I am just starting to understand this advanced science with many many variables!
As soon a plant sprouts it tries to flower. The first two weeks are spent building things flowering requires. Once this is done it starts to produce flowering hormones.
But the flowering hormone is degraded by light. The plant builds up hormones all night and the sun comes along and kills them all. this cycle will repeat. Eventually days get shorter and nights get longer. More hormones are produced than the sun/light can kill. Each day more and more hormones survive the sun/light until they finally hit the right level and only then will flowering be induced.
It should be clarified that (most) hormones don't have a direct effect on plants. What plant hormones do is activate a signal cascade resulting in activation of genes which give response that is observed. Changes in concentration or usage of isomeric hormones has differing effects, thus the multiple effects seen from one hormone depending on the application method strength.
thanks spurr
There are seven major kinds of plant hormones:
auxin,cytokinins, gibberellins, brassinosteroids,
oligosaccharins, ethylene, and abscisic acid
The effects of a hormone on a plant often depend on the stage of the plant's development.
Hormone video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcGV7e5-drU
Plants progress through a cycle of growth stages. When a plant is under stress at any given stage of growth, it will produce less cytokinin growth hormones. If this reduction occurs at certain key stages of growth, yields are affected. By making available extra hormones to the plant at these stages, you can influence the plants final yield. Timing of the application is essential. If you apply a hormone to a plant, the result will be stimulated growth of the type which the plant is currently under going. If the plant is forming roots, more root growth will occur. These natural hormone compounds are essential to: plant cell enlargement and division - germination - root development - flowering and seed formation.
The correct usage of auxins and cytokinins used at varying ratios and times during the grow and flowering cycles can greatly stimulate desirable effects in plants. Auxins used in early grow, promote adventurous rooting, help relieve plant stress, and promote plant health/vigor.
Cytokinins, used during early bloom, can greatly aid in setting up a better plant structure (short squat plants with close internodes), and used thereafter can stimulate cell division (growth rates) and as a result increase yields.
All nutrients aside, balancing of the auxin/cytokinin/gibberellin chemical equation is the real key to maximizing your specific strains potential.
Mixing gibberellins with both auxins (IAA) and cytokinins (6BA) gives the treatment a synergizing balance and can exceed these limitations (i.e. a hardy stretched out plant that is dense and full).
When the auxin concentration is lower than the cytokinin,
explants will induce shoots, otherwise it will form roots.
That said the ratio, timing and type of hormones used will vary from stage to stage and is strain dependent.
stages:
Clone,teen,veg,pre-flower,flower initiation,bud set,bulk up ect.
For example
A super stretchy strain would get less auxin
A overly compact strain could get some brass. but less BAP per say.
So I guess what I am looking for is a base ratio on middle ground.
http://5e.plantphys.net/categories.php?t=t
Mixing gibberellins with both auxins (IAA) and cytokinins (6BA) gives the treatment a synergizing balance and can exceed these limitations (i.e. a hardy stretched out plant that is dense and full).
But
https://www.icmag.com/ic/attachment.php?attachmentid=94121&d=1292821023
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=196121&page=4
Cannabis related studies (more to be added later):
GA3 (gibberellic acid)
- Using GA3 can make plants stretch A LOT; I do not suggest it's use for general growing
"The response of terpenoids to exogenous gibberellic acid in Cannabis sativa L. at vegetative stage"
Hakimeh Mansouri, Zahra Asrar and Ryszard Amarowicz
Acta Physiol Plant (2010)
"Effects of Gibberellic Acid on Primary Terpenoids and D9-Tetrahydrocannabinol in Cannabis sativa at Flowering Stage
Hakimeh Mansouri, Zahra Asrar1 and Mitra Mehrabani
Journal of Integrative Plant Biology 2009, vol. 51, no. 6, pp. 553561
So if using GIBB , use it in tiny amounts and in the correct ratio GIBB-AUXIN-CYTOKININ
and make sure to use it at the correct time!
I am stumbling through this.... so any suggestions would be welcomed.
I now recommend Brassinolide in place of Gibb.
It has a different mode of action but has the fast growth effect Gibb has on other plants.
But ratio,timing,strain,and more all need to be considered!!
