Is there a relationship between inducing flowering and potency?

I understand that flowering can be induced with a reasonable final product before the plant reaches a point even close the its potential size and bud potential. What I'm wondering is at what point - if any - one begins to strattle the line between a tactfully small yet potent plant and a plant of small size but little to no potency.

This hypothetical scenerio would involve a perfectly normal span of time to allow the flowers to develop, and all environmental and procedural factors going about as favorably as possible (potentially excluding the early induction into flowering).

Anybody have any general rules of thumb (i.e. not regarding a specific strain) or insights into how the point at which flowering is induced affects the potency of the flowers?

 

You should wait until AT LEAST the plant is sexually mature.

This is indicated by alternating nodes (branches) an occurs generally speaking at week 4--6.
By this time the plant has enough stored energy to support flowering.
But another week or 2 wouldn't hurt.

My friend grew from rooted clones that he vegged for only 3 days before sending into flowering.

He ended up with about 1.25 oz. per plant, grown sog style.

 

Interesting. I had only thought to ask because I was considering at what point I'd need to cut off vegatative growth for height reasons - naturually, I got to wondering about the extremes and the exceptions.

 

Be aware that during the first 3 weeks of flowering the plants will more than double in height. For instance a 15" plant sent into flowering would end up being 3' tall. And some strains stretch even more. I've seen other plants that have TRIPLED in height during the stretch.
For that reason you want a growspace that has at least 4.5' in height, and that's cutting it close.

 

Good point (and not to mention one that a lot of people apparently miss). The dimensions of the potential grow area are such that I could probably get away with growing a couple of huge plants, but I really don't really feel up to tending to something giant the first time around (for time and procedural reasons) so I'll probably be inducing flowering at a point that will theoretically give me something manageable in size.

 

I thought....
Whenever you choose to switch your girls to flower, it has no effect on the potency of your crop?

Isnt potency determined by genetics, although a lot of love and attention goes a long way.

 

It should affect the potency at some point, but the specifics with regards to when that may be is something I'm not sure about. Anyway, my understanding is that when a plant flowers it focuses more available energy on the processes that encompass the formation of those flowers, and in turn limits the production of food; plants generally produce more food than they need and, since the plant is going to die soon fairly soon after flowering anyway, it wouldn't make much sense to keep storing more sugars. That said, there ought to be a point at which the limited sunlight coupled with the plant's natural response to stunt its level of food production will have an adverse effect (at least from our standpoint) on the quality of the flowers.

I'd assume this would only hold true for annuals, as perennials take the excess food they produce and simply store it in the roots before entering a state of dormancy.