Hello! I read these forums all the time for growing advice, but this is my first time posting 'cause I couldn't find an answer to my question. Basically, I started a bunch of plants indoors last spring (2007) with some mids seeds and moved them outside when they were about a month old. They all grew fine or whatever, and I killed all of the males, but by the end of the season I had one runt plant that never got bigger than 4 inches. Instead of abandoning the poor thing, I took it back to my room in a pot to see if it could get any bigger. It was definitely a female 'cause it had several orange crystally hairs on it, but it was never big enough to bud. I fed it and watered it in my room 'till about this past June, and by then it had gotten pretty big for a plant in my window. I moved it back outside in a big ole' 5 gallon pot, and immediately it withered and almost died. After a few weeks however, it grew a new set of leaves more suited to the outdoors, and now a month later it's huge with a nice thick trunk. It hasn't budded yet, but I'm wondering what I should expect from a plant that's already gone through one buddung cycle. Will I get more or less bud than a normal plant? When I harvest, should I not kill the plant and winter it over inside for another year? Any input on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Im confused. What do you mean 'it was never big enough to bud"? Any plant will/should flower at maturity regardless of how tall it is. Did it actually bud? Or were there just hairs? Did you have it in veg indoors? How much light (lengthwise?) You can reveg it I guess, I feel like there's some word I can't think of right now.....There is a thread around here on how to reveg, I think its by OldGrayHair.
Regardless if it budded or not, if you provide it with the right light cycle, it will bud. You need 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness to induce flowering. If you leave it outside this time of the year, it will begin to flower. And yes, a plant can flower once, be re-vegged, and flower again. Many growers re-veg and re-flower plants multiple times.
When I brought the plant inside after one summer, it was maybe four inches tall, and it had orange hairs indicating it was a female. Its size was just to small for it to bear actual buds you could smoke. After I had it inside for awhile, I guess it went back into veg and got much bigger 'till I put it outside. As far as light, I kept it in a window facing west with another nearby facing south from October to June, but all the leaves grew facing sideways towards the window, not up towards the sun.