What Triggers Flower: Vegetative State vs. Flowering Stage

What triggers flower in hemp plants? Hemp is photoperiodic, which simply means it changes and develops based on the amount of light it receives. Every genetic is different, but generally, as the number of light hours decreases, the flower development stage is triggered across the board.

Before we take a deeper look at how light can affect your crop, let’s talk about why the vegetative state (your plant’s growth before flower) is so important.

Vegetative State

We recommend planting outdoors when your daylight length reaches 14 hours. Again, each variety is different, but 14 hours of daylight is an acceptable starting point for most. Since the days will continue to get longer during the summer, we recommend planting as soon as daylength hits 14 hours. This will ensure you have as much grow time as possible.

This vegetative growth allows the plant to grow and bush out so that it can support the buds it will produce in the flowering development period. You want to make sure your plants are big enough to support and produce plenty of buds before they begin flowering. This is where artificial lighting can be beneficial.

If you notice the number of daylight hours growing shorter (this triggers flower) and your plants are not yet established enough to support flowers, you may want to add artificial lighting to hold off the flowering stage a bit longer. Once flowering is triggered, the level of THC begins to grow, which sets you on a time limit to harvest.

Flowering Stage

Once flowering begins, it can be reversed with artificial lighting. But that is not recommended. Reverting hemp from flower back to vegetative can mess with the genetics of the plant that you spent so much time researching.

Artificial lighting does affect even an outdoor grow, which means if you have any outdoor lighting that can reach your crop, like street lights or security lights, this can keep your hemp from flowering. You’ll want to keep this in mind before planting your crop.

Because the amount of light affects your hemp crop so much, you want to consider this at every step of your planning, including how to plan your field layout. (Read our blog on that here.) As always, if you have any questions, feel free to reach out!