short growing season question

so last year i started my seeds in april, they sprouted a few days later and went through the normal growth and flower cycle but i've decided i dont want tall plants, i want short plants as where i have them they would benefit more as i would have to work as hard at hiding them.

so if i want them say 12-18" tall tops when is a good time to plant seeds for a short veg cycle before it starts preflowering? now this depends where i am as we move around the sun so sunset and sunrise change everyday so lets start with some facts. june 22nd give or take a day is generally the longest day of the year making it the first day of summer. for my location sunrise would be 6:20 am and about 9:10 for sunset.so that's about 9 hours of night (taking civil twilight out of the equation for the time being) giving me about 15 hours of day light a day at the start of summer.

in july the days start getting shorter and preflowering starts about mid-late june or so. if i planted seeds at the start of june and they sprouted a couple to a few days later would this give me a short enough veg cycle as to keep the plants as short as i want or would delaying the plating until mid-late june be a better idea? the plants still grow as they preflower and some what as they flower but i have no idea what strains i have (i just consider all my seeds bastards as i have no idea what their lineage is) but i do plan on planting a few of each kind i do have (quite a few from a lot of bags the past year) and seeing what grows more compact and less spindly and then culling the undesirables once i sex them.

so what time would you start your seeds to have nice short plants? (i'm not wanting to top as i'm going for a short plant that is just a cola basically like a small scale SOG but outside)

i'm thinking mid to late june would be best as it would still grow but preflower pretty much from the get go based on observations last year. hiding a short plant is easier than trying to hide a bush or a tree so there's less risk in getting caught.

in an ideal world i'd have a nice place to grow where i dont have to concern myself about size but how many i can plant but sadly this isnt the case for me so i have to adjust my horticultural efforts to match my circumstances.

Mid June sounds good. Use a small pot, something like a 2 or 3 gal container. That should help with the height and is easy to move around.

while i'll wait for more opinions i'm leaning towards mid june. i have read about the phases of the moon and cultivating the kind herb so i suppose i should put that into consideration and plan accordingly. apparently different phases of the moon are more conducive to doing certain things like germination, pruning, feeding, etc. just another factor to take in i suppose.

nobody else has an opinion? nothing more to add?

well i will.

according to the moon phase chart in june mid june would not be such a good time to germinate but early to mid june would. it's a new moon at the beginning of june and full at mid june, june 1st is the new moon, the 15th is the full moon. i may want to bump up the germination schedule and deal with an extra week of growth. i dont thik it's a huge deal BUT i think it's important to follow the moon and cultivate accordingly since the moon effects a lot of living things and i want to maximize chances of germination and giving them the best shot to start growing when they sprout. i believe until they get their first or second set of true leaves that that short amount of time is extremely important to how well the plant does later on.

it also appears that mid october would be a good time to harvest (if the plants are ready, and there is some chance of frost/cold snaps starting mid to late october) so i'm looking at a 4 month growth cycle give or take a week.

so it looks like i might start the second week of june (plant seeds at the end of the first phase) and look towards a harvest the 3rd week of october during the 3rd phase of the moon. unless weather doesnt cooperate.

i topped my plants last year and was not happy with the results so i'm considering fimming the plants instead this year to help keep them short, probably only one time, i dont want to stress them out. unless i need to do something i tend to let anything i grow do it's own thing so i'm not even sure if i want to or should fim them. they would be bushier hence shorter but that gives smaller buds. if i fimmed them one time early on would it effect yield drastically? i'm already using a truncated time table as it is and i am concerned that doing this could ruin my efforts.


need more opinions and advice please.

nobody has an opinion or thought on this?

sure would be nice to have SOME discussion about this.

I have planted after july 4th and still able to get plants over my head. depends on the strain but i believe what you are looking for is the LST method. Other wise growing a 1 ft. tall plant is pointless.

Look into SCROG method. That will control your height problem with lots of bud sites.

piney bob said:

I have planted after july 4th and still able to get plants over my head. depends on the strain but i believe what you are looking for is the LST method. Other wise growing a 1 ft. tall plant is pointless.

Click to expand...

actually i rethought my idea and wondered what the results would be if i started after the start of july. the first two weeks of july. now last year my plants we're only a couple feet tall, i topped them early and wanted to keep them short but they werent quite short enough. i had started them at the start of april.

and who would a short plant be pointless for? i do this for personal use but mostly for fun.

i also did some LST by tying the tops down so they would grow sideways which did help. i'm wondering if i fim them once early on and then LST them if i'd get what i'm looking for. i dont have much space to work with so the more they spread the fewer i'll have but i hadnt planned on having more than five, if caught it's only a misdemeanor. rather not look at a felony.