Americans are pretty close to the equator. Who are they from? Most strains will have been worked a bit to be more suitable for indoors.

It is pretty much the same growing sats you just need to be prepared for the stretch is all, it can be quite extreme. I find lots of topping and supercropping the best way to handle sativas.

I believe the Colombian came from Seedsman and the Panama from ACE What difference would that make? Out of curiousity?

Ms Powerband

Yeah those strains are pretty manageable, there's a great Panama grow by Niceone here and I've seen Colombian Red here too that seemed pretty short. I'd veg them normally but keep them pretty short before flower.

It was a really good grow by Niceone but sadly he had his account deleted Doc

I have a panama by ace and it needs more veg time than afropips strains, I never knew niceone was no longer with us

Thanks for the speedy replies everyone!!!!

Well some more detail, yes they are being grown in compost, using a 400w HPS but started the brutes under 200w of flouro's veged for a week and have been giving them a feed of 2ml grow to a liter cos the lower leaves where looking a touch yellow, maybe cos i cant get decent soil, the reason i am asking on when to flower is because i have the height to go huge and i want to, will add an extra 600w if nec. and the other reason i ask is because i normally bang them into 12/12 from the beginning and they normally reach about 4-5 ft in height after a solid 3-4 months 12/12, and yes i am a patient bugger cos i love top quality canna but also patient cos i got some Brazilian left over from the last grow!!! and am undecided on whether to keep them in there 11 inch pots as final pots???

After this will be doing OT1's Haze, and some Thai landrace that i managed to aquire, so the malawi's are kinda me dialling in my setup for big sat's!!!

Will have pics in a day or 2!!!

Cheers,

Razz