Flowering
Episode 6: Critical stages of influence
“What are your critical stages?”
Every crop has moments that decide the season. Learn to read them, and time every input to them: the flight plan for your crop.
The big idea
The flight plan.
A flight plan maps the season before it starts: each critical stage, and what the plant needs going into it.
Stage, not calendar
A crop doesn’t read the calendar. It has a handful of moments, like flowering and fruit set, where what it gets decides the season. Learn to read them and every input can be timed to what the plant is doing.
It’s the kind of plan that ends up printed for the shed wall. And cutting the program, Steve says, is like walking up a mountain without any water: you’ll make it halfway, then keel over.
What’s inside
Four parts, about an hour.
Watch it in one sitting, or a part between jobs. Each one flows into the next.
After this one, you’ll…
- name the critical stages in your own crop
- sketch a flight plan for the season ahead
- time inputs to what the plant is doing, not the calendar
- 0–15 min
What makes a stage critical
The moments a crop can’t get back.
- 15–30 min
The flight plan
Mapping the season before it starts.
- 30–45 min
Stage, not calendar
Timing inputs to what the plant is doing.
- 45–60 min
Water for the climb
Why cutting the program is like walking up a mountain without any water.
Take it further
Where this episode leads.
The course is the start. Each episode opens onto Steve’s talks, the learning hub, and his work on farms.
From the Plant’s Perspective
One plant, eight episodes.
Hear when episode one is out.
One note when it’s ready, and nothing else.