When to start flowering?

[Reesche]

Hi you guys, have a couple questions about my current crop.....

Specs:
• Started this crop on January 15th 2020.....so the jpegs I am attaching are 7 weeks or 50 days old. Plants are around 14" tall.,
• Types: Tangerine Dream, Tangie, Blue Cheese, (X3) Girl Scout Cookies.
• 54 watts-T-5’s- X8 Bulbs 18 hours a day
• Green Fertilizer (Botanical Pure Blend Pro…Grow-3-2-4)

Questions:
How do you know when to start the flowering process? 12-12 hours Flowering food-(Botanical Pure Blend Pro… Bloom-2-3-5)

I have been pruning off some of the major/larger leafs to let light down to the lower levels. These T-5 lights probably drop off light pretty quick.

Can you tell if these are Indica or Sativa?

Let me know what you think.
Thank you!
Reesche

 

[oldfogey8]

I usually wait with plants grown from seed for them to have alternating nodes(nodes on opposite sides of the stems are not directly across from one another) before I flip. You can flip now too. It may just take longer to show sex. I have flowered under t5 bulbs before(only 6 ho t5’s) and did pretty decent. Are you going to change to ‘warmer’ t5’s for flower? I used to mix 10000 Kelvin with 2700 kelvin bulbs(more of the 2700’s). You are going to get stretch too as the plants reach for light when they are cut down to 12/12. The good thing about t5’s is they can be really close to the canopy top(the colas). As you wrote, they don’t penetrate that well so opening things up is good. Look up the strains online to see what percentage your plants are of sativa/indica. Most everything is a hybrid...

 

[Growdude]

Plants will double in size or more once you flip the lights before it's all over so keep that in mind, it's real easy to vegg to long and end up with buds into the lights

 

[Locked]

You need to have alternating nodes before you flip them or you will wind up with super stretched plants. Alternating nodes determine that the plant is sexually mature.

 

[Reesche]

All good ideas/points you guys! To answer one of your questions....yes I put in all warm/red T5's when I flip and change to the flowering fertilizer. Thanks for the illustration showing Alternating nodes Hamster Lewis! That drove it home for me!

I will post again in a week or two.

Thank you guys!

Reesche

 

[Reesche]

Hey you guys I just checked on my girls and noticed they are ALL non-alternating.

So, does the PLANT do the Alternating by itself naturally or is it from my trimming off BOTH sides of the fan leaves?

If your going to trim, do you only trim ONE side of the fan leafs and go to the next one down and trim off the other side?

Thanks again!
Reesche

 

[Keef]

Welcome to MP Reeshe -They'll alternate Naturally !-
- I'm a cloner and don't pay much attention to that !- I pinch the top out a 6 inch plant give It a week to recover then take it to bloom for sexing !- I'll then take the girls back to veg and start taking cuttings and rooting them out !- I can come back to bloom with a whole group of the same plant after that if I want !