If you grow cannabis outdoors, your plants will follow the natural seasons and will generally produce one harvest per year. Cannabis follows the same seasonal patterns that other plants follow, in tune with the longer days during the summer and shorter days during the winter. Cannabis grows throughout it’s so-called “vegetative” cycle, and once it senses that the days are getting shorter (i.e., winter approaching), it shifts gears and moves into its reproductive “flowering” state where the THC production actually begins. The initial vegetative period can last a number of months, depending upon when your seeds were planted outdoors; on the other hand, the flowering stage generally lasts only between 2 and 2 1/2 months, depending upon the strain of the plant.
You can, however, manipulate your “grows” to produce constantly throughout the year. This is best done through indoor closet growing where you have complete control over the elements and can have your plants either illuminated around the clock (during the vegetative stage) or set up on a 12 hour lit / 12 hour dark cycle (during the flowering stage). Many growers prefer to work indoors where they can have plants in both the vegetative and flowering stages at any given time. Following this method, they always have something growing and budding out, and they can simply move their plants between the two environments as they go through their respective lifecycles.
Because space can be a limiting factor, indoor growers generally allow their plants to only grow 2 – 3 feet tall during the 24-hour “lights on” vegetative stage. Once they feel their plants have reached the appropriate height, they can then force the plants to begin their flowering stage by putting them on a strict 12 hours on / 12 hours off light cycle. This sudden switch from constant “daylight” to a “day / night” cycle tricks the plants into thinking winter is approaching, and hormonal changes kick in to begin the flowering / budding process.
For indoor growers, the whole plant lifecycle can be as short as 16 weeks:
- Weeks 1 – 8 (vegetative stage): Seeds sprout and the plants grow up to 2′ tall
- Weeks 9 – 16 (flowering stage): Plants begin to flower (bud out) revealing genders
Once harvested, add another 3 – 5 weeks for bud preparation:
- Weeks 17 – 18 (drying stage): Plants are harvested and hung up to dry
- Weeks 19 – 20 (curing stage): Buds are removed, put into air-tight glass containers, and “burped” every couple of days to remove any remaining moisture, and to let the THC complete its chemical conversion