Ready to use
http://www.godrej.com/godrej/godrejagrovet/double.aspx?id=2&menuid=938
DO YOUR HOMEWORK!!!!
I am not a botanist or a chemist or a even college educated man!
I have had no help(other than things already posted)
SPURR is the man!
BUT:
I think I am scratching the surface of this ultra complex science.
Some strains are naturally high in Cytokinins or LOW levels of strigolactone
this makes them shorter and bushy.
While other strains are naturally high in Auxin,Gibb. ect.
This makes them tall and stretchy!
What we need to do is add just the right amount of the right hormone at just the right time to make a strain that is too short a little taller.
Or take a strain with too much stretch and shorten it down to a strain that has a little or no stretch!
If you try to push a particular strain too far you get bad results!
Some are more tolerant than others.
The effects of a hormone on a plant often depend on the stage of the plant's development.
My best guess at how to use cytokinins effectively!
cytokinins used at high ppm during cloning will prevent callus from forming roots and tell the plant to make shoots.
I have seen this myself.
I had shoots growing in a easy cloner with a constant spray of extremely weak clonex liquid on the roots.
I don't recommend cytokinins for clones!
You need to start low with just established clones.
Cytokinins inhibit downward root growth.
As high levels of cytokinins over 1 PPM inhibit root growth in cannabis.
At the correct levels of aprox. 0.1-1.0 PPM it will encourage lateral root growth while allowing for normal root length.(tiny root hairs)
As they get bigger you give them small doses at a time like 0.1 PPM but slowly increase the ppm to no greater than 1 PPM in soil or in REZ.
That is if you are looking to optimize root growth.
But remember this is strain subjective.
Shorter plants need less so as to maintain fast growth while stretchier strains need more to slow growth just enough!
If you want to change the shape of the plant(shorten it) then higher PPM is required.
I don't recommend more than a one time 100 PPM spray.
Then wait 5-7 days so you give the plant a chance to react.
I apply small amounts in the rez. and then use frequent foliar sprays.
I you use a spray wait a few days if you don't like the results you can spray low doses more often to get the effect you are looking for.
Spray between 5-10 PPM every 3-4 days till desired results are achieved.
Bud cycle is another story I am still lost here.
At the right time and PPM it will give you faster bud set!
I know if you don't get the timing right and you get the ppm's too high it will stop vertical growth and decrease yield especially when the plants have been topped!
These instructions are for using cytokinins by themselves.
I personally think they work better in a synergistic manner with auxin and brassinoloid,but then PPM must be recalculated.
Disclaimer
covers entire post
USUALLY
The experiment I just finished showed how the same exact substances added in the same exact amounts to different strains all at the same stage of growth had a dramatically different effect on each strain.
This shows there is still much work to be done.
Only one had a adverse reaction and it was minor.(leaf discoloration)
My biggest problem is I only understand 1/2 of what I read!!
well what do you want hormones to do for you?
Let me start by saying:
This is all contingent on the strains particular genetics limits.
You just can't turn a fluffy strain into a dense strain!
One must start with your preferred genetic traits and maximize its potential with environment and other factors that we have available to us.
Maximize terpene production to optimize taste of any given strain
According to Farooqi and Shukla (1999) growth regulators, or plant hormones, stimulate plant growth and terpene biosynthesis in a broad number of aromatic plant species, which result in beneficial changes in terpene quality and quantity.
Maximize quality and yeild
The use of growth regulators in agricultural production has increased due to their positive influence on product quality. This is a common practice in small countries where this technology is necessary to achieve higher yields and better products (Poyo and Ono 2006).
Control growth rate
Increase or retard growth due to hight restrictions,timing,ect.
Encourage branching in some.
Encourage just a tiny bit of stretch in others.
The possibilities are endless really!!!
I have done a lot of research on the effects of most hormones used for cannabis on other plants,some on cannabis.(college papers ect.)
I have also researched ready to use products used in agriculture that contain these hormones in their products.
With that said, I have a fair understanding of what the individual hormone functions are.
Now how they work together is another matter!!
The problematic issue I still have is :
It's all about RATIO and TIMING
Strain and phenotype is an important variable to be considered.
This
I know from my own side by side experiments.
Questions?? 
