This is my first grow and actually started as an accident when a few seeds I had come in contact with some moisture so I threw one in some soil. I've been trying to do my research as it goes but I honestly never expected to be this far. I'm about 5.5 weeks into 12/12 and the plant is standing roughly 3 feet tall in a foil lined closet. I realize that the flowering time varies greatly, but everything I have read suggests that the top buds may be ready before the lower ones. I appear to have the opposite issue and I'm wondering if there is a reason. My upper stem is very condensed with fresh buds but they all all appear very fresh with no browning of the pistils at all. Upon close examination they also seem to have fewer trichomes than my lower buds. I don't have a 300x magnifier so I've only been looking at them around 100x and I can still see the tris on the low buds are glassy and not milky or amber yet but about 3/4ths of the pistils are brown and decent size. I shouldn't be complaining as I just seem to get more daily (mostly just impatient), the only thing that worries me is a lot of the time-frame stuff I've read, my plant has followed almost right down to the exact day, and it suggests that harvesting would happen between 4-5 weeks into 12/12. I feel like I'm a quite a few weeks away from the top being ready. Is this normal and I just need to be patient? PS Sorry if I get flamed to search the forums as has happened a few times before, but I can't seem to find the specific answers I'm looking and any opinions are appreciated.
Harvesting time does vary greatly between strains. But I highly doubt YOUR plant will be ready 4-5 wks into 12/12. In fact most plants take 1-2 weeks from the 12/12 switch to even really begin the flowering process. So in all reality your girl might only be 2-3 weeks into flowering! She does look a little more than 3 wks tho, I'd say bout halfway there. Your plant will prolly take 8-10 wks to fully ripen. That doesn't mean 8-10 wks from switching to 12/12. Means 8-10 from when flowering begin/ pre-flowers/pistils emerge. I wouldn't worry so much about that lower budsites seeming farther along than the top cola. You should know when she's ready to be chopped. Smell will be powerful, pistils will start to recede, trichomes will change color. Decent first grow tho! Little thin n wispy but practice makes perfect! Good luck buddy!
A lot of people say that using floros adds time onto flowering because the light isn't nearly as good as HPS for flowering. I would also add some more light if you can. Foil isn't the best reflector (45-55% from what I've read) so the light you have isn't as efficient. I was under the impression flowering was more like 8-9 weeks also. Finally if your still glassy and not milky it's not done yet. Just because the frozen pizza box tells me it's done in 20 minutes, if the cheese isn't melted it's not done. Most of the info you find on here is a guideline, not a rule. There are simply too many variables since are all using our own setups, lights, etc., to have things like flower times exact. It looks like you are running no more than 100w of light and that's assuming you have like 3 of those lights i see somewhere out of picture...get some more. Soft white (2700k) since you are flowering. Good luck!
Thanks a bunch for the reply. I don't know why I assumed it was 4-5 wks from 12/12 and not from actual flowering. That makes a lot of sense. It is a little thin wispy probably because in early stages it didn't have adequate lighting followed by a friend advising me to trim some bigger fan leaves before flowering to allow more light to lower buds and the middle didnt seem to fill back in as well as the top did. I now read that this is probably not the best idea. I recently clipped a few lower buds to check the tris more closely from it as well. I've heard mixed reviews about this adding stress to the plant but as I'm using a backwards 50mm lens over on top of another 50mm attached to the camera as my only way of magnifying buds, and its hard to get a steady look in the closet.
Oh as for the lights most of the vegetative growth was done under those 2 lights shown, which I'm sure was not enough but about 2 weeks before flowering I added a 250w overhead lamp in there just from Home Depot. So I have those 2 down the side with the one overhead far enough to not get the top too hot and a small fan outside the foil area blowing out of the closet.
Really no reason to clip "sample buds" this early in the stage. Thats more...week 7 type of deal. IMO, its a waste of something that coulda been.
Why do i only see one side growth on the bottom? Is this the strain or from trimming? Why is this plant just one big colla it seems.
It's from trimming. There is a decent amount in the middle that cant be seen as well in the picture but the upper foot is definitely where a solid amount of the buds are.