Neebie needs help w flowering stage

[sensiseedling]

So in early June we found a couple seeds in a bag and planted them in pots on our balcony (we live in souther california). Lo and behold, they sprouted! And have been growing quite nicely since. It's now the first of Sept and we had to cut down one plant as it was clearly a male (I use Mel Frank's Marijuana Growers Guide as my reference). The other plant is very much female, and has begun its flowering stage as there are a number of the little white stringy-things (pardon my lack of jargin) beginning to show at the stem intersections.
One of my concerns right now is that the plant seems to have ceased growing completely. It still looks healthy, but the new leaves remain babies, and the white strings remain small. No new height has developed either. Is this normal for this stage? The books tell me that growth does indeed stop during this time, but for a first timer, it just seems a bit scary. After a month of rapid growth, boom! it's stunted. Should I be seeing any kind of growth right now at all? If not, when should I expect growth to continue and what should I be looking for?
As for watering and plant food, what is a good amount right now, and how often?
For reference, she's about one foot tall if that helps.
Thanks!

[sensiseedling]

Here are some photos for ref., two fems, one male, and two of the full plant.

[72firebird396]

yea they slow down a bit when they first show hairs, but then they start to stretch and fill out. just patience man, it may seem like theres something wrong with it but itll speed along in a week or two. and then in a month or so after the stretch itll seem like growth slows down again but its really growning thicker more than it is taller at that stage. just sit back and watch it grow thats the fun of bagseed next season start earlier i started late this year too but not as late as you. as long as our cali weather holds up all should be well tho

[Red Eye]

Yea Sensi, my bagseeders look exactly like yours man. Except, they are between 5 and 6 feet tall. They were planted in May. So i dont think its cuz yours are planted too late. I really hope they start to produce actual buds some time soon. I, unfortunately, dont live in California.

I even have a single male that never received any direct sunlight and it is still growing sacs just as developed as your male. That plant is just 10 inches tall, and yet its flowering just fine. I wouldnt expect too much bud from your foot tall plants, but they should definately still bud even at that height. I saw a Pot TV show where they went to Jamaica, and visited a couple grow sites. The gardens they saw had plants that were very short, at most 3 feet tall. Most were about a 1 foot to 1 1/2 feet. These plants flowered just fine, with tons of trichomes, full budsets, etc. They just didnt produce as much bud as a fully grown out bush would.

If i had known that my plants would grow so successfully, i wouldve invested in some early flowering sativa from a seedbank. I just never really expected to have such a good grow.

Its gonna be a real pain to have such bigass plants and not get any real smoke of of them.

[sensiseedling]

Originally Posted by 72firebird396

it may seem like theres something wrong with it but itll speed along in a week or two. and then in a month or so after the stretch itll seem like growth slows down again but its really growning thicker more than it is taller at that stage.

Thank you! That is exactly what I needed to hear. Honestly I'm happy they're growiing at all, I've never had sucess from bag seed. The one time I did bring home good seeds from Amsterdam I had nowhere to plant them until it was too late and they were dead. So even if it's a small harvest, it'll be extremely gratifying.

[72firebird396]

no problem, like red said you will get something not much but something, which is why i said start sooner next time, like early april.i started in mid june and my plants a little over 3 feet but bushy, red started a month before and his plants are bigger also make sure it gets atleast 10 hours of sunlight during flowering i also now you might want to put the big plant in a 5 gallon bucket. for an idea ill show you my plant the first one is when it first got showed me its a female it was in a 2.5 gallon bucket and had only grown a few inches since the previous week. then i transplanted into 5 gallon bucket and a week later is pic 2 and pic 3 is a little over another week later

[sensiseedling]

So glad I found this site! Thanks again firebird. We were thinking about moving her to a bigger pot. My only concern is neighbors. She's growing on our balcony and if she got too tall, she'd be easily detectable.
What do you know about Miracle Grow? We've been using it up till now, still safe to use?