When does flowering time actually start?

[JDOG6000]

When do we start counting the days it's been flowering.
I use it as a loose guide for feeding.
Thats all.
But never could get a good answer about when the flowering cycle actually starts.
Do you guys count from the strech?.
Or from the first flower clusters?
Or right when it goes into 12/12?

Help me stop the confusion.
I would say.I've been counting this way.
When the flowers start to cluster on top about a week into stretch.

But I still wonder whether I'm right or not.

 

[beancounter]

I just quote my days in 12-12 as flower time. I've seen the odd person go buy pistil clusters, but the majority of the people I know just go by 12-12 time.

 

[Sleepy]

here's a link that may help...

>>>http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=19950

when you set the timer to 12 hours on, and 12 hours off, you have begun the flowering cycle...

examine the ripeness of the trichomes to decide when the plants are done, instead of counting days...

 

[JDOG6000]

Thanks guys.
Thats been bugin me for a while.
It seems that counting for the day it's put into 12/12 makes more sence.
Because my plants look about a week further then they should be.
If I counted from the day I put them in the flower room.
Then they would be perfect.
Right at the right point.
Time to start the flush on my Black Bubba and Oguana Kush!
I just gave them gravity.
And now I will flush.
Black Bubba could be done now.
But I like my buds totally ripe.
Thaks again.

By the way. I do use a microscope to harvest.
Just count the days for feeding and for when to start the flush.

 

[m.steelers]

yep, from the onset of 12/12-->

 

[Guest]

I dont like to disagree with other people, but starting the day count at 12/12 is not reality for me.

I start all my plants in 12/12 with no indication of sex yet. It can take 3 days to a week or more (strain dependant) to determine sex of the plant.
Once I see the first cunt hair or ball is when I start my flower count for that plant. I tag that plant with a date tag to remind me start date. I yank all males and save a few top specimans for breeding, and start my flower day count.

Final harvest is always done with a magnifying glass, but when I used the 12/12 count my plants always had another week or more to go, so I gave up on that method years ago. The magnifying glass tells all!! I know other people swear by light cycle though.

Peace

 

[THCzr]

well it makes sense that when you flip your lights to 12 /12 the plant starts producing hormones to produce those sex organs, that'd be why it starts at 12/12. if you use the "first cunt hair" as your flowering mark, you could then say you are flowering in veg, because most plants will show sex in veg.... but whatever.

flower time starts when the light cycle is set to 12/12. just happens to be that the plant doesnt fully begin to "flower" for a week or so after the switch.... even tho it DOES show other signs of flowering, like initial stretch and internodal growth etc.


THC

 

[Joe A. Grower]

I've always counted from the beginning of 12/12 for planning purposes. When you are growing for commercial production verses growing for personal smoke, you need to have a defined timeline. In a commercial grow, you probably have plants vegging in a separate area -- usually smaller than the flower room -- and you absolutely have to get those plants out of the veg area before they start crowding each other. When they crowd, they start competing for the light and get real stretchy and thin, which results in a weak harvest. Rather than let that happen, you have to cut the girls in the flower room, even if they are only 90% finished, to make room for the girls coming out of the veg room.

Usually, though, in a commercial operation you grow one or two varieties from the same cloned mothers, so it isn't that hard to time the harvest. As long as you grow genetically identical plants under consistent conditions, you'll finish right about the same time each crop. So breaking out the microscope really isn't necessary after about your third crop with the same clone line. Growing conditions need to be carefully controlled, though. I once did a summer grow where I hadn't planned out my temperature control very well. The 100F temperatures that resulted not only make for piss poor harvest, they also extended the flowering cycle by about a week over what it was with the same clone line in previous harvests.

When I grow for personal smoke, I don't bother counting days. When I grow for me, I grow for variety and quality, not weight. For personal use, I'm usually growing from seed instead of clone, and since every genetically distinct plant will have a different finish time, I can't really say when each one is going to finish up. When the trichs look ready under the microscope, I harvest. Whatever time it takes is what it takes. Nothing gets harvested early if I'm the one that's going to be smoking it.

 

[JDOG6000]

OK cool guys.
I'm glad I asked because I was about a week or so behind!.
Need to start the flush on some now.
This is all a medical crop.
So no hurry for me. I am harvesting with a microscope.
Like I said it's just for a ruff timeline for feeding and flushing.
Whatever I don't keep will go to the local med club.
So it needs to be done right and fully ripened.

If all these people who have been growing for so long say to start counting at 12/12.
Then I will.
Thanks everybody

 

[GMT]

This is a topic that has been discussed several times at length already on this site, all the threads can be found using the search feature, but to sup up what has been said time and time again, if your plants are mature, then you can count form the 12/12 date, but if you are working from seed, then you only know your plant is mature once sexed, so flowering time starts once a mature plant has shown sex. 12/12ing an imature plant will not start the flowering cycle, and therefore you cannot count from that date when using seeds unless you have already used a long vegging time.

 

[JDOG6000]

Not looking for a long explanation.
I just wanted to hear what some people had to say about it.
That wasn't in the search.
Becasue those searches are full of both sides of that question.
No real answer there.
So sorry for the repeated question...not really.