Ok GC, This is my first real grow. What I mean by "real grow" is that this is the first grow I have been able to put what ever amount of $$ needed in to it. I am one day away from being a full month in flower. Today I counted 7 headies that are all at or over 12" long. I only have three plants, and all the other headies are close to 10". My question is if I am only half way through my flower cycle, how much bigger are these monsters going to get? I heard that over 20% of growth and weight comes in the last couple weeks. What do you guys think? By the way, this is all soil based.
Plants can get 2-3x there size during flowering, that also depends on its genetics too, but you can at least expect some more vigorious growth.
Yup ... I usually go with the 20% ....but sometime it can get way bigger depending on stain and how you feed it and climate...
I was surprised how much more my plants grew in the first 4 weeks of flowering. Most of them doubled in size while getting lots of white pistols. This is week five and they stopped growing taller and the buds friggin doubled in size just this week. I can't imagine what the last 2-3 weeks are going to be like! Last week I optomistically speculated that each top cola would net me a quarter ounce dried. I am now conservatively guessing each cola will be a half ounce. They are still getting fatter and resin is spreading even to the biggest leaves. Like I said, just wait till you see whats gonna happen after week 4!!!
Normal flowering growth goes something like this: Quarter 1 will be rapid vegetative growth and pistil formation. Basically this is just the "stretch" part of the flowering growth where the plant double in size. This period can actually be longer or shorter based on the age of the plant. If the plant is a clone, generally this stage won't last long (maybe 10-14 days). If the plant is grown from seed and you put it into flower early, this period can last as long as three weeks. Quarter 2 is where the plant starts to just rapidly put on more pistils. This is where you really start to see where bud formation will really be at. At the end of this quarter you will basically know the length of the buds. If you reach the half way mark of your flowering cycle and you already have fattening buds that are starting to look a little crystally, then you know you are in for a treat. Quarter 3 and quarter 4 kind of mix together depending on the strain/genetics, but it's basically where actual bud swelling starts. The plant is frustrated that it hasn't been pollinated, and in turn swells it's buds up to increase the surface area for the pistils to be pollinated. Q3 and early Q4 is when the trichome production kicks in to full blast. This is basically when the plant is nearing the end of it's life and starts to get crystally and really fill in with resin. Usually the last three or four weeks of flowering is when the crystals really start to form and coat the buds and eventually switch from clear to amber. Your pistils will also start to shrivel and change color during this phase as well. You will also notice that many of the leaves will change from green to a very bright yellow, and some may even shrivel up and die. This is a normal process for the plant as the plant is using the last of it's mobile nutrients from the leaves and then discarding them. Yellow leaves and changing colored pistils are a tell-tale sign that the end is near, and you should start watching the color of your trichs. Depending on what you enjoy about your high, you either want cloudy trichs or a mixture of cloudy/amber. Some say 50/50 is what you want to shoot for, but generally once I notice that all my trichs have turned cloudy I start my two week flush. If the plant doesn't have any ambers yet by the end of the two week flush I'll give it a few more days after the last watering until it droops from being thirsty and cut it down. This will help speed up drying and gives it that last bit of time to finish up her growth. (However, I've only grown a few plants that didn't at least have some amber trichs by the time I was done flushing, and they were both sativas that I think would have kept growing for weeks if i would have let them.) If for some reason you don't have amber trichs at the end of your flush (assuming that you were 100% sure they were all cloudy and not clear when you started) you should still have good bud that will get the job done.