When do you count the first week of flower

[growdady]

Hello everyone this morning I had a pretty heated debate. This debate was with 2 local growers. Grower one says he starts counting the first day of flower, the day he switches to 12/12. Grower two says she counts the first day of flower when she see's pistils showing. Her pistils show a week or 2 after she flips her light cycle. I told her that my plants show sex before they are even switched to 12/12. So I ask her, does that mean I count the first day of 12/12 as my first day of flowering. Because my plants already are mature showing hairs before I flip. Her reply was hell yeah, grower one says she's wrong she's a week or 2 already in the flowering stage.

I tell them both that plants are not in flowering because you cut the light to 12/12. And plants are not flowering just because their showing white hairs after flip. I tell them when I first started growing. I counted the first day I flipped the lights to 12/12 as their first day of flower. And plants were never done on time. So I stopped counting on the day I cut the light hours back. I told them to start counting first day of flower when buds are forming little cotton balls. They both disagree with me and each other. How can 3 people have different notions as to when flowering actually starts? Needless to say we were high as a giraffe's ass.

I explained my reasoning was when you actually see flowers forming. That's the first day of flower seems cut and dry but it wasn't. I said no to flipping lights and calling that flowering. Because its not flowering until you see flowers forming. We all cant be right and we all cant be wrong. Curious as to when others count the first day of flower. Sorry for the long read I am still buzzing. I am not the smartest I could be wrong one of them could be right. When do you start counting the first day of flower?

 

[Shalako]

I start at first full 12/12 light cycle and only use this date for a reference until I dial a strain in too my liking...then it becomes a definite number of days until chop, chop.

If your going to keep track, you have to start somewhere, so to each his own.

 

[Switcher56]

I veg 8 weeks. Last week of veg = 12/12. After that Xsition week, the plant is in its first week of bloom. "cotton balls normally develop at week two of bloom.

 

[hyposomniac]

I guess pay attention to both.
Counting from the flip is easier if you have a handful of varieties.. Some plants trigger way faster than others, and it's a useful thing to observe as well.

 

[growdady]

Thanks fellow blades for the input. Yeah we had a heated debate about this and it seems everyone has a way of doing things. I guess no way is the wrong way it depends on your preference when it comes to growing. I find I'm finishing at 8-9 weeks going by the way im counting their done.

 

[Shalako]

Thanks fellow blades for the input. Yeah we had a heated debate about this and it seems everyone has a way of doing things. I guess no way is the wrong way it depends on your preference when it comes to growing. I find I'm finishing at 8-9 weeks going by the way im counting their done.

90% out there today fall into the 8-9wk category Imo, but finding the sweet spot is different for everyone from my experience.

 

[Ibechillin]

First day 12/12 is day 1 flower, even though the plants arent showing pistil clusters yet its still flowering. Flowering from sexually mature seed plants or clones are the best way to get an accurate idea on finish time imo.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

When do you start counting the first day of flower?

I grow indoor, so I start counting the day I switch to flower. The reason for the count is so I have an accurate time of how long this particular cut takes to mature. This is the data which is most important for me.

As you've pointed out, different people count different things as 'flowering time.' This leads to a bit of confusion when different people talk about the same genetics. Some breeders count from the day they first see flowers, others from the day they flip. Outdoor growers also have differences in how they determine flowering time. All of them seem to consider 'ripeness' differently, which also has a huge impact on 'flowering time' they list.

Personally, I take any breeder information with a grain of salt and do my own counting. I'm the one who's going to use my data, so I do it my way. I use trichome amber percentage to determine when to harvest. Breeder pack information is definitely not something I hold a hard line with. Vague suggestions only.

 

[Claude Hopper]

No counting for me, though I do use the date stamp on pictures to help track progress if I have a question.

 

[Spaventa]

This is all irrelevant. It’s when they finish that matters and that is determined by observation, not what’s written on a the seed packet or in the strain description.
10 seeds from the same pack can finish a week apart. Even a clone you grew before can stall if stressed and take a week longer than last time.

 

[Unk_OG]

Pistils

Pistils

I normally don’t count the first week. I count week 2 as the first true week of flower for feeding purposes only. The trichs tell the story though as far as harvest.

 

[gardener60]

Hey Growdady, actually it depends on you and what type of grow system you are using. You can veg for 2, 4, 8, weeks at 18/6 then flip to 12/12 that is the first day of flower. The first day of flower is the day you want it to be. My 2 cents.

 

[picalin]

Different growers switch the light to flowering at different mature phase, and they have different flowering time, it's ok, different input = different output.
My opinion is that it does not make sense to count the time of flowering until the day, if you are not limited in time.
But if you want to plan a cycle, you should count the first day of 12/12 as first day of flowering, because seed companies do that, it's useful and clear.
Peace to your garden

 

[Own Garden]

When i started see hear's.

 

[MJPassion]

Day 1 of flower starts at the flip to 12/12.

 

[growdady]

Thanks to everyone for chiming in.

 

[Lost in a SOG]

The first day of 12/12 has always been considered day 1.

For the first few weeks ganja is really in a transistion state whilst the far red phytochrome builds up due to the longer nights, once this has its full epigenetic - morphological outcome then the plants genes have fully switched over to flower which is usually around 1-3 weeks for your standard indica dom lines from seed.

Seeds seem to take longer to transition than cuttings, im guessing the more mature genetics in clones are primed to mobilise into flower much quicker than 4-8 week old seed born plants.

You can convince plants its time to flower quicker through a few techniques. Like far red dusk supplementation or leaving them in tbe dark for a few days at flip.

 

[Rab.C]

i just flipped too 12/12 but i will harvest by colour of trichomes