Genes can be introduced into plants that confer desirable traits such as, drought and stress tolerance, insect and pest resistance, as well as traits for enhancing biofuel production, such as increased vegetative biomass and prolonged vegetative growth. The development of reproductive structures diverts resources from vegetative growth resulting in lower biomass and fixed growing seasons. Disclosed herein are methods and compositions for generating controlled vegetative growth and prolonged growing seasons for the purpose of increasing biomass in plants used for biofuels.