Hello everyone this is my first post and im almost 5 weeks into my first indoor grow. Once my plants start flowering can I put my lights back to 24/0 or is it best to keep my lighting cycle on a 12/12 set until harvest?
...please read a guide for how to flower http://www.kindgreenbuds.com/marijuana-grow-guide/marijuana_flowering_guide.html
You need to stay 12/12 till 2 days before harvest, then pure darkness for 48 hours, then chop. It seems to be the standard. Once you go 12/12 you have to keep that or else they get all effed up, stunt growth, turn hermie, etc...I'm in week 7 of 12/12 and looking to harvest in about 3 weeks.
i've done the darkness thing, and without and noticed no difference. i hear it's supposed to produce more trichs i believe....
I like to stay on 12/12. Sometimes the last couple weeks il drop it as low as 10/14 to help em finish up. Congrats on your first grow and welcome to gc. look up the flowering time of the strains your running if you have that info. if not, indicas (short bushy) usually take 8 weeks, while sativas (taller, skinny leaf) go about 10 weeks, in general. or u can invest in a jewlers loop (30x) and check the trichomes. i like to flush when i see about 5-1o% amber trichs, and pull em at about 20%-40%.
Read up dude..thats a fundamental must know issue. Cannabis is a photoperiod plant. Meaning that it only flowers in 12/12. You have to keep it in 12/12 all the way to harvest. Say you went back to 24/0 halfway in the grow well eventually it would reveg and flowers would go by by. All grows are veg first for how ever long under 24/0 20/4 18/6 etc then we all go to 12/12 to flower till finished. I always am stoked to go to 12/12 means I'll save alot in enery use.
While there are techniques for reverting back out of 12/12, that's an advanced level and you need to know what you're doing. Stick to the basics: once in 12/12 stay that way through to harvest. Once the plants are in flower you don't want to revert them back to veg, that wastes a lot of time and costs more $$. Some switch to all dark the last several days before harvest, I do it, but not all do and it isn't necessary.
Thanks a lot for the responses. I was just asking because I'm thinking about starting a second generation of plants which would be in veg while these are in flower. I guess I'm just gonna have to use a new grow area or seperate my closet
Depends on strain. There is fast flowering strains as well there is slow ones. 2-3weeks you should be able to tell the difference.