Am I ready to start flowering these 2 white widows?

Hey guys. the attached pics show my (2) white widows. They are nearly 10" tall and have been under 18/6 veg stage for 3 weeks now. My lights are (4) 23W cfl daylight, (2) 23W cfl cool white, and (1) 42W cfl cool white. My tent is only 5 foot tall. I've read on this forum that some growers start flowering at 6 inches or even less and was wondering if I should start the 12/12 or give it some more time. I welcome everyone's advice and thanks.

Sure you can switch to 12/12 and start now but they will not start flowering or show signs of sex until they gel they are mature enough depends on how big you want to let them get before u switch over your choice

If I were to switch now, would they grow much bigger in height. I also plan on switching over to all cfl cool white and adding another 40 watts or so

nflguy said:

If I were to switch now, would they grow much bigger in height. I also plan on switching over to all cfl cool white and adding another 40 watts or so

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yep they would start growing like crazy.

Generally they double or triple in size from when you switch to 12/12 until harvest.

Personally i would not switch them yet. I would cut most of the fan leaves off and the bottom couple of branches. The plant will end up a lot more top heavy that way. Those lower branches are going to have to grow way out to the side to get any light you will end up with a long branch with a small bud or two on the end.

Thoses big fan leaves should go though, all they are going to do is get bigger and make more shade for you buds.

Then I would wait a week or two for the plant to recover and then switch to 12/12

Then again I always work with clones, you may not want to stress the crap out of the plant by cutting it all at once if it's from seed.

Granted one of the big advantages of cfl's is that you can position them in many ways.

Cheers,
SilverSerf

Thanks for the replies. I would really like to see just one big main super cola with very little as side branching. It would be so much easier to light with cfls that way. I know I would lose a lot of potential yield that way, but I'm thinking as this is my first grow, I'd just like to see what would happen. Is that possible with the setup I have? Again, I appreciate any help you guys can offer.

You should top those plants!

RollMeOne420 said:

You should top those plants!

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But if I pinch them, it will create more tops, right? Its hard enough to get cfl light through a lot of foliage, which is why I was thinking just one main cola. I've seen some pics of budded plants that look like a cactus with no branches at all. That's kinda what I'm aiming for. Am I doing something wrong to get that result?