Subject: early flowering

From: Andrew Davis <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 8 Jun 1995 21:48:19 +1000

I am not sure whether this is the right place to post this query, but if 
not please dont flame me I didn't know! :)

Presumably, there is some chemical which is released in plants which gets 
them to flower (I don't know a lot about biology), and so presumably, 
just like hormones in veal based baby food can cause premature 
development of sexual organs in humans, there is something which I could 
feed a plant in order to make it show sex when it is too young to 
ordinarily do so. 
 
I have read a study which says that for some plants (e.g. hemp) can be 
made to show sex at a young age if the lighting conditions are a 
adjusted, and temperature and other conditions are "faked" to "trick" the 
plant into flowering early. I am wondering if there is something which 
could be fed to a plant which is not grown under lab conditions to make 
it flower prematurely. The implications of such technology could be very 
cool indeed. Does anyone know anything about this? 
 
Andrew Davis
[email-masked]

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From: Gary Poyssick <[email-masked]>
Date: 9 Jun 1995 22:12:02 GMT

You can force certain herbaceous plants (such as cannabis if that
s what you're into) to show early -- all varieties will flower as a 
cutting if the light cycle is turned down to 12 hours on and 12 off 
(complete darkness) but doing so SERIOUSLY weakens the plant -- it will 
NEVER grow as good as it would have one you turn the lights back to 24 
or 18 hours following the forcing.

If you're good, you can tell by looking, by the way. You can disect the 
base of a stem portion and examine the tissue under a good stereo 
microscope. If you find a pair of balls in there, it's a male. If you 
find stringy tissue, it's a girl.

Be careful about growing anything indoors - it's clearly illegal to grow 
"hemp" as you call it -- unless you own nothing -- no properties, 
stereos, cars, houses, boats, etc -- you should never consider growing. 
Confiscation of personal property has become an art form for the police. 
Be careful of men in black serving warrants after 1:00am.