can overcrowding stop budding

Hya I have:

• A growing area about 1foot by 3 foot and about 6 foot high
• I have 12 plants growing in this space.
• The plants are about 3 feet high at the moment
• They are light by a 400 watt uv light with 2 bulbs
• There is constant fresh air and good air circulation
• I water them about 300 ml every other day
• and the plants look very healthy
• 7 plants are white widow and 5 are feminized grapefruit (X-line)(femaleseeds.nl)

Although I changed the timer over to 12/12 about 3 weeks ago and there is no sign of buds just new leaves, is this because I have too many plants? My plan was to wait to see if they are male or female and then get rid of a load of the plants. I would just get rid of the white widow and just keep the grapefruit hopping they are females but I don’t trust them to really be female. So basically I am asking two things:

• How trust worthy are female seeds
• and will overcrowding stop budding

Thanks for reading and sorry for being new

Hi James - welcome to the site!

They do sound crowded but if they are healthy and happy - what do i know? I don't think the crowding will prevent them from flowering but the lack of light penetration will probably slow down the process and cause the top buds to mature much faster than the lower buds.

I think you'll just have to be more patient. If it is any consolation, when i have to wait a long while to determine sex - they are usually female.

I do not have enough experience with feminized seeds to answer your other question.

Cheers thanks for the advice

I was worried about this same thing as my tent is green, and I started flowering two days ago! As far as everything I've read, it can diminish lower growth leaving you with a bunch of little popcorns, but it also leaves you with a bunch of dominant colas on the top. Better light penetration could help tons.
I put mine in a screen, and would suggest the same for you as you only have six feet, and the plants are already three. Expect them to double, even sometimes triple in size by the time they're ready for harvest. Good luck, and if you keep this goin, I'd like to see pics!

Wow, im growing 14 plants in a 9x9 and I though that was crowded hehe. Maybe I need to start squeezing more plants in

I dont think it stops buds growing, But if you have to many plants crammed in they do sense this and dont grow as big as they would of. You shouldnt have the leafs over lapping each other to much. Just my opinion

Over crowding is an issue for over all yeild.... If you lolliepop and have enough light you can still have 2oz aplant but when you have a ton of leaves overlapping you can have other problems..as in harder to see pests and PM .. I have 9 in a 4x4 tay under a 1000 and their over crowded so yeah cut off bottom small branches, creating a sweet zone for your canopy.....Pic on the far right is the 9 at 12days of flower and the others is at 27 days so you cn see plant gt big in flower

quietguy420 said:

Wow, im growing 14 plants in a 9x9 and I though that was crowded hehe. Maybe I need to start squeezing more plants in

Click to expand...

I've got about 40 in a 8x4. I'm hoping for some males soon or it's going to be a mess lol.