Thai Sativa plant taking a long time to bud in Southern California

Hello folks,

I visited Thailand last winter and picked up a few seeds along the way. I am assuming it is pure sativa since the weed was from southeast Asia, Laos probably. Well I planted the seeds and only one plant survived and thought it was slow to start growing, it took off over the summer and thrived. It is now the end of November and it is still not mature. We have had some cold weather the last week but she is a survivor and the buds seem to be developing nicely, albeit slowly. I am thinking about a January harvest if she makes it. Is it normal for pure Sativa plants to take so damn long to develop? Will the cold weather kill my plant before I can harvest it?

any input or advice would be helpful.....

Thanks

Yeah, sativas take longer to develop. Some are never ending when it comes to flowering.

i ran a sativa hybrid that stayed stuck between veg and flower for more than 11 months

untill i grew dispondant and forgot to water it

Wait it out. Indoor or out? I flowered 2 El-dorado(mexican sativa) and the bud is KILLA! Well worth the wait, taste, potency and aroma when smoked are all off the chart! If ur outdoor, an electric blanket placed around the base of the plant will keep her alive if you run into extended cold weather. Good luck, any new pics?

fauchky said:

Is it normal for pure Sativa plants to take so damn long to develop?

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If you are talking about a real true landrace sativa, some can take a very long time to flower and 'ripen ... a very long time.

There are a number of sativa strains breeders offer that have 15 week flowering periods and some decades back I had some Panama Red that took 22 to 24 weeks to finish. I don't know of any strain names, in part because I don't know if they had ever been given an actual strain name, but at most might have been known by the country they were from, but I have read of some Southeast Asian strains that took a good bit longer than that to finish.

It is in part because they have less chlorophyll in the leaves, they tend to be a light green, sort of a light lime green in some cases, and their leaves are narrow and even if they have many of them they still catch less light than a wide dark indica plant, so that is in part why they takes longer to finish.

What can be, and often is, the most difficult thing about growing a pure landrace strain from some Equatorial region is will it survive in your climate zone. Acclimatizing strains like that to very or totally different climatic regions can be difficult and it can take years of growing the strain over and over again and picking the right phenotypes to breed back to each other to in the end pull it off.

Even the original Romulan when it was brought back from Korea by Canadian soldiers returning from the Korean war was a very tall lanky very long flowering strain. Over the years they bred the shorter bushier faster flowering phenotypes back to each other and in time it began to look much more like a short squat short flowering period indica. Just acclimatizing the strain in it's original form to what it became was a real effort and took a great deal of time and effort, and thought. The result was a plant that when looked at would never be confused by anyone as being the same strain that was brought back from Korea.

To me such long flowering pure sativa strains are worth the wait, if you can get your hands on some seeds that is, but some people don't have the patience to grow them and need an 8 week strain. They are willing to give up a mind blowing, sometimes damn near trippy soaring rocket-sled fast high to be able to harvest a mind and body numbing strain in 7, 8 or 9 weeks.

They do not have a clue what they are missing because they have never experienced anything anywhere even half close to it in their lives.

maybe its Hemp

just build something of a frame and put a plastic tarp over it when it rains to stay dry and the cold is no prob for u

MediMaryUser said:

just build something of a frame and put a plastic tarp over it when it rains to stay dry and the cold is no prob for u

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Living in the South much of my life I have never had to do it but a few friends who live up in Yankee-land use that flat extension cord looking stuff used to melt snow and ice in gutters and roof valleys to keep their plants warm enough on cold nights.

They will drive in some sort of stakes around their grow that are taller than their plants or run rope from nearby tree or bushes that are higher than the plants are tall and then put shorter stakes between their plants. They run the heat-tape stuff between their plants at various levels, mostly the bottom half since heat will rise, and then cover them with a heavy tarp or blankets, putting it over the taller stakes or the ropes above the plants.

It produces heat without light so it does not cause light problems like if someone tried using a light bulb or light bulbs in something like a wooden box with holes in it to let the heat out, like I have heard of people trying.

