At what point do I start counting flowering time....

3 of my plants are 'crowning'. You know, buds are starting, plants stretched..
When should I start the flowering time clock?

When they start flowering. lol

When you start seeing buds stacking start counting and add 2 weeks

Clock starts the first night of 12/12 or when the dark period exceeds the limit per genetics, on a sexually mature plant
This isn't something that's debatable or opinionated, that's when a plant, any, is considered flowering

For the purpose of estimating, that is to approximate when you think your strain will finish, I've found adding 2 weeks to whenever you go to 12/12 pretty close. Of course it's just a number, they'll be ready when they're ready. I have head room and usually like to stretch my plants, on purpose. To do that and trigger pre-flowering, I put them at 14/10 for 10-14 days, then start the count when I flip them to 12/12, that also usually gets close to the breeder's estimated finish times.

FF you seem to know this is outdoor, kudos...

by stacking you mean..like the stems making levels?
when they stop stretching....sorry...idk
i bit off more that I can chew with this grow...and I'm sick of playing catch up....
plants are too big! should I pick the dead leaves?

how do I like posts?

Userlame said:

how do I like posts?

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You need to get to a certain number of posts before the like button appears, not sure but there's a help forum where they've posted the criteria.

Userlame said:

FF you seem to know this is outdoor, kudos...

by stacking you mean..like the stems making levels?
when they stop stretching....sorry...idk
i bit off more that I can chew with this grow...and I'm sick of playing catch up....
plants are too big! should I pick the dead leaves?

Click to expand...

Stacking I mean like buds forming as clusters of white hairs. Like hairballs. I pick dead leaves after they die all the way

If you start counting as soon as you flip the lights by marking the calender then mark when they are honestly finished you will know how long they take next time.
If nothing goes wrong

I figure the only light flipping for an outdoor grow is going to amount to the date of the solar equinox June 21st. It's not 12/12 but it is a turning point for the plants as the day length shortens from then on. Some plants key off the shortening days quickly, others need more convincing. Either way, I'd start at the first day of shortening daylight.

I'm guessing the reason for adding two weeks is get some actual flowers in place before counting. Sorta' like the question of when is a baby human, upon birth, or upon conception. Maybe we all should add 9 months to our own ages.

Flowering starts here about early to mid August, mid to late October is when you want to think about harvesting, give or take two weeks.