Crop won't phase to bloom cycle

I am posting for my friend because he is not online at all. He is growing hydroponically, has for years. What happened is when he moved the plants to the bud cycle, for the first time, nothing happened. It's been 6 weeks, no budding activity. There was no difference in the way he grew this crop and dozens of others before this one. Should he burn the crop and start over? He already, about 2 weeks ago, tried 48 hours of complete darkness. Still nothing...

1) Crop is being grown hydroponically from cuttings, been using this same strain and method for literally years with no problems.
2) Crop was on 18/6 light cycle for 30 days, till about 28-36 inches in height
3) Crop is on standard hydroponics grow solution - Brownish, Orange & Green (he said you'd know)
4) Growing Solution changed and lights dropped to 12/12 6 weeks ago.
......at the same time as every other crop, this crop simply failed to respond
5) Light type: 1000 watts HPS
6) Strain: Purple Afghanistan
7) There are white pistils showing, but no other budding activity
Plants are also not growing vertically either.
9) Crop has been shocked by 48 hours of darkness, that was two weeks ago, still nothing (he did say that he noticed a small sliver of light that may have been present).

Any ideas appreciated...

sounds like the plants are stressed or stunted for some reason. You go back and check the basics... humidy, room temp.. res temp, ph, ppm etc. go back to the basics and start ruling shit out... change the res and dbl chekc it.

This might sound silly at first, but stranger things have happened... how old is the bulb he is using...my buddy once was using a bulb that almost 4 years old.... it was a 1ker and it grew shit like it was a 250.

In so far as that small sliver of light... I know people are anal about complete darkness.. but in reality - if isnt stronger than the light given off by the moon I dont really think that would stop a flowering cycle. Think about it.. just cause you can see some light coming from the crack of the bottom of the door... there are 0 lumens getting to the plant.

Yeah I dont have a light tight room and I have had 0 problems from that.
Shit I work in there with a small light sometimes.

Outside they get light from other sources other than the moon depending on where they are, house lights, street light ect. they manage.
Complete dark is the absolute best but not the biggest worry on the list, just keep the grow light on the right schedule and your fine.
Sometimes they just need more time.
Also a greenish orange solution, doesnt mean anything really.
What nutes are they being given, that will make a difference, give them more P and K than N

Maximum Yield said:

sounds like the plants are stressed or stunted for some reason. You go back and check the basics... humidy, room temp.. res temp, ph, ppm etc. go back to the basics and start ruling shit out... change the res and dbl chekc it.

This might sound silly at first, but stranger things have happened... how old is the bulb he is using...my buddy once was using a bulb that almost 4 years old.... it was a 1ker and it grew shit like it was a 250.

In so far as that small sliver of light... I know people are anal about complete darkness.. but in reality - if isnt stronger than the light given off by the moon I dont really think that would stop a flowering cycle. Think about it.. just cause you can see some light coming from the crack of the bottom of the door... there are 0 lumens getting to the plant.

Click to expand...

Lights loose their luminosity over time, so yeah every week they produce less and less light, replacing them every grow is recommended.