Of course you need to have your plot close enough to a source of electricity to do this but if in a yard a long extension cord or two should handle that. You also would want to get out and uncover the plants once the sun was back out and temps were back to a safe/comfortable to the plants range.

thanks to all for your advice....i'm gonna see how she handles this little cold snap and take it from there. She has been flowering for about 10 weeks now so i really hope I'll see some fireworks soon. I have been amending the soil with non-nitrogen fertilizer (organic blooming formula) every few weeks and few splashes of SuperThrive here and there but not too much. Luckily our winters here in LA are pretty mild.

I bought a brick of tightly packed Southeast Asian bud on an Island in Thailand for 30 bucks and threw the seeds in my luggage never thinking it would really grow. I remember it wasn't bad smoke at all, the kind of high that feels like an upper and makes you wanna do stuff. I just hope it comes through in a considerably different climate.

Cheers

fauchky said:

and few splashes of SuperThrive here and there but not too much

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The Super Thrive will make the flowering time longer. What might be the biggest reason ornamental flower growers love Super Thrive is it makes flowers last longer so their plants/gardens look better longer.

It does that by slowing down the flowering process, by making it take longer for flowers to fully develop and then to keep them from fully maturing and then to begin to deteriorate and lose their beauty.

It is working against you when it comes to 'ripening' time.

It's not bad to use in veg and it's good for times when plants suffer shock, and many like it when cloning, but it is not a good idea to use it during flower.

Some claims it says on the packaging to not use it for flowering plants, but that is an internet herb growing myth, it does not say that anywhere on the container or on the piece of cardboard instructions for it are on that it comes attached to. It says it is great for flowering plants, and it is .. IF the plants are ornamental plants .... but not for cannabis plants.

Do yourself a favor and stop using it, even in very small amounts. A drop or two of Super Thrive goes a long way so even a little use of it now and then will go a long way to work against you.

fauchky said:

I bought a brick of tightly packed Southeast Asian bud on an Island in Thailand for 30 bucks and threw the seeds in my luggage never thinking it would really grow. I remember it wasn't bad smoke at all, the kind of high that feels like an upper and makes you wanna do stuff. I just hope it comes through in a considerably different climate.

Cheers

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That is why the 60's and part of the 70's was such a creative period where so many people did so many things. It is a motivational high totally unlike the 'let's sit on the couch and watch videos Beavis & Butthead' mind and body numbing stone of an indica.

If you were old enough to ever visit a "commune" from the olden days you would have seen some people gardening and others weaving cloth and some made candles and some made soap and others were making clothes and others cooking and others drawing or painting and others writing and or performing music and others doing repairs on their 'home' and some were having sex almost non-stop and on and so on.

The sativas they smoked made people want to do things and it made them enjoy the things they did. If they smoked indica's all they would have done is lay on the floor and pick up the phone now and then and order pizzas and not one of them would have lasted a week. The places were like bee hives or ant colonies, everywhere you looked there was activity.

Got any recent pics of ur plants? Y'all BT is right, if you've never grown a hundo% sativa ur missing out on some serious good shit. Since I've harvested my Eldo, I been taking care of shit around the house thats been needing done all year! My wife wants to know wtf is wrong with me, and she doesn't believe me that its the bud thats got me all over the shop. Y'all the smell and high is totally unique and worth the wait, the buds look almost like they're covered in fuzzy mold they're so crystally and they've got a creamy hue to the buds. Perfect for chiefing before heading out to work!

Used to hang around commercial growers (uncles and cousins basically) back in the old country - near where your plant is from. Anyway I learned some things while growing in that part of the world. I remember a nifty little trick to make them flower faster and that is to give them a bit of smoke. I am not sure what the availability of "whole coconut husks" are in Cali but it is the main ingredient in this process. Basically you put a burning piece of red hot charcoal between two pieces of dried coconut husks and leave it under your bush making sure that it doesn't burn the whole place down of course. This would smoke the plants for hours during the day. apparently it is bad if the husks burn too fast but the burn is controlled via moisture content in it. Too much moisture and it doesn't burn at all too little burns too fast. The only remnants of it the next day would be some ash at the base of the plants. Ahhh brings back memories. Hard work i know but imagine doing a couple of hectares of this it was tiring owrk. Anyways "Horticulturaly" speaking it does have it's own merit - it might be the ash stabilizing the PH of the soil, increased CO2 produced by the burn, reduced pest aphids/insects etc or some other organic chemical material released in the process or a combination of it but I've seen it work with my own eyes. Anyway just a tip to help my fellow grower which sounds like a strain I am too familiar with. By the way works well with Mangoes too...

Very nice plant mate!
I perfer indica though..

wow Exised...that is interesting. I'll be looking for some coconut at the market....love the juice anyways. @ Jolly8541...yes I will be submitting some more pics in the coming weeks!.. Last night the temperature dropped into the low 30's and the damn girl is looking just as healthy as ever.....So versatile and strong....Cannabis is an amazing plant!

thanks for all if your feedback especially BT!

Cheers.....more pics to come soon!

fauchky said:

View attachment 1301073this is my thai sativa....any suggestions on how much longer until she is mature enough to pull? I took this pic on December 1 . Thanks!!!

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Don't know about you but it's not looking like you are going to get a good harvest out of that. I'll be careful if I was you - looks like Hermie to me... I've marked the suspect ball but still it's too early to tell...

let me tell you about Thai strains. For the most part I prefer indicas. But to grow them year round in Hawaii outdoors isn't very akamai at all! Any Thai strain is gonna take a lifetime to mature. But if you do have the time, the end results can be quite rewarding.

In picture below is a Thai plant that got up to 13 ft. before a nasty storm took her down two years ago.

Good luck with your plant, and I hope you make it thru the winter. Hey,..by the way, did you enjoy your vacation over there in Thailand? I lived there about 8 years in all. Use to get kilos of loose thai weed in trash bags there,at $20.00 a pop! As soon as the stuff started to get dry. I'd throw it away,and buy a new kilo! At $20.00 bucks a kilo, how can one go wrong? This was in early 80's these prices.

fauchky said:

View attachment 1301073this is my thai sativa....any suggestions on how much longer until she is mature enough to pull? I took this pic on December 1 . Thanks!!!

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A long time, faunch. Doesn't look like it's even close to ready. She'll tell you when she's ready, but If it was my plant, i wouldn't think about harvest till late january at the earliest. I have a sativa dominant hybrid in my garden that I started in April, it's December 6th now, I'm hoping she's gonna be ready in the next week or two, but you're in for the long haul. My plant looks close, yours looks like it's just about to begin flowering; and true sativas...you're looking at probably like 10-14 weeks at least for flowering. Hope it's ready by february.

If you live in SoCal, as long as you're not in the mountains, you shouldn't have much trouble getting her to live through the winter. As long as it doesn't freeze too bad. It dipped below freezing where I'm at a couple weeks ago, my plant powered through without problems. I'd just watch out if it drops below freezing for more than 3 or so hours at a time. You shouldn't have to keep her covered yet, she probably enjoys the rain when it comes, not dense enough for budrot to set in yet. Obviously protect branches if it starts pouring like some biblical flood, or if it gets real windy. Other than that, keep up the good work and try to be patient. Keep your thumbs green!

Hey thier im from cali too with a crazy mexican sativa from brick weed, its most likely the same type of flowering time since they are both eqatorial strains. My plant seem to take a very long time too and i predict late jan i will harvest but i found something specail about these late flowering monsters. Some nugs mature faster than other typically bottom nugs from bottom branches. I harvested an 8th of mature bottom nugs this week only cuz they were frosty and ready with some amber but small fluffy but gosh a very exotic smoke never had a cerebral high like this before clear vision as fuck and hearing is 3x better. Here a bottom nug i cut and yes its a nug not a branch





lol it went on the ground the same time as yours, im from long beach so we in the same boat, crazy as rain been pouring i hope our sativas will be ok