Flowering in equatorial latitudes

[MexicanSon]

I'm a newish grower working with sativas outdoors (in pots) in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico. I get semi tropical Florida-ish conditions with rain in the summer and fall, mediterranean style weather in spring and "cool" humid winters (min 10 celsius at night but that's rare). The light cycle is what makes most info from forums and blogs non-applicable to my situation: we get 13/11 in summer, 11/13 in winter, 12/12 in spring and fall.

In a word: equatorial.

I seem to have been successful vegging these plants, sure I battle with bugs and humidity but they are looking healthy and compact with all sorts of training techniques and 20L pots to keep them manageable.
The question is when will they flower? Will photos "act like autos" at my latitude as some blogs have stated (if so, will a pure sativa with a 4 month flowering period flip itself to flower after 2 months??? IDK).
I am confident that there is no season of the year during which nice healthy growth would not be possible, but tropical flowering seems to be a riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a mystery. For example my Green Crack showed female pre-flowers after about a month, but has kept vegging since, it's coming up to 2 months since germination and no sign of a pistil.
One Colombian blog said "a disadvantage of outdoor growing is that you only get one harvest per year", one Spanish blog said "an advantage of equatorial latitudes is that you can grow all year round".
99% of info online just says to plant in spring (after the frost) and harvest in autumn (before the frost), but that's USA/Canada/Europe info, the only frost I get here is in my freezer, and hopefully on my buds (budum tshh).
Anyone have experience of flowering under this natural "12/12 from seed"?

 

[BrewersToker]

The good thing is you are working with Sativa. And they are potted. You are going to have to trick them, most likely. I have been to your area in August, and the only way I can imagine you inducing flowering and more importantly, bud production, is to reduce the sunlight by covering them. You are really going to have to keep on top of it for a couple months, if not more. Sativa take forever, even up here in Wisconsin.

Post some pics and us veterans can give you some ideas on covering.

 

[MexicanSon]

Thanks Brewers Toker. I know they are slow, mexican breeders basically talk about 6 months total for sativas. If the flowering is 4 months that means 2 months veg. But what is the trigger for flowering to kick in? If i dont cover will it veg indefinitely? Or until we hit "autumn" and sub 12hr days? Funnily enough i got the largest cardboard box from the supermarket and last night I covered the green crack from 6pm until 7am. So it's on a fake 11 hr day. Just an experiment but your reply makes me think I could be on the right track. Also, these people who do 12/12 from seed indoor with sativas, at what point do they see flower cycle start?

 

[BrewersToker]

Outdoors is so different, so I never really pay attention to indoor grow threads. I do know that 2 months of veg should be enough to start forcing them to flower. How tall/big are they now? I've had Sativa grt 6 ft before flower kicked in.

 

[CannaOnerStar]

There are strains that will flower with less than 12 hours darkness, but are not autoflowers. They are called early flowering(altho sometimes early flowering might refer to something else) or long day strains that are native closer to equator.

Especially nordic folks used to grow and breed these strains before autoflowers existed, due to short summer where the 12/12 light doesent start until its too late. They are also bred to be very mould resistant due to moist and cold falls of nordic countries. They are bred to be more as a nordic landraces that can survive the climate, rather than for maximum potency like most commercial strains, so they might not be as potent.

Especially danish folks used to breed a lot of these and some of those are still sold commercially. Here is one example of a classic; https://www.seedbay.com/product/typhoon-10-regs/ Basically all danish outdoor strains are like this or straight up autoflowers. I dont know if any non autoflowering swedish or finnish strains are sold commercially, but there are some being sold that are crosses between danish and finnish strains at least.

I can dig up some more sellers of this sort of strains if you are interested, but i dont know if they ship to states. Many of these start to flower in 18/6 lights, but require days getting shorter as flowering goes further to continue flowering properly. 13 hours of light is no problem.

edit. thinking about it made me realise you could maybe pull two crops per summer with these strains if you pre-grow inside and maybe start the flowering for the second round also inside. Keeping in mind that these strains are used to cold and moist conditions in late flowering. They can even take minus degrees celcius(under where water freezes) in nights much better than some local varieties you got there, so most likely you could continue growing them outside much longer than regular commercial strains

 

[crisnpropa]

Your plants will flower once they have reached 'maturity,' which is strain dependent. Some sativas may start to flower after 60 days of vegetative growth, while indicas may start flowering after just a few weeks of veg growth.

Also according to the book Marijuana Botany by Clarke, cannabis responds to increasing hours of daylight with rapid vegetative growth. So because of this I like to plant when daylight hours are increasing.

I have grown herb in Jamaica where the light cycle is similar to Colombia.

 

[MexicanSon]

Will be two months in a week, intentionally small

There are strains that will flower with less than 12 hours darkness, but are not autoflowers. They are called early flowering(altho sometimes early flowering might refer to something else) or long day strains that are native closer to equator.

Especially nordic folks used to grow and breed these strains before autoflowers existed, due to short summer where the 12/12 light doesent start until its too late. They are also bred to be very mould resistant due to moist and cold falls of nordic countries. They are bred to be more as a nordic landraces that can survive the climate, rather than for maximum potency like most commercial strains, so they might not be as potent.

Especially danish folks used to breed a lot of these and some of those are still sold commercially. Here is one example of a classic; https://www.seedbay.com/product/typhoon-10-regs/ Basically all danish outdoor strains are like this or straight up autoflowers. I dont know if any non autoflowering swedish or finnish strains are sold commercially, but there are some being sold that are crosses between danish and finnish strains at least.

I can dig up some more sellers of this sort of strains if you are interested, but i dont know if they ship to states. Many of these start to flower in 18/6 lights, but require days getting shorter as flowering goes further to continue flowering properly. 13 hours of light is no problem.

edit. thinking about it made me realise you could maybe pull two crops per summer with these strains if you pre-grow inside and maybe start the flowering for the second round also inside. Keeping in mind that these strains are used to cold and moist conditions in late flowering. They can even take minus degrees celcius(under where water freezes) in nights much better than some local varieties you got there, so most likely you could continue growing them outside much longer than regular commercial strains

Well, i mean i just bought some native panama and native Honduras landrace seeds which were quite pricey, and I live in a neighboring country which shares a similar climate to those ones. So I have chosen strains that are adapted perfectly to where i live , I just wonder how plants near the equator get triggered to flower if the day length stays roughly the same. If you want a plant ton

Your plants will flower once they have reached 'maturity,' which is strain dependent. Some sativas may start to flower after 60 days of vegetative growth, while indicas may start flowering after just a few weeks of veg growth.

Also according to the book Marijuana Botany by Clarke, cannabis responds to increasing hours of daylight with rapid vegetative growth. So because of this I like to plant when daylight hours are increasing.

I have grown herb in Jamaica where the light cycle is similar to Colombia.

All answers have been helpful but this is what I was looking for. Thanks a million

 

[CannaOnerStar]

Well, i mean i just bought some native panama and native Honduras landrace seeds which were quite pricey, and I live in a neighboring country which shares a similar climate to those ones. So I have chosen strains that are adapted perfectly to where i live , I just wonder how plants near the equator get triggered to flower if the day length stays roughly the same. If you want a plant ton

Okay. I dont know about these pure equatorial strains, but often have really long flowering times. Nordic strains on the other hand are bred to be as fast as possible, even tho many of them are more on the sativa side