How to Force Flower Your Grow

Over time, growers hear a lot about this idea -- the idea that you can actually manipulate your plants’ grow cycles by changing certain aspects of their environment.

So how do you force flower your grow? How do you make crop cycles go from vegetative to flowering phases?

There are different strategies that growers use to perfect this phenomenon. We've seen many of them at work in sophisticated grow areas where hydroponic project managers understand the process of forcing or inducing flowering, and the necessity of speeding up crops for market.

The Essential Philosophy of Inducing Flowering

On a very fundamental level, what you want to do is mimic the natural conditions that plants have as they proceed toward the flowering. It's all about tricking the plant’s circadian rhythms into thinking that it's time to flour. When this is done successfully, growers can get the plant results they want.

Changing Light/Dark Cycles

One way to manipulate plant growth is to change the light and dark cycles that plants rely on. It may be a surprise to some beginners, but experienced growers understand that just like humans, plants thrive on established light cycles that are based on the natural light and dark cycles of the biosphere. That means many plants will thrive on 12 to 14 hours of light and 10 to 12 hours of darkness. But changing this light dark cycle can fool the plants into thinking that seasons have changed, which can have a dramatic effect on their maturity process.

Carbon Dioxide

Some growers report that they have had success in manipulating plant cycles with carbon dioxide. At a very basic level, this makes sense. Even those who don't get a lot of science education learn in biology class that plants use water, sunlight and carbon dioxide to achieve photosynthesis. So adding carbon dioxide can have an effect on those very foundational biological processes for plants.

Nutrients

Growers may also be able to change plants in some ways by adding or subtracting nutrients. In general, a nutrient mix is what allows plants to develop those aspects that growers want in the final product -- such as density, height, or stem strength. Growers have to look at elaborate nutrient packages to figure out what's right for their particular grow projects.

This is all part of the equation for managing that transition from vegetative to flowering grow stages.Along with this kind of work, growers will have to maintain things like temperature, humidity, pH value and more through careful maintenance and monitoring of a grow area.

For more on how to use your hydroponic grow box or other piece of equipment, check out the informational resources available from today's manufacturers and retailers on the Internet.