when to switch to flowering

[coneman]

Hi All,

Am new here, have a garden in and the baby girls are doing well, but I read stuff like 'at 3 weeks switch them to 12/12 for flowering, or at a foot hight switch to flowering', well the plants are good generally, tightly bunched and maybe 6 or 7 little branches but they are only SMALL, about 6-7 inches. About 6 weeks old. They just simply do not grow to a 12" height in 3 weeks! So, what should I do, judge the switch at the age, the height or the development? I greatly appreciate any help with this important question.

 

[Screwnuts33]

Base it on how much space you have. The longer you veg the bigger the plant and larger the yield. But if you are tight on space and do not have enough lighting big plants will not produce more bud. I vegged 32 days and now wish I hadn't let them get so big.

 

[Steve McStoferson]

I would base it off the plant's height and development. Some strains grow slower than others, so you will need to veg them a bit longer.. It also depends on your lighting, medium and nutrients. I would say wait until they're at 12" or higher, then flower anytime after that point.

 

[Tyrone Hamilton]

Screwnuts is right, it's all about space and lighting - and usually the space is determined by the light as well since the light will have a max footprint that it can cover, and a max depth of canopy it can penetrate. What kind of light are you using?

You can veg plants to 20" with a 600 HID and they'll end up around 40" at the end. If you only have CFLs, you might only veg to 12". It's all about the light...

 

[coneman]

Thanks for the help, I have a 600w MH, 1m2, maybe its the heat, 28C. Or the strain, but theres some sativa in there. I'll keep 'em on to 12"

 

[Stretchtastic]

You really want to wait until it is mature enough to flower I.E. showing calyx's or balls in veg like TheCriMsonK20 said. You can flower a plant anytime you want but it won't start to produce buds until it's sexually mature. It can take some time for that to happen depending on your strain. If height is an issue for you and the strain your growing look into topping it (FIM) or bending it LST. So the answer is DEVELOPMENT.

 

[Tyrone Hamilton]

You really want to wait until it is mature enough to flower I.E. showing calyx's or balls in veg like TheCriMsonK20 said. You can flower a plant anytime you want but it won't start to produce buds until it's sexually mature. It can take some time for that to happen depending on your strain. If height is an issue for you and the strain your growing look into topping it (FIM) or bending it LST. So the answer is DEVELOPMENT.

Having seen 12/12 grows from seed in journals on here, I'm not sure I can agree with that advice. I've certainly budded plants that didn't have alternating branches yet.

 

[Stretchtastic]

If ya look at 12/12 from seed grows you'll notice that they don't start to flower until close to 30 days.12/12 growers do it because of extreme high restrictions.

 

[RandyL]

My first grow vegged for 56 days (8 weeks), but that was partly because of a delay in getting our HPS lights ready. Hoping for lotsa bud weight when they are done though!

 

[Stretchtastic]

They should be good and mature at 56 days. Good vibes your way to help with good buds.

 

[BreakPoint]

so what if we did have a slow growing plant about 6-7" and we went 12/12 and growth slowed to almost a STOP (this is not a hypothetical question...), would it confuse the plant to switch back to 18 or 24/0? As you already know, there are no signs of sex yet anyways... I'd really like to just get it growing again but I'm afraid that might make them turn hermie or something...

 

[slimm]

If ya look at 12/12 from seed grows you'll notice that they don't start to flower until close to 30 days.12/12 growers do it because of extreme high restrictions.

You can generally sex them around day 21 when growing 12/12 from seed. Some strains do well with 12/12 from seed others do not. Keep in mind that this also occurs in nature so its not as odd as some growers think it is. Plants grown in Jamaica for instance will never see more than 12 hours of daylight.

 

[slimm]

so what if we did have a slow growing plant about 6-7" and we went 12/12 and growth slowed to almost a STOP (this is not a hypothetical question...), would it confuse the plant to switch back to 18 or 24/0? As you already know, there are no signs of sex yet anyways... I'd really like to just get it growing again but I'm afraid that might make them turn hermie or something...

It will confuse the plant and slow it down for a while. If it has no visible signs of flowering then its probably ok.

 

[Stretchtastic]

I agree with slimm. A short time of 12/12 shouldn't hurt it anymore then overcast skys outside do.

 

[Montana Scott]

So I gather that Hawaii, Jamaca ect the plants "Autoflower" by maturity date?