Better Buds with Mr. Bill: What Kind of Plant Do I Have?

Mr. Bill, our plant fix-it guy, helps a reader to determine if it is possible to identify their weed plant's strain and suggests ways to control height.

Mr. Bill is ready to assist you by drawing upon over twenty-eight years of active grow shop experience - including answering growers' questions about the hydroponic industry. Before Mr. Bill opened his first store he worked in the agricultural industry for five years, growing tobacco.

Dear Mr. Bill,

I just would like to know what strain this is because I just had it sitting around. I have no idea what it is but also want to know when will it flower. I planted it at the beginning of May and they look really healthy but I'm concerned on how big it will grow.

Anonymous

Hello Anonymous,

From my observations, I would say that what you have is at least seventy-five percent indica, if not more. That should be finished flowering somewhere between early September and early October, assuming that you live in the Northern hemisphere. Wait until at least eighty to ninety percent of the 'hairs' change color and if you magnify the flowers, eighty to ninety percent of the trichomes ('crystals') will have turned amber-colored and appear cloudy/opaque instead of clear. That's when you cut it down.

These plants are photoperiod-driven, meaning that they do what the amount of light they're receiving tells them to do. Plants grow ('vegetate') at eighteen hours of light (springtime) and flower at twelve hours of light (autumn). When people grow indoors, they are simply recreating the optimal light/dark periods that the plant has followed, outdoors, for centuries. So, if you want them to be big before planting outdoors, grow them inside under eighteen hours of light, then put them outside when they reach your preferred size. Sativas will continue to grow for a bit at the beginning of the flowering period ('pre-flower'), while indica-dominant strains may stay closer to the same size.

Your plants will begin to flower as soon as the days start to get shorter. Strains related to Skunk #1 (seventy-five percent sativa and twenty-five percent indica; eight weeks indoors) finish between the beginning and middle of September, as do indica-dominant strains that take around eight weeks to finish indoors. If they flower at nine or ten weeks indoors, or more, you will need until at least the end of September, if not throughout October, for them to completely mature outside. Once the frost comes in, it's no longer good to have outdoor plants, as they will probably die or at least go moldy (which you CANNOT smoke). Sometimes, different seeds from the same pack will finish at different times; this is either due to a varying phenotype/genotype within a set of F1s, or because the seeds weren't selected properly and are not stable.

This plant does NOT appear to be related to Skunk #1, White Widow, Cheese or any other common sativa-dominant hybrids. The wide leaves, color and thick stalk remind me of Afghan genetics; the plant would look different if it contained Hindu Kush genes, which is another beautiful indica, but real HK looks a certain way that is easily recognizable. Some hybrids, such as some Blueberry and 'white' strains (Edelweiss, Silver Pearl, etc.) look a bit like this plant. The sooner it's finished flowering, the more indica it probably contains, meaning that you should get a sweet or fruity flavor and a relaxing, sedating effect from consuming it. Sativas take much longer to flower, are often more difficult to grow and have longer, thinner leaves, more space between the internodes and slightly more 'airy' flowers, in addition to the plant's over-all color being a bit lighter or more golden than with the dark green indicas.

Is this from bag seed, or did you get it from a friend? Was it a clone or from seed? Indicas are really 'in' at the moment, as folks chase the high-CBD strains for specific medical and recreational effects